cannuck

China is capable of producing anything it wants at any level of quality and technology. Problem is: it is a centrally planned economy that doesn't at this time WANT to make the best stuff it can - just the most to forward its geopolitical ideologies and ambitions.

I will grant that what was done with residential schools resulted in "cultural genocide" - but this was done with the belief of the time that this would (and many would argue DID) facilitate aboriginal assimilation into this country. The implication that these graves represent some kind of physical genocide is way off base. EVERY institution that was to house a lot of people of any age over much of the past century was likely to have a graveyard, as death from disease was very common. On top of that, aboriginal immune systems were not well suited to the addition of European infectious agents and no doubt suffered far higher death rates. Markers would probably have been wooden if used at all. Hopefully, when some of the cult's records are revealed, so better idea of who is who, how the died, etc. can be produced.

I can forgive the rhetoric in the linked article, but I can say with some certainty that everything the totally idiotic anti-carbon, knee jerk response to "climate change" is extremely bad. Switching to immature technologies without giving a moment's thought to the resource and environmental considerations (i.e. lithium ion battery powered vehicles) was something so stupid and so damaging that only government-sponsored morons could possibly have thought it a good idea. Reality is: we don't have so much a carbon emissions problem, we have a severe carbon absorption deficit. That is due to killing off the oceans with our chemical pollution. To get a genuinely sustainable solution, and do it in a hurry the solution is simply to stop killing the oceans (i.e. plankton and all up along the food chain). Since combustion engines are a very well established way to move people and things: the first thing we need to do there is STOP moving people and things. De-globalization is probably the best thing we could do for so many reasons. But, we are still going to do SOME of this, so in that light, hydrogen IS an extremely good fuel source. Not sure that NH3 is the best storage medium, but we can use most of the existing prime power infrastructure to move things by using hydrogen as a supplemental fuel or even a primary fuel. I have second hand experience with one particular project where the original proponent wanted to power their moving devices with hydrogen fuel cells. They HAVE a functioning and effective storage medium (sorry, can't discuss that), so the put the whole thing together with state-of-the-art fuel cells to generate power to run the devices and power the vehicle. Turns out, they found the weight and energy consumption to manage the fuel cells made it much heavier than simply using an internal combustion engine to turn a generator and motive power train. The second phase involved using hydrogen from their storage system to run two nice little compression ignition engines.

With the help of the CBC and rest of the media, whose complicity has been bought and paid for with billions of our tax dollars everyone seems to have forgotten the the Little Tur....er....TRUdeau and his "cabinet" first strategized to use Chinese vaccine. Fortunately, their ineptitude in managing the Huawei affair resulted in China cutting us off from this route. Once again, the total incompetence of LPC and our bureaucracies were saved from total disaster by more of their ineptitude. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/22/business/economy/china-vaccines-covid-outbreak.html?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20210623&instance_id=33644&nl=the-morning&regi_id=100982531&segment_id=61457&te=1&user_id=2a3e757b2285568cc6aee5465e9acea4 If you can't read the NYT article, here is another from Forbes (but less to the point) https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2021/05/11/covid-surges-in-4-of-5-worlds-most-vaccinated-countries-heres-why-the-us-should-worry/?sh=6a0ba8fed677 Countries that embraced the Sinopharm vaccine are now suffering huge outbreaks. Depending on OUR elected officials, we would have been one of them. Curiously, it was China itself that saved thousands of Canadian lives, so we owe a great debt to Ms. Meng.

The OP makes a point that aboriginal culture is not one thing, but several of which some share a few characteristics. I would add to that: these things vary from tribe to tribe, and even band to band. I hesitate to call any "nations" as that is a concept that came long after colonization. While they should be allowed to exist I really question what Canada's obligation is to PAY for their restitution, promotion, etc. I find that just as objectionable as giving other fairy tales, such as religion and kind of free ride on the taxpayer's back (or more to the point, on our grandchildren's back).

There is a lot of truth in that post.

The Catholic cult should be the first to be forced to PAY any and all costs up to their percentage of participation, followed proportionally by other denominations. Yes, it is possible that deaths were "natural" but not likely with those numbers that there is any excuse for the lack of accountability. As has been mentioned: there was obviously some record of who was taken TO the schools, so strongly suspect same exist(ed?) for those who did and did not make it out. Also: you want to believe that the Little Tur....uh....um...TRUdeau is covering for his cult. He is not exactly the sharpest tack in the box, and just exactly what the cult leaders count on.

I can agree that the problems with residential schools were from the top down, but from what I have read, the government thought it was doing a good thing. What WAS intolerable and ignorant was trusting churches to do the work. In our naiive and ignorant past, we were taught that churches were all good things and could do no wrong. I have a close friend who along with his siblings were raised for several years in a '50s Winnipeg Catholic orphanage. You can believe that they were treated no better than aboriginals in residential schools. I also happened to have met the cop who finally made the Mt. Cashel investigation go forward - and more of the same stories. It is not government that should be at the top of the list, it is the churches (ESPECIALLY the Catholic ones).

I don't think you have spent any time IN some of these countries and understand how things actually work. Hamas, for instance, controls pretty much everything in Palestine. ALL aid will be claimed to be "for the children" as it is in so many other states. In truth, the money seldom sees a child unless the child labour doing whatever turns the ruling body's crank (and for Hamas, that means building rockets to shoot at Israel). To think this will ever be "humanitarian aid" is naive in the extreme.

I think Pierre is EXACTLY PM material - and the ONLY such in Canada right now.

I am painfully aware of that, but my choice is to build things in Canada and sell them to Canadians and Americans at a competitive price, not just be a consumer of their production. I am on a project in a remote area working on some very large and expensive equipment that I helped install and commission 45 years ago. Just going through the manuals and drawings, I realized that it was originally built in Canada (by one of my clients) from materials and components that were almost ALL sourced from North of the 49th. Products from that same plant (now once again Canadian owned) now must use components from many other countries (usually USA) simply because we don't make a large number of the things we once did. I would be ashamed to raise my children and grand children to surrender to a foreign power - even one that I so much like and enjoy.

Since much of my business is in the US I can somewhat agree with you, but I also spent a few years travelling the planet looking for the best place to raise a family - and as a result stayed in Canada. No regrets. I greatly enjoy most things and places in the US, but at the bottom of it all, I am a Canadian as are my children and grand children. I would rather try to improve the country I love for others to benefit and enjoy than run and hide in a foreign land.

And you think the financial status of that family dismisses the fact that they took money in an arrangement that was fraught with conflicts of interest on so many levels?????? So, being a totally useless tit that stumbles into a life of financial security excuses Liberals from their crimes? Damn, even I can't afford you. The taxpayers of Canada sure as hell can't afford any more Trudeaus.

India happens to be a very accomplished country in the business of pharmaceutical research and manufacture. Corona virus vaccine research has been going on for 20 years (since SARS 1) and India has contributed to some of the ideas. However: to develop the actual vaccine Oxford University and Astra Zeneca did the work that took it into production and approvals.

You start off with a good observation (ocean die-off) then without bother to learn what the is and why, get onto the looney left bandwagon of atmospheric issues in abstract and attacking geopolitical/economic boogiemen. First of all, the oceans are THE largest sink for carbon (di-oxide) - and the majority of our atmospheric problems are due to oceanic die-off of plankton - that is the very apex of the food chain - and the primary site for carbon fixation (far ahead of forests). We don't have so much an atmospheric carbon emissions problem, we have an oceanic kill off of the plankton that not only absorbs the vast majority of CO2, but ultimately feeds the rest of the species. Now, we keep neglecting the REAL problem and it crosses all political and diplomatic lines: population. We are up shit creek without a paddle because nobody (except China) has ever had the sense to stop runaway population growth. ALL of the oceanic damage (largely caused by the garbage we throw into it) and all other environmental damage is directly proportional to population x prosperity. Overfishing, soil and water damage also same, same. Look at our response? Gee, let's stop driving hydrocarbon cars and let's use public funds around the planet to subsidize the hell out of producing electric cars - to not only do more of the same thing, but to do it with THE most polluting power system available (lithium ion batteries) that are FAR more damaging than combustion engine emissions - that all could have easily been absorbed by a healthier ocean. And we are doing diddly squat about the oceans (largely because they are outside of government boundaries). See, I could care less which partisan "ism" one chooses, they have ALL screwed up 100% when it comes to environmental protection - and chasing the hydrocarbon boogieman is just more gesturing.

The partisan arguments that "conservative" governments in Canada have not been fiscally responsible hold a lot of water. However, comparing the "Red Torries" to ANY of the left side parties is not completely honest, since they are anything but "conservative" and with the notable exception of Chretien's Liberals the left is anything but fiscally responsible. History shows the the NDP can run ANY economy into the trash can with legislation and spending, and the LPC is doing a fine job of muscling the NDP out of the left side of the spectrum by immitation. Now, on vaccines: I keep coming back to one simple theme - that sick care and health care are SOCIAL SERVICES, not business, and until we (the royal global "we") figure that out, it will continue to be a gong show. I agree fully with our left leaning members that making profit from people's illness and misfortune is ethically wrong. From a business perspective: not having to fund the two of the three biggest killers of business - medicine and legal costs - open up the economy for entrepreneurs to build and develop business and products. It is VITALLY important to realize the jobs and wealth are created mostly by entrepreneurial/smaller business, NOT big biz and Wall Street/Bay Street.

Yeah, I sure remember those extravagant days of flying around the bush to fix airplanes, mining equipment, fishing boats, wild rice harvesters and many other things so the army of useless tits in the big cities can live off of the avails of our work. THAT is extravagant!

I can't buy into your tinfoil hat conspiracy theories, but you DO hit on one key point quite accurately Canada is stuck in the no-man's land between the "everything is business" neighbour to the South and Uncle Karl;s "means of production" all belonging "to the people. But, being in that position, we need to learn what should be business and what should be public and social service. Sick care and health care are two of those that really need to be seen for what they are (or SHOULD be) - social service. This is a unique opportunity, since we can look at what others have done and choose to emulate success rather than failure. If you think back a bit, you might remember when Chairman Mao mouthed your words and tried to save his food supply system from exploitation of those horrible capitalistic farmers, so he nationaiized all of the land - and 100,000,000 or so Chinese starved to death. You see: very few governments EVER could organize a piss-up at a brewery. You might have noticed that the UK went through this pandemic by NOT relying on big Euro government - that pretty much screwed up totally - but took the national position of co-operating between business and government to develop its own vaccine technology AND production. The US went 90% business. BITH got the vaccine job done....the US at about $20 a dose and the UK at $2. Even China (who I can guarantee you has no desire or need to engage with Pfizer) used its Facist tactcics to exploit business to get the job done. We have VIDO, and they are a great resource - but we need to think the whole thing through to get the right balance between state and citizen to make it work.

Spoken by someone who obviously has no clue about transportation in the North. i have owned, rented and used general aviation aircraft for 49 years involving thousands of hours of travel. I would estimate fewer than 5% of those hours were recreational use (family holidays). In much of the North of this vast country, they are the only practical and often possible way to get around. Between the total BS "carbon tax" and this exceedingly political tax it is a severe penalty on small business. The Liberals count on public ignorance to pull this shit off. Butts in a supreme a-hole - but a politically astute one exploiting ignorance and envy.

I have to laugh at this post. Many years ago, we had just bought a new and quite expensive piece of equipment for our business, and my wife had been asking to think about a larger car for her as our 2 kids she hauled all over the place were becoming teens and were quite tall. We thought that we would look at a minivan because, what the heck, everyone else has one. Went to local Chrysler store and asked to see a loaded up AWD Grand Caravan - and they had one in off of lease with low miles. They gave it to us for weekend, and we left them telling that we would need to finance for a couple months as I had just spent all of our available cash. We ran our business on zero credit simply because we don't like debt. Brought the van back Monday telling them 16 mpg just didn't fit into our 60mpg normal experience. Finance guy said that this was fine since there is no way to extend any credit to us. Turns out we didn't have a good credit rating and we didn't have a bad one - we had NO credit rating at all so their lending protocols simply didn't fit. About a dozen or so year later, our youngest graduated and wanted to buy her first new car. She wanted a Jeep (for business use) so here we were back at the same Chrysler store. She had just bought a house and was to start work in a few days, so I slipped her a wad of cash for the downstroke and we took a test drive. When we came back, the finance guy was standing there with the other set of keys in hand and asked us to come in and sign off. About half way through, he looks at me and says: "I know you from somewhere" and after a bit...:"YOU'RE the no credit rating guy!". We both had a great laugh that someone who could most days stroke a cheque for any car on his lot he couldn't finance for a cheap used car but the kids we raised and put through 20 odd years of University could get a shiny new one AND a new house without even having a job!!!!!! You are so right: it is all about the credit rating - but that has nothing to do with "capitalist economics" it is about how the credit business has grown and evolved. In my much younger years as a banker, we were expected to know our customers and made lending decisions up to a branch limit right at the counter. Today, lending is so huge and involves so many poorly or untrained front offices (and this now includes banks) their book is controlled by procedures that take 99% of the discretionary authority away from the contact level operative. It has been replaced by protocols that simply refer to the very arbitrary and narrowly defined set of rules that establish a credit rating. This is nothing to do with capitalism, it is simply about consumerism. If it was about capitalism, a capitalist pig such as myself would be welcomed with open arms.

d: I don't mean to tax the asset value, just the capital gain - at 99% day one, 95% first year, and so on down to nominal tax rate. The vast majority of big money comes from speculative gain - and it not only creates no wealth - it removes investment capital from the reach of Main Street. So, to summarize: you and everyone else should pay capital gain tax on you primary real estate as well as non-residential. Do that and you remove the incentive to inflate real estate values. You can ASK for whatever you want, but tax the gain and the practice will go away. Needed to be done a long time ago to keep housing affordable.

https://www.thestar.com/business/2021/04/19/federal-budget-2021-ottawa-proposes-luxury-tax-on-pricey-cars-boats-planes.html As usual, the Libs waste no opportunity to stick it to successful Canadians, but play politics with the cutoff limits and exemptions. WTF is with allowing 250k baseline for boats (that start at a few thousand) but put $100k on a new airplane - NONE of which can sell anywhere near that price. Similarly, why are motorhomes exempt??????? The NDP comment in this article is a bit closer to common sense - but they want to tax assets instead of income. The real solution is, without any question - to tax things that do NOT create wealth and stay the fuck away from earned income that results from productive endeavour. In other words - tax speculative gain...but that would mean housing/real estate and there isn't a Canadian politician with the balls (or the brains) to do that.

As usual, the LPC would gladly bury a Canadian over lose a vote.

That is absolutely wrong. BUT: I have to qualify my assertion as to what is "capitalism" vs. what we have now as a dominant force that I call "Casino Capitalism". The ONLY way we can afford to help our neighbours in a sustainable manner is to create wealth from our endeavors. THAT is what capitalism does and far, far better than any socialistic version of economics has EVER been able to provide. You worship the kind of equality among neighbours that Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, etc. have succeeded in achieving - so why don't you and the rest of the LL live there?????? Capitalism is the mechanism through which entrepreneurialism creates wealth. Our problem is that we have allowed the purely speculative functions of managed markets dominate our economy - displacing entrepreneurial capitalists from business, replacing them with those who use OPM (pronounced "opium" = OTHER people's money and it is even more addictive than poppies) to fund a financial system that takes over productive industry to run it as a front to cover their speculative activities. Our problem is we don't understand the difference between creating wealth and re-distributing wealth. We also don't seem to understand that if you don't CREATE wealth, all you can do is sell of your assets to have some wealth to re-distribute - that is obviously (to anyone with a half of a brain) NOT sustainable. Problem is: we don't seem to have anyone in government - either elected or hired - with even half a brain. BTW: what we (not just Canada, but many others at this stage) are doing - just printing more money - is highly inflationary, and when you don't do much to create wealth (i.e. adding value to a resource or delivering services in support of those activities) all you do is devalue your currency. What again is poorly understood is that the reaction to inflationary idiocy is often masked by the very "markets" that strip our economies of money from re-distribution simply because we have placed the ability to establish values in their hands - a HUGE conflict of interest. And we are collectively foolish enough to think the snowboard instructor who can't even keep his lies and stories straight is going to figure that out.

No, setting a LEVEL PLAYING FIELD is a very right-wing (and not exclusive to much of the left wing) is what government can and should be doing. You seem to get hung up in ideology and not appreciate reality.