Does Canada need to maintain relevance in Europe? Asia? Africa has the fastest growing and youngest population in the world — the region will no doubt play a key role in global commerce in the next century. Why is it justified to ignore Africa but not other parts of the world?

“We need tons of parking lots until we get walkable cities” gets things totally backwards. Walkable cities are impossible because of the stupid amount of parking lots we have.

The dilemma you pose of “parking vs walkable cities” isn’t even real: we massively overbuild parking lots so we can stand to get rid of most of them. I’ve been to SK many times. Strip mall parking lots are half empty even during the busiest times of day. It’s insane. You could build housing on tons of that land without ever causing parking lots to fill up.

Here in Vancouver, there are almost no strip mall parking lots and the absolute number of cars is higher than anywhere in SK, and yet, there’s STILL too much parking. There’s almost always parking within a block or two of any store outside of the downtown core. The distance you walk probably isn’t that different from across those huge parking lots.

Honestly, we can go on a massive parking diet and, because we overbuild parking so much, there won’t even be any downside for drivers.

I agree with your sensible degree of caution, given the context. It’s good media literacy.

If the NDP pull this off, they’ll deserve a ton of credit. It’ll be the biggest expansion of public services in decades. We’re one of the only countries with universal healthcare but not pharmacare.

That’s possible but Canada (and the US) are outliers on this. In Japan, the Netherlands, etc. kids are still encouraged and allowed to play outside without adult supervision. I think we have a particularly paranoid parenting culture in this country.

I buy iPhones because they’ve been much cheaper. The purchase price of flagship iphones are similar to Android flagship prices, but they’re supported for years longer. My last iPhone was the 6s, released in 2015. It’s still receiving security updates today in 2024, more than 8 years later (last update Jan 22, 2024). When I stopped using it, it ran as well as the day I bought it. The resale price was also decent.

Meanwhile, android phones from that era typically lost support within 1-2 years of release.

Yeah sorry it sounded like I was correcting you, but I meant to say I agree with you too.

Canada spends a LOT less on policing than the US and has MUCH less crime. Crime severity is basically half in Canada, and per capita police spending is half. For example, the safest major city in North America is Toronto.

Not coincidentally, Canada also has better social services like public healthcare, more equitable access to schooling, and higher social mobility. This is the argument for defunding the police. We need police, but other things have a much bigger effect on safety.

There can be a deterrent effect in very specific situations. At crowded public events, like a parade, a police presence can lower crime at that event. Sometimes. But otherwise, police don’t work like that.

Newsom and Whitmer come to mind. Not saying they’re sure to do better, but it wouldn’t surprise me in the least.

“No consistent correlation” means that likely nothing dramatic will happen. Police don’t prevent crimes. They come after a crime has already occurred.

If you’re worried about cost: car infrastructure is the most expensive per capita. Unlike public transportation, roads are almost entirely government subsidized, with virtually no tolls or pay roads anywhere in the country. The worst part of subsidized highways are the spillover costs: oceans of subsidized parking lots and wide subsidized roads to service all the cars. In most NA cities, 60% of surface area is devoted to cars. What a waste.

That’s not counting the private costs, which people massively underestimate. Cars cost an average of $14k a year. This is why Canadians and Americans spend more on transportation than almost any country in the world.

And what do we get for all that extra cost? A lower quality of life: The longest commute times in the world, amongst the highest traffic deaths in the developed world (which is the biggest killer of children in Canada), a housing crisis due to low density, obesity and cardiovascular disease due to lack of incidental exercise, and high property taxes to maintain all that inefficient asphalt.

Canadians are also amongst the highest per capita carbon emitters, in large part due to tailpipe emissions and car centric urban design.

Canada today is almost certainly less corrupt and rent seeking than the literal Gilded Age, when the country was founded! In fact, the Pacific Scandal was our first major political scandal, involving political bribery by railroad investors and leading to the resignation of John A Macdonald.

I really have to push back against this pessimism about government. It only serves conservative pro-privatization interests to push that narrative. The problem is political will. Voters easily approve major new highways in ON. We would get rail if voters demanded it. So let’s start a movement!

We waste a lot of immigrant talent in Canada by not recognizing foreign credentials.

8 hours to be seen is possible in greater Vancouver, but definitely not typical. Current wait times are about as bad as they’ve ever been, but avg wait times are still about 1 to 4 hours. I think it’s the rural hospitals that get really bad.

Canadians are considering voting in conservatives at every level of government. I would love for it to be true, but what makes you think Canadian voters are pining for more left leaning policies. If anything, absurdly, voters seem to want to punish Trudeau for going too far left!

But Canadians keep voting in conservatives at the provincial level, across the whole country. Only two NDP provinces (BC and Manitoba), and MB is very recent. This really seems like “voting against our interests”.

Why is Consumer Reports considered a rag?

I dunno. “Don’t attribute to malice that which can be sufficiently explained by stupidity.” I can totally believe that the average police officer has not thought this through. “5 hours of footage! We don’t have 5 hours to look for one bike.”

Yes, Obsidian is great. The app itself is proprietary but the files are portable plain text. I feel like that makes it pretty future proof. If it ever shuts down or enshittifies, there will be alternatives.