The Joyful Dinos is an Edmonton activist performance group — formally “the Ancient and Honourable Order of Inflatable Dinosaurs, Edmonton Chapter” — that stages costumed protests against Premier Danielle Smith’s UCP government using joyful, absurdist rather than angry tactics – though we are angry. Our manifestos and actions deliver a wide-ranging progressive campaign covering Alberta separatism and the October 2026 referendum, immigration scapegoating, healthcare privatization, education/curriculum rollbacks, coal mining and environmental protection, gerrymandering electoral boundaries, LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights, and water/energy guzzling data centres. Our core rhetorical frame is “we’re ancient enough to recognize extinction when we see it” — paired with a continually evolving Manifesto performed at events like Earth Day or the AFL Day of Action. The group produces social media campaigns, protest signs, and an Alberta referendum campaign, all built around the tagline “We are fighting back. With joy.”
Joyful Dinos design is by the wonderful Amanda @ CurioStudio
For information about this website, contact Janice Williamson via the contact form.
The Birth of the Joyful Dinos
29/1/26 The Invitation
Anna who lives in our neighbourhood Mill Creek, Edmonton, wrote this note in our local Strathcona listserve:
Hey friends, i’m wondering if anyone is organizing re: mutual aid /political worrying. I’m terrified of what’s going on in the US and can see the threads coming here. I truly believe that strong local networks are the best defense. I’m looking to take action with a like-minded group of people.
Any suggestions? Anyone else in a similar position?
5/2/26 The Joyful Dinos Meet
As it turned out at that time, some of us were very concerned about the recently reported UCP’s MAGA enthusiasms.
Thus on February 5, 2026, six of Mill Creek folk gathered at Urban Green, a local housing cooperative. We settled into the comfortable sofas in the expansive meeting/music/yoga/dining room. At this first meeting, we were six: Kristi and Denis, two biologists; Susan, a singer songwriter; Amanda, an artist/designer; Anna, the nurse who invited us; and me, writer/retired prof/yoga teacher. At the time, I thought, this small group of remarkable people could definitely make good trouble together composing and singing, writing and drawing, thinking and creating.
At this first meeting, we spoke openly as we introduced ourselves. All of us suffered pangs of grief about the state of our beloved province. Anxious about the future, we were depressed about the relentless MAGA-like firehose of inhumane policies on the airwaves every day. What wasn’t falling apart with the UCP manning a wrecking ball. Education. Healthcare. Support for the disadvantaged. The misuse of the Notwithstanding Clause to attack workers and trans people. Environmental exploitation. In 2025, the UCP had cancelled the moratorium on coal development without any public consultation. And in May 2025 the Grassy Mountain Coal Project was announced threatening the watershed and the Oldman River in Southern Alberta.
Anna had provided a white board and Kristi documented our discussion outlining our values and what mattered to us.
We asked ourselves: What do we want? Our first word? JOY! We want more joy in our lives and we want to do something”JOYFUL”!
At this point, Janice shared my unrealized dream to disguise herself as an inflateable dinosaur and protest peacefully on the Alberta Legislature steps. Jan Henderson’s clowning course taught her the value of the ridiculous: the comic buffoon who unsettles us and makes space for laughter, empathy and renewed perspectives.
Thus the Joyful Dinos were born – a formidable foe to those who blinker mind and vision into narrow pathways.
Our kin: Albertosaurus
And what’s not to like about dinosaurs here in dinosaur country. Our 69-million-year old Cretaceous Period Albertosaurus was discovered not far away at Dry Island Buffalo Jump National Park is a provincial icon.
Thus the Joyful Dinos manifested out of thin air
We scheduled our second meeting on February 26 at nearby Frank’s Pub – a welcoming neighbourhood gathering place. More new friends arrived, Some came out of curiousity to show support and solidarity. Others like Laura joined to become a most valued active Dino.
Designed by Amanda at CurioStudio
Now We Are Five
Five joyful dino inflatable costumes arrived just in time. Anna and Janice tested several of them out on a very cold February day.
Context: This MAGA Alberta Moment in Time
How timely was Anna’s January 2026 invitation? At that very moment Danielle Smith’s UCP, Alberta’s provincial governing party, was celebrating its MAGA proximity. What critically thinking Albertan wasn’t anxious about our provincial government? On January 12, Danielle Smith’s X posts documented her visit to Mar-a-lago. Then a few days she was on the Calgary tarmac giving a fauning welcome to Donald Trump visit to Kananaskis for the G8 meeting chaired by Canada’s new PM Mark Carney. (The photographs “rot your socks” – as my mother would say.)
In theTyee article “Danielle Smith’s Middle Finger to ‘Team Canada’, Graham Thompson described “Premier Danielle Smith’s weekend trip to Mar-a-Lago to meet president-elect Donald Trump was very much a solo trip just before the momentous G8 meeting.
“Solo in the sense no other Canadian politician joined her as she continued to push for “carve outs” for Alberta’s oil and gas from Trump’s tariff threat.
But she wasn’t on the trip alone.
With her were Jordan Peterson, the tirelessly controversial celebrity psychologist whose climate change denial is but one facet of his populist brand, and Kevin O’Leary, the tirelessly blowhard celebrity investor who wants to send Canada on a slippery slope towards 51st statehood.“
Danielle Smith keeps “good” company. Jordan Peterson’s social media posts were found by the Ontario Superior Court to contradicte professional therapeutic standards due to misogyny and transphobia. It is no accident that in Alberta rural women in some areas have no access to abortion. And the UCP anti-trans policies have been vilified near and far.
Kevin O’Leary’s Mar-a-Lago invitation to Danielle Smith yielded a multi-billion dollar Albertan bonanza.
Thus one of the dystopian faces of Danielle Smith’s UCP.
‘Wonder Valley’, Kevin O’Leary’s $70 billion 65sq km AI data centre south of Grand Prairie was fast tracked by the UCP with no environmental assessment. In spite of the fact that an agricultural disaster due to drought was declared in 2025, this megaproject “the largest in the world” will use up to four times the approved amount of water from the Smoky River — up to 24 million cubic metres per year. And in spite of the fact that it will generate its own power, estimates are that on busy days it will exceed the electricity requirements of the project and the nearby communities.
And the elecricity issues are immense. Casey Klein’s review of the Wonder Valley Open House revealed this: “