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Completely wrong. Trump and protectionism are 100% of the reason. You can't reverse half a century of free trade by shifting into reverse. We're making movies and software now instead of relishing in an imaginary rosy future making toilet paper. Didn't work to retirement bolting wheels on trucks or soldering bits onto motherboards on some assembly line. Those were far from the 'glory days'.

I asked Grok for the signs of an authoritarian government. Which apply to Canada? Which to the US right now? Suppression of Political Opposition: Opposition parties are banned, harassed, or marginalized. Political rivals are imprisoned, exiled, or silenced through intimidation. Elections, if held, are manipulated to ensure the ruling party’s victory (e.g., voter suppression, ballot stuffing, or media control). Restriction of Free Speech and Press: Censorship of media outlets, including state control or shutdown of independent news organizations. Journalists face harassment, imprisonment, or violence for critical reporting. Internet access may be restricted, with heavy surveillance of online activity. Erosion of Civil Liberties: Limits on freedom of assembly, protest, or association. Use of excessive force by police or military to suppress demonstrations. Widespread surveillance of citizens, often justified as "national security." Centralized Control and Weakened Checks and Balances: Concentration of power in the hands of a single leader or small group. Judiciary and legislative branches are undermined, controlled, or packed with loyalists. Constitutional changes to extend term limits or grant unchecked powers to the leader. Propaganda and State-Controlled Narratives: Government dominates public discourse through state-run media or propaganda campaigns. Alternative viewpoints are discredited as "fake news" or "foreign interference." Cult of personality around the leader, portraying them as infallible or indispensable. Use of Fear and Repression: Secret police or paramilitary groups enforce loyalty and punish dissent. Arbitrary arrests, torture, or disappearances of perceived enemies. Policies stoke fear of external or internal "threats" to justify authoritarian measures. Economic Control and Cronyism: State control over key industries, often benefiting loyalists or elites. Widespread corruption, with resources funneled to regime supporters. Economic policies prioritize regime stability over public welfare. Manipulation of National Identity: Exploitation of nationalism, religion, or cultural identity to unify support and demonize opponents. Marginalization or persecution of minority groups as scapegoats. Historical revisionism to glorify the regime or its leader. Weak Rule of Law: Laws are applied selectively, favoring regime allies while targeting opponents. Legal protections for individuals are ignored or dismantled. Security forces operate with impunity, often above the law. Control Over Education and Culture: Curricula rewritten to align with regime ideology. Cultural institutions (e.g., arts, museums) are co-opted to serve state narratives. Intellectuals and academics face censorship or persecution for challenging the regime.

Judges cannot block funding, or lack thereof, in a bill. This judge should be removed from office. If she cant follow the law she can't be a judge.

Or maybe...just maybe...they think it's a waste of time debating with you, because you're not even a remotely reasonable person. 🙃

In BC the NDP has been negatively affecting the forestry and mining sector as well with excessive regulations and preserving old growth forests, etc. This has resulted in the layoff of thousands of workers in various small cities and towns.

Yes it is. The Charter of Rights & Freedoms: Hate-speech has a very high bar legally. Christians expressing opinions that are pro-life and against gender transition surgery or gay marriage should not be subject to hate speech laws, unless they're threatening violence or something else obviously criminally serious against those groups whose behaviours they oppose. Also, there's MAGA Canadians in Canada. There's no laws outlawing pro-Trump opinions in Canada, nor should there be. This shouldn't be a left or right issue, it's an issue about government censorship and free speech rights and religious rights. I think Trump is a POS but banning some MAGA lover from performing at a public venue is government overreach. They used the public safety excuse (heckler's veto) because they know they can't ban the guy for his speech.

Absolutely not, for either country who needs each other energy alliance. The US has done a fine job though in reminding the world to diversify trade and investment away from them. Nothing like that happens quickly but America first will be known as America alone at some point down the road.

You know you're in the wrong when even Trump is telling you to stop the genocide. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/28/trump-acknowledges-real-starvation-in-gaza-and-tells-israel-to-let-in-every-ounce-of-food October 7th was a horrific terrorist attached and completely unjustifiable. But what the IDF is doing to civilians in Gaza is exponentially worse. I have always taken the position that Israel is a bastion of western democracy alone in a most autocratic region that wants them dead. We should protect them. I'm not so sure anymore. Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal that's clinging to power because he knows that if his coalition collapses, he goes to jail. The US should pull military support for Israel as long as it continues to allow the famine in Gaza. This opinion is not anti semitic. It's anti human suffering. The Pro-Palestinian protestors that annoy us in the West, kind of have a point now. Using the holocaust as justification to commit your own genocide is immoral.

Because woke cultists say so.

🤣 Mr Oxford is rolling in his grave right now.

PEI and NL ferries are federal jurisdiction. Ferries in BC are not.

Nope, they were talking about interpretive dance, not speech... ROFL Why is it so many folks on this forum refuse to admit they are wrong on anything and insist on playing these dumb games? Except, you were now trying to argue that speech is not part of freedom of expression. Did they teach you anything about basic logic, things like a Venn Diagram in your K-12 education?

I never said it was "absolute." You keep moving the goal posts here from trying to avoid this being content discrimination to it being about a permit and now to the extreme of freedom of speech not being absolute after you earlier tried to claim it was not even in your Charter or whatever you guys call it. Now, all you are left with is saying it may have been an overreach...

Sort of, he's wondering why you're stupid AND uninformed at the same time

The issue isn't about holding a concert being a right, it is that it was denied based on the dislike of the speech...

Freedom of expression and peaceable assembly are.

You're comparing apples to oranges here. The protest in Nashville permit issues had nothing to do with the content of his speech, this was during OMG COVID lockdowns and ANY public gathering was frowned upon and not being permitted at the time. This was also out in public, not on private land, where there are generally requirements for permits that are just administrative in nature, to help with any streets being blocked off, safety, etc...

So it's not just us and it isn't new... Oct 11, 2020 Nashville,TN. "We had THREE venue changes and so much resistance BUT THE CHURCH WILL NOT BE SILENCED!" Oct 12 2020: Nashville Tennessean "Nashville did not permit the event Nashville officials said Monday morning that organizers did not apply for a permit to host the event and that the Metro Public Health Department is working to investigate what happened." But here's what he's really about: Rolling Stone: July 11, 2022 "Sean Feucht Ministry Inc. ballooned in revenue from $280,000 in 2019 to more than $5.3 million in 2020, ending the year $4 million richer than it started. (The accounting is curious: The ministry claims to have received zero dollars in contributions, despite Feucht avidly soliciting such gifts.) Warren Cole Smith, president of Ministry Watch, says that leveraging a ministry to live the high life, is not just unseemly, it’s potentially illegal. If a guy that makes less than $200,000 a year is buying multiple, million-dollar properties, at a minimum that warrants additional questions.” What’s more curious is that Fuecht, who slaps “donate” buttons on all of his web sites, told the IRS he received zero dollars in contributions in 2020. Yet a review of public Venmo transactions reveals that Fuecht’s ministry received at least 250 donations during a one-week stretch in July 2020." Christians love that graft!

Oh, you're Bi-curious?

Oh stop posting multiple threads on the same subject. A simple reply in your other one would've spared us a click...

You know you're wrong because if you weren't you wouldn't have to lie. They built something like 300,000 homes or close to a year under harper. That's more than we build now despite having far less immigration. So harper did a lot, things were actually a hell of a lot better. And homes were dirt cheap under Mulroney Harper funded Healthcare to a huge degree. You caught up what the liberals under correction had fallen behind that. In fact harper funded Healthcare to a higher percentage than the liberals do now or have in the last 10 years Harper did a lot for resource development. Of course he was frequently blocked because he had a minority government but he greenlit a number of projects. Now let's talk trade. Harper radically expanded Canada's trade Partnerships, and Trudeau wound up ruining a lot of them. Harper got us the softwood lumber deal, he negotiated better terms for NAFTA, he developed massively higher exports to India and Saudi Arabia, and he created the EU deal which was almost finished when he left. Justin undid all of that and screwed up the European deal because he didn't understand it. Which wound up making it a bad deal for Canada

How does that make it invalid? Do you disagree with it? Or are you just being deliberately obtuse for the purposes of trying to promote your agenda despite not having a logical argument for it I noticed you couldn't actually address @Army Guy 's point

It's neither the norm nor the exception. You'll never get everything you want out of a government or a candidate, so you're always just balancing good vs bad. That's just democracy, and it's not why we're seeing so much polarization.

The number of times I've seen you begin a debate with an accusation of lying is a good start. Your circular performances where you invent dumb strawmen to argue against, then refuse to move on when your opponent refuses adopt your fabrication as their point, leading you to further accusations of lying is my favorite. The "I call out lying when people are lying", or "I point out people are running away when they are running away" is another spectacular example of self-affirming, circular reasoning. This comment would hold more water if you were actually making logical, fact-based arguments, rather than waving your hands around and nattering vaguely about "context" whilst accusing people of bigotry. 🙃

But making it the norm isn't productive over the long haul IMO. That seems to be all people are doing now... I think it leads to a see-saw effect that generates its own momentum. You might be overthinking the typo... Gota run, see ya

Right, but you are one of the few here who are against Trump and supporting this person's right to free express themselves. I am more onside with you on this. In all, I think this dofus should have stayed home. He has legal recourse, ie. to sue the city of Montreal when he gets back to the states LOL. I'm sure the Quebec judge will love this guy...

Oh, FFS. Do you really think America has been acting as it has around the world for the last fifty years for any OTHER reason but self-interest? Seriously? America's military policy has been to prevent its enemies from gaining too much strength, to reassure its access to cheap raw materials, and to keep free markets free - for Americans to make use of and exploit. There is no charity work involved in this. It didn't keep the Soviets out of Europe because it was kind hearted. It did so because the Soviets were dangerous enough as it was. The US certianly didn't want them adding Europe's population and technology to their power base. Nor did it want to lose European markets for its goods. Similarly, when it protects Taiwan, it's not because it cares about them. It's because it wants to preserve access to Taiwan's semiconductor industry. Then how come Canadians can't move to the US?

But on what basis should he have been denied. He had scheduled shows here didnt he. He has performed here before. So why should this be revoked. It seems there was no real standard here other than some people complained. And if that becomes the standard, then why can't anyone get enough people together and get any events they like cancelled? Foreigners aren't guaranteed any right to work in Canada as you say. So, if we got enough butthurt people to complain about some artist from outside of Canada that you might like, can we cancel him? Here is one. Would you have been ok with Ozzy playing in Canada?

Sadly, you are right about that. But not because expression does not include speech. It is that all the rights in the charter are only guaranteed to 'such reasonable limits'. So we have freedom of speech or any other form of expression to some arbitrary reasonable degree. That is the sad reality of the charter. But once again, which of Canada's draconian speech laws has he violated in any of his performances? How has he gone beyond the bounds of expression allowed in Canada? There are tons of people who have previously espoused all kinds of views who are allowed to come to Canada. What puts this guy beyond the pale? I mean if we are talking about musicians many of them have done more than just espouse so called unacceptable things, but have broken tons of laws.

That's no excuse for getting it the way they did. Palestinians were accepting of Jews until the border was opened to millions of refugees and Zionists started creating the state of Israel violently.

Is that what they told Einstein to do?

Trump is a fascist. He's not Hitler, but he's a fascist. The only thing constraining him right now are the courts and the constitution. If he had his way he would have overturned the 2020 election results and tried his best to do that, and I certainly wouldn't put it past him to remove term limits too if he could. If 76% of GOP members voted for him in the primaries last year, which means a lot of them are fascists too. I assume a bunch of them aren't fascists but just believed his con-job about the "the steal" etc, so they're more naive and stupid than fascist. I asked Grok the characteristics of a fascist leader. Here you go, he fits every one, besides military expansionism, he's more into coercive economic measures for expansionist goals:

Well, Herbie doesn't like to let his left hand know what the right one is doing. He even spent weeks making an MS13-themed quilt for Kilmar Abrego.

We can’t do it quickly. That’s not realistic.

Agree we need to export more to other countries, which is starting to happen and will continue to in a bigger way. Fact remains though that we're landlocked and our North American infrastructure is integrated for both oil and electricity and dependence on each other.

Does anyone disagree that we should be undoing all the harm to Canadian sovereignty that occurred by aligning ourselves so closely with a failing democracy? If we can do it tomorrow, then let’s do it.

Maybe. At least I'm not as stupid as you.

So I can't argue that a fine is unjust unless I donate to help pay the fine? Is that really your argument here, herbie? That's an incredibly stupid thing to say. You spend far more time sniveling on here than I do. Am I supposed to believe that with regard to every topic you post on you are somehow providing financial support to the people or parties involved whom you support?

The feds made it uneconomically for any private entity to try to build a pipeline, and then took it over so they could siphon of billions of dollars in graft for their friends. Build it where? BC says no. Manitoba says no.

You did no such thing at all. It's amazing, you can't see when somebody replies to you and answers your questions and somehow you magically can see replies you made that werne't even there Are you using some sort of magic secret decoder ring that none of the rest of us have? How many cereal box tops did you save up and send in? LOL! Should i be drinking my ovaltine? And we told you kid, you're pretty much just part of the comic relief around here at this point, we talk about you whenever we feel like, No you didn't and everybody else can see you're making that up. As has already been pointed out I've heard of people like you having imaginary friends, but you can't even pull that off. The best you can do is imaginary posts! ROFLMAO

What ever gave you the impression that leftists are against authoritarian control? You must be reaching decades back into your memory banks.

Did you have another fruitful weekend of fighting on the internet with anyone who'd pay attention to you, no-life? As always, things aren't the way you say they are, just because you insist on it really really hard. 🤡

Why do you say fantasy world... Is it not fact that the US taxpayer pays for his weekend golf trips to Florida or now to the UK? I agree that it's been a very consequential first 6 months. Trump has single handily has pushed global trading partners to look at diversifying their trade with more reliable partners with still doing business in the US, just less of. It took the US 80 years to become a superpower but that will end at some point with BRICS growing and now the accounting for 35% of the global GDP while the G7 is 30%, and those within the G7 looking to diversify more trade away from the US. Very consequential indeed...

VIA: "Think Freedom" on X No matter how you feel about the TRUCKER CONVOY — Tamara Lich’s treatment should concern every Canadian. You may disagree with the convoy. You may rightly recognize that some individuals involved held extreme or distasteful views. You might not like Tamara Lich. And yes, she has been charged—but not convicted—of counselling mischief. That distinction matters. But you should still be asking whether Tamara Lich has been treated fairly by Canada’s justice system. Why does it feel like the process itself has become the punishment? Here’s what we know: Tamara Lich was arrested in 2022 for counselling mischief — a non-violent charge. She spent weeks in jail, was denied bail multiple times, and has been under house arrest for over 3.5 years. Her trial is still ongoing. She has no prior criminal record and is not a flight risk. For what? A non-violent charge: counselling mischief. People who’ve known Lich personally describe her not as a political mastermind, but as a passionate, ordinary Canadian—Metis, five-foot-one, a mother, deeply concerned about the country's direction. Perhaps politically naïve, but sincere. And this is what should worry all Canadians—left, right, or otherwise. If you believe in freedom of expression, if you believe protests should be judged fairly regardless of their politics, and if you think the justice system should be impartial—not influenced by ideology or pressure—then you should be paying attention. People charged with far more serious violent crimes are routinely granted bail. Yet here we are: a woman with no criminal record, who didn’t own a truck or honk a horn, has become entangled in a multi-year legal battle that many say appears politically charged. At the height of the convoy, Tamara Lich started a GoFundMe campaign that raised over $10 million before it was frozen. Regardless of your views on the convoy, this kind of grassroots fundraising caught the nation's attention—and likely the government. The funds were later restrained by court order and remain largely frozen due to an ongoing civil class action lawsuit. Supporters argue that Lich’s “real crime” was becoming a powerful symbol—a viral figure representing a sentiment many Canadians, particularly in the West, felt but didn’t see reflected in Ottawa. When the process becomes the punishment, precedent is set. No matter your politics, if your voice ever becomes “too loud” or “too inconvenient,” could this happen to you?

That makes YOU an ALIEN ENEMY for all the crimes by Trump which YOU SUPPORTED. 🤮

You're literally describing your existence on this forum. 🙃 Like I said, I'm not presenting "opinions". You getting bamboozled by AI-generated slop (and purchasing it) and then citing it here as reference material is not an opinion. That happened. That's fact. Pointing out the double-standard of you complaining about Flyer's antics here while upvoting Fox as he derails threads here 24/7 is not an opinion either, nor how you habitually whine about other people's insults while happily lobbing them around yourself. Those are provable, objective facts. The truth is that you're not actually here to debate with anyone. You just want to vent and rant, and then fuss and complain when people challenge you.

Just an average day in the life of a deadbeat no-life: You're just happy that someone, somewhere, is acknowledging your useless existence. 👍

"Father, I'm very depressed. Can I pump myself full of hormones until I grow boobs and then cut my d*ck off? It'll make me feel better". "Yes, son. Head to the car while I grab the keys and tell mom we'll be late for dinner".

So now he's resigned. We can start all the grumbling and whining all over again from square one.