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2·2 days agoGood remark. I’ll change the title.
6·2 days agoRunning a successful restaurant is very difficult. It takes a lot of skills. Competition is brutal.
Running a successful hotel is difficult. It takes a lot of skills. Competition is brutal.
Running a Canadian bank or Canadian telecom company is actually easy. 3/4 big companies share the banking market and the telecom market. They pretend to compete but there is so few of them their CEOs can meet regularly in private. Meanwhile, the customers are trapped and don’t have any alternative.
This is why Banks and Telecom companies should pay a higher tax rate.
Senator Jim Justice. Second richest man in West Virginia.
He owns several coal mines.
make no mistake, very few people want construction projects going on around them for years, without anything to soothe the pain. If you tell them you’ll freeze their property tax for 10 years because the new development would pay more, then they may be okay with listening to construction noise for a few years.
Canada has a very high immigration rate combined with strict zoning rules.
The result? The country is facing the worse housing crisis in the Western world. Rents have increased at double digits. Visible homelessness has skyrocketed. People are ending up on the streets. Landlords are abusing vulnerable women.
Olivia Chow claims to be a progressive fighting for ordinary people.
That turned out to be a lie. If you live in a country with a major housing crisis and oppose making housing more affordable, you aren’t a progressive.
All this effort instead of constructing traffic calming road features. Oh wait, that doesn’t generate revenue…
Speed cameras actually generate very little revenue compared to the financial cost of car crashes: Ambulances, drugs, police, surgeons. If speeding fines were to truly reflect the social cost of car crashes, they would be significantly higher.
Also, the people who oppose speed cameras will absolutely FREAK OUT if you propose to reduce lanes. Look at what just happened to Toronto bike lanes.
This is a great article from Dalhousie University.
Justin Trudeau tried to reduce the use of single use plastics. He faced enormous political backlash. Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Conservative Party, campaigned on defending plastics:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/poilievre-scrap-plastics-ban-1.7514037
Poilievre claimed that the federal Plastics ban was inflicting financial pain on Canadian families
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bri5-IqHqw
Evidence‑based solutions are indeed under political fire.
1·9 days agoOkay. I’ll do that.
Fair enough. I just want to point out the title in the browser tab isn’t the same as the title in the article.
I studied in Montreal and I left the country a long time ago. Yet I still pay close attention to Canadian politics. Because I really want to see Canada improve.
How can I say this without offending anyone?
I feel I can speak my mind bluntly precisely because I am a foreigner.
Brutal truth
Many Alberta politicians act like absolute cunts.
Alberta is one of the Jewels of Canada. It was named after Princess Louise Alberta, the favorite daughter of Queen Victoria, it’s a province that was blessed with great beauty and enormous ressources.
One of the responsibility of having enormous natural ressources is managing sustainably to ensure the next generations can live in a good environment.
In 1974, the New York Times reported the province has SO MUCH money it doesn’t know what to do with it:
ALBERTA FLOODED WITH OIL REVENUE
At time when most governments at every level, are struggling hard to stay solvent, Alberta, which produces 83 per cent of Canada’’ oil, has more money than it knows what to do with.
Yet all I hear is constant whining, whining, whining. Why? What the hell is going on?
According to Statistics Canada, under Justin Trudeau, Alberta reached the highest oil production levels in modern history. In fact, Justin Trudeau opened a brand new pipeline:
For the fourth consecutive year, production of crude oil and equivalent products reached a record high, up 4.3% from 2023 to 298.8 million cubic metres in 2024.
The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion began operation in May 2024, providing Alberta crude oil with increased access to Pacific Ocean terminals and markets abroad.
Despite this, all I keep hearing from Alberta politicians is how evil Justin oppressed/raped/humiliated ordinary Albertans. This is insane.
Alberta politicians just keep whining about environmental rules. If they want their constituents to have cancer because of heavy metals from fracking and mining, if they want Alberta lakes and rivers polluted by plastics, it’s horrible, but it’s their choice.
The core issue is these Alberta corrupt politicians seem determined to blow up the planet, claiming there is no alternative. Fort McMurray burned the fuck down. Jasper burned the fuck down. But clearly the Alberta political leaders learned nothing from it.
Alberta has produced many great artists, historians, authors, scientists. They gave Canada many great figures. I hope that one day, people take back their province from these crooks. They deserve better than their current dumbass leaders. I believe Alberta should aim to be like mini-Norway.
Norwegians heavily tax oil and don’t let filthy rich Oil CEOs get away with murder. Norway has an investment fund to support the next generations. But they are extremely environmentally conscious. Norway invests heavily in electric cars, public transit, and takes strong measures against plastic pollution. It would be very sad if Albertan leaders led their province to become like so many ressource-rich failed states
I’m actually not surprised at all by the result of this study.
We know from several studies that fish 🐟 , eggs🥚, nuts 🌰 and chicken 🐔 are much healthier sources of protein than red meat 🥩.
From Cornell University:
Unprocessed red meat and processed meat consumption leads to a slightly higher risk of heart disease and premature death, according to a new study from researchers at Cornell and Northwestern University
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2020/02/study-red-meat-processed-meat-hike-heart-disease-risk
From Harvard University:
People who eat just two servings of red meat per week may have an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared to people who eat fewer servings, and the risk increases with greater consumption, according to a new study led by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
“Given our findings and previous work by others, a limit of about one serving per week of red meat would be reasonable for people wishing to optimize their health and wellbeing” said senior author Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition.
https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/red-meat-consumption-associated-with-increased-type-2-diabetes-risk/
From Oxford University:
Red and processed meat linked to increased risk of heart disease, Oxford study shows.
Overall, the evidence from the analysis indicated that each 50 g/day higher intake of processed meat (e.g. bacon, ham, and sausages) increased the risk of coronary heart disease by 18%.
Each 50 g/day higher intake of unprocessed red meat (such as beef, lamb and pork) increased the risk of coronary heart disease by 9%.
There was no clear link between eating poultry (such as chicken and turkey) and an increased risk of coronary heart disease.
Now that this has come to light, surely the law will be followed and the will be consequences!
The issue is that many american prosecutors are absolute cowards.
In other countries, some prosecutors actually do their job. The headquarters of the ruling Spanish Political party was just raided by prosecutors and the police.
Why do US prosecutors simply refuse to do their job? You break the law. You get criminally prosecuted. It’s not that hard.
13·11 days agoI’m a strong believer in non-profit news. I regularly donate money to The Guardian because it’s a great non-profit newspaper.
https://www.theguardian.com/about
Many for profit news organizations are absolute garbage. But please don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Not all for-profit news organizations are clickbait propaganda. It depends on their business model and their owner.
The New Yorker depends on subscriptions. They employ some of the best writers in the english speaking world.
The Information depends on subscriptions. It’s (very) expensive but they have the best coverage of Silicon Valley.
Rupert Murdoch owns the New York Post, Fox News and the Wall Street Journal. In Britain, he owns The Sun. In Australia, he owns 90% of newspapers and Sky News Australia.
He uses his media empire to push his own political views. He encouraged Tony Blair to invade Irak. His newspaper The Sun encouraged British people to leave the European Union by claiming the Queen supported Brexit:
Rupert Murdoch has been publically accused by several world leaders of attempting to blackmail them.
John Major, former British Prime Minister:
https://www.channel4.com/news/major-denies-sun-editor-abused-him-after-black-wednesday
Gordon Brown, former British Prime Minister:
Malcom Turnbull, former Australia Prime Minister:
Kevin Rudd, former Australia Prime Minister:
Rupert Murdoch is a real bastard. He was regularly invited by Ronald Reagan to the White House. He came with his lawyer, Roy Cohn.
He is so powerful because there are millions of people who swallow the crap from his media.
Donald Trump praises him.
“Rupert Murdoch is in a class by himself, he’s an amazing guy” President Trump said of the conservative media magnate, who sat smiling in the Oval Office this week
https://thehill.com/media/5133600-trump-murdoch-relation/
Since when Iran has any terrorists in the united state and canada?
Are you serious…?
Canadian Intelligence foiled an Iranian attempt to assassinate a former minister:
According to a source, the RCMP on Oct. 26 informed Mr. Cotler, a former Liberal justice minister, that he faced imminent threat of assassination within 48 hours from Iranian agents.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) told him that he was a high-profile target of Iran. The close protection provided to Mr. Cotler includes bulletproof vehicles, heavily armed officers and other security measures.
Iranians agents tried to kidnap a woman in New York City:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/nyregion/iran-masih-alinejad-kidnapping.html
Iranians agents tried to blow up the Saudi Ambassador to the United States:
https://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/30/justice/new-york-saudi-assassination-plot
Controversial opinion: This is actually a very good thing.
But the tax is set to be fully repealed on July 1. Its abolition was one of the first acts of Premier John Hogan, who took office in May. He said it was contributing to affordability issues in the province.
Very short-sighted decision.
Obesity costs the Canadian Healthcare system billions of dollars every year:
https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-025-21905-2
Currently, most Canadian politicians are treating people like little children.
It’s time to tell people the brutal truth:
“We can end traffic jams in our city. But we are going to increase parking fees. We are going to build a bike lane network. Many drivers will be unhappy and will have to change their habits. Do you think it’s worth it?”
“We can reduce the number of car crashes. Less people will die. Less people will be injured. But the number of speed cameras will increase. A lot of speeding citizens are going to receive fines and will be furious. Getting a driver license will also become much harder for older people. Do you think it’s worth it?”
“We can make our healthcare system more financially sustainable. We can do that by increasing your income tax. Or we can increase the sales tax. Or we can tax all business owners. Or we can increase the alcohol tax and sugar tax. Which tax do you prefer? What do you think?”
“We can reduce gun trafficking. We will do it by tripling the number of inspections of trucks and cars coming from the United States. But this means longer waiting times at border crossings. The number of american tourists will be reduced. The price of some imported things may also increase. Should we do it?”
"We can significantly reduce homelessness. But we are going to build very tall buildings like in Eastern Europe blocks. We will ban cities from opposing housing projects that meet legal norms. In many neighborhoods, individual homeowners will be outraged. What do you think? Should we do it?
No pain, no gain. It’s true at the gym. But it’s also true in politics.
There are some decisions that are easy wins : cracking down on tax evasion, using open source software, stronger ethics laws.
Unfortunately, most decision aren’t easy wins. They actually require some pain if you want gains.
Time to start treating people like adults. Tell them the brutal truth.
You know the worst thing about this story ?
This was published recently 👇👇👇
Alberta paid more than 6 times usual price for pain medications in $70-million import deal
Alberta purchased children’s pain medication from Turkey at a price more than six times greater than what the provincial health authority normally pays for the same volume of product, according to documents obtained by The Globe and Mail.
The Alberta government explained in 2022 that the manufacturer required a minimum order of five million bottles - or $70-million worth of drugs - to get the deal done. But a briefing note, obtained by The Globe, indicates the health authority could have reduced its total bill by ordering less medicine, albeit at a higher price per bottle.
5 million bottles equated to roughly eight bottles for every child in the province.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alberta/article-alberta-turkish-pain-medication-deal-prices/
1. Marc Carney promised to increase CBC funding. Not slash it. This kind of bullshit combined with a flawed voting system, is exactly why people are losing trust in democracy.
2. You want Crown Corporations to save money? I’ll give you savings.
Stop paying millions of dollars to use Microsoft Office. Instead, use LibreOffice instead.
Stop paying millions of dollars to use Microsoft Windows. Instead, use Linux.