cannuck

Those engineers and techs EARNED that privilege by going to school to learn to be engineers and techies.

To really know the answer, I suggest the Golden Rule...follow the gold. Who paid for and arranged the demonstrations? I suspect no fuss in YT since Doug Ford was not elected there and the looney left media could not (arrange?) cover an attack on anyone who threatens the Liberal/liberal grip on power.

Just to complete your education on the Feds screwing Canadians to the benefit of Ontario, read about the Crow Rates.

A gated community in Brownsville may be located in the deep South, but it really isn't IN the Deep South. Of course, the same community for Eastern Snowbirds in FL means they can't communicate since Spanish is pretty rare around here. BTW: we have a similar situation in Newfoundland. While technically they speak "English" the dialects were isolated hundreds of years ago from all over the UK and mixed into the pot. VERY unique place linguistically.

The Catholic school system in SK offers immersion in French, Ukrainian and German. Should not be a surprise, since German is the second language spoken here, Ukrainian the third and French the fourth. Indigenous languages probably exceed French, but are more than one language - and of course offered in aboriginal communities - but I do not think in an immersion setting (haven't lived up North for a while, now curious about that). Our children were raised in French (lots of primary immersion schools, but only one high school worth of students in all second languages due to attrition). The comment about France above is interesting to us. Our kids did an exchange with schools in Nantes. Kids from SK spoke nearly flawless Parisienne French, but children from Nantes were not immersion and spoke very weak English. While Canada may have two official languages, fortunately (IMHO of course) at least here kids learn actual French - and would have a tough time dealing with the butchered Quebecois version of the language. Kind of like an English speaker moving to the deep South of the USA. Due to the huge benefits to STEM abilities of students of language (and music) IMHO this (second language immersion) is some of the best money we spend on education. And, yes, our kids are accomplished musicians and scientists - public school education having been a significant part of it.

Agreed. However, something goofy such as esparante or whatever it was called may not have the things that the best of the bunch would need: some hard and fast rules on how new words are structured from roots. While English may not be perfect (in fact far from it) it DOES have some workable rules that allow for new words. There is a reason that pretty much everything in academia is published in English. Besides, we have already establish that I am a greedy, selfish prick, so since I don't have good enough memory to be really good at more than one language, I would prefer the international standard was the one I already speak.

To be more precise, languages are not that difficult to learn, they are just very difficult to learn a) to speak well, and b) to translate idioms, sayings, ideas, etc. to fit the rules and nuances of other languages. Our children are multi-lingual, and routinely take me to task for clumsy translations to and from French. I was lucky to have a handler once who specialized in Japanese. He was so good at it, he could teach Japanese classical literature, language and even technical subjects in a Japanese university (his PhD was in cultural anthropology - which led him down that path). Working with him over several months in yet another foreign nation gave me plenty of opportunity to see up close just how intense one's education and experience needs to be to be totally capable in a very different language. His particular skill was in deciphering how Japanese changed the key to military encryption codes (yes, WWII era). I am in awe of people who are effectively able to master more than one language, but even at that level, there is still a LOT more to learn of the culture to really get the drift of the language.

It is great, but not very free. BTW: the NDP not only takes money from the unions, it IS a union. It was formed by the formal amalgamation of the CCF and the CLC.

and with right to work legislation (if we were actually a free country) it wouldn't matter. Unions would become obsolete.

Any such regulation would deliver EXACTLY what Trudeau Sr. intended - just society. Since there would be no significant business left in the country, we would be left with just society. Pierre's dream come true.

Uh...that's not where they stick their head. You are being too polite.

I could write a book about the things I have found regarding this topic. Long ago, I did a quick assessment of where military contracts were awarded - and at that time about 95% went to Quebec. As I traveled around the world for work, I found that Canadian embassies were extremely francophone - in every country. When on one project, our partners had at their own expense brought an ambulance built in NS designed specifically for their country's needs. When their government contacted Canada for the endless and well known freebies from Canada, the tender to supply was circulated ONLY in Quebec - the NS manufacturer left completely out of the loop. The PQ company supplied pieces of shyte, and that country swore off buying any more ambulances at all from Canada. After running into similar BS in another country, I came home and looked up a fellow who was at the time "Minister of Everything". In his words, the ENTIRE purpose of every federal "business development" agency and effort was to pander to Quebec. I later found out from an engineering friend (who was ADM of Ec Dev for SK before going into private business) that he had discovered that decades ago when trying to bring business here. EVERY contact he made and tried to develop would evaporate, not into thin air, but into very French air. ALL of his information once it hit a Federal office was dispensed to Quebec, and ONLY Quebec - where more often than not, the potential business proponent would get pissed off and simply not bother coming to Canada. I once did a fairly significant and extremely private project with member companies from 4 different countries. The lead had sent me on several critical missions to be conducted in absolute secrecy. I was given only one specific condition: if I got into trouble, DO NOT go to a Canadian embassy, go to theirs first or second choice a US embassy. When I asked why, they were very clear that any business information and secrets that I might possess would be lost to others (polite way of saying Quebec) the moment I walked or got dragged into a Canadian embassy anywhere in the world. Seems that everyone else knows what is wrong here - we just don't.

It is happening to me. I am busy training my replacement at my "day job" contract client's business. He is 25 and can do most of the things I do for them, plus one more that I can't. What makes you think that taking up space should give you any special privilege? I have been the key person in what I do (as a contractor) to this client for 29 years, financed them in their early days, partnered with them later on. In fact, if contractors had employee numbers, my seniority would give me #1 (out of about 1,000). Businesses are NOT social service agencies. Almost EVERY job should be awarded strictly on merit. IF we had right-to-work legislation, that is exactly what would evolve, as it should. And, before you get carried away with what a cruel SOB I am: I have kept one of my US businesses open and operating at a massive loss for at least 8 years longer than it should have existed - because our lead hand has a very sick wife who would be uninsurable if they could not remain in our health care plan. BUT: that is a choice I made on behalf of my back pocket and other shareholders. Why do you think government should be able to force me or any other business into such a situation? (In fact, that is exactly what the US government does NOT get right - universal sick care insurance).

Geez, our gubmints gots da alky, drugs, tabac and gambling. Next thing you know they will snatch (pun intended) prostitution from the Mafia and Hell's Angels to be right on top. What the fxck, we're already getting screwed by them anyhow.

This is exactly the kind of problem of John Q. Public (and elected officials) trying to understand technical things. No, wind on a rooftop is NOT a very good idea at all. There is an extremely good reason why wind farms are located on ridges and have towers in the 50 meter and up range. Flowing fluids suffer from something called boundary layer effects. Essentially the flow right at the wall of a pipe, or in this case near the surface of the earth is extremely slow due to the interaction of the fluid and its container/surroundings. You might notice that over land, the wind you felt all day dies down at night. Without the sun stirring up convective currents from the surface, the boundary layer next to the surface comes to almost a complete stop most nights. The daytime wind you feel at the surface on land is just a small portion being dragged along near the boundary between fluid and solid compared with the steady flow that is just 50 to 100 meters away. When the overall flow has to limb over a ridge, it moves closer to the surface and the "squeeze" speeds it up even more. Thus, exactly where, why and how one locates a wind farm - with towers high enough to reach into the full velocity fluid flow. The other place you put the towers is offshore, where the surface tends to have steady (but reduced velocity) flow, and one can reach up into the main stream easily. Look at the 1000 millibar and surface winds around the world, and you will see the dramatic difference over land vs. water. That difference is aloft, but much closer to the surface over water...thus another place one puts wind farms. Now, you might have SEEN wind farms, but have you ever worked in one? I do that often, and can tell you that even the newest turbines are extremely high maintenance and older ones are long since obsolete because of extreme unreliability and ridiculous maintenance costs. Most, if not all windmills on this continent are there for political reasons - driven by subsidies of one kind or another, NOT good business choices.

I was a civilian employee on the base where I was raised when the Hellyer white paper destroyed the armed forces. Part of the Trudeau plan (consistent with the whole B&B nonsense) was to increase French presence in senior ranks. I watched with absolute horror when every francophone NCO on the base, REGARDLESS of ability (or even mental stability) was given an invitation to get their commission. Several years later, when I thought things might have calmed down, I headed to a recruiting office (I could probably go DEO) and the recruiter told me in no uncertain terms since I was not Quebecois and only marginally bilingual, I didn't have a hope in hell. This crap didn't start yesterday - that was nearly 50 years ago.

What Westerners do not understand is the China is nothing but predatory in its business ambitions. They will do whatever it takes to come out on top. Things such as stealing IT is not some back room hacker kid out for jollies, it is a highly organized cadre of Red Army professional IT people hacking into every computer they can access in the world. Trade some cheap drugs for cash and it is a win-win....for China.

Experts in the US auto industry have predicted a lot of things. That's why GM and Chrysler went tits up.

Why indeed? If the 5 year, or 5 MINUTE guy is more capable, then he/she should be bumping the 25 year vet on merit.

The aftermarket feeding the auto hobby is so large, you CAN actualy assemble and entire new Model T from available components.

You just admitted that government "rules" regarding business of production and sales don't work, then went on to say the having more of what clearly does not work is the solution. I must repeat: government is NEVER the solution, and almost always IS the problem. This is a perfect example.

The "end of the auto industry" is some kind of myth based on the idiotic Euroweenie religion of the anti-hydrocarbon cult. At least for the foreseeable future, private transportation will actually carry on pretty much as it is today. GM knows that, and is responding to the real market demand that is here, now. I can guarantee you, they are also very busy planning the near term and long term product development that the people who work in a very large and quite international car company know they will need going forward. "We" or "you" can't save GM. Only GM can. And that is THEIR business to do as they need to make that happen. They have no responsibility to anyone or anything else other than to do so within the law.

What you propose is trying to have government tell business how to run business. 100% GUARANTEE of total failure. You are quite right, that what is going on at GM (and throughout most of the world) is casino capitalism. You can't change that by trying to use rules so restrictive, arbitrary, ridiculous, etc. The correct method of government doing anything at all is actually to GOVERN, not try to manage things that they have zero ability to understand. The secret is in setting rules that make sense. By far the most effective is taxation. What is needed (but few people can understand and far, far fewer in government would ever have the brains and balls to pursue) is to tax the living shit out of speculative gain and keep you hands the hell off of operating profit. THAT would drive investment back to Main Street where it creates wealth. The other thing, IMHO, would be some HUGE increase in minority shareholders' rights that would short circuit the business of execs (who are nothing more than employees) robbing shareholders blind with compensation packages wildly over rich with stock options (really just diluting real shareholders)

Just to put it into perspective, at the time of NAFTA being ratified, 72% of all trade between the largest trading partners on the planet was cars and car parts. We may have other value added industries, but they are dwarfed by the automobile business. We are so short of diversification, it leaves us extremely vulnerable to the vagueries of markets. What we NEED is far more distance between government and business. The ineptitude of ANY political entity and the massive army of totally useless tits in the bureaucracy trying to meddle in business results in people who can (and ARE) bought for a sack of beans picking winners and losers. If you want to "protect decent living standards" invest your money directly in Canadian business. If you just hand it over to a bank, you are feeding the very mechanism that results in companies in the hands of finance that will do what is best for their ability to manipulate stock values to cash in on business activity that creates no wealth at all. The idea that the world of business owes the world of labour anything after the day of the last paycheque is total nonsense. Yes, a GOOD employer will have great sensitivity and feel obliged to his employees, but large companies owned and controlled by large financial entities could care less. Look in the mirror when you want to find someone to blame. We have to INVEST and be actively involved in creating wealth, and realize that you will seldom if ever see more than a 5% dividend - i.e. be a capitalist. What we/you DO, though is give money to banks/finance with the hope of the speculative value of stock increasing far more than that (casino capitalism) resulting no wealth being created, but definitely inflationary forces. As I think someone already mentioned in this thread: government is NEVER the solution, only the problem.

An immigrant can only be a consumer if they have money to spend. If they arrive penniless and don't have appropriate job and language skills, they will only buy what the tax man gives them money to consume. That is why the idiotic idea of taking in as much of the bottom of Middle East, Africa and Carib barrel is bound to go bad in a very big way. Now I had that entire rant without once mentioning Indian truck drivers - aren't you proud of me?