Zeitgeist

Canada is consistently rated one of the best countries in the world in which to live, usually higher than the U.S. Our challenge isn't keeping people here; it's letting the right people in. We don't have the density of places like New York City. We do need to find ways of pushing settlement northwards to develop the far north and make it more self-sustaining. It likely won't happen with Canadian born nationals. Probably best to do it through immigration, as least as one category of immigration.

That’s uncommon. Generally immigrants work harder at lower paying jobs for longer than native Canadians. In many ways they make the economic wheels turn.

I think we can afford to set our requirements higher to meet our needs. Having said that, I don't think it such a residency requirement should apply to family status applications or a category for our most skilled applicants, as we are competing globally and want to reduce barriers for the best doctors, scientists, academics, technologists, business wunderkinds, and so forth, since they will boost productivity, employment, and living standards for all Canadians. I just think the categories should change as well as their requirements. Our criteria for immigration seems at least a generation behind the country's current needs.

I'm saying that the analogy isn't that close.

We’re in the Sixth Extinction. Humans may become extinct under anthropogenic warming.

What are you showing me here? Have you been to Australia? That country pays more for vehicles and many other products because it has to import a great deal. I’m not discussing its exports. Canada exports so much to the US because it’s convenient, period. It’s got nothing to do with the point I was making. Canada also has 50% more people than Australia and a greater economy of scale. Higher import costs and smaller economy of scale in Australia. It’s also more costly to export from Australia to its primary export markets for obvious reasons.

Exactly. The weather and New York City for me.

Either you’re not Canadian or you don’t really know how what’s going on. It’s okay. I was born and raised in Canada. Still live here, though I also lived for a spell in England and Eastern Europe. Have Canadian and British citizenship. I spend some time in the US but less so these days. Don’t feel that safe down there or like the political climate, though I do like most Americans and that country as a whole.

Wrong. Australia has less diversity in its economy and a higher cost of living due to its smaller economy of scale and high import costs.

They are. You may not like it, but you should probably go vegetarian or eat crickets for protein, as the lungs of the Earth, the Amazon rainforest and too many other carbon sinks are being removed to create pasture for cows for your fast food. Cow farts are a massive contributor of the GG methane to the atmosphere.

The international community will do worse following the US’s CURRENT approach, not the former US approach, to which you owe all your progress in reducing GG emissions.

Have a graduated immigration system and make one of the conditions maintaining an address within certain regions for a minimum period of, say, 3-5 years. It can be within most of the country, but perhaps not the Toronto-Montreal corridor, Greater Vancouver, Ottawa or Calgary. After full citizenship anywhere is fine. We could even just make this requirement one category of immigration status, where perhaps some other requirements are removed or lowered. Perhaps even offer a fast track category for those willing to commit to living in areas targeted for settlement, especially in the far north.

That’s really cruel.

I don’t care about people coming in on family status as long as they’re sponsored and pay an up front fee to help cover initial costs. No doubt we have to make sure refugees are legit. I still think the biggest concern is settlement patterns. They can’t all move to Toronto.

That’s why we need better international rules and the US has to be on board. China can also do better.

Dems have to work really hard to overcome jerrymandering and to get voters out to the polls in the inner city. Nothing is in the bag. It will be close. Now that the Supreme Court has gone conservative, losing the House and Senate would empower Trump like never before.

What? It’s already happening. Read about flooding on the Atlantic coast around Miami. Read about flooding in lower Manhattan after Hurricane Sandy. Some of the greatest increases in water level are in the US northeast. What about the recent disaster in the Florida panhandle, one of the worst in US history. We need to move quickly to reduce climate change or the costs of remediation will be exponentially higher or beyond repair.

The issue is that the feedback loop of climate change is accelerating into a vicious cycle. Heat begets loss of snow/ice, reflecting less heat back to space and releasing more methane and other GG from the soil into the atmosphere. Meanwhile water levels rise on the coasts, glaciers disappear, flooding increases, arable lands become deserts.

Wrong actually because scale matters. Canada is bigger than Australia. Also New Zealand isn’t a quick jaunt across the Australian border. Those comparisons quickly break down. More racism in Australia though, as in the US.

Sounds dystopian to me. Atheist scientists? Do we want to be China? Reasonable, controlled immigration of highly skilled people or just people who meet our country’s needs economically and regionally is fine. It’s all about how we do it. Any time I hear certain phrases —.atheist (or religious) scientists, sterilizations, one child policy, mass deportations — I get worried. Maintaining our way of life means maintaining our freedoms, not just a strong economy.

So your data is basically insignificant. 100000 snowbirds is .04 of our population that spends up to eight months down there a year. That’s less than I thought. People must be scared of Florida disappearing under water. Brain drain doesn’t exist. Flights? Up and down with the currency. If a $400.00 CDN flight is $300.00 US, the price is the same, and I haven’t paid for the gas in my car or taken the time to drive south. Fake news!

Are you a Marxist? It's only about the material conditions?

Fake news. Show me data. Snowbirds are a thing. Cross border shopping, not so much. Otherwise the differences are insignificant. Net migration is small. Two things going for America: better weather and bigger scale. For Canada: better safety and social conditions. So why not give citizens on both sides of the boarder the ability to enjoy either experience? I'm actually advocating for an old position that fewer Canadians support these days as anti-Americanism is at a high these days. The day may come when we just want to keep the craziness down there at bay. I enjoy the weather and some of the craziness, but it's always good to know I can come back home.

Consumption is the only goal now. Burn the furniture and live for today. Don't bother trying to make the world a better place, which is leftist, globalist code for higher taxes and imprisonment in FEMA camps. Old timey conspiracy theory has gone mainstream. Learning and outward thinking are out. Paranoia and exclusion are in. Rig the system against any opposition and repeat your mantra, however ill-informed or untrue, until you have enough agreement to get you reelected, at which point you can do as you like, because "I'm the president and you're not."

We may not like using taxation or some other monetary penalty to curb emissions, but it seems to be about the only way to curb behavior. As long as such means are pretty much revenue neutral (the taxes paid are rebated to taxpayers in some way). My biggest issue with Trudeau's plan is that it gives a free pass to some of the biggest emitters. Business isn't giving back or reinvesting in tech to boost productivity, and it's always private citizens bearing the brunt of the costs. Cap and trade is a better plan than carbon tax. Ontario, Quebec, and California had the best plan in the continent. So much for that. It's more live for today America First (and now Ontario First) bullshit.