Author: Dennis

Cuba Libre?

Little Known Facts nannystate There Goes The Narrative 5 Comments

Buried in the story about Cuba instituting some free market reforms is an interesting tidbit about loosening restrictions on imports. The common narrative implies that Cuba’s inability to function economically is a result of trade sanctions imposed by the US. But the reality is that many of Cuba’s sanctions are actually self-imposed: it’s less the case that Cubans can’t buy foreign brake pads for their cars because the US won’t allow it, but more the case that communist officialdom has always stood in their way.

The plan includes more space for private businesses, imports and exports without state intermediation, free hiring of personnel, authorization for private banks and investment by Cubans abroad. It even permits fast-food chains to establish themselves on the island.

Circling The Drain

Gradually Then Suddenly It's Probably Nothing New Governor 6 Comments

Say goodbye to rate cuts from the Bank Of Canada, at least for the time being.

According to Statistics Canada data, gasoline prices were up by 33.2 per cent year-over-year in May following a 28.6 per cent rise in April. These are the biggest increases since July 2022, officials said.

Food inflation also accelerated in May, rising to 4.3 per cent year-over-year compared with 3.8 per cent in April, driven mainly by higher prices for fresh fruits and vegetables.

Justice For None

We Are All Treaty People 13 Comments

Anyone with a different skin tone would have served jail time. What’s notably absent from the article is any mention of the impact on the victim’s family. Is their loss just collateral damage?

…Provincial Court of Manitoba Judge Wanda Garreck said defence counsel’s request for a conditional sentence was more appropriate after applying both the Gladue principle and precedents from R. v. Ipeelee, another landmark Canadian decision involving “systemic and background factors” related to Indigeneity.

Linklater, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was tossed from the vehicle at some point during the crash and was pronounced dead on the scene. It’s not clear how severely Okemow was injured, if at all, but she did produce “blood alcohol readings over three times the legal limit.”

Circling The Drain

Gradually Then Suddenly It's Probably Nothing New Governor Shiny Pony 20 Comments

The problem with the technical recession label is that it obscures the fact that Canada has already been in an effective recession for about ten years.

Whether or not Canada’s quarterly GDP grew or shrank fractionally over the past six months is of trivial importance compared with the inarguable fact that per capita growth has stalled since 2015. Our economy has not just had a bad couple of quarters, it has faltered for a decade, mostly because of persistently weak business investment.

Circling The Drain, Literally

entitlement generation Gradually Then Suddenly It's Probably Nothing nannystate 5 Comments

There’s a simple solution for alleged funding problems for sewer and water networks: have the user pay, just like they do for internet. If usage fees cover repairs as well as future upgrades and expansion, bottlenecks won’t occur. Municipal governments, on the other hand, prefer to wait for “others”, namely provincial and federal taxpayers, to pony up for things they don’t want to charge local voters for.

She said municipalities largely rely on property taxes and user fees for revenue, which account for roughly one-tenth of total government revenues in Canada despite them being responsible for a majority of core local infrastructure.

“We know what we need to do,” she said. “The concern is we don’t have the fiscal capacity to do it at the speed and scale that housing targets require.”

Undeserved Guilt

Media We Are All Treaty People 23 Comments

The key to allowing a myth to become as pervasive and as thoroughly embedded in a culture as the myth of residential school mass graves, it seems, lies with getting enough people to buy into the notion of a secularized version of original sin.

The Kamloops fiasco has changed this nation for the worse. Canadians were made by their government to feel shamed, demoralized and bitter in being labelled génocidaires. The breadcrumb trail from these feelings leads directly to the media. Sorry, but a head must roll for that. Reconciliation? When First Nation leaders join other Canadians in calling for an annulment of the genocide resolution, we will know that the reconciliation process has begun.

Government Knows Best!

AI nannystate New Governor Tech 15 Comments

As everyone knows, startup tech firms cannot possibly go broke, right?

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government released a plan on Thursday to promote AI adoption across sectors and government,….The plan earmarks billions of dollars to increase adoption, commercialization and sovereign computing capacity, including a C$500 million ($360 million) Canadian Tech Growth Fund to provide “flexible growth capital and investment support” for startups.

The Extremist Boogeyman

Canada’s Bolsheviks You Might Be A Liberal 10 Comments

If you follow the mainstream media, ever notice how conservatives seem to be the only group that is ever criticized for being “divisive”? Margaret Thatcher had a great label for politicians like Amelia Boultbee: wets.

She said in a social media post that Findlay’s election had left a void in the political landscape for those who are looking for an alternative to “NDP incompetence.”

“I feel strongly that British Columbian is best served, when it is represented by a government that values broad perspectives and stays away from polarizing extremes,” the post said. “I believe that the majority of British Columbians feel the same.”

Lipstick On The Pig

Gradually Then Suddenly It's Probably Nothing Media New Governor 19 Comments

Inquiring minds want to know: what’s in it for court water carriers who engage in mindless cheerleading for the government of the day? It’s like the scene in The Holy Grail where the armless knight declares, “‘Tis but a scratch!”

Luckily, economists say there is more to a recession than just two quarters of negative growth — namely the 3 Ds — depth, duration and dispersion.

This decline is not even close on depth — amounting to just 0.6 per cent annualized over the two quarters, “barely a scratch in GDP terms,” said Robert Kavcic, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in a note.

Oh, that explains it!

Canadian Prime ‌Minister Mark ‌Carney, pressed about statistics showing the country is in a technical ‌recession, on ⁠Tuesday told reporters that ⁠as the government pressed ahead with reforms “the data will ‌be uneven”.

Small Victories

Canada’s Bolsheviks Chief Big Screen TV We Are All Treaty People 20 Comments

I’d rather that the Supreme Court ruled that aboriginal title doesn’t apply to government land either, since the acceptance of that precedent has already saddled taxpayers with billions of dollars in undeserved payouts, but at least someone finally drew a line in the sand.

The Supreme Court of Canada has upheld a ruling that Aboriginal title cannot be declared over private land, in a decision the federal government says will have an impact on the Cowichan Tribes case in British Columbia.

Falling On Deaf Ears

Canada’s Bolsheviks Gradually Then Suddenly It's Probably Nothing New Governor 14 Comments

It’s not just the federal government that isn’t that interested in Balsillie’s advice. Most provincial governments couldn’t care less either.

Balsillie said those who thrive in today’s economy own and control intangible assets such as data, AI and IP, and the U.S. has “turbocharged their capture,” but Canada’s economic game plan has stayed stuck in the decades-old “tangible production economy era,” while the new assets of the new economy require different strategies.

Good Riddance To Bad Rubbish

Canada’s Bolsheviks Climate Cult New Governor 26 Comments

These days I’ll take any sign of improvement within the Federal government as a victory. The by-election, being in Montreal, will be a slam dunk for the Libs nonetheless.

Earlier in the day, Carney said he wishes Guilbeault “all the best” in whatever he chooses to do with his career next.

Carney said he understands that “things change.”

Brain Washing

Children R Our Future Climate Cult 16 Comments

The guys at Triggernometry recently posted this great interview with Lucy Biggers, a former self-described “useful idiot” in the climate alarmist movement.

What’s In A Name?

Canada’s Bolsheviks We Are All Treaty People 26 Comments

Changing place names isn’t cheap, and it’s not made any better when the new names are often jibberish. But all levels of government in Canada seem to be happy to accept this new millstone around their necks.

The replacement of Powell River is already occurring, piece by piece and without public consultation. Powell River General Hospital was renamed in 2022, followed by the school board, both replacing “Powell River” with the name “qathet,” which means “working together.” Furthermore, the regional Vancouver Island University satellite campus was renamed to “tiwšɛmawtxʷ,” meaning “house of learning,” to eliminate references to Israel Powell, a controversial colonial official.

Don’t Let The Door Hit You…

Cancelled Embrace Hollywood Frankly, My Dear Media The Tolerant Left 30 Comments

As someone who could never stand Stephen Colbert’s overtly partisan, sanctimonious political cheerleading for more than a couple of seconds, I don’t think that any new void is being created by his departure; there was nothing but a void to begin with.

Among those sorry to see Colbert go is astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, a frequent guest. Johnny Carson used to book scientists, but Tyson notes wryly that not many TV hosts do these days.

Brehm saw Colbert make himself into a sort of moral authority and lean into the social justice camp of progressive Catholics: “He is playing up that moral quality by standing up for American moral values like freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and he’s doing it with a Catholic jargon, with Catholic language.”

Cry Me A River

Embrace Hollywood Frankly, My Dear 25 Comments

I assume his political and cultural views are pretty similar to his old man’s, so I’m surprised he didn’t cancel the US tour out of spite. I had no idea he even had musical talent in the first place, and even if I did I doubt I’d be rushing to get show tickets.

Kiefer Sutherland is the latest artist to be struck down by the so-called ‘Blue Dot Fever,’ cancelling his upcoming U.S. tour over poor ticket sales.

Sutherland has been playing shows overseas in support of his new album, Grey, and posting videos documenting his experience to social media.

Empty Piggy Banks

entitlement generation Gradually Then Suddenly It's Probably Nothing 14 Comments

Here’s something these folks need to ponder: over 40 years of falling interest rates, often hovering near zero, have made defined benefit pension plans nearly impossible to maintain. The go-to “solution” is to get that magical entity known as “others” to make up any shortfall. But those “others” are growing tired of handing over their capital to be consumed.

Fed into the performance-based formula, those figures have meant former Queen’s employee Gordon Crawley has received no increases since he retired in November 2021. Meanwhile, the consumer price index (CPI) has risen by more than 16 per cent over that time frame, according to Bank of Canada data.

He says it’s been difficult, especially knowing he won’t get any additional payments to top up his pension and help deal with inflation until the fund’s returns have made up for lost ground.

The Carbon Racket

Climate Cult New Governor 18 Comments

A real conservative would have pointed out the absurdity of essentially having to pay protection money to get a pipeline built. It’s a dead loss for every Canadian, not a victory.

At least, that’s how much Alberta taxpayers could be asked to pay in order to prop up Smith’s new memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Ottawa that, among other things, promises to ratchet up carbon taxes to $130 per tonne by 2040. Under Friday’s agreement, Alberta and the feds promised to spend up to $1.2 billion toward that end, splitting the cost equally between both parties.

Circling The Drain

Gradually Then Suddenly It's Probably Nothing nannystate New Governor 11 Comments

The first thing a business run by sane people would do when faced with torrents of red ink would be to identify the sectors with the highest costs and highest losses and cut them loose. But when you’re Canada Post, for some reason you do exactly the opposite.

“For now, people who already receive their mail via rural mailboxes will see no change,” the statement said. “These addresses are not part of the initial announcement targeting the four million addresses that still receive home delivery and will eventually be converted to community mailboxes.”

Ransom Demands

Canada’s Bolsheviks Chief Big Screen TV We Are All Treaty People 12 Comments

I’m aware of the arguments that colonialists stole land from indigenous folks, but I didn’t know that they deserve some form of reparations for the ocean winds that we are apparently stealing as well. Can anyone make this make sense?

“We’ve seen a lot of positive momentum in advancing economic reconciliation in renewable energy projects as well as other sectors,” congress co-chair Bob Gloade, chief of the Millbrook First Nation in Nova Scotia, said in a statement.

“However, there is a lot of work left to be done. There needs to be committed focus on integration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous businesses in the offshore wind energy sector.”