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It's all just consistent with Canadian economic policy since confederation and before. The preference here is for monopolies dating back to the Hudson's Bay Com

It's all just consistent with Canadian economic policy since confederation and before. The preference here is for monopolies dating back to the Hudson's Bay Company, etc, and powerful protected interests in large part control the state here ... Both major parties are completely under their control, just with variance in the sectors. The federal Conservatives are dominated and controlled these days by western energy sector interests (and the provincial Ontario ones by real estate development). The federal Liberals by the Westons and Bell and, it seems, the shrinking media sector. Nationalism is the sugar water they use to sweeten the deal to make it palatable to Canadians. People have a gut reflex to swallow this stuff because they are rightly or wrongly attuned to the threat of dominance from the US. When Harper was prime minister, it was all about fossil fuel companies, defunding and silencing climate scientists, shoveling money into projects in the west and energy sector, etc. With Trudeau it's just a different pile of bullshit. I'm sick of the dysfunction. It's a corrupt state, with corrupt, colonial foundations.

FredPret 3y ago
Try going to an actual corrupt state with colonial foundations. Canada is heaven on earth with zero problems in comparison.
- SllX 3y ago
  One of the ways less corrupt countries keep it that way is by free societies calling out and addressing that corruption. When we refuse to, that’s when corruption festers, even if it looks like heaven on earth to an outsider, corruption is corruption.
- chongli 3y ago
  We’re not North Korea or anything like that, but we have a pretty terrible legacy with residential schools and the destruction of indigenous people’s families, languages, and cultures, not to mention land. Canada is also in the midst of the biggest housing affordability crisis we’ve ever had. We’re in 3rd place in the world behind Luxembourg and Portugal for the most unaffordable housing, relative to income. The U.S. may have some serious affordability issues in the Bay Area, Seattle, and New York, but large swaths of the rest of the country aren’t so bad. Most Canadians are crowded into a few extremely unaffordable cities.
  - FredPret 3y ago
    I know, and these are real issues. But sometimes I talk to (born) Canadians - I’m an immigrant here - and they think of these issues as overwhelming, unsolvable crises that fundamentally undermine the viability of Canada as a nation. And I think this isn’t a good problem-solving mindset, and isn’t the correct perspective either. Or maybe I totally overinterpret their level of exasperation.
    - chongli 3y ago
      Well, like anything people's mindsets are relative to the situation. Most Canadians cannot possibly imagine what Ukrainians are going through. If we could, we would probably be a lot happier with the situation we have here. But that doesn't change the fact that Canadian democracy is under a lot of pressure with polarization and influence by wealthy special interests. We would be a lot better off if we had a better electoral system and were able to move toward more Scandinavian-style social systems.
      - FredPret 3y ago
        I take your point. I don't blame them for not knowing how bad it is elsewhere. But what I'm saying is that this lack of perspective leads many Canadians to underestimate the value of the system as it exists today. First-past-the-post - FPTP - and wealthy interests have been here for a long time now. The system as it exists today works insanely great. This came to pass in spite of FPTP and the wealthy interest (hell, maybe even in part because of them). Because the problems here are minor, the changes to the system should be mild, not radical. You don't give a complicated mechanism a big kick hoping to take it from 99% to 100% efficiency. You fine-tune it very carefully. Big kicks are for going from 0% to 50%.
        cmrdporcupine 3y ago
        Those of us born here have seen the decline. And are not happy about it. I'm 50 next year, and have been politically conscious since I was a teen.. so have seen a half a century of it. In particular the decimation of the health care system has just been slow and terrible to watch. Destruction of green spaces, sprawl, and difficulty of living in the GTA. Destruction of farmland, garbage on the beaches, overcrowding in almost every tourist or recreational area near Toronto. Nasty political polarization and viciousness. Racism and bigotry on the rise. And worst of all, that housing has become inconceivably expensive for working class people. I wouldn't call the problems -- especially the trend line of them -- minor. The expectation for previous generations was improvement of quality of life over generations. Unfortunately, that's no longer the case. Again, I blame both major political parties. Liberals just happen to be wearing the hat right now federally.

FredPret 3y ago

Try going to an actual corrupt state with colonial foundations. Canada is heaven on earth with zero problems in comparison.

SllX 3y ago
One of the ways less corrupt countries keep it that way is by free societies calling out and addressing that corruption. When we refuse to, that’s when corruption festers, even if it looks like heaven on earth to an outsider, corruption is corruption.
chongli 3y ago
We’re not North Korea or anything like that, but we have a pretty terrible legacy with residential schools and the destruction of indigenous people’s families, languages, and cultures, not to mention land. Canada is also in the midst of the biggest housing affordability crisis we’ve ever had. We’re in 3rd place in the world behind Luxembourg and Portugal for the most unaffordable housing, relative to income. The U.S. may have some serious affordability issues in the Bay Area, Seattle, and New York, but large swaths of the rest of the country aren’t so bad. Most Canadians are crowded into a few extremely unaffordable cities.
- FredPret 3y ago
  I know, and these are real issues. But sometimes I talk to (born) Canadians - I’m an immigrant here - and they think of these issues as overwhelming, unsolvable crises that fundamentally undermine the viability of Canada as a nation. And I think this isn’t a good problem-solving mindset, and isn’t the correct perspective either. Or maybe I totally overinterpret their level of exasperation.
  - chongli 3y ago
    Well, like anything people's mindsets are relative to the situation. Most Canadians cannot possibly imagine what Ukrainians are going through. If we could, we would probably be a lot happier with the situation we have here. But that doesn't change the fact that Canadian democracy is under a lot of pressure with polarization and influence by wealthy special interests. We would be a lot better off if we had a better electoral system and were able to move toward more Scandinavian-style social systems.
    - FredPret 3y ago
      I take your point. I don't blame them for not knowing how bad it is elsewhere. But what I'm saying is that this lack of perspective leads many Canadians to underestimate the value of the system as it exists today. First-past-the-post - FPTP - and wealthy interests have been here for a long time now. The system as it exists today works insanely great. This came to pass in spite of FPTP and the wealthy interest (hell, maybe even in part because of them). Because the problems here are minor, the changes to the system should be mild, not radical. You don't give a complicated mechanism a big kick hoping to take it from 99% to 100% efficiency. You fine-tune it very carefully. Big kicks are for going from 0% to 50%.
      - cmrdporcupine 3y ago
        Those of us born here have seen the decline. And are not happy about it. I'm 50 next year, and have been politically conscious since I was a teen.. so have seen a half a century of it. In particular the decimation of the health care system has just been slow and terrible to watch. Destruction of green spaces, sprawl, and difficulty of living in the GTA. Destruction of farmland, garbage on the beaches, overcrowding in almost every tourist or recreational area near Toronto. Nasty political polarization and viciousness. Racism and bigotry on the rise. And worst of all, that housing has become inconceivably expensive for working class people. I wouldn't call the problems -- especially the trend line of them -- minor. The expectation for previous generations was improvement of quality of life over generations. Unfortunately, that's no longer the case. Again, I blame both major political parties. Liberals just happen to be wearing the hat right now federally.