Zeitgeist

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.

Nothing wrong with a pension. We need them.

At least be honest: You’re on the receiving end of free stuff in this redistribution scheme. Of course you want more of it. What will you do when the smart money leaves and the handouts stop?

What a “Let them eat cake” attitude. The lowest end EV’s start at around $50,000, and those ones have lousy ranges that make anything more than short commuting impractical in our cold climate where batteries quickly lose their charges. Who cares, right? Poor and low middle income people can eat shit so you can lie to yourself that you’re saving the planet. Again, if you care so much about fighting climate change, you can donate to the cause.

Pennies? It’s several dollars a fill-up. It significant.

It’s just not something you have to worry about. Many other people do worry.

The whole experience was intrusive and damaging in ways we can’t fully comprehend, and that’s apart from the impact of the virus itself, which for much of the pandemic had flu-like mortality rates. Basically our society was under a kind of mass hysteria that damaged our democracy and social cohesion in significant ways. The learning gaps, mental health damage, substance abuse, breakup of families, loss of businesses, and non-Covid increased death rate are a terrible legacy.

Hopefully Canada leaves the Paris Agreement and drops these targets and economy-killing carbon taxes. I’m not hopeful for Canada. Our leftists are dumber than the US Democrats who wouldn’t dare to impose carbon taxes on Americans. And before the posters pile on about Canada’s supposed responsibilities, remember that our emissions are rising along with our mass immigration under this profligate government, as China adds new coal plants with regularity. Do you really want to get rid of every last bit of industry and resource development in Canada? Do you really want to destroy our living standards?

The Liberals and NDP will always vote together in favour of this government until their 18 month limit runs out, because they know that the next election is the end for both parties. Every additional day that these communists reap havoc is another day of growth in public anger towards this government. I hope it plays out in the election. You never know these days.

You’re figuring out what’s going on. It’s sad for Canada and hard for many Canadians to accept. Canada is simply far too vulnerable to international influences and China in particular. We need a much less naive government. I wonder how much the Liberals knew and how much they welcomed the interference.

Anyone who is a critical thinker and reasonably intelligent knows that much happened in the pandemic response that should not have. Early on governments had the excuse of trying to be prudent and protecting populations through measures like social distancing and perhaps even masking. Once the vaccines became available, the excuse for lockdowns disappeared, but really lockdowns should’ve been questioned and the freedom of movement preserved throughout the pandemic. Mandating vaccination with a new untested vaccine was wrong. Requiring vaccine passports for travel, work, and even use of private services was a massive violation of constitutional rights that was unnecessary. Pushing vaccines for young people and subjecting them to mandatory schooling from home was bad. Accommodation’s could’ve been made for immune compromised teachers, children, and workers who needed to keep a safe distance from people. The efficacy of the vaccines was proven to be low later on and they became unnecessary for most people by the time omicron rolled around. There’s no justification for mandatory vaccination at that stage, but really they never should’ve been mandatory. It’s highly likely that C-19 originated in a lab doing gain of function research. Foolishly and irresponsibly, our governments were allowing such research to take place with foreign adversaries. It’s obvious that governments are leaning on the excuse of national security to redact or hide what happened from citizens, though the threat to national security was the research and existence of the labs and partnerships with foreign researchers. I think that the reality is probably worse than what I said above. Nevertheless, populations were berated with fear mongering propaganda constantly. Many people including many posters on here are in denial of what happened and they will likely remain so. It’s simply too painful to admit and people want to believe what they are told. I say all of this as someone who is triple vaccinated and believed most of what I heard from media, even when much of it was scripted and the science on treatments was somewhat inconclusive. So much suppression of speech took place. The unfair maligning of invermectin is just one example of a false narrative being elevated by agencies to the level of official truth. We should all be very concerned about ceding more authority to the WHO. We should also put tremendous pressure on governments to explain what happened at our biolabs, to make sure that liberties can’t be removed again, and to ensure that unaccountable organizations and international bodies aren’t imposing policies on Canadians.

And where does the money come from to pay for all of this? Oh yeah, tax paying non-Indigenous, y’know, the settler colonialists. What a sham. The Liberal-NDP communists don’t understand the basic idea that raising taxes and the cost of living such that most of Canadians’ after tax income is going towards mortgage/rent and utilities, clothing, food etc. has lowered the demand for goods and services that drive economic growth and give us the high living standards we once enjoyed. Going without any extras — dinner at a restaurant once in a while, a little landscaping and paint job for your home, some ice cream for the kids, etc., means both that people’s living standards have fallen AND businesses are doing less business. It’s a vicious circle. Making a funding announcement that will only result in the bottom 50 percent of households getting an extra $10 a week for housing, kids meals, or whatever else, won’t make a dent in this structural problem. It will drive up our debt as yet another bureaucracy is created to collect taxpayer money and redistribute it to favoured groups. That’s this government’s approach. Grow the bureaucracy, collect more taxes, raise debt, make splashy announcements, and redistribute people’s earnings towards preferred groups. Almost none of it achieves the stated outcomes: national daycare program, pharmacare, affordable housing, etc. It just makes the most dependent people more dependent, entrenches the nanny state, disincentivizes businesses, and reduces the discretionary spending of working people, but you know, that 17.5 % carbon tax is saving the planet as millions of immigrants arrive to fill theoretical jobs and homes in a country where people no longer have kids but get free birth control, abortion, and assisted suicide from a government that cares so much about you that they want to raise kids instead of letting parents do it, because heterosexual relationships, men, women, and religion are settler colonial, gender normative, and racist. Emissions keep rising but that will be reversed once people really can’t afford food and shelter. At that point people really won’t dare to start a family, and you can bet that the healthcare system will be ready and waiting with their assisted suicide kits, abortionists, and free opioids, but, y’know, they’ll be really inclusive about it. All are welcome. And don’t talk about family in the natural sense of a man and a woman having kids and raising them. That’s a hate crime.

Ax the tax and kick the anti-free speech globalist commies out of office. I just hope that the Conservatives are actually conservative. Canada is too full of unquestioning propagandized babies. Can they be weened off the nanny state teat, climate fear porn, and identity politics? I’m skeptical but let’s throw that Hail Mary pass and hope for the best. Otherwise I hope to emigrate to a red state.

Wake up! The Trudeau government has increased our debt by 75%. How can you think that continuing to borrow money to pay for new programs is good for Canada and future generations when under current leadership our GDP per capita has fallen along with our wages? Don’t pretend this is worldwide either, because the US economy and wages are growing substantially higher than Canada’s. You don’t seem to understand fiscal responsibility or living within means, making responsible choices, avoiding moral hazards, and the importance of having policies that are good for business and entrepreneurship. Continuing to raise taxes and overspend can only lead to ruin.

Next time I’ll give you a trigger warning before I post, so you can find a safe space.

The fact that engineers are kryptonite to you is very reassuring. You can stick with the gender studies and decentering colonialism programs. We’ll be somewhere far far away.

I already know your response, so maybe don’t bother?

The rot in universities is so deep now that higher education has lost a lot of credibility over the past few years. Once bastions of free speech and innovation, students must proclaim their allegiance to the anti-colonial, anti-patriarchal rainbow and climate zealots. It’s not that universities didn’t have Marxists, feminists, gender studies and pseudosciences before, it’s their elevation to the level of unquestioned dogma and so-called reality that’s frightening. Questioning it risks reputation or actual career loss. What got us here? The guy who sat on George Floyd? Constant messaging in liberal media and facile devouring mothers like those on dumb shows like The View? No, the radical activists have infiltrated our governments and HR departments. When people are labeled white supremacists or privileged simply because they are white and haven’t bent the knee or declared themselves “allies” of the radicals, when people are forced to use language they don’t agree with based on pseudoscience (non-biological gender pronouns), and what used to be understood as killing (based on science) is normalized or downplayed in radical ways (unlimited abortion and euthanasia), and when students aren’t even allowed to question these creepy new dubious orthodoxies in case they’re triggered or offended, you have the ingredients of cultural collapse. Universities are leading the revolution. That’s why I’ve encouraged my kids to enter fields that the stupid people haven’t been able to monopolize like engineering. Unscientific stupidity and flakiness are quickly exposed in such disciplines.