blackbird

Carney doesn't seem to understand Canada's place in the world. Canada is not a super power and in fact is a very minor player. Canada neglected its responsibility to meet 2% for NATO and is pretty much a weakling in the world. Carney should stop acting as if Canada is some kind of major player or superpower. Canada depends on the U.S. for its security and Trump knows it. Liberals should start acting like it instead of being pompous know-it-alls concerning Israel and the middle east problem. Electing Carney and the Liberals, that have no use for Israel while America strongly supports Israel, is proving to be a recipe for disaster for Canada. Carney is a U.N. / Vatican servant, climate fighting globalist, the exact opposite of what Trump and many Americans believe in. No wonder Trump is much opposed to Canada. It is the globalist liberal anti-Israel PM that Trump has a problem with. To top it off, making that kind of announcement in the middle of trade negotiations is an insane provocation. He was elected to represent Canada in dealing with Trump, not push his own globalist agenda.

Israel denies that the population is starving. Perhaps Hamas is creating a certain scenario to stage before all those "independent" journalists. You wholeheartedly believe everything you see on the screen without having a clue as to whether it is representative of the whole population or just a staged show in a certain area.

Are you calling the NDP a "centrist party"? They are really radical left closer to Communist. Were you aware Jagmeet endorsed the Cuban Communist revolution and said it helped the people? Communists have always been anti-Semites. No surprise there. But the fact they would feel the need to announce their support of what Carney announced shows how anti-Israel they are. The Liberals and NDP are just stoking anti-Semitism in Canada which has become much worse in the west since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 two years ago. That is exactly as Hamas wants it. They gladly accept any more support to increase anti-Semitism they can get. Expect to see more anti-Semitic acts of vandalism or terrorism in Canada since Carney did this. All Carney is doing is playing into the hands of anti-Semites.

They are doing a great job for Hamas in being there and painting a picture to make Palestinians look like the victims. Pure propaganda. First of all, what are these "independent journalists" doing in Gaza? What are they doing in the middle of a war zone? They are not independent journalists. They are obviously working for the anti-Israel global gang. They are there to create an anti-Israel narrative, exactly what Hamas wants and loves. If Hamas really wants peace, why didn't they release the hostages long ago and surrender entirely?

Notice that the NDP announced it strongly supports Carney's announcement to recognize Palestine as a state in September. PM Starmer in the UK made the same kind of announcement recently. Notice it is the left wing "progressives" who are most keen to recognize a so-called two state solution.

Israel says they are not starving them. How do you know who is telling the truth? Israel has always been a "global pariah". The Jews have been a global pariah for much of the past 1,700 to 2,000 years. If you read history on the Jews, you would know they have been persecuted for most of history throughout Europe and other places in the world. The U.N. has been passing mostly anti-Israel resolutions since Israel was re-established in 1948. Most of the world thinks the conflict in the middle east is mainly Israel's fault, while they are just defending their country. The hatred for Israel is reflected in the resolutions passed by the U.N. through the past 75 years. Canada is part of that U.N. gang and a devout follower since it was formed.

you seem to think Gaza is full of peace-loving normal people perhaps like you might find in a normal country. Perhaps you think like that because we are living in a country where most people are normal peace-loving people. That is not how it is in the middle east, particularly with Palestinians. Gaza is full of Hamas supporters who are brainwashed into believing Israel should be destroyed. That is how the young people are trained to think. That makes them a major threat to Israel. So what do you do with a group of people like that? Just let them come into your country and suicide bomb you and kill your people?

You are assuming everything that is happening in Gaza is Israel's fault. How do you know the news reports are not entirely biased and one-sided to paint a certain picture benefiting Hamas? How do you know the situation you see on the news was not engineered by Hamas ? How would you eliminate Hamas?

Carney's announcement this week to recognize a state of Palestine is proving to be the most ill-conceived announcement possible. Firstly, for several important reasons it demonstrate the complete ignorance of the situation in the middle east. Secondly, he did it just at the point we are trying to reach a trade agreement with the U.S. Being the PM surrounded by advisors, he should have known that kind of announcement would provoke a very strong negative reaction from Trump and could blow up any possible trade agreement. "But Carney's announcement on Wednesday that he will formally recognize the state of Palestine in September has apparently thrown a wrench in the negotiations. 'Wow! Canada has just announced that it is backing statehood for Palestine,' Trump wrote on his Truth Social page Wednesday night. 'That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them. Oh Canada!!' " "But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has railed against the efforts, saying Starmer has rewarded 'Hamas's monstrous terrorism' while punishing its victims. 'A jihadist state on Israel's border today will threaten Britain tomorrow. Appeasement towards jihadist terrorists always fails. It will fail you too. It will not happen,' the Israeli PM added. Israel's Foreign Ministry echoed Netanyahu's words, adding: 'The shift in the British government's position at this time... constitutes a reward for Hamas and harms efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and a framework for the release of hostages.'" Trump issues warning to Canada over Palestine recognition pledge Carney and his government are sending the wrong message. They are telling Hamas and other terrorist groups there is a reward for what you are doing. Carving Israel into two and putting it in an extremely vulnerable position is exactly what the enemies of Israel want. It is interesting that Carney and the Liberals have such an inflated ego that they think what they say matters so much and will make such a difference in the world. They think poking their nose into the middle east situation by making announcements will change things. Not much chance of that. The U.N. has been making pronouncements for 70 years mostly against Israel. It has accomplished nothing. Israel is the country under attack by surrounding Islamic terrorist groups in the middle east and they are the ones who must decide how they must defend themselves. Canada is getting exactly what they voted for in Carney, lots of bravado but little substance.

No, we're not a break-away province. B.C. was a British colony until it joined Confederation around 1881. Canadians are happy with being a Constitutional Monarchy and an independent country. You are wasting your time just trying to annoy people on here.

Those are not given to individuals. Pipelines and natural gas export benefits all Canadians through royalties and taxes the federal government receives. BC residents don't receive any personal benefit from the pipelines or shipping natural gas. A small number of people might have a job in the industry but that's not the same as giving everyone that uses the ferries in the maritimes a reduced ferry rate. The reduced ferry fares in the maritimes is a direct grant to individual users. BC has ferries too but didn't receive that.

Put that 51st baloney where it deserves to be, in a deep hole in the ground. Canada existed well before Confederation in 1867. It was just a different name, British North America.

I think it is a possible national issue. Alberta is planning to have a referendum. Quebec already held two referendums on separation. Many provinces are not happy with the present situation. I think immigration should fall under the power of each region to govern themselves. The federal government has made a mess of it.

I don't think you would ever get Quebec to agree to be lumped in with the maritime provinces. They have a fairly large population of about 8.5 million anyway and we have to respect their will to govern themselves in certain areas such as language and culture. They would never give that up. That's why we would need Ontario and Quebec to each be a separate region.

You asked about inequities. Just look at the chart on the link on Aristides link. It shows federal government expenditures were far more, nearly double in fact, to maritime provinces compared with the rest of Canada. To put it another way, although all Canadians paid roughly the same average income taxes, the federal government spent nearly double per capita on the people in the maritime provinces. That is a major inequity. I never knew this before. This is a major revelation. I don't think most Canadians even know about this.

I am sure we could deviate and start debating various issues and the unfairness about various decisions, but that is not the main point. I am simply pointing out the undemocratic nature of the present system. Another issue is the unelected senate. Also a Supreme Court that is out of touch with the Canadians on many of their rulings. They are not elected either and just appointed by the party in power. It is a very erratic system because of the way it is appointed. The main point here is how decisions are made. To be truly democratic, decision-making has to have a numerical fairness to it. That is why the present system is not really democratic. Perhaps if the country was divided up into a number of regions and each region had a number of MPs based on their population, it would make more sense. A regional system might be more fair if the numbers between regions were nearer to each other. For example, The western region could be made up of Manitoba, Sask., Alberta, B.C. and include the Yukon, Northwest Territory and Nunavut. Other regions could be Ontario as one region, Quebec as one region and the rest of the Atlantic provinces as one region. We would then have four regions with populations much larger in each region. That would make more sense. Instead we have Nunavut with 40,758 people given the same voice at meetings of Premiers/provinces. It is ludicrous really. Now that provinces and territories are holding meetings periodically to make major decisions, that should at least be done on a democratic basis. Not one province with 135,000 people or one territory with 40, 758 people given the same voice as provinces with 8.5 million people as Quebec has or 14.2 million people as Ontario has. It is easy to see the inequity in this. This is not democracy at all. The larger provinces are being short-changed.

The population of PEI is about 135,000. The population of Nunavut is 40,758. The population of Ontario is 14.2 million. Yet the Premiers of the provinces get together regularly to make vital decisions affecting Canada. It seems ludicrous that provinces with only a very small population like PEI and Nunavut should have the same voice on this committee of provinces as the provinces like Ontario with 14.2 million and Quebec with 8.5 million people or even B.C. which has a population of 5 million. This is contrary to the principle of democracy which is representation by population. PEI, NS, Nfld, and NB should be combined into one province in the Constitution. Than can still keep the same names they have but should be one province. Nunavut shouldn't even be a province. It is completely irrational that they be a province when their population is no larger than a small city or large town with 40,758 people. Even the city of Prince George is almost twice the size with about 75,000 people. Vancouver Island has a much better case to be a separate province than PEI, NB, and Nfld. The population of Vancouver Island is 865,000. The population of N.B. is 775,610, which is less than Vancouver Island. We really need a fair Constitutional conference that gives everyone as fair voice and vote and draw up a new Constitution redrawing provincial boundaries based on fairness and population. Nunavut gets around the system because they are called a territory, but they are given a seat at the conference of provinces just as if they are a province. Same with the Yukon and NWT. They should not be able to have a separate seat in conferences of provinces. These provinces with small populations have just as much voice and vote in these meetings as the much larger provinces. What is just as bad is FNs groups demanding a seat at the conference of provinces. 5% of the population want to dictate to the other 95% of Canadians how things should be run.

Marine Atlantic is an independent crown corporation. No different from BC Ferries. TreeBeard spends his life making up phony posts just for entertainment. They are meant to stir further argument and disagreement.

Many know that another expensive social program would just push Canada deeper into debt. We are already quite far in debt and Canadians must pay the interest through their taxes. That means less government revenue available for the various other social programs we already have. Strange that the NDP lefties can't understand this. Social programs don't just pay for themselves out of thin air. Many Canadians already have pharmacare coverage through the companies they work for. A new government program would throw all that into question and would mean people who can afford to pay for their existing employment based programs would be paying for something everyone else is receiving from government mandate. How would that be fair or equitable? It wouldn't. There is already a government-funded pharmacare program in B.C. that pays for medications when a person reaches a certain cost in a given year. After that the pharmacare pays the rest. These days, governments need to show some restraint because big pharma companies are already raking in a fortune for certain medications and there has to some kind of restraint on it. Drugstores also get a good cut. Doctors renew prescriptions every three months and really how much of that is necessary every three months. There are doctor's fees, drugstore dispensing fees and time and trouble getting prescriptions renewed and filled. I think some of it is just a ripoff because many drugs are taken for many years so why do they require a renewal every 90 days? It's a scam. Governments should really take a close look at that and see if there is some way they can change the system to stop all the unnecessary renewals every 90 days and perhaps put them on an annual renewal system for some drugs.

Daniel Smith said two days ago: "Here’s the fact: Canadians want more pipelines. It’s time to deliver affordable energy across the country, boost our exports, and finally start acting like the energy-rich nation we are and not a country that’s holding itself back."

That is false. "In 2024, the trade relationship between Canada and the U.S. is as follows: Canada exports approximately $435.17 billion worth of goods and services to the U.S.. The U.S. exports around $349 billion worth of products to Canada. Overall, the total trade value between Canada and the U.S. reached $884.16 billion. This highlights the significant economic ties and trade relationship between the two countries. 2 Sources All you seem to be able to do is repeat the Trump or MAGA kind of lies. The biggest lie on trade is Trump saying Canada is ripping off the U.S. He is wrecking the trade system for what? For an imaginary belief that the U.S. will be better off without the existing free trade system? Sure he is bringing in lots of tariff revenue, but he is also devastating the livelihoods of many businesses, workers, and the consumers who depend on all the imported goods. How is that good for America?

I think the feds are favouring the martimes because that is where they get a lot of Liberal votes. Not so much from Vancouver Island. We saw the same scenario when the feds stopped the carbon tax on certain types of heating systems in the maritimes, but not in the rest of Canada. Again votes count.

How can Parks Canada have a mandate that is contrary to the Charter of Rights? That's absurd.

Lots of websites say this is false. "Politicians, the media, and the public express concern that immigrants depress wages by competing with native workers, but 30 years of empirical research provide little supporting evidence to this claim. Most studies for industrialized countries have found no effect on wages, on average, and only modest effects on wage differentials between more and less educated immigrant and native workers. Native workers’ wages have been insulated by differences in skills, adjustments in local demand and technology, production expansion, and specialization of native workers as immigration rises. Cons There is some evidence of a negative effect of newly settled immigrants on the wages of earlier immigrants. The positive wage effects of immigration are weaker in countries with rigid labor markets, which may even experience some negative employment effects. In some southern European countries, immigrants have been more concentrated among less educated workers. " "aUTHor’S Main MeSSaGe While the literature reports a range of wage effects of immigration, most estimates are small and, on average, essentially zero. Recent evidence shows that immigration is likely to boost firm productivity and the wages of native workers in the long run by stimulating firm growth and contributing a range of skills and ideas. More open immigration policies, which allow for balanced entry of immigrants of different education and skill levels, are likely to have no adverse effects on native workers’ wages and may pave the way for productivity growth." do-immigrant-workers-depress-the-wages-of-native-workers.pdf When you have more people earning money, you have greater demand for more services and that creates more spin-off jobs as well.

Who cares? What's this got to do with anything?