CONSPIRACY THEORY 101

Alberta premier Danielle Smith 

vowed this week to cut provincial ties with the World Economic Forum, calling it an “offensive” organization that seeks to control democratic governments. 

The WEF is known mostly for organizing hyper-elite conferences in Switzerland, which is part of why it’s a frequent target of conspiracy theories holding that it’s a secret illuminati pulling the strings on the world’s government. Not helping the conspiracy theory is the fact that the WEF has a weird habit of claiming just that. 

But the group doesn’t really have any ties to the Alberta government, save for the Alberta Health Services’ involvement in a WEF-aligned health think tank alongside the likes of Harvard and the Mayo Clinic. Anyway; that membership abruptly ended this week with Smith’s announcement.

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(Meanwhile, it was only eight years ago that Smith (who was then leader of the Alberta Wildrose Party) was openly bemoaning the fact that the WEF had cancelled a planned conference to be held in Alberta. The cancelled WEF event was “highly embarrassing” and a “black eye” for the province, said Smith.)

NATIONAL POST