cannuck

THAT just ruined MY dinner. The HK Chinese aren't here working because we don't actually DO anything.

Joe and Mary don't get the hospital named after them (Pattison does, he has donated more the $50 Million). No, I mean the community donors who have led the drive both with their time and money to get this facility built and equipped. THEY are the reason Jim Pattison came here to help (he is from Luseland, quite a distance West of here).

Being personally acquainted with several of the donors who lead funding for the Children's Hospital in Saskatoon, I can tell you that yes, indeed, they would be donating with or without the TINY tax benefit that is allowed for charitable donations.

Most of these people are HKSAR residents who became Chinese nationals since the end of British lease who do not trust the Chico party. They and their families watched the horrors of Chairman Mao's ridiculous ideological reign of terror as it starved maybe 100 MILLION Chinese in the "Great Leap Forward" and murdered millions more. BUT: they also were witness to the incredible success of Deng's "Four Pillars of Modern Reform" that in a few short decades took China from the bottom of the pile to the very top of the economic heap. and many of them are employed in business related to that success (like being a Canadian depending upon the US, as it happens). If China really screws up and threatens their real freedoms in HKSAR, you can bet they will be here, moving into their McMansions in Richmond and picking up business right where they left off before getting on the plane from Hong Kong. They are the FIRST class of immigrants that we should be encouraging (which we DID - that's how they got to become citizens or PRs in the first place), not dragging the bottom of the barrel to bring in more drug dealers, terrorists and human traffickers from Syria, Nigeria, Somalia, the Carribean, etc. who will simply vote Liberal (and a hint here, HK Chinese-Canadians will NOT likely do that!!)

And exactly where are those "resources" supposed to come from????? You seem to be blind to the fact that we are in debt far, far beyond anything sustainable with an economy that is crumbling in its fragile value added sectors. On top of that, we are already taxed to death and you think it is just fine to get on some kind of idiot virtue signalling campaign an piss away billions more to do WHAT??????

Dougie: I could almost agree with you, but I stay here because THIS is the home that I never had when following my parents around doing their thing to defend this country. I will stay here until I croak (that gets one day closer every 24 hours, I am sad to say) because our children (two of who wear a uniform in 4 jobs to defend our country, our personal and collective safety) and grandchildren are here, and THAT to me trumps anything to do with politics or weather. If their safety is ever in question, THEN, and only then will I do anything about becoming a resident or citizen of any other country. While I really...REALLY do not welcome most of what the open borders policies invite into our country, I really do appreciate immigration of people with the means, skills and international network of contacts and contracts to teach us how to move forward and actually work for a living, create some wealth and make this a sustainable economy (which it is not). Get enough people doing things that are useful, instead of laying around putting a snootful of ;booze or pot into their body seeking the "good life" and we could end up with enough voters to actually make this place INTO a real country. I would and DO welcome you criticisms and contributions in making that happen.

We need to look carefully at what a charitable donation is in reality. As you implied, it is NOT a "tax writeoff:" where the money you give is taken directly from your personal or corporate tax payable, it is treated as an expense, somewhat different from buying a piece of equipment that could earn money, it is simply gone from your income (and it really IS gone from your income) and you don';t pay any income tax on that money that you simply did not receive - the charity got it. The "advantage" to reducing income is that it costs you 3 to 4 times what it saves you. Now, I am not any kind of business or accounting genius, but I DO know when I write that cheque, it is costing me (or Jimmy Pattison) a hell of a lot more than what I am "saving" on my tax bill. There there is the "why" about doing so. If I let the hospital get funded by giving my money to my tax bill, some of that will go to the Feds and some of it will go to the province, but the vast majority of it is going to end up paying interest on the debt racked up by greedy bastards trying to buy votes to get them or give another $10mm to the next terrorist to murder a Yank. The list of things governments do that have nothing to do with what they SHOULD be doing is endless, and it wouild be very unlikely that more than a tiny fraction of 1% of what I am giving will end up where I would like to see my money benefit my fellow citizen. How anyone can see these kinds of generouis acts as anything other that exactly what they are - generous acts - is far beyond my ability to comprehend.

Froggie gets it right, we will just get the bill. Not so sure strict French language requirements will work quite so well for rest of Canada, but if you think about it, not a bad idea. A little forced bilingualism in the ROC could be nice.

Actually, it IS very much the excuse for why investment is fleeing, as is manufacturing. about 70% of all Canada/US trade was in cars and car parts. We built our economy, such as it was, around that secure, solid market where we shared a language and culture with our very large neighbour. Since the US has pretty well screwed up in the car biz, and so much of what we used to do is now coming from lower cost sources in Mexico and China - and more to the point we do this mostly with US investment and control (obvious exception being Magna International) because we simply haven't needed to develop our own infrastructure to finance and operate much in the line of business. Oh, we can do marijuana allright, but not so good at the real core stuff.

As I have told you many times before, most of my business is NOT in Canada, but the US. That is switching to have a far more Chinese component. Doesn't mean I can't see what is (not) going on in Canada and the USA. Let's take one particular product: large power transformers. There is really only one major US manufacturer left, and their contribution is not very large and certainly not recognized as a quality product. The vast majority of utility transformers in the USA are now imported. You can't even keep your own lights on any more. Far more disturbing is that the really big stuff (500 MVA and up) is now coming from China. They not only own the retail shelves of every WalMart, Harbour Freight, furniture store, etc. but can do critical infrastructure hardware that the US can not. Oh...I forgot: Canada still makes a few in the upper mid size - mostly exported to the USA. Still, the Canadian market has also lost a similar portion of that manufacturing capacity.

B-C: look at your own graph. The blue line from 1988 to 2000 represents the established value and growth of the pre Y2K US economy. Extrapolate it to the right and there is one hell of a big gap. You are only at 65% or so of your appropriate level of manufacturing.

Never for one moment suggested we stop exporting from our finite store of resource wealth, just that we start actually making things (like the US did before they became too important to bother). A few hundred successful niches are a hell of a lot better than doing diddly squat as we are now. I do agree, though, that the level of government BS required to do business in Canada is not exactly fun and games. Spent the last part of the week trying to explain to my Chinese friends why we can't just do this or do that, where they can so easily with a nudge-nudge, wink-wink (for environmental issues) or a quick bribe or two to officials that only the well healed SNCs of this country can manage.

That is how China does business, and it is a zero percent possibility for Canada to try to compete with US on cost, never mind China. To sell to the USA and especially Europe, you/we simply need to be able to compete on quality or uniqueness (niche marketing). Canadian culture (things such as actually telling the truth and following the rules) means we can actually do some things far better here than in the USA. A lot of high volume production these days is highly automated, and it is the skill of keeping the machine running (and supplied) that wins the day. One of our highest potentials but least realized is our ability to add value to foods by producing finished product to suit specific export markets. I happen to know of several particular things we can even sell in China - as we are very trusted there (by the real business, not government).

Argus hit that right on the head. Just think about dealing with government employed bureaucrats and you can imagine how much lower into the pits of hell politicians and the political process would sink. This sounds very much like the kind of treachery contrived by the LPC. Just think about it: virtually 100% of immigrants are bilingual, and maybe 10% of Canadians.

I have been doing business with and within China for more than 25 years. As you should be able to see from the Huawei affair, if China doesn't want to buy something from Canada...even if it seems to "need" it, they won't. We are simply not in any position to compete head on with China or Chinese business. Their ability to finance actual business leaves us (and the rest of the world) in the dust. The cost of labour, but more that, the relative productivity is something we can't even imagine, never mind compete with. Let me give you and example of how China views a market. The future of light aviation engines lies strongly with diesels. So, do Chinese companies buy existing engines or do they try to sell Chinese-made aircraft diesels? Neither...yet. The 100HP class of engine at the moment is dominated by Rotax, but a beautiful little opposed piston diesel (Gemini) will some day eliminate Rotax from the marketplace. the Gemini project was bought by Superior in the US (where aircraft engine production has credibility in international markets. Superior is owned 100% by Chinese. Thielert broke open the market with their 135 HP engine about 20 years ago. Thielert was bought by one of the big two players in genav engines - Continental. Continental is owned lock stock and barrel by Chinese. Only SMA (Renault) who have only a tiny sliver of that market (due to cost) and as it is, their only viable product has been licensed to Continental for further development. And on it goes. By far the volume leader is Austro with their 170 and 180 HP engines. Austro belongs to Diamond (as in the people who make airplanes in London ON), and Diamond now belongs 100% to China (thus a lot of work shifting OUT of London ON). China doesn't come into a market to compete with others, they come in to dominate it. Their business practices are not competitive, they are predatory. To put that into a Canadian perspective: have a look at just what percentage of Athabasca Oil Sands leases are in Chinese hands...the number will shock you. If you think they are going to take Canadian heavy oil out of the ground and add all of the value at our ridiculously expensive and inefficient level of costs, you (and the rest of Canada) have a very rude shock coming. We need to concentrate on markets that are culturally and economically compatible with our inept way of doing business. To get what I mean, look at how the Canadian automobile industry has been decimated (it was by far our largest value added export market, and it is nearly gone now - to be replace with, let me count it up...NOTHING). Take a look at the ONLY one of the $196Bn of the subject of this thread that HAS gone forward. The $40 Bn LNG Canada is a consortium of companies led by Shell Canada and includes Petronas, PetroChina, KOGAS and Mitsubishi Corporation. Pretty much 100% foreign owned and controlled. There will be considerable value added to otherwise nearly worthless Alberta gas, but Canadians will just be doing the work, not owning the process.

Yeah...my life long best bud was a CBC camerman and later producer for his career. Heard some incredible stories about how much they spend to do things.

Add value to resources. It is the ONLY way wealth is created. We have access to the wealthiest (about to fall to second wealthiest) market on Earth, just across a relatively open border, and we have huge potential markets in Yurp and MENA.

Look, if Scheer (or Harper for that matter) had any balls, they would have run (or done) on the basis of shutting off the public taps to the CBC, not giving them hundreds of millions "to preserve the reporter's independence" (cough, choke, hack!!) on top of the annual $1.7 Bn. Why is it that CTV, Global, etc. can run their business or add revenue, when CBC has the same amount of revenue slots but needs to drain the public purse to do nothing but be the propaganda tool for the PCLL???

Then you need to realize that Canada has no economic strength...at least none that is coming from creating wealth. Instead, all we seem to do is sell of our finite resources and hope that some magic trick of Casino Capitalism is going to magically lift us up by our own bootstraps.

Explain to me then why we are expected to do this for Indians? Canada is supposed to be a land of equals. The current extreme of the polically correct seem to think aboriginals are entitled to be more than equal. Let me give you another example: there are aboriginal "olympics+ that every virtue signalling politician and left wing loonie celebrates with pride. How do you think it would fly if we held a "White Male Only Olympic" meet?" Speaking of which: Canada has a bunch of Gay Pride parades. I can already hear you and the liberal media bitch and moan when I announce my "Straight Guys and Gals Only" parade.

Problem is: some of these economic nationalists are business people very familiar with economics who manufacture goods and produce resources.

I have friends who were sent by the government to Catholic orphanages and were raped. So, according to your logic, we need to give tens of thousands of $$$ to each and every Catholic in Canada. Every year, into perpetuity.

Few people alive today have done anything but genuinely try to appease those who went long before. I agree that government should do one thing that it most has done: admit that those before screwed up royally. Similarly, outside of the residential schools students (I hesitate to call them "survivors" - this is being played for every nickel that can be squeezed out) few living aboriginals have suffered from anything but the greed and avarice of their own leadership. The hundreds of billions in tax dollars that have been directed towards them (most of which evaporates in the massive bureaucracy and "Indian Industry" of consultants on the teats of the biggest sow out there) seldom trickle down to anyone with a treaty number. Instead of bleeding hearts with absolutely no idea WTF an Indian is, a reserve is or rot that matter how a country SHOULD operate trying prop up the idiotic notion that there are over 200 "sovereign nations" within one country, we need leadership from the Federal government and aboriginal bands that recognize that the status quo is unsustainable. Land claims are just that: claims. The treaties that a far away colonial power imposed upon one of their colonies, IMHO, died the day the BNA ceased to define Canada. And THERE is the real problem: as Dougie would say: Canada is a long way from BEING a country - evidence the folly of "sovereign nations" being recognized within. The idea that you can give one band ove4r another all of downtown Winnipeg for instance (a genuine claim) is preposterous....unless the recipients are prepared to re-imburse the developers and current property owners for 100% of their "improvements" and all future loss of revenue. Nobody bought a lot on Portage and Main with the knowlege or intent to be "squatting" on something that was under administration of anything BUT some form of legitimate government. All of that "business" that Jaycee decries is what creates 100% of the wealth that the residents of Canada live on. Do you think we can survive on the largess of the aboriginals?????

Problem is: we are not bringing in this cheap labour to produce anything, as we really DON'T produce much any more. They are providing services...and not doing it very well.

Yes, I am very aware of the legal and societal attitude of US states (or oldest head office is in WY) towards resource industries, particularly petroleum.