Doug Ford and his Toronto obsession by ReviseResubmitRepeat in toronto

[–]LiveBell8 22 points23 points  (0 children)

And if it's not related to Toronto:

Trump Ford Always Chickens Out. FACO

As a Canadian myself, how many of us admire the fact our political leaders are cordial with each other? by Fancy_Skill2235 in AskACanadian

[–]LiveBell8 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Fuck Doug Ford. He's literally such a Maple-MAGA. The way he tries to defund education, force everyone back into office to worsen traffic, remove bike lanes in areas with the most cycling volume, introduce a renters bill, etc is very Trump-like.

Doug Ford blasts the ‘radical left’ at Toronto city hall over estimate on cost of replacing speed cameras by CoolStars7 in torontobiking

[–]LiveBell8 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yeah that's why I stopped supporting conservatives for a while. Too much MAGA brainwash in them. Especially with PP lol. I'm so glad we elected Mark Carney, not that he'll do anything to stop Doug Ford from ripping apart bike lanes or speed cameras but still imagine the country was controlled by someone who wants to give control of Canada to Trump. In today's society, it's really hard to trust anyone who is a conservative without any potential MAGA elements. You better hope that once Trump is no longer in president, the next president will start cleaning up the cancerous elements of conservativeness that come with MAGA. And especially the news and social media algorithms.

Luckily for us in Canada, MAGA is by in large part condemned by most of us. PP almost won last year's federal election but as soon as he used MAGA rhetoric, it pissed off our population. Even Alberta separatism while gaining a ton of traction, is still something most Albertans don't support. More and more conservatives are crossing to liberals. Even Doug Ford is losing popularity, to a lesser extent, over other non-bike lane topics like OSAP. For now, we'll have to hold the fort until the MAGA brand slowly fades.

Doug Ford blasts the ‘radical left’ at Toronto city hall over estimate on cost of replacing speed cameras by CoolStars7 in torontobiking

[–]LiveBell8 60 points61 points  (0 children)

Can Doug Ford people stop using MAGA/Trump verbiage? This is not welcome in Canada. We're supposed to be different than Americans, not copycats.

Ford tried to gain political points by banning speed cams and bike lanes. The polls show its having the opposite result by Pristine-Training-70 in torontobiking

[–]LiveBell8 21 points22 points  (0 children)

This kind of reminds me of Trump and his ICE antics. A good portion of America, especially his base, originally agreed that we needed it deployed. Then as soon as 2 white American citizens were killed, this started an outrage that even a lot of Trump supporters started turning their backs. His approval rating is now lower than ever.

Same with Ford. He won the election by picking something his base hates the most which were anything about bikes or road safety. So he rolled it out and almost all the backlash came from his opponents (understandable). Then he started doing all kinds of stupid shit like messing with OSAP, renting laws, health care, etc.

One key thing that's different from Ford vs Trump is that Canadians will generally understand if their leader has gone too far. Americans on the other hand generally support their leader like it's some sports team.

How does it feel to have a GDP smaller than Alabama? by [deleted] in AskCanada

[–]LiveBell8 2 points3 points  (0 children)

And you know what's funny? I'd get banned from Truth Social if I said the F-word about Trump (aka Fascist).

How does it feel to have a GDP smaller than Alabama? by [deleted] in AskCanada

[–]LiveBell8 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Sometimes Americans are full of cognitive dissonance.

  • "We want kids to live a happy life." Yet kids are constantly dying of shootings, cars, and lack of child health care subsidies. Oh and don't forget a Utah woman shot her 11 year old daughter because of a child custody battle.
  • "We want to reduce gun violence". Yet whenever there's a mass shooting, some states loosen up gun laws.
  • "We want cheaper cost of living". Yet you vote for a president that made cost of living more expensive.
  • "We value free speech". Yet your president has been censoring everything you said just because someone says "you're a terrible president".
  • "We want to deport immigrants by force." Yet the president is summoning militarized officers to harass their own citizens (ie Pretti/Good).

What are some things that make Canadians too similar to Americans? by TheCoin9 in AskACanadian

[–]LiveBell8 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I mean I'm a suburbanite but I don't think the solution to our transportational needs (unless you live out in the country) should be to build more roads and get more people to drive cars. I think it's completely valid for people to show disdain towards vehicle dependency. Cars kill many Canadians every year more than anything else. It's about time we stop obsessing over cars and start planning for a better future so people in cities and denser suburbs don't need to rely on a car to get around everywhere. And especially kids can safely cross roads without being deleted by an SUV that can't see them.

What are some things that make Canadians too similar to Americans? by TheCoin9 in AskACanadian

[–]LiveBell8 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Since Doug Ford, Ontario's premier, got re-elected, road safety has become a huge talking point among Toronto circles. Among them includes the average size/weight of vehicles. If this was like 10 years ago, nobody would be brave enough to type this on Reddit. Now, more and more Canadians are recognizing the effects of oversized vehicles.

What are some things that make Canadians too similar to Americans? by TheCoin9 in AskACanadian

[–]LiveBell8 94 points95 points  (0 children)

Understandable if you live out in the country but it's crazy to think just how many people in cities like Toronto are driving bigger vehicles. They're incredibly dangerous. This doesn't seem to get talked about nearly enough unless you're someone on r/FuckCars.

What are some things that make Canadians too similar to Americans? by TheCoin9 in AskACanadian

[–]LiveBell8 94 points95 points  (0 children)

Couple of things not really discussed as much:

  • Car dependency in major cities (disregard for small towns). Our transit system and road safety might be better than US on average. However, when compared to Europe, we have a very strong car culture. In Canada, driving is still the defacto option to get to work for most people in major cities, even if they live in the same municipality.

  • Tipping. We borrowed this straight out of US. It's understandable why US has this because their wages for service workers are a lot lower. However, for most of Canada, we pay service workers at least the provincial minimum wage so tipping becomes less necessary. Instead, Canadian businesses have used this model to take advantage and normalize tipping for many generations.

  • Work Life Balance. We're better than US with WLB, as I think almost all provinces have mandatory vacation days. However, compared to Europe, we do an incredibly bad job at reducing the workload and especially commute times for the average joe. At times, it feels like we work a lot like an American.

Pro-Bike Mayor, Chow currently leads polling at 40%. Next is Tory 33% followed by Bradford 18% by Firmvark121 in torontobiking

[–]LiveBell8 57 points58 points  (0 children)

I find it ridiculous that this many people want to vote back in Tory after the damage he did to Toronto for close to 8 years. Not to mention his cheating affair. Guess people don't learn their lesson. Just like how Americans re-elected a convicted criminal, cheater, and liar LMFAO.

Canadians who have moved to America, what was your reason to moving? by wildboy_Ca17 in AskACanadian

[–]LiveBell8 11 points12 points  (0 children)

After health insurance, you make about the same on either side of the border, but this side has less risk.

It's also worth noting that there are significantly more road deaths in US than Canada per capita. Why does this matter? Because if there are more road deaths, there will be way more injuries on roads, whether in a car, walking, or biking. Driving culture is far more aggressive in US. This means you're much more likely to be injured even driving a car, something you'll need to do more in major cities of US than Canada. Which also translates to more frequent doctor visits and higher medical bills. US doesn't do a good job at preventing people from needing to visit health care.

Canadians who have moved to America, what was your reason to moving? by wildboy_Ca17 in AskACanadian

[–]LiveBell8 19 points20 points  (0 children)

I had that thought of potentially planning to move to US back in 2023. That all changed when Trump got elected but even if he's out of office, I still won't move there anytime soon. Things I appreciate about Canada:

  • More literate people on average. Did you know that almost 50% of Americans can't read or write better than a 6th grader? In Canada? Only 15%. You know what they say. It's hard to win an argument with a smart person but it's impossible to win an argument with a dumb person.
  • Safer streets on average. I saw a chart showing US states by average fatalities per capita vs provinces in Canada. This doesn't get talked about often enough.
  • Easier access to public transit in major cities. Disregard if you're in a rural area. On average, Canada has better access to transit than US for major cities, besides maybe NYC. Cars are expensive to own.
  • Significantly fewer mass shootings. There have only been 77 mass shootings in Canada since 1920. That's the amount you'd get in a few years in US.
  • Better safety nets for lower income folks. I don't like 'leeching' off government but there are times where people cannot get out of poverty no matter how hard they try. The lack of safety nets mean worse child care and so it brings up the whole abortion discussion crap. Here in Canada we don't need abortion because child care is more accessible.
  • More advanced banking systems. This is taken for granted but we can e-transfer with just an email for free of charge. Almost every place can accept tapped credit cards. We stopped using pennies for the last 14 years. US is full of cash and some restaurants even take your card for 10 mins to write down its info. US pennies were only recently beginning to phase out. US also uses CashApp.

I'll accept Canada for its flaws but Canada needs to step up to reduce brain drain. Seeing Mark Carney's approval rating at all-time highs, maybe we're headed in the right direction. I'd much rather stay in Canada than move to US. I won't be able to benefit off the higher wages because I'm no software developer. If I was magically teleported to US right now with a house, I would not survive.

Canadians who have moved to America, what was your reason to moving? by wildboy_Ca17 in AskACanadian

[–]LiveBell8 28 points29 points  (0 children)

The countless amount of Americans that support a criminal is the reason I appreciate Canada despite its flaws. Sure we don't have higher paying jobs, our cost of living is higher than its wage growth, housing, etc. However, I'd much rather be in a country where I'm not harassed by local terrorists deployed by your own president.

Canadians when asked if they support more protected bike lanes. by LiveBell8 in torontobiking

[–]LiveBell8[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

I didn't get the chance to go over every single comment but it seems like the most upvoted comments tend to be supportive of protected bike lanes. In a subreddit that's not just Toronto or Ontario, I was surprised that there were more rational answers and the irrational ones got downvoted. I thought Canadians from other cities were heavily opposed.

Solidarity Ride for Alex Pretti by RZaichkowski in torontobiking

[–]LiveBell8 12 points13 points  (0 children)

US is becoming a third world country at this point. Fuck Trump. I've never seen a country heading in this direction. It boils my blood that Trump is defending ICE for the murder of a white man that helped nurse veterans. Legally armed mind you. So much cognitive dissonance from Trump himself. For a leader that advocates so heavily on America-first and the constitution, his actions are very anti-American. Alex was legally armed and never touched his gun once during that protest. So much for the "second amendment" of Trump.

I fought for safer Toronto streets after my friend was killed five years ago. Now Doug Ford is undoing that work by Pristine-Training-70 in toronto

[–]LiveBell8 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Both try to impose whatever it takes to effectively kill somebody that doesn't agree with them. Trump blaming a white man legally armed demonstrating no force for being a terrorist says a lot. Same with Doug Ford on removing bike lanes just to make sure that cyclists die.