Video taking off 62x its usual first day

"Don't mess with Canada": Thomas Lukaszuk's victory-night message

Alberta's former deputy premier aims his first line at Premier Danielle Smith and his last at the rest of the world.

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The Globe and Mail Story of October 21, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 325,433 views a day, 62 times a normal first day on this channel (5,249).

'Don't mess with Canada,' says federalist leader

Canadian flags fill the frame, a few of them on T-shirts, as Thomas Lukaszuk takes the microphone in Edmonton on Monday night. Early referendum results are in, and the man who led the campaign to keep Alberta in Canada has a short speech with two audiences.

The first is in the provincial legislature. The result, he says, "sends a very clear message to Premier Danielle Smith that we do not need another referendum." Then he turns to the room: "Alberta will not be the weak link in Confederation." His last words look much further than the room, and they became the title: "Don't mess with Canada."

Lukaszuk knows Alberta politics from the inside. He was deputy premier under Alison Redford, in the Progressive Conservative government that ran the province for decades.

The clip is barely half a minute of Canadian Press footage, and it is drawing a crowd The Globe and Mail rarely sees for a Short. It passed 130,000 views in its first seven hours. Comments came even faster: several times a usual full day's worth arrived before that first evening was over. Many viewers seize on the closing line and ask what, exactly, would happen to anyone who does. Others turn the conversation toward Quebec, or toward the quarter of Albertans who voted the other way.

The Globe's other referendum Shorts are moving too. Prime Minister Mark Carney saying he was "thrilled" with the result and an explainer on why some polls closed late, after opening late, each drew far beyond the channel's usual first day. Preliminary returns, in the paper's own results report, showed roughly three-quarters choosing to stay.

The newsroom also posted the other side's night. In a separate clip, separatist leader Jeffrey Rath says his movement has "already won" and is looking for new routes, including a challenge to Smith's leadership of her party.

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