Thinkinoutsidethebox

LOL, it was a private business worker that sent my crate England to Mexico only to have to ship it back to England because it didn't fit in the plane to forward to Canada. It was a private business worker from another company that quoted me six times the rate I got to ship said package as well. It is engineers in a private business that can't stop the muffler brackets from breaking on a new peice of equipment I own, it is two private businesses that can't figure out the electronic sequencing on other new equipment I own. It was a private business that tried to charge me three times the quoted price to do work I requested. Government isn't the only organization with the people you describe, they are everywhere, at every level of education and in every position. How many headaches does your computer, tablet, phone create through the course of a day? Actually we had the incredible lifestyle well before the technology of the last twenty years. There are still many the system doesn't work for. YouTubers are whining because they have to work so hard to maintain followers, nothing's changed...

Prime Minister of Canada is a serious job?

What you say is true, Canada should stop copying the US and take care of itself. We should be encouraged to build for ourselves and then export the excess, now we are actually giving away our resources. It is like any organization, there are the minions and there are the individuals that actually get things done, remember, we elect their bosses. Not everybody can or wants to be a techie in a cubical. We are actually going backwards if our technology is making life more complicated. How much time do you waste troubleshooting your technology? Think about it...

Somebody should tell Jerry Dias what the middle finger means, it's exactly what GM is doing Ah the joys of foreign investment, let someone in, invest a bit, take profits and resources then abandon the locals when it's all dried up. They are not going to shut the plant down without a fight? What are they going to do? Chop their wages in half, eliminate the union?

Allow? Try "required"... To maintain the quality of life we've grown used to requires many extremely dirty processes. Mankind has always been driven to exploit resources for our purposes, enjoyment and profit, in the process we also need dumping grounds for our waste. As environmental and labour laws are tightened up and squeezing profits individuals and companies are driven to exploit the resources of regions with more lax or no rules. It appears we will always need these resources because if you look around countries we "helped" develop are returning to disarray and can be exploited once again. I wouldn't be surprised in a thousand years every nation on earth will cycle through destruction to third world status and rebuild to "developed". If AI is developed as predicted, maintains logic and becomes our master the cycle may be broken. Of course on the other hand if it becomes our enemy things could get real messy.

Carbon tax LOL. Anybody do a study on bow much CO2 is produced just implementing this scheme? How many trees harvested? How many people hired? Revenue neutral? How many people are even going to bother doing the paperwork to get their hundred dollars a year back? How many people are even aware they can get it back and who is actually going to spend it on actually reducing CO2 output? "There is now going to be a price on pollution, it is no longer going to be free to pollute". This coming from an individual that jets around the world to exotic locations to climate change conferences. Apparently this doesn't apply to him. Then the next sentence is we need to increase trade around the world (apparently transportation doesn't generate greenhouse gases) and increase petroleum exports (apparently releasing CO2 overseas doesn't count). It's no wonder there is an opioid crisis in this country, people are turning to drugs to escape the mixed messages and confusion our leaders are churning out every moment. Anybody think to study that?

Take that money and use it to produce what we import at home you have a viable solution. Let's take care of our own needs then worry about trade.

He hasn't changed, he was exactly the same in the seventies. Thing is allot of what he says makes perfect sense. It's too bad other leaders are not using what he's preaching for themselves instead of taxing their own citizens into oblivion with their "retaliatory" tariffs. Step back, look at what we are importing from the US (and others for that matter) and ask why we aren't doing this for ourselves. Instead of turning local companies into welfare cases to try and prop them up till Trump is eliminated, give them incentives to take care of Canada first. The next time a Trump comes along whenever or wherever we will not be so affected because Canada is taking care of itself. We have everything we need to make Canada great again...

Why doesn't Trudeau start to use the thousands of people that are sitting around coming up with useless statistics and information (pollsters for instance) and figure out what Canada's trade situation is with the US and the rest of the world, find out numbers of what we're exporting and importing then go from there. Then he could have a round table meeting with the provinces, figure out what and why we are squabbling over trade and setting barriers with each other all the time and work on fixing that. He claims he's Canada's prime minister it's time he shows some leadership instead of being the worlds poodle and running behind the rest. The fact that Alberta has to invest huge money into exporting crude at reduced prices so we can subsidize Ontario importing refined petroleum at world prices just blows me away. Ontario exports automobiles, why not supply for the Canadian market first then export excess? The same goes for every other industry in Canada. We have a dairy industry that's vibrant and taking care of itself, why not leave it alone. The US isn't the only country that we have trade issues with, there is always some country that's banning Canadian exports for whatever reasons, beef, chickpeas, canola, wheat are a few that come to mind recently, countries go to war, go broke, don't like the way we do business, steal our technology etc., I say we take care of our own first instead of trying to turn the whole population into truck drivers and paper pushers. Trump is the biggest idiot on the planet at this time no question but he is 100% correct about bringing industry back home. It's ironic that he will be doing more for the environment then anybody else just by reducing worldwide freight movement, look at this https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travel-truths/lost-container-ships-bizarre-world-of-global-shipping/ (if he succeeds...).

How much foreign investment was involved in the American freeway system? I believe it is still the biggest infrastructure project ever. ... While slowly bleeding Canada dry. Our children will be proud. It does by the simple fact it's part of the world. I'm not sure how that's "your logic". Why does Canada have to have a percentage removed from that world based price? If we produce what we import we wouldn't need to put so much effort into trade balance. The mess is Canadian elected officials running around the planet trying to secure trade deals instead of running the country and doing something about our runaway debt. Well, what was Canada's provincial and national debts back then? Our quality of life? People's opinion of life? Keep following the the thinking that got us here and see what the future brings...

Well, if "knocking the Indian" out of these children is considered a success story...

Ever hear of the British Empire? They owned half the planet (people included) from countrys they invaded. Or are the English not white? What's birth rate got to do with it?

Nonsense, where there is will there is a way. You don't need a bucket of foreign money to accomplish things. The reason foreigners are investing in Canada is they can exploit our resources and make huge profits. You all seriously underestimate Canadians and Canada's capabilities, I can't believe you have so little faith in this country. Canada is a follower who wants to play with the other kids. There are other even smaller countries who take the lead, think outside the box and are doing very well for themselves. We have everything we need except the will, it's one of the reasons people like Trump are getting elected. We are watching our country sink deeper and deeper into debt, we are virtually giving our resources away, we are exporting more and more manufacturing, talent and resourcefulness every day using the exact thinking you are promoting. Using the same thinking that got us into this mess is not going to get us out. Doesn't this country have think tanks? Are they trained monkeys prohibited from coming up with ideas that can actually save this country? Maybe we should fire the whole group and hire a bunch of kids...

Maybe the thinking needs to be revised... Selling companies off to foreign interests can't be good for Canada in the long term. The second things don't go their way they pack up and either take the work elseware or shut it down. Domesticly owned they at least put some effort into keeping it going. This capital argument is interesting, you say foreign investment is required for capital but after that all profits leave the country. Do economists consider that side of the equation? Maybe it's the reason Canada doesn't have enough capital in the first place.

Ah, we can't fix our domestic issues so let's go international, play with the big boys and really get bent over.

Canada had/has all the domestic capital it needs, we should stop giving our resources away. If the US can borrow money from an imaginary entity why can't we? How long do you think businesses would exist selling product at 25% discount then buying it back at retail plus refining and transportation? We need to stop being so dependent on foreign entities and take care of ourselves, we have all the resources we need including capital, brains, technology, labor, domestic markets, we just need to diversify and start filling our shortfalls. The US isn't our only problem with trade, at the drop of a hat China decides they are going to slap tariffs on Ag products, they decide to stop taking our garbage, We have to follow the US and other countries with sanctions against Russia, a bunch of countries are going broke and for some reason we just need to trade with countries with terrible human rights records the list goes on... Instead of being the nine year old that wants to play with the tanagers following them everywhere we should encourage growth from within and take care of our shortcomings. The more independent we become the more the world will turn to us for leadership. We have it all, people just don't have the vision or will power to make it work. And you know what's funny? It took me 45 years to figure it out

Banning drugs ain't working, may as well give it a try... https://mic.com/articles/110344/14-years-after-portugal-decriminalized-all-drugs-here-s-what-s-happening#.kFCDKHBMN https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11942245 Over regulation won't help.

It's no wonder voter turnout is so low... After reading this and listening to taxpayer funded "experts" state their point of view on taxpayer funded polsters Swag results (as stated by their disclaimers) and discussions on "strategic" voting, vote splitting and politians padding their platforms with fake promises to win votes why should we even bother? Polling during an electoral campaign is just a legal form of meddling. Polling during electoral campaigns should be banned, candidates run based on their original platforms, beliefs and track records, voters select who best represents their interests, simple as that.. Why is it human nature to over complicate everything?

Something occurred to me just a little while ago regarding our discussion on technology and the topic of this thread. Maybe the best place for self learning AI is in government, then we'd get decisions based on logic instead of political biases. The parties from all sides could enter their arguments, the algorithm would be designed to consider all arguments plus data and considerations not covered by the participants then offer the best solution. Take big brother from Canada's bedrooms and put it into the hallowed halls of our political institutions...

That is true... At this stage it is more passive and limited to devices. Do you think smart homes will catch on? Having the likes of Alexa, Home or Echo watching and listening to your every move should be creeping people out and there is no viable benefit.

You both think human beings will be comfortable being monitored every second of our lives from birth to death? People sitting around telling their virtual assistants what to do? Personally I think humankind will always need a barrier between us and AI. As much as silicone valley is burning up profits trying to figure out the next fad they have run into a barrier that might be difficult to overcome. AI assistants will have a hard time becoming more than just a novelty because they are just a middleman between you and your life, basically an irritant. I've heard Google duo can make appointments for you, sounds just like a real human, it'll never be able to make decisions on your behalf, it doesn't know what your thinking. If it does you've given up full control, is that what we want? May as well call and make the appointment in person...

Well, are we one country or not? Maybe it's time a leadership candidate incorporates that into his/her platform. "Canada first" should be Canadians first priority if we are supposed to be patriotic.

I may be a bit out of the loop but I don't use virtual assistants myself and I've never seen anybody use them. I don't dictate to my computer, phone or tablets, I still type everything. I try it at times but it just doesn't fit and I find I lose more time trying to use it than if I go back to doing things manually. Maybe I'm wrong but I get the feeling the only users of these products are the developers and diehard geeks, is your world different? I'm not sure that humankind is willing to accept the invasiveness of AI and wonder if the actual use of these technologies is soon to plateau, at least for awhile. I have kids and several nieces and nephews and they were pretty exited when they first got into high tech but have all backed off considerably and use them mainly for some entertainment and communication. I don't understand what cloud computing is supposed to accomplish, if robots are supposed to replace human labour but the humans displaced are supposed to control the robots why not just have humans do the job? What are we actually accomplishing if we are taking the pride and enjoyment of a job well done ad putting ourselves into a cubical to babysit and maintain machines? We are not the masters if we spend our lives chasing, troubleshooting and maintaining machines. My opinion

Funny how nobody seems to see that... Why not take care of the domestic market first then export what's left? The masses blindly follow the "experts" and politicians, nobody wants to step back and look at the big picture. Climate change and NAFTA are another couple of examples of this.

Your view is interesting, what you're saying is humankind is moving from using the machine to serving it? I'm noticing a trend and it doesn't matter what political color is running the country. Our goal is to evolve into beings that never leave our climate controlled cubical. Globalization wants to put everyone into truck cabs and offices processing paperwork, technology wants to make the rest of us mechanics and IT professionals. The human being is a fascinating creature. We put the washer and dryer on the main level so we don't have to use the stairs then put a stair master in the next room, we buy a car so we don't have to walk then buy a treadmill or drive to the gym and use theirs. We mine, process and ship raw materials around the world (sometimes several times) to be made into finished products to be shipped back to us. We want to eliminate climate change but are doing everything we can to cause more. And again it doesn't matter what political stripe you are.