TRASHFUTURE *PREVIEW* Dr. Dinner’s Lament feat. Luke Savage
Apr 10, 2026
Luke Savage, political theorist who studies right-wing movements, returns to tackle Alberta separatism and its U.S. ties. He dissects what Wexit means for oil politics and explains why legal secession is unlikely. He also critiques Mark Carney’s managerial politics and sketches the contours of emergent left leadership with surprising grocery-store ideas.
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Alberta Separatism As A Media Mind Virus
- Alberta separatism is being weaponized as a media-friendly, US-encouraged political project to make secession seem electorally viable.
- Stay Free Alberta gathered 177,000 signatures and had multiple recent contacts with US State Department officials, turning it into a culture-war spectacle that could grow support.
You Can't Appease A Movement Defined By Grievance
- Conceding to an aggrieved political faction rarely placates them because their identity is rooted in grievance rather than policy wins.
- Danielle Smith got pipeline and energy concessions yet was still booed by her party, showing accommodation can fail politically.
Carney's Big Speech Was Managerial, Not Moral
- Mark Carney's Davos rhetoric about a new order masks a pragmatic, managerial agenda focused on competitiveness and military spending.
- His policy list included pipelines, tax cuts, trade diversification, AI investment, and huge defence increases rather than a moral foreign-policy shift.