Why are international students going to #Timmins? "Graduates of Northern and other public colleges may apply for a post-graduation work permit that could lead to permanent residence and citizenship."
"[T]he people who feel that decline most are average Canadians — those on the lower and middle rungs of the socioeconomic ladder. They’re the ones lying in a hallway on a stretcher outside the critical care unit for hours on end. They’re the ones scrambling to find a family doctor. And they’re the ones who are increasingly struggling to buy groceries because sky-high inflation has eroded their spending power."
"Against this backdrop [of rising cost of living], Pierre Poilievre has been having a field day. His most recent coup is a mockumentary on “Housing Hell.” Now, Poilievre has never met a fact that he wasn’t willing to torture, a bit, but this is just about the best piece of political communication Canadians have ever been treated to, and it’s devastating for Trudeau."
"Canada’s court system is in a crisis. There aren’t enough judges. Courthouses are significantly understaffed. Judicial vacancies are abundant. Cases take years to make it through the gummed-up judicial system — and that’s if they make it at all."
And of course cases are "thrown out because unreasonable delays breach the charter rights of the accused."
The current HFR project is working on connecting #QuébecCity to #Toronto via Ottawa. But for a fraction of the money, they could improve the line between #Ottawa and #Montréal and use that as a base to gradually increase service at 200 km/h speeds.
If the HFR project results in no more than a series of studies, then this would be an excellent path forward.
"Bill S-15, introduced in the Senate this week, would prohibit new captivity of elephants and great apes, including for breeding, without a licence that shows it is for conservation, science or the animal’s welfare."
"Several of its accredited zoos, including Zoo de Granby in Quebec, the Toronto Zoo and the Calgary Zoo, threw their support behind similar legislation that Klyne introduced as a private member’s bill in 2022."
@npilon I don't want the federal government setting up more federal-provincial joint programmes; I don't want them trying to run programmes outside their constitutional jurisdiction; I want them to focus on their existing responsibilities and manage those well.
"The declining cost of technologies like heat pumps and electric vehicles means Poilievre could conceivably argue that the consumer tax could be killed without giving up on efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But there really is no substitute for industrial pricing."
"[M]onthly costs to service the federal debt are now at $4.3 billion — almost double what they were pre-2020. [...] Canada could soon be paying $50 billion per year to service its debt. That would be $1,250 per year, per Canadian, just to pay down the interest. It would also be a sum significantly larger than the $36.7 billion annual cost of the Canadian Armed Forces."
"The 2021/2022 federal budget was arguably the first not to be weighed down with any significant COVID-19 spending since the start of the pandemic. Even then, the feds posted a deficit of $90.2 billion — still one of the largest in Canadian peacetime history."
Hard seeing so many large-ish accounts so deeply frustrated with Mastodon - in the last week I've seen @TechConnectify@Popehat and @mmasnick discuss their lack of comfort here and how they limit their engagement and interactions.
If BlueSky can get federation with ActivityPub going, I guess that would be a solution - a "brand name" option with resources to run a decent moderation network, and an off-ramp if things get icky there.
@gemlog My feed is rather tame, so I mostly use CWs when I have comments about #uspol. Some people don't want to read about that topic; it often generates more heat than light; it's not something I frequently write about.
(People who aren't interested in #CanPol, on the other hand, probably shouldn't follow me at all.)
So, like you, I rarely use CWs. Nobody gives me a hard time about it.
"Now, when Canadians are asked to rank their top concerns, the top spot is a duel between “economy” and “cost of living” — with climate change lucky if it can crack the top five. This is even true of young people; the one demographic that can usually be trusted to worry about the environment. In August, an Abacus Data survey of voters aged 18 to 27 found that the top concern, as picked by 73 per cent of respondents, was “the rising cost of living.” In fifth place [...] was “climate change.”"
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"When queried on the basic science of the phenomenon, a rising share of Canadians think it’s a problem. But the sentiment appears to be that most Canadians don’t want to personally assume any measurable sacrifice or cost."
Canada should decarbonise its economy, and a #CarbonTax is the right way to do so. Indeed, properly managed, such a tax doesn't even on net take money out of the pockets of most people. But people hate more expensive gas and heating.
"On Thursday a Federal Court judge, the Hon. Angela Furlanetto, startled the Dominion by essentially sweeping aside the Liberal government’s ban on a short list of single-use plastic items, including grocery bags, cutlery, takeout containers and drinking straws."
#ColbyCosh explains that the ban was based upon a law allowing the feds to restrict "toxic" substances. But are #plastics toxic? The judge, a biochemist, wasn't convinced.
"The arrest of the Two Michaels tanked Sino-Canadian relations and damaged China’s credibility among Canada’s allies. Many wondered: if Beijing was willing to achieve its diplomatic goals by essentially kidnapping ordinary foreigners, what else might it be capable of? We now know that the truth was more complicated than the Trudeau government let on."
Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre): "The murder of the Afzaal family was a horrifying moment in Canadian history. The verdict brings justice for the victims and their family, even if the pain and horror of this crime can never be undone. All Canadians must stand against Islamophobia and hatred of any kind."
@gemlog If Mr. Poilievre becomes PM, he'll probably amend the Criminal Code to allow judges to impose consecutive sentences in especially heinous cases, as happened during the Harper ministry. He's previously said the #NotwithstandingClause should be used, but I'd guess they'll first have another go at drafting something the court won't strike down.
When I was a boy, I'd sometimes find coins with the head of #GeorgeVI. Now a third sovereign's head appears on Canadian coins I will use.
"The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it."
"When I wrote a book on Trudeau in 2019, one of three central contentions made was that his greatest strengths are also his greatest weaknesses — his doggedness, determination and stubbornness — and that the day would come when voters would tire of the idiosyncrasies that once amused them. “Whether we fall by ambition, blood or lust, like diamonds we are cut with our own dust,” wrote 17th century playwright John Webster."
@atomicpoet That's what the polls say. On the whole, a Conservative federal government would be good for Canada. The major weakness would be climate change policy, but on the other hand the Conservatives haven't presented what they plan to do on that file, other than ending the carbon tax.
Soon though? The Liberals plus the NDP have a solid majority, and the last election was only in 2021.
Should #Canada ditch carbon pricing for a system that actually lowers GHGs?
I'm going to catch hell from economists for this interview with @AldyenDonnelly, but the furor over the Atlantic Canada heating oil exemption opened the door... #cdnpoli#ABleg https://share.transistor.fm/s/dbf3dc76
"A month before the Liberal government made the announcement on Thursday, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault rejected the idea, saying it would be unfair for the rest of the federation if Ottawa carved out exceptions that would benefit the Atlantic provinces, where around 40 per cent of homes are heated with oil."
sigh Better to have paused #CarbonTax increases nationally.