Bryan

The thing is, travelling to countries other than the US is also very much the norm for Canadians. We don't balk at new experiences.

We have this thing called winter. Makes our parks seasonal affairs. We have parks that compete well with places like Valleyfair (a few are even owned by the same company), but a full-scale full time park requires year-round operation. You could say that about anything. Never assume that sun will actually rise the next day, even though until now it always did.

Yes. Canadians are more worldly than Americans. When you do something regularly without incident, suddenly being denied when the conditions haven't changed can be quite jarring. I take 6 to 10 international trips a year. At least 400 in total. When it's that easy to get admitted to another country, the idea of preparing to NOT get in is hard to square. If the thing you're going to is IN that other country, there's nothing you can "prepare" for in the event that you're arbitrarily not admitted.

Foreign travel is very common for work. Plenty of Americans do it.

For technical support? I love my mother, but I think of her and most of her generation as people who need me to help them with their technology, not people who can help me with mine!

Cheap Android phones are primarily last generation too. The Galaxy Note 7 is the same price as the iPhone 7 plus.

BP's first album is really good. I have not heard their more recent stuff. While the controversy over the name has cost them some bookings, overall it's probably allowed them to be exposed to much larger audience.

They are likely at or near a saturation point that would stifle growth anyway regardless of pricing. The phones are so good now, that the amount of improvement model to model is getting smaller. You're seeing 35% faster now, rather than 400%. Do you really need that yet for your 2 yr old phone? Probably not. What Apple sold every two years is probably getting stretched to 3 years.

Winker for some reason is considered the central point for south-east Manitoba for a lot of things. Steinbach is growing really fast, I would have thought Bethesda would have gotten an MRI before Boundary Trails.

The headphones and the adapter come in the box. Lightning connector headphones were already being made by third party headphone makers. Any bluetooth headphones will work with all BT enabled Apple products. If this is supposed to be a cash grab, they're going it wrong.

With one already in Winkler, I can't see Steiner getting one before other places that are farther away. But you're definitely right, the low volume is a serious issue. lack of density is by far our biggest issue with affordable delivery.

Dauphin is still closer to Winnipeg than it is to most towns in Northern MB. It might help a few people, but anyone who would have to overnight to do Dauphin (most of northern MB) would probably choose to come to Winnipeg anyway, especially since flight and hotel options would be better. Probably have to make it farther north to really make a difference --- Swan River maybe? Of course ideally, Dauphin, Swan River, Flin Flon, Norway House, and Thompson would ALL have at least one MRI.

I can choose where ever I want to have my MRI. Even if my doctor (it's usually a sports med specialist, not a GP) does assign me to one hospital, I just call up the one that I do want and have the appointment moved there. My point was, that in Manitoba, unless you live in Winnipeg, Brandon, or Winkler, your MRI is going to involve a road trip no matter where your doctor practices or has privileges. What's a rare exception? That you can get called right away for your MRI (if you're available)? NO, that is very much the norm here. I have gotten that very call several times. Luckily, I live only a few minutes away from one. They call, I run right down.

It does when the big hospital calls you and tells you that they have an opening right now if you can get there right away -- but you live 750 km away.

I know people who have had MRIs at the rural clinics in Manitoba, and their experience has been similar to mine (a week or less, no matter what the "wait time" website said). The issue that does make remote living an issue is not available openings in the MRI schedule, it's those people's availability to show up for the MRI. If going for the scan involves a plane trip and a hotel, the clinic telling you that you can have your scan right now if you can get to there in 10 minutes isn't going to help you. For those people, scheduling the scans weeks in advance is what they actually need anyway.

Even MRIs don't take nearly as long as most people think (at least not in Manitoba anyway). With myself and both of my kids playing a lot of contact sports, injuries happen. We've had more than our share of MRIs. My most recent one (for my knee) was only a couple of months ago. At the time, the posted wait time was 26 weeks, but I got mine in 6 days, and that was the longest we've ever had to wait.

We get flooding almost every year here. Some places use these aqua dams, but from what I've seen, they are not quite as effective on their own as the images posted will have you believe. Water still leaks under and around them. Where they seem to shine is when used as the base "filler" for a sandbag dike. The aqua dam can be filled quickly and with far less man power than an all sandbag dike, then you just stack a few rows of sandbags along the base and at the ends.

The people are idiots who are cutting off their own noses to spite their face.

Or, just lock her in a public pillory. Whatever the community happens to do her as they pass by, so be it.

If it's only a couple of people, why can't you ignore them and just reply to the people you do want to talk to?

Locking the thread IS the derailment. No. Absolutely stop doing it.

What you're doing is much more damage to interesting and detailed discussions than even the worst thread drift. Thread topics are a starting point. Nobody in a real conversation stays completely on topic. One idea triggers another and off it goes. No rational person stops that in mid-track and says "wait no, that's not what we were talking about". A person who would do that is someone you wouldn't invite out next time.

Leafs suck.

Sure I can. I just did. And I stand by it.

I'm not, but it could be argued that some of the people who founded our countries generations ago might have been. Not much different from what Israel is doing now from what was done to the natives as the colonies spread westward.