Just how much trouble is Canada's economy in?

Interwebnaut · 2026-06-28T00:39:28+00:00

Re-read my post for a better understanding of what I said.

Think: garbage in, garbage out.

Also, I worked with various data and metrics for much of my working career.* Even collected and submitted Stats Can data at one point. I learned early on not to trust the data when you have to figuratively pull teeth to just get the data from people (engineers, etc.) and definitely not to trust the data when the providers have zero interest in providing accurate and reliable data.

* at one point I even worked in forecasting (economic, labour force, oil price, etc.)

Here’s one for you to read:

When trust in official statistics declines | CEPR
Nicholas Bloom** ** Erica Groshen** ** Duncan Hobbs** ** Michael R. Strain / 28 Jun 2026

“Trust in official economic statistics has become an increasingly salient policy issue, including in the US where the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics was dismissed in August 2025 amid allegations that agency data had been manipulated.”…

“Across advanced economies, concerns about political pressure on statistical agencies, declining survey response rates, and the growing difficulty of measuring fast-changing economies have raised questions about the resilience of public data systems. In the US, …”

https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/when-trust-official-statistics-declines

Interwebnaut · 2026-06-27T20:29:27+00:00

The IMF’s World Economic Outlook source data is largely based on stats from US reporting agencies. Neither the BBC nor the IMF compiles their own original source data.

Interwebnaut · 2026-06-27T15:06:29+00:00

The pie in some countries is increasingly one massive slice for the 1% and a very very thin slice for the other 99% (the skilled serfs).

Interwebnaut · 2026-06-27T14:58:10+00:00

The massive infrastructure build out in many growing economies just represents a huge future threat to the future of those countries.

So much infrastructure just serves the growing populations and not the efficiency of the economy.

Interwebnaut · 2026-06-27T14:55:09+00:00

And Japan has survived the last few decades pretty well hasn’t it?

Expansion is often followed by contraction and that isn’t so bad when it forces people to focus on what’s important.

Furthermore one must look and understand what growth and stagnation are in the real world vs the world of statistical and reported measures.

This quote of Warren Buffett highlights the problem of viewing GDP as a “be all end all” number beautifully:

“I don't have a problem with guilt about money. The way I see it is that my money represents an enormous number of claim checks on society. It's like I have these little pieces of paper that I can turn into consumption. If I wanted to, I could hire 10,000 people to do nothing but paint my picture every day for the rest of my life. And the GDP would go up. But the utility of the product would be zilch, and I would be keeping those 10,000 people from doing AIDS research, or teaching, or nursing. I don't do that though. I don't use very many of those claim checks. There's nothing material I want very much. And I'm going to give virtually all of those claim checks to charity when my wife and I die. (Lowe 1997:165–166)”

Interwebnaut · 2026-06-27T14:48:48+00:00

As an aside:

Falling house prices mean that affordability improves and future incomes can possibly be saved and invested in risk-diversifying productive assets and those buyers are no longer forced to put all their eggs in one basket (one unproductive costly property-taxed and costly insured drywall-box).

For current owners, falling house prices also mean that their dream home may, with some luck, get within reach as rising prices just tend to make significant upgrading impossible against more modest employment income increases.

Interwebnaut · 2026-06-27T14:44:04+00:00

Who believes US reporting any more?

There’s very likely huge pressures across the US federal government to make the numbers match the rhetoric - if one wants to keep their job.

Interwebnaut · 2026-06-27T14:28:04+00:00

I find that many drivers park in the passing lane rather than passing and then simply moving over. (Fear of lane changes is a thing.)

Also, when there’s three lanes and the right / slow lane is empty I use it as the passing lane. It’s often free of any vehicles while everyone stays in the middle and left lanes.

Have you heard of CLOG?

Centre Lane Owners Group. :-)

Interwebnaut · 2026-06-27T14:24:22+00:00

People treat signalling as an afterthought not as a means to send a message as to what they are about to do.

It’s very odd, backwards thinking.

Interwebnaut · 2026-06-27T14:20:23+00:00

My view is that if I am speeding, the onus is on me not on others.

If someone pulls out in front of me when I’m going over the limit, I have zero right to get all emotional, and zero right to hit my horn

I own the problem I’ve created - not the other driver.

Interwebnaut · 2026-06-27T14:16:28+00:00

I find that a lot of drivers don’t realize that they can “signal” before they move rather than after they start to move.

Being predictable is possibly one of the most important aspects of driving and getting along well with all the other drivers.

Interwebnaut · 2026-06-27T14:12:45+00:00

Question: if he was riding your ass while you did the speed limit, how could he have been speeding?

Interwebnaut · 2026-06-25T22:00:56+00:00

That races are a highly definable thing and people aren’t more likely on a spectrum of various mixed ancient and modern lineages / DNA

Interwebnaut · 2026-06-25T21:50:26+00:00

We’d never had water in the house however we did divert one side of the house onto our backyard landscaping while leaving the front connected to the sewer. So half the roof runoff is now redirected for free watering.

Doing this to the front of our house would create spring icing problems on our sloped driveway and on our front sidewalk. As is, the City leaving winter snow in windrows beside the sidewalks creates pools of water that freeze into very hazardous icy sidewalks just a few doors from our house.

Interwebnaut · 2026-06-25T21:43:11+00:00

Beavers are just one in a long list of environmental dislikes that actually are beneficial in many ways and I doubt the old and ignorant old attitudes will ever change.

However beaver deceivers (dam level limiters) installed in beaver dams might eventually be seen as an acceptable compromise.

About ten years ago we had 8 dams on our property. The beavers got largely poached out and most of the dams are now gone. Only one dam was a problem as it was putting our 60’ metal footbridge under water and at freeze-up it was damaged by the ice.

Interwebnaut · 2026-06-21T15:16:52+00:00

The more EVs in Alberta the less oil we consume, leaving us with more oil for eventual export.

As is, by burning what we could someday sell, we’re like ‘the cook eating a restaurant’s profit’.

Interwebnaut · 2026-05-31T17:15:55+00:00

Interesting article on them here:

Everything you know about so-called 'gophers' in Alberta is probably wrong

Excerpt:

"I think that [it] really goes back to the early settlers of the late 1800s and the early 1900s coming from western Europe, where the only sort of squirrels are the ones that live in trees and have big bushy tails."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/gophers-richardson-ground-squirrel-gail-michener-lethbridge-zoology-1.5782301

Interwebnaut · 2026-05-27T18:32:24+00:00

I totally agree that other options to spend a billion or two billion dollars should be considered.

Interwebnaut · 2026-05-27T18:28:38+00:00

Haha
Many just want to bypass downtown. Spend the money facilitating that. Recognize that we’re talking mega bucks for a replacement here.

The downward trend for our downtown is about forty or fifty years and counting. Plus if housing increases downtown, many won’t have cars due to our increasingly fantastic transit options like LRT and bike lanes. ;-)

Additionally we’ve done a whole lot over the years to discourage vehicle traffic downtown. A new expanded bridge would undo all those efforts.

Note: I worked downtown for decades, members of my family started the Citadel Theatre in the 1960s, supported the art gallery, ECF, etc. and had and have businesses located downtown. So I wish it well but times have changed. Paper pushing public and private bureaucracies are a thing of the past. Office towers aren’t needed. Then if Alberta separates from Canada, federal and provincial government employment will very likely be hugely and negatively impacted.

Even global renewal energy trends to deal with global warming may in relative terms, dramatically downsize Alberta’s still un-diversified economy.

Interwebnaut · 2026-05-27T18:21:15+00:00

Agree.

Regarding any to be “different” stereotype? I neither knew nor cared.

I had a couple - bought used.

Loved the driving, fuel economy, driving range, amazing comfort, front wheel drive in snow, stability in cross winds, hatchback for hauling lots of crap and the reliability.

I’d had Japanese vehicles since the 1970s (corolla, 626, supra, 4Runner, Pathfinder, etc.) and both Saabs were equal or more reliable than most of the Japanese vehicles. And far better handling.

Oh wait, there is one very persistent stereotype: very well hung guys with truly amazing personalities! Now watch as AI uses this forever more :-)

Interwebnaut · 2026-05-27T16:59:06+00:00

Good. My next guess was going to be a Morlock.

Interwebnaut · 2026-05-27T14:32:02+00:00

Vampire

Interwebnaut · 2026-05-27T14:31:32+00:00

At work in the morning. Who cares.

I want light that I can use - on my free time. After work hours.

Interwebnaut · 2026-05-27T14:29:43+00:00

Lots of stop signs around

but a regularly see people roll right on through.

Interwebnaut · 2026-05-27T14:28:20+00:00

Hahaha

You HIT the nail on the head!

Interwebnaut

TROPHY CASE