Moonlight Graham

Great we agree. So as i said before, if you lessen the incentive for foreign buyers to speculate on our housing merely for profit by ie: introducing a foreign buyer tax, you will lower the prices of homes. This is exactly what some governments in Canada have done. Let's see how it plays out.

If you don't understand a basic market principle like supply and demand then I can't help you. Go on ebay, when more people want a certain product they go for higher prices. I'm glad there's record home building. Canada also has a record high population, so this should be the case. This doesn't mean supply is outpacing demand, especially in key markets. If it were housing prices would be falling for reasons other than rising interest rates.

Well that's demand. If there's people with money out there wanting to buy homes, regardless of the reason, this demand drives up the price, and lowers the supply for regular people who want to live in homes.

🤣 Homes built in Canada should primarily be for Canadians who are going to live in them. If you want to stick up for the rights of rich foreigners while Canadians are going broke or homeless that says a lot. If there is 1 home and 3 bidders the price will generally be lower than if there is 1 home and 5 bidders. Price is determined by supply and demand. Period. End of discussion. Either fix the supply, or fix the demand.

Oh be quiet. You have no idea what you're taking about. Government regulation isn't socialism you fool.

Insults aren't an argument and so I will ignore these tantrums. They say a lot more about you then me. Homes aren't for speculators to buy in order to make profit. Homes are for living in. If you want to allow a ton of investors and foreign investors to park their money in our real estate and drive up the price you're not helping the problem. I never said this is the only cause of the housing price crisis. Also, people have always been bidding on homes. Bidding in itself isn't causing the prices to skyrocket. Price is largely determined by supply and demand. If speculators are jumping in en masse they're driving up the demand and therefore price.

Make speculation not profitableable, for one. If you don't live in the home, tax it to where it is not a profitable investment. Do the same for foreign investors. This will drive down demand and thus prices since speculators largely won't be making bids anymore, especially in heated markets. Also, cities need to cut the red tape for building.

Donald Trump pressured his VP to unconstitutionally reject the results of the electoral college votes because he didn't want to lose. He's a dictator.

Fundamentalist Islam is garbage and should have no place in Canada. The fatwa is nonsense, and under Canadian law you can't issue death threats anyways, despite free speech, so it's already not allowed in Canada so don't worry. Islam is the worst major religion in the world, but I have no issue with moderate Muslims, I have known many. I have known Muslim women who don't even wear a hijab or headcovering. Some even who are Iranian.

No, the cost of housing has gone up because our governments at all levels are corrupt and won't do much about it while speculators, developers, and banks game the system.

I'm not defending the behaviour, I'm defending not getting sued 50 million for it. Did Jones cause the parents economic harm for which they deserved 50 million in compensation? That's what I'm having trouble understanding.

If Jones told people to harass someone, he should be charged for inciting harassment. If Jones has a dumb opinion and other people break the law he isn't legally responsible. It's as simple as that. People are responsible for their own actions.

If some idiot says Sandy Hook was a fake conspiracy just ignore it. Defamation/slander/libel should have a high bar. When the lies damage a person's finances I get it, that can be appropriate to sue, but hurting people's feelings...like really? 50 million dollars in damages. Seriously? Did Jones ever mention any of the victims personally? As far as I know he said Sandy Hook was a leftwing conspiracy. Uh ok. I'm not going to pounce on someone's rights because I dislike them or what they say. I'm not a dictator.

This seems like a really stupid lawsuit. Alex Jones is an idiot but it shouldn't be illegal to be a mouthy idiot.

Leftwing corporate news = socially leftwing/progressive, economically right or center-ish. They are not Bernie Sanders leftists, they are the Democrat establishment types and typical urban progressives. Cable news is really quite terrible, none are very reliable. PBS is ok i guess.

I reuse all plastic bags I get from stores. I use them to store things, or use them for garbage bags on smaller trash bins.

McDonald's is replacing plastic cutlery with wooden cutlery. Plastic straws are now paper. It's biodegradeable but it is better to be cutting down more trees?

I think a big problem in democracy is that parties are catch-alls for all issues. You only get 1 vote, but there's dozens of key issues to decide. The few most important issues usually decide elections but all others the citizens get no say on.

You can formally reject your ballot. Rejected ballots are counted. Spoiled ballots aren't, well no different than if someone accidentally marks their ballot wrong. If the government forced me to vote i would probably reject my ballot as an F U. People always whine about the system when they don't get the result they want. I mean mandatory voting, really? Just take the loss and deal and stop telling other people what to do.

The forms you fill out on your way back into the country is for the things you're importing into the country with you. You don't have unlimited rights to import goods into the country. However, you are free to leave and return to the country as you please and the government can't stop you. It's in the Charter.

Yeah sounds like corruption. "Paul Cullors, brother of the co-founder, received a large sum of US$840,000 for providing security services to the organization." LOL.

Every Canadian has a Charter right to leave their country and return to their country. Only the items they bring into the country can be denied, not they themselves. If you had no luggage, as far as I know as long as you prove your identity and citizenship status (via your passport or whatnot) you don't have to answer any questions from Canadian border officials because of these rights. Just like you don't have to answer any questions from cops. During the pandemic i could see the questions on this app being necessary but at this point I think we're good, and no need of it from mid-May until the fall when COVID cases are so low. For the Liberal Party, for some reason the Charter is so often inconvenient to them, they clearly either don't understand it or don't respect it. They definitely have little respect for the privacy of Canadians.

Trudeau is pretty unpopular among Canadians according to polls. The CPC also won the popular vote the last 2 federal elections. So his support is overstated in the OP.

1. Homeowners aren't making money if when they sell their home they have to buy another home, which is the vast majority of people because everyone has to live somewhere. If housing prices rise to 2 million on average you can sell your house for 2 million then have to buy another house for 2 million, or downsize to a condo that costs 1.5 million. You didn't make any money. If home prices crash and cost 200k on average you sell your home right now for 200k and then have to buy another home for 200k or a condo for 150k. You didn't lose any money. The only way to make money in selling your primary residence is to move into an entirely different market that is much cheaper and not affected by these housing prices, which doesn't much seem to exist in North America. The only way you make money is by having a second residence you're speculating on, or you're a developer or a bank. A home is a basic human need like food and clothing, it shouldn't exist primarily for profit by speculators, developers, or banks. Every extra dollar spent on a mortgage is a dollar your standard of living has decreased because you can't spend that dollar on something else. Canadians spend a higher % of their income on housing than any other developed country. Homelessness is rising. Our politicians have screwed them by permitting the speculation for decades. Many of them have investment properties too, they're in on the screwjob. 2. Politicians have different factors to consider before making an economic policy decision. They listen to economic advisors, lobbyists/donors, public polling etc. This crisis was created by policies at different levels of government that have lasted decades. A few years ago my city council and mayor elections started allowing private donors to donate. They previously hadn't and have since banned the practice. They publish the donations publicly. The number of housing developers and individuals associated with them on the list was alarming. Your city is no different: https://acorncanada.org/blogto-all-toronto-city-council-alleged-have-accepted-donations-developers

1. Well i don't. As I said factors need to be weighed. Studies and analysis need to be done. I'm no expert but it doesn't seem like allowing foreign speculators to buy up Canadian housing is serving Canadians very well. The car example was just an example, i'm no expert there either. 2. True. Just giving an example. 3. Sometimes. Example: Trudeau's gov would only sign the TPP after the other countries agreed to rename it the "The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership" because they wanted to rebrand it as "progressive" in order to virtue signal. But to be clear I think corruption, election calculus, and economics drives the large majority of decisions in our trade policy, not wokeism. Our politicians are selfish. Their primary motivation isn't the good of the country, it's to remain in power. For Trudeau he also wants to look good in front of everyone. Trudeau has a big ego and wants to appear to be saving the climate, saving women, saving indigenous etc. so he looks like a hero. That's where a lot of the wokeness comes from. I'm not saying wokeism is the only factor in Trudeau decisions, again many factors involved, but he doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt that the national interest is his primary motivation. 4. Again, many factors at work. The last of the 5 eyes to ban Hauwei. Weak leadership. I'm sure much of that was fear of China trade retaliation. Maybe Hauwei is in their pockets too, who knows. I'm sure we'd be alarmed at how much the CCP has paid off our politicians over the decades. But letting them use 5G would be unpopular with voters so they can't allow it. If the public didn't care who knows what Canada would have done, we've been sold down the river before. Liberals and Harper were weak on national security re: China, probably due to corruption. It's not like CSIS wasn't ringing the alarm for over a decade. Canadian corporations want to trade with China too, good for profits, so of course they'd lobby too. Canadian developers and banks have made tons of money from foreign real estate speculators. High housing prices are wonderful for them.