Moonlight Graham

Why not?

1. Are you sure about this? 2. Do you think our politicians are working in our best interests? Do you think they're corrupted by money? How much do you think policy has to do with our problems? 3. The status quo isn't working. The politicians should be working in the interests of the masses and the country and nobody else. That's not happening. Our democracy isn't working. Policy can fix a lot of this, new laws and regulations and oversight and accountability on politicians and parties.

"It's not my fault, nobody told me" 😂 Does anyone believe this nonsense? Whether you willfully ignore it OR your staff isn't telling you these extremely important national security issues, you're incompetent either way. Are these inquiry testimonies under oath? I'd sure hope so. Here's my translation from the testimony: "The foreign interference benefited us electorally, so we chose to ignore it" - Trudeau

There's stuff we need to spend on, and stuff we need to spend more on. But there's a ton of other stuff i'd much rather they allocate to those other more important things (defence, healthcare etc) or just give me back the money I'm spending on it that they took from my income taxes, HST etc. My income vs my net take-home pay is ridiculous and it makes me really annoyed.

I don't know. Pork is a thing in the US system.

If Jan 6 didn't happen I think Trump would win convincingly. In Canada, I think Trudeau's Liberals have been so bad that they've red-pilled a lot of young people, and all of the woke nonsense in society hasn't helped. The left-of-center's used to be cool and chill (Clinton, Obama, the 90's/2000's liberal types). Now they're just sickening, delusional, and incompetent.

This sounds like confirmation bias to me. No I think they're more excited to get rid of Trudeau. Canadians aren't so stupid as to think PP is some kind of saviour. He answers to his own corporate masters and plays his own tricks and lies.

Don't understand.

Why do they have to be supported by the public? Who chooses the public we should listen to? What if the masses don't agree with most of the public figures? Isn't a democracy about what the masses want? Why doesn't the public vote and the masses just not get a vote? Not sure how political figures fit into this. A lot of people hated Obama because he was black and had a Muslim/Arab middle name. Including Trump. Leaders are essentially puppets and spokesmen for the party itself, which means they aren't very much leaders at all, just PR heads. Except for Trump, which is why the likes of Liz Cheney hate him. You can't be a populist or even democratic leader when many of your dictates come from your base of donors. The Liberals have to be good to SNC-Lavalin, and PP to the oil corps in Alberta, and they're all in bed with the banks, real estate developers etc. So the publics might sway opinions, but how much are they swaying policy?

But does everyone have a say (the masses, democracy), or just the philosophers kings?

Unless it's in the US constitution, which applies federally. But the states hold the reserve powers. Meaning, the 10 amendment says that any power not specifically outlined in the constitution is then the domain of the states. Because as you say, the US is a federation of states. The reserve powers in Canada fall to the Crown, so federal Parliament.

Well, that's more of an ad hominem, it depends on the argument. They are both dumb on some opinions and bang-on about other things. Maybe as a society we should all stop looking for saviours and just looks for good ideas to combine.

Show me where medical procedures is dealt with in the constitution. As I remarked in my other response to you, if you insult me again as you did above I will put you on ignore. Got it? I'm trying to have a discussion with you, you don't have to be a jerk about it.

So you're saying that congressmen answer to their constituents, not Trump. So Trump can't force them to do anything, he can just say some bad words. People in Congress have their donors to answer to. Also, if you speak insulting to me again unprovoked I will put you on ignore so maybe learn how to speak to people with respect.

@Michael Hardner 2 people come to the same conclusion independently. 3 if you count Jordan Peterson:

The big corporations want the cheap labour, see. Cheap labour, more consumers, more profit. Illegals in the US are the new African slaves, driven by the money-makers. Nobody actually cares about us lowly workers. Anyone who thinks politicians work for us is a naive fool, they work for themselves. Their #1 priority isn't their constituents or their country, it's maintaining their own power.

How does the POTUS force any congressman to vote a certain way? The US isn't Canada.

Abortion isn't protected or banned in the constitution, so what is to be done? Different states have different laws for everything. There's still dry states in the US that ban public sales of alcohol in stores, it can only be bought from a licensed vendor (sports game, bar etc).

It should be left up to states unless there's a constitutional amendment specifically dealing with abortion.

If we keep up the population growth rate as it is and don't significantly increase housing supply then obviously the price of housing and rents should keep rising. Locking young people into expensive mortgages for the rest of their working lives is a disaster for this economy, at least for workers, not the banks and developers and baby boomers selling and moving into retirement homes.

I'm sure Iranians will respond well to another western coup and suddenly want to be our friends.

Sure but what's your point? The current governments haven't changed their plans enough to respond to the situation which they largely created. If they want riots they're on a great track. And you didn't answer if you support guaranteed basic income with no qualifiers?

The current government caused the housing crisis and contributed greatly to the health care crisis due to their vast expansions on immigration and international students and lack of regulation on foreign and domestic speculating. Provincial governments also are to blame for bad policy or lack thereof.

The government. This is mostly what we do now with benefits, though we should do a bit more of it for some programs. For instance, you can't go on disability EI without a doctor's note. If you're seriously advocating for just giving free income to anyone who wants it with zero qualifiers I think that's a very bad path for many reasons. Is this what you're proposing?

See my first reply in this thread.