You don't think it's hypocritical?

You could try thinking for yourself for a change instead of just parroting what these other guys say all the time.

The point is, this isn’t like “brand new 6 months of Carney!!”

This is year 11 of a liberal govt. There should have been no govt. in the world more prepared for a second Trump term. Yet of course. Caught with our pants down as usual.

Canada looks weak because you moved forward on a proposal literally everyone said was a bad idea, yet this govt. touted as a great idea, then instantly turned on it. As they have with so many other things.

How many times can we be lied directly to our faces that something is in our best interest, and then at literally the slightest push back turn on a dime on the matter? lol like this is the MO for this govt. it always has been. That’s the weakness. If it’s so important and you’ve spent months if not years telling us how important something is, you’re just full of shit.

Like.. we’re running a record deficit, at the same time as major historic cuts to services, but at least everything is getting worse as well as more expensive? :lol

What I really don’t get is how the fuck are groceries so much here?

In both Norway and Denmark, which use their own currency outside of the Euro, and the Canadian dollar has a -TERRIBLE- exchange rate, groceries are basically the same price as here, if not cheaper

https://i.imgur.com/tkB6S97.jpeg

This is at a grocery store I’d compare to a fresh street, urban fare type place, watermelon is $7 CAD.. I was at Costco yesterday and the same watermelon is $9.. and Costco typically adjusts their prices based on the market within the week etc.

https://i.imgur.com/lTLhasv.jpeg

These pizzas are $4 CAD.. when’s the last time you could get a frozen anything for $4? lol..

Like.. it don’t make sense..

Norway was the same albeit I don’t have any pictures. The same or cheaper groceries in relatively rural Norway with our weak dollar?

Jesus now you're just changing the zoom from micro to macro to reassert your hatred.

I can't even be bothered, Badhobz is right, literally no point to this thread. You're just doing nothing every day except building your loathing of Canada up enough in your mind that you finally get enough of a sack to sell your house and move somewhere you think is better.

lol yea ok..

Bend over for a lower quality of life and keep telling yourself as long as we get Trump that’s all that matters!

It’s like I’ve said for years now. People here would rather be eating ramen noodles under a cardboard shelter than consider having a govt. they didn’t agree with socially.

Welcome to year 11.

If that's what you think I'm all about then so be it, you haven't actually read anything I've said and you've never even met me.

Move to Norway and buy slightly cheaper watermelons I guess. I'll check the prices of them for you in Calgary later when I go to the store, maybe you'll like it here if they're also $7 or less.

What’s there to be combative about? I’m just trying to understand how we are like this?

How can we, Canada, and in Vancouver, a global port city with access to essentially the globe in terms of trade, pay more for groceries than Scandinavian countries with a fraction of the population, access, shipping routes, trade partners? AND with a terrible dollar?

Is the dollar the reason? Because our buying power is so diminished that it’s impossible to not pass these costs onto the consumer?

these things literally go on sale for like $3-4 all the time at superstore

I haven't been to northern Europe personally, I was just in the UK for 10 days 2 months ago... and food was DOUBLE the cost of here. As in the numbers on the menus and stores were the same as here, but the GBP was 1.86x CAD at the time.

I have zero knowledge of what Norway does agriculturally.

Like if UK is twice the price of Canada and Canada is already expensive... UK had a Conservative government just as long as Canada had a Liberal one. Norway doesn't have a Conservative government either. The UK should really be asking themselves why they pay twice as much as a country literally next to them?

I'm just putting this out there -- but maybe the 2 things aren't necessarily correlated? There appears to be enough examples of polarized results to at least suggest that.

Maybe Norway doesn't have an equivalent to big bad Gaylon Weston? I have no idea.

I mean the regular price is $3.47.

https://i.imgur.com/ecrmlxm.png

https://www.realcanadiansuperstore.c...r=frozen+pizza

Well yea, once again with the UK prices are more to do with a terrible exchange rate than anything else. USD to GBP, you’re laughing. CAD to GBP, you’re obviously paying out the ass for the same item. However, what I just laid out above are examples from countries both in the EU and Not, and all using their own currencies which are generally strong against CAD.

The UK is undoubtedly a worse place than Canada in virtually every aspect. Regardless of political leanings.

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-G...ucts/268290106

Oh hey, the UK charges $5.75 for the same pizza that's $3.49 at Superstore.

https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/p...izza-pepperoni

$8.02 CAD for the same pizza in Australia! What a fucking shithole country they are!

Apologies I didn’t take pictures of the entire grocery store.

Also yea, Australia is literally an island as far away as you can get from anything. Makes some sense.

Did you guys know gas in Norway costs about $2.03USD per litre? If I look out the window gas here is $1.09USD. Proof that it costs twice as much to live in Norway and it's a shitty country!

Let's keep cherry picking one-off items to illustrate our own points even if they don't illustrate the broader picture of things.

Yep and the average salary in Oslo is about $92,000 CAD..

The median HOUSEHOLD income in Vancouver is about the same for 2 people..

its no secret that norway has high pay, but why would you compare average there vs median here?

Does comparing this stuff between countries even work?

I mean I'm positive there's countries in South America that a basket of fruit is like $3 CAD but then their median wage is probably also $15k a year or something. And?

I mean yah ok I would like to live somewhere that I make the most and things cost the least. I don't think this unicorn country exists though.

Most of North America has been on an affordability slide since the 90's ie: inflation and prices have increased % wise more than incomes have.... that is definitely an issue... but I have a feeling there's more to it than political leanings/ideology. Governments don't tell corporations what to pay their employees. Prices are always going to go up, never down except very temporarily. It's some weird cultural phenomena here that people think businesses and corporations are the be all and end all so we basically hand everything over to them fiscally and let them decide our fates? I think Europe is much more life and happiness focused. Maybe that maturity comes with having been around for literally 1000+ years longer than North America has been? There are soooo many cultural differences. Like I don't know why, but they have multi-generational mortgages in much of Germany and Switzerland. There's zero appetite or even method for such a thing here. Vacation leave allowances are off the charts high over there compared to here and the USA is laughable in comparison.

Maybe we're just focused on the wrong things.

The median is only slightly lower than average there

Norway also had piles of oil money they were smart about. It sounds remote and northern but it's a stones throw to the EU. Trucks can drive there. Meanwhile the great port of Vancouver is 7000+km from Asia and South America. Anything trucked here has to cross through the meth lab below us and just in general we get dragged down by their shitty standards for things. We'd probably be a lot better off if we had a higher population density and were stuck onto the coast of Spain instead of the US.

Norway has the 7th highest cost of living index in the world.
For reference, US is 17th and Canada is 26th.

australia's a shit hole. not recommended. People are too rich, everything tries to kill you, i got a speeding ticket for 330 dollars aud for going 4km/h over their stupid speed limit.

fuck that place. and fuck their accents.

i dont mind the aussie accent but i hate that version of it that has that upwards inflection at the end of every sentence. i think it might be a queensland accent? drives me nuts

Literally bought those Oetker pizzas for $3.50 each at country grocer a few weeks ago lol

Aus is upside down US and NZ is upside down Canada. Both are better countries than their respective Norther hemisphere counterparts but are geographically less cool.

It's super easy as a tourist to visit a country and not experience the downsides of said country and to then think that your own country sucks. I love London, Tokyo, Edinburgh, Hong Kong, Sydney, Maui etc but I never had to wait in line to get a CT scan or have to be jobless for a few months or shop in a Dollarama or try to buy a home while I was there.

I ate the good food, I saw the nice sights, and even when I lived in the city (vs a hotel) or stayed with friends I was still a tourist and didn't have to interact with the bad parts of living in those cities and countries. Looking back the only place I've ever been that was truly bad was New Orleans, the rest were either good or great - even Milwaukee was alright (if incredibly dull).

I think it's one thing to believe that we can do better as a country and that maybe we're making the wrong tradeoffs about what's important for us but I think it's highly irrational to talk so much shit about Canada, a country that consistently ranks in the top 10 in most every meaningful metric about quality of life. Maybe things aren't great (and they aren't) but we're not some shit hole country (you only have to look south to see what looks like). I'm not blind to how shitty things are for some people (just take a walk through a Dollarama and feel the sadness and struggle) but we're not Mississippi which is what some people seem to think we are.

I like to think about us having rational discussions about what our priorities should be, why certain things are problematic and how it came to be, how much it would cost to fix, and how much we actually want to spend on it versus just rage posting about how horrible things are.