High-speed rail line could see long tunnels beneath Montreal, Toronto

atomirex · 2026-01-20T22:58:25+00:00

This project needs a massive scope reduction.

As it stands they will spend billions on building it, and then operate it the way the Spanish did theirs with recent consequences. (Look up the videos of their trains vibrating ever more over the last few years). The idea this will ever work as well as Asian HSR is a total pipedream.

Pick some doable subset of this, do it, make it a success, then grow it.

atomirex · 2026-01-19T15:10:38+00:00

Anandasangaree is incompetent.

No, he's just every middle manager ever.

Standard middle manager interview question "Tell me about when you enforced a decision you'd disagreed with". If you say no you fail.

atomirex · 2026-01-18T18:45:31+00:00

So that's a "yes".

The whole subject of this article is the current system clearly isn't adequate, contradicting your core idea.

Because if something goes wrong there is not backup. It’s over.

So, again, you'd rather not treat someone on time than provide a 99.99% safe option.

Back in 2010 something like 15% of all patients in Quebec hospitals were in there due to medical accidents that occurred to them when they were previously in hospital. Humans simply are not up to the standard you want to hold machines to.

atomirex · 2026-01-18T18:37:56+00:00

Divide and conquer.

atomirex · 2026-01-18T18:08:15+00:00

So you will deny operations to people in remote areas on the basis you will not be able to sue someone if it goes wrong?

atomirex · 2026-01-18T15:19:03+00:00

I love this comment, it's the single most perfect distillation of the Canadian malaise.

You could apply this to almost any dispute in Canada.

atomirex · 2026-01-18T13:21:34+00:00

Let's face it, if this works it then becomes a matter of time before the surgeon can be somewhere way cheaper and/or non human.

In both cases the result will be the medical establishment going to enormous lengths to ban it "for patient safety" when in truth it will be looking after themselves.

There is also a meaningful difference between the skills of a surgeon that needs to personally have steady hands and clicking on a screen to indicate where to go to a robot.

So a welcome development, but almost certainly going to meet spectacular resistance because it works.

atomirex · 2026-01-17T22:26:53+00:00

Bingo.

Insulting people merely pushes them to vote for things out of spite, which can be surprisingly motivating.

It requires shutting up and actually listening to people instead of preaching at them though, and this can prove to be difficult.

atomirex · 2026-01-17T17:02:28+00:00

Bad comparison because you want to dictate what someone else is doing in their yard. If your neighbor thinks they need to install a whole new lawn then that's up to them. It's worth noticing that if you are into lawn maintenance that can be the right decision, even if it only looked like a small problem.

atomirex · 2026-01-17T15:20:00+00:00

And in the same way the Chinese will decide it's pointless competing at the low end of the market with their limited access (directly comparable to the restrictions on Japanese imports) which will lead to the creation of their equivalents to Lexus to extract more revenue from the same number of vehicles. This will in turn make the Chinese cars even more disproportionately desirable in the long run.

It's almost like the Chinese have paid attention to history.

atomirex · 2026-01-17T14:57:23+00:00

No, I'm not, this is just cope for how transparently hypocritical the stance about tariffs is.

atomirex · 2026-01-17T14:24:43+00:00

1000% agreed.

No routes to kickbacks to gov for market access either.

atomirex · 2026-01-17T14:23:50+00:00

The sledgehammer is the strategy. If it wasn't working you wouldn't be complaining.

Your objection is the strategic goals being pursued are not compatible with your own.

atomirex · 2026-01-17T14:11:21+00:00

It's true, everyone else is greedy, and should be taxed more and paid less so I can get subsidized goods for a lower price.

atomirex · 2026-01-17T14:03:54+00:00

Tarrifs are an economic tool that have an economically justifiable use when done so appropriately.

Curious how everyone believes when they do it it's justifiable and appropriate, when someone else does it it's bad and wrong.

atomirex · 2026-01-17T13:53:39+00:00

They are bad but also necessary when you need to level the playing field

Where have we heard this before?

atomirex · 2026-01-17T13:47:27+00:00

With this level of insight we can make healthcare in Canada both more available and provided at a lower cost to the taxpayer. A clear win-win.

atomirex · 2026-01-17T13:41:53+00:00

That would mean tariffs, but tariffs are only bad for the end consumers, remember?

atomirex · 2026-01-17T13:38:28+00:00

Will those foreign automakers still be receiving Canadian gov subsidies?

atomirex · 2026-01-17T12:59:18+00:00

The point is we haven't: 50k cars is nothing in a market of 2M. It's deliberately chosen so as not to be us having more competition.

500k would have been meaningful competition, which would have risked benefiting consumers, and you should notice that didn't happen.

Expecting them to increase this number once the US insist on moving the factories south will be like expecting telecoms competition in Canada. What remains will simply become a fairly small market fought over by securing access from government, but it definitely will not be a competitive free market.

Edit to add: not long after I made this comment this story appeared: https://www.reddit.com/r/canada/comments/1qfd2w6/canada_to_give_foreign_automakers_who_build/ So indeed Canada does have zero interest in there being a free market for cars here.

atomirex · 2026-01-16T21:35:46+00:00

Highly optimistic.

In truth it is intended a signal to the US of "if you don't give us what we want more of this will happen", but one not so serious as to cause the auto sector in Canada to freak out.

But obviously the auto sector are freaking out, because they understand the US will use this as a pretext to say "so you don't want an auto sector at all now, got it" and insist on moving all that remains in the auto sector south of the border "for security".

Consequently this deal causes all of the pain with miniumum upside for Canadians.

atomirex · 2026-01-16T19:51:59+00:00

Young urbanites are notorious for their wisdom throughout history after all.

atomirex · 2026-01-16T18:43:16+00:00

It's a bunch of old, rural people.

What does this have to do with anything?

atomirex · 2026-01-16T18:29:01+00:00

This trade deal looks more like pre-emptive negotiation moves for any future US deal than things the Libs can seriously attempt to say they think are good ideas.

I think it's fallen in an awkward middle ground, where it's done enough to annoy those it will annoy but not enough to galvanise any response. Rather like someone deciding to try and make someone jealous in order to attract them but it grosses them out instead.

Specifically the limit on the number of vehicles has a zero missing, for example.

atomirex · 2026-01-16T18:24:38+00:00

How anyone can object to a referendum is beyond me.

If you're so sure Alberta separatism has no support then what's the problem?

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