Thinkinoutsidethebox

Anybody else wonder if there should maybe be a cap on the rich and powerful? It seems to me they are becoming so isolated from lower classes that maybe we've become expendable? There are so many stories all the way from vaccines with mercury and aluminum causing autism and many other ailments to conflicts in the middle east to GMOs and Glyphosate to 9/11. All of these incidents seem to have links showing very few people and companies receiving huge sums of money.

There may an alternative to diesel powered heavy trucks and equipment https://nikolamotor.com/ . We all know government's track records of making laws and goals that they may or may not be able to enforce (Alberta's no deficit law comes to mind...). Natural gas and electricity prices will go through the roof soon, it's all a question of supply and demand and just like gasoline prices the rates will spike at the most inconvenient times due to any one or more creative ideas company execs can dream up. EVs will come with their own problems (and there are far more than eighteen moving pieces by the way).

It's big business, win or lose executives get their cut. You think any of Nortel's executive staff is standing in food lines?

So what do you propose all the humans being replaced by robots do ZenOps? We don't have enough gangs and wars? Look at how crazy people get when they have nothing better to do. Or is the answer putting everybody in cubicles pushing numbers around for multinationals and government? Again I find it curious so many don't believe work is actually fulfilling for many of us. Some of us like it outside, some of us love to play in the dirt, some enjoy waiting on people, some enjoy driving truck, train, tractors, flying planes, some enjoy fixing things and so on, do we need to be deprived of this? We need to pass the time from our birth to our death, so far everyone that has proposed the idealist utopia cannot answer what is supposed to happen when robotics take over all human tasks.

If most Canadians have jobs Canada should be running like a well oiled machine, it means Canada should be running at peak efficiency. When my people are running at full capacity it means I'm getting most bang for my buck. If I'm running a deficit I don't go out, borrow more money to buy more help. The "useless" ones need to be put to work, welfare shouldn't exist, these people should become employees of the state and be required to work for their money.

Apparently O'leary doesn't know this policy hasn't been working so far, what is going to make his imports different then Trudeau's? The way things are going we should be giving plenty of jobs to imported "talent".

So the bottom line is continue the status quo? Follow the rest of the world around the drain into the inevitable cesspool of financial and environmental collapse? National governments have an endless supply of money and resources to finance the direction we are headed? It appears so because so far the policies you are promoting are costing jobs and accelerating us into debt at an ever increasing rate. Exporting jobs, importing people to transport our raw resources for export and import finished products and push numbers around multinational corporations and government in cubicles is going to be our salvation?

You mean you can't train any Canadians to do anything? 35,000,000 people and no talent, really sucks eh? I can't believe people can have such a low opinion of their own countrymen.

1 It might, but then again maybe not, what percentage of our income goes to food? http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/famil132a-eng.htm , It's a long list of cheques and balances, does local employment cost or benefit, does the enviroment have any value? Health? 2 A little ingenuity we could grow our own pineapples . Do we need imported COBOL programmers to fix the government payroll? It's probably done in India now? 3 Again, the children are being raised by strangers, it is the most important job to mankind yet we need to hire people to do it for us? Maybe we should give stay at home parents a break and train the would be nannies to be COBAL programmers. All three are still employed... 4 It costs more... here's a wild thought, the money stays within the country, benefitting our citizens.

It's not an impossible task and it's not an alternative to change, it's working with what we have. Instead of factory farming let's downsize and do it on a more personal/local level. What are we importing that we can make or do ourselves? Why export oil only to import fuel? Why export talent only to import technology? (then go searching for talent?) Why sell off industry so they can export the profits? We argue we need to reduce greenhouse emissions then promote hauling goods all over the world instead of producing finished goods from raw materials right here at home, think about it... America, China, Russia, Europe can decide on a whim what happens to Canada's economy, I'd say we need to be a little more independant and we have exactly what we need right here at home. Including the skills and labor. There's a wealth of talent and enthusiasm tied up in our youth, let's take advantage of it. We don't need globetrotting leaders begging for trade with Canada when we can have them knocking at our door asking us for goods and services. Oh and my comment on factory child care? Let's get back to raising our children ourselves and stop using them as accessories only to be thrown out when they reach puberty. I'm not saying we need to go back to the woman in the kitchen era, we should develop a society where at least one parent can be with the children at any given time. My wife stayed at home with the kids, our friends the husband stayed home, I have a sister and her husband who run a successful business and their four children have never seen the inside of a daycare or had a nanny, grandma filled in when required for all of us. Cheap daycare is not going to fix anything. While we're at it, let's stop throwing our elderly into homes when we're done with them. Some do okay but many don't. Why can't we form nice communities with them and work with them as their needs change? Many still have the ability and desire to participate all the way till they pass. Let's give them a reason to live instead of casting them aside to die.

We We're working in a finite world, 24 million isn't enough, 35 million isn't enough, 330 million isn't enough, apparently a billion isn't enough. See a pattern emerging here? Here's a question, what are "skills"? Here's some definitions https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=define+skills . Skills are formed by learning and experiencing from doing, developing sjills is the gateway to success. In this country we are running something like 8% unemployed at any given time, youth unemployment runs around 13% why are we not training these people and giving them skills? Instead we just replace them with imported bodies with "skills" that are willing to do the work. Trying lure kills from other countries is not being competitive, it causes "brain drain" there and reduces their ability to import goods and services. We live on a finite planet and believing people are born with talent instead of growing it only makes it worse. Personally I think we should look within, what are we importing that we can make or do ourselves? Canada is not a leader in any form or fashion we just blindly follow what everyone else is doing and what the "experts" tell us (the last presidential election should tell us what their opinion is worth...). We should start using what we have, giving our youth real world experiences instead of just throwing them out. Canadians built a world class fighter jet, we practically invented the smartphone among other things https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canadian_inventions mayby it's time we inovate our way out of debt and perenial trade deficits by working from within. PS, I'm not saying we should outlaw trade and immigration, I'm saying we have practically everything we need, we all know it.

We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them... Albert Einstein? We seem to be chasing our tail here, immigration, TFWs, refugees and yet the debt keeps growing. How about Fort McMurray? Can't bring the foreign workers in fast enough, oil takes a dump and guess who's holding the bag? Eastern Canada is on pogy half the year, Western Canada can't find enough help in the same period? Want skilled Canadian labor? Start bringing our kids to work with us, they need to participate, they want to learn. Why do Canadians think our kids don't have the ability to take over for us and continue to move the country forward. It seems they are only good for XBox and hanging out on the street or in the mall? It makes me sad to see we have such a low opinion of ourselves and those we are raising. Thirty five million of us and we need to import talent, think about it...

1 Oops,sorry, that was the vibe I was getting 2 I think it's time to figure out how promote more "apprentice" type activity, it should be easier for those of us more experienced to mentor the young (or even inexperienced) would be a step in the right direction. Maybe isolating our children from the work world in the interest of safety needs to be balanced more with the desire to learn, teach and build experience. In a way we are killing our kids because they need to find alternatives to alleviate their boredom. 3 You could say the same for office work also, maybe not so physically dangerous but I bet there are lots of low paying office jobs as well. Physically demanding work is fine, builds good healthy bodies if you don't overdo it, same as sitting at a desk all day can ruin your health if not done properly. OH&S standards make physical labor incredibly safe these days. Coverage is way better than you think. Not all factory work is indoors, think of seasonal agricultural work for instance. 4 And I think this needs to be promoted, reasonable income, job security etc. Being served by people who love what they do makes my day 5 I think it's time to slow down, step back and look at the big picture. I can elaborate my thoughts on this point further if you're interested but I must go to work now

I the utopia you're proposing sounds great, the problem is how does that saying go? The idle mind is the devil's playground (workshop). Look around you and check the news, the opioid crisis, people getting radicalized, suicide, shootings, computer viruses, the list goes on... almost all of this the result of people with too much time on their hands. Continue replacing these individuals with technology and it's going to continue to get worse. Factory work can be very healthy and satisfying. Some people get great satisfaction and fulfilment from it. You've never met anybody that says they hate to be indoors all the time? I got into a debate with someone over entry level jobs awhile back, the common belief is you get in, get a little experience and money and move on. Do you know or have you met anyone in entry level work who loves their job? There are people that would love to make careers of the entry level work they are in, and some do. Yes people dream, it gives them goals to work toward, a reason to live, there are many that are forced to retire and and their lives just spiral downward after. Ever watch the movie WALL E? I know it's just a stupid cartoon but is this where we need to be headed? It might be time to step back and take another look at where the human population is headed. Maybe we need to downside a bit, globalization, automation, factory farming, factory child care and so on is turning us into slaves of technology and ruining our planet in the process.

It's interesting how there is never enough, we do live in a finite world. These foreigners can also send or take this tech back home with them when they move back. I don't understand where we are going with this software development thing. Is it the new American dream to be locked in cubicles eight hours a day "creating" new games to play while not locked in cubicles? Robotics and such are supposed to replace something like another twenty thousand human beings by 2020, what's the point? The unemployed are not good for the economy. Some of us love life actually doing physical things.

We have some brilliant minds in Ottawa, nobody thought to insert a caveat requiring the money stay within our borders?

For less than twenty aircraft maybe we should consider leasing them or something, get something current and proven and move on. No point in being the fanciest in the neighborhood today only to be obsolete tomorrow. Canada is into this new fighter jet program to the tune of something like a half billion dollars with nothing to show for it. Almost all given to foreign entities. I don't know, maybe we should stop thinking in terms of export all the time. What are we importing that we could build ourselves? Bombardier for instance, what percentage of what they produce are actually being used in our domestic market? The Canadian taxpayer has been propping them up for decades, they should at least be a favored product for Canadian transportation companies.

They can't find qualified people in a population of 330 million? Oh wait, Clinton and Trump were the best they could do for president...

It's interesting that we the taxpayer are subsidizing Bombardier to build planes for a saturated market while on the fringe of giving a foreign company billions to build fighter jets. Why are we not developing and building our own fighter planes?

This is an interesting topic, on one hand we have those who resist this intrusion into our privacy (the minority?) and on the other many seem to be embracing it. There's lots of talk about national security and safety these days and many of us are willing to give up our freedoms in the interest of "safety". Is it only safety though? Look at the gadget industry, every second we are being tracked to the sub meter, every second we are online we are being monitored, there are whole industries just tracking every keystroke we type and selling this information to advertisers and the vast majority don't mind or even care for that matter. Why is tracking cell phones any different? I often wonder when I hear of these incidents what makes these individuals so special. It seems to me if what they are doing is so critical they shouldn't be carrying devices that let the whole world know where they are at any given moment in time in the first place. I think the reason people are not responding to this thread is tracking is just becoming more and more accepted. Anybody familiar with predictions of the singularity (when humans and machines merge)? Look around you, it might be closer than we realize...

Although Trump isn't that bright he's as slippery as an eel and it's amazing how someone with his personality can work the system. Look at what he's pulled so far and gotten away with... Grab some popcorn, find a chair, sit back and watch

Argus, I noticed your interests include "Good government", care to define that?

"CANADA... ONE OF THE BEST COUNTRIES ON EARTH TO LIVE THROUGH LOWERING STANDARDS AROUND THE WORLD!!!" We should be so proud... Jaycee is right, and there are thousands of examples. Take temporary foreign workers for example, companies bring people from poor foreign countries, cram them into houses they have bought and charge them 10x the rent they could charge locals while paying them less then local help. This was running rampant until someone brought it to the media's attention. It's interesting because when companies bring in temps to replace workers on sick leave etc. they have to pay a premium while they can pay less for temps from outside the country. They should be required to pay them ten percent over what they would pay locals. Companies also don't care about shareholders unless they are majority, board members or the CEO, yes you have a chance to make a few percent when things are good and you are a lucky investor but have they ever payed you back when things went south? I bet the board members still got their raises... The heads of companies will do whatever they can get away with to increase their income whether it be finding loopholes, bending or breaking laws or rules, bribery, turning streams, lakes, rivers, oceans and the sky into tailings ponds, slave labor, dangerous conditions, anything. This should be taught to children in schools, it would be interesting to see how they react. Let's tell them mining must be kept within Canada's rules while within our borders but has free reign outside, the people and the environment don't matter "over there" that's what charities are for, as long as they can maintain their runaway profits it doesn't matter how they do it outside our borders. Don't forget to throw some numbers and pictures at them, they should be thankful they live here etc.

Now I'm confused. Isn't voting for someone voting against everyone else? This sounds like sheep mentality, how does this put the best party in office? Your making voting sound like a game, do people place bets on this?

That's why you vote for the person you feel best to represent Canada, poling information has nothing to do with it. Poling is not "information" it's an estimate of where the candidates stand in relation to each other. Information is what the candidates and their parties stand for and what they can do for you and Canada.