I am Groot

Here's an excellent article on why we should be carefully screening anyone coming into Canada as a refugee or immigrant. It's frankly insane that we aren't. No one would hire a fast food worker without at least a job interview, but we bring people here to be citizens without asking them a single question about what kind of person they are. This brings us to a third, more compelling and quite disturbing theory—the one that my Afghan friend, the court translator, puts forward. On the basis of his hundreds of interactions with these young men in his professional capacity over the past several years, he believes to have discovered that they are motivated by a deep and abiding contempt for Western civilization. To them, Europeans are the enemy, and their women are legitimate spoils, as are all the other things one can take from them: housing, money, passports. Their laws don’t matter, their culture is uninteresting and, ultimately, their civilization is going to fall anyway to the horde of which one is the spearhead. No need to assimilate, or work hard, or try to build a decent life here for yourself—these Europeans are too soft to seriously punish you for a transgression, and their days are numbered. And it’s not just the sex crimes, my friend notes. Those may agitate public sentiment the most, but the deliberate, insidious abuse of the welfare system is just as consequential. Afghan refugees, he says, have a particular proclivity to play the system: to lie about their age, to lie about their circumstances, to pretend to be younger, to be handicapped, to belong to an ethnic minority when even the tired eye of an Austrian judge can distinguish the delicate features of a Hazara from those of a Pashtun. https://nationalinterest.org/feature/ive-worked-refugees-decades-europes-afghan-crime-wave-mind-21506

A very good and honest write-up on Carney, and how he fails to meet the goals of Carney from six months ago. But here’s the problem. Better isn’t good enough, and Improvement Over Trudeau wasn’t the sales pitch. Carney set the standard by which he’ll be judged — he and his campaign went out of their way to raise the bar, turning an election about political change into an election about our existential survival. It worked. The Conservatives had no reply and just stood there slack jawed as their 20-point lead evaporated, taking their leader’s seat with it. But now Carney will actually be expected to clear that bar. Right now, he’s not — and it’s not even close. https://www.readtheline.ca/p/matt-gurney-the-carney-salvation

The mere fact it existed kept the SC honest. Charter victories? You mean like our esteemed judges deciding that it would be 'cruel and unusual punishment' to hold mass murderers to a longer jail term than 25 years, no matter how many people they murder? That doesn't really come from the Charer, you know. It comes from their own ideology, from the way they CHOOSE to interpret the Charter. The very definition of cruel and unusual that is on their site says it's a punishment that outrages public sensibilities, that is so out of bounds it would bring the reputation of the justice system down. Making mass killers serve thirty or forty years instead of 25 absolutely didn't do that. The public was fine with it. Only our ivory tower judges objected.

In 1929 the term 'progressive' meant something different than it does now. Judges were more reluctant to try to overrule parliament because the judges themselves could be overruled. So what we're talking about now when we say the constitution is 'evolving' is judge made changes to the constitution without consultation with the people or their representatives. And this is what you consider improving democracy...

I just don't like that today's immigrants hate my culture, traditions and values and want to take over and force me and everyone else to live like they did in the shithole they came from. I also hate the massive cost of paying for the upkeep of what are now millions of failed immigrants and migrants earning minimum wage or living on welfare and living in public housing leaching off the rest of us.

So you're saying there aren't still large crowds of mainly Muslims marching through the streets of every city (illegally) screaming out their hatred of Jews? My real-life experience says otherwise. Are you aware that this religion, like no other, has an important and well-known clause that suggests its adherents lie to non-believers when this will advance the cause of Islam? TAQIYYA — What Is Taqiyya (And Kitman)? Is It Really Lying?

It's a very small part. He's made it the main part. Political leaders to not establish 'trade ties' nor do they get investment in our economy. All of that comes from private sector organizations that see a profit to be made. No one is going to invest billions in a country when they don't see the likelihood of a decent return, nor when they can get a better return elsewhere. If Carney wanted foreign investment, he'd be slashing the regulatory burden that is busy strangling business and industry, but he's not. This is the problem with the Left. They don't like or trust the private sector. They insist on doing things themselves. So instead of establishing a good environment where foreign companies might want to come and build battery plants, for example, they shower them with billions in taxpayer money. And get nothing in return. Carney wants to invest billions in things the private sector should be investing in but won't because of Carney's regulations. Do you understand the nature of trade? Because it has nothing to do with governmental leaders shaking hands in front of cameras.

We had oranges and TVs before you guilt-ridden Canada haters invited in the third world to swamp us with goat herders who hate Jews, think western women are whores that are theirs for the taking, and have little interest in working for a living.

You liberals are so desperate to get rid of Poilievre that it makes conservatives more determined to keep him.

That's because you're sure the Americans will take over. But many of the same problems are happening there.

Countries without a sense of shared identity and vision don't survive.

With the continuing flood of immigrants and 'refugees' from incompatible and hostile cultures, no effort to screen them, and no effort to integrate them, it seems to me that Canada is on its way down to third-world status, a place filled with hostile tribes with irreconcilable cultural differences, doomed to violence. Ethnic enclaves continue to grow, pandered to by spineless politicians, and young people continue to grow more sullen and look for more radical people to follow. The election of Mamdani in New York is not just a symbol of the failure of the traditional political parties (mirrored in Canada) to do anything useful for people; it's a symbol of the anger and estrangement of younger people, combined with mass immigration which has made almost 40% of New York's population made up of immigrants. In Toronto, it's over 50%. And most of the newcomers are from third-world countries with no cultural tradition of democracy or compromise. Muslims and Sikhs have been the most visible and obvious about their refusal to ever integrate, and about making it clear their loyalty will always be to their fellow religious and not to whatever country they are currently living in. But many other groups are growing and are largely sticking to their own areas and people. Loyalty to a nation would rest on the belief that the nation is worthy of loyalty. That hasn't been the message our political, media, and academic classes have been delivering for the past couple of decades. According to them, Canada is a genocidal nation on stolen land without legitimacy and irredeemably racist in every single institution and organization. That's the message they've been braying out to the world for quite some time. And it's had an impact. The future does not look bleak. Especially when the continuing flood of newcomers is also combined with a continuing deterioration of our economy as well as law and order in the street, all brought about by the same incompetent, venal, self-serving, corrupt political class.

Activist judges are eroding Canada's democracy. https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/activist-judges-are-eroding-canadas-democracy-by-abusing-the-charter-peter-copeland-and-mark-mancini-in-the-national-post/

We knew the NDP would cave. I wonder what they gave the BQ to vote for it?

Actually, it's borrowed money. And it's younger people who will endure a lifetime in a Canada burdened by massive debt who will suffer. For seniors, meh, no big deal. They'll be gone before the bill comes due.

Where else do you go to get drugs? Doctors and clinics don't operate after five. Neither do most pharmacies. You're not supposed to get sick except during the day on weekdays. Besides, bad backs were new to me back then. Now I'm prepared with lots of drugs and even prescriptions on hold at the pharmacy, and wouldn't think of going to ER.

It will increase spending, hugely increase how much we need to spend to service the debt, and accomplish very little. No big cutbacks. No notable programs announced. Defense spending numbers are fairly high, but with absolutely no details on what that money is allegedly to be spent on. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-federal-budget-2025-carney-meet-the-moment-hype-substance/

Minimal? A hundred and fifty eigh billion dollars is minimal? The regulatory framework hindering industry, and in particular the resource industry, and driving jobs and investments out of Canada is 'minimal'?

I would think so. They're a helluva lot bigger and have a lot more worldwide interests to protect. But they're not doing it fast enough, and the Chinese are hugely outpacing them. https://rmcglobal.com/shortfalls-in-u-s-naval-shipbuilding-capability/

You're aware of this thing called global warming, right? Yes, it's exaggerated. If Al Gore had been right, there would be no ice in the Arctic today. But it is true that things are warming. It is true that the north is starting to become navigable. And there are suspected to be so many resources locked away up there that every nation, including the Chinese, is jockeying for position to try and put in a claim. Russia's claim hugely overlaps ours, and there's nothing to stop them from just moving in and taking what they want.

I always go back to what healthcare should look like. And because I'm old, I've seen it here. I went to a hospital after banging my chin. It was about 2AM. I walked in and place was very quiet. I was seen by a doctor, went to X-ray, had stitches, and was out the door in half an hour. That was about forty years ago. Same hospital, twenty years later. Same time. Walked in with a pulled back, incredibly painful. The waiting room this time was jammed. Was told it would be at least eight hours before I could see anyone. Take a seat. I walked out, went home, and waited in bed. Went to a clinic next morning and was seen quickly. Nowadays you wait even in clinics, if you can find one taking walk-ins.

Life expectancy is due to many factors, and can't be used as a substitute for measuring the efficiency or effectiveness of the healthcare system. For example, and I can post it if anyone disagrees, the OECD is constantly measuring healthcare among its members and when it comes to wait lists, Canada is dead last. There are ways to persuade the provinces to agree to things like one central purchasing body for drugs and one central insurance scheme. Like, refuse to pay otherwise.

I'm all for having the private sector involved. In some European countries, it's almost all private sector, but operating under strict government oversight. For example, you buy insurance from the private sector. But the government sets the rates and what has to be covered. And in many cases, the insurance companies can't make a profit on that. They can, however, sell you extra things not covered. Hospitals/doctors are also limited in what they can charge. The American system is just chaotic. Massive paperwork because there are so many different insurance plans, and out-of-control costs that make theirs by far the most expensive system in the world. Which wouldn't be bad if it were the overall best. But it's not. Their results are never anywhere near the top of measured outcomes for Western countries. They're often near the bottom.

We are not like other public healthcare systems. Only Cuba bans almost all private medicine. We need to look at the mixed systems in Europe that are working the best, and shift to those models. I've been saying this for many years, and I think by now the majority of Canadians agree. Just the fact that the government decides how many doctors we have has been a disaster. The only parts of the medical system that function well are the ones they don't control. I can find physiotherapists anywhere and get same-day appointments in some cases. I can do the same for optometrists. Dentists are taking patients everywhere. But try to get a family doctor, and you're on a long wait list. Try to get an appointment for a surgical consult and you could die waiting. We have half the doctors, half the hospital beds, and half the diagnostic machines most European countries have. Why?