Former elected official. Growth accelerator. "Acta non verba" - Actions not Words. STEM, education, innovation. We need more of everything.
Calgary, Alberta
Joined April 2015
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Lisa Davis retweeted
Council vote recap | October 27, 2026
Here’s a breakdown of selected motions and how Council voted.
1. Glacier Ridge growth — GA2026-009 Approve the growth application, with operating funding in the 2028 budget adjustments and future investments considered through subsequent budgets. Carried 9–6 For: Johnston, Wyness, Kelly, McLean, Dhaliwal, Tyers, Jamieson, Ward, Chabot. Against: Yule, Schmidt, Pantazopoulos, Atkinson, Clark, Mayor Farkas.
2. Belvedere growth — GA2026-010 Approve the growth application, with operating funding in the 2028 budget adjustments and future investments considered through subsequent budgets. Carried 11–4 For: Johnston, Wyness, Pantazopoulos, Kelly, McLean, Clark, Dhaliwal, Tyers, Jamieson, Ward, Chabot. Against: Yule, Schmidt, Atkinson, Mayor Farkas.
3. Glacier Ridge growth — GA2026-011 Approve a separate Glacier Ridge growth application, with operating funding in the 2028 budget adjustments and future investments considered through subsequent budgets. Carried 9–6 For: Johnston, Wyness, Kelly, McLean, Dhaliwal, Tyers, Jamieson, Ward, Chabot. Against: Yule, Schmidt, Pantazopoulos, Atkinson, Clark, Mayor Farkas.
4. Water utility rates Approve 2027–2030 water, wastewater and stormwater rate increases and full cost recovery, with further analysis of alternative rate structures. Carried 9–6 For: Yule, Schmidt, Pantazopoulos, Kelly, Atkinson, Clark, Dhaliwal, Chabot, Mayor Farkas. Against: Johnston, Wyness, McLean, Tyers, Jamieson, Ward.
5. Waste and recycling rates Approve proposed 2027–2030 rates and charges, with related budgets and bylaw amendments returning to Council in November 2026. Carried 14–1 For: Yule, Schmidt, Wyness, Pantazopoulos, Kelly, Atkinson, McLean, Clark, Dhaliwal, Tyers, Jamieson, Ward, Chabot, Mayor Farkas. Against: Johnston.
6. Responsible Pet Ownership Bylaw Adopt amendments strengthening intervention for threatening or aggressive animals, owner accountability and penalties. Carried 15–0 For: All 15 Council members. Against: None.
7. Bearspaw feeder main review spending Make review-panel expenditure totals and specified information from the CAO’s earlier update public, while keeping closed-meeting discussions confidential. Carried 15–0 For: All 15 Council members. Against: None.
8. Procurement transparency Develop a searchable public webpage or dashboard for eligible City contracts, with an implementation plan returning in Q2 2027. Carried 15–0 For: All 15 Council members. Against: None.
9. National Music Centre — postponement Postpone consideration of the loan-guarantee motion to January 26, 2027. This vote was on postponement—not approval of a loan guarantee. Carried 11–4 For postponement: Yule, Schmidt, Pantazopoulos, Kelly, Atkinson, McLean, Clark, Dhaliwal, Jamieson, Chabot, Mayor Farkas. Against postponement: Johnston, Wyness, Tyers, Ward.
10. E-mobility framework Request a report by Q1 2027 on potential e-mobility rules, device definitions and where devices can be used. Carried 15–0 For: All 15 Council members. Against: None.
11. Proposed on-street bike lane pause Pause new on-street bike lanes that remove travel lanes or reduce parking pending provincial legislative direction, while continuing pathway and other eligible projects. Defeated 5–10 For: Johnston, McLean, Tyers, Jamieson, Ward. Against: Yule, Schmidt, Wyness, Pantazopoulos, Kelly, Atkinson, Clark, Dhaliwal, Chabot, Mayor Farkas.
12. Underpass safety My motion to develop a strategy addressing drivers stopping beneath bridges and overpasses during hailstorms and severe weather. Carried 15–0 For: All 15 Council members. Against: None.
13. Transit fare strategy Pause fare-strategy public engagement until after the Q2 2027 committee meeting, with updated analysis, fare options and reporting to follow. Carried 13–2 For: Johnston, Yule, Schmidt, Wyness, Pantazopoulos, Kelly, McLean, Clark, Dhaliwal, Tyers, Jamieson, Ward, Mayor Farkas. Against: Atkinson, Chabot.
Lisa Davis retweeted
Suspensions are a necessary part of a healthy system. Without them, we can’t keep children safe, learning, and dignified. Without them, some schools and classes descend into chaotic environments where everything people claim to be against- persecution, inequality, harassment, discrimination- are multiplied. People who campaign for their reduction without the reduction of the behaviours that lead to them, are simply mistaken. Usually they have never worked successfully in a tough environment. But their advocacy flatters their self image as compassionate champions of children. In reality, what they advocate for demonstrates the opposite.
Lisa Davis retweeted
"during the last school year, a council of educators at both Palo Alto high schools rejected the [advanced math] course, arguing it would serve few students and set back equity and students’ well-being"
Right, math is harmful. Come on! What are we doing?
“If teaching math can harm students, then we have a lot bigger issues to talk about than whether to offer this course,” Nguyen told the Chronicle.
Indeed.
Brian Conrad, a Stanford mathematician, told the Chronicle that he felt math was treated as a “punching bag” for equity and mental health concerns.
“The school doesn’t cut sports teams simply because some kids are far more talented at sports,” he said.
“Why is it that the teaching of math generates much more controversy than other subjects?”
sfchronicle.com/bayarea/arti…
Lisa Davis retweeted
An oldie but a goodie. In 1968 a bunch of entitled hippy bastards sent a letter detailing their specious demands to the Warden and Fellows of Wadham College, Oxford. This was their letter of reply, which speaks to how far the academy has since fallen.
Study proving charter schools achieve higher on provincial exams.
Alberta is the only province where parents can choose to send their child to government-funded, non-profit schools known as charter schools. Because these schools are run by non-profits, they get to decide how they teach, school rules, etc. Best of all, there's no tuition!
New research by SecondStreet.org found Alberta’s charter school students scored 10.5 percentage points higher on provincial achievement tests in 2024-25 than students at government-run public schools. They scored 9.2 points higher than students at government-run Catholic schools. They came out ahead in all seven subjects that could be compared.
Charter schools teach the same provincial curriculum and charge no tuition. Some focus on STEM, and others on classical subjects like math and history.
The model works in Alberta. Parents in other provinces should have the same option.
Learn more about how to fix Canada’s education system at SecondStreet.org
Read more from the source: secondstreet.org/2026/09/22/…
Lisa Davis retweeted
‘He ran into the fire’: Military medic critically injured saving fellow soldiers in CFB Wainwright fire
globalnews.ca/news/12119428/…
Lisa Davis retweeted
Bend, Oregon man who shot and killed a shooter at his daughters' school speaks out, praises female teacher for fighting the shooter, allowing him to have a clear shot.
Kaylub Giamanco says he is haunted by the sound of children pleading for their lives.
He also praised the teacher for grabbing the gunman's weapon, allowing him to take a shot at the shooter.
"I want to recognize [the teacher]. She gave me the opportunity to make my shot without losing my life..."
"I swung the door open, and I stepped in, and I fired, and they dropped to the ground... I looked down at the gunman, and he was scrambling for his weapon. And I looked at him, and I shot him 2 more times..."
Lisa Davis retweeted
ICYMI - Sustainable Development Technology Canada was created to subsidize environmental projects.
It was disbanded in 2024 with resignation of all directors after audit found 186 conflicts of interest.
@PrivyCouncilCA report cited gross mismanagement that cost taxpayers $150M.
Liberal MPs on Commons committee reject motion to recover $34 million in federal grants mistakenly paid to ineligible applicants by scandal-ridden ‘Sustainable Development Technology Canada’, labelled “green slush fund.”
blacklocks.ca/lib-mps-block-…
@jasrajshallan @melaniejoly @BetOnMePodcast @PrivyCouncilCA #cdnpoli
Lisa Davis retweeted
How can any Liberal MP in their right mind not want to go after the $434.8 million that was wrongly paid out for the Dental Plan. This is taxpayers' hard earned money. The Liberals have no right to not to try to get taxpayer monies back. This is the same as when Ms Joly said it would not be in the best interest of Canadians to recoup the billions "lost" in the Green Energy scandal.
When will the Elbows Up crowd get angry over the loss of tax dollars.
Lisa Davis retweeted
No teacher should have to endure or fear this. Criminal charges should be pursued without remorse or apology. Enough is enough.
Lisa Davis retweeted
Another strategy that should be buried in a chest and thrown into the ocean: removing the whole class because one student is being disruptive. Only in the most *extreme* circumstances should this be considered. In all other cases, the student should be exited. Otherwise it teaches them they have huge power over others.
Lisa Davis retweeted
I'm amazed at the number of commentators I see who appear to approve of the riots in France, as if they were some legitimate way of expressing some serious or complex political grievance, when they are in fact the complete opposite of factors necessary for the existence of a civilised state: lawlessness; looting; mindless destruction; terrorism; the detonation of the safe civic space.
The people currently vicariously thrilled by it will never have to live with their house being broken open, robbed and burned down; their shop looted; their lives locked in their bedrooms praying the mob doesn't come for them. Only other people. To them, it's as theoretical as playing Fortnite. Going to the Colosseum is great when you're sitting on the benches looking down.
Lisa Davis retweeted
Why does feminist Gender Based Analysis apply to the assessment of major projects in Canada, but not to the policy of keeping convicted foreign rapists on our streets?
A man ordered to be deported from Canada has not been removed, and the reason is written into his immigration status.
He fled Eritrea in 2017, was smuggled through Egypt, Israel and one or more European countries, then flew to Canada where undisclosed parties sponsored him as a refugee in 2018. Within a year he was committing sexual assaults. Since then he has built a lengthy criminal record and a long string of media reports about his repeated release from custody.
He is considered a high-risk offender and has been ordered deported, but courts have barred his removal because conditions in Eritrea are described as volatile, though not war-torn, and he is officially a "protected person". Offences like his are punishable by up to 10 years in prison for a regular Canadian, yet he has served just months. His latest interaction with the justice system came in August 2026. He continues to reside in Guelph, Ontario.
The reason he has not been removed is his "protected person" designation, which courts have cited in barring his return to Eritrea.
Should a person's refugee status affect whether they can be deported after repeated violent offences?
Read more at: c2cjournal.ca/2026/09/monste…
Lisa Davis retweeted
Now, if someone could just tap University initial teacher education programs on the shoulder about this. In 2026, we shouldn’t need to be talking about #LearningStyles. It’s a constant hindrance in the quest to align #ITE with robust and evolving learning science evidence.
Again and again, a rigorous new 2026 study definitively busts the "learning styles" myth, proving that multimodal instruction works best for everyone regardless of their supposed learning style. To finally kill this persistent neuromyth, we urgently need to prioritize cognitive science literacy in teacher training programs.
psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?d…
Lisa Davis retweeted
This is why startups win
A retired NASA engineer who had worked on the Space Shuttle program for 25 years was hired by SpaceX at age 62. He described the first week as the most disorienting experience of his professional life.
At NASA, a design change required 3 meetings, 2 committees, a review board, and 6 to 18 months of documentation. At SpaceX, his new supervisor said "if it works, build it. If it doesn't, change it by Friday."
He sat at his desk after the first day and called his wife. He told her he felt like a man who had been swimming with ankle weights for 25 years and someone just cut them off. He could move. He could decide. He could build something in the morning and test it in the afternoon. The constraint that he had accepted as the nature of aerospace engineering turned out to be the nature of bureaucracy.
Within 6 months he had contributed to more design iterations than he had completed in his last 5 years at NASA. Not because he was working harder. Because the time between having an idea and testing the idea collapsed from months to hours. The same brain. The same knowledge. A different operating system.
He described a specific moment where he proposed a modification to a Raptor engine component. At NASA, the proposal would have entered a queue. At SpaceX, the modification was machined by the end of the day and tested by the following morning. He watched his idea become a physical object in 18 hours. At NASA, 18 hours would not have been enough to schedule the first meeting to discuss whether to schedule a meeting.
He told an interviewer: "I didn't get smarter when I went to SpaceX. I got faster. The intelligence was always there. The system was in the way."
The difference between SpaceX and NASA is not talent. NASA has extraordinary talent. The difference is the time between a thought and a test. SpaceX compresses it. NASA elongates it. The same engineer produces 10x more at SpaceX than at NASA because the bottleneck was never the engineer. It was the meetings about the meetings about the work.
Lisa Davis retweeted
UN spokesperson: “An internal investigation has concluded that UNRWA humanitarian workers in Gaza participated in the massacre carried out by Hamas on October 7”
Lisa Davis retweeted
Germany was once the world's most technically proficient country, a culture and economy characterized by systemic order, whose dual training system and mittelstand economy made it the global powerhouse in engineering and manufacturing.
That's what makes its insane energy policy of the last 20 years so astonishing.
How did such a smart, left-brained country allow Gaia-worshipping Green ideologues to capture energy policy and drive Germany towards economic suicide?
- They shut down their nuclear plants, the only zero GHG emitting source of reliable energy;
- They refused to develop their own natural gas resources, but became almost completely dependent on Russian conflict gas for baseload power (with former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder ending up on Putin's payroll;)
- They spent at least $700 billion euros ($1.1 trillion CAD) on their "Energiewende" energy transition since 2005, reducing GHG emissions by around 330 million tonnes while more than doubling electricity prices;
- The 330 million tonne reduction is equal to about 0.5% of current global GHG emissions. In other words, $1 trillion spent, and a doubling of power prices, for virtually zero impact on global emissions;
- Over the same time, China doubled its GHG emissions, by about 7.6 BILLION tonnes. So China's increase in GHG emissions was 23 times larger than Germany's reduction in emissions over the last 20 years.
- Meanwhile, China built over 2000 new thermal coal power plants since 2005, adding about 580,000 megawatts of installed power to its fleet, about 9 times more than all of Germany's power production;
- German power prices now run about 4 to 5 times higher than China's, and German industrial output is now at 2005 levels, following two decades of hemorrhaging manufacturing to China;
So here are the results of Germany's $1 trillion Green policy fiasco:
- two decades of economic stagnation and de-industrialization
- enrichment of Putin's regime
- hyper charging the Chinese economy
- increasing energy poverty, and consequently fuelling the growth of the hard right AfD as the only party to challenge the elite consensus on energy policy
- all while making no measurable impact on global emissions.
And here's the kicker: they are still committed to the same energy transition policy, which will cost $ trillions more, while Germany faces "structural decline" and "free fall."👇
Decline is a choice. A choice that German voters and elites have made. What a shame.
Expensive German climate policy:
Germany faces “structural decline” and is in “free fall”, with price increases “across the economy”
Real German electricity price 222% of price in 2000 (households+industry)
You can see all the references here:
teapawt.net/BjornLomborg/status/20…
Lisa Davis retweeted
Miss two days a month and you've missed a month of school by the end of the year.
Data CBC obtained from Ontario's Ministry of Education shows 60% of the province's high school students are now chronically absent, meaning they miss more than 10 per cent of the school year. Among students in Grades 1 to 8 the figure is 45 per cent.
Research from York University found Ontario's absenteeism rate roughly doubled between 2012 and 2024. British Columbia reports unexcused absences up nearly 90 per cent from before the pandemic, and Alberta's public school absenteeism has nearly tripled.
No curriculum works on a child who is not in the room. Ontario is now tying part of a high school mark to attendance, which is the kind of change any province can make without spending more.
Learn more about how to fix Canada's education system at SecondStreet.org
Read more from the source: cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/o…
Lisa Davis retweeted
👏 The Globe & Mail editorial team absolutely nailed it with this. People are paying attention. No more excuses. Canada has an education problem and we have to fix it.
Summary:
🔸 Canada's education scores are declining on both PISA and TIMSS
🔸 We have way more low performers and fewer high performers
🔸 Canada spends significantly on education and needs to better allocate those resources
🔸 Downward trend started before COVID
🔸 Movement away from methods that work, like explicit instruction, has likely had a negative impact
🔸 Rampant grade inflation, with a mention of U of Waterloo instructor, Dan Wolczuk
🔸 Open door to tech in the classroom has not helped
🔸 Teachers unions have pushed back against things that could help like early screening for reading
🔸 Faculties of education have not always been on board with equipping teachers with the tools that will help teachers teach effectively
🔸 Look towards England, which has managed to buck the trend. Regular phonics screening, a times table check, calculator ban on standardized tests, etc.
🔸 Provincial governments must take action.
Last paragraph is amazing:
"PISA might seem like a test for Canadian school children, but it’s really a test for policymakers and educators on how they are running the schools. Right now, they are failing. In order to turn around test scores, and put children back on the path of achievement, they need to fundamentally change how students are being taught."
theglobeandmail.com/opinion/…
