cannuck

Only if it takes Quebec and the aboriginals with it! THEN, we would have the perfect country.

You know, it just occurred to me: we could actually pick a far, far better cabinet from the posters on this site (from BOTH sides of the so-called right and left of our rather left of center political spectrum) that the Drama Queen and LPC did in this term.

More like damnation from faint praise. I don't know who in the LPC set this up, but I imagine it was 100% to try to repair the damage by and to the drama queen..er drama TEACHER and Canada's reputation. While what they did to host the Lima Group is absolutely the right thing, since it is aimed at dethroning one of the ideals of the Trudeau family and legacy it was not done for the right reason.

Venezuela already decided but Maduro fudged the results. Another three million Venezuelans have also decided and voted with their feet - fleeing to neighbouring countries as life in Maduro's Bolivarian paradise is impossible for ordinary people. Personally, speaking from what our Venezuelan friends had to say (past tense, as they are in hiding due to attempts on their lives - as well as a couple of actual murders by Maduro's people), I don't give a rat's as WHO does what to dump or better yet eliminate Maduro and enforce the actual will of the people. THEN they can have a real election, supervised or at least audited by foreign powers (probably from the Lima group, but maybe Canada??? - we still are struggling to keep enough credibility to pull that offf) and they can and will do what THEY feel is best - as a sovereign state with some semblance of democracy as was intended even from the first Chavez constitution - you know, the one before Maduro had his henchmen he appointed to the Supreme Court make it possible to prosecute elected members for anything the Supreme Court felt they would like to do. AND, that is exactly what Maduro did. You think Americans helping (along with MANY other countries) to restore representative government is somehow a bad thing???????

I agree with you, I don't find Scheer anywhere near the level of performance needed to solve the disaster of the Prime Mistake from drama class, but in reality, it is the cabinet that really runs the show. The Libs used political correctness as the ONLY criteria to choose ministers, and that is something the Cons will not likely do in any significant proportion. From what we have seen over the last three years, 90% of the current cabinet would be in over their head acting as WalMart greeters. Then, of course, there is one real problem - Goodale. That is a man with absolutely no respect for the rule of law.

There we go, a REAL lefty in the flesh. Yeah, any election that the Bolivarian Revolution held was legitimate. I have to hand it to you, you are staying true to the cause - what with only Russia and China in agreement with you. That is, Russia, China and Maduro. If you know anything at all about Venezuela, you would know there is a HUGE issue with who is legitimately the leader. The "foreign meddling" is happening because a criminal and his co-conspirators have been running the show for several years, milking the wealth of the country for their personal benefit and jailing or killing (a lot more of the latter lately) anyone who gets in their way. Virtually every credible international company long ago left Venezuela since the corruption and incompetence (only party faithful members were given jobs at PDVSA - which is what runs the economy). But, hey, what the heck would one of those actual petroleum employees know about running a business that some good Bolivarian socialist couldn't just figure out on their own?

Does this mean the Little tur...er...I mean TRUdeau is swearing off his ideological allegiance to the left? https://globalnews.ca/news/4916850/lima-group-canada-venezuela/ Now, his Daddy was a card carrying Communist, and he grew up admiring and befriending such luminaries as Fidel Castro, so how could he possibly turn his back on the Bolivarian Revolution and his fellow traveller Maduro???? Do you think there might be an election in Venezuela this year? How about Canada?

I can sympathize with you, as this is a factor in MANY countries. For instance: are modern Germans beholding to Jews for the Holucaust? Why should current Canadian taxpayers be responsible for promises made to aboriginals by the British? The list goes on. Eyeball has it right: while individuals may come and go, the very existence of a continuous system of governance means those obligations carry forward. That is why IMHO the Germans new government after the Third Reich can stand aside, and why after the end of Canada as a member of the British Commonwealth should no longer honour British treaties of the past.

You are making a crude attempt to spin (to the left, obviously). I did not say they were coming in by deliberate effort of the Liberals. The Liberals simply let ANYONE in. There is no longer any face-to-face interview. The way most "refugee" claimants get in is hire an "immigration consultant" who tells them exactly what to say and do, and writes up all of the appropriate documents - that then simply go through the system, and POOF - another sleeper cell is seeded, or truck driver comes in, etc., etc. Open borders, not so much by design as by incompetence.

Sikh trucking business owners, who operate completely outside of the law in so many ways, particularly when using illegal immigrant "slave" drivers. ANYONE who has any exposure at all to the trucking business is extremely aware of the degree of criminality. Anyone who has spent any time doing business in India knows exactly why. We are not talking about a few dozen or a few hundred, but THOUSANDS who daily flaunt the law putting innocent people at risk or into their grave. The list just goes on, and on, and on. Look at this most wanted for murder and attempted murder. Citizenship isn't given, but when you click on the image and read the name, you can deduce the source of immigration usually being from a country that does NOT embrace traditional Canadian values.

I suppose you are right, Canada does not have open borders. Legitimate and qualified immigrants go through hell to get in, but criminals seem to find unlimited access. Immigrants are welcomed by Liberals. Qualified immigrants are welcomed by everyone else.

When the problem is directly related to the lack of qualification, screening, law enforcement and deportation of an entire criminal network that has been established in Canada, yeah, I have a bone to pick with certain immigrants and immigration policies. I am sure those who live near and have to deal with the results of Caribbean drug gangs have similar sentiments. Once again: same with Russian criminals. Sourcing immigration from countries with absolutely different values - in fact strongly opposed to traditional Canadian values amounts to cultural genocide.

Decency and transparency are part of traditional Canadian culture. Not so in India. Indians belong in India unless they want to fully adopt Canadian values (as many Indians DO). Truck driving and trucking business Sikhs do not.

Hate to rain on a few parades, but I strongly suspect most of the people so down on KSA have never actually BEEN there. Other than pilgrims going to hajj, there are few tourist traps..er attractions to draw visitors, but the West coast DOES have some great diving sites on the Red Sea (especially around Jeddah) and Persian Gulf (around Dammam but far more commercial/industrial than leisure), also thousands of kms of coastline with hundreds of beaches. You don't get to visit Mecca unless of course you are Muslim. I don't know what it would be like to be a tourist, but I have a lot of time as a guest. I never stay in Western hotels or compounds (unless for a specific event) and I stick out like a very sore, white, Western thumb. Pretty much EVERYONE I have met there including hundreds of perfect strangers without any introductions has been extremely polite and friendly, and once your hosts have known you long enough and well enough, you can actually get to know the country (not possible during a casual visit). No, it is not as "free" as Canada, but one has to look at what progress IS being made. Things move very slowly on that front, but they do move. Even 15 years ago, there is one shopping center in downtown Riyadh where many women, especially younger ones did NOT cover themselves or use escorts when shopping and dining. Now, you're going to jump up and down and tell me that women are "property" and mistreated regularly. Hardly the case. Women are generally the nucleus of the family and husbands do NOT mess with their authority. Public places are very different from the world behind closed doors, but that is just the way it is. Younger families are a lot more like what we would like to see (for instance, most are now monogamous). It is not going to change overnight, or even anywhere near at the rate we expect, but things ARE changing on many fronts. My closest friend there is not there right now. You can actually get a decent education in KSA, to the extent that when my friend wanted to go on to post graduate studies, he had no trouble being academically accepted by pretty much ANY school. Where his "freedom" is restricted is that he can't go to just any school. Since the Kingdom is paying his way, he can only select from the few schools at the very top of their game. They expect value for their money. His wife was also offered the opportunity enter grad school in her own discipline while he is doing his doctorate. AND, I can absolutely guarantee you, while in theory she is his "property" she is treated extremely well by him, his family, her family - and I mean well by ANY standard.

yes, our great "growth" in the economy happens because we measure purely speculative gain as economic growth, when it is nothing but inflationary wealth redistribution that drags the real values down for productive endeavour.

I can agree with your emotions, but not your logic. There are only three big games on the planet: US, China and EEC. For us to cut trade ties with any of them would be suicide. Attempt to diversify, yes, but until you see what it takes to sell product into a TUV standard (which is intentionally very protectionist) you have no idea what it means for someone outside of the EEC to sell manufactured goods into that market. We have to first BECOME an actual manufacturing economy (we only fit that mold when it comes to automotive parts and sub assemblies today) before we try to play in that ballpark. For China, it is fairly easy to DO, but almost totally impossible to do competitively (if you want to see protectionism, look at China) IF we had anything to sell outside of resources - and we don't. For us to do business in the US is extremely easy because we share so many standards, language, culture and complete understanding of the regulatory, tax, import and trade legal environment.

I have been out of the car business for about 30 years, but once a car guy, always a car guy. It is important to appreciate that since WWII, there are only two things you had to do to make your country wealthy: sell cars to the Americans and let Americans pay your defense costs. This has worked very well for Canada, Germany, Japan and South Korea. To really appreciate global economics, trade and some of geopolitics, you had to understand the car business. But China is a very different situation. It was the catch-up to the rest for 1/4 of the entire world kept out of pretty much everything for nearly a century. What we forget is that for the previous 4 millenia, China was THE largest economy and influence in the Eastern hemisphere. I can recall reading in trade media about how the Chinese car market could be the size of the US one, first a half century in the future, then a quarter and so on. Most simply laughed in total disbelief - except those of us who were actually on the ground inside of China. While Tricky Dickey was playing ping pong, Germany was busy making inroads that would result in them being the initiators of the real auto industry in China (and MANY other industrial sectors). Well, here we are not yet at 2020 and already China is the largest auto market in the world starting at zero less than 30 years ago. AND the second largest economy (and largest in terms of productivity when you factor out measures of purely speculative gains). 50 years ago as a neophyte in business and politics, I could scarcely imagine there would be a time I would stand in Red Square or Tiananmen Square, never mind have to defer to their leadership in matters of trade!

I agree fully. I only wish the spineless half-wits on the Hill had at least your grasp of the situation. I have worked in and with China since the mid '90s. Even that far back, I was trying to tell everyone that the light at the end of that tunnel is an Allegheny compound about to flatten anyone and anything in its way. That has not yet changed, and in the meantime, our little band of survivor mice will simply try to figure out how to feed peanuts to the elephant in the corner of our room.

We call them "one way" drivers. When they arrive on site, you can tell from their use of the language that they haven't been here very long and did not exactly come from the higher casts of society at home. I have watched them crash into things, back a loaded tanker over an embankment, etc. because the people who first encountered them didn't realize to totally incompetent as drivers. The truth about Sidhu is coming out now. 72 violations (52 fed, 20 provincial) over the previous week, most to do with hours of service IF anyone had bothered to police the industry. Drove through not only a stop sign, but a stop sign with a flashing light! The idea that you can "train" this behaviour out is ludicrous. There will simply be a string of schools pop up across the country, owned by the same people running the trucking business these days, who will graduate "drivers" little or no different from what happens now. This is not a driver training issue, it is an open borders one. Precisely how PC will kill our country (and a lot more of our people on the road).

BC: Note that the vast majority of what the US sells to China is NOT finished consumer goods (with value already added) but resources or components that will often be sold back to the US (and other markets) as finished consumer goods. Your point about oil and gas is sadly of course accurate. BUT: since we have such a large and easy market to the South and PC blocked access to tidewater on the Chinese side, our O&G exports don't (yet) go there. Yes, Boeing doing fairly well with China right now, but you would be surprised how much is coming out of Shanghai already. Ultimately, someone in China will make their majority owned Buick...oh, sorry, I meant BOEING that looks strangely similar to the one no longer sold by USA. NEVER forget that the 100% strategy of all Chinese business is to be predatory and absolutely victorious/dominant. They are waging WWIII without having to fire a shot, and we are only to glad to provide them with all of the ammunition they DO use.

Upside for what??? Canada has a culture very much in synch with the US, as well as consumerism with a taste and budget for the same things. Those needs and wants are being supplied by China, since the US long ago considered itself too important to bother with trivial consumer goods, then industrial goods and now high tech, defence and just about every other goods and service. China simply has no appetite for American (or Canadian) manufactured goods, as they can add the same value to resources far more competitively than we in North America can. China is a resource customer, and the US doesn't have very much in the line of resources to export any more. Canada does. Canada is also one of the few markets for made-in-USA consumer goods (what little of that is left). I generally dislike having to use analogies, but in this case, there is a good one. Going back 30+ years, the USA was the absolute center of the general aviation universe. Virtually all genav and most of commercial aviation design, suppliers, etc. were in the US. BUT: since it allowed the LLL (Legal Liability Lottery) to become a major factor in business, insurance costs from ravaging hoards of ambulance chasers resulted in total collapse of the light end of genav, and manufacture of almost all light singles and twins came to an abrupt halt in the late '70s. Today, Eastern Europe certifies more light planes every month than the US does in something like three or four years. Chinese now own much of the technology by simply buying the business (Continental being a prime example in USA, Diamond in Canada), milking the technology, and will eventually simply shift all production to China to satisfy that big emerging market that you so much desire. BTW: that infrastructure exists in China since Shanghai has hosted a significant community of subcontractors building major components and subassemblies for business and commercial aviation for decades - as usual - host the production, skim the technology - SOP for China. Don't even get me started on how they did this with GM! Sadly, outside of President Trump, nobody else in the US seems to understand this - nor has the balls to stand up to China and deal with it. We are simply not in a position to do that - as our real business with them is to provide resources that we have coming out of our arse.

Generally, my views come from somewhere right of the Great Khan and Libertarian more like Ron Paul, but you hit the nail right on the head. While the role of government should be to govern, it DOES have an important job of delivering social services. Health, education, welfare and sick care are what we, the Scandhoovians and pretty much everyone else in the former G7 EXCEPT the USA do very well. Medicine SHOULD be just that - a social service, not a predatory business. Those factors make starting, running and growing a business in Canada far easier when it comes to the issues around employee well being. Contrary to popular belief, big business creates very few productive jobs. The vast majority come from small to medium size companies. We provide the social benefits package that would be very difficult for startups to do. Where we fall flat on our face, though, is we confuse capitalism with casino capitalism. While we have the culture and platform for Bay Street to be the mini-me of Wall Street, we do NOT have a culture and infrastructure to invest in Main Street. Instead, we waste our efforts giving the free ride crowd of the speculative world an extremely well educated and supported workforce.

It is a constant matter for discussion withing trucking forums, but reality is this is still a long way off. As it stands, automating a tractor/trailer unit to run down a clear road, with well defined lane and shoulder markings is duck soup. Head out on the road in a blizzard and your automation becomes essentially useless. It will come, some day, but that day is not today. US trucking is quite different from Canada. They can only run tiny gross weights on the Interstate system, as the roadbeds but especially the bridges were designed in the '50s when nobody could imagine a tractor and trailer grossing out over 80,000 lbs. There are many variations state-to-state, but compared with here, where the distances are similar but the units running down the road are more likely to be 140,000 lbs. or LCVs, plus throw in some LONG bits of unrestricted access 2 lane with heavy weather, then add mountains with conditions that the "Highway from Hell" avoids and a sprinkling of ice roads going WAY up North that are beyond what ANYONE South of the 52 nd could imagine - and it is a very different world. One in which there is simply no room for a culture that has no respect at at all for safety and rule of law. Nor a technology that depends on clear, well marked and quite predictable roadways.

It seems they want to do better by being even more involved in their vision of micro-managing the economy taking the "best" from the New Democrats and nationalizing industries and the "best" from the Liberals of soft on crime. The are a jumble of left and further left that they seem to crave, with a smattering of the right they really don't understand. They should be natural Trudeau fans.