We are at a watershed moment in #abpoli and global history provides instruction. Timothy Snyder’s book “On Tyranny” is instructive. Here are the lessons most relevant to Albertans at this moment.

1. Defend institutions - “Institutions do not protect themselves. They fall one after another unless each is protected from the beginning” (p. 22)

2. Beware the one-party state - “A party emboldened by a favourable election result or motivated by ideology, or both, might change the system from within” (p. 28)

3. Remember professional ethics - “When political leaders set a negative example, professional commitments to just practice become more important” (p. 38)

4. Be wary of paramilitaries - “When the men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching with torches and pictures of a leader, the end is nigh” (p. 42)

5. Be kind to our language - “avoid pronouncing the phrases everyone else does. Think up your own way of speaking...make an effort to separate yourself from the internet. Read books.” (p. 59)

6. Believe in truth - “to abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power” (p. 65)

7. Investigate - “the individual who investigates is also the citizen who builds. The leader who dislikes the investigators is a potential tyrant” (p. 73)

8. Listen for dangerous words - “be alert to the use of words extremism and terrorism. Be alive to the fatal notions of emergency and exception. Be angry about the treacherous use of patriotic vocabulary” (p. 99)

9. Practice corporeal politics - “Get outside. Put your body in unfamiliar places with unfamiliar people. Make new friends and March with them” (p. 83) .... impossible right now but not in the future

10. Contribute to good causes - “be active in organizations, political or not, that express your view of life. Pick a charity or two and set up autopsy. Then you will have made a free choice that supports civil society and helps others do good” p92