Eddy

We've all read where there are supposedly trillions of dollars in Canada that are currently locked away & held-up in soon-to-be inheritance & legacy bequeaths across Canada, & away -- without considerable & imaginative effort for the most part, anyway -- from the wringing hands of that covetous crowd that's housed at the Canada Revenue Agency. But what if this cash-starved Trudeau-Singh oligarchy was to be suddenly inspired to enact into law some sort of an iron-clad formal flat-rate inheritance tax...? For argument's sake, let's assume that this tax rate would be 40%. OK. That would automatically mean than your favourite wealthy, single uncle Billy -- who favoured you above all others in his will -- still won't be able to escape the long arm of the tax man, even in death. Well, not directly, anyway. That one-time $1 million cash allowance with your name attached to it...? Yours -- or whatever's left, after your writing a cheque to the C.R.A. for $400K, first. As for that $100K vintage Corvette sports car from the 1950's that he knew you admired so very much...? You can keep it --- after paying the C.R.A. $40K, first. And that $2 million cottage-villa of his up in Muskoka...? You can keep it -- but only once you've forked-over the government's share of $800K. Sweet deal, eh...? But impossible you say...? Can never ever happen...? Hmmm...I seem to recall Canadian folk musing aloud just exactly like that about the General Sales Tax some years ago, & the Carbon Tax only just recently, too. So who was it that said we need a vibrant natural resources base in Canada to financially insure the federal government's good oversight of public programmes, when we have this great "natural resource base" for the likes of Justin Trudeau to generously share with his many pet personal causes...?

"...Okay so you are saying they're fake...?" I'm not saying that they're real or fake -- just unconfirmed by any hard & fast actual evidence. Hardly like how you conducted yourself earlier, when you probed me with, "Have you listened to any of [the C.B.C.] ? Is it any good ?" & then when you were similarly questioned in return, you came back with practically an entire C.B.C. catalogue of, "Metro Morning, Toronto, the current, Day 6, The House and a few others..."

The other day I heard on a radio talk show the mis-steps that some Canadian callers had encountered whilst attempting to enter the U.S.A. for a visit, & I immediately thought of one such personal "adventure" that was visited upon both my wife & I just over a decade ago... We spent the night in Sarnia, where we were going to watch my wife's nephew's teen-aged son playing in a hockey tournament that day there. His game wasn't scheduled until very late in the afternoon, so we figured that it'd be nice to do some cross-border shopping & exploring in nearby Port Huron, Michigan. Bit as we approached the row of U.S. Customs booths in our car, we thought it rather odd that each & every one of them had 2 other Customs officers assigned to it who were tasked with examining cars' trunk contents. Neither of us had ever seen that before... Anyway, we drove up to an available booth, & after the usual routine questions of, "Where do you live...? What is the purpose of your trip...? Are you bringing any fruits,vegetables, or meat products with you...?" etc., the guard in the booth asked, "Do you like your money...?" We both took this last query as being rather strange -- but after a bit of hesitation I replied with, "Yes, I guess we do". At about that very point that this same guard caught in his hand a navel orange that was tossed to him by one of the trunk examiners. "Are you aware of this piece of fruit that our guard discovered hidden in the cooler inside your trunk...?" My wife had retrieved the orange from a complimentary hotel lobby fruit basket as we left for the border just an hour or so before for later consumption during the day, & had forgotten all about it. "But sir", I protested, "That orange probably itself came to Canada from your country's own state of Florida. Now, if it had been an apple, or a..." But I wasn't allowed to finish my sentence, because he cut me off with a statement that I struggled very hard not to laugh out loud at in his face when he said it: "This orange is a direct threat to the security of the United States of America". He then let us go on our way after his warning...but talk about your "Paul Blart: Shopping Mall Cop" kind of an encounter...!

"...Well yes. What else would ad hoc burial site mean...?" Michael, tell me this: has any authority -- be it Indigenous, or otherwise -- actually exhumed so much as even one single grave in order to ascertain its "contents"...? No,they have not. Not that I'm aware of myself, anyway. It strikes me that both Indigenous & federal hands are content solely with the exchange of dirty Canadian dollars in this debate, & hardly wish to deal with the consequent hassle of having to remove any dirt under their fingernails as a direct consequence of any real-actual excavation(s).

"...You would imply that burial sites are faked..." However did you get the impression that I "...imply that burial sites are faked"...? Those are your words, not mine.

Sorry for my misinterpretation of your comment, Michael. I think that I may caught a listen to some of that -- but only ever so very briefly -- years ago. I have no interest in such things, as I am the child of immigrant post-WW2 parents from Poland, so have no connection to it. And besides, one can only take so much of that talk of ever-elusive "reconciliation" stuff & the discovery of yet another ad hoc burial site -- anyway (with all due respect to the culture, of course).

"...Have you listened to any of it ? Is it any good...?" Yes, of course I have. "As It Happens" & "Quirks & Quarks" are especially good features -- among others. And you...?

What has happened to "Canada's" national broadcaster...? I'm not talking about C.B.C. television here -- with very few exceptions, that part of it was absorbed by the blob that is American TV ages ago. No, I'm referring to C.B.C. radio. That was my personal radio outlet of choice for years and years whilst sequestered commuting in my car: it was commercial-free, and in all talk format, too, on such a wide range of topics that tuning it in was like taking an enjoyable walk down a long smorgasbord table filled with delicious things to eat. Suddenly though, a change started to creep into its daily fare. Mind you now, I have no bias or prejudice against Canada's Indigenous People whatsoever...but as the C.B.C.'s shows slowly but surely migrated specifically to that portion of our population & that portion alone -- I mean really now, Indigenous hip-hop music...? Indigenous rap...? Indigenous writing...? Tales from "the reservation"...? Indigenous stand-up comedians...? Indigenous awards presentations...? -- what is an ordinary mainstream everyday tax-paying (and thus C.B.C. supporting) Canadian supposed to make of it? That is specialized programming effectively hijacking sizable chunks of air time for benefit of only 5% of the Canadian population: what relevance to the other 95% of Canadians is there in that, & in turn, why in the world should I be told that I should ruefully mourn the disappearance of the C.B.C. from our media landscape (the absence of commercials notwithstanding)...?

"...So far... not many..." You're in error. Only you, yourself.

"...i guess this will tell us how many lefties are smart enough to realize they're debating with a bot..." You are aware of Einstein's supposed definition of insanity, aren't you...? It's doing the exact same thing over & over again, expecting a different result... The only difference in your specific case is that you repeat the exact same thing over & over again... "Beep...!"

I totally agree with practically all of the aforementioned sentiments expressed... Yes., Poilievre is really & truly right in the midst of his halcyon-salad days, taking full advantage of a lame-duck & slow-witted prime minister, & relishing at what he does best: skillfully taking jabs at an opposition that increasingly resonates with a dis-enfranchised voter block, one that is fast is "becoming" the Canadian electorate of to-day. But then after all, that's the very job of the loyal party that's in opposition, right? And so far PP has garnered-up considerable voter support -- but only at this particular stage in his political evolution, that is. What happens once he's elected will tell the tale as to his true leadership timber: is he just a flash-in-the-pan populist, or does he really possess "the right stuff" to grasp the reins of leadership & lead us all into his promised land. One thing that I can only hope is not a portend of things to come in any Conservative majority is his constant use of the words "common sense" as to what is his soon-to-come governance. I'm old enough here to remember getting sucked into the vortex of ex-Ontario premier Mike Harris' "Common Sense Revolution". There was nothing "common", or "revolutionary" about it -- & certainly no sense in it, either.

I must say, I take considerable personal pleasure in seeing the prime minister of Canada currently flailing helplessly about of late, not unlike an overturned turtle... It all stems back to 2015 days, when I actually championed Justin Trudeau with my friends as being the last hope that the Liberal party of Canada so very desperately was in need of to simply retain a modicum of legitimacy. Here was a potential leader who was just perfect to fit the bill: he was young, fresh, affable, attractive-looking, and brought a family with him in the mix. He was different from all of his predecessors. And the best thing of all? He sported the exact same last name of his father, Pierre Elliott Trudeau that -- for better, or for worse -- carried instant name recognition & resonance with Canadians everywhere. But after watching him just 2 - 3 times on the evening TV news back then, it became very much apparent to me that whatever bounty may have blessed the top of his head, it was not matched by any inner endowment. This reality was made more than apparent by his style of public speaking: in cozy one-on-one scenarios and public speech engagements he was all-in with his pontificating & lecture mode, deliberately pausing for interpretive effect -- albeit with his eyes regularly & rapidly diverting focus to one side ahead of him, as if he was reading some sort of an instant oral-to-visual-teleprompter situated just out of view. And his impromptu scrums with the press were entertainment personified as I eventually caught-on & took delight in counting the very many "um's" that he'd habitually & uncontrollably intersperse in his responses. Trudeau enjoyed and became empowered with unchallenged years of impotent & ineffective Conservative leadership. He mistakenly came to assume that that party's apparent perennial weakness was, in fact, nothing more than a sure sign & reflection of his own personal strength & extensions of his boundless ego & justified arrogance. But in intervening years all of Trudeau's self-inflicted mis-steps both in the economy & on the world stage have gone through what can only be described as having been periods of "gestation", & are now collectively coming home to roost & to haunt him. And worse still, the Conservative party of Canada finally selected a leader who essentially "takes no prisoners" & actually derives great personal pleasure in skewering the prime minister both publicly and in the House. Now, this is hardly a personal endorsement of Pierre Poilievre -- he has baggage of his own to wrestle with -- but it is a sigh of relief in that the majority of Canadians are able to, at long last, see what was visible some 8 - 9 years ago.

Pierre Polievre was like a breath of fresh Spring air blowing through the opened window of a sealed, dark, and stale bedroom when he first caught my attention a couple of years ago. I especially admired the way that he handled himself -- or more appropriately, how he handled Justin Trudeau -- in their parliamentary exchanges. The PM would repeatedly fold like a house of cards...and it could actually painful watching Trudeau lose by default most each and every time. But my initial surge of enthusiasm ebbed rather swiftly as I watched PP's cocky self-assured mis-steps that ensued: his enthusiasm for Bitcoin...his deliberately going out of his way to serve coffee to members of the Freedom Convey...his sudden newly-found arrogance with members of the press...and on and on. The man sure knows no peers as knowing how to grab headlines and make his presence know, alright -- but what will happen when he's elected prime minister of the land, and has nobody to bait and to blame above him...? Te expression of "all sizzle and no steak" immediately comes to mind. Still in all, what choice do we weary Canadians have, otherwise...? Four more years of a Trudeau-Singh oligarchy to suffer under, as parliament merely foregoes the expected, lending additional years of life to that particular "deal with the devil"...? Surely we all deserve better.

For the longest of times it seems, we had the world's experts -- Elon Musk and Bill Gates to name but a few -- all publicly wringing their hands and warning the world aloud about the pending arrival of "Artificial Intelligence" and the dangers and threats that it posed to humankind...and then all of a sudden, just a few short weeks ago, A.I. is everywhere -- our schools, our politics, our advertising, our news, ad nauseam. What exactly happened...? How did A.I. manage to make such an under-the-radar unheralded appearance, and so very quickly, too...? And why is the media apparently just casually accepting its coming as having been a "given", or, little more than "yesterday's news"...?! Frankly, it all simply escapes me. But in reading current reports, I've come to the conclusion that there's nothing especially "intelligent" about A.I., at all -- it's merely a clever extension of old "cut-and-paste" techniques, or PhotoShop...and nothing more. It's still driven by whatever personal agenda that the proverbial "man behind the curtain" might harbor, and little else. Be his motives good, or otherwise. A.I. is but one step ahead of its human master because it's a tad smarter -- and that's it. PERIOD. It appears to be just that simple -- to me, anyway...

Beep...!

Good point. But then look at a guy like Donald Trump -- with his track record, he shouldn't have even been allowed near the raceway, never-mind entry into the starting gate...! Another problem is the short attention spans of voters. They all feed on "sound bites & selfies" anymore -- there's no real soundness or foundation to our leaders...doesn't have to be any. Anything & everything goes, as long as the candidate remains religiously "politically correct". We're short-changing decent candidates that way, & they short-change us, in kind. I heard a very applicable saying re. the voting process one time: "Anyone can vote for whomever, as long as they're 18 -- yet, you actually need a licence to catch a fish around here..."

Is it just me, or is the biggest crisis-deficit the western world lacks right about now is decent, effective leadership...?

"...It's almost as though it would be better to have Putin as a leader..." Stick around. The way things are happening south of us, that day might come sooner than you think -- if not here, then there.

"...Don't feed the bot..." But then however would you survive...?!

"...Are you saying there are people who have an agenda to hurt our domestic economy? And these are onshore people...?" PMO, I'm looking right at you.

+...Eddie is a bot. it's interesting to see how far the tech has come but eddie is a bot..." You are -- BEEP! -- most incorrect in your -- BEEP! -- analysis. It would -- BEEP! -- behoove logic to -- BEEP! -- reassess and reevaluate -- BEEP! -- your original examination -- BEEP!

"...Not many people would be smiling while facing 91 felony counts..." Maybe he's not really as demented as so very many people give the man "credit" for.

Here in Canada is seems to be a deliberately pre-planned way to reign-in any potential benefit whatsoever to the country that might be attained via development of our natural resources.

"...Hello Trump, bye-bye America -- welcome, 'Idiocracy' personified...!" Somewhere across the land, the 56 original signers of the American Declaration of Independence are all just rolling in their respective graves.

...Or perhaps he'd much rather prefer the nickname of "El Toupee", instead.