Canadians split over Mulcair's energy views: poll

bunglejerry · 1 day

The federal Conservatives quickly pounced on Mulcair for suggesting the Alberta oilsands have given Canada a case of Dutch Disease. Cabinet ministers have accused the NDP leader of pitting region against region and insulting hard-working workers in the resource sector.

Has Mulcair been insulting in his talks about it, or has he simply been suggesting that it's a problem facing Canada? Talking about the effects of resource exports on manufacturing is only "pitting region against region" if you're proposing changing laws to favour one over the other. If you're just suggesting a credible theory to explain the situation, how is that insulting?

watchman_wen · 1 day

If you're empowering the Senate to be the voice of the provinces, would you support resizing all the HoC ridings to be equal in population?

watchman_wen · 1 day

It's got to be recognized that the intangible product of someone's labour is what you're actually after when you buy the DVD, and that the someone who produced it is entitled to benefit from the distribution of their creation.

If I buy a used house, I'm after the product of someone's labour, but I don't pay the construction company that built the house anything. Once they've sold the house they've sold their interest in it. If they left a lock on the basement door, nobody would argue that they should be able to stop me from cutting the lock. That's how buying and selling property works.

I'm not suggesting that we abolish copyright, I'm just suggesting that it's not really property. I'm curious to see how it fits into Xivero's "hands off my property" framework.

theycallmebug · 1 day

Someone was telling me the other day that their dad was a school bus driver and was forced to drive through Kensington on a class field trip. That would be awful!

watchman_wen · 1 day

That's not really property though, is it? Once we're talking about government constructs and contracts, we're not talking about property anymore.

watchman_wen · 1 day

4. That people have a right to their own property.

5. That people do not have a right to other people's property, or any positive right to that which they have not earned.

Question about 4 & 5. I buy a DVD. I copy it to my computer and give the DVD to my friend. (4.) suggests that this is ok: the DVD is my property, the copy on my computer is my property, then I give the DVD to my friend, making it his property. (5.) supports this, indicating that the movie industry has no right over my property. Together, 4 & 5 seem to suggest to me that you're against government rules about DRM?

Tweakedenigma · 1 day

:). It's a really strange way of subsidizing the owners of fishing companies.

stone10 · 1 day

This is an interesting bit hidden on the second page:

Although even the judge was unable to see voter names because of the paramount democratic principle of secret balloting, Mr. Wrzesnewskyj and his lawyers obtained top-secret access to the ballots at a sealed Elections Canada room as he pursued his case. They were prohibited from revealing names of voters.

“For instance, when people show up in the wrong place, some of those names are highly recognizable names, notwithstanding the claims that, ‘Oh, these were seniors that arrived in a wave at the last minute. We couldn’t disenfranchise them, they were tired, we couldn’t send them away.’ That was actually in an Elections Canada email, and that was brought forward as evidence in court,” Mr. Wrzesnewskyj said.

“What they forgot was even though everything was redacted, all the names, addresses and birth dates for the court, in the fall when we examined the documents in the lockup at Elections Canada’s secure facility, there is a photocopier there so we actually had the photocopies,” he said.

“We were able to provide the judge and stay within the law, provide the judge with the birth dates of all these people, and only two were seniors, and they arrived at the start of the day and not at the end.”

“What we couldn’t provide were names, and I’ve seen those names and I think most Canadians would recognize one name in particular, because it’s someone that’s actively engaged in the political process, and these people know where they are supposed to vote,” he said.

watchman_wen · 1 day

I would probably do something really smart about the distribution of seats in senate, avoiding gridlock and increasing the legitimacy of the Governor General but all of these are topics I have not studied enough to make an educated decision on yet.

A million kudos for admitting you need to learn more about something before making your mind up. If only everyone did this.

watchman_wen · 1 day

Yeah, too much power rests with cabinet now, which is why I suggest fixing that problem in paragraph 3. I don't think that having strong MPs would change the problems with FPTP though. For example, in 2008 the Greens got 2/3 the popular vote as the Bloc but 0 seats compared to 49. That's a sign that something's horribly wrong.

Something like STV would still have no at-large MPs, so you'd still have communities engaged with their representatives despite having more proportionality and perhaps less vote splitting.

restlys · 1 day

Yeah this is a good point - we have to constantly keep an eye on and improve our systems and institutions to avoid letting rot set in. Certainly I think allowing public servants to speak out in cases where money/time/effort is being wasted or policy circumvented would be helpful.

I have a family member who works for a much maligned government agency and who works quite hard. He makes an interesting point - over the last decade or so, process has taken over in such a way that it's a pain to do anything. The theory behind having heavy process is to prevent abuse by formalizing how things are done. But in practice, it's gotten to the point where it wastes more than it saves, and on top of that, it doesn't prevent the worst abuse, which is always from the top anyway.

For example, this family member has to go through an odorous process just to get trip approval to present scientific papers at conferences. Meanwhile, people like Bev Oda circumvent process entirely and spend a fortune on trips. All the heavy process is accomplishing is penalizing lower level staff for trying to do their jobs.

What's the solution? I dunno. "Trust but verify" maybe? I happen to be a big advocate for improved transparency as well, but that requires an effective fourth estate and an engaged citizenry to be effective.

restlys · 2 days

It really isn't anyone's fault, other than the government, that the government employees take our taxes are doing stupid things with them and not using them for what they should be used for

Yes and no. I mean, voters in Muskoka rewarded Tony Clement for spending $50m from a "border" fund on improving their riding for the "g8", despite the improvements being many many kms from any G8 people/events.

You can try to blame that on staff, but it's clearly the doing of a politician, and politicians are enabled by voters. You could argue that staff should have stood up to him, but staff who do that get fired. I'd be thrilled if our public service had more autonomy, but it would take politicians to do that, which means voters would have to want it too. And voters like having millions splurged throughout their ridings.

watchman_wen · 2 days

Voting reform. I don't have a preferred answer, but I'm sure discussion papers and consultation with voters and experts could nail down a system that would address the shortfalls of the current system.

While we're at it, let's make all ridings more-or-less the same population size. We can make up for the shift in power by pushing programs and funding down to lower levels of government wherever possible. In fact, let's make municipalities constitutional entities and allow them to levy whatever taxes they like, subject to sufficient oversight.

Similarly, let's decentralize power within parties - weaker whips, party riding associations pick their own candidates, allowing the caucus to demote their leader.

Finally, what's the point without accountability and transparency? I'd bring back ministerial accountability, I'd enact all the Access to Information and Privacy reform proposals suggested by Info and Privacy Commissioners over the years, I'd push super hard for open government and open data in general and abolish crown copyright.

Tweakedenigma · 2 days

Beyond that, the industry likely wouldn't die. Seasonal workers are no different than consultants. Consultants charge more than an equivalent permanent employee in part because they don't have 100% billable hours - they just make up the difference by charging higher hourly rates. Presumably once you take away the EI subsidy, we'd just see the same thing happen with the seasonal employees. Fish prices would likely go up a bit, but that's how the market works.

theycallmebug · 2 days

Possibly the cheapest garage in the city too.

theycallmebug · 2 days

Who are these people that choose to drive in Kensington?

jaebigdong · 2 days

And the worst part.

nicholmikey · 3 days

You got my spite upvote!

m4caque · 3 days

Certainly tough to prove conclusively. I thought I saw some sort of analysis a while back but I can't recall any of the details. It's certainly heartening to hear that the police resent the bad ones, hopefully they're putting internal pressure for keeping things clean.

Borror0 · 3 days

That assumes perfect transparency. For instance, along the same lines you could say "if you don't support C-30, don't use a company that promotes it." But it turns out that a bunch of companies had secret meetings with the government about it. How do I know if Wind supports C-30 if they're not transparent about it? Now extend this to everything political, and there's simply no way to know in what ways every company is dealing with politics in policy. It's neither possible nor practical.

m4caque · 3 days

Do Crown Attorneys tend to pursue charges against cops though? Do judges tend to find in their favour? I gather that the entire justice system has a soft spot when it comes to pursuing internal criminals.

Natural_RX · 3 days

Hah I was complaining about the "LRT won't work because winter" argument to my lady friend the other day, pointing out that we have subways, streetcars, via trains and GO trains that all work perfectly well in the winter, and she interrupted to suggest that I stop using GO trains as an example. She used to be a daily rider, and I gather that winter actually does present a regular barrier for them.

gorilla_the_ape · 5 days

Any reason people on Kingston don't just head to Danforth GO Station instead?

savenor · 5 days

That's an awesome find, do you have a link to the study?

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