dialamah

Hinshaw either misspoke or there's some other context in which that figure makes sense. Canada has had 1.13 million cases of Covid diagnosed, with 23,667 deaths. Thats a mortality rate of 2%. The States has had 31.8 million cases, and 567,000 deaths, a mortality rate of 1.7%. Brazil has had 367,00 deaths and 13.9 million infections, for a mortality rate of 2.7%. France, 1.01 million deaths and 141 million cases, death rate of 2%. You can visit this site and find out the mortality rate of any country. Maybe you'll be thankful to live in a country in which mortality is only around 2%, vs 6% or 12%, as some other countries have experienced. Shooting you down is like shooting fish in a barrel - almost everything you post is disproven by actual, easy to find data.

I'm expecting a tax increase regardless of who is elected, just as soon as the pandemic is over and done. I already pay taxes on my real estate, albeit not to the Feds. And if I had a rental property, or a vacation property, and sold it, I'd have to pay capital gains on that. So seems to me that's already taken care of. If there was a similar tax on the sales of primary residences, I think it'd just drive up the price of housing. After all, if I've got $XXX.XX worth of equity, and the government brings in a tax on any sale, then I'm going to want to ask enough to cover the tax above what I expect from my equity. But I think this is just a virtue-signaling tax - "Look how hard we're being on those nasty rich people, all you plebs!"

Worldometer: 2% of Canadians who caught Covid, died.

Whereas many hundreds of thousands have died from Covid, and many more hundreds of thousands have suffered long term and possibly permanent injury from Covid.

Wow, Aristides must be making some good points. Pretty sure you'd be at the top of any list about spreading misinformation about Covid, though, so be careful someone doesn't report you. You are hilarious. If there is such a law (and I can't find any evidence of one; only some news stories from a year ago), your anti-mask, anti-vaccine, anti-shutdown misinformation would make you a prime suspect. Aren't you one of those who are so concerned about those with a 'different' view being shut down by media and leftists, and eroding free speech? Yet here you are, suggesting that someone who has a different view than you should be shut down. So much for "free speech" if it offends you, I guess. Too funny!

Oh and good old Pew research did actually ask. In America, 33% believe in God, and around 18% in a higher power. That is compared to 95% of the general public believing in a higher power. And the survey was done in 2009, so numbers may be a little different now. I believe atheism is gaining ground everywhere.

Some do, and I think for some of them, it's more that they believe God had a hand in things, not that the Bible is a literal record. OTOH, I watched a documentary about American Evangelicals and there was one young woman who'd completed university with a scientific degree (can't remember what), specifically to prove the Bible was absolutely accurate. Some mental gymnastics going on there, but it takes all kinds I guess.

I was a devout Christian at one time. Probably not a sect you'd recognize as "Christian", but they had the usual beliefs about God, creation, science, gays, abortion, and unbelievers. In other words, I've already explored that world; it is not the least foreign to me. I'm not now, nor have I ever been, a die-hard "left-wing liberal". I came on this forum 5.5 years ago because I was interested in learning more about Canadian politics, and the difference, if any, between Liberal and Conservative - I didn't even know what camp I fell into. It has been educational, for sure, but not in the way I expected. And I'm still going to vote either Conservative or Liberal, as I deem appropriate, and as I have done my entire life.

I can't converse with you any more because I'm being subjected to advertisements with Bibles in them. You know how seeing Bibles will burn out the eyes of evil Liberal communist atheists, so I know you'll understand if I just leave you to your alternate reality, so the ads will return to patio furniture and dog food. ?

I mean the vast majority of scientists. If you choose to believe that tiny minority who disagree are the only ones who are truthful, and everyone else is part of some grand conspiracy, well, go ahead. You should also probably believe that smoking isn't harmful, seatbelts don't work, and that Bigfoot exists. Combining the word science with the Bible isn't information, it's just an attempt to shine up fairy tales and ignorance.

Funny, then, that climate scientists have been predicting the effect the greenhouse gasses we spew into the atmosphere for more than a century. Of course, the first scientists to say so were laughed at, but as the decades have passed and more has been observed and learned, the conclusion that the greenhouse gasses humans create affects our climate has become inescapable. In the 1990s or so, climate scientists predicted more extreme weather events happening more frequently .. and that prediction has been borne out by observation and data. How could scientists develop a theory, make predictions based on that theory, have the predictions come true decades later, if it was all made up by liberals? Climate change is slow, but slow is not the same as non-existent. I'll be dead and maybe my kids, too, but if we don't get a handle on this, my grandkids will have a tough time. Although, given that there's now evidence that our chemicals may be resulting in smaller penises and wide scale infertility, the effects of climate change may not matter. Hyperbolic nonsense. Please don't vote.

What if you are wrong? For the sake of argument, I'll agree that there is a God, who created this world and everything on it, including humans. He gave himans curiousity, intelligence, the ability to learn and build on knowledge. Using those gifts, man created plastic, and now that plastic ends up in the ocean, in the gut and flesh of marine animals; who do we blame for that? Bees around the world are dying as a result of pesticides humans created and put on crops, who do we blame for that? Those are just two tiny examples of how human behavior has impacted nature. There are many more. If God has given us intelligence, curiousity and the ability to learn, and we use those gifts in ways that destroy the gift of his earth, perhaps he also expects us to use the gifts he gave us to turn that around - to treat his gift with respect, rather than burying our heads in the sand and declare "it's not happening". Or blaming the liberals if it is happening. Anyway, attitudes like yours as a mainstay of the Conservative party are part of the reason why so many remain hesitant to vote Conservative, even if they don't like JT; at least Liberals acknowledge the problem, even if they're shit at actually doing anything about it.

If Conservatives weren't so determined to downplay, dismiss and ignore environmental and climate issues, and made an effort to come up with a better plan, maybe the "imposition" of carbon taxes would become a non-issue. All governments impose stuff on lower levels of government, and to some degree, on the citizens. That's business-as-usual, not "dictatorship.'. And just because you don't like a policy doesn't equal dictatorship; my opinion is that carbon taxes help reduce emissions and at this point, is better than nothing. But a better plan would be very welcome, whether from Conservatives or NDP or Liberal.

And our democratic institutions - free press, freedom of information - worked as they should-the public was informed, JT was (at least) embarrassed and many Canadians are looking at Trudeau differently. The organization that benefitted has shut down. That is pretty far from a banana republic. That the Conservatives aren't a shoe-in for the next election isn't because Canadians are stupid, or that they want to destroy Canada and live under communism; it's because Conservatives are not offering what Canadians want. That is how democracy works: the people decide which party/ideology they want for some limited period of time. Far from being communist, our democracy is working as it should. Blaming everyone else for the failures of Conservative leadership and core supporters isn't helping.

"Once" great country? What is the matter with Canada, exactly? Where else would you rather live because it's so much better? Sure there are problems - we ought to have been MUCH better prepared for a pandemic, and that we weren't is due to the lack of action of both liberal and Conservative governments. And the disinterest of citizens. Yes Trudeau has spent a lot of money trying to prevent our economy from collapsing, keep people in their homes and food on the table. It's laughable to claim that a Conservative gov would somehow have done better; Harper spent like a fiend to keep our economy afloat after the 2008 crash, just as a Liberal gov would have done. Not to mention virtually every country in the world has spent huge amounts of money trying to cope with this pandemic. Government communication can always be better, no doubt, but assuming a gov is lying or hiding info because they're giving updated information as we learn more about this virus, and vaccines, as time goes on, is ridiculous. There's a stark difference between hyperbolic criticism (Canada is turning into a communist country! The sky is falling!) and criticism that considers all relevant factors. Relevant factors exclude things like sock styles and hair styles.

What's your solution? Or do you even have one? What is the point of all your ranting and "proof" that Canada is descending into communism?

And then complains about not getting enough information.

There's a provincial salary lookup tool, but don't know if it includes Henry's position although it does include ministerial staff. Here: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/careers-myhr/all-employees/pay-benefits/salaries/salarylookuptool/management/management-bands. Sorry, don't really have time to see if she's included in the tool.

This assumes the information we're being provided is wrong or incomplete. What if we are being given all the relevant information? What if we are actually miles ahead of third world authoritarian countries in our transparency and disclosure? I work in a provincial gov position, and the standard of transparency and disclosure here sometimes surprises me. Things that I would have assumed would be private are not. In addition, if someone isn't satisfied, there are FOI requests which provides copies of documents and emails. Personally identifying information can be redacted, and not much else. We are constantly reminded that the public is entitled to transparency around our policies, procedures and decisions, and every year must repeat training around this. Gov is not perfect, being made of humans with flaws. Holding gov feet to the fire is a good practice, absolutely. But at the same time, automatically rejecting gov statements and declaring us no better than third world countries is not helpful and comes across as hyperbolic and paranoid.

We should stop doing business with China, but they are so entwined with the global trade, it'd be nearly impossible. And to be fair, doing trade with China and India and the US, and everywhere else, has helped all countries achieve a better standard of living relative to 100 years ago. It's also made some people extremely wealthy, the rich lobby to have taxes on them ever lower, the gov has to find funding somewhere, so it increasingly becomes the role of the non-wealthy to subsidize the rich. Income inequality increases, people become more frustrated and angry, and eventually this leads to bad outcomes - think guillotines. Income inequality also preceded the market collapse in 2008 and 1929 - and the fall of the Roman Republic. But I don't expect such a collapse to happen in my lifetime, and maybe it never will. It's just interesting to see similar cycles play out in history and compare them to our own time. Maybe we'll be smarter than the Romans and the French, and ourselves in 1929 and 2008. Eventually we'll figure it out, maybe.

A value we have as Canadians is helping our neighbors; capitalism encourages us to leave our neighbors behind. I'm no expert in economics, but I watch stuff (like Ted Talks), and read some. A country isn't a household, and the debt a country has isn't like the debt a household has. A country that runs a deficit to build roads and hospitals is investing in its future, and the future of its citizens. A populace that can afford to buy the products capitalism produces is creating the economy. Policies that erode the buying power of consumers simply means the government will end up supporting businesses through tax cuts, incentives and sometimes outright bailouts. For example, in the States (and probably Canada), Walmart employees also collect benefits because they're so poorly paid, while Walmart owners get stinking rich. Does this make sense to you? If "freebies" are bad, they should be bad for corporations and businesses, as well as individuals, imo. This isn't the fault of Conservatives specifically, imo. Both sides have done the same - but Conservatives want to be known as "fiscally responsible", aka no freebies for individuals.

Not you, but too many conservatives are batshit crazy with Q'anon, anti-masking, anti-vaccine, "freedom rallies", etc. I think that's part of why people are saying they'll take a relatively sane Liberal government over one that has to cater to nutjobs. That, combined with conservatives habit of cutting social programs while offering tax breaks to corporations is not a good look. The conservative mantra that businesses use money they save to create more jobs has been disproven through real-world results. They're also widely viewed as pro-business to the detriment of the environment. They also have the unfortunate reputation of being anti-progressive, which does not appeal to around 60% of the voting population. When the lower earners in Canada see how the rich get breaks and more breaks, while they struggle more and more - these "freebies" are their just due, not a bribe. And lower-earners are becoming a higher proportion of the population. I don't know if the conservatives will get re-elected any time soon, without some really fundamental changes in what they're offering. I suspect Trudeau will have to screw up a LOT for the conservatives to have a shot, unless they can start appealing to people who're suffering the most under capitalism and to distance themselves from nutjobs and religious fundamentalists.

It's been pretty well established that the virus moves more easily among populations that live in closer quarters (care homes, prisons, poorer neighborhoods, homeless camps, third world urban areas). Makes sense to me to vaccinate the populations that are the most vulnerable. Not to mention, acknowledging facts is not "explaining it away".