Canadian politics thread

[68style]

It’s not being naive dude, I was just saying what would be one of the only possible resolutions I can see where it doesn’t involve going to war?

I’m sorry if my post didn’t convey that but I’m not saying that’s what I think will happen, it’s just the only way besides Putin having a jammer or aneurysm that it just “ends” you n is what I mean?

[supafamous]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

Now, we might do both. And to what end? What do you get by sending Canadians there? Go send some soldiers to go die for a cause they have no interest in. I guess that’s every war these days and nothing is ever just to begin with.

I get it when people think countries should mind its own business - that stuff like the genocides in Palestine or Xinjiang don't matter b/c it's not on our turf or that if the war isn't on our shores it's not our problem and we shouldn't help. We have starving people here, we have people dying here so ignore what happens to the rest of the world.

However, I disagree with it - we're not just citizens of our own country and we should play our part of supporting causes that we view as just (what's just is relative to your country). This means we do things that we have no direct relation to - we airdrop food in Gaza for people who likely will die anyways, we gently (too gently) lecture the Chinese on their genocide in hopes that it makes a difference (it isn't making one). And we stick our noses into Ukraine to contain a dangerous country like Russia.

It used to be that Canada, the EU, Australia, Japan, and many others had an implicit/explicit deal with the US - they run the world affairs and, as a result, they get to impose American values around the world. The rest of us get to carry less of the burden as a result. Trump's always been half right about demanding these countries spend more on the military - he's right that we've been shrugging off our part but that was the DEAL. The US gets to overthrow gov'ts around the world - they get to invade Iraq using lies and we'll go along with it - but the deal is they bear the burden - they starve their own people in exchange for global dominance.

Now the US is giving up global dominance b/c their leaders are too stupid to realise how rich and powerful it made them. Giving it up means China is the king maker now - they're doing what the US used to do - they're taking control of most of Africa, grabbing a hold of big chunks of Asia and they've got their fingers in the EU, Canada, Australia etc. The UK didn't lose power by choice, they fought as long as they could - they weren't stupid but the US is and now Canada has to pull their own weight which means a bigger military and maybe troops on the ground in places we don't really want to be in.

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

And please, don’t go on with the “if we left Russia run, Europe as a whole is under threat!” Because it’s obviously not.

If China ever took Taiwan, should we spend 50 billion there?

China's going to eventually try to take Taiwan - maybe not in the next 10 years but you can bet it'll happen as the US gives up their power. If China is the world's superpower when it happens there won't be much we can do about it - it'd be like opposing the invasion of Iraq - the US will have their tail between their legs as they retreat from the rest of the world.

Russia's never going to be super power again but it can be a real threat to Europe - they control too much of the resources that Europe wants and they also can sell those resources to countries that can threaten Europe.

You make this stuff sound like it's all black and white but geopolitics are all shades of grey and Ukraine is too valuable to just give it to Russia especially if we can use it to bleed Russia dry for a few years.

[Badhobz]

Yeah you say that but you honestly gonna send your kids to die in this Ukraine / Russia shit ? I sure as hell wouldn’t. Nobody has any appetite for boots on the ground. Even the China Taiwan war that’ll be coming, I’d nope and stay far far away from that mess.

[Hondaracer]

Nice exemption of Israel, our true “ally” air dropping food to a famine in Gaza we backed. Well done Canada.

There’s no honour in fighting wars based out of legislatures and office buildings. Send our troops over to places we fucked up just to go die after draining monetary resources for decades? Yea great, we showed them.

Canada was backed into a corner once again by the states with their spending commitments to defence, we dropped the ball for so long and relied so heavily on the US for protection that they finally woke up. All this spending on Ukraine can be largely chalked up to making up for historical shortcomings Canada has always been a part of.

Now what? We’re going to have to pay the price with both $$$ and man power?

There are many other countries on this planet with even greater ties to these conflicts that contribute a fraction Canada does. Why? Because we have to save face to our “allies” ?

There’s going to be a time, likely pretty quick, where the general public is going to lose its appetite for engaging in these conflicts.

[68style]

I hate to break it to you, but I’m almost 100% sure the Ukraine money doesn’t count toward what USA wants for military spending… so you can pretty much throw that argument out the window.

I’ll tell you one thing, Carney is being a dick to the federal public service right now, but he sure got a good shell game going moving Coast Guard under DND and away from DFO, automatically upped defence spending by nearly $3 billion dollars on paper without actually spending a single dime. Pretty shrewd actually.

[supafamous]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

There’s no honour in fighting wars based out of legislatures and office buildings.

Wars have always been fought out of office buildings and wars, invariably, are started by horrible people - today it's Putin and Netanyahu, yesterday it was Hitler and Kim Il Sung. Somebody wants more power and diplomacy doesn't get it for them so war it is. I'm not here to advocate for war - war is bad but sometimes we have to do our part and get our hands dirty. It doesn't mean we put troops on the front lines either - it can be money, resources or people, it can be in support of the war machine or directly as the war machine (let's be real, we're not really capable of being part of the war machine).

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

Canada was backed into a corner once again by the states with their spending commitments to defence, we dropped the ball for so long and relied so heavily on the US for protection that they finally woke up. All this spending on Ukraine can be largely chalked up to making up for historical shortcomings Canada has always been a part of.

Now what? We’re going to have to pay the price with both $$$ and man power?

You know that we've been engaged in wars for a long time right?

Over the last 60 years, Canada has deployed troops to Europe (NATO), the Middle East (Cyprus, Sinai, Lebanon, Gulf, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria), Africa (Somalia, Rwanda, Sudan, Mali, Congo), the Caribbean (Haiti), and Asia (Korea observers). We've actually had troops in Ukraine since 2015 (doing training). Present day we are in Latvia, Ukraine, Mali, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Congo, South Sudan, and Cyprus.

The idea that Canada is open to putting troops on the ground in another war zone is not novel and not new - Ukraine is just the latest potential deployment of an over-extended military to support our partners.

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

There’s going to be a time, likely pretty quick, where the general public is going to lose its appetite for engaging in these conflicts.

We seem to have an ongoing appetite for this considering how many theatres of war we've been a part of in the last 60 years. The reality is that we've pretty much been at war for the past 60 years in some way and the public is largely unaware of it (you clearly were not).

Again, I'm not here to say we SHOULD send troops to Ukraine (or anywhere else for that matter) but it's always an option anytime there is trouble in the world and Canada has been doing it consistently for decades - where that line is for when we should and shouldn't isn't mine to decide nor can I form an educated opinion on what that should be (there's just too much to consider). I leave that to the federal gov't.

[sdubfid]

Ukraine should get their carney tanks when every revscene member and their families have a family doctor

[Manic!]

Originally Posted by sdubfid

Ukraine should get their carney tanks when every revscene member and their families have a family doctor

Where are you going to find the doctors? You going to med school?

[blkgsr]

reduce the number of people = more people/doctor for those already here

stop pissing away our money, lower my taxes and let me have the option to go private for certain things.

[68style]

Your taxes did get lower, carbon tax got killed.

People will always cry about taxes, my dad was crying about it 40 years ago people still crying today, it’s never actually changed and no government is going to come in and change your income tax rate bud, sorry.

How do you “reduce” the number of people? Kill people? lol

You know why BC sucks? Because even doctors don’t want to live there. I got a doctor in Calgary like 2 days after moving there and she is a new immigrant from the UK but originally from the Caribbean. New immigrants are doctors too, not just uber eats drivers. She chose Calgary because she can easily live here quite nicely with her income but in Vancouver she’d be saving for 3 years to get a house down payment.

Btw there’s an online waiting list for family doctors in BC… I put myself on it and it took 2.5 years for them to offer me one, but I been offered 2 now since I left… so it’s doable but you gotta get on the list and wait. Took a ridiculous amount of time but anyone saying you “can’t” get one is just an entitled dick who wants everything to fall into their lap and won’t even take the most basic steps to make it happen for themselves.

I could have had one earlier too keeping my eye out for new practices opening up or calling around for patient openings but I didn’t care that much so I didn’t… people just love to go online and complain instead of working at anything.

To reinforce that, think about this: quite a few people I know in Calgary now that’s lived here their whole life complains that the medical system is shit, which is fucking hilarious to me given how much better it is than BC and I’ve had nothing but fantastic experiences here from allergy tests to bloodwork to vitiligo solutions (although that specialist appointment had a 3 month wait). I shake my head cuz they don’t even know what they’re bitching about or how good they have it.

[westopher]

If we reduce the number of people, taxes don’t go down while all the tax funded amenities stay the same. There’s less people to pay taxes.

[68style]

I love how all the people that bitch about taxes in Canada almost always site Nordic European countries as their model too and totally ignore the fucking insane income taxes and socialist ideas like income based speeding tickets they have there.

Just a bunch of goombas who want to cherry pick the best of everything into one neat little country that doesn’t exist every single day and piss in their own cornflakes walk around all sour despite their privileged ass life day in and day out.

I mean buddy above can afford a house and doesn’t even care for 7 months on missing out on $2k of rent like it’s no big deal one way or the other complaining about taxes???? If that isn’t the definition of entitled I don’t know what is.

[VRYALT3R3D]

Originally Posted by 68style

Your taxes did get lower, carbon tax got killed.

bromigo, let me aware you....the industrial carbon tax still exists. The liberal mindset is that going green is a luxury for the rich at the expense of the poor

[unit]

Originally Posted by VRYALT3R3D

bromigo, let me aware you....the industrial carbon tax still exists. The liberal mindset is that going green is a luxury for the rich at the expense of the poor

what is your understanding of what the industrial carbon tax is and who its applied to?

[whitev70r]

Interesting, healthcare in AB is > BC! Another reason why people might move that way.

I really like the idea of fast tracking doctors trained in other Western countries, give them a 3 month mentorship to introduce them to Canadian approaches and then license them. By 'Western', I simply mean UK, US, France, Germany, etc. not countries where the training and certification is less than adequate.

[noclue]

Actually a lot of AB doctors are moving to BC due to BC raising doctor compensation and the MAGA politics.

[whitev70r]

Hmm ... yah, let's steal doctors from other Provinces. Reduce interprovincial trade regulations !!

[GLOW]

Originally Posted by 68style

Your taxes did get lower, carbon tax got killed.

gas prices still ridiculous, who'd have thought

[Hondaracer]

Originally Posted by 68style

I love how all the people that bitch about taxes in Canada almost always site Nordic European countries as their model too and totally ignore the fucking insane income taxes and socialist ideas like income based speeding tickets they have there.

Just a bunch of goombas who want to cherry pick the best of everything into one neat little country that doesn’t exist every single day and piss in their own cornflakes walk around all sour despite their privileged ass life day in and day out.

I mean buddy above can afford a house and doesn’t even care for 7 months on missing out on $2k of rent like it’s no big deal one way or the other complaining about taxes???? If that isn’t the definition of entitled I don’t know what is.

As I’ve said before, raise taxes to the Scandinavian model

Do you honestly think Canada would be able to take those taxes and get us to a comparable level with similar outcomes? I don’t. When have we ever utilized the money we have effectively? The answer is giving more money to he frivolously squandered?

I’d be open to trying it, but I think the vast majority of the population would not be, because they understand how completely incompetent everyone involved it.

See: Trudeau’s “gift” cheque promotion. We couldn’t even give FREE MONEY away correctly..

[68style]

I bet if you asked the average European if they think their governments squander their money too they’d say yes.

It’s like a birthright to bitch about government spending of tax dollars. Of course there is waste, but also a lot of not understanding the process behind even the most minute decisions and machinations of various branches of it. We all think everything is so simple on the surface.

Just don’t make bitching about it your identity.

[68style]

Originally Posted by noclue

Actually a lot of AB doctors are moving to BC due to BC raising doctor compensation and the MAGA politics.

That’s interesting, they must be the older established one.

It’s funny to me cuz my sister works at a hospital in the lower mainland and the doctors especially new grads there are dying with their student loans and housing costs even at $300-400k a year their first 3 years out with 60 hr work weeks are hell on earth trying to manage everything especially as 20-somethings. Even the established ones in their 30’s and 40’s are just starting to enjoy some freedom. I know boohoo compared to the rest of us but being a doctor is hard and super skilled so they deserve it.

Comparatively I befriended 2 doctors here and they have huge brand new mansions that cost about 1.5M each and at least 1 if not 2 Lamborghini/Ferrari level toy cars as well as like an Escalade type vehicle for wife and kids. Absolutely chilling by comparison and barely early 30’s.

[Hondaracer]

Originally Posted by 68style

I bet if you asked the average European if they think their governments squander their money too they’d say yes.

It’s like a birthright to bitch about government spending of tax dollars. Of course there is waste, but also a lot of not understanding the process behind even the most minute decisions and machinations of various branches of it. We all think everything is so simple on the surface.

Just don’t make bitching about it your identity.

All I know is a month+ in Scandinavia, there ain’t strung out homeless everywhere. That money paid for something that works.

We’ve created a culture of homelessness here we will never escape. No matter how much we raise taxes, it will never be solved. It’s engrained in Canadian identity now

[Traum]

I'm pretty surprised you're able to find yourself a family doctor so quickly after relocating to Calgary bcos of all the negative stories and anecdotes about doctors and healthcare staffing coming out of Albera. As a matter of fact, BC has a ~10% advantage in the physician to population ratio of 270 physicians per 100k people, vs Alberta's 244.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...t-bc-1.7118582

My MIL has also been bouncing through a few different family doctors in recent years, with periods ranging from 2 - 3 months to almost a year when she doesn't have a family doctor. For a while, she was taken in by a GP in Coquitlam even though she lives in Burnaby. And then she complained it was too far, and I believe we ended up finding her another doctor in Burnaby recently.

I am under no illusion that we have enough doctors and nurses in the province, and both me and my family members have at times experienced wait times that are much longer than how things should have been. But over all, I feel like our family doctor situation has improved a bit over the last few years since the NDP (Horgan?) and Adrian Dix revamped the family doctor compensation package.

Originally Posted by 68style

You know why BC sucks? Because even doctors don’t want to live there. I got a doctor in Calgary like 2 days after moving there and she is a new immigrant from the UK but originally from the Caribbean. New immigrants are doctors too, not just uber eats drivers. She chose Calgary because she can easily live here quite nicely with her income but in Vancouver she’d be saving for 3 years to get a house down payment.

Btw there’s an online waiting list for family doctors in BC… I put myself on it and it took 2.5 years for them to offer me one, but I been offered 2 now since I left… so it’s doable but you gotta get on the list and wait. Took a ridiculous amount of time but anyone saying you “can’t” get one is just an entitled dick who wants everything to fall into their lap and won’t even take the most basic steps to make it happen for themselves.

[blkgsr]

Originally Posted by 68style

I mean buddy above can afford a house and doesn’t even care for 7 months on missing out on $2k of rent like it’s no big deal one way or the other complaining about taxes???? If that isn’t the definition of entitled I don’t know what is.

you're wrong. that's called working my ass off to be able to afford the house and make a wage that allows me to do it. maybe you got everything handed to you but i didn't. yes i was given a good upbringing by equally hard working parents but that's where that ended.

that doesn't mean i want to support every person that comes over here to run away from their shit hole country and turn mine into the same garbage dump.

there's example after example of the hard working guy/girl getting the raw end of the deal when we bend over backwards to be the bleeding heart nice guys and support them so their whole families can come here, take our money, provide no benefit to our society, clog up the health care system (just so spend time at an ER and you'll know what i mean)

why is it that when my grandmother was in a seniors home she had to pay full price ($3000+ per month if not more) because she worked her whole life as a cashier, got a pension and CPP but the "new" canadians in there that never worked a day in their lives in canada got a government subsidized rate sub $1000 because their "income" was low. that's bull shit. then we support immigrants while my grandma still pays till the day she dies. that's fucked up

[blkgsr]

Originally Posted by westopher

If we reduce the number of people, taxes don’t go down while all the tax funded amenities stay the same. There’s less people to pay taxes.

less (incoming) people = less need for (more) social services (hospitals etc)

pretty simple math



then to the other discussion about doctors in Calgary with $1.5M mansions (so a run down dump in Vancouver or a livable house east of Burnaby) vs not being able to afford here...ya that's all part of the BC costs too much issue. everyone knows this.