Dispatches from the Maple Gulag Truck Stop
Gord Magill weighs in on the possibility of pardoning of Trudeau’s political prisoners.
Stupid Is As Stupid Does
It’s not a stretch to come to the conclusion that Canada has essentially become a zombie economy over the last nine years.
“Very simply, for 30 years, Canada has been using outdated thinking in its economic and security strategies, and this is what’s caused the erosion of our prosperity and security,” Balsillie said. “What Donald Trump has done is laid bare the inattention by our economic policy community in that time.”
“A responsible nation would have built a house of bricks, and we built a house of sticks,” Balsillie said. “The big bad wolf has shown up, and everybody’s running around freelancing, saying, ‘What do we do now’?”
Best Healthcare System In The World
City News- First of two children from Gaza to get medical treatment in Manitoba arrives
Province of Manitoba- Manitoba Government Providing Medical Care to Palestinian Child from Gaza
The province will host the young Palestinian child from Gaza with complex medical needs who is unable to receive proper health-care treatment due to the war. The medical care will be led by volunteer pediatric surgeon Dr. Melanie Morris.
Meanwhile…
CityNews- Winnipeg man among 40,000 facing surgical delays amid Manitoba’s healthcare crisis
CBC- Manitoba judge upholds decision denying sisters out-of-country care funding for chronic illness
CTV- ‘Significant number’: Doctors Manitoba concerned about surgery backlog
How Do We Loathe Him?
[Trudeau’s] declaration that Canada has no core identity and is a “post-national” state was the catalyst for a steady decline in the pride of being Canadian.
The white-hot anger now being directed towards the prime minister is the result of a cultural backlash from people who feel like they have become strangers in their own land, abandoned by progressive values and policies they don’t share or understand.
And somehow manages to avoid the words “Chinese” and “corruption”.
Crisis? What Crisis?
If the Canadian government decides to go ahead with plans to shut off the supply of oil to the United States, the bigger crisis will be a financial one, not a national unity kerfuffle. Companies facing bankruptcy when forced to abrogate their contracts will have to be compensated by taxpayers and that bill will be big enough to send us begging to the IMF.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says that if the federal government imposes an export ban on Alberta oil going to the United States as a retaliatory measure against expected U.S. tariffs it would precipitate a “national unity crisis.”
In addition, the United States is probably aware that the petrochemical supply runs both ways in some regions.
In 2023, Canada imported 16.9 million metric tons of crude oil from the United States, which was the largest quantity Canada imported from any country.
Hammer Time!
Here’s a suggestion for a replacement headline: Canada Prepares To Drop Hammer On Itself. In response to Donald Trump’s pledge to hike taxes on American consumers, Canada proposes to do exactly the same thing to its consumers. In the end, will Florida orange juice factories even notice?
CTV News is reporting that the Canadian government is planning a series of retaliatory tariffs that would hit American-made orange juice, which is a major export of Florida.
It gets worse, if the following is true. Someone needs to tell Doug Ford about the bi-directional nature of the cross-border power grid.
“Blocking exports of Canadian oil, electricity and critical minerals is another option on the table, according to one senior government source in Washington, DC,” reports CTV. “Last month, Ontario Premier Doug Ford threatened to cut off energy exports from his province if Trump followed through on this threat.
The Peril of “Professional Tenants”
Being a landlord in Ottawa these days is often not enjoyable:
“I can’t believe this was the place I used to live, this was my family home. It just smells like a zoo, even a zoo smells better,” Salter said.
The 29-year-old takes in the damage she says was caused by her previous tenants. Salter says they only paid rent for three months of their 13-month tenancy, owing her more than $35,000.
She invited CBC for a tour of the property just minutes after she got the keys back following a lengthy battle at Ontario’s Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB).
The tour revealed damaged baseboards, holes in the walls, broken lights and faucets, a clogged toilet, broken banisters and carpets covered in stains.
The Best Health Care System In The World
This is not even a case of “the doctor will kill you now”. It’s more like, “Please wait here quietly until you die“. The only “lesson” that needs to be learned here is that single payer healthcare needs to be ditched, and the sooner, the better.
Manitoba’s health minister, Uzoma Asagwara, says the death of a patient who waited eight hours for care in the emergency room at Health Sciences Centre (HSC) is a “devastating loss” that the health care system needs to learn from.
Dispatches from the Maple Gulag Truck Stop
Newsweek writer Gord Magill weighs in on the promised resignation of Justin Trudeau: A Cowardly Narcissist and Would Be Authoritarian Afraid of His Own People Steps Off the World Stage
Legal Limbo?
Now that Parliament is prorogued, any bill that was in the process of being passed during that session officially dies. That should include the proposed changes to capital gains tax legislation. Nonetheless, I’m receiving mixed messages about that, since it’s my understanding that the Canada Revenue Agency has been acting as if the measures were already law. I’m curious as to what SDA readers been hearing from their accountants.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s move to step down and prorogue parliament has killed a series of changes his government proposed to capital gains.
It’s Not Fair
Blacklock’s- Media Unfair, Say CBC Execs
“Very disappointing and frustrating,” wrote Chuck Thompson, CBC chief of staff to the executive vice president. Thompson in an August 12 email complained media “gave us no time” to justify yearly bonuses worth $14.9 million.
Tommy Douglas: Not Dead Enough
Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying now accounts for 1 in 20 deaths in Canada. It took 90 years, but Tommy Douglas final got his way. (Please down load the PDF and save it; it’s sure to disappear)
SDA regular Gord Magill discusses The Machine in Life and Death, a deep dive into Canada’s euthanasia law and how it is being promoted.
Suicide Pact
Evidence of the legacy media’s ongoing death wish is routinely reinforced by editorials written by people who have no understanding of basic economics and who believe that actions can only have the consequences they imagine them to have. The Winnipeg Free Press has now gone so far as to endorse Doug Ford’s bizarre threat to turn off power to American customers. They don’t seem to realize or care that this will be the end of Canada’s reputation as a reliable electricity supplier, with bankruptcy of the utilities following shortly thereafter.
A power outage for millions on Jan. 21 would send the message loud and clear.
If Ottawa and the premiers do that, up to and including being prepared to hit the “off” switch on wide swaths of the continental U.S., Trump’s inner circle will likely have him standing down before it ever comes to that.
Smell Ya’ Later
If It Wasn’t For Government…
… who would figure out how to lose money with a Tim Hortons?
National Post- Canada’s subsidized Tim Hortons lose another $500,000
“Years ago, we were able to contract out the main cafeteria services to the private sector on the agreement with the union that the Tim Hortons operation would remain under the collective agreement,” the hospital’s then CEO David Musyj told Postmedia in 2023.
This is also the singular reason the locations are so unprofitable. Instead of paying the entry-level wages typical to a Tim Hortons, Windsor Regional Hospital is paying its Tim Hortons employees at the same rate as unionized hospital workers.
Digging Your Own Grave
As the post office inevitably transitions to a horrifically expensive junk mail delivery service, this allegedly climate-change driven “death trap” is starting to look more like a suicide pact. The postal strike has certainly pushed me to go paperless for all my critical invoices and to use Amazon or a courier for parcel delivery from now on. I’m quite certain I’m not the only one.
Enslin, 41, has worked at Canada Post for 16 years and said the extreme weather brought on by climate change — whether it’s inhaling smoke from wildfires or delivering mail during storms — has added significant physical and mental pressure to their jobs.
And that’s one of the reasons postal workers are demanding more support for these challenges in their new contract, he said.
To Be Fair, They’re Out Of Touch With Reality In General
Fraser Institute- Federal government out of touch with economic reality in Canada
I Saved Five Bucks?
No. No, you didn’t.
Blacklock’s- GST Benefit Worth Under $5
Cabinet’s GST holiday will save the typical Canadian $4.51, the Senate national finance committee was told yesterday.
“When it comes to retail, the average consumer will save approximately $4.51 over that two-month period per Canadian,” said Charlebois. “That is based on sales volumes.”
Best Health Care In The World…Not
Nothing says abject failure like the imposition of draconian penalties in order to keep doctors from leaving socialized medicine.
Dubé tabled legislation, Bill 83, in the National Assembly on Tuesday that would require students who studied medicine in a Quebec university to devote the first years of their professional lives, as general practitioners or specialists, to working in public institutions…
A doctor refusing to follow the rules would face fines of between $20,000 and $100,000 a day and per insured act.