SpankyMcFarland

If China continues under CCP rule it will have to take Taiwan at some point. The appalling reality of Han Chinese living prosperous and free lives next door will be too much to tolerate indefinitely. We can only hope the bloody nose they got in Vietnam all those years ago will deter them for a few more decades.

OK. Implement PP’s program in Newfoundland and Labrador. Tell me how it plays out here. We have a high unemployment rate by national standards and yet we can’t find workers for many jobs. BTW Rempel brought up very little about this that I heard on CBC. Why not be an adult and modify an existing program rather than talk of abolishing it and bringing in vague alternatives? Modifying is better than abolishing and replacing for people at the pointy end of policy.

From a Tory policy point of view this could be win-win for PP. if Carney does nothing he can continue to talk it up but if Carney drastically restricts the program, inflation will tick up, services will disappear, old folks will die and he can raise his hands in horror.

I liked what PP previously had to say about fast-tracking skilled foreigners, eg, doctors. If you don’t want us all at the penile end of Ontario, be reallstic about a purely Canadian workforce option.

This is a complex matter. At the very least, Poilievre should watch he doesn’t end up sounding like the amazing foreign worker who somehow became our head of state: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/19/coronavirus-royal-family-prince-charles-pick-fruit

I saw Rempel trying to defend this populist move on Power and Politics the other day. Her heart wasn’t really in it, especially after Cochrane actually presented real world examples of Canadian workers being very hard to find in outback Canadian locales like his own province of NL which I can confirm right the way through the social spectrum. From Tim Hortons to the GP clinic we would be royally screwed out here without foreigners. They do the work. Meanwhile my taxes pay for a ‘local’ med school that supplies doctors exclusively for the city - apparently wifi not good enough here plus so much call sucks. Indeed, some of these precious darlings come with a long list of what they won’t do out in the sticks. Do you want us all to move to a shanty town around Toronto? Banlieue might sound better until you see it. If PP wants to MODIFY the program, fair enough, but he should do his homework first. National economic change needs to be carefully considered, sensitive to regional differences, and gradual. Do I have to say that?

Straw man? That’s exactly how some of the victims interpreted what he said. Show me Trump speaking with nuance every time he brings this matter up in the manner you suggest, detailing exactly what he means and doesn't mean by Democrat hoax like a normal politician could, and I might take your objection more seriously. As for ‘some nefarious reason’…well it’s not just Dems who are becoming suspicious at this stage as I pointed out above. Quite a few Republicans and people with no political affiliation want to see the files released. Details of any victim who doesn't want to be identified can easily be redacted. We don’t know what’s there but pressure is mounting to find out what they contain. Of course there are many reasons other than evidence of personal wrongdoing that Trump might want the files withheld.

Trump is as sure-footed on Epstein as he is on the subject of favourite verses from the Bible but in this instance he can’t get away with claiming his opinions are too personal to reveal. Very late in life he ended up leading a political party that he still does not fully understand.

Jagmeet Singh made so many basic mistakes on image and policy. For example, that Rolex. Firstly, where were the (expletive deleted) handlers? Secondly, why would they be needed on such a basic messaging point if their leader had an ounce of awareness about his role? He should also have given serious consideration to ditching the turban and beard, especially when his relationship with the Khalistan crowd was, let’s say, ambivalent. Terry Milewski was at his absolute sneering best with him on that, knowing the subject inside out. By contrast, Ujjal Dosanjh already offered a clear model of secularized Canadian Sikhism he should have followed and had the actual scars to prove it. Yes, Singh was a good and talented person but he just didn’t have a clue on how to stop the shots coming his way as an ethnic minority leader from a privileged background heading a left-wing party. If I were trying to revive the party (and as a Chrétien Liberal my heart isn’t really in this) I would be looking for a hard-headed, genuinely working-class individual, perhaps with a union background, who would compete with Carney on collective bargaining when big strikes happen and the Tories on foreign temporary workers. Don’t let any potential voter go without a fight, except maybe to the Greens. Listen to what working-class Canadians actually want and be angry about their unmet needs.

I don’t mind that I pay more than most for this tax. On my cul-de-sac we get the same snow clearing as roads of similar length with many times the number of households. In Ireland they abolished a similar rates system fifty years ago and have been regretting it ever since. Keep politics as local as possible.

I’m not a fan of hip-hop and had expectations turned down accordingly but this show was utterly brilliant. I’d encourage anybody to see it who hasn’t done so.

From an optics point of view, Trump was ill-advised to speak baldly and repeatedly of the Epstein affair as a “Democrat hoax”. Epstein’s victims gathered at the Capitol today. The obvious reply occurred: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/jeffrey-epstein-survivors-set-speak-capitol-hill/story?id=125211468 Khanna and Massie have 216 votes and need only two more to force a public vote on releasing the files. Mace, Boebert and Mad Marge herself all support this move. For Republicans it is opening a divide along gender lines. https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/three-republicans-defy-trump-back-140907988.html Anybody trying to stop full disclosure now is on a fool’s errand.

With his rightward move, Carney has created space for the NDP if they have the wit to use it. On fundamental economic matters they have a stronger message than Poilievre’s Tories who can only appeal to working-class people on social issues. If we see more industrial strife, then protecting collective bargaining will become an important issue and a natural NDP one.

American civilization sounds like an interesting idea. Let’s see if it happens.

Let he who is without sin in this regard get all wound up about it. We are all racist. If we learned to accept this we wouldn’t be amazed every time we see it again. Some of you seem to have led rather sheltered lives. Go to South Africa and talk to, say, the South Asians there about their fellow citizens.

I am well aware of what happened in India. Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims all lost their lives in huge numbers in the partition there. That was wrong and what happened in Palestine was wrong too. One wrong does not justify the other. As a secular social democrat I believe religion should play no part in the running of the state. Unfortunately, governments in Sri Lanka and Pakistan and more recently in India itself have all chosen to stoke sectarian conflict for political advantage. Muhammad’s story is indeed an odd one for a religious leader but there are a fair few rum coves in the Old Testament too - a weird book for modern readers. We have to bear in mind that these were in part desert survival guides where danger was constantly looming.

Talk about jumping the gun here. Let’s wait and see the facts of the matter and how the case plays out.

It’s a bit odd how very sensitive some anti-woke people turn out to be to racism against one particular group all of a sudden - quite the turnaround on the right of the political spectrum.

The history of the world is one of war between tribes, sects, countries etc. The expulsion of Jews from Israel occurred on multiple occasions even before Islam appeared, eg under Roman rule. But does that mean that nobody but Israelis and Palestinians can discuss this issue? Should we be discussing it? I know of Christians who still live in Pakistan. It’s not easy. But it’s not great for religious minorities in many South Asian countries, including India, of course. In many northern states there, Christians are having a hard time these days. There are good and bad people in every religion. I’ve met them. I’ve worked with them.

Roberts’ Supreme Court has backed Trump’s authoritarian moves on multiple occasions. Unfortunately for America and the world we may see more of the same from it on this matter. Let’s hope for the best.

It is already highly publicized because it is a catastrophic event.

The person to blame for this does not reside in Canada.

Property taxes are the least worst taxes I pay. I can see where they are going and I can at least bend the Mayor’s ear if I don’t like where they are going.

I must say I find it demoralizing to have to fly the wrong way across much of a continent to get a flight to Europe in the winter time from here. It’s a pity that kind of thing can’t be integrated better between the US and Canada. Plus I absolutely hate Pearson at this stage. What a dump. I should bring my hiking boots and a tent next time I try and get across it. Detroit, yes Detroit, has a much nicer airport.

It’s a complex issue of which I know very little and I hope I didn’t sound dogmatic there. I am much more gung-ho about foreign competitors in telecom where I know we are being ripped off than in the airline and retail banking sectors. Yes, the whole airline industry has to be looked at - our airports seem to be costly to land at - and we wouldn’t want the likes of Ryanair cherry-picking routes like Toronto to Vancouver. I was surprised to see that route is the busiest in North America.