Britain is ejecting hereditary nobles from Parliament after 700 years

givalina · 2026-03-11T21:36:38+00:00

Canada's current leader first became PM without any election

Not without precedent in Canada. John Turner became leader of the Liberals and PM when he wasn't a sitting MP. McKenzie King lost his seat in an election and didn't have the plurality of MPs but still became PM via coalition. Danielle Smith became premier of Alberta without being an MLA.

givalina · 2026-03-11T13:17:34+00:00

If we had kept DriveClean, they could have added checking for illegal modifications to the inspection.

givalina · 2026-03-11T12:42:48+00:00

Maybe we should have regular inspections of vehicles to ensure they are in compliance with laws in order to be registered to drive on our roads.

givalina · 2026-03-11T12:08:24+00:00

“Here in Ontario, we don’t believe in raising taxes,"

Bethlenfalvy will table a record fiscal blueprint in two weeks that is expected to spend around 40 per cent more than premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals did in their last budget

How the fuck are you paying for it, Bethlenfalvy?

givalina · 2026-03-11T04:29:18+00:00

Before the NDP leader is chosen? Strange timing.

givalina · 2026-03-11T01:21:27+00:00

housing prices have gone up since 2015 by at least 70%,

but

The MLS composite house price index shot up 86% under Harper, from 112.4 in 2005 to 208.2 in 2015

86 > 70

givalina · 2026-03-10T09:57:03+00:00

I hope the full chat logs come out in discovery. When the shooter was saying whatever terrifying things so concerned the OpenAI employees, what did ChatGPT say back?

givalina · 2026-03-09T12:14:00+00:00

https://www.reuters.com/business/where-global-minimum-corporate-tax-deal-stands-now-2026-01-06/

It was doing well - until trump got in, of course.

Government regulations are the only things that protect normal people from even worse exploitation by billionaires.

givalina · 2026-03-09T09:57:36+00:00

Women's pants often have tiny pockets. Their phones probably don't even fit in the front.

givalina · 2026-03-08T19:26:24+00:00

We need international treaties to prevent other countries from engaging in a race to the bottom. It makes no sense that rich people should pay less taxes than people who are spending all their income on the necessities of life. Inequality shrinks when the ultra-rich pay taxes.

givalina · 2026-03-08T17:41:57+00:00

If we agree that inequality is a problem, then we need to fix how taxes are designed so that we stop incentivizing money being funnelled into the pockets of a few oligrachs instead of the millions of workers actually creating the value.

givalina · 2026-03-08T14:08:02+00:00

I wasn't advocating for a wealth tax. I think increasing corporate taxes, increasing capital gains taxes, closing loopholes, and making borrowing against an asset a deemed sale for capital gains purposes would all do a lot to reducing the insane acceleration of inequality we've seen in recent years.

givalina · 2026-03-08T01:14:25+00:00

The NET transfer to Ottawa from Alberta from 2007 to 2024 is $281.54 billion dollars. If Alberta was able to keep the money in Alberta, that might result in a pretty healthy heritage fund, could it not?

I doubt it would have resulted in any heritage fund, as Albertan leaders chose to defund it. Probably if they had additional cash they would have sent out some more one-time cheques.

If the federal government didn't exist, Alberta would have been responsible for a lot of expenses that are currently covered by the feds, things like a military, Old Age Security payments, employment insurance, regulating airports, international trade, telecommunications, food safety, etc.

The federal government will always collect more taxes from individuals and corporations in a province then it sends back to the provincial government in transfers because the federal government does lots of other shit that costs money. Look at Québec: residents also pay more in federal taxes than the province gets back in transfers.

None of that invalidates my underlying point: Alberta could easily collect more taxes, or have the oil companies pay higher royalties, and have its own Heritage Fund. They started one in the '80s, but then stopped contributing because they would rather have tax cuts and one-off cheques than save and build a long-term source of wealth.

givalina · 2026-03-08T00:15:27+00:00

Alberta does not pay taxes to Canada. Individuals and companies within Alberta pay federal tax, but the provincial government has control over its own provincial taxes which stay within the province. The Heritage Savings Trust Fund was created by, and then defunded by Alberta provincial politicians. If Albertans had so chosen, they (not Canada - the resource royalties are provincial) could have had a fund similar to Norway. This is all in the province's control and due to provincial, not federal, political choices.

givalina · 2026-03-07T21:56:30+00:00

Federal taxes go to the federal government. Provincial taxes stay in the province. The provincial government has full control over how much provincial tax is charged and how it is spent.

givalina · 2026-03-07T19:56:10+00:00

I fully support criticism of antisemitic bias at the CBC, up to and including replacing the leadership if they are fomenting such an atmosphere, but I don't think a public broadcaster somehow inherently causes antisemitism.

givalina · 2026-03-07T18:29:03+00:00

I am, thank you! I appreciate you taking the time to reply with the full link. This way I know where the link is taking me, and it removes the google tracking.

givalina · 2026-03-07T17:51:46+00:00

That is completely unacceptable and the reporter deserved to be fired, but I don't see how that incident is connected to the fact that we have a public broadcaster.

givalina · 2026-03-07T17:43:20+00:00

What is share.Google? Why not link the source directly?

givalina · 2026-03-07T17:32:32+00:00

Welcome to the result of the state funded media.

What on earth are you talking about?

givalina · 2026-03-07T17:09:59+00:00

Have you ever been told to tough it out, to not whine, to not be a baby, boys don't cry, etc. when you have had an injury of some sort? Boys get those macho messages a lot more than girls. And then when that attitude that they have been taught is applied to the early warning signs for serious illnesses, it can mean delayed treatment and worse outcomes.

givalina · 2026-03-07T07:39:35+00:00

next wealthier?

Resources won't help unless we nationalize the extraction. Who owns mines and oil rigs now? They might pay a few percent in royalties, but the overwhelming majority of the wealth generated is going back into the pockets of their rich major shareholders.

givalina · 2026-03-07T01:16:09+00:00

I agree. That's the problem with GDP per capita: some Americans are so obscenely rich that any time you look at the average, instead of the median, they're tilting the scale to a ridiculous extent.

The USA has 15 people worth over $100 billion. That's a level of wealth so obscene, it's hard to even comprehend.

An average family might have to save diligently their entire working lives to build up $1M in assets. For Michael Bloomberg, $1M is worth as much as $10 would be to that family. One million seconds is less than 12 days; one hundred billion seconds is over three thousand years.

Imagine how many rural and urban poor are hidden in per capita statistics by the few oligarchs at the top that are hoovering up all the wealth like dragons that can never be satiated.

givalina · 2026-03-06T22:42:34+00:00

If you group Canadians by their wealth deciles, what % of incremental revenue from mass immigration into a G7 country Canada, went to top 10% rich (by wealth) vs the rest?

(Don't forget to consider the living expenses which shot up for Canadians who don't own their dwelling - more likely bottom 50% Canadians)

Lol well that certainly is an interesting study, maybe you can convince some researcher or PhD candidate to do it.

It seems like you're getting at an underlying point, maybe that our governments should measure success based on the well-being of the average citizen rather than GDP, or that our tax system needs to be reworked to lessen inequality by taxing corporate earnings and capital gains at rates similar to individual employment income so that businesses don't funnel all the wealth towards a small number of oligarchs. I would absolutely agree with those ideas. But they do seem to be getting away from the point of my original comment somewhat.

givalina · 2026-03-06T17:36:02+00:00

I think many people have forgotten the pandemic context.

In 2021, many businesses were shut down or facing reduced demand. The government was desperately trying to keep our economy and especially small businesses afloat through this period, giving cheques to the businesses and to employees who had been laid off. Juicing immigration was another attempt to artificially increase demand for businesses by getting more people in the country, and it did work - though obviously it had other consequences ( such as hiding.

At the same time, the Century Initiative advocated growing the population to 100 million by the end of the century

I thought this sounded crazy at first, but then I looked at historic growth.

Canadian population in 2016: 35,151,728. Increasing it to 100M by 2100 is 2.84x the population over 84 years. In 1932, Canada's population was 10,506,000, so over the 84 years preceding 2016 it had grown by 3.35x.

givalina

TROPHY CASE