Forever Canadian advocating for Albertans to vote to remain in Canada in referendum - Calgary Herald

Gypsy Rose Blanchard said her fiancé Ken Urker died from an overdose and has hinted that cyberbullying might have contributed to his death. Urker died Thursday on his 34th birthday in his bed at his home in Raceland, Louisiana. Blanchard told People on Friday she doesn’t know whether his death was intentional or not but that he “was not in a good state of mind lately.”The Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but they told People that they were called to Urker’s home at 6:15 p.m. Thursday and he was found “dead upon arrival.”Blanchard said Urker was the victim of online harassment, telling People she believes it had a “profound impact” on him. Ken Urker and Gypsy Rose Blanchard. Gypsy Rose Blanchard InstagramOn Sunday, she shared a link to a petition to get a law created that would hold social media platforms accountable for how they handle harassment reports. She called it Kenan’s Law, named after Urker. “Ken was a public figure and experienced an enormous amount of public scrutiny,” Blanchard wrote on the petition.

The 20th annual Cape to Cabot road race is taking place tomorrow. The grueling 20 km trek sees participants running from one historic landmark to another: From Cape Spear to Cabot Tower on top of Signal Hill. The race starts at 8 a.m., and because of that there are a few related road closures in St. John’s. Between 7:45 and 11a.m. there will be numerous road closures along the route. A full list can be found online at VOCM dot com. Expect traffic impacts from 7:45 a.m. to 11 a.m. on routes including Blackhead Road, Southside Road, Water Street, Harbour Drive, Duckworth Street, Temperance Street and Signal Hill Road.

On Monday, Albertans vote on whether to stay in Canada or hold another binding referendum on quitting Canada. If the vote goes as polls suggest, a majority of Albertans will mark an X to stay in Confederation, and Premier Danielle Smith has said if that’s so, she expects everyone to accept it and move on. Leaders of the independence movement contest that. And political watchers are divided about whether separation — previously a fringe sentiment — will now be a prominent, permanent feature of Alberta’s political landscape, as in Quebec. Julian Castro-Rea, a political-science professor at the University of Alberta who studies the separation debates in Quebec and Alberta, believes as long as Alberta feels alienated from the Canadian capital — feeling that Ottawa benefits from Alberta’s resource economy without giving back — the movement will have fuel. “Even if the referendum is lost, the westernization will still be around, because it’s kind of a way which, traditionally, Albertans have related to the rest of Canada,” says Castro-Rea, who believes western alienation may remain indefinitely. Story continues below advertisement

It’s no secret the long-held Canadian consensus on immigration has fractured — pulled apart by a rapid increase in new arrivals post-pandemic and growing affordability challenges. Now, that fracture is starting to show up at the ballot box. The Parti Québécois won a minority mandate in Quebec on a platform that included promises of tighter immigration controls, which the party linked to protecting French culture and easing pressure on public services and housing. And when Albertans head to the polls Monday to vote on whether to hold a future referendum on separation from Canada, they’ll also be answering five separate questions on immigration being pushed by the government of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. Those questions include:— Should the province should have more say over economic immigration?— Should provincially funded services should be restricted to citizens, permanent residents and those with “Alberta-approved” immigration status? Story continues below advertisement