August1991

Thanks.

You call it "anchor currency". To me, the US dollar is a "reserve currency". Like the British with their pound, we Canadians have always had our own currency.

Disagree. Anyone homeless, living on the street in Canada has problems, cannot manage their life. This person should not impose their lifestyle on any child, any animal. A civilised State should intervene.

People in northern/Interior BC vote differently from Vancouver - the city. On this forum, a poster once explained to me why Vancouver Island had a Green MP and a Conservative MP. He said, "There are tree-huggers and tree-cutters." ===== Alberta needs an outlet to the sea.

I go with Mulcair. He had a very good analysis of Quebec politics: https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/article/tom-mulcair-the-quebec-liberal-leadership-contender-who-could-put-a-stop-to-a-surging-separatist-tide/ ===== Hebert is too CBC, Mansbridge.

This is my thinking. ==== A person cannot choose their skin colour. By birth, some people are left-handed, others right-handed. This is something they cannot change. It is difficult to learn a new language, almost impossible to lose an accent. The State should be indifferent to such. === But if you choose to have a face tattoo - any tattoo - the State should identify you, and arrest you on this alone.

Getting back to the OP: Canada has lotsa space. Many, many more people can live here. The Netherlands has some 16 million people. And they get along.

cougar, been there, done that... You are not asking for 100 m2 somewhere in Canada. You want a precise space with access to a washroom, level ground, cleared of trees, secure.... IMHO, our Cdn federal parks are better organised than provincial parks - but the provincial parks are more accurate to real life. And they're cheaper.

As long as real GDP is rising faster than government spending, then a State is largely sustainable. IOW, it is not so much the level of water in the swimming pool; the key question is whether it is rising or falling. ==== Let me re-phrase that: As long as real GDP is rising faster than the difference between government spending and government tax revenues, then a State is largely sustainable.

The US has "government debt" to GDP ratio well over 100%. Japan? It is still over 200% - I think. Canada? Justin Trudeau pushed it from 40% to 60% (I'm picking rough numbers out of my head.) Greece? It adopted the euro and got rid of the drachma. (The Germans bailed the Greek government out once. Heck, Albertans bail the Quebec government out every year. We call it equalization.)

AG, sorry to mix two issues/threads. 1. This stupid slavic civil war must stop before it escalates to a broader conflict. 2. Canada's financial situation is good. Chretien/Martin/Harper did good, along with the English WASP/Norman French frugalness/practicality. ==== While we can easily afford the $40 billion or so, I don't think we should spend 2% of GDP on defense.

AG, you touch on a complicated/delicate issue. Domesticated animals (and children) cannot fend for themselves. I don't want to go libertarian/socialist here but it seems to me that the State has a role to protect them. The State intervenes and takes children from wealthy parents. To me, if a person is homeless and lives in a tent in Canada, then this is evidence that the person cannot manage their life.

It was likely several people living in various tents who choose to park their bikes (and shopping carts etc) in one place.

A striking feature of the Left is insisting on a single way to do things: ObamaCare Medicaid Social Security And then, they argue about what it means.

LOL! ==== To me, this was always a marriage of convenience.

SALT: State and Local Taxes - In Canada, we cannot declare provinicial and property taxes as a deduction on our federal taxes. Trump made America like Canada.

Ford in Ontario wisely saw the wave. Carney saw it too. Poilievre missed the wave; and I suspect Legault too. "There is a tide in the affairs of men which if taken, lead on to fortune... "

OTOH, the US federal American government is spending at a faster rate than it borrows. In part, this is due to SALT. And Medicare, and Social Security. I think Krugman described the US government as a tank with a pension plan. ===== God knows what happens if CalPers defaults.

CdnFox, I am not being sarcastic. We Canadians largely spend within our means. (True, Justin Trudeau used up alot of our line of credit.) We Canadians are creating wealth faster than our governments can tax us - and despite Trudeau Jnr, we have a large margin.

Even your purple graph (that starts at 50, not 0) shows the Canadian debt-to-gdp falling since 2021. And we in Canada are below 100%. (Check the graph for the US.) Define "government debt". (Federal, provincial, municipal - sub-national.)

The US federal social security is unfunded. It is pay as you go. The Quebec Caisse has about $500 billion in paper assets. But you are correct, Aristides. Quebec govt paper debt is about $250 billion. IOW, the Quebec govt is a potential Ponzi scheme. It borrows at low interest rates and then lends at higher rates. I fear that Trump may clue into this!

Our debt? Money? No. Putin famously said that the Koreans will eat grass. ==== I never want any future war to be reduced to such levels.

I am surprised that this surprises anyone. America defeated the Soviets. Deng changed China. From 1990 to 2020 or so, for a brief time in recent world history, ordinary people could freely travel. ====== We had such a world before 1914.

It is so obvious the divide. I am surprised that some people in BC are so left-wing, but so not British.

Years ago, I worked in an Edmonton auto-parts warehouse. I quickly understood that northern BC is like rural Alberta. ===== Edmonton is a fake urban centre.