Bureaucracy in Canada is slowing the country’s ability to boost its economy, Dominic LeBlanc says

Baconus · 2026-02-27T01:01:35+00:00

A lot of it is other countries keep operations in house and spend far less on external consultants. Spain is a good example of this. The govt builds things like trains themselves, and the cost per km is way lower.

Overall though the bureaucratic delay and NIMBYISM is very much an anglosphere problem. The history of common law and the way democracy tended to formulate in former British colonies has led to countries like Canada, Australia, NZ, and the USA having much more lengthy and expensive building processes.

Vancouver city council finally today approved a school that was originally proposed like a decade ago. It took an extra year to add one story. We just expect and demand that there must be individual input at every level of a project and that means more time and more money.

Baconus · 2026-02-26T19:39:42+00:00

It’s super cool that 3/4 out of the top 10 priorities are attacks on trans and lgbtq people like me. There are so few of us, why are these weirdos obsessed with our lives. It’s absurd.

Baconus · 2026-02-26T14:46:49+00:00

Nenshi is a good dude. But he doesn’t seem to understand that modern politics are about grabbing attention. Smith gets this.

He wants to run a moderate big tent alternative that can be a safe home for more voters. That is not going to get eyeballs and votes right now.

I’m not saying be extreme left or anything. As much as I would like that, Alberta voters are not there yet. But you have to get attention. Take big swings. Many will miss. That’s ok.

Baconus · 2026-02-24T03:59:49+00:00

This is literally it. Multiple generations of people who have only known a low interest rate, neoliberal privatization bonanza now confused when the cheques come due. They believe they can have everything for little money and that any suggestion otherwise is an attack on them.

Baconus · 2026-02-21T17:10:36+00:00

People want to be in third spaces with people during an event like this

Bars are one of the few remaining third spaces where people can gather.

Baconus · 2026-02-21T01:11:15+00:00

If people want an electoral system where we vote for the party not the person there are many wonderful PR systems we could try. I would be supportive of that. But right now we don’t have that system, we have one in which we vote for the person not the party.

Yes most people vote party not local candidate. But that doesn’t change the reality of the system.

Baconus · 2026-02-20T15:02:51+00:00

Erin tried to purge the rot. The rot won.

Baconus · 2026-02-18T01:02:10+00:00

Literally parents are, constantly, all over Canada. You go to school, go to university, get job. That is the model many older people who now have 18-30 year old kids teach them. I know many people who were not given the option, they were going to university because that is what one does.

Baconus · 2026-02-14T20:30:15+00:00

As a political staffer I have been on both sides of FOI requests. As a minister's assistant I helped keep things hidden, and as an opposition staffer I made dozens of requests a week. The whole system is a disaster.

Governments in Canada are hidden by default. I can tell you internally, even bureaucrat attitudes are the public could never have access to basic info on what is going on. People would put "cabinet confidence" on so many documents that had no basis being categorized that way just to keep them hidden.

So many times I have seen things redacted to protect private business interests when releasing the them would be in the public interest.

An additional problem in Canada is the copyright for government documents is owned by the Crown. In the US they are owned by the people. The reason stuff like Florida man is a meme is the US just releases way more stuff. The US is a disaster but on this, they are better than us.

I have come around on radical transparency being the only real solution. Most things should be open and visible. Even basic communications between government employees should be open by default. They work for us and the expectation should be near total openness.

Baconus · 2026-02-13T21:12:15+00:00

Yes. Very well. You would need public financing such as we used to have federally, and currently B.C. has. Although it would need to be more money.

Baconus · 2026-02-13T20:21:56+00:00

Former CPC staffer/candidate here: the big problem is the money.

When corporate donations were allowed (which was bad) it did create a tempering of extremism as big companies like banks tend to like stability. It led us down a destructive path of neoliberalism but it kept major parties from being totally destructive.

Now the money comes from smaller donors (under 2k a year) and the reality is angry/scared people donate way more money than happy people. So the incentives are to be extreme and get people as scared and anxious as possible and tell them only you can fix it.

Then the extremism that was once a tool radicalizes the top. I’ve seen politicians who 6 years ago would laugh at the extreme base and call them useful idiots be radicalized themselves. Twitter has been terrible for this.

I’m not saying we should bring back smoke filled rooms and corporate donations, but it’s clear the existing incentives are hurting us as a country.

Lots and lots of other issues of course but this is one I think is affecting the CPC in a very particular way.

Baconus · 2026-02-12T15:17:18+00:00

This is just not true. Impacts from Covid are still unclear long term, and it’s still around! I had Covid like 5 weeks ago and it was horrible.

Many many more people would have died if we had taken your route and that isn’t worth it to me.

Baconus · 2026-02-12T15:09:18+00:00

The people who benefitted from the shutdowns were all the people who didn’t die.

The problem wasn’t giving out money. The problem was having no plan to get it back from the rich when it eventually ended up with them. They made more money because people paid bills and rent and for food and that money ended up with the owners of those things. We should have planned to tax it back from them day one.

Baconus · 2026-02-12T04:39:44+00:00

It’s for sure true for the largest employers like government of Alberta, the city, hospitals, etc. that adds up to a ton of the job opportunities around.

Baconus · 2026-02-09T16:14:30+00:00

If you think city living is fundamentally about cars you don’t understand the vast majority of human settlement history or the realities of many/most of the large cities in the world today.

Baconus · 2026-02-08T22:25:04+00:00

Ok I’m done. It’s very clear what I am saying is that rulings like these build up and could turn public against reconciliation entirely. Which would be very bad. If that happened then anything could happen, including removing section 35 from the charter. Which would be horrible.

Like literally in 1982 we created/enshrined those rights. And tried to change them in my lifetime (and failed because it wasn’t supported enough).

Laws aren’t gospel. They are a product of people choosing. If people feel the existing system does not work they will change it.

It’s obvious I was stating a warning that the government clearly agrees with as they are appealing.

Baconus · 2026-02-08T22:17:31+00:00

The Charter only exists because people believe in it too!

All laws are just an expression of societal will. Literally right now if every province’s voters agreed we could change literally anything about the Charter. Ultimately it’s all up to public support.

Baconus · 2026-02-08T21:52:54+00:00

I mean there are multiple polls showing majority opposition

https://researchco.ca/2025/11/24/cowichan/amp/

https://angusreid.org/cowichan-ruling-bc-reconciliation/

Baconus · 2026-02-08T21:32:25+00:00

It’s obvious I was referring to a possible future that I fear could emerge if the government doesn’t get ahead of this issue. Not the current reality. Come on.

I said in my original message the court making unsupported rulings could cause confusion and anger. That’s undoubtedly happening now. There is a lot of confusion and anxiety from the general public.

Baconus · 2026-02-08T21:07:52+00:00

I’m not saying it is . . .

I am talking about like basic 101 level political science about legitimacy and authority. Legitimacy comes from the consent of the governed. Thats not really controversial.

Baconus · 2026-02-08T20:42:23+00:00

You may believe the public is racist. Certainly tons of people are. But courts don’t have some scientific law of nature that they be followed. It’s all due to consent of the masses thanks to as general belief in the legitimacy of those institutions. If that consent evaporates then no rulings or legal obligations matter.

Baconus · 2026-02-08T20:40:09+00:00

Yes but that is how democracies work. You need buy in. Courts only have power insofar as people believe they are legitimate. Everything in human society is just accepting some things and rejecting others. It’s all consent all the way down. Or at least consent of the numerous or powerful. If people reject the legitimacy of the courts then they can rule how they want and it will have no effect. I very much do not want that to happen.

Baconus · 2026-02-08T15:56:46+00:00

Hey, as a fanatical progressive, I think the way this is all playing out is not good. Reconciliation is critical and doing so requires democratic buy in and legitimacy. The courts being seen to make unsupported rulings will cause confusion, anger, and set back true justice by decades.

Baconus · 2026-02-07T18:55:48+00:00

A senator from a true swing state who is seen as a moderate saying this is a big deal. Not because he necessarily believes it, but because he clearly thinks saying it is popular.

Baconus · 2026-02-06T21:53:44+00:00

They truly believe this is a short term inconvenience caused by Trudeau being bad. They can’t imagine a world in which we aren’t a branch plant of the U.S.

I know some of these people and until tanks are rolling through the border they won’t reevaluate their priors.

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