mowich

I wonder. Would the same apply to those who lived under Nazi rule when they hear anyone on the right labelled as such?

"BC has pretty much become the socialist/communist capital of Canada......." I get a kick out of people who presume they have the right to speak for the population of province as if they were all in the grip of some great mind meld. Fact is, you don't even speak for a significant percentage of Vancouver's population let alone the entire province. FYI the Heartland of our province has proved time and again to be pretty darn conservative so your comment in totally baseless. Fun is many things to many people. Those of us who were born prior to the advent of television know well how to keep ourselves happy and are managing to do so following all of Dr Henry's guidelines. So happiness isn't dead in our little corner of the world. It sad that such is not the case in yours.

Yes. But only when I am well and truly stoned. ?

More like creepy. Watching Zuckerberg testify at the hearings certainly creeped me out. LOL

I was watching the hearings when Zuck was asked that question and almost laughed my butt off when he replied that he had no knowledge of it. As if. I found the hearings really informative but was not that surprised to hear about the tracking that goes on across platforms. That they are getting away with it - now that is alarming.

What is happening is that our elected officials are doing their best to make sure that Canadians get the latest updates on what where Canada is at in all jurisdictions with the virus, the latest on pandemic guidelines and how they are planning on getting more covid testing sites available. Have they been perfect - no but I do believe they are working in our best interests. Conspiracy theories? Please, Betsy. Are you a flat-earther by chance? Just wondering.

I gather you never saw the movie Field of Dreams. Check it out sometime. It would explain why the name Moonlight Graham brings the game of baseball immediately to mind.

I'll give you this - I do believe that Harris was foisted upon Joe by the progressive arm of the party led by Saunders else why did he take so long to announce his running mate. His pressy was even postponed past the time it was to take place. Harris does share many of the aims of the progressives but she too will be unable to see them enacted by a Republican Senate. Were I you, I'd be praying that those Senate seat run-offs go in favor of the Republicans.

The US is a very long way from becoming a socialist/communist country, Betsy. The very fact that the current President got the second highest popular vote in the country's history should at least give you some comfort. What will be interesting to see is what happens in the mid-terms elections that have often seen the flipping of seats.

The only chance that Harris will have to see the progressive agenda go forward is if Joe drops dead. Hopefully, that won't happen for many years. Look on the bright side, the Republicans have a chance of retaining control of the Senate if the run-offs in January come through for the Reps. With McConnell at the helm, the Dems have little chance of getting anything done let alone those put forward by the progressives. Executive orders only go so far and have time limits.

Fear not, Betsy. The Cortez cohorts have little power within the party so they won't be disappearing anyone much as I am sure they would love too.

The 'scary' part of the Democratic party are the Cortez bunch, Betsy. They are already demanding that Biden better tow their line. Poor Joe. Isn't even in office yet and he is facing divisions within his own party and the great divide within the country. The man doesn't need luck he needs a miracle.

Whether he is 'at heart' a protectionist is not at issue. He may very well see the problems inherent in closing the country's doors to free trade. However, he is bound by his party's policies which clearly do not align with free trade.

If........and so far that's a big 'if' evidence of fraud comes to light then all means should be taken to get to the bottom of it. It now appears that the DOJ will be investigating so let's leave it in there hands for now. BTW, congratulating Biden/Harris on their 'contested' win does not make me a supporter. I am just happy to see that the centrists won out over the progressives.

No I am not a journalist, WestCan. I try my best to read as much material on both sides of an issue before forming an opinion and then commenting.

Canada should beware Joe Biden’s ‘Buy American’ mentality With our southern neighbours' recent election of Joe Biden, many commentators and interest groups have expressed relief at the arrival of this career politician with a calmer tone than his predecessor’s. But when it comes to economics, can we really expect a less protectionist president who will smooth trade relations with our country? Like many international trade experts and diplomats, we do not think that this Democratic victory will necessarily mean freer trade between our two countries. While the disputes in the aluminum and steel sectors could settle down, several observations lead us to think that the famous “Buy American” mentality, which amounts to favouring protectionist measures meant to help – but that actually hurt – the American economy will be the new normal. The president-elect even made it one of his campaign slogans. Within the Democratic Party, there is an anti-free-trade movement, fostered by the populist Bernie Sanders, that seems to be gaining ground despite the empirical economic evidence that discredits this 16th-century mercantilist vision. What’s more, Mr. Biden has openly admitted to being in favour of prohibiting Canadian companies from bidding on public infrastructure contracts at the state and municipal levels, something they currently can do. Nor should we forget that Western Canada in particular will probably suffer, at least in certain respects, from the results of this election. Whereas Donald Trump had approved the Keystone XL pipeline that will provide more than 2,000 construction jobs to Albertans, Mr. Biden has promised to put an end to the energy project. Although Americans would lose quality jobs and economic activity that are sorely needed during this pandemic, this could also be another tough blow for Canadians. Regardless of who sits in the Oval Office, it is hard to exaggerate how important trade with the United States is for Canada. In normal times, it accounts for 72.8 per cent of Canadian exports and 51.5 per cent of our imports. Though the fact that we share a continent naturally facilitates trade and constitutes a mutual comparative advantage, this benefit can quickly dissipate owing to coercive protectionist measures and strained trade relations, as we have seen in the softwood lumber saga, where the two governments have been in mediation for years over tariffs. Turning inward has never promoted a general improvement in living standards. Affected consumers must turn to other options, which consist of products that were presumably not their first choice because they were more expensive or of lower quality. Affected producers, for their part, have to deal with protectionist constraints and their attendant costs. Except for the specific companies or sectors protected by quotas and tariffs, everyone loses. It’s not just a bilateral matter, either, since the United States imports raw materials and intermediate goods that it processes to then sell to us. Therefore, when U.S. trade with China or Europe deteriorates for political reasons, the products that they offer us generally become more expensive. For example, the electronic devices we love, and on which you may be reading this, are made from dozens of components from all around the world, even if they are assembled in one specific location. If the trade relations between the countries that participate in the manufacture of such devices deteriorate, it is consumers who end up paying the price. Free trade is more important than ever. Two-thirds of the tourists who visit Canada are American, and the COVID-19 health and political crisis has already reduced the tourism sector’s revenues by nearly $50-billion. With continued uncertainty regarding the anticipated arrival of a vaccine and the complete reopening of our borders, the free movement of goods is a lifeline we need to hang onto. A retreat to protectionism is the last thing our two countries need. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-canada-should-beware-joe-bidens-buy-american-mentality/

What should happen next is for the great pretender to give it up. Exit gracefully and get on with what is left of his life. That however is a dim hope as this man has proven time and again to do exactly the opposite of what a sane intelligent caring human being would do. One might hope it won't come to the White House staff referred to by the President-Elect who are "well-equipped to deal with trespassers."

While everyone appears to be focused on all these stalling tactics, I'm wondering just what the great pretender is actually up to. Joe won't be sworn in until January 21rst 2021. That gives the outgoing President plenty of time to do all manner of things not the least of which is issue pardons.

I don't know of many elections in my lifetime where the dead weren't said to have voted. If I remember correctly, there have even been a couple of dead folks elected.

A Big Win for Democrats in California Came With a Gut Check for Liberals Joe Biden received one of the highest margins in the nation in California, but a look at how the state’s ballot measures were decided shows a more complex picture of the electorate. OAKLAND, Calif. — The message that California voters sent in the presidential election was unequivocal: With almost two-thirds of ballots counted so far going for Joseph R. Biden Jr., the nation’s most populous state put up mammoth numbers for the Democrats. But dig a little deeper into the results and a more complex picture of the Golden State voter emerges, of strong libertarian impulses and resistance to some quintessentially liberal ideas. In a series of referendums, voters in California rejected affirmative action, decisively shot down an expansion of rent control and eviscerated a law that gives greater labor protections for ride-share and delivery drivers, a measure that had the strong backing of labor unions. A measure that would have raised taxes on commercial landlords to raise billions for a state that sorely needs revenue also seemed on track for defeat. The full force of the election results provided something of a gut check for liberals in a state that plays a big role in the Democratic Party and often offers insights into where the rest of the nation might be headed. “The results in California show the Democrats that you can go too far,” said Bob Shrum, a former Democratic strategist and the director of the Dornsife Center for the Political Future at the University of Southern California. “California is a very liberal state that is now resistant to higher taxes and welcoming to the new gig economy, which is where the industry was created.” That is not to say California is lurching rightward. The state is unwaveringly Democratic up and down the ranks of its government. Democrats have a supermajority in the Legislature, and the governor and lieutenant governor are Democrats. Even the state’s chief justice, Tani Cantil-Sakauye, quit the Republican Party two years ago and became an independent. Pockets of unambiguous liberalism stayed strong on Tuesday with San Francisco voters saying yes to liberal priorities including affordable housing, police oversight and new taxes on companies whose highest-paid manager makes more than 100 times the level paid to its local workers. And on many ballot measures, California voters validated the state’s liberal reputation. They rejected an expansion of penalties for some crimes and restored voting rights for felons who are on parole, securing the state’s position as a national leader in reducing mass incarceration and reforming its criminal justice system. This year’s mixed results, however, were not an anomaly. California has always had competing impulses. The state that is home to Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House of Representatives, also produced icons of conservatism including Ronald Reagan. Some of the most prominent conservative voices during the Trump presidency hail from California, including Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader; Devin Nunes, the outspoken congressman and staunch Trump ally; and Stephen Miller, the hard-line anti-immigration White House adviser. This has put California on the front lines of many political battles. The affirmative action measure on the ballot this year, for example, dated to 1996. That year, 55 percent of the state’s electorate voted to ban the use of race, ethnicity, national origin or gender in public hiring, contracting and university admissions. The proposition that California voted on this time would have repealed the ban and was supported by a who’s who of the Democratic Party in the state, including Kamala Harris, the senator and vice-presidential candidate. But it was defeated by almost the same margin with which it had passed originally. Analysts saw a reflection of the state’s demographic complexity in the vote. “It’s always difficult to do proposition campaigns in a state of 40 million people,” said Anthony Rendon, a Democrat and the speaker of the California Assembly. “But our racial and ethnic groups are more complicated and divided than they used to be, in a bunch of different ways.” Since 2014, no one racial or ethnic group has constituted a majority of California’s population. Thirty-nine percent of California residents are Latino, 37 percent are white, 15 percent are Asian-American, 6 percent are Black and fewer than 1 percent are Native American or Pacific Islander, according to the 2018 American Community Survey. More: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/05/us/california-election-results.html?campaign_id=56&emc=edit_cn_20201106&instance_id=23856&nl=on-politics-with-lisa-lerer&regi_id=58085075&segment_id=43701&te=1&user_id=d84861ac2c6e3214d9ec5c3c3024157d

Well if Joe makes it through his four years and decides to step down or is defeated in the next election, I fully expect that he will gracefully exit the White House. Just sayin'

"Democratic strategy is the very definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. " That one sentence sums it up for the poor Democratic performance in this election. It encompasses the many failures of the party and the failure of the 'blue wave' to materialize. Good article Beaver. Thanks for the share.

Quelle surprise. Ever since the pollsters called for a huge NDP win in my province of BC a few elections ago only to see the Liberals win a majority, I stopped following any polls.

Could not agree more with your take on the nonsensical reliance of the Dems on identity politics, Argus but in that they are no different than justdim and his crew of sycophants who cater to the same crowd.