I am Groot

What is the mainsteam? Is it what most Canadians feel and believe or is it what the mainstream media and academia say? Both these groups are known to have a far higher proportion of progressives than Canadian society as a whole. If a big, hairy, bearded man requires that I acknowledge him as a her I am compelled to respect that and do so, referring to him as her. That's compelled speech.

Is it moral to encourage a child in their belief they're the wrong gender to the point of punishing anyone who argues against it, as well as granting them access to permanently life-altering drugs without regard to what their parents want?

If you are required to be 'kind' by accepting a big, hairy, bearded male is a woman under threat of punishment than you are indeed being required to be kind.

If you don't have a penis you can 'feel' you're a man all you want to: You aren't.

Our employment numbers say absolutely zero about wage growth. And our labour shortage is, except in certain key areas, rarely an issue, or as Mikal Skuterud put it more succinctly Canada’s worker ‘shortage’ is an illusion, and bringing in cheap labour doesn’t help. Canada’s current tight labour markets overwhelmingly reflect increases in the demand for workers, not a decline in their numbers. And the solution is not to satiate that demand with cheap labour, which undermines labour productivity and average economic living standards in the population. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-canada-labour-shortage-demand-supply/ If by that last line you mean employers made more profit then sure. But everyone else got poorer. When Mulroney took office immigration was around 86k a year. It's up to 500k a year now. And during that time of constantly escalating immigration, we've had stagnant wages and low productivity increases. We don't need an economic study to determine that massively increasing immigration doesn't improve GDP per person. We just have to look at our own recent history. Second, your example of 1 person making 10 vs 2 making 18 being somehow better is bass ackwards. It means productivity per person falls. Oh, we're making a lot more shit? Well so does India, and half the country have no toilets. Is that your ambition for Canada? That we turn into India? Or on productivity, as Don Wright put it. “But when businesses complain about having difficulty finding enough workers, what this really means is that they cannot easily find the workers they want at a wage they want to pay,” Wright says. “But, within reasonable limits, this is a good thing. It forces employers to pay higher wages, provides better working conditions and drives the creative destruction that leads to higher productivity, more valuable products and better business models.” We're actually talking about the cites I provided, dumbass. How many mentor programs do you think you need to work at Starbucks or Tim Hortons? How many mentor programs do you need to work in a fish or meat processing plant? One of the big problems with Canada's lack of productivity is that employers don't provide any of that. They don't want to. Even in the tech industry they want a guy who's already been coding in a given language for some years and they want him cheap. They're not going to spend money on mentoring or training. They also like the fact newcomers from the developing world expect to work their asses off without complaining.

You really have that much confidence in our criminal justice system to always make the right decision?

Tal argued Canada’s mass immigration targets are helping ease our country’s labour shortage, which in turn is tamping down wage growth. What makes it all the more unsettling is that the corporate-backed organizations pushing Ottawa to hike immigration targets, such as The Century Initiative and the Conference Board of Canada, have acknowledged that higher immigration leads to lower GDP per capita. Evidence? Studies? Cite? And one of the major reasons is that rather than increasing training or technology employers can just bring in temporary foreign workers or hire from a continuing stream of desperate immigrants.

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/canadian-wage-growth-lagging-u-s-because-of-immigration-levels-cibc-1.1704641 https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/douglas-todd-why-canadian-wages-never-seem-to-go-up

He likely won't get a response. I've sent emails to my MP and MPP and city councilor in the past. The only one who ever replied was an angry Pierre Poilievre when I told him I was going to vote for the PPC that year instead of his party because at least they had conservative policy proposals. He basically said Bernier was a nutbar. Which turned out to be correct.

There's been a 68% increase in the numbers of people coming to Canada under the Temporary Foreign Worker program. But that's really just the tip of the iceberg. The overall numbers are fairly low; only about 220,000 foreigners in here, many working agricultural jobs. But we've got a hell of a lot more in under the International Mobility Program - more than a million more. That's a 193% increase. Then we have foreign students, who the government is increasingly letting work to the point many of them are only here to work and as a way to garner quick acceptance as permanent residents. There are 800,000 of them now, a 300% increase over ten years ago. All told, over two MILLION foreigners are working in Canada's economy helping to ensure wages remain stagnant. Now how about housing? Two million people needing housing has an enormous impact on housing shortages. But apparently, not enough, because the Trudeau government has recently decided to let people here under the TFW and IWP programs bring their families with them. That includes adult children. Good luck finding housing, kiddies. Watch more and more bungalows increase to seven figures in value. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-use-of-temporary-foreign-worker-program-soared-in-2022/

Just how much and how fast has the Liberal government been increasing its spending? This fast. Whatever its motives, this federal government is all-in on spending and borrowing. The last year in the fall 2019 fiscal update’s projections – the last pre-COVID projections — was 2024-25. In the 2020 fall update, projected spending for 2024-25 was $9 billion higher than it had been a year earlier. The 2021 budget added another $24 billion, the 2021 fall update $11 billion, the 2022 budget $14 billion, the 2022 fall update another $26 billion and now the 2023 budget adds another $9 billion. That’s a total add-on of an astonishing $93 billion. Projected spending for 2024-25 has been growing roughly $13 billion every six months. https://financialpost.com/opinion/budget-2023-neither-prudent-nor-fair-to-future-generations

I'm not sure where you came up with the idea of a work camp as I never mentioned one. They'd be taken to jail for sorting. Those with mental issues would be sent to a hospital. Those with addiction issues would be sent to rehab. The rest, if they had warrants, would be sent to jail. For those few that remained would see social workers about just where they were going to live from now on because it would no longer be on the streets. And by the way, this envisions spending on temporary emergency shelters for the homeless that would be something like the rooms at the YMCA.

Almost everyone on the street has mental issues and/or addiction issues. There are alternatives available and most have been offered these alternatives and refused. They are a constant source of violence, filth and are responsible for greatly diminishing the quality of life in many major cities. In many places, you can't even walk up a street without being assailed by some of these zombie-like creatures begging for money or worse. They need to be gotten off the streets by whatever means works.

Trump has never been a political ideologue. I doubt he understands or could even spell the term. He has no politics but whatever benefits him personally. Because of a dishonest right-wing media which felt it would make more money by adhering to his views. I've watched FOX now and then, for as long as I can stand, and anyone who uses that or the even worse versions out there for their news is absolutely not getting any real picture of reality. Liberal democracy is far too new to have much of a history. Authoritarianism comes from both directions.Trudeau is certainly authoritarian-minded, and even more or less confessed as much in his admiration for China's 'basic dictatorship' and how efficient it was. Because only those who owned land paid the taxes which supported the government. And the reasons are best expressed in the following quote. Two centuries ago, a somewhat obscure Scotsman named Tytler made this profound observation: "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy Conservatism is about conserving traditions, values and beliefs. And so it is often slow to change. The corollary is that left, esp today's left, are far too fast to want change without knowing where change is going. Conservatives understand it's far easier to break something than to make something. Much like your enthusiasm for replacing Capitalism with Socialism. Capitalism works and you really have no idea if Socialism will work given it never has anywhere else. But you don't care. More like it's on the rise due to the inability of the EU to control its borders. David Frum said the following in 2019 If liberals insist that only fascists will enforce borders, then voters will hire fascists to do the job liberals refuse to do. No, the problem is inadequate training, counselling and oversight. Why should I care what trans people believe? Why should I not be able to make a statement about what I believe? Certainly, you do this all the time, with scant evidence to support your positions. I believe gender dysmorphia is a real thing afflicting a tiny number of people. They have my sympathy and should get medical help. I also believe the great majority of trans activists and those claiming to be trans are not legitimately suffering from gender dysmorphia and probably know it. Thus their insistence that there be no questioning and no need for evidence. They are, for the most part, suffering from a variety of emotional and psychological problems, or are teenagers simply engaging with the current fad.

Yes, you making excuses and redefining what cancelling means. Cancel culture is being fired or otherwise punished for social or political opinions and statements that no normal person would consider extreme or even wrong.

These are not exactly people scooped off the streets who are going about their business. These are crazy homeless people living on the streets. They're better off in custody, especially if they can get treatment.

How old are you? I am old enough to remember the Mike Harris days in Ontario. Ah, the ferocity of the opposition! The endless protests and strikes! The accusations and drama! And he got re-elected with a majority anyway. And as I said, this wouldn't really bother conservatives OR those who are likely to ever vote conservative. And that includes the moderates who can switch votes. It's really only the ones who wouldn't spit on a conservative if he was on fire who would be outraged. It's not like people are being carted off to the death camps, y'know. They'd be taken in for processing and interviews to determine what treatment they need.

I think you are vastly overestimating what damage such images would cause to a conservative. Maybe it would damage an NDP politician, but then they'd never give such orders. The people who vote conservative or are prepared to vote conservative are not going to be bothered by such things. They'll be MORE likely to vote conservative afterward.

So you pay overtime for a week. How much of police resources are used up month in and month out by these people and their repeat offenses? How much opportunity cost is involved there?

Don't care. The crazy people will always protest. I saw one on the news this morning from drooling lunatics demanding Roxham road be reopened. They don't represent anyone but a tiny minority. Most people would be delighted that something was finally getting done, and that people suffering addiction and psychiatric issues would now be treated.

Well, to begin with, I don't believe the US Republicans are conservatives. So your explanations falter there. There is nothing conservative about Trump or his supporters. And the Republican party is now mostly about catering to the moneymen who fund their campaigns. Both parties in the US are corrupt. Both sides call for book bans. And ANTIFA is well known for its violence. Also, the US Republican Party is not the focus of conservatism. There are actual conservative parties elsewhere in the world. But they don't acknowledge policing as corrupt. They only say it is racist. A black man gets knelt on and dies and there's wall-to-wall coverage across America for months. A white man gets knelt on and dies and crickets chirp. The police who did it are not only not charged, they're not fired. And no one cares. Yeah, right-wing media doesn't ignore mass shooters, nor defend people who murder LGBT people (examples?) BTW, according to this, 25% of mass shooters are Black, which is almost double their percentage in the population. Not about transgenderism, you're not. This is the only forum I know where if I say that there are only two genders and a man can't be a woman I won't get permanently banned. And needless to say, you'll face disciplinary measures if you say something like that at work or school. In fact, we recently saw a high school student suspended from his school for the entire term for saying that very thing.

Chris Harrison – The longtime host of ABC’s “The Bachelor” franchise decided to “step aside” after defending current contestant Rachael Kirkconnell when old photos surfaced of her attending an Old South antebellum party. “While I do not speak for Rachael Kirkconnell, my intentions were simply to ask for grace in offering her an opportunity to speak on her own behalf,” Harrison explained. “What I now realize I have done is cause harm by wrongly speaking in a manner that perpetuates racism, and for that I am so deeply sorry.” Adam Rubenstein — The former New York Times opinion editor and writer resigned from the paper in December, six months after its staff went into an uproar over a piece he edited by Sen. Tom Cotton. The column by Arkansas Republican argued for the federal government to “send in the troops” to quell violence in cities throughout the country in response to civil unrest following the death of George Floyd. Former editor Mari Weiss wrote on Twitter about the resignation: “Adam was hung out to dry by his own colleagues. Then he and his work were lied about, including in this mendacious editor’s note.” Gina Carano — The “Mandalorian” actress was fired by Disney after posting on social media that being a Republican in 2021 was similar to being Jewish during Nazi Germany. Her Hollywood agent dropped her, and Hasbro scrapped her “Star Wars” action figures. Matthew Yglesias — The liberal opinion writer resigned from Vox, a publication he co-founded, after many of his woke colleagues found his articles too right of center. Mr. Yglesias argued against defunding the police this summer and took aim at the liberal term “Latinx” as alienating many people from progressive politics and the Democratic Party. He has since joined Substack, so he can voice his opinions more freely. Zac Kreugman — Data scientist for Reuters news fired for criticizing the Black Lives Matter movement in the company’s internal communications forum, debunking Reuters’s own biased reporting, and violating a corporate taboo. Driven by what he called a “moral obligation” to speak out, Kriegman refused to celebrate unquestioningly the BLM narrative and his company’s “diversity and inclusion” programming; to the contrary, he argued that Reuters was exhibiting significant left-wing bias in the newsroom and that the ongoing BLM protests, riots, and calls to “defund the police” would wreak havoc on minority communities. Donald McNeil Jr. — Veteran New York Times reporter forced out after 150 employees demanded his head. His crime? McNeil, 67, went as a representative of the Times on a 2019 trip with American high school students in Peru. There, according to his farewell note to colleagues—which, tellingly, was the first time the context of his career-ending comments had ever been reported during the 8-day life cycle of this journalism-world controversy—McNeil "was asked at dinner by a student whether I thought a classmate of hers should have been suspended for a video she had made as a 12-year-old in which she used a racial slur. To understand what was in the video, I asked if she had called someone else the slur or whether she was rapping or quoting a book title. In asking the question, I used the slur itself."

I don't think it would require any more police. Just scoop them up from their camps, stick them in buses, and ship them to jail for processing. After that there'd be a LOT less work for police to do.