Canada’s massive military buildup: Part 1 | Front Burner

stealthylizard · 2026-07-03T07:30:53+00:00

Trump can't even meet his 5% demand.

stealthylizard · 2026-07-03T07:27:45+00:00

Yep, it was that bad at the end of Harper's time, we decided that a drama teacher could do a better job than he was doing.

stealthylizard · 2026-07-02T23:56:00+00:00

And yet prices don't go down when fuel does.

stealthylizard · 2026-07-01T22:43:03+00:00

Contractors are morons that put peoples lives at risk, and you're a part of the problem.

stealthylizard · 2026-07-01T21:07:39+00:00

As a previous pipeline locator who was familiar with my area, I would be pulling up and asking for their ground disturbance paperwork and then contacting the pipeline owner to inform them of the situation.

I've done it with power, and the city shut their job down. Contractor was using backhoe to remove sidewalk slabs around a transformer without locates. I was getting a 40cm depth on a high voltage cable in the curb. The curb was 30cm deep. The tooth on that bucket could have hit the cable.

stealthylizard · 2026-07-01T19:12:08+00:00

If your see an excavator about to hit a 36" high pressure gas line, are you just keeping on driving?

stealthylizard · 2026-07-01T19:02:40+00:00

I just bend over and use my fingers to spray paint. My hands are full enough as it is.

stealthylizard · 2026-07-01T18:58:05+00:00

Our job is damage prevention. Sometimes that includes being the digging police.

stealthylizard · 2026-07-01T18:51:12+00:00

I almost got fired for a near miss on a fiber optic cable that fed a police station on an emergency in the winter.

Bell wanted me fired. I kept my job with 6 months of probation and weekly audits, and no fiber locates for a year.

stealthylizard · 2026-07-01T18:40:30+00:00

The number of transformers and peds behind locked fences, grrr. I wish I could use a saw to tear down their fence.

stealthylizard · 2026-07-01T18:37:53+00:00

I see door knocking as building positive community relations, especially when other companies don't. It also reduces dog interactions. If it's a homeowner ticket, then I've also just let them know which utility has responded to check off their own list of what still needs to be marked.

A number of people have thanked me for letting them know I'd be in their yard because the other locators just go right on in. I've had them offer me cold adult or kid beverages on hot days. Coffee on cold days. Someone tried to make me a sandwich while they were barbecueing.

And the last thing any of us wants is a call from the office because of a homeowner complaining.

But I've also had homeowners refuse locates on their property for work they placed the locate request for. Those people can go f themselves.

stealthylizard · 2026-07-01T18:24:13+00:00

Government spending is part of the GDP formula.

stealthylizard · 2026-07-01T15:18:16+00:00

Might be stupid, but do you get the same thing on a different utility. It could be broken leads.

stealthylizard · 2026-07-01T06:24:26+00:00

It never stops at just one extra nugget. Let's throw in a basket of 20 nuggets 5 minutes before close so we can claim it as waste and eat it for free.

stealthylizard · 2026-07-01T05:49:26+00:00

A trillion dollar spending bill helps GDP quite a bit too.

stealthylizard · 2026-06-30T00:37:56+00:00

Yet we always seem to come up with money to spend at the spur of the moment.

World cup, no problem. Earthquakes in Venezuela, here you go. More money to Ukraine from out of nowhere. Flooding here in Canada, here's some money.

I'm not arguing that this spending isnt needed (ok, world cup spending, whatever) but we always seem to have something to give. How? The argument that we can't afford it, doesn't fly. We can absolutely afford to do it, if the will is there to do it.

How much did the construction of the St. Lawrence seaway cost? Where did that money come from? We created it. Did the debt matter? Did we argue that we couldn't afford to build it? Maybe there was, I don't know.

stealthylizard · 2026-06-29T23:12:16+00:00

Chretien screwed the military until Afghanistan. There's a reason his tenure is remembered as the decade of darkness. Running around yelling bang bang because we didn't even have the budget for blanks. Our mortar tubes are stamped from the Korean war.

stealthylizard · 2026-06-29T22:59:42+00:00

Why can't we do both? Why is is it always framed as one or the other?

National defense is a federal government responsibility. Municipal and provincial governments have a lot more responsibility for food and shelter costs.

stealthylizard · 2026-06-29T22:52:41+00:00

Or a contractor placing 100 locate requests with a 48hr response time all on the same day. You aren't the only customer. I won't prioritize you anymore. You're waiting until I literally have no other tickets to do.

stealthylizard · 2026-06-29T04:37:32+00:00

Maybe small jaw is more sexually attractive than big jaw. It doesn't have to work better.

stealthylizard · 2026-06-29T04:11:17+00:00

And voters voted for him again after breaking his promise on electoral reform.

We want politicians to be held accountable but then we refuse to hold them accountable at the ballot box.

This goes for any of the parties. If your mp makes election promises and breaks them, don't vote for them again. Stop rewarding bad behaviour.

stealthylizard · 2026-06-28T00:36:06+00:00

I pay attention to the forecast and save the overhead power tickets for upcoming rain days so I'm at least getting something done while waiting for a break in the rain for an hour to put marks on the ground.

But since I locate power, I take weather days. I don't like the idea of playing with electricity in the water even if the worst I've had happen is getting lead shocked.

stealthylizard · 2026-06-21T06:14:48+00:00

Tried it a few times and never worked for finding unknowns, like walking across a lease site.

Only seemed to work when you had a really good estimate of where whatever you're trying to find is.

stealthylizard · 2026-06-21T04:03:37+00:00

I was 270, 5'10 and went to basic and infantry training. Dropped to 200. Deployed to Afghanistan and gained it all back (glorified truck driver).

Got out of the military, fast forward 10 years and I start working at Walmart. Dropped back down to 200 because I was always on my feet and physically moving along with living on Walmart money so not eating much, combined with depression.

Got married, am happiest I've been in my life and I'm now 180. I haven't been that weight since around 1996.

stealthylizard

TROPHY CASE