sbv

The oped is a bit hyperbolic, but it gets the facts and the risks right:

Mr. Trudeau’s initial moves were encouraging. He organized a common front with the premiers and met with Mr. Trump in person at Mar-a-Lago.

But then, as he so often does, the Prime Minister lost his focus. ... When Ms. Freeland retaliated by resigning and releasing that excoriating letter, Mr. Trudeau reacted by disappearing on a three-week vacation. Pondering his own future was clearly far more important to him than the one thing that truly mattered: the tariff threat.

...

Two polls this week showed no change in the Liberals’ deep unpopularity. The Conservatives are almost certain to form a large majority government after the election. By late May, we should finally have in place a prime minister and a cabinet with a mandate to speak for Canada. Heaven only knows what state the economy and Canada-U.S. relations will be in by then

Original link: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-voters-are-unlikely-to-forgive-the-liberals/

Trudeau also said he asked Gov. Gen. Mary Simon to prorogue Parliament until March 24, and she granted the request.

Second in the series.

First of two.

Briefly describes why:

as a rule, the older you are in Canada, the more likely your income is higher than the previous generation’s at that age; and the younger you are, the more likely your income is lower than the previous generation’s at that age. Therefore, it’s just as reasonable for a young Canadian today to believe they’ll end up poorer than their parents’ generation as it is for their parents to believe they’re entitled to live better than their predecessors did

Which leads to

young Canadians, are gloomier than ever, with so many feeling so down about their economic future that they’re turning against democracy. Surveys reveal that increasingly, young people are showing greater openness to authoritarian leaders who threaten to break a system they already see as failing them. This echoes research in many developed democracies, revealing a growing radicalism and anti-system sentiment among young voters.

Original: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-why-youre-miserable-weve-grown-too-comfortable-on-the-booming-riches/

“Most consumers are probably of the opinion that the CFIA is managing food safety among manufacturers in Canada – and they’re not, because of the lack of resources. The CFIA is not delivering on a proper food-safety mandate.”

oopsie doopsie

a facility in Pickering, Ont., linked to a deadly listeria outbreak this summer was deemed a lower priority for inspections. As a result, the site had not been visited by a CFIA inspector in the five years leading up to the outbreak. It was only after the outbreak that the CFIA says it discovered the plant had not been conducting testing for listeria in finished products or on food contact surfaces.

Using genome sequencing, public-health officials determined that the listeria strain involved in the outbreak sickened 20 people as far back as August, 2023. Three people died.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

/unjerk

Fuck this shit. We've underfunded our institutions, privatized our regulators, and made producers responsible for their own compliance.

I'd say that we deserve what we get, but the people who got sick and died from this shit clearly didn't.

One of my guys asked for a music player for Christmas. So I'm adding all the music I think he'll like and tossing in some stuff I enjoy.

It's really nice. I've never made mixtapes, but I'm guessing it's the same.

Money laundering has been an embarrassing part of the Canadian economy for decades, and contributed to the Vancouver housing bubble (at least). Weirdly, we seem to be making money laundering one of our exports.

Here's a quote:

Canada’s role in the international narcotics trade has been a subject of intense domestic scrutiny over the past decade. In 2022, the Cullen Commission warned about the “enormous volume of illicit funds” being filtered through the British Columbia economy, an amount estimated in the billions of dollars. Yet money laundering charges are rare, the commission found, because “police conducting investigations into profit-oriented criminal activity, such as drug dealing, are not investigating these offences.”

Original link: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-canada-border-trump-drug-crime/

Doug Ford said Tuesday that U.S. president-elect Donald Trump's threat to slap a 25 per cent tariff on all Canadian goods is "like a family member stabbing you right in the heart."

😂

"I want to emphasize, to compare us to Mexico is the most insulting thing I have ever heard from our friends and closest allies, the United States of America,"

🤣

It's the same shit Trump pulled in his first term. I'm shocked he would do it again.

I'm looking for an electric heater for my office. Ideally it'd be really quiet. The office is well insulated, so it doesn't need to get too hot.

Can you recommend a brand and model?

I remember someone posting a great Android recipe app a while ago, but I can't remember the name of it.

The feature that caught my interest was being able to download a recipe from free form pages.

Anyone got a suggestion?