500channelsurfer

fghj Thank you for making this point. Canada should have better invested and managed our domestic production, ownership and value-added to our economy. When Trump and people like him look at Canada, they can easily see a banana republic, just like some of the Caribbean and Central American countries that the US used to exhort control and influence over. In my view, this is what Trump is thinking when he is calling Canada a 51st state. Trump is not interested in any talk about adding Canadians or our Premiers to Congress or any formal arrangement like that. He is simply exhorting control, at least for now.

This has not really been the norm for most governments for the last 40 years or so. But a return to this Keynesian school in governments should be welcomed. There is evidence it is growing as can be evidenced from Trump's sovereign wealth funds proposal. In the meantime, as you say, we will unfortunately likely be spending. Since that will be the case, it should make sense to funnel some of that spending into crown corporations to make up for the businesses leaving and closing as betsy mentioned, as well as to maintain consumer supplies, which may diminish as tariffs increase, and have some assets that could either be sold off when more "normal" economic times return, or used to generate some income to pay off some of this spending debt. Canada has a long history of successful crown corporations which has diminished over the last 40 or so years.

Could crown corporations be an answer to any of the sectors of the economy that may experience decline, as described in betsy's original post?

Most of the complaints in the video apply to Trudeau and his entourage just as much as any other group.

It would have been simpler for all parties if we had just let 30 days of tariffs happen. That way all the real grievances would have come out, and none of this all-day-on-the-phone drama between the three heads of state, while the majority of the can is just being kicked down the road. What a waste of time. Plus all the investment people (including honest retirees worried about their savings/investments) going into anxiety overdrive all day.

It would make sense that Nevada trades with Switzerland as gambling profits would fit very nicely with Switzerland's banking sector, but it is noted that Switzerland is the world's largest gold refiner, and Nevada is the US's larger miner of gold.

The Anglo vote should decide maybe 15 ridings at most, provincially. This can be decisive if the regions and Francophone vote is evenly divided. I think Pablo has a chance.

Then a smart Canadian policy would be to prepare policy to assist our ports and pipeline companies for expansion to reach alternate markets than the US.

I wonder if the cost of shipping Canadian goods to alternate trading partners than the United States (EU, UK, Mexico and Central and South America, Southeast Asia, etc.) amounts to 25%.

Dénis is not popular outside of Montreal except in a few circles of old Liberal friends. He also lost the last two elections he ran in, to Valérie Plante. He might be a good fundraiser, so he does have a chance at winning the PLQ nomination, but would not make a good candidate for PM of Quebec. It was demonstrated in a poll https://www.ctvnews.ca/montreal/article/new-poll-in-favour-of-pablo-rodriguez-plq-says-it-senses-a-groundswell-of-support-for-the-party/ that Pablo Rodriguez would make a good candidate for LPQ leader.

Actually Yes. I went to an Anglophone school, but back in the 80s we did sing the Canadian national anthem, although I think it may have only been on Mondays and Fridays. There was some schedule whereby sometimes it was sung in English and sometimes it was sung in French. We also prayed in school. Not all schools did, but my elementary school was Catholic, and we sometimes recited the Hail Mary and sometimes the Lord's Prayer.

Any "accomplishments" Hitler made must have been the result of innovative economic and monetary planning and innovation?

Actually, I was born in Montreal, and am a Quebecer.

I agree with you here. I just think it is very difficult to get traditional Liberal voters in the Montreal area to vote for other parties. In this bi-election, just enough Liberal vote loss occurred and enough gain to Bloc and NDP to put the Bloc on top and make the NDP competitive. This Verdun riding has been changing demographically, and the new demographics favour more progressive and more independence-leaning electorate. The Liberals are very down in the polls. The last time they were this low more closely resembles Mulroney's 1984 win than any other recent Federal election. That election was the exception where Conservatives won a few Montreal-area traditional Liberal ridings.

In much of western Montreal and the West Island, it is said you could run a pig as a Liberal candidate and it will still win. The results follow the polls overall when applied to the ridings. I saw no surprises.

Yes, Bridge. The land around it is mostly flat. The only real impediment to bicycles is on the west side of the mountain (Cote-des-Neiges and Westmount). Winter biking in Montreal is not so much impeded by the terrain as it is the precipitation (and state of the roads!).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaSalle—Émard—Verdun The Liberal vote loss in Verdun was split quite evenly between the Bloc, NDP and Conservatives. The Bloc just have the most historic support in this riding and its predecessors, where they normally come in 2nd, giving them a higher starting point. Also big Liberal drop in the Manitoba riding, where traditional NDP support held. Can be seen as good news for everyone except the Liberals.

I see two completely separate issues: Money supply increases resulting from Covid (whether you blame Biden and Trudeau, or the Central Bank of Canada and the Federal Reserve, is irrelevant here) caused the 2021-2022 inflation rise. This will be remembered historically as a blip. The reason why families that used to be able to live on 1 income now need 2 incomes to maintain a similar standard of living (e.i. buying a house) is the result of a generational and decades long type rise of inflation, caused by increase in demand via population growth and supply getting close to maxed out due to resource depletion. The world's supply of readily available energy, arable farmland and other large-scale inputs such as timber and limestone are no longer increasing as population is, and in terms of cost-per unit of input are sometimes decreasing depending on jurisdiction.

Drapeau was a doer-would accept and overcome obstacles, sometimes (and famously!) no matter the cost. Brought Montreal Expo67 and the Olympics. However, Drapeau wanted 2 expressways, one on the east of the mountain (Papineau) and one on the west of the mountain (Decarie). He only got Decarie. Maybe Davis was like Drapeau, got Don Valley but not Spadina?

It is often concluded in studies that housing the homeless is cheaper than leaving them on the streets, with housing increasing employment opportunities while decreasing law enforcement and health care costs, among many, of having homeless. Yet there has been no one-size-fits all solution. Homeless solution requires mental health, drug addiction, and many other expertises, while also funding the housing itself.

Yes x 3. I used to bike in the winter, in Montreal, and also used to bike to Costco. Both are not worth it. The heavy load on my back from Costco-sized shopping is not only hard on me, but harder on the bike, wearing it out faster. But nothing compared to all the SALT dumped on Montreal roads during the winter, rusting all bike components prematurely. Ice chunks on the road are too dangerous. Unless you are the fanatic that has a cleaning station ready after for every ride, you are just ruining your bike. But if you are a fanatic, yes there are bike snow tires. Biking downtown-UBC was fun too! My neighbourhood still has weekly trash/recycle/compost collection. Pickup less often than once a week is unsanitary, there are too many lazy people who will let garbage rot outside, attract vermin, etc. I am shocked garbage every two weeks is a thing. I think Plante has done a good job with road paving overall as compared to previous administrations, however the scheduling (pave Rene Levesque during the Jazzfest for example - scare off tourists for years to come) and too many over-engineered bike lanes and traffic light configurations, the administration has gone too far. The underground bus garage is a catastrophe - should be poster for competition political party in next mayoral race.

The businesses largely shut down due to Covid in March 2020. Inflation went high in late 2001 and 2002, when everything was re-opening. In between, demand was reduced, while natural resources were still being utilized, albeit less. During re-opening, the sudden demand naturally caused a spike, and now the slow natural-resource depletion based inflation returns.

Politicians and the media like to focus on Covid, trade agreements, taxes, oligopolies, immigration, war, etc. because it can further their own agendas. Events in these areas are merely the trigger for price increases that would inevitably occur at some point or another. All human consumption is tied to natural resource extraction, and all important natural resources are becoming more costly to extract or less available. Fossil fuels are the primary natural resource that runs our economies. Easy to extract oil has become a scarcity as it is mostly used up and we have shifted to extracting more difficult oil such as oil sands and fracking. This is more expensive to extract and requires additional inputs in terms of manpower, water, machinery and chemicals. Countries that do still largely extract plain oil have to pump pressure into underground deposits in order to get the product to surface. We drill for oil in the deep sea now whereas we used to have sufficient supply on land. Using non-fossil fuel energy sources still require fossil fuels in their construction, such as in solar panels, nuclear and wind. Energy production costs are higher for these sources. The chemicals and machinery that make agriculture productive rely on fossil fuels and machinery manufactured using fossil fuels. Costs are passed on. Fertilizers and pesticides become more expensive. Underground aquifers that supply irrigation to agricultural land are drying up and expensive water projects are required in order to keep agricultural land irrigated. Small-scale farmers are experimenting with organic agriculture, crop rotation and residuals-as-fertilizer farming techniques, which in the past have been unprofitable but have now become viable. Wood, whether for paper products or construction, has to be sourced from further locations and often poorer quality trees due to easily accessible forests having been emptied of desirable timber. The same goes for other industrial inputs such as the limestone required for concrete. Computers and electric vehicles require inputs of rare minerals which are expensive to mine and manufacture. Exploration for new deposits is a costly affair, but one that is being pursued due to increasing demand. Immigrants travel to new homes for better lives when natural resources at their existing locations become exhausted or priced too high due to depletion.

A review needs to be done of what are all these new public sector jobs, and how do they compare to other countries. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/public-sector-size-by-country A more important way to judge a country is what does the public expense accomplish? Does the country provide efficient healthcare, good education and affordable quality housing? And at what trade-off? Some outlier countries with high public sector rates have nationalized oil sectors or are communist, so even if they do offer efficient healthcare, good education and guaranteed housing, trade-offs such as lack of press freedom, poor working conditions and political repression make them undesirable places to live. Canada's growing public sector seems to be growing in the wrong direction. It's growth is not as concerning as it growing despite not accomplishing significant improvements to our healthcare and education systems and reduction in housing issues. If the public sector was, instead, capable of addressing these issues, it would be good for the economy, as having an educated, healthy and affordably well-housed workforce is.

Electoral College results the last time a Minnesota representative was on the ticket: