CanPol Megathread: Big Changus

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Hexigrammus: May 22, 2006; Cheech Wizard stories are clean, wholesome, reflective truths that go great with the marijuana munchies and a blow job.

brucio posted:

You just need ID and something with your address like a lease or hydro bill to vote..

Hopefully they accept secondary ID or printouts of e-bills and online statements. Other than my drivers license the only hard copy I have anymore with my address on it are UVic and UBC alumni magazines.

Sort of like the problem the homeless face, only with money, food, a warm place to sleep, and a vastly reduced chance of being murdered by a crack addict.

# ? Nov 17, 2016 17:15

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# ? May 15, 2024 13:58

Wistful of Dollars: Aug 25, 2009

Was this posted yet, because :laffo:

Fraser Institute.

Texas comparison shows Alberta's spending problem: study

quote:

Comparing Alberta to Texas shows the province’s fiscal woes stem from government overspending and mismanagement, says a study released Thursday by the Fraser Institute.

“They’re both energy jurisdictions, they’re both relatively prosperous and they’re both coming off a lengthy period — with some bumps along the way — of prosperity,” said Ben Eisen, co-author of the conservative think-tank’s report entitled, One Energy Boom, Two Approaches: Fiscal Restraint Has Left Texas in Better Shape than Alberta.

“Both the province and the state both enjoyed strong economic performance, but when you look at the fiscal situation in the two places, the story is quite different. … Texas is right now in much better fiscal condition than Alberta.

“The key finding is that while both enjoyed a strong economy between 2004 and 2014, Texas’s books are in pretty good shape and the fiscal outlook is much less bright in Alberta.”

The study blames undisciplined spending by Alberta governments during the 10-year energy boom while it says Texas controlled spending and ran five straight surpluses between the fiscal years of 2009 and 2013.

During that same five-year period, Alberta ran four deficits, has continued to run deficits since, except for a small surplus in 2014/2015 and doesn’t expect to balance the budget again until at least 2024, the report said.

Program spending per person in Alberta increased by 49 per cent between 2004 and 2014, compared to 37.3 per cent in Texas. Public-sector job growth in Alberta also outpaced Texas 2.6 and 1.2 per cent, respectively.

Eisen said the study compared the two places before collapsing energy prices and last year’s Fort McMurray wildfire slammed the Alberta economy.

“It was actually during the later years of the boom that Texas was running surpluses, but Alberta was already running deficits,” Eisen said. “That’s why in large measure, when challenges did arrive, Texas was in a better position to weather them.”

# ? Nov 17, 2016 18:45

Furnaceface: Oct 21, 2004

Im going to run for PM and if you guys vote for me the first thing I do will be to shut down the Fraser Institute.

OK it would be the second thing I do. First would be to turn 24 Sussex back into a cat sanctuary.

# ? Nov 17, 2016 19:38

Powershift: Nov 23, 2009

While the government did do a lot of dumb poo poo, in 2013 34% of Texas's revenue came from federal aid, 30.1% of their budget went to medicaid. 13.2% of Alberta's revenue came from federal transfers, and 47% went to healthcare, $5.112b in federal transfers against $17b in healthcare costs . In Ontario, 19% of revenues came from federal transfers and 38.5% of expenses went to healthcare, 21.7b against 47.7b. So Texas had federal money cover over 100% of it's largest expense, Alberta around 30%, and Ontario around 45%.

It turns out if you just let people take on massive medical debt, in decreases the immediate burden on the state. The average annual healthcare premium in Texas appears to be around $3000/person, If that was paid as a tax into a single payer system by the 22.3 million people not on medicaid, it would more than double the state's tax revenues. from $2,048 per capita to around $4,200 per capita, nearly matching Alberta's per capita tax revenue of around $4,700 per capita. But then they would have to take care of a bunch of people who shoot themselves and play with fireworks all the time.

So the answer for Alberta, and Canada in general is obvious, austerity.

# ? Nov 17, 2016 20:18

Pinterest Mom: Jun 9, 2009

oh my god she's tweeting like trump
https://twitter.com/KellieLeitch/status/799325246826442753

# ? Nov 17, 2016 20:32

rawrr: Jul 28, 2007

She needs some bots to pad her likes and retweets. Sad!

# ? Nov 17, 2016 20:38

MagicCube: May 25, 2004

rawrr posted:

She needs some bots to pad her likes and retweets. Sad!

It provided the best representation of her "support".

# ? Nov 17, 2016 20:45

Helsing: Aug 23, 2003; DON'T POST IN THE ELECTION THREAD UNLESS YOU JOE BIDEN

So, this week in neoliberal hacks trying to rescusitate their dying political project, we have a (highly selective) history of trade patterns in the 20th century. Reading this gives an interesting clue as to how our elites think about trade, and specifically how they seem utterly incapable of learning any lessons from history.

Read this and ask yourself if anything important is getting left out of the story:

quote:

KONRAD YAKABUSKI
If you thought globalization was bad, just wait for deglobalization

Just when it looked as if Donald Trump might be mellowing came the unsettling symbolism of his weekend meeting with Nigel Farage, a seasoned pro of nativist politics. The leader of Britain�s pro-Brexit forces and the U.S. president-elect, Mr. Trump�s campaign manager explained, chatted �about freedom and winning and what this all means for the world.�

Just what does it mean? Kindred spirits or co-conspirators, Mr. Trump and Mr. Farage owe their respective victories � Mr. Farage�s came in June�s British referendum on leaving the European Union � to the popular backlash against globalization that they fomented with their fearful claims about the negative impacts of trade agreements and immigration. Closing their borders, they told voters left behind by technological change and ill at ease with the new demography, was the only way to recover what, in truth, is lost forever.

There is no understating the significance of the anti-globalization backlash in U.S. and British politics. These aren�t just any two countries. The United States and Britain have been the guarantors of the international order since the Second World War. Their �special relationship� led to the end of the Cold War and the growth in world trade and investment flows that lifted living standards almost everywhere and ensured the global peace.

When these two turn inward, the whole world must watch out. Not only is the risk of political contagion rising � with France, the Netherlands and Germany witnessing their own nativist uprisings on the eve of national elections � a new era of U.S.-led �deglobalization� will make the world poorer, meaner and more unstable. History suggests it will not end well.

For years, political and economic elites have insisted the forces of globalization are too strong to reverse. The global economy is so interconnected that no national government could, or would want to, unwind the prosperity that decades of increasing integration had brought.

Students of history know better. Pendulum swings are humankind�s one constant. Global trade cratered during the past recession and, since then, has grown at half the rate it did during the two decades preceding 2008. Recent data suggest trade contracted in the first half of 2016.

The last time Britain and the United States cut themselves off from the global trading system, in a fit of protectionism at the outset of the Great Depression, the world paid a horrific price. In the 1930s, Britain abandoned the gold standard, devalued its currency and slapped tariffs on non-empire imports. The United States followed with its own devaluation and tariff wall.

We know how that ended. U.S. and British economic nationalism gave licence to Germany and Japan to pursue their own protectionist policies and nativist politics.

�The world was a lot poorer when [Britain] and the United States prioritized their own economic recovery [in the 1930s] without regard for the international system,� Pierpaolo Barbieri of the Applied History Project at Harvard University notes. �The systems that states destroy in only a few years can take decades to repair.�

Only too late did the world realize the folly of the America First mindset of the 1930s that Mr. Trump has made his mantra.

�The Trump trade plan breaks with the globalist wings of both the Republican and Democratic parties,� a Trump transition team document obtained by CNN notes. �The Trump administration will reverse decades of conciliatory trade policy. New trade agreements will be negotiated that provide for the interests of U.S. workers and companies first.�

This could get ugly. Mr. Trump�s inflationary tax and spending promises have already pushed interest rates higher, sending the U.S. dollar to near-record highs against most other major currencies. The British pound, in turn, has been in freefall against the euro since the Brexit vote, empowering the voices of trade retaliation on the continent.

A strong U.S. dollar is usually considered positive for the global financial system. But Mr. Trump has repeatedly accused U.S. trading partners of manipulating their currencies to gain trade advantage. If he responds to the greenback�s rise with punitive measures against China, Europe or Canada, he will set off a round of tit-for-tat protectionism that ends in a global recession, if not far worse. History should make him think twice, but Mr. Trump is not known for second-guessing himself.

If you think globalization is bad, just wait for deglobalization.

Funnily enough this guy lecturing the anti-globalists on the dangers of ignoring history has absolutely nothing to say about the actual design of the post-war political economy that was hammered out in the Bretton Woods conference, nor does he mention how this system broke down in the 1970s and was reconstituted on an entirely new basis with floating currencies and much larger flows of cross-boarder investment and commerce.

But most crucially he completely ignores the hard won recognition that the "turn inward" that he bemoans was caused by the massive economic and social dislocations brought about by liberalized trade and finance. In fact it's been the left-liberals and social democrats who have been constantly ringing the alarm bells about the dangers of the neoliberal period. Thinkers like the late Tony Judt have repeatedly pointed out that quite a bit of what passes for neoliberal doctrine is the exact same set of ideas -- with slightly different and more mathematical theoretical justifications -- that predominated in 1920s and 1930s, prior to the Keynesian intellectual revolution.

Neoliberals are pissing and moaning about the collapse of globalization without even bothering to acknowledge that their economic policies failed to give ordinary voters a strong enough stake in the international trade order, and introduced levels of financial instability and economic precarity that made some kind of backlash inevitable.

Of course once they're done complaining they'll pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and dedicate themselves to finding ways to help accommodate corporate dominated crony capitalism to whatever brand of right-wing authoritarianism rises up to replace the squishy cultural and economic liberalism catches on in the Atlantic rim.

# ? Nov 17, 2016 21:00

Brandon Proust: Jun 22, 2006; "Like many intellectuals, he was incapable of scoring a simple goal in a simple way"

Furnaceface posted:

Im going to run for PM and if you guys vote for me the first thing I do will be to shut down the Fraser Institute.

OK it would be the second thing I do. First would be to turn 24 Sussex back into a cat sanctuary.

# ? Nov 17, 2016 21:00

DariusLikewise: Oct 4, 2008; You wore that on Halloween?

Furnaceface posted:

Im going to run for PM and if you guys vote for me the first thing I do will be to shut down the Fraser Institute.

OK it would be the second thing I do. First would be to turn 24 Sussex back into a cat sanctuary.

Aren't the Trudeau's living in Gaitneau Park? How do we know the strays haven't overtaken 24 Sussex?

Winnipeg Police are using FIPPAs to try and find out journalistic sources, good start for the new police chief

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/police-reporter-fippa-1.3851641

quote:

CBC News has learned a Winnipeg Police Service employee filed a freedom-of-information request last month seeking "any email correspondence" between a justice employee and "the CBC reporter Caroline Barghout" regarding "names removed" from Sept. 12-16.

Freedom of information is a tool used by media, politicians, businesses and others to find information about government affairs. Experts say it is rare to see police make use of the legislation � especially when it comes to trying to discover a journalist's activities.

"Ms. Barghout is a seasoned reporter and journalist who does her job well," Smyth said in an email statement days before his swearing-in ceremony.

"As the incoming chief of the Winnipeg Police Service, I am concerned about Winnipeg Police Service employees sharing private and sensitive information inappropriately with persons or agencies that are not entitled to the information. The police service has a duty to ensure that private and sensitive information is protected and secure."

Communications and legal experts contacted by CBC News cannot recall a previous instance of a police service making a freedom-of-information request for correspondence involving a reporter.

# ? Nov 17, 2016 21:27

Pinterest Mom: Jun 9, 2009

Me, in conversation, 68 hours ago: "I mean, it's not like Sandra Jansen is going to join the NDP."

# ? Nov 17, 2016 22:24

Pinterest Mom: Jun 9, 2009

Me, today:
https://twitter.com/EmmaLGraney/status/799364573023174657

# ? Nov 17, 2016 22:33

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

Who the gently caress is sandra jansen

# ? Nov 17, 2016 22:34

Pinterest Mom: Jun 9, 2009

cowofwar posted:

Who the gently caress is sandra jansen

She was a PC leadership candidate like a week ago.

# ? Nov 17, 2016 22:37

Juul-Whip: Mar 10, 2008

Pinterest Mom posted:

Me, today:
https://twitter.com/EmmaLGraney/status/799364573023174657

# ? Nov 17, 2016 22:38

Powershift: Nov 23, 2009

cowofwar posted:

Who the gently caress is sandra jansen

The last female conservative MLA in alberta. Maybe ever?

The conservatives are going to tear themselves apart. Most people who know who Kenney is know exactly who he is.

This might be the first step in alberta staying orange.

# ? Nov 17, 2016 22:41

Albino Squirrel: Apr 25, 2003; Miosis more like meiosis

Powershift posted:

The last female conservative MLA in alberta. Maybe ever?

The conservatives are going to tear themselves apart. Most people who know who Kenney is know exactly who he is.

This might be the first step in alberta staying orange.

Alberta: Canada's most reliably left-wing jurisdiction.

# ? Nov 17, 2016 23:09

RealityWarCriminal: Aug 10, 2016

Pinterest Mom posted:

She was a PC leadership candidate like a week ago.

At least it's not the federal NDP

# ? Nov 17, 2016 23:11

Helsing: Aug 23, 2003; DON'T POST IN THE ELECTION THREAD UNLESS YOU JOE BIDEN

The NDP in Alberta is already pushing pretty hard against the provinces' Overton window so I think they can be forgiven for not instantly nationalizing the economy. The fact that a PC candidate can seamlessly transition to their party says more about how wacky Wildrose is and how much Jason Kenney's ratfucking behind the scenes must be pissing people off.

# ? Nov 17, 2016 23:57

Blood Boils: Dec 27, 2006; Its not an S, on my planet it means QUIPS

What the gently caress is an overton window

# ? Nov 18, 2016 00:09

Wistful of Dollars: Aug 25, 2009

Black Bones posted:

What the gently caress is an overton window

It's a pseudo-intellectual way of saying people won't support with them much longer.

# ? Nov 18, 2016 00:15

Hand Knit: Oct 24, 2005; Beer Loses more than a game Sunday ...
We lost our Captain, our Teammate, our Friend Kelly Calabro...
Rest in Peace my friend you will be greatly missed..

Black Bones posted:

What the gently caress is an overton window

It's like the range of ideas that are publicly acceptable. Over the past several decades conservatives (locally and internationally) have been very successful at moving the Overton Window rightwards by going hard right, and having liberals dimly follow in an attempt to meet them in an always-moving middle.

# ? Nov 18, 2016 00:19

Helsing: Aug 23, 2003; DON'T POST IN THE ELECTION THREAD UNLESS YOU JOE BIDEN

More specifically, it's a phrase coined by Joseph Overotn, a right-wing think tank hack, to persuade businesses and their owners to give more money to right-wing think tanks. It's an incrementalist theory of political change and it has all the limitations that incrementalist theories always have, but it's also a handy way of describing how political parties operate most of the time in a stable parliamentary system.

# ? Nov 18, 2016 00:26

Albino Squirrel: Apr 25, 2003; Miosis more like meiosis

It's also the title of a political thriller by Glenn Beck!

# ? Nov 18, 2016 00:27

unlimited shrimp: Aug 30, 2008

For all the hand-wringing about a Canadian Trump, the government sure is eager to breed angry workers.

quote:

Canada�s unions are organizing against Bill C-27 a new piece of federal legislation that enables Crown corporations and federal private-sector employers to back out of defined-benefit pension commitments.

�This bill was announced without consultation or advance notice, though it directly contradicts election promises to stabilize and improve retirement security,� said CLC President Hassan Yussuff, who wrote a letter to Finance Minister Bill Morneau outlining the CLC�s opposition to the bill.

Currently, defined-benefit (DB) pensions provide stability and security to employees because employers are legally obliged to fund employees� earned benefits. Already earned benefits are legally protected. Bill C-27 removes employers� legal requirements to fund plan benefits, which means that benefits could be reduced going forward or even retroactively. Even people already retired could find their existing benefits affected, after paying in their entire working lives.

The bill would also invite employers to establish inferior, less-secure target-benefit (TB) plans, and persuade individual members to give up their DB benefits in exchange for the new plan.

�Bill C-27 invites employers and other plan sponsors to abandon their pension promises to employees and retirees, downloading virtually all plan risks brought on by market volatility from employers to workers and retirees,� Yussuff wrote to Morneau. �This is an unconscionable betrayal of the legal rights and protections of plan members.�

http://canadianlabour.ca/news/news-archive/canada%E2%80%99s-unions-call-anti-pension-bill-c-27-betrayal

# ? Nov 18, 2016 02:05

Juul-Whip: Mar 10, 2008

Liberals will insist the left is responsible for working-class anger because we call racists mean names like "racist"

# ? Nov 18, 2016 02:24

Mad Hamish: Jun 15, 2008; WILL AMOUNT TO NOTHING IN LIFE.

So I had an appendectomy today. Yesterday morning I went to see the doctor about some stomach pains, she sent me to an ultrasound clinic, the ultrasound clinic sent me to a hospital, and while I was waiting for a long time (not in danger of imminent death, I assume) I'm incredibly happy with how all this went. I can't believe that all the care I received, and an overnight hospital stay, didn't cost me a dime. Thanks, OHIP! We spend so much time complaining about political things, but in so many ways we're infinitely better off than people in some other countries. Had I been in the states I would have been bankrupted by all this.

# ? Nov 18, 2016 02:40

infernal machines: Oct 11, 2012; we monitor many frequencies. we listen always. came a voice, out of the babel of tongues, speaking to us. it played us a mighty dub.

Mad Hamish posted:

I can't believe that all the care I received, and an overnight hospital stay, didn't cost me a dime.

I get your point, but it's worth pointing out that this is not true. You paid into the system like everyone else, so it wasn't directly out of pocket but you have paid for it.

# ? Nov 18, 2016 02:52

McGavin: Sep 18, 2012

Alt-right pamphlets come to Richmond targeting Chinese people

McGavin fucked around with this message at 03:05 on Nov 18, 2016

# ? Nov 18, 2016 02:52

EvilJoven: Mar 18, 2005; NOBODY,IN THE HISTORY OF EVER, HAS ASKED OR CARED WHAT CANADA THINKS. YOU ARE NOT A COUNTRY. YOUR MONEY HAS THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND ON IT. IF YOU DIG AROUND IN YOUR BACKYARD, NATIVE SKELETONS WOULD EXPLODE OUT OF YOUR LAWN LIKE THE END OF POLTERGEIST. CANADA IS SO POLITE, EH?; Fun Shoe

Mad Hamish posted:

So I had an appendectomy today. Yesterday morning I went to see the doctor about some stomach pains, she sent me to an ultrasound clinic, the ultrasound clinic sent me to a hospital, and while I was waiting for a long time (not in danger of imminent death, I assume) I'm incredibly happy with how all this went. I can't believe that all the care I received, and an overnight hospital stay, didn't cost me a dime. Thanks, OHIP! We spend so much time complaining about political things, but in so many ways we're infinitely better off than people in some other countries. Had I been in the states I would have been bankrupted by all this.

I totally get where you're coming from. Last winter I went to the hospital with an unbelievably splitting headache and they shoved me in a PET scan to make sure something in my skull wasn't about to explode. I googled what it would have cost me south of the border and it came up to something like 8 grand.

I really wish they'd actually expand what gets covered in this country. Aside from cosmetic surgeries that aren't part of rehabilitation after an injury I don't think anyone in this country should have to pay out of pocket for anything related to medical service. I'll gladly pay the extra taxes.

# ? Nov 18, 2016 03:05

Blood Boils: Dec 27, 2006; Its not an S, on my planet it means QUIPS

Ah ok, so it's an actual concept. I've seen the term used by conservative peeps while complaining about political correctness, but wasn't sure what it referred to.

# ? Nov 18, 2016 03:19

Juul-Whip: Mar 10, 2008

What would Richmond "the community your [white] forefathers built" look like without Chinese immigrants? A loving one-horse town with unpaved roads?

# ? Nov 18, 2016 03:24

Dreylad: Jun 19, 2001

the trump tutelage posted:

For all the hand-wringing about a Canadian Trump, the government sure is eager to breed angry workers.

http://canadianlabour.ca/news/news-archive/canada%E2%80%99s-unions-call-anti-pension-bill-c-27-betrayal

wow that law is insanely bad. It's a terrible trajectory that leads to more and more people believing pensions are bad and unsustainable.

Dreylad fucked around with this message at 03:29 on Nov 18, 2016

# ? Nov 18, 2016 03:26

RBC: Nov 23, 2007; IM STILL SPENDING MONEY FROM 1888

the trump tutelage posted:

For all the hand-wringing about a Canadian Trump, the government sure is eager to breed angry workers.

http://canadianlabour.ca/news/news-archive/canada%E2%80%99s-unions-call-anti-pension-bill-c-27-betrayal

i think ive beat this drum before but i want to point out again that bill morneau's family business makes money administering these new types of pension and he stands to benefit enormously from this bill

oh yeah also this is something that was cooked up under harper and the liberals are simply continuing the implementation

# ? Nov 18, 2016 03:30

Juul-Whip: Mar 10, 2008

REAL CHANGE :canada:

# ? Nov 18, 2016 03:32

Dreylad: Jun 19, 2001

RBC posted:

i think ive beat this drum before but i want to point out again that bill morneau's family business makes money administering these new types of pension and he stands to benefit enormously from this bill

I had no idea Morneau was involved in TB plans god drat.

# ? Nov 18, 2016 03:32

McGavin: Sep 18, 2012

THC posted:

What would Richmond "the community your [white] forefathers built" look like without Chinese immigrants? A loving one-horse town with unpaved roads?

Well, Richmond was mostly white and Japanese until the 1980's when there was an influx of 80,000 Chinese immigrants escaping Hong Kong.

# ? Nov 18, 2016 03:32

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

RBC posted:

i think ive beat this drum before but i want to point out again that bill morneau's family business makes money administering these new types of pension and he stands to benefit enormously from this bill

oh yeah also this is something that was cooked up under harper and the liberals are simply continuing the implementation

gently caress everyone who voted for the Libs 'strategically' or otherwise. You're loving rubes and you got hoodwinked hard by liars, just like your hardworking rust-belt middle-america compatriots south of the border you loving idiots.

# ? Nov 18, 2016 03:45

Jordan7hm: Feb 17, 2011; Lipstick Apathy

Ottawa Vanier isn't even a contest. Jeeze

# ? Nov 18, 2016 04:18

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# ? May 15, 2024 13:58

Lien: Oct 17, 2006; <img src="https://forumimages.somethingawful.com/images/newbie.gif" border=0>

Powershift posted:

The last female conservative MLA in alberta. Maybe ever?

The conservatives are going to tear themselves apart. Most people who know who Kenney is know exactly who he is.

This might be the first step in alberta staying orange.

As an Albertan, I am delighted by this idea. Kenney is a socially regressive idiot-- we have a party for those people already, the Wildrose. The PCs used to be able to pretend that they were a big tent party, but it's becoming increasingly clear there is no place for social progressives/lefties in that party. I hope the right wing eats itself, splits the vote and ushers in an NDP dynasty. 40 years would be okay.

# ? Nov 18, 2016 04:21

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