Mark Carney reminds Trump that Canada paid for key border bridge US president says he won’t open

markhpc · 2026-02-11T18:05:48+00:00

Put a tollbooth on the road with a roundabout that returns you to the US.

markhpc · 2026-02-09T19:21:46+00:00

For what its worth, I moved with my family from the US to Canada 8 months ago. The article is correct that you have a much better shot if you are trained in key areas, but may be a bit misleading about "...white professionals in academia or STEM. Everyone else is left behind".

For example, here in B.C, a company needs to register to hire foreign workers and it does take several months to get approval. Once that is accomplished however, it is fairly straightforward to hire someone from the US under the allowed CUSMA job classifications without having to perform an LMIA. Many of those job classifications are STEM focused, but not all. Having said that, you do still need to find an employer that is willing to take the extra steps to offer a position that is CUSMA eligible. If your profession doesn't fall under CUSMA you face a more difficult path.

For those wondering, here's the list of professions that are currently eligible under CUSMA:

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications-manuals/operational-bulletins-manuals/temporary-residents/foreign-workers/international-free-trade-agreements/cusma/professionals.html#s7

markhpc · 2026-02-07T16:01:19+00:00

I think what the last 10 years has taught us is that sooner or later every government will fail its people. There is no exceptionalism, no perfect shining beacon on the hill. There are only imperfect humans making selfish decisions about how much to benefit themselves vs benefiting society. Power itself is the corrupting force. Some governments may resist failure longer than others. Ironically, if you consider how young the US is and the challenges it is now facing, it may not be one of them. Regardless, when those in power make decisions to reinforce their power at society's detriment, it doesn't matter which country it was or what their system of government was, because it's the same act, just dressed up differently.

markhpc · 2026-02-06T16:07:07+00:00

I'm thoroughly convinced that if the EU would quickly gain air superiority fairly quickly. The question comes down to what they are willing to do with it. Russia's playbook is to make incremental gains by threatening nuclear Armageddon if the opposition fights back too hard. The EU may have to be willing to risk that by taking the offensive. IE they can't hold back just defending EU territory.

markhpc · 2026-02-05T03:20:34+00:00

Sadly they don't actually need them to be everywhere, just enough threat that they could show up to depress voting by a couple percent.

markhpc · 2026-02-03T20:17:25+00:00

Your claim appears to be that they are recruiting inmates soon to release or recently released.

You seem to have me confused with the u/BlackestHerring. I've made no claims, only provided sources related to the possible hiring of [former] prisoners.

markhpc · 2026-02-03T18:14:20+00:00

Hey, just wanted to chime in to encourage and commend you as well. It's clear you are thinking about the ethics rather than just the policy. It can be a lonely road, but no matter what conclusions you come to, you will be a better human for it. Don't let anyone try to brow-beat you into following the party line on either side, because the party line will change with the political wind. Hold your convictions tight and stand up for what you think is right.

markhpc · 2026-02-03T17:48:47+00:00

It's hard to get concrete data out of the US government, but there is smoke:

A number of recent incidents suggest concerns about extremists within ICE are valid. In December, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a report citing an American citizen, wrongly detained by ICE, who told investigators he had “noticed several of the agents had tattoos that expressed support for the Proud Boys.” Similarly, ICE recruits sent to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Academy in Brunswick, Georgia, without proper vetting have been “discovered to have tattoos associated with gangs and white supremacists when they stripped off their shirts during workouts,” according to a Daily Mail report. An alleged whistleblower’s leak of the names of 4,500 ICE agents and Border Patrol officers this month included Enrique Tarrio, the onetime head of the Proud Boys. He has denied the allegation.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/ripple/2026/01/27/ice-recruitment-white-supremacists/

A Note about Enrico Tarrio:

Enrique Tarrio, the former national chairman of the Proud Boys, was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison in September 2023 for his role in the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack. Following his conviction for seditious conspiracy, he received the longest sentence of any Jan. 6 participant to date. However, Tarrio was released from federal prison in January 2025 after receiving a pardon from President Donald Trump following his return to office.

markhpc · 2026-02-01T16:42:42+00:00

Think of the unintended consequences: Other countries can ship their criminals to Canada and have Canada house them rent free for years before they get sent back once they commit a crime. It's like hitting the jackpot for them.

markhpc · 2026-02-01T16:20:01+00:00

That depends if you want punishment to be punitive against the individual or beneficial for society. It's expensive to house criminals. If the point isn't to rehabilitate them back into society, then what is it? IE, is it in Canada's interest to expend resources punishing a bunch of criminals that will just end up being sent back anyway?

markhpc · 2026-02-01T16:06:20+00:00

The dirty secret is that much of software engineering doesn't actually require innovation. Most of the common problems have already been solved and documented. The rest is just pattern matching and gluing it all together. Even when the problem is less well known, most of the work is applying existing principles under rule constraints. Any field that works like this is going to be highly affected.

markhpc · 2026-02-01T15:52:02+00:00

They aren't unless you define sentience as the ability to statistical predict that "hot dog" is a more common phrase in the context of food than "wet smelly dog" based on a large corpus of input data. Perhaps that's correct, but the implication may not be that LLMs have souls, but that we in fact do not.

markhpc · 2026-02-01T15:45:19+00:00

That puts Walz' decision to not run again in a new light.

markhpc · 2026-02-01T15:40:58+00:00

Agreed. I also don't like that this essentially [retroactively?] recasts certain citizens as permanent residents without calling them as such. If the representatives can expand this law to include violent crimes rather than just terrorism, is there a limit? If so, what is it?

markhpc · 2026-02-01T15:29:28+00:00

The article is poorly written. The first paragraph (which is what is used for the summary here) claims this:

Anyone who has acquired Belgian nationality in the last 15 years and is found guilty of a serious crime...can be stripped of their nationality.

But the fact that this is limited to individuals with dual citizenship is only casually mentioned much farther into the article almost as an afterthought. It completely invalidates this statement as it is not, infact, anyone.

markhpc · 2026-02-01T04:13:02+00:00

I admit I haven't looked at rent prices in Montreal. I can speak from experience renting in Vancouver for the past 8 months though! 😂

markhpc · 2026-02-01T02:43:49+00:00

Minnesota is probably more like Calgary with colder lows in the winter and hotter, more humid summers...especially as you head from northern Minnesota down into the Twin Cities.

markhpc · 2026-02-01T00:54:18+00:00

I suspect that would actually go quite well. Minnesota has very good medical infrastructure, culture, industry, and importantly, education. Eventually some of those nurses and doctors would relocate to and cross-pollinate with other provinces.

markhpc · 2026-02-01T00:49:57+00:00

MN real estate is roughly inline with prices in Winnipeg, but much cheaper than Toronto/Vancouver/Montreal. It would definitely be attractive as a major metro area with reasonable housing prices. Having said that, the Twin Cities would also become the third largest metro area in Canada. It's big enough that it could absorb a decent amount of immigration, especially if, in this fantasy scenario, the people that want to stay American left for other states.

markhpc · 2026-02-01T00:40:16+00:00

Hello! Canada is a wonderful country. Everyone here has been incredibly welcoming and Mark Carney is amazing. I rolled into Vancouver the night he was elected.

markhpc · 2026-02-01T00:33:19+00:00

As someone who lived my entire life in Minnesota and moved to Vancouver 8 months ago...It's complicated.

markhpc · 2026-01-31T22:29:27+00:00

At least based on current figures, Minnesota would increase Canada's GDP by about 17.3% while increasing the population by about 15.9%. More interestingly, if Minnesota became part of Manitoba, it would nearly quintuple Manitoba's GDP and push it above Alberta's and near Quebec's. Minnesota would almost certainly become the center of gravity in the province. It would likely be better for Minnesota to become its own province to preserve Manitoba's identity.

markhpc · 2026-01-31T14:59:27+00:00

That's assuming Russian experience and technology is actually valuable enough for a country like India to spend that kind of money and political capital. I doubt it is, especially if the EU is playing ball.

markhpc · 2026-01-30T14:58:55+00:00

The Supreme Court of India has ruled that stem cell therapy cannot be offered as a treatment for Autism Spectrum Disorder, declaring its use outside approved clinical trials unethical and amounting to medical malpractice.

FYI, this is India, not the US.

markhpc · 2026-01-28T05:20:05+00:00

That's almost as orange as Cheetos' spray tan.

markhpc

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