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#21

Off the Record / Re: [Canada] Canadian Politics...

Last post by viper37 - Today at 04:19:18 PM

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-premier-danielle-smith-donald-trump-kevin-o-leary-1.7429546

So this is global politics in 2025 - Alberta Premier meets up with President-elect Trump - as the guest of reality TV star Kevin O'Leary.

I'm okay with Smith going freelance on diplomacy - as long as it works.  So far it doesn't seem like it's working.

Trump seems determined to implement his 25% tariffs on Canada.  No clear message on exactly what he wants Canada to do to avoid it - he just loves tariffs.

It seems like Smith's strategy was to seek an oil and gas "carve out".  Which on the one hand makes sense - I can't believe Trump is going to impose a tariff on oil imports.  Obviously though that is also throwing Ontario and the ROC under the bus.  Not that it seems like it is working anyways.

A few points.

Trudeau going to Mar-A-Lago was treated by the conservative press as "groveling in front of Trump".  But Smith's similar gesture, even worst because she literally betrayed the rest of the country by trying to cut a seperate deal, was seen as a bold move.  Our press is becoming just as bad as the US.  Maybe something will have to be done about ownership.

Most Canadians would look at seperatism as being traitorous, but it seems to me there's much worst traitors in our midst, without even resorting to that.  At least, Ford and Legault seem to be working together.  Not much leadership seem to come from Ottawa, but then again, this is a Liberal administration, so I don't expect much from them right now.  The first time around, they had a more solid cabinet, but it's been replaced by sycophants mostly.  The top dogs are all loyal friends of Trudeau, there's no one left to tell him the truth as it is.


As for Canada's status under Trudeau: Most Canadians of the middle class are worst of under Trudeau than they were under Harper.  The rich got richer (this is no surprise) and the very poor fare a little better in some provinces.  Cost of living has increased in most OECD countries, but it got worst in Canada for longer because the government kept meddling in the economy instead of letting the Bank of Canada juggulate inflation alone.

The dental program does not cover a lot of people and the pharmacare program only covers a few meds, both at the cost of increased bureaucracy.  That money would have been better spent by giving it to the provinces so they could expand their own existing program, especially dental care, since all provinces already had a program in place, sometimes more generous than what the Feds are offering.  But anything is good to buy votes.  And the NPD is very quick to forget its promises, as empty as ever.

#22

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by crazy canuck - Today at 04:11:52 PM

One word of warning about even that though, Canada had its worst food born illness outbreak because the algorithm used to identify where inspectors should go was deeply flawed.

As with all these sorts of systems, if used to assist judgments made by humans, they can help, but too often they come to replace human judgment, with potentially disastrous outcomes.

#23

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Sheilbh - Today at 04:08:22 PM

On the bright side, by the time government gets around to implementing AI, it might actually be intelligent 

One of the early examples of what AI could be used for is watching cameras to identify and prioritise pothole repairs.

I used to joke about Suank's government, but it feels that we've already reached the point where the ambition is an AI powered Cones Hotline

#24

Off the Record / Re: Israel-Hamas War 2023

Last post by viper37 - Today at 04:07:02 PM

I wonder what will happen to the new wave of homeless people following the 1-2 trillion budget cuts in the new Musk-Trump administration?  Will they be moved in camps too?

#25

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Tamas - Today at 04:06:21 PM

In any case a reason why to oppose bullding the first AI DCs was quickly found: it is to be next to (7 miles away) from a new reservoir that might get built in the future, bats willing:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/13/labour-ai-datacentre-growth-zone-water-shortages-abingdon-reservoir

#26

Off the Record / Re: (Un)natural disasters mega...

Last post by viper37 - Today at 04:05:08 PM

When will the GOP claim that the Democrats control the snow and the fire like they do hurricanes?

I'm pretty sure if you look around you'll find people claiming the fires are staged.

Not quite the same, but Marjorie Taylor Greene is asking for the government to use its weather control machine to stop the fires in LA.
MTG suggests cloud seeding could stop LA wildfires months after implying it was used to create hurricanes

At least, she's not talking of Jewish Space Lasers.  It's an improvement.  I guess...

#27

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Sheilbh - Today at 04:03:50 PM

Yeah and I probably overstate that thought I think it's a risk of having lots of senior people who know the institutions. There's a possibility (though I can't think of many examples) that they'll know which levers to pull to do things, I think the more likely outcome is that they're institutionalised and easier to capture.

But it's not just the. Wes Streeting talks a good game on the NHS and some ideas for reform. He's also been pitching as the Blairite/Labour right candidate for next leader. But the NHS is a priority for the government, it's been six months and I've not really seen much. I worry that there's just not much there there all across the government.

I think the contrast with Ed Miliband is really striking. I have issues with him but he seems effective I think because he has a clear idea of what he wants to do, he was a minister under the last Labour government so has an idea of how to get stuff done and, crucially, is not in a spending department.

It's only sort of related but with a lot of stuff I think about news at the end of the year that the TfL stats were there were about 220 million rides on the Elizabeth Line in 2024. The original assumptions and projections on which the entire project was based (key, for example, for the Treasury's cost-benefit analysis) was that it would hit 150 million annual rides by 2030.

Edit: I should say that I don't find it reassuing that the two areas where the government do seem to have their act together are Miliband's department who are I think are setting hostages to fortune all over the place with unattainable targets that will come back to bite them, and Bridget Phillipson in education who is unpicking successful, cross-party education reforms of the last 25 years in a way mainly favoured by the unions and local authorities

#28

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by crazy canuck - Today at 03:58:18 PM

On the bright side, by the time government gets around to implementing AI, it might actually be intelligent 

#29

Off the Record / Re: [Canada] Canadian Politics...

Last post by crazy canuck - Today at 03:57:04 PM

It's easy to pick on Trudeau now, as it was easy to pick on Mulroney when he left office.
I think history will look kindly on Trudeau, as it did Mulroney. There were plenty of things he did get done: mostly the child benefit which did a lot to reduce child poverty, the dental plan (I get Singh had a lot to do with that one), I think Trudeau did well during COVID, and dealt with Trump 1.0 admirably.

He will be remembered for reneging on the electoral reform (that really gets me) and the ethics scandals he had to deal with; but by and large I think he was a succesful prime minister.

Every era has its end-date. Trudeau past his by a couple years. Sometimes I think the American two-term rule might be apropos here too.

We'll have to come back to this in 10, or even 20 years - but I think history will judge Trudeau harshly.

So I could quibble about many of the programs you cite positively - the child benefit simply replaced the Harper-era universal child care benefit and covered many fewer people.  Dental care again doesn't cover that many people.  And on the other hand I thought voting reform was stupid and Trudeau smart to abandon it.

Trudeau inherited a surplus (maybe late, but still) and has given us deficits.  Declining productivity growth which he masked by massively increasing immigration.  Standard of living falling further behind the US.

I agree history will judge him harshly for things that were entirely within his control.  He promised to reinvigorate Parliament by giving decision making authority to Ministers, but the PMO became the most centralized center of power in the history of Canada.  His promise that the 2015 election would be the last fptp election is one of the reasons he was elected.  His excuse for not implemented his promise is laughable. He didn't promise that he would introduce a weighted ballot (something that would benefit the Liberal party) he promised to put an end to fptp, but when it became clear that his idea for electoral reform would not fly and that what would happen is proportionate representation, he killed the whole idea.

There is a long list of public policy blunders and scandal but I think those two issues are going to stand out as fundamental failures.

#30

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Tamas - Today at 03:47:41 PM

I agree that based on what they have been doing and what you have been writing, it seems the only clear government agenda is not to upset the civil service.