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Ceciltron posted:Serioustalk: Do people still get off on the Queen and monarchy? I find it kind of ridiculous and vaguely offensive that she's still got a spot in our political system (even if only nominally). Yes, loads of people still get off on the whole thing. I find it totally vulgar that our head-of-state is a hereditary monarch half-a-world away, but somehow this fact isn't that troubling to many Canadians. I can understand having a 'presidential' figure who's apolitical, but using the British monarch for this purpose seems completely asinine to me.
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May 31, 2013 14:19
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Cordyceps Headache posted:Personally, in an ideal world I would want to see the monarchy abolished and replaced by an elected figure. But, there are many more problems with our political system, and Canadian society in general, that I feel are more urgent to solve. It just seems to me like the effort and time expended to eliminate a symbolic position like that would be better spent elsewhere. If it were part of a total rehashing of the system, including the Senate and FPTP, then I would be behind it 100% I agree entirely. I certainly don't think it's urgent. I'm mostly just incredulous that the nagging sense of embarrassment and vulgarity that I feel towards the whole enterprise is not more widely shared. HipGnosis posted:Yeah, what happens when she pops her clogs? Are we going to put Charles on our money and everything? That'll be weird. I've long hoped that the absurdity of rescinding all the banknotes to make Charles versions would make more people question why the gently caress we keep up this charade. I guess we'll see when the time comes...
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May 31, 2013 15:01
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Sorry, I didn't mean to make it sound like it was my belief all existing money would be invalidated - merely that I hoped that the events "old lady dying halfway around the world => Canada must issue new money" would trigger some sort of introspection about the whole thing.
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May 31, 2013 15:44
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Raenir Salazar posted:keep us culturally distinct from the yanks down south and their dumb Amero idea. Must everything be phrased in terms of how it relates to America? Your post is the embodiment of my least favourite thing about Canadian culture. Also, what's a dumb Amero idea?
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May 31, 2013 16:09
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Raenir Salazar posted:Its inherent to having a culture that there is a wish to remain distinct in comparison to similar cultures within the same "sphere" Well sure. That doesn't mean the argument "X is a good idea because America exists" carries any water, especially when it's appended with "something something nebulous currency unification  "If Canada is culturally unique, and culturally worthwhile (I believe it is both), that should be enough without constantly having to phrase everything in terms of how it relates to Americans. You basically said the monarchy is a good idea because America doesn't have it. What logic.
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May 31, 2013 17:57
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Funkdreamer posted:Our entire political system was ripped from the UK and you're worried about being distinct from Americans Thank you. Precisely my point.
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May 31, 2013 18:16
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HookShot posted:Ugh, loving Christ. Toll roads are one of those things that make me SO loving ANGRY. THIS IS WHY WE PAY TAXES, SO THAT EVERYONE CAN USE THE ROADS WITHOUT DRIVING TO loving ABBOTSFORD. Do you object to paying bus fares? I don't see why roads should be any different - transport that's largely funded by taxation but which also contains a user-fee component.
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Jun 4, 2013 16:55
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rhazes posted:I like your reasoning, and it is fairly solid. It's unfortunate though, that these tolls primarily target those across the river, who also have the least access to decent public transit, yet pay for it as a part of TransLink just like those on the 'right' side of the Fraser do. I guess raising the gas tax has become pretty much untenable to people, and transit rate increases are getting frankly ridiculous. Yeah, I can definitely sympathize with that. However, a system of modest tolls on all bridges (or even all major roads, technology permitted) would strike me as an equitable way to extract payment from users of infrastructure in proportion to how much they use it (i.e. exactly like bus fares). I repeat - it really doesn't have to be expensive - I was just in Virginia and I noticed a toll of $0.85 on one of the bridges. This seems less likely in Canada, where the default position is apparently that one must charge a minimum of $5 for basically anything, but there's no reason we couldn't do the same.
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Jun 4, 2013 17:16
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rhazes posted:The tolls themselves just seem to be punitive and excessive It's the Canadian way. rhazes posted:But, bridge users shouldn't be bearing the brunt of the burden either, just because a new bridge is such an obvious lightning rod with how much it costs and how huge of a project it is. (Compared to smaller projects like re-paving, lane expansions, adding new street lights, expanding sewage/etc infrastructure under the roads themselves.) That's why in my ideal world, drivers would pay proportionate to distance driven (at amounts commensurate with actual justifiable infrastructure spending needs, and no higher). There's virtually no other area of consumption where people don't expect to pay proportionally for usage (outside of a Chinese food buffet) and I really don't see why driving should be any different. Especially given its negative externalities. Lexicon fucked around with this message at 17:44 on Jun 4, 2013 |
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Jun 4, 2013 17:39
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^ You still haven't stated your position on bus fares - should those go away also (with the difference funded by rich unicorn taxpayers also)?
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Jun 4, 2013 18:31
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ZeeBoi posted:They should use the honour system where it's the people's responsibility to buy their ticket/pass before boarding any public transit. Eliminate fare boxes, etc. but employ plain clothes inspectors who hand out juicy fines for those that didn't pay for their fare. This is how Vancouver works, at least on the SkyTrain. Or at least, how the SkyTrain used to work - they are putting in fare gates despite the increased revenue projections nowhere near covering the cost of capital for the project 
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Jun 4, 2013 19:01
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Geoid posted:Saskatchewan is actually the only province with its second-most spoken language neither English nor French, however (German, although I can't find a citation for this right now). I have no stats to hand, but I call total bullshit on this, at least with respect to BC. Are you seriously suggesting that BC has more French speakers than Mandarin/Cantonese/Hindi?
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Jun 4, 2013 21:29
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mr. unhsib posted:Semi-related, it really is jarring how absurd French announcements on Westjet flights from San Francisco to Vancouver/Calgary are (the routes I fly frequently). I agree it's jarring, but seems wholly appropriate given the dual-official language thing. The real solution is to get rid of 90% of flight announcements - most of them are plodding, interminable redundancy. I'm sure there are many flights where the airline knows that 100% of the passengers have taken dozens of flights - do these people really need to be shown yet again how to clip in the seatbelt? I get that there's lots of things to consider with airline safety, and the possibility of new passengers and so on... but right now there's so little information content in flight announcements that people mostly don't listen anyway.
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Jun 4, 2013 22:33
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Pinterest Mom posted:May is anti-abortion in her personal life, in that she wouldn't get an abortion herself and would try to discourage a friend from seeking one. She's pro-choice as a matter of policy. This is actually far from 100% true, now that the words have left my keyboard. It likely describes a huge portion of the population, is more what I mean. Lexicon fucked around with this message at 16:51 on Jun 5, 2013 |
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Jun 5, 2013 16:49
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Mr. Wynand posted:Considering the land values around Cornwall I am honestly shocked it wasn't $140 per plate. To be fair, I'm sure plenty of the 'homeowners' will be highly house rich, cash poor.
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Jun 24, 2013 23:53
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wrong thread
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Jun 27, 2013 12:44
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Republican Vampire posted:Maybe we could actually take universal healthcare seriously and stop selfishingly using healthcare expenditure as a criterion for expelling potential immigrants? I mean, it's just a suggestion. It would honestly be hilarious (alternately: depressing) to hear a politician/commentator with a platform advocate for this. There would be bulging eyes, throbbing veins, and  's as far as the eye can see.
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Jun 28, 2013 13:17
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LP97S posted:Three cheers for not having the stones to become a republic like Ireland. I will go to my grave truly baffled at why the British monarch is such a point of pride for so many Canadians. It's not simply that I don't personally approve of the notion of hereditary, distant heads of state - I'm legitimately confused why anyone would.
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Jul 2, 2013 04:27
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Paper Mac posted:Have there been regulatory steps in this direction yet? It seems like the kind of thing that particular interest groups could get behind if 3d printing becomes disruptive to their income streams. This is not a criticism of you, but it makes me sad that it's simply assumed to be self-evident that we can expect legislation if someone's income gets disrupted somehow. The worst part is, you're right. A Robert A. Heinlein quote that I enjoy on the topic: "There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary to public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute or common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back."
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Jul 3, 2013 21:52
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vyelkin posted:the police response was 'we don't want to hear about it, you're not allowed to come in and fire it for us so we can see it, we don't understand how you built a gun with a photocopier anyway', which is encouraging.
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Jul 3, 2013 22:16
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crowoutofcontext posted:http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/tories-planned-to-repay-duffy-from-party-funds-but-balked-at-cost-files-show/article13012003/ Why, exactly, are there all these entities lining up to pay off this tub of lard's ill-gotten extraction from the public purse? For the Conservatives to balk at the cost implies that they at least considering actually paying it - but why? As a goodwill gesture to a loyal 'one of their own'? Or something more sinister? Prior to all this happening, I definitely would've presumed Harper/the Party's stance towards Duffy would've been "tough poo poo, you had a good ride, but it looks bad for all concerned so get yourself a line of credit and sort it out"
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Jul 5, 2013 19:20
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DynamicSloth posted:Read any report about Duffy earlier than February and it's clear he had zero intention of paying anything, he could drag his heals for years and the most they could do to him is kick him out of caucus. The problem for the PMO is that the story continuing would inevitably lead to all the other festering corruption in the Senate including the Prime Minister's still loyal creature, Wallin. Humph, interesting analysis. Thanks.
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Jul 5, 2013 20:15
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poik007 posted:Apparently Vic Toews's resigning? "I'm either with the cabinet, or with the golf course." Opted for the latter, I guess.
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Jul 8, 2013 16:56
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THC posted:I was wearing shorts that day. The fuckers wear their bulletproof vests to the beach it's ridiculous. A side note: it amuses me to no end that the CBSA stormtroopers at the airport wear bulletproofs, despite working in perhaps the least dangerous public facing facilities in the entire country, as everyone has just come off planes.
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Jul 9, 2013 04:21
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HookShot posted:the last time I crossed the border into the States the border officer on the American side was wearing a bulletproof vest. He used the kind of ropey bits going across it to hold his pens. Nothing wrong with that. Border guards at land crossings are in a similar safety position to cops.
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Jul 9, 2013 15:28
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Freeze posted:This is why it's so important to have high quality training and education for the Forces. Unfortunately, training and development is usually the first to go when the budget is cut. I guess they need the money for other important things like updating the Army rank structure. Training and development stops sadistic behaviour in those with a proclivity for it? 
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Jul 9, 2013 22:00
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Paper Jam Dipper posted:Is the Vancouver Sun like every other paper with the name Sun or is it a bit more legit? It's not as bad as the other Suns, but it is a breathtakingly mediocre newspaper. My parents thought it was some sort of elaborate joke that it was somehow the city's main daily when we moved from the UK (and this is well before the newspaper collapse of the 2000s).
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Aug 27, 2013 04:23
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If you can debate "is it a city?", it isn't a city.
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Sep 9, 2013 21:17
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PT6A posted:Given that the Quebec government currently is advocating a "gently caress brown people" bill Given that you snipe about Quebec at every opportunity, I can't help but wonder if this outrage legitimately stems from concern for that province's beleaguered and downtrodden brown people.
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Sep 10, 2013 15:18
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Baronjutter posted:their rage against browns? This guy is clearly not a rational debater, but I don't think it's fair to start tossing around accusations of racism.
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Sep 13, 2013 21:18
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PT6A posted:I've heard this so many times and I still can't make heads or tails of it. E-mail is still e-mail; it's not secure unless it's encrypted, and free cross-platform solutions to do exactly that have existed for well over a decade at this point. I ask every person who uses a BLackberry and parrots this poo poo at me exactly what makes it so "secure," and it turns out they know absolutely nothing except the fact that it's "secure." Is the entire device encrypted at a hardware level? Are BBMs secured via public-key cryptography? Who controls the keys, in that case? Can you revoke your key if your device has been compromised? Are e-mails secure? How are they secured, and how are the relevant keys stored? Have the implementation of the cryptographic algorithms been properly audited and scrutinized for vulnerabilities, and if they have, is there a publicly available record of the results? I've thought this exact thing for many years also. It's not like BlackBerry has some exclusive right to use good cryptography, and by contrast, they are not immune to the same pressures that weaken all cryptosystems (social engineering, bad implementations, poor key management, government pressure). At this point, I've basically written off shouts about "Secure! Secure!" as some sort of BlackBerry-head's version of Tourette's syndrome.
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Sep 25, 2013 14:25
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PK loving SUBBAN posted:Anybody else ready to scream at the unavoidable "Breaking Bad if it was in Canada!" meme? That's.... not the point of the meme though. The point is that Canadian Walter White doesn't need to manufacture meth to pay for his own treatment, not that the treatment itself has zero cost.
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Sep 25, 2013 14:46
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PK loving SUBBAN posted:You think a working class Canadian family can absorb a few grand per month cost in drugs? Come on. I'm not overtly familiar with the personal versus provincial payment breakdown of various treatments; I realize that prescription drugs usually aren't covered without extended health benefits, but my understanding was that a cap existed on the personal out-of-pocket costs for catastrophic conditions like cancer requiring extensive drugs. Is that not the case? If not, I definitely withdraw my comment - you are right that the meme is therefore totally inaccurate. PK loving SUBBAN posted:e: And gently caress the smug we're-better-than-americans bullshit it reinforces too. I certainly agree with you on that one. I'm a naturalized Canadian citizen and the holier-than-thou attitude, especially with respect to Americans, that pervades Canadian society is one of the least agreeable aspects of this country to me.
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Sep 25, 2013 14:57
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Baronjutter posted:their lips pressed tightly against the great satan's anus, sucking with desperate hunger of a new born pig  Hard to imagine that this sentence is the product of a rational mind
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Sep 25, 2013 17:07
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atastypie posted:Chemotherapy drugs are covered by the health care system. "Non-essential" drugs are not covered for out-patients, most notably anti-nauseants and immuno-system boosters that speed up recovery from treatment. Non-essential drugs are covered by the health care system if you receive chemotherapy as an in-patient. That's what I thought. That other dude was making out as if Canadian cancer patients without extended health coverage are barely any better off than their uninsured American counterparts.
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Sep 25, 2013 19:45
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spacemost, if you think it doesn't exist, then you aren't paying attention. One can't even seriously critique any aspect of the healthcare system without eventually hearing the retort "well whatever, at least it ain't America"
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Sep 25, 2013 20:43
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InfiniteZero posted:Vic Toews will likely be the President of The University of Winnipeg soon, assuredly protecting the young and impressionable from "the danger". I realize that the University of Winnipeg is not exactly Ivy-League, but why would an ostensibly-intellectual institution have a demonstrably anti-intellectual person as its president? It's like appointing Richard Dawkins as a Catholic bishop.
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Sep 27, 2013 20:13
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Hodgepodge posted:I don't think discussing prices is kosher on the boards. Why would it not be kosher?
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Sep 30, 2013 12:18
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PT6A posted:Oh, absolutely, here in Calgary as well (especially after the flood). My point is that we need to incentivize landlords to make their properties less lovely, and the tax credit is one way to do that. I honestly don't know how people can support these sort of wealth transfer schemes to [likely] already-wealthy landlords. If you're concerned about poo poo housing - why not advocate for a direct solution to the problem, either in some kind of public housing scheme, housing co-ops, or lower tax / negative tax for the tenants in question so they can afford better accommodation in the first place? I don't want a single goddamn cent given to landlords out of the public purse. PT6A posted:More to the point, I'm becoming increasingly certain that the complexities in the tax code are an elaborate scheme to transfer more money to accountants. Exactly - all these bullshit schemes do nothing but enrich lawyers, accountants, and those savvy+wealthy enough to afford to employ the former.
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Oct 8, 2013 16:53
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eXXon posted:It has also been my experience that landlords will make frivolous improvements (i.e. landscaping that nobody asked for, unnecessary repainting, etc.) just as a Exactly. It's quite a leap to presume that money gifted from the taxpayer to a landlord results in a tangible quality of life improvement to his or her tenant. There's always so much enthusiasm in Canada to "incentivize" or "subsidize" this or that or the other thing without ever bothering to tackle the root issue.
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Oct 8, 2013 17:42
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