Zeitgeist

I agree with you about immigration. I think that going after people’s cottages and investment properties or investments in general is ultimately lowering our living standards and productivity. People and free markets and opportunity create wealth for all. Increasing taxes in order to create more government programs for some people but not others is redistribution of income from those who made that money to those who didn’t. Well, some of that is necessary, but our rapid growth in government workers and government programs at the expense of those best equipped to leave Canada and invest elsewhere isn’t a sustainable plan.

So you think it’s more efficient and cost effective, and better for the wealth creation of citizens, to let governments run and own all rental housing? Ah!!!!! That’s why we left the Soviet Union.

In a big country like Canada, with the right regulations and a healthy economy, every Canadian middle class family should be able to afford a modest cottage and even an investment property. That’s what we used to have and many middle class Americans have. Instead our shrinking middle class is living in small homes on small lots. Increasingly these are rented. Young people aren’t having kids because they can’t afford them and many aren’t even considering owning a home, let alone an investment property. Get the damn commies out of office, slash government programs, government bureaucracy, regulations, and taxes. Restore the Canadian Dream.

Good opinion letter in Calgary Sun: “Didn’t think it through My wife and I are not wealthy, we live off CPP and OAS. Hearing the NDP want to tax the rich, I thought, OK, Canada needs the money. Until I read reports including an insightful one from Bloomberg News. Past socialist governments in France initiated a wealth and capital gains tax. It cost the French government almost twice as much as yielded by the wealth taxes. Many charities lost donations, causing some to demand taxpayer support. Many students lost bursaries. Donations were reduced to hospitals, colleges and universities. Over 10,000 wealthy people left France. When these individuals left, France lost their wealth tax revenue, their income taxes, and their local spending. The idea was scrapped in 2020. These tax increases may sound good but be careful what you ask for. They may cost us more in the end. Young people are supposed to be happy with increased national debt. What a legacy the Liberals have left them. TOM BURNS”

The challenge for Poilievre will be undoing the structural mess this radical left government has enshrined. How will they cut the 40% additional bureaucracy created under Trudeau? How will they eliminate programs geared to the least productive people?

The writing is on the wall for Canada if we continue on the current course of stupid priorities and overspending on government fluff: https://nationalpost.com/opinion/the-nadir-of-our-once-great-nation

You don’t come across as “normal”; you come across as in denial or willfully ignorant. Your attitude is that of the bystander at a crime scene who “doesn’t want any trouble” and takes off to make it home for dinner because justice is hard and you don’t want to answer questions from police. The fact that you don’t see any of the questions I’ve raised as pressing or important really takes you out of the equation for recognition, because if you’re not interested in ensuring honesty and fairness in your country, I’m not interested in following you.

Man, you really don’t want to know what’s up. Ignorance is bliss. I actually get it. Most people have too much going on to think much beyond today, including me.

Bury your head in the sand and listen to lullabies on earbuds until you shed this mortal coil.

Um…no. There are too many unanswered questions. Here are just a few little gems: Why were Chinese scientists working on gain of function viruses at a Canadian bio lab, bringing the research and viruses to Wuhan, and sharing information with members of the Communist Party of China? Why was countervailing evidence on vaccines actively suppressed by media at government behest? When the counter evidence seemed to be true, the language government and media used to describe it changed from misinformation to malinformation, basically information they didn’t like or that disagreed with official narratives. Why were vaccines mandated, especially during the Omicron spread when it was clear that getting Omicron was about as safe and effective against getting further Covid as getting the vaccine? Why are governments able to redact information from being shared with the public when it’s clear that it was government actions that were the greatest threat to national security? Why was the bio lab Covid leak origin of Covid-19 idea actively suppressed? What exactly was being created in our bio labs? Clearly it’s not a secret to our foreign adversaries, so Canadians deserve to know. Why weren’t the non-Covid impacts of lockdowns, mandates and restrictions taken into greater account? Why was the Emergencies Act imposed on peaceful protests? Why were bank accounts frozen? Why does Canada sign onto pandemic and other treaties with international bodies without parliamentary debate or accountability? Damn right we have questions. I don’t want to re-live that nightmare. It wouldn’t take long to come up with a lot more questions, but if even these ones could be satisfactorily answered I would take my bat home.

Yes. The measures seemed like a great test of just how far governments could go to control human behaviour on a mass scale. That aspect of the pandemic was more worrying to me than getting Covid. I always knew that it had to go through the population and the vulnerable had to be extra cautious. The vaccines provided hope and extra protection, but that protection proved to be minor later in the pandemic, and there were side effects for some people. We didn’t know the long term effects.

The measures were blunt instruments that didn’t need to be imposed on most people. They should’ve been highly recommended for people of certain ages, weights, and health profiles, certainly after the vaccines became available. In the end the disease had to run through the entire population and the vaccine had only minor impact. Early on I understand that we didn’t know what we were dealing with. People always had access to available information and could take measures to protect themselves. The excuse of not overwhelming the healthcare system said more about the weakness of our healthcare system than anything else. Were some measures necessary? Of course, but measures should be measured and often the health and other impacts of these measures weren’t properly taken into account. Many people came away feeling that the government was overbearing and extreme. It exposed the carelessness, slowness, and self-preservation of the authorities. Half the population went along and accepted it all. Half questioned the measures any were publicly denigrated for it. The Emergencies Act really looked bad on the federal government. I think the Trudeau government has done more damage to Canada than any government I’ve learned about in Canadian history. Nevertheless, they influenced enough opinion through media and the bureaucracy to keep half the country on-side, or they did. I think most Canadians want them gone now. What the pandemic taught me is that the Canadian state is too controlling and its constitutional protections are weak. Government should be minimized and stay in its lane of responsibilities. Our government redistributes money from earners and uses it to have a government program for everything, like it or not. They prop up media, threatening the ability to have a free press. They’ve become beholden to radical left special interest groups that favour some groups over others. It’s really damaged Canada’s brand. Even many US Democrats see it.

The impacts of the lockdowns, mandates, and privations are still with us. We didn’t need all this. The vaccines are probably only helpful to a small segment of the population at this point. If you want them, they’re there. Enjoy.

Canada is becoming this gross leftist groupthink where the entire bureaucracy, mainstream media, courts, Governor General, and the protected monopolies all sing from the same woke song sheet. Many of them don’t like it and know it’s fake but it keeps them employed like little apparatchiks in the faceless hive. No questioning or diversity of thought. Anyone who questions is labeled “alt right.” Eww

Go back to your favourite gulag.

Mm hm. You do you.

Well that indicates the psychological impacts of constant media bombardment. Whether or not any of the messaging was true or good, and at least some of it wasn’t, doesn’t change the fact that constantly telling people to behave a certain way and fear behaving otherwise will change behaviour on a mass scale. Comparisons to 1930’s Germany and Orwell’s 1984 apply for sure. And no, that doesn’t mean I’m calling the Liberals Nazis (got it, Eyeball?). It’s been referred to as mass formation psychosis. The results are tragic for some who still can’t shed the fear instilled during the pandemic. I don’t think it was worth it. It’s critically important that people don’t accept that which is contestable as Truth. It’s also important that critical thinking is preserved and encouraged. No crisis makes it acceptable to sacrifice basic human rights, yet we did a bit of that, and we’re still paying for it psychologically and politically.

Yes, and Canadians outside Quebec are questioning the value of pumping a disproportionately high amount of tax revenue into Quebec with few benefits for the rest of Canada, not to mention the already baked in preferential rules for Quebec on immigration, pensions, etc. in our asymmetrical federation. All options available to Quebec should be available to all provinces. The Conservatives understand the value of ensuring that all provinces have as much power and self-determination as possible. The federal government should only be focusing on their essential responsibilities and getting them right: defence, ports, air travel, Canada Post, passports, etc.

Yes, and the island of Montreal city councillors always vote for Montreal to stay in Canada. The Montrealers always vote to stay in Canada. As Quebec inevitably becomes more multicultural to survive (given the pure lain Quebecers’ negative birth rate), the foreign born population is majority federalist because they fear the ethno-nationalists in Quebec.

I actually think Canada needs to hold back funding to Quebec until the out of province tuition fees are lowered and the settler tax removed. Treating fellow Canadians like foreigners gives non-Quebecers the right to treat Quebec like a foreign country. We don’t pay for services and infrastructure in foreign countries. Anglophone rights in Quebec must also be guaranteed.

Yeah Quebec is a high-priced, high maintenance infertile aging girlfriend that the rest of Canada props up for no clear reason other than sentimental feelings for a history that our own government disparages as settler colonial. Quebec’s radical secularism also illustrates that Quebecers are turning their backs on their own cultural roots, as publicly funded Catholic education is only maintained now in English Canada. The irony…

Quebec has a great history and culture, and they’ve had lots of protection of their culture and industries by government, especially the government of Canada. Bombardier, Quebecor, Hydro Quebec, Cirque de Soleil, etc. are some examples. However, they’re the highest taxed jurisdiction in North America. They prevent the transfer of Alberta oil and gas to the East Coast. Their infrastructure at times looks third world. Quebec receives billions in transfers and pet program funding from the rest of Canada, which props up the French language in North America for Quebec. What’s the upside for Canadians outside Quebec? They even have to pay international tuition fees in Quebec. Canadians who move to Quebec from other provinces have to pay a settlement fee. Quebec treats Canadians outside Quebec like foreigners, so why should Canada fight to keep Quebec? The Americans shake their heads.

I’m not as bullish on BC because of its socialist policies, but if they could integrate with Alberta, then yes, big possibility there. I pretty much lump Saskatchewan in with Alberta as they have very similar outlooks and would probably maintain close ties and thrive. Manitoba is that transitional province from Ontario to the West and it would probably remain closely tied to both. Canada could probably thrive as a whole country without Quebec as long as we keep control of the St. Lawrence Seaway, or at least retain unlimited access. I just don’t know if at that point some provinces would be better off going it alone. My province of Ontario would be a powerhouse without having to take care of the welfare programs of the east and north, but I always thought that the idea of Canada had value, that our national identity is more than the sum of its parts. I want to believe that, but it’s hard to buy into that when our own government calls Canada genocidal and settler colonial or a culture-less post-national state that serves unaccountable international interests that care more about their goals for how we should all live than the interests of Canadians. If Canada is to persist as a nation-state rather than provinces or territories or as parts of the US or UK, its federal government has to assert Canadian culture and serve Canadians better than these other options. How do most Canadians define Canada in ways that matter to them? Does our own federal government serve those values?

So much of our trade is north-south given all the stupid interprovincial red tape. If Canada broke up, Ontario and Alberta would thrive as self sufficient powerhouses. B.C. would consolidate its position as a retirement villa for rich Chinese but produce basically nothing. Even resource development would end there under the communist green government. The Maritimes and Newfoundland would become either appendages of the US or some kind of shrunken federation run by Ontario. Quebec would become a shrinking francophone backwater. The far north would struggle and either be part of the shrunken federation run by Ontario or join Alaska. Independent, it would decline without all the federal funding, much like the East Coast would. They could only survive independently by amping up immigration and eradicating their culture and way of life, though the Canadian federal government is doing that for all of Canada now.

It’s always about money and freedom of opportunity. Canada is losing its once very strong brand because our Liberal-NDP federal government can’t help but overreach into every area of people’s lives and every political jurisdiction. The question Canadians are rightly asking is, What’s the upside? Our military and federal bureaucracies such as Passports and Immigration are dysfunctional. Taxes are rising, wages are stagnant, cost of living is rising, and freedom of speech is weakening. The promises of the budget balancing itself and $10 a day daycare for all are falling flat as government and debt balloon out of all proportion, even as the feds continue to borrow money to make more announcements for programs we can’t afford. No one is fooled. In this climate, of course provinces will talk independence. The Canadian model isn’t looking great right now. The 5 year federal term limit is simply too long in Canada. Everyone knows that the NDP will prop up this government no matter how bad it is in order to hold onto seats. Everyone knows the debt hole is growing fast and Canada is a slow moving inefficient machine right now. Other than safety from gun violence and better public K-12 education (perhaps no longer given the mandated woke anti-Canada and pro-LGBTQ indoctrination), why would anyone choose Canada over the US? We’ve lost so much in eight years.