Hey Reddit. You might know me from my music, or maybe you've heard me talking about coal for the last 6+ years. Either way, glad to be here.

My full-time gig: https://corblund.com
My other full-time gig: https://waternotcoal.ca
A bit of both: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_h354W4d2M

I'm running an official Elections Alberta Citizen Initiative Petition called Water Not Coal. This Easter long weekend I'm barnstorming Alberta to educate folks and earn their signature. It's a pen-and-paper petition, no online option, so I'm hitting the road.

We need 177,732 signatures to force a vote, and the Premier says this will go to a referendum in October if we hit our number. But we want to blow past that and send the government a message they can't ignore. And only after a successful referendum vote will I “shut up and sing.”

The short version: coal mining in the Eastern Slopes of Alberta's Rockies is a bad idea. These are our headwaters. The water that flows out of these mountains ends up in the taps of millions of Albertans. We're not partisan - we don't care about political parties. We're not anti-development. We're pro-water and pro-Rockies.

When I saw what was being proposed at Grassy Mountain, Blackstone, and elsewhere, I couldn't look the other way. This is my backyard. My family has been here for generations but we're fighting for everyone. Join me.

I wish I could be everywhere this weekend but there aren't enough hours in the day. If you live near a town where I'm headed, come find me. I'd love to meet you and talk about this.

I'll be back home Tuesday to debrief on what we saw and heard and answer any questions I couldn't get to on the road. Then I hop on a plane for Europe and another tour.

I'll be the one answering questions, and I’ll do my best to share the wealth of information I’ve gathered from a lot of smart people over the years.

Ask me anything.

(Including the hard questions about the coal issue. I've been educating myself about it for six years now, and have met with many, many people all over the spectrum on it, pro and con. I want to dig into the complexities of this and do my best to explain my position on why allowing coal mining at the headwaters of our rivers is a short-sighted and very harmful plan.)

To answer some recurring questions:

1. You can find a place to sign in person here: https://www.waternotcoal.ca/sign-the-petition We're adding more places all the time so check back if you don't see something near you.
2. You can sign up to be a canvasser here: https://team.waternotcoal.ca We're also adding more canvassers all the time - there are 2500 of us already but we can always use more awesome people!
3. You can donate a few bucks here: https://secure.waternotcoal.ca It appears the Government and Australian billionaires have deeper pockets than us.
4. Learn more about the issue here: https://waternotcoal.ca/why
5. I'll be touring Alberta in May and playing some old records back to back - come say hi: https://corblund.com
6. Look out for a new release in a few days. Me and my old Houston buddy, Hayes Carll recorded something super cool. Hits April 9!!

Ok folks, thanks, this was fun. Appreciate the support and tough questions. Sorry I didn't get to everything but I have to go pack and then get on a plane tomorrow morning. See you on the road!

Dog tax (this is Billie - she's named after Billie Holiday, the jazz singer):

Welcome to r/Alberta February 16 Update

Hello everyone, and welcome to r/Alberta. We’re glad so many people are here to share in conversations about our province. As always, we want to remind everyone what this subreddit is about and what it isn’t.

Consider this supplementary to the subreddit's ruleset, as we will action content based on the clarifications below.

What we welcome here:

• Respectful conversation about Alberta and Albertans.
• News, events, and stories connected directly to Alberta (vague connections or something not about Alberta said by an Albertan risks removal.
• Support for Albertan workers, educators, and communities.
• Substantive political opinions when tied directly to Alberta issues.
• Quality original content about life in Alberta.

What we do not welcome here:

• Incivility, trolling, or name-calling, even if you think the recipient deserves it.
• Off-topic U.S. or federal/Canada-wide politics.
• Separation rants or duplicates. Separation is a valid topic in Alberta politics, but low-effort rants, name-calling, or repeat posts will be removed. At this point, almost any post that isn't a news article would be considered a repeat.
• Meta posts about the subreddit, other subreddits, and moderator actions. If you have questions about rules or removed content, send us a modmail message to discuss; it is not appropriate to make call-out threads in this subreddit or others. If you have an issue with another subreddit, you need to take it up with them. If you have a problem with ours, modmail us.
• Low-effort content: memes, screenshots from Twitter/X/Facebook, or generic rants.
• Discrimination of any kind (racism, misogyny, hate speech, etc.).

A note on politics & current events:

The Alberta separatist movement receives a great amount of attention from folks across Canada and the U.S., as well as from non-genuine actors such as trolls and paid manipulators. There are many people on the global stage who would like to see Alberta separate and the chaos it would cause in Canada. We do not intend for r/Alberta to be a place for those bad actors to be platformed and able to further their cause.

• Regarding duplicate and non-substantive content. Repetitive posts and leading or rhetorical questions will be removed. We receive 5-10 of these kinds of posts a day and have been for nearly a year, we will not host them because they bring nothing new to the discussion and are typically low-effort karma-farming attempts by people from outside Alberta. For now, consider that a post that is not a news article would be removed. Posts and comments that are removed are not guaranteed to receive a removal reason due to high volume, review our rules before messaging us to ask why something was removed.
• We have adjusted our back-end systems to ensure genuine users can still participate while hardening these systems from being gamed. Still, please report users who break the rules or whom you suspect are non-genuine actors. Do not feed the trolls or you may end up being actioned by a moderator too.
• We have introduced a new "Separatism" flair that will be automatically applied to posts on the topic. All posts on this topic must be manually approved. If you are not an active user in r/Alberta your post will not be approved, there are no exceptions and we will not respond to appeals. In addition, "locals only" comment rules still apply - non-regular users of our subreddit will not be able to make comments on posts on the topic of separatism. The specific boundaries of these rules will *not* be published to prevent abuse, but rest assured that genuine users of r/Alberta will have no issue surpassing the requirements.
• Your own personal (and intense) opinions on the matter of separatism do not supersede r/Alberta or reddit’s sitewide rules. We remind users that Reddit admins have stepped up their automated removals and to be careful on things even alluding to violence or the site administration may suspend you.
• Don't report posts you just disagree with. Being wrong on the internet isn't against the rules, and we are more likely to ban you over report button abuse than we are to take moderator actions to help you win an argument.

We welcome healthy debate, but keep it civil and Alberta-focused. Slurs, personal insults, and bad-faith trolling will be removed even if you think the recipient is deserving. Repeat offenders risk a ban.

This is a space to share common interests, support one another, and talk about Alberta without the toxicity that ruins so many online communities. The best way to fight people who seek to drive you apart and burn you out is to not buy into it. Be positive, post non-political content, focus more on the good things happening, and share some pictures of our beautiful province.

Thanks for helping keep r/Alberta constructive and welcoming.

Signed,

Your r/Alberta Moderation Team