cannuck

I agree with much of this, but one must be careful to remember that both Canada and the USA has imprisoned people for being of the wrong ethnicity. We have also blocked immigration of Chinese (the Exclusion Act) based on nothing but ethnicity.

Worth pointing out that the terrorist who just killed 2 and injured 3 on London Bridge at age 19 had been in jail a short while from being convicted of terrorism...only to be released into a world that monitored his position (ankle bracelet) but did little to prevent him from further crimes. Also worth noting that he was restrained from further mayhem by bystanders and stopped costing the UK much more money and risk to society by the police (they shot him - fatal outcome). So, what do you DO with a radicalized terrorist? (other than the obvious Trudeau solution of giving him $10m reward for killing our allies). His first crimes would not have had the death penalty in most of the developed world, so even that would not have been a deterrent.

They actually DO have environmental regulations, and compared with the incredibly bloated wages of Canada, they do get paid less, but after joining the rest of the world in trade some 30 odd years ago, Chinese workers are earning a LOT more money, and increasing each and every year. The big differences are that when the government of China plans something, they will devote whatever resources are necessary to carry it out, and quickly and the productivity of typical Chinese workers is immense - mostly driven the simple fact that they are far better off now than in the past, and with hard work, expect to better of again in the future. In China, work is not a dirty word. Our problem is more to do with wealth distribution and re-distribution, as we no longer do much to create any wealth. We can't pay the bills because the growth we see in economic numbers are largely speculative gains - that only represent wealth being re-distributed. Hogtown has gridlock of a lot of people rushing into downtown to do little or nothing productive. When you are paying milions of people to drive in endless circles to create no wealth, and paying them enough to afford bloated million dollar housing prices, you have no money left over to fund Main Street (i.e. real business) and infrastructure.

This brings up an important question: In your mind, what does "Right" and "Left" mean? Further, do you believe that there are only two cardinal directions on your political compass? Not meaning to be judgmental (at this point), just curious.

WWAAAAYYY back in the early '90s sask govt (Conservative at that time) had a programme that required welfare recipients to show up in person for their cheques (THAT alone cut the roles 20% from those committing welfare fraud) and if physically able, to show up for menial tasks as an actual job. The unions went nuts, but had to back down as the strongest supporters were...wait for it... the welfare recipients who were working at these menial tasks...not for free, but for what they got as welfare. They were delighted to do this, because it gave them the ability submit a resume for a real job, with a reference from someone who had supervised them actually working. Having a friend who was Minister of Social Services, I learned a lot about welfare, bureaucrats and clients. They are not all looking for a free ride. By the same token, there is a significant body that games the system for all it is worth. The big problem with minimum wage in a welfare state is that it is usually less than welfare (and the side benefits that go with it). There is simply no incentive to get off welfare and work for less. I am not really in favour of dropping the min, but I can see where lowering welfare benefits to some bare survivable level. Another serious problem is WHERE we give out welfare - Hogtown or Hongcouver are among the most expensive places on the planet, so why would you pay someone not working to live there? Only a Norther reserve is more costly. If someone made me Social Services God for a week, the only way you would get a welfare check is by living in one of the dying small towns that has an excess of accommodation and zero tolerance for dependency.

I have a business associate/friend who lives in downtown Hogtown. He had been renting for many years, but decided they needed to own (this was quite a way back the real estate inflation curve). In his neighbourhood, most were very large prewar brick (3 story) that when sold were knocked down due to the value of the lot (then approach a million). I asked how he and others of his age +/- from 40) could afford that. He told me that everyone in his neighbourhood his age that had purchased did so with financial support of some kind from their family. Every young person I know in Hongcouver tells me the same story.

Much to my surprise, and I assume as well yours - recovery of deficits in mortgage foreclosures are NOT consistent throughout Canadian and US privinces/states. file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/2018CanLIIDocs364.pdf I am only familiar with what I have seen in Saskatchewan (we once dealth extensively with illegal foreclosures by banks) but did not realize that other provinces and states don't apply similar restrictions. So: you CAN walk away from your mortgage in some provinces and states, but not all.

that is NOT what a mortgage allows. The concept under British law goes back centuries. When you write a mortgage, there are two names on the title: the borrower and the lender. There are only two ways to take the second name off: pay mortgage out and lender goes away, stop paying and borrower goes away - losing equity (if any) as well as the house. There is no deficiency or surplus payment made to either borrower or lender. Borrower's name just goes away. If someone is chasing after a shortfall (or surplus equity), it is NOT a mortgage.

A good friend got into the automated animal feeding business about 20 years ago. He took over from another IT guy, and was very good at his job, so 15 years ago, he was sequestered for almost a year re-writing all of their software to take advantage of new OS and hardware. They sent him to their first big international IT show where on day 2 he was scheduled to release their new systems. On day one, people on the floor were offering to sell him his own software.

What WE can do (and any other country) is simply tell China that we have an open market to import ANYTHING that fully meets our standards for product quality, safety, labour standards, business access and reciprocal trade. If product (or exporting country) does NOT meet those standards, you don't get the bags of cash (and jobs) that we give away by the second.

and one that if you want to get inside as a major player, you will do so by giving up 50% of your equity to the state (more to the point a state owned or state favoured company). You will do what you are told, when you are told (including kickbacks at all levels). Yes, there is money to be made, but there is a price to be paid.

I tend to agree with Army Guy...but would need a LOT more definition on what is an "open and shut" case. Milgaard, etc. all were called that by the courts - until LONG after they would have been dead. "Prison is enough to keep the public safe from bad criminals"???? Yeah, while they are inside, they are only likely to harm or kill other inmates or staff, but what they ARE doing while inside is learning from and making connections to those who will be part of their ongoing criminal life when they get out. Prison is not punishment, it is not about reform it is about career development for genuine bad criminals.

Easy for you to say - you didn't grow up in a Catholic orphanage. I agree that child abuse was a crime swept under the carpet, but the cult took it to a new high. There WERE people trying to fix it, but, as I said, took the first RCMP Sergeant out of a job (and IIRC a pension) when governments got serious about coverup. Speak with someone who was actually there and you will sing a very different tune.

AG: I could agree with you, but for the fact that in Canada (and I assume far worse in most other countries) 100% beyond shadow of a doubt simply is not 100%. Here is a list of 14 murder and sexual assault cases with wrongful convictions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overturned_convictions_in_Canada Now, if the accused ADMITS to murder (knowing full well the consequences), then I have no problem with death penalty.

ahhh...EVERY residential school and EVERY orphanage. What we saw from Mount Cashel was status quo. One of my life long closest friends was raised in a Catholic orphanage in Winnipeg in the early 50s and had told me long, LONG before Mt. C all of the same things...and many more. I am personally acquainted with the RCMP Sergeant who finally pushed the Mt. Cashel inquiry into happening (after it cost the career of another). There was not a government or political party that did diddly squat about this, in fact ALL rushed to defend the Catholic Cult and its leaders until it was finally too well exposed to hide any more. It was Canada that led the way to the US taking a look at the cult's child molestation SOP.

While this is the wrong thread for this comment: THIS is one of the reasons I hate Liberals/liberals. Wife and I are army brats and we were both civilian employees on base when Trudeau senior and the incredibly flakey Paul Hellyer did their very best to destroy the armed forces. It was turned from a highly respected military operation to an experiment in social engineering. This was in B&B times before multiculturalism was the virtue signalling buzzword. NCOs (non-commissioned officers) were canvassed to find who was francophone and those people were offered chance to become commissioned officers - essentially with no regard to their ability, skills, experience or even mental stability. Later "unification" was the final Liberal assault on a force and society that none of them could understand (in fact, there really wasn't and is not much at all that they DO understand to this very day). They have moved on from destroying SOME of the institutions that defined Canada to assaulting ALL of them and our values.

A skilled politician will NEVER say they are interested until they have tested the waters and no they have a shot.

Hate to have to tell you this, but this was NOT confined to Quebec. It was a national disgrace hosted by every political party for several decades.

This is all typical of what happens when Casino Capitalism replaces genuine capitalism. Giving money to Wall/Bay Street instead of investing on Main Street is the cause. It is aided by government taxing the shit out of created wealth and going very light on speculative gain (wealth re-distribution). Simple to pull off when banks own the political process lock, stock and barrel.

I did a project in the '80s in Morocco, and our partners were a very senior member of the ruling elite, but not royals. In their actual business, they were asked by the Ministry of Health to solve the issue of getting large, diesel powered ambulances capable of two stretchers and long range at high speed - just like what we had in Canada. The Chairman (a Canadian educated public health doctor) went to his associates in NS who made ambulances, and all at their combined expense, built a demo model and shipped it to Morocco for evaluation. It was EXACTLY what they wanted. However, they went through the official embassy channels to see if any support would come from Canada (we are a well know sucker for this). In the end, a call for tenders went to Quebec - and ONLY Quebec. The NS company never got a hint of what was happening. Ambulances were bought and paid with considerable Canadian taxpayers' money, arrived in Morocco and were absolute POSs. Morocco Health swore off on anything further from Canada, and some PQ company laughed all of the way to the bank (and you will note no transfer payments were involved, thus no record of favouring PQ). A very good friend of mine was once ADM of Ec Dev in SK. He is an engineer with a strong background on the business side. He worked for years on deals that ALMOST came together and then at the last minute fell apart. He was at a meeting of Ec Dev people in Montreal, and due to his very French name, and ability to use PQ slang, the fellow next to him assumed he was from Quebec started to discuss several of those failed deals, letting my friend know that they had come to Quebec. When he asked how this happened, the fellow asked "it's on the list, don't you get the list??" Turns out that EVERY federal office in Canada would communicate business opportunities to Ottawa, who then prepared a list for distribution only to PQ. Ever wonder why in later years a lot of provincial and federal offices were merged??? I could relate dozens of stories similar to these. Yeah, this place is badly broken - has been for a very long time. As much as I like our biligual/bicultural thing, I have to state the Quebec is the problem, not the solution.

Uh...he always was. Oh: I must also declare my support for Lisa and/or Rona. Yeah, I'd want them even ahead of Max.

While I would quite happily see murders and drug dealers getting the death penalty, our track record of convicting innocent "murderers" is not all that good. Also, I have been party to a number of investigations (including one murder) where once the authorities formulate their theory, 100% of the effort of investigation is to get what they can to secure a conviction and conveniently ignore or discount ANYTHING to the contrary. Sadly, we can never be 100% sure of anything. Now, if a convicted criminal of any kind were to find jail so miserable that they wanted to off themselves, give them what the want. BUT: Jail must become punishment for that to happen. As it is, it is merely a place for criminals to associate in comfort, learn their craft and build networks for use in the more active phase of their criminal life. There are essentially three kinds of people in jail: those who want to be there, those who are there as part of their risks in their lifestyle/business and those who didn't realize what they were doing would result in criminal prosecution (many due to substance abuse). The first and third group deserve some kind of effort at reform/rehab, but the second bunch have made up their mind, made their choices and do NOT deserve the country club treatment. IMHO, they need to be under solitary confinement and allowed to meet with their jailer, medical professional or lawyer ONLY. Any association with or communication with or through others through written, spoken or electronic media should be denied. Do that and I can guarantee you that genuine intentional criminals will think twice about continuing with their life choices.

Just for a frame of reference check: remember that Conservative Canada had a church full of pedophiles running orphanages and residential schools and protected them for decades.

Way back when he was Minister of something in AB, I was asked by Stockwell Day what I believed was Alberta's largest industry. Of course, I replied petroleum, to which he suggested I try again - to which I replied Ag. Turns out, it was manufacturing (oil prices low at the time). Alberta is a lot more diversified than you might think, and AB/SK would diversify a LOT more if its business investment was coming from within rather than all money from the West going to Eastern banks, insurance and pension to be lent out to real estate developers in Toronto. The part we don't see about Quebec is not transfer payments, but how the ENTIRE effort of EVERY department in the Federal Government is to divert any and all possible business, foreign, government or domestic to Quebec. This is something I discussed with a friend who was "Minister of Everything" in the Mulroney gov't, and he was shocked that I was not fully aware of that to begin with.

I have been generally very unimpressed by the quality of sick care providers who are newly arrived...and conversely VERY impressed by many of second generation. I believe in that lies the key: we need to educate more and better providers. I can not say we are not well served overall, as we pay half as much for sick care compared with our US neighbours and get far better overall results. What we do NOT have - due to too much government service delivery - are the phenomenal centers of excellence. Now, before citing that these are for-profit results, keep in mind that one of the best of the best (Mao) is a non-profit company...so we KNOW it can be done. The whole culture of sick care delivery needs overhaul, in many places, but those G7 countries that do better than we do (i.e. everyone but USA) have it a lot closer to the right path.