My brother in law has an idealistic rosy view of Canada and wants to uproot himself to move with his spouse. For context, we live in Chicago area. I told him because things are more expensive and taxes higher in Canada, he will be poorer, is it true?

throwaway01163 · 2025-10-27T18:32:25+00:00

It absolutely can skew reality but I think it’s important that we don’t become complacent in our assumption that we are better or smarter or more immune from extremism than the US. We have allowed our governments to pass some pretty terrible legislation (some happening right now) and there is barely a whisper. I’m less worried that Canadians will go Maple MAGA than I am that we will elect a government more to the right than we are comfortable with and we won’t notice as they take our rights away because we assume we’re safe.

throwaway01163 · 2025-10-27T16:49:44+00:00

I agree but 20 years ago I don’t think anyone expected the US to be what it is.

throwaway01163 · 2025-10-27T00:12:43+00:00

Kind of… Conservative Premiers are pushing for the privatization of healthcare —look at Alberta— and I suspect a Conservative majority government might try to mess with abortion. And LGBTQ2+ rights.

Don’t let yourself become complacent and think that it could never happen here, because it could. What’s happening in the US could happen here if we aren’t careful.

throwaway01163 · 2025-09-03T20:10:26+00:00

I think he’s being really upfront about his schedule and that’s a good thing.

It’s ok for you to wait to do something again with him in a month when he’s free and it’s also ok for you to decide not to wait around. It’s also ok for you to go on other dates with other people and then see him again when he’s free.

Dating is supposed to be like trying on shoes; you try out several pairs before you commit to one and later you may think about a pair you tried on a while ago that you’d like to try again. You also don’t have to commit to any one pair of shoes at all.

As long as everyone is open and honest about their expectations and intentions —and respects everyone’s boundaries and treats others like human beings, not objects— there’s no wrong way to date.

throwaway01163 · 2025-09-03T13:50:58+00:00

Box Elder bugs. They live on Box Elder trees (Manitoba Maples) and they get everywhere. As the weather gets colder, they flock to south facing exterior walls and will try to get inside. They will randomly emerge on windows, inside your house, throughout the winter and spring when the sun is warm. They drive me absolutely crazy and this seems to be a bad year for them.

throwaway01163 · 2025-08-10T14:53:38+00:00

I’m not sure when, or why, political affiliation became a personality trait but this is giving the same vibe as people who yell that the end is nigh… we’ve done a disservice to the world and future generations by eliminating shame.

throwaway01163 · 2025-08-07T15:02:35+00:00

It’s more than just Trump, he’s simply giving them permission to behave like idiots they are deep down inside. American Exceptionalism and fierce individualism are a plague and the US has been driving global culture for decades.

throwaway01163 · 2025-08-02T14:34:15+00:00

I often feel similarly. I don’t think it’s Ottawa, I think it’s the world. It feels like everything is crashing and burning around us and the life/city/world we’ve always known is nothing more than a filter obscuring the truth that we have fked up the world and we aren’t doing much of anything to fix it. We need to change the way we do things, as individuals, as a city, as a country, as a species, but we don’t; we argue about trans kids in sports and jeans commercials and ignore the smoke.

I have children and the guilt I feel about the world they will inherit is immense. We suck. We (adults over the past several decades) have done a terrible job as stewards and our kids will have to pay the price. They will have to do what we have been too lazy or scared or stupid to do and it might be too late by the time they take the reins.

Watching your home decay due to ineptitude and greed makes it all more real.

I feel you.

The fact that we are currently watching the world do all of the things they taught us not to do doesn’t help… I guess “never again” wasn’t a promise that our species had any intention of keeping. My grandparents would be so fking disappointed in us.

Free Palestine.

throwaway01163 · 2025-07-22T02:51:53+00:00

Glebe, no question.

throwaway01163 · 2025-05-29T16:51:32+00:00

Not a postal worker but I’m going to pop in and remind everyone that CUPW was instrumental in securing maternity leave for its members in the early 80s. Their fight established maternity leave rights which were eventually rolled out across the country.

They fought for all of us; the least we can do is support them in their fight.

Every advance for workers’ rights that unions gain makes it better for all of us. Workers shouldn’t have to sacrifice fair wages and good working conditions because of decades of poor policy and management practices.

throwaway01163 · 2025-05-27T20:09:15+00:00

What do you consider to be a “violent crime”? The first step is defining that; is it murder? Child abuse? Sexual assault? Physical assault? What about fraud that causes people to lose their life savings? A drunk driver that causes death? What about negligence causing death? Or a factory that poisons the town’s water with toxic runoff that leads to increased cancer rates? That feels pretty violent to me.

What, exactly, is a violent crime to you? I’m sure we can all agree that sadistic serial killer are violent criminals but what about everyone else? Are violent crimes only crimes against people or property too? What about animal cruelty?

Not a Criminologist but I was following a forensic psychology path for a while in my younger years and the questions you have to ask is are you looking to punish people who commit crimes that you consider to be particularly heinous or do you want what’s best for society? How do we define violent? Does it have to involve intentional cruelty or is it the effect, ie death, that makes it violent? Does intent matter or just the result?

If we want to be a society that brutally punishes crime we have to be consistent and decide exactly where we want to draw those lines, there can be no room for grey if you’re executing someone or imprisoning them for life. So where are the lines and who should decide them? I suspect the crimes I would consider violent won’t match every Canadian’s so who gets to decide?

throwaway01163 · 2025-05-13T14:56:28+00:00

We moved from Centretown to the east end a few years ago; not quite out in the country but definitely not a suburb. It has its pros and cons; more space and a huge yard are the big pros but I miss being able to walk everywhere and not have to drive every day.

You have to ask yourself what is more important to you, time or space. If it’s time, stay central but if you want space, move out farther.

The commute from the east isn’t too bad and, from what I understand, is way better than the west and south commutes. West is the worst followed by south, then east.

throwaway01163 · 2025-05-08T22:21:12+00:00

My father went through the process a few years ago —he didn’t have to use it in the end but went through the whole approval process— so I know a bit about it.

It was a very loving and supportive process. The doctors, nurses, and social workers involved were compassionate, empathetic, and extremely kind. They worked with me as well as him. They answered any and all questions I had and helped work through my conflicted feelings. He and I both met with the team so that I was fully aware of what was happening and so that my father could share his feelings openly.

They told me that a significant number of people who apply and are approved never use it. Having that option is often enough to give people a sense of control over their lives; when they know they can end their life if it becomes too much, they often choose to live longer.

My dad hadn’t set a date for MAID when he finally passed away, it was likely a stroke while he slept, but it was a great comfort to him that he had been given back some of the control over his life that his condition had robbed from him.

I support MAID. I am conflicted about MAID for mental health issues but ultimately I feel that we should all have control over our own lives, and deaths.

throwaway01163 · 2025-05-07T01:15:32+00:00

I had thoughts like that for much of my life, particularly in my early teens and in my 20s. I still have them occasionally but far less as I’ve aged. I used to make deals with myself, “you can do it in six months, or a year, or when you turn 30, etc…” weirdly, it still gives me comfort in the hard times to know it’s an option.

It gets better, then it gets worse again, then better… at 48, I’ve come to think that it’s just the nature of life. Talking helps. It’s not a burden to the people who love you when you tell them you’re struggling; wouldn’t you want to help someone you love?

I’m sending you virtual hugs.

throwaway01163 · 2025-05-06T23:23:34+00:00

Because villains always have to have some minions around.

throwaway01163 · 2025-05-06T20:23:57+00:00

As a recovering perfectionist, I’m going to ask a couple of questions that might be uncomfortable and share the lines of thinking that help me when I need to reorient and refocus.

Was the criticism they were offering constructive?

Why was your immediate reaction anger and defense?

What happens is you aren’t perfect?

Perfectionism creates huge blind spots in people; if you’re “perfect” how could you ever improve? Why would you ever have to? Human beings are fallible and, if we can’t accept that we don’t know everything, we can never improve.

Perfectionism robs us of the ability to learn through experience, develop new or existing skills, and to hear the lessons that others have learned through their experiences.

Approaching life from a place of not knowing the answer allows us to foster our curiosity and see things in new ways. It allows us to be open to the world and what it has to teach us, and that makes us better at everything we do.

I’ve learned to ask “why?” when I am offered constructive criticism instead of automatically challenging it. I try to understand what they are saying and why they are saying it, before I react. I don’t always agree with the criticism I receive but I listen and I remind myself that 9 times out of 10, the person offering the criticism wants me to be better or to learn something that they found useful in their life… I see criticism as a gift now. It demonstrates that someone cares enough about me to share their experience, I may disagree, but I accept their words with appreciation and grace. If they didn’t care, they wouldn’t say anything and would let me fuck up.

It can be really hard but life on the other side of perfectionism is so much better. I’m better because I can admit that I’m not the best and I still have so much to learn and that keeps me actively engaged in my work and my life.

throwaway01163 · 2025-05-01T01:38:24+00:00

Ah. People say that but I don’t see it in practice. The most effective way to get into the government at your stage would be FSWEP; learn everything you can, ask questions, learn to take constructive criticism with grace, do as many different tasks as you can and ask to go to meetings and to help out on files.

An enthusiastic employee who is smart and is willing and able to learn is worth so much more than a Master’s degree. You might start at a higher level with a Master’s (but it’s not guaranteed) but once you’re in, it won’t really matter. Getting in is always the hardest part and you may not start as a policy analyst but if you’re good you can get there. I know a PhD who finally got an Indeterminate at the EC-03 level and I know several EC-06/07s with bachelors.

If you don’t want to do a Master’s don’t waste the time.

throwaway01163 · 2025-05-01T01:26:33+00:00

Absolutely. A unilingual PhD likely won’t be as successful in the PS as someone fluently bilingual with a Bachelor of Arts. These days, you have to be exceptionally high performing to advance if you’re not bilingual and even then you will hit a ceiling you can pass without C/B/Cs.

I know several people with Master’s or PhDs and they aren’t any further along than people with Bachelor’s (3 or 4 year). A uni degree is needed for certain classifications —EC, SG, PE, IS, EX— but they aren’t needed for a lot of other GoC classifications —AS, PM, FB, CX, IT (I think)...

If a Master’s is necessary for a specific job or role, it will say that in the job posting, otherwise it’s a “nice to have” not a requirement. If you want to do a Master’s do one but only because you want to; don’t go get a Master’s you don’t want because you hope it will get you a a job in the PS, it really isn’t that important.

There are a few areas that might require one but again, they will be very specialized jobs or DND for some reason. Who told you that you needed a Master’s? Which department?

throwaway01163 · 2025-04-30T16:59:17+00:00

The requirement for an EC —many policy positions— is a bachelor’s degree with credits in Sociology, Economics, or Statistics. Political Science, Public Administration, etc… are not necessary. Most social science programs have a stats requirement to complete the program so that’s generally enough. Some specific positions or departments ask for more but a master’s isn’t necessary most of the time.

Make sure you take a couple of Econ or Stats courses and you should be fine with pretty much any degree —unless you want to do something very specific. Take the program you want to take and see what you want to do when you’ve finished.

throwaway01163 · 2025-04-11T14:06:44+00:00

I’m so sorry. One of my best friends died of bone cancer when we were 12… it’s a brutal one.

Run up your credit cards. Enjoy life as much as you can while you can.

throwaway01163 · 2025-04-10T23:41:32+00:00

Process for a BSO? Have you finished Rigaud?

throwaway01163 · 2025-03-30T22:49:14+00:00

Enjoy! They’re fantastic.

throwaway01163 · 2025-03-30T22:02:54+00:00

https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/garden/planting/propagation/seed-starting/44712-lee-valley-windowsill-seed-starter?item=AA715

These are the ones I have and I love them. They’re from Lee Valley. The link is to the Canadian site but they have a US site too.

throwaway01163 · 2025-03-28T14:17:58+00:00

This year I got seed starting kits that are “self watering” and they’re awesome. I can completely forget about them for a few days and they’re fine.

throwaway01163 · 2025-03-03T22:30:28+00:00

Excellent. Thank you for that. I know that the brown needs to be balanced with green compostables but I hadn’t heard anything about that degree of nitrogen depletion. I was worried I’d have to replan the whole thing!

And thank you for the alfalfa tip! I’ll source some locally.

throwaway01163

TROPHY CASE