[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[crazy canuck]

McGill also has enough money to offer scholarships to compensate the raise in tuition. Something they call the Canada fund.

McGill, and all universities, have a big funding problem.  They need the tuition from both foreign and out of province students.

[Grey Fox]

And yet.

https://www.mcgill.ca/undergraduate-admissions/canada-award

[crazy canuck]

Is there someone suggesting it is innocuous?

Yes.  Trans activists.

Do you have an example you could point to?

Not going to spend hours, and wish it was a direct quote, but how's this from the NYT?

Republican governors and lawmakers in more than a dozen states are working to limit or even criminalize the treatments, as some in their party also seek to restrict access to sports and bathrooms, ban discussion of gender in public schools, and call into question whether transgender identity even exists. (This month, the Florida medical board banned medications and surgeries for new patients under 18.) Meanwhile, the Biden administration describes transgender medicine as a civil right. And some advocates criticize anyone who questions the treatments' safety.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/health/puberty-blockers-transgender.html

The article itself specifically is about puberty blockers.

Thanks, that is helpful.  I was wondering what you meant by innocuous because I don't know of anyone who does not recognize that the drugs actually have a significant effect.  That is after all their purpose.  What I think you meant is that claim that it is safe to delay onset of puberty has been questioned in the medical literature.  And it certainly has - the article you posted has some good information about the research in that area.

They question then becomes, who gets to decide whether the risks of using the blockers should be taken balanced against the risks of not taking them, in each individual case.

You have said you would not support a blanket ban, so you also recognize the need for something more nuanced.

It is an interesting question, and I am not sure there is a perfectly clear answer.  In an ideal world where parents are only motivated by the well being of their children parental consent and involvement seems the way to go.  But we have the blood transfusion cases (and more recently the medical neglect cases) to show that is not always the primary concern of all parents.

Its a difficult issue.

[crazy canuck]

And yet.

https://www.mcgill.ca/undergraduate-admissions/canada-award

Yes, and that is one of the very things that is now under threat.  The policy is just now being implemented.  Applications are down by about 25% at both Concordia and McGill.  It is going to take time for the damage to be done.  This is not going to be an immediate change.

[Grey Fox]

And yet.

https://www.mcgill.ca/undergraduate-admissions/canada-award

Yes, and that is one of the very things that is now under threat.  The policy is just now being implemented.  Applications are down by about 25% at both Concordia and McGill.  It is going to take time for the damage to be done.  This is not going to be an immediate change.

It's true. I expect next time the Liberal party is in charge of the province, they'll reverse the policy.

[Zoupa]

McGill has enormous amounts of prime real estate in downtown Montreal. They can sell those or convert them to free dorms or something.

Anyways, as Oex said, they never complained when they were receiving a hugely disproportionate amount of public funds.

[crazy canuck]

McGill has enormous amounts of prime real estate in downtown Montreal. They can sell those or convert them to free dorms or something.

Anyways, as Oex said, they never complained when they were receiving a hugely disproportionate amount of public funds.

And when those buildings are converted where will the university be located?

[Oexmelin]

And when those buildings are converted where will the university be located?

Same place. McGill has been aiming for years to get rid of expensive, but historical, buildings that it owns or partially owns, but can't be using (and, in fact, isn't using).

Generally speaking, universities (in Quebec) have a funding problem - but they also have a bunch of problems of perspective.

I'd be all for increased funding by the government for all Quebec universities. Whether or not that funding comes from increased student tuition (for all students) or from the government is a political issue that can be argued on its own merits.

The current funding structure however, based on enrollments unevenly regulated, has led to a bunch of perverse developments - of which dependency upon foreign students high tuition fees is but one aspect. One of which is that universities are competing for international, high paying students, often getting as much as 30% or even 40% of their students from abroad, thereby making them dependent upon political outlook upon immigration. That number hides huge disparities, between universities that can attract American students, or students from countries that can send students from an affluent middle or upper class, and universities which can attract students from poorer countries, which in turn require a lot of institutional adjustments. 
 
But one of the more perverse issue, I think, is the proximity to the USA and its obscenely rich universities, that gives unrealistic expectations to both some students (who wish for "student experience" and faculty (increasingly recruited from elite universities in the USA...) about desirable levels of funding. I've seen self-described liberal scholars at McGill clamoring for the ability to charge USA-levels of tuition, without much self-reflection about whether or not this is a public good or not. Indeed, McGill is increasingly modeling itself around US-style "college experience". Including thinking there is nothing wrong with huge wealth disparities between universities. 

This has led to some political backlash as well. When I began at McGill, the memory of the 1995 referendum was still vivid (bringing back, among the older folks, memories of McGill francais movement of 1968-1969), and the university - and some of its faculty - had internalized at least some of the more problematic elements of McGill's relationship to the larger Quebec society - that it could no longer afford to be a remnant of a colonial order, but needed to "be a part" of it. This stance has slowly been chipped away in favor or renewed arrogance - that the Quebec society should be grateful for a world-class university that, slowly but surely, imagined itself as just tolerating the place it's in. (I saw that in a myriad ways throughout my studies). More recently, faculty and university administration seem to have taken their cues from the political resistance of liberal universities against a hostile political environment, without any hint of self-awareness about the peculiar history of McGill.

While I do think the current political decision has more to do with trying to rectify a systemic inequality, I also strongly suspect that the utter lack of solidarity between francophone and anglophone faculty stems from that change in McGill's outlook. It's hard to feel sympathy for people who exude spite for everything you are, or fight for. And I also think it may have also played a part in the government's decision. For better or for worse, McGill can never truly erase its colonial past - and in the recent years, hasn't tried to... This evokes memories of resentment among people like Legault, I suspect.

This is also why I think Concordia is fucked. McGill is the "face" of anglo universities - Concordia doesn't really have much of an imagination among francophones and so when people imagine anglophone university wealth or arrogance, they think McGill - not Concordia.

[Barrister]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/poilievre-minimum-sentence-extortion-crimes-1.7110600

Pierre Poilievre promises to bring in new mandatory minimum sentences on crimes such as extortion.

So here's the thing.  I'm not opposed to mandatory minimums - hell I like 'em.

But at the end of the article Poilievre says

Poilievre said that all of his proposals "are Charter-proof. They respect the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and we want laws that respect the rights of all Canadians, including and especially victims of crimes."

"We know the courts will uphold our proposals today. We'll make sure of it," he added.

If he means it, he'd better be talking about s. 35.  Because otherwise the SCC has been taking a buzzsaw to mandatory minimums.

[Barrister]

Bell Media announces layoffs - to close 45 of its 103 radio stations, eliminate 4,800 jobs.  On a national level, Bell station CTV is to shut down tv newsmagazine show W5 - which apparently was the inspiration for 60 Minutes, and is the network's longest-lasting show?

So look - I am very concerned about the hollowing-out of local media.  I think I've mentioned that my dad was a newspaper guy, so I grew up around newspapers - which are now pretty much a pale shadow of what the once were.  I've commented about how there used to be multiple reporters at the courthouse on a daily basis, and now there's nobody unless a story gets particular notoriety.

But here is what Trudeau had to say about Bell's layoffs:

"I'm furious. This was a garbage decision by a corporation that should know better," said Trudeau.

"We need those local voices and over the past years, corporate Canada — and there are many culprits on this — have abdicated their responsibility toward the communities that they have always made very good profits off of in various ways."

Really?  "A corporation that should know better"?

But what do you guys think?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-bell-media-cuts-pissed-1.7110512

[Grey Fox]

The need to please the German shareholders trumps everything, even the promises made in exchange for 40 millions$ and regulatory easing.

BCE is a bad company for Canada, almost always has been.

[crazy canuck]

Oex, thanks for that explanation.

BB, I would like to know what "very good profits" Trudeau thinks have "always" been made.  If he made this statement in even as late as 2010, it would be generally true.  But not afterwards.  In fact now they can barely afford to function.   To get people just one small example, working for new media was the best gig a lawyer could have.  Lots of interesting cases and issues.  Now those of us who still do that work are essentially providing our services pro bono - including on important news media access cases.

It's a bit delusional for our PM to suggest there is some kind of hidden pile of gold here.

 

[crazy canuck]

Some sobering number crunching by the Globe

The results are striking. At current interest rate levels, house prices across the country would need to decline by 40 per cent to restore affordability to its historical average. Alternatively, the average family income would need to rise by 66 per cent, or house prices would need to stagnate for more than 10 years, if incomes grew 4 per cent a year. The required adjustments are much larger in cities such as Toronto and Vancouver than in Calgary, Edmonton or Winnipeg.

Even if interest rates fall two percentage points to a more neutral level – something many economists foresee over the next few years as inflation normalizes and the Bank of Canada unwinds its restrictive monetary policy – house prices would need to fall by 26 per cent nationally, or incomes would need to grow by 36 per cent.

[HVC]

More houses, make homes as investment harder, or more old people need to die. Some combination of these three. economics on its own won't force it down, hasn't since 80s unless you wanted 20% interest again. Which would be the fastest answer, but a hell of a lot of people are gonna lose their homes.

[Barrister]

Alberta NDP has 3, maybe 4 candidates for leader.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/sarah-hoffman-third-ndp-mla-to-join-party-leadership-race-1.7111425

So, candidates are Kathleen Gandy.  I made my thoughts about her clear.

This story is about former Health Minister and Deputy Premier Sarah Hoffman announcing.  She clearly wants to come at it from the left.  Interesting though how she's saying there's "no appetite" for a carbon tax.  I mean I guess if even left-wing NDPers are running against a carbon tax it truly is dead as an option.

Article mentions a fellow named Rakhi Pancholi, but honestly I've never heard of him and doubt he has a shot.

The big wildcard though is former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi.  He may have more name recognition than any of the other candidates - but he's also not a New Democrat.  During his Mayoralty runs he would use purple as his colour (a mix of red and blue), so that might not go over well with the party's base.  There's also the story of former Edmonton mayor Stephen Mandel.  He went into provincial politics to become leader of the Alberta Party, a third-way party that tried to hold the middle ground previously held by the Liberals (as you might expect, the Alberta Liberal Party is all but dead).  But anyways - Mandel's party did terribly coming in a distant third in 2019.

Mandel however did also breifly serve in the PC government of Jim Prentice, so it may not be a perfect analogy.


Really though - I jst want Jason Kenney, or even better Ralph Klein, to come back.