cannuck

We were totally dependent upon England, and now we are totally dependent upon the USA. What's to celebrate?

Mistake #1 was to EVER give money to a bank or take investment advice from someone working there. As Argus stated: banks are in business to take YOUR money, not to give their money to you. Also, when it comes to deposit accounts, you DO have a collateral guarantee from CDIC. Now: that being said: you are right on the money Cougar - about the spread of interest rates between deposit and loan or ever worse credit card dept as well as the spread between buy and sell in forex is WAY out of whack - and it is the kind of thing that government SHOULD be legislating, regulating and enforcing to protect consumers.

This whole business of how the media editorializes the news to run the looney left agenda makes me sick to my stomach. The BLM riots, burnings and killings are a direct result of this very co-ordinated policy. Similarly Antifa *(you know, the one that is not really an organization but seems to have the ability and resources to organize endless riots and looting) seeming to just slow the hell down when it started to damage Democratic polling is yet another irrefutable example of just how thoroughly this is being managed.

Nature is also a very different mistress for different people. Until 3 years ago, my skiing partner was about as aggressive as you could be. He was 95. The hard falls caused him to stop going with me, but at 98 he will clearly explain to anyone who asks he intends to die at the hands of a jealous husband. For someone who hasn't pissed his health away at the bar, the drugs including tobacco or eating themselves into blimp status 80 is just another step along the way. I expect to still have my driving, racing and flying licenses when I get there.

I am sure if you or your parents were among those 80 year olds, you would think there might be something worth doing.

If it would get Quebec of the ROC tit, I would send the oars to Nfld tomorrow. The answer to your question is WWII - sponsored by Wall Street. Of course, you hit the nail right on the head when it comes to Arctic Sovereignty. Instead of wasting time and money trying to fit NATO or other requirements, we need to shift our military and especially our reserves (obviously including Rangers) to a very serious, full court press to command Arctic Sovereignty. Russia is the really big worry as they are already deciding how to develop OUR petroleum resources.

That's because you weren't listening. If you mean we didn't hear it from our Prime Mistake or Mother Theresa: that of course is true.

Fewer than the count lost to Covid

"Our doctors" vs. what, "their" doctors??? The medical profession worldwide did not understand the SARS Cov2 virus well enough to be very effective at the beginning. Epidemiologists were kind of shunted to the back as they had not really had an international stage (in spite of H1N1 and SARS act 1). The BIG failure was government letting endless infected people come to Canada with ZERO restriction or monitoring at the beginning - when epidemiologists had already tried to warn. The second big failure was the significant portion of the general public that simply ignored warnings and continued to comingle with little to no change in behaviour. The third one was the idiotic belief that putting a rag over your face is going to save your sorry ass.

Take a look around: we are in a really bad way NOW. People have regressed into a "me...me...me" society and have no sense of community or nation. Put Newfies, Quebeckers, Aboriginals, prairie farmers, SECOND generation immigrants (maybe even first gen??) and city slickers all together in barracks for a year or two and they will learn of necessity how to get along. Give them some training and experience at a useful job and they will be worth a lot more to employers, the economy and their families.

The question wasn't if there was racism in Canada, but SYSTEMIC racism. I guess when you consider the promotion of certain minorities as more privileged and "more equal" than the status quo, I suppose there really IS systemic racism.

I once manufactured some equipment that used an engine and gearbox sourced from Yurp. They rose to the top of their game in that market and became too expensive, so I started to look at Japanese and American made alternatives. The Yankee one was made in a small town in upstate MN, and I came to know the owner quite well. He was showing me once a military contract and the prototype, and said he could add a third shift when he was ready to start production. This was in a shopping area of 25,000 people. I asked him where and how he could get at least 200 more people who could pick up tools and make engines when he had over 400 already. He said: easy, the whole area is full of people (then in their 30s) who were drafted in Vietnam days. The idea of compulsory military service is foreign to Canadian values, but I also have a close Swedish friend (another social democracy, but with conscription and lifetime obligation to serve as a reserve) and can tell you drafting a teen - EVERY able bodied teen - is one of the smartest things you can do as a nation. They end up with some sense of duty, some sense of responsibility, a trade and some discipline. Fantastic way to start into adult life.

That is an emergency device that needs some to squeeze it to force air into their lungs. You think hiring 4 shifts of medical technicians for EACH Covid patient, and have them spend their entire shift squeezing a bag every few seconds somehow is practical or even possible? Actual medical ventilators come in many levels of sophistication from $10k to $50k or so each, and I believe Canada started stocking up on them when everyone else did in April/May. Not sure what the status of inventory is. BTW: the price of ventilators did just what the price of masks and all other PPE did this spring - went up by several hundred percent in the open market...IF you could even find any. I believe there has been some domestic production started and running smoothly since then. and yes, hospitals, nursing station, clinics and ambulances all have them in genuine medical grade, not Chinese WalMart crap.

The sad part is 100% of those who survive the wait will receive service from the 100% of people that are paid to deliver these services. Total mismanagement of the whole thing can't meet the realistic expectation of delivering on time. When wait times are simply not allowed AT ALL in Japan, for instance, we know it can be done. I am frequently reminded that the loss of accommodation and treatment within the sick care system of those with all kinds of lesser mental health afflictions directly contributes to the "homeless problem" in Canada (and I assume other countries). The LTC system also suffers from seems a complete lack of design and oversight from a medical and often humanitarian perspective. We can't lay this at the feet of just the extreme left (both Lib and NDP) since Conservative (right wing...uh...you have to be kidding) governments have done nothing to correct these inequities either - other than funding safe consumption sites and condone the spread of criminal and legally sanctioned drug empires and cultures instead of providing medically sound institutionalized care.

We HAD "world class Army Engineers"....before the big Tur...ah...TRUdeau and his Minister of Space Aliens (a genuine space cadet himself! - Paul Hellyer for those who don't know) attacked the armed forces, "unified" them, turned the military into a social engineering project for his "Just Society" (that means when the Liberals are done with Canada, there will be nothing left, just society). The drive to be (now how Liberal can you get?) "inclusive" and cheaper resulted in "unification" and recruiting people based on Liberal perception of the need to get votes from their identified minority trait (read "most likely to vote Liberal". We went from having more than 100,000 regular forces each trained in the skills required for their land, sea or air element to about 60,000 or so regular forces shoved together in some social mix mish-mash that didn't know what they were there to do...other than work on the socially engineered agenda of government. I know that sounds pretty harsh, but I was there on ground zero as both a reservist and civilian employee at Base Transport and RCEME during the start of the Trudeau/Hellyer fiasco. A lot of very capable and dedicated people left the forces during that time. Yes, I am very bitter about that as it made a mockery of the life of service my Father and Father-in-law dedicated their lives to. I have also witnessed my own Son-in-law leave his very senior position as a rapidly rising Brigade officer over the direction that the current piss poor excuse for government has chosen for our military. But, yes, if only the resources were at their disposal as required (as in already in place to meet national emergencies) the Army, Navy and Air Force could indeed set up field hospitals in strategic locations in military time (that is indeed faster than most civilian operations could manage). It would move a lot faster and better if officers could simply give orders and expect them to be followed without having to check with HR and lawyers over the inhumanity of having to do what you are told, when you are ordered, and how you have been taught.

Of those 161 hospitals, the vast majority are tiny little rural facilities ill equipped to handle an infectious disease. For decades, every politician promised hospitals to every corner of their constituency, and few have the balls to close them down. Most are little more than first aid/nursing stations.

It is better ONLY if it does not lead to increasing risky behavior, and that is EXACTLY what they tend to do. No, I don't have a published study to cite, but remember what stores looked like this spring when we got the first wave more-or-less under control? Lineups distanced outside, limited numbers inside, lots of really not necessary things completely closed...now look around today and note that the stores are chock full of masked people - and second wave is greater than first. Masks are not the only reason, COVID fatigue is another, but part of that fatigue is thinking you can just throw a rag over your face and get on with life. Covid a hoax? It would be impossible to get enough people to secretly pull this off to make that possible. Conspiracy? By who? Accidental from Wuhan lab being careless? Entirely possible and the CPC would NEVER admit to that. Just can't see them causing it intentionally, even though they are racking up hundreds of billions (literally) from PPE sales. My best guess (from having a fair bit of contact and presence in China for last 25 years) is it MIGHT have been a screw-up at lab facility then CPC saw incredible opportunity and simply took advantage of situation by turning its usual blind eye to illegal manufacture and export (yes, there are actually medical device standards in China) while feigning opposition to such practice. If they had intended to do this, they would have had a vaccine ready long, long ago to cash in on the mass hysteria.

I think you need to read what I have posted on this subject. What I have against masks is not wearing them, but believing they give you some reasonable level of protection - that results in people entering excessive closed space gatherings. Yes, a mask will catch a hoarked up monster luggie when you cough or sneeze, but it is the finely aerosolized droplets down a vapour size that carry virus into the atmosphere, where it can linger for many hours if no vigorous ventillation. This leaks horribly around the perimeter of any mask that is not fitted and fit tested. Worse than that, a DIY or low buck Chinese mask doesn't have the filtration required to eliminate SARS CoV 2 virus on its own. An actual M95 mask (and that means one that has been manufactured to and proven to meet the ASTM standard for that label) catches 95% of particles 3.0 micron and over. The virus is considerably under 1 micron. Do the math. Then, there is the problem of re-used masks and of clothing. Let's say you are in an infection rich area, but your magic mask catches the micro droplets as it was fit tested and proven not to leak (that eliminates 99.9% of masks from this discussion). If you don't discard the mask, WTF do you think happens to the virus trapped in the mask? When the moisture dries, as it will, you now have a sub micron particle that will easily pass the filtration level of even the best of conventional protection. Remember being in that room? Did you have clothes on? What happens to the virus on your clothing? Didn't discard it, or touch it by removing and putting into the wash? THIS is why I discourage the idea that masks are somehow helping this very real problem. STAY THE FUCK OUT OF ENCLOSED SPACES AND AWAY FROM PEOPLE EVEN OUTSIDE, and 2 meters is by no means the magic solution. Yes, doing so would and will result in a lot of economic damage, but I would much prefer to be around to try and solve that problem than simply let my children bask in the glory of their inheritance.

As I mentioned when posting the transcript, Hodkison made several statements that are not correct at all, as do many people from the medical side when speaking about the technical attributes of a filter that they are NOT in any way qualified to really represent. Not saying they COULDN'T get it right, but coming as a profession to that part of the discussion, they are not really the right people to make such statements about the device. Now, a medical statistician CAN give a credible statement, but what I have seen in pretty much EVERY discipline is how you generate your statistics and especially how you interpret and represent them can very strongly be affected by the agendae of those who have participated or funded. Spanky hits the real issue right smack on the button: "people wearing masks does not prevent the spread of the virus". I do not suggest NOT using a mask, just realizing that doing so can give a very false sense of security and lead people into interacting inside of closed environments where the severe leakage of virus-borne vapour can AND WILL easily be put into the air in a closed space. We have with months of experience dozens of ways for most businesses to operate WITHOUT having clients enter their bubble - it's just that all of the care we seemed to take in the spring seems to be ignored by many today when the threat level is MUCH higher. BTW: one of my issues with Hodkison, and this is a big one, is that it is not a severe and dangerous infection. Again, for MOST people it is minor, but for a significant number (check the ICUs and morgues) can be severe, fatal or with lasting serious compromises. Only a fool would think that putting a rag over your face and cuddling up to strangers is safe in any way.

Argus: I differentiate strongly between "capitalism" (the employment of private capital to create wealth) vs. what we DO practice for the most part: "Casino Capitalism" wherein capital is used by those privileged to merely re-distribute wealth through speculative gain. The latter depends upon influence from government to allow it unrestricted access to the economy and our back pockets and is driven by a complete lack of ethical values and usually accompanied by considerable corruption on a grand scale. It is the very thing that almost destroyed the world economy in the '20s and '30s and was overcome for the most part by legislation and regulation to limit such manipulation. Sadly, finance is no longer prevented from doing such things, and is once more doing a fine job of enriching themselves at the expense of the rest of the world. I agree about the link between crime and poverty, but I hope you will appreciate from the previous paragraph that there is another link between laissez-faire capitalism and crime on a very large scale. From an immigration perspective: why would you want to bring someone from ANY situation where crime is endemic into a country where we have to some extent kept it under control? Business in much of Asia depends upon the whole "nudge, nudge, wink, wink" kind of selective enforcement of law, and in much of the third world, crime is essential to survive within severe poverty and extreme granting of privilege to gain wealth. Importing that culture to Canada now is truly dangerous and irresponsible. I usually take great pain to point out how successful second generation immigrants are in Canada. However, I also have to point out how successful at crime and extending a culture based on privilege and corruption much of the first generation can be. Russian "mafia" (bear in mind that once the USSR failed, the ONLY way to operate any kind of business in a regulatory vacuum of a non-existent market economy was through what we regard as criminal behaviour), Caribbean drug gangs, South/Central American drug rings, Sikh illegal trucking rings, Chinese triads and on it goes...we KNOW about these things = THAT is what we HAVE learned, but we continue to solicit and welcome immigration from those sources. WHY would you do such a thing?????? As to reporting illegal trucking: I have a long working relationship with enforcement, so you might immagine what happened. I will also add that most people responsible for enforcement are very aware of the problem. The environment of political correctness, inclusiveness and "racist witch hunts" and lack or resources to investigate and prosecute (crosses many jurisdicational boundaries) make it difficult to solve the same problem

NB: I would disagree with that - the cut line should be around the Sioux.

Marcus: Sorry to have to be very brief, but in the middle of being a WASP capitalist pig at the moment so pushed for time. The 50 drivers and one license was not hearsay or second hand, he showed me the documentation. This was probably 10 years ago, and the problem now is far worse than it was then. Yanks have a similar problem in some areas with Eastern Europeans (many of who operate dispatch from offshore, and use let's say "more than a little violence" in helping their business succeed from thousands of kms away. The engineering problem is really big in resource sector out West, and especially bad with SNC - who have been thrown off of many jobsites due to both incompetence and dishonesty. No, India doesn't hold the monopoly on lack of ethics and outright criminality with level of dishonesty (once again, SNC and the LPC are vying with small countries to reach that level all by themselves). But to involve a culture that is STEEPED in such dishonesty is irresponsible at the very least. Again, I am not just making assumptions, I have a company in India - that we don't operate because it is literally IMPOSSIBLE to do an honest deal there. I have actually looked at the criminal "most wanted" lists and have noticed especially in major urban centers how immigrant-intense the most wanted lists are vs. the general prison population across Canada that is disproportionately aboriginal in content. Long subject that would deserve a thread of its own, but the Asian, Carribean and Russian gangs all got here by easily passing what you describe as some kind of difficult barrier to coming to Canada. BTW: let me thank you for conducting this discussion from a reasonable and logical point of view. We really don't need partisan, ideological and emotional ranting - we need good exchanges to solve what is a genuine very large problem for this country. While you and I may differ on what we believe to be the magnitude and causes, that shouldn't - and hasn't - prevent us from presenting and arguing our positions. Just sorry I am short on time to really give the attention it and you deserve.

On the other hand, here is a transcript of a very well qualified medical professional speaking to Edmonton city council: Yea, you should hear the splashback in Alberta from the rest of the medical community. Not sure I completely agree with this guy, but when I read his comments on aerosol transmission I can say that agrees closely with what my medical pro friends tell me. Also, his mask comments are a bit on the extreme side, but I can definitely say from a filtration point of view, not that far wrong. When he says "it is not SARS" that of course is 100% wrong, the virus is SARS-Cov 2 As to the "just another flu" can't say I fully agree with that (again from how med pros tell me the relationship of this virus to ACE protein means this is far more vascular than pulmonary in more aggressive infections, with potential renal, cardiological and even neurological involvement (again because of ACE protein). Mostly I will post this to see if Dialamah's head will explode. "transcript of the Edmonton City Council virtual meeting held on Nov. 13, 2020 regarding the City’s proposal to mandate masks until May 2021. This is the transcript of Dr. Roger Hodkinson’s professional opinion. 00:26 “The floor is yours.” City Councillor, Aaron Paquette, Chair of the Committee. Dr. Hodkinson: 00:29 “Thank you very much. I do appreciate the opportunity to address you on this very important matter. What I am going to say is lay language and blunt. It is counter narrative. So you do not immediately think I am a quack, I am going to outline my credentials so you can understand where I’m coming from in terms of a knowledge base in all of this. -I am a medical specialist in Pathology which includes virology. -I trained at Cambridge University, UK -I am the ex-president of the Pathology Section of the Medical Association -I was previously an Assistant Professor of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Alberta, doing a lot of teaching -I was the Chairman of the Board of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Examination Committee in Pathology in Ottawa -More to the point, I am currently, the Chairman of a Biotechnology Company in North Carolina, selling the Covid-19 test. You might say, I know a little bit about all this. 01:28 The bottom line is simply this, there is utterly unfounded public hysteria driven by the media and politicians. It is outrageous. This is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on an unsuspecting public. 01:43 There is absolutely nothing that can be done to contain this virus, other than protecting more vulnerable people. It should be thought of nothing more than a bad flu season. This is not Ebola. It is not SARS. It is politics playing medicine, and that is a very dangerous game. 02:06 There is no action of any kind needed other than what happened last year when we felt unwell. We stayed home, we took chicken noodle soup, we didn’t visit Granny, and WE decided when WE would return to work. We didn’t have anyone, need anyone, to tell us. 02:23 Masks are utterly useless. There is no evidence base for their effectiveness whatsoever. Paper masks and fabric masks are simply virtue signalling. They are not even worn effectively most of the time. It is utterly ridiculous. 02:40 Seeing these unfortunate, uneducated people (I’m not saying that in a perjurious sense), seeing these people walking around like lemmings obeying without any knowledge base to put the mask on their face. 02:54 Social distancing is also useless because Covid is spread by aerosols which travel 30 metres or so before landing. And closures have had such terrible unintended consequences. Everywhere should be open tomorrow, as was stated in the Great Barrington Declaration that I circulated prior to this meeting. 03:18 And a word on testing, I do want to emphasize, I’m in the business of testing for Covid. I do want to emphasize, that positive test results, DO NOT, underlined in neon, mean a clinical infection. It’s simply driving public hysteria and all testing should STOP unless you are presenting to hospital with some respiratory problem. 03:42 All that should be done, is to protect the vulnerable and to give them all in the nursing homes that are under your control, 3000-5000 international units of Vitamin D everyday, which has shown to radically reduce the likelihood of infection. 03:58 I would remind you all using the Province’s own statistics, the risk of death under 65, in this province, is 1 in 300,000...1 in 300,000. You’ve got to get a grip on this. The scale of the response that you are undertaking with no evidence for it, is utterly ridiculous given the consequences of acting in a way that you are proposing. All kinds of suicides, business closures, funerals, weddings, etcetera, etcetera. It is simply outrageous. 04:38 It is just another bad flu. And you have got to get your minds around that. Let people make their own decisions. You should be totally out of the business of medicine. You are being led down the garden path by the Chief Medical Officer of Health of this province. 04:55 I am absolutely outraged that this has reached this level. It should all stop tomorrow. Thank you very much.” Transcript excerpt by Leandra Loewen from a screen recording, Nov. 13, 2020, Edmonton City Council"

All fair questions. Let's just leave it at the point of where the tax man and I know each other too well - in several countries. Consequences in Canada? Simple: I must pay for the massive cost of uncontrolled immigration. Not only the tax side, but in business, the influx of totally unqualified people (most of whom CLAIMED to be qualified or capable when they sent the documentation the "immigration consultant" wrote for them and provided the references for) take up employment and simply don't perform or communicate at the level that I expect and need to conduct business effectively and profitably in Canada. To give you an example let's just look at one country: in engineering jobs in Western Canada (mostly resource sector) employers tend to hire a disproportionate number of "engineers" from India. Since most have an education and come from a culture that has zero respect for integrity, they are a total disaster on the job and one simply dismisses 99% of what they say or do because it is totally incompetent. The second bit of suffering from that is some percentage (maybe 1% to 3% actually ARE good engineers) and their work and credibility is destroyed by their compatriates' ineptitude. A senior engineer that does a lot of work for me in BC resource sector related how as a large company employer, "inclusiveness" at HR results in hiring a large number of low cost engineers who are Indian immigrants. The reality of the Peter Principle is that a department gets stuck with one or more, and to get rid of them, recommend them for promotion. End result after a few years is the salaries offered in engineering overall have been whored into the basement. Union tradesmen with OT are earning far more that the senior engineers who designed and supervise the work they are doing. Obvious one of the largest offenders is the LPCs own good buddies at SNC. Remember the blowup when they got caught with their extremely criminal involvement with Libya? When the heads rolled, I watched a very senior (and very capable, very honest and very WASP) engineer get tossed out of the door as a sacrificial lamb. It happened because a few junior engineers under his watch (let's be more specific, a few INDIAN immigrant junior engineers) had been bribing officials in Bangladesh for projects. The damage done to the reputation, trustworthiness and technical quality of engineering in Canada has been destroyed by careless immigration of people CULTURALLY UNSUITED to do business to the professional standards we have come to expect form our traditional immigrant makeup. Let's go on to trucking: in your position, you SHOULD be aware that Sikhs have literally taken over the trucking business in Canada. The dead bodies along the way should tell you a bit about their cultural and professional fit into the Canadian transportation industry. Many of the drivers are illegal immigrants working within criminal organizations. I had a unit on a long assignment in ON a few years ago. It's safety inspection ran out while I was nearby, so I took it to a repair shop (owned and operated by one of the "old school" immigrant families that have been here 30+ years and fit VERY WELL into this country). He squeezed my equipment into a long lineup of gravel trucks from the GTA needing safety inspections. When I came on Saturday to collect the equipment, I sat down with the owner. He said: "look at this - 50 different trucks, 50 different drivers but only ONE DRIVING LICENSE" (said with heavy Eastern European accent). As you might be able to guess - another Sikh trucking company. I suffer because my business, my family, my workers must share the roadways with "immigrants" who come from a culture where the truth is a commodity for sale and crime is in the eye of the beholder. I and anyone else in business could go on for weeks without stopping with examples of where extremely careless immigration is causing HUGE damage to Canadian culture, safety, economy, etc. Bear in mind, I live and work with immigrants from several countries and in several countries. Most of those in Canada came in under immigration programmes that require investment to get on the "fast track" to landed immigrant/resident status. THOSE immigrants contribute significantly to Canada and their second generation usually contributes far above some average. I can tell you with absolute certainty: immigrants who went through the trouble of bringing investment to Canada are disgusted by the "economic refugees" who pour over the border at government's invitation only and take up residence with little hope of ever working productively. The roving gangs of drug gangs in GTA, Vancouver, etc. are a great example of immigration gone horribly wrong. The current policies and practices of the Liberal government (and not JUST the Liberals) are setting up for a second wave.

There, fixed that for you.