I am Groot

I've said before that if someone was trained in and working in a Western country, we should just let them work here. I'm fine with that. But the medical establishment is NOT. The medical establishment has RULES. It has REGULATIONS. It has POLICIES, you know! It has tests and standards and interviews and a proper way of doing things! So what if it takes years!? We can't change regulations, you know!

Are you trying to suggest I should be grateful that bringing in lots of immigrants benefits... immigrants? Because I don't give a damn about that. Nor, I would suggest, do the great majority of other Canadians. If we were careful with our immigration, it would provide a benefit. We're not. Yes, it increases the demand for goods and services. And then that leads to more jobs filled with immigrants. Again, how does that benefit people already here? It's Canadians I care about, not newcomers, not foreigners. Given how badly our tax system works, I have considerable doubt about that. I am not of the school of thought that says 'if it's good for General Motors, it's good for America/Canada". I realize that line of thought is typically conservative, but I am not a typical conservative. I don't see what small benefits we get out of higher profits for oligopolies offsetting the lower wages, higher housing costs, overloaded infrastructure, and difficulty of accessing healthcare for the rest of us. And, of course, in addition to the economic costs associated with bringing in so many poor people, there is the social costs of the breakdown of the sense of shared identity that makes up a nation.

Data does not equal conclusions. I often find myself checking out things I get in my feed, sometimes certain it's wrong. But it usually isn't.

From Matthew Crawford

If I'm paying for your food, water, shelter, clothing, healthcare, transportation, and other expenses, I think it behooves you to cooperate or pay for those things yourself. We have to put garbage dumps somewhere. We have to put power plants somewhere. We have to put industry somewhere. We have to put ports and pipelines somewhere. For the good fo the nation.

Or it could just be stuff popping up in my feed, y'know. Like all the other such charts and tables and graphs I've posted. Do you think the information is wrong? I've posted stuff from each of the countries named, which gives much the same sorts of information. Canada does not record such information, of course. And wouldn't tell us if it did.

No one is putting in a mine or a pipeline on their land. Their view is they have a say in anything that goes remotely near their land. And I say bullshit. If they don't want any development nearby, then forego all the money we're paying to keep them in their isolated little villages. Go into the cities and find jobs. Or starve. And I don't care which.

I have seen of cuts to the TFW program. I have heard no one even mention the IMP, which is the larger one. So I'll reserve judgment here. Maybe. The grandparent sponsorship is a different system. The Liberals increased it sixfold in the last ten years. I have not heard it mentioned for a decrease. For those who are allowed to immigrate due to their skills, which is what he appears to be talking about, yes. But most of our immigrants over the past ten years were not here due to any particular high skill set. He talks about the issues with bringing one skilled person in and them sponsoring all kinds of others as if that is unique to the UK and not similar in Canada. The last time I saw any figures on this, which was years ago, it was in an article from a former head of Immigration Canada, who said only about 15% of newcomers were the actual skilled person. All the rest were sponsorees, including their families. The last statistical analyses I saw said only this particular group (the principal applicant under the skilled category) earned the same or higher than Canadians. All other newcomer groups earned less, in some cases substantially less. When it comes to crime, all I can say is all official figures I've seen from Europe show a MUCH higher degree of criminality among 'foreign-born'. I have never seen this broken down between skilled vs sponsored vs refugees, though. Talking about social cohesion and how some countries are used to integrating newcomers due to a long history of doing so, I would suggest integrating Italians is considerably easier than integrating people who don't even have the same alphabet as us, much less any similar linguistic roots, and have strong religious-based values that are inimical to our own.

Canada's real GDP per capita hasn't moved in 7 years while the US's has gone up 20%

BC is led by an NDP ideologue who has already said no pipelines under any circumstances. So that's not going to happen. You're not contradicting anything I said. No pipeline without the consent of the NDP and every little village mayor in BC that has indigenous ancestry. And yes, it IS up to the federal government to change the regulations that are discouraging investment in the natural resources industry. I absolutely AM of the mindset that says let's do what's best for Canada and ignore the little indigenous village mayors who have been heavily bribed by various environmental groups, many of them almost certainly being funded by the American energy industry to keep us from being able to send oil and gas elsewhere. Are you trying to suggest the Conservatives would stall bills to repeal laws they have repeatedly called to repeal?

I had not heard of this, and I'm happy to see it. But I'm not sure how effective these expensive, long-duration drones are going to be vs the emerging threat of masses of cheap suicide drones that are flying back and forth in Ukraine, and which are apparently in the arsenals of dozens of countries.

It's best not to assume people are operating from ill intent without evidence of that fact. Probably got the 2025 date from google AI AI Overview Original Plan: Initial delivery was originally expected around 2025. Current Timeline: The Department of National Defence (DND) delayed this to 2028 due to the need for modifications to allow the drones to operate in the Arctic, with full operational capability expected by 2033. Current Status: Production has begun, with the first two drones currently in production in San Diego and expected to start tests in 2026, leading to the 2028 delivery. CBC +4 The delay to 2028 was confirmed by the DND in late 2023,, largely driven by the requirement to integrate specialized sensors (WESCAM MX-20) and adapt the drones for high-latitude, cold-weather operations. https://nationalpost.com/opinion/first-reading-as-mark-carney-takes-up-pm-advisor-job-his-company-solicits-ottawa-for-10-billion

Which is based on mainstream media reports and contains no actual thinking. Yes, he signed an MOU. And no, he has changed NONE of the regulations or laws. Which is why Enbridge just recently said they're not doing anything unless those get changed. It wasn't urgent before. Now it is. He has the constitutional authority to do it. NB can suck a bag of dicks. Provinces that refuse to exploit their own oil and gas reserves should get nothing in transfers from the provinces that do. That includes Quebec.

There is no longer a priority to bring in skilled workers. Forty two percent of those in that category last year were only 'skilled' in that they spoke French. That was their skill! The government's priority is to pump up the number of French speakers outside Quebec. Naturally, there is no such priority for English speakers inside Quebec. Nor would Quebec tolerate such a thing. Instead of bringing over highly skilled people, they continue to simply transition the temporary foreign workers who came to work at Tim Hortons and for Doordash into permanent residents. And they continue to give permanent residency to fake refugees, many of whom never even get an interview but are hand-waved through because they say they're gay (which is never questioned). And the number of new permanent residents is not falling, it's rising. The targets over the next three years are higher than they were the previous three years. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-what-ottawa-isnt-saying-about-immigration/

If a new Iran will cease funding terrorist and guerrilla groups across the Middle East, things might calm down there.

That is not the information I have. AFAIK all the rules are still in place, and Carney has made it clear that unless all the well bribed little native village mayors as well as the BC NDP agree, then there will be no pipeline. No one wants to get into the multi-year struggle for approval of a pipeline that will likely never be allowed. Enbridge invested $600 million in the Northern Gateway pipeline only to have the government cancel it.

Carney could order one built through Quebec. He has the power.

In case I haven't mentioned it before, this is how I think an immigration system should be run. Start advertising as we used to a hundred years ago. Advertise in Europe, especially the UK and Ireland. Advertise to young, educated Europeans who have skills and no jobs. The youth unemployment rate in some countries over there is pretty high*. Target medical professionals, especially. Why? Because the government's own studies show immigrants from Europe, especially northern Europe, are the most economically successful in Canada. They're also the ones most likely to integrate and the least likely to cause social upheaval and terrorism. Least likely to be religious zealots with hostile social views. Huge numbers of Europeans already speak English, too. Keep the numbers low for now. 100k. Let them send in their paperwork, as now, but then make the most qualified see an immigration officer, do a values test, and then an online interview with a professional in their stated line of work. No citizenship for ten years. Then another interview to discuss what effort they've made to integrate. No more Indians for now. No more Muslims, forever. No Chinese without careful security screening. Japanese welcome. Same for South Koreans. * Yeah, I know our youth unemployment is high. That can be addressed by largely eliminating foreign workers and not allowing foreign students to work while here. Not to mention by slashing immigration by about 70%.

Give me some. I do not care about profits for hiring companies. I doubt the average Canadian does either. Especially when those profits came at our expense. We don't do this and haven't done it for a very long time. Who are mostly newcomers themselves.

I don't disagree that it's happening. I disagree with the political agreement on what to do about it, which is clearly not working and will not and can not work. Well, if the man is a rapist and decides he's a woman now and goes to women's prison and winds up in a cell with another woman, I bet that other woman would care. I don't understand this. I welcomed the election of Doug Ford as an improvement over the Ontario Liberals. But it didn't take all that long before his utter lack of interest in making any changes became evident. He screwed up repeatedly and is as useless a 'leader' as I've ever seen. I don't vote for him again. Harper. Meh. He was a good manager, but lacked vision and the courage to make any substantive changes. Poilievre, well, who knows? I like some of what he says and the party policy. But while he's not as timid as Harper was, he's not exactly a bold visionary either. Carny? He's done nothing but performative posturing. Nothing he's done to date seems like it's going to improve the economy or society. Did you miss the part about Australia, with much less natural gas, earning about $90 billion a year from selling it? Much of the world is still using coal and wood. You think they're going to start constructing SMRs in your lifetime or mine?

Not these days. There are too many absurd narratives embraced by the young that don't stand up to even mildly thoughtful analyses. The Palestinians being one beloved by university students. Climate change being another. Men deciding they can be women is a third. I've read innumerable reports from studies that say students are afraid to speak their mind, afraid to question certain narratives, and that showing doubt or disagreement gets you cancelled by friends and classmates. I doubt that. We can have different judgments on things, and can approach them from different viewpoints with preconceived goals that are or aren't met. But facts should be just that, incontrovertible. If a politician lies on camera, and the evidence is revealed, there is no doubt. If the math doesn't add up, then it's not a matter of judgment. I don't have any ideological view of climate change. I accept it's happening. I accept the probability that it's related to CO2 is high. But when I look at the treaties we've signed and what we've undertaken to do, and what the results will be, all I see is a massive cost with no improvement at the end of it. The numbers just aren't there. Bjorn Lomborg, among others, has demonstrated that quite clearly. So sitting on two hundred years' worth of naturall gas while our economy goes deeper into the hole makes absolutely no sense.

I disagree. The old belief that immigration 'helps our economy' is simply based on an increased GDP. Yes, if you bring in half a million more people, your GDP gets bigger. No one disputes that. But is it helpful in the ways that matter to ordinary people? It might help the bottom line of some oligopolies with little competition. They'll get more customers. But how does that help the rest of us if it also means they get to hire very cheap employees and keep wages depressed? I guess the point I mean is it increases the size of the economy, but does it make it better for us? Does it make us richer? Does it make the government better off, especially if a substantial number of the newcomers will not be paying taxes due to a progressive tax system? Because when that happens, you're importing more people to take care of without a countervailing increase in taxes.