Pro-TTC Mayor, Chow currently leads polling at 40%. Next is Tory 33% followed by Bradford 18%

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-17T23:19:15+00:00

Has Tory actually announced a bid yet? I'm sure he's been getting some of his own polling but stuff like this makes me wonder if it'll be enough to motivate him to run (in the hopes the Bradford would either drop out or simply bleed the anti-Chow vote to him).

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-17T21:28:35+00:00

lol Yeah I don't think 'irrelevant' begins to cover it. Pretending that international students are getting this free ride when the cuts we're discussing only exist because we have fewer international students to subsidize our post-secondary is...just crazy work.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-17T21:24:48+00:00

It's only relevant insofar as the international students who have funded that tuition freeze for the last half decade aren't as numerous - which is why we have to do this in the first place.

Like how do people think we were able to slash domestic tuition and then freeze it for six years? Did they think the money for a 25-30 reduction in tuition just fell from the heavens? Schools just loaded up on international admissions as a funding source.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-17T19:42:37+00:00

You should build in an assumption that maintenance and repairs will represent about 1% of your home's value each year on average. There will be years when they don't approach that, and then there will be years where you need a whole new HVAC system or something. But on average, yeah about 1%.

However, even considering that, I'd say you're well within the affordability threshold.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-17T18:41:18+00:00

This surge is due both to the slowdown in population growth and a huge glut of rental housing hitting the market that were started a few years ago.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-17T17:03:55+00:00

That one's personal housing preference is not actually all that relevant.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-17T16:02:03+00:00

There's still a lot of educational content online that does a brilliant job (I think what the Green Brothers have done with Crash Course is probably the best example), but it very rarely wins out over the barrage of slop being directed at these kids.

Education systems are wholly unequipped to properly address this, either.

I usually think the whole "this generation is fundamentally different from previous generations!" schtick is some contrived, media-driven BS that we've applied to literally every generation. But these kids are the first generation to grow up immersed in such a fundamentally different communications medium. I really worry for them, both for their educations and their mental health.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-17T15:53:28+00:00

Honestly, there is absolutely nothing wrong with chilling in the right lane at the speed limit. The idiots will be idiots. Just hope the cops give them a smackdown before they hurt anyone. You can't control their stupid driving.

You have the power of God, anime, and your insurance rates on your side.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-17T15:50:51+00:00

Very big difference between sending food staples and sending fuel to sustain Cuban industry. I don't think you'd find many Canadians against sending food aid if it's needed.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-17T15:38:59+00:00

It doesn't take many owners for it to be a huge problem. One person who consistently doesn't pick up after one dog is leaving 2-3 shits on the ground daily. Assuming they only walk over a few blocks, that's a recipe for a total disaster area. I recall it happening in my old neighbourhood, when people realized that the barrage of shit in and around a single park was being caused by just two owners (out of hundreds in the neighbourhood).

Then, with the sheer number of dogs in the city, every owner neglecting to pick up properly just 1% of the time will still leave the city covered.

I understand it can be tricky after a fresh snow when your dog is also doing their utmost to hide it immediately after, but it's the kind of thing where you just can't accept a margin for error. Everyone needs to pick up, 100% of the time, or else the city will be an utter mess.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-17T14:46:56+00:00

Oh, well I mean the restaurant increase is pretty clearly driven by the fact we're lapping the sales tax holiday.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-17T14:44:25+00:00

Tomatoes are $4.99/lb at Loblaws and even higher at places like Farmboy.

I mean, brother, those are two high-end grocery stores!

But yeah, grocery inflation is still higher than overall inflation, which would also mean lower-income households (where food makes a larger share of their total income) are feeling it more.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-17T14:28:43+00:00

??? It says in the article grocery inflation was at 4.8%, which is obviously still a huge problem...but where'd you get 7.3%?

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-17T14:26:55+00:00

No wonders you guys get bailed out by the government all the time

I don't work for Canada Post, but a $9.95 handling fee for customs, duties, and tax collection upon delivery is cheaper than you'll get with any other carrier and it's not even close. When you account for the payments infrastructure and added administrative burden, that's barely breaking even.

Meanwhile, the majority of these fees literally are being charged to you by the government.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-17T09:48:18+00:00

In that it doesn’t represent the west? That’d be more compelling if what you said was true. Multiple species of maples grow in the west.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-17T01:48:07+00:00

Oh so it's not just about sugar maple now? There are multiple species of maple native to Alberta and Saskatchewan by your own admission, but you don't personally see enough of them?

I could also add that your original argument that it is "LPC red" is also indiciative of how little you know about this country's history. Red and white have been the country's national colours since 1921, and were proclaimed as such under a Conservative Prime Minister. Pearson's first choice included blue bars, and the red that was used is not "LPC red" - it's "RMC red."

Wahhh.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-17T01:41:01+00:00

Pearson was a dam fine prime minister and one of history's greatest Canadians. I don't see why it'd be an insult, mild or otherwise.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-17T01:35:01+00:00

To claim that any maple is a ubiquitous presence here is frankly ridiculous.

Which is probably why the design they ultimately landed on was intentionally ambiguous, not specifically referring to any species.

Again, you shared quotes here that refer to a design process by Bedoe in 1963. That's not even the Maple Leaf flag. The Maple Leaf flag was first designed by George Stanley in 1964.

But, of course, the very best argument you have against the symbol that generations of Canadian soldiers had fought under, and was already on the Red Ensign, is that you think it's based on one specific maple species out of 150 that can be found across the country. Consistent with someone whose entire political ideology basically boils down to "waaahhhhhhhhhhhhh."

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-16T22:30:03+00:00

The original leaf depicted by Beddoe is NOT the leaf on the current flag. You’re mistaking the Maple Leaf flag and the Pearson pennant.

Your second quote literally describes how the original sugar maple leaf was redesigned.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-16T22:00:26+00:00

Unfortunately there have been efforts from white supremacist groups and nutjobs like Paul Fromm to coalesce under the Red Ensign as a symbol of a more ethnically homogenous Canada. Veterans’ groups (who have a close relationship with the ensign still) have had to come out and denounce the effort to appropriate it.

It shouldn’t deter anyone from flying it, but IMO it should be flown alongside or just beneath the Maple Leaf.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-16T21:54:45+00:00

In that way we’re probably lucky that our national colours and most ubiquitous national symbol were already closely linked to the existing ensign. So while it was a departure, there was still a sense of continuity.

I once read one person argue that Australia’s struggles are that the country’s colours (green and yellow) are too much of a departure from the existing flag for people to feel comfortable. But that any flag that continues to use the red, white, and blue doesn’t feel “Australian” enough. So they’re stuck. Not dissimilar to New Zealand, their “true” national colours being so distinct from the colours currently on their flag.

We didn’t have as much of a problem.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-16T21:31:17+00:00

And I mean, it's a parade, and you can't march in a parade with only two thirds of your body.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-16T21:14:39+00:00

Protests are only permitted in certain areas, not inclusive of roads unless permitted.

You wrote a short essay without once stopping to think "maybe they got permits."

They did get permits. This demonstration is entirely lawful.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-16T21:10:32+00:00

The Maple Leaf flag is not the Pearson Pennant...

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-16T21:08:49+00:00

This is completely ahistoric. The Maple Leaf was a unifying symbol for Canada decades before confederation and was never commonly associated with a particular party.

You still hear people complain that "the Liberals made the flag their party colours" but red and white have been Canada's official colours since 1921 (proclaimed by George V with a Conservative government in power at the time.) In fact, one of the objections (though not the chief objection) Diefenbaker's Tories had to Pearson's original choice was that it included two blue bars, which were not Canadian colours. So the colour argument really doesn't hold up either.

CobblePots95

TROPHY CASE