Category: nannystate

Cult Classic

Climate Cult nannystate Y2Kyoto 19 Comments

Maybe it’s time for a passive/aggressive approach to idiotic court rulings. In this case, I’d suggest putting every single story house on Bonaire on stilts and/or prohibiting the occupation of the first floor on multi-floor buildings. That much stair climbing will see that residents grow tired of climate change hysteria in short order.

A court on Wednesday ordered the Dutch government to draw up a plan to protect residents on the tiny Caribbean island of Bonaire from the effects of climate change — a sweeping victory for the islanders.

The Hague District Court, in a stunning rebuke of Dutch authorities, also ruled that the government discriminated against the island’s 20,000 inhabitants by not taking “timely and appropriate measures” to protect them from climate change before it’s too late.

That Sinking Feeling

Canada’s Bolsheviks nannystate New Governor 69 Comments

If Carney’s polling numbers hold up, a spring election is a distinct possibility, and a Liberal majority would be the likely outcome. The reason is simple enough: once again, NDP and Bloc voters are stampeding to the Liberals. Inevitably, some will suggest that the Tories reinvent themselves to appeal to the left, but a string of electoral defeats with Red Tories at the helm points to the futility of that gambit. If that’s the best conservatives could do, why have a conservative party at all?

From coast to coast, Léger finds Mark Carney’s Liberals at 47% support among decided voters, up four points since Léger’s previous poll back in December. And this newfound support for the Liberals does not come at the expense of the Conservatives, who sit at 38%, themselves up two points.

Cramped Spaces

nannystate Turtle Island 10 Comments

Here’s a suggestion for Canadian airline regulators: maybe if foreign carriers were allowed to compete in the Canadian market, domestic airlines wouldn’t try to make their planes even more of a cattle car than they already are.

In the wake of a backlash sparked by a viral video, WestJet has cancelled a new seat configuration that squeezed an extra row on board many of its planes and left passengers with less legroom.

Already installed on 22 of WestJet’s Boeing 737s, the non-reclining seats in a majority of the cabin’s economy section featured the smallest amount of leg room on any large Canadian carrier.

 

Clown Country

nannystate 13 Comments

Decline Watch;

An arbitrator has ordered the reinstatement of an Ontario postman fired for hoarding at least 6,000 pieces of mail during the summer of 2022 because Canada Post wasn’t aware of his post-traumatic stress disorder.

Hyun Min Jang was terminated from his job as a rural and suburban mail carrier in King City, Ont., “for misdirection and delay of mail, as a result of the discovery of thousands of pieces of undelivered mail in his personal vehicle,” according to a recent decision from Kathleen G. O’Neil, the arbitrator.

Stuff At The Expense of Others

More Money Than Brains nannystate 12 Comments

So Mamdani is instituting free daycare for New Yorkers? It’s policies that make me wonder why any Republican would want Canada as a 51st state. Taxpayer financed child, medical and now dental care are commonplace functions of the state here since we are presently governed by a host of Mamdani clones. Political integration would add nearly insurmountable pressure to fully socialize these sectors of the American economy.

New York City parents may soon have access to free child care for their 2-year-olds, under a plan unveiled Thursday by Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani — a major boon for city’s mayor on one of his signature campaign promises just days into his new job.

Blubbering Dougie

Canada’s Bolsheviks I, Napoleon nannystate 23 Comments

More evidence that Canada is not a serious country. Given that Crown Royal is distilled in Gimli, Ford’s decision effectively imposes economic sanctions on Manitoba.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says to “stock up” on Crown Royal, confirming he plans to strip the Canadian whisky from the shelves of the LCBO in retaliation for a planned plant closure.

It said bottling at the factory intended for the U.S. market will be shifting stateside, while bottling for Canadian consumers will relocate to its Valleyfield, Que., location.

Fly The Expensive Skies

Canada’s Bolsheviks nannystate 9 Comments

We can’t be considered a serious country when the airline regulator stipulates the exact number of weekly flights a foreign carrier can offer out of Canada. And people still wonder why Canadian air fares are punishingly expensive.

Ottawa is loosening restrictions on the number of flights coming from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates after past diplomatic spats had limited flights.

Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon announced the government is expanding air transport agreements to allow as many as 14 passenger flights per week from Saudi Arabia — up from four.  The latest deal also includes as many as 35 passenger flights a week from the U.A.E., up from a maximum of 21. Plus unlimited cargo flights from both countries.

The Zero Percent Interest Miracle

Gradually Then Suddenly It's Probably Nothing nannystate 11 Comments

Back in the 1980’s it was fashionable to proclaim that Japan, with an allegedly superior mixture of central planning and free markets, would soon own the world. It now looks like they can’t even maintain their own world, let alone anyone else’s. Decades of embracing Keynesian economics have resulted in a very bitter harvest.

Once famously derided for building bridges to nowhere, Japan’s government is now struggling to maintain them.

Even before the quake, Suzu was struggling to carry out routine maintenance of infrastructure due to money and manpower shortages. Over the past 25 years, its municipal tax revenue dropped 43% as the working-age population nearly halved. In the Noto region, the labor force fell by about 30% in the 15 years through 2020, compared to the roughly 10% drop nationwide…

 

Dairy Farmers Uber Alles!

Canada’s Bolsheviks nannystate New Governor 37 Comments

It’s no surprise that the US sees Canadian supply mismanagement as a major trade irritant; I sincerely hope they don’t back down in trade talks this time around.

Washington’s trade representative says a coming review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade deal will hinge on resolving concerns about Canadian policies on dairy products, alcohol and digital services.

Like clockwork, the water carriers for Big Dairy are falling in line:

Carney said Canada has been clear about its intention to protect the supply management of agricultural products. “We continue to stand by that,” he said at a news conference in Ottawa with Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

Money For Nothing

Gradually Then Suddenly It's Probably Nothing nannystate 5 Comments

Yet another example of what happens when a bunch of politicians scream “emergency” and a gullible John Q. Public largely falls for it. This reminds me of a Seinfeld episode where Kramer tries to explain to Jerry what happens when a company makes a bad investment decision: “They just write it off, Jerry!”

Ontario wrote off more than one billion items of personal protective equipment at a cost of $1.4 billion since 2021 and is now burning expired products, the province’s auditor general found.

The province signed long-term contracts for PPE between October 2020 and April 2021 that locked it into buying 188 million surgical masks annually. Yet it only distributed 39 million of those masks last year, or 21 per cent.

Union Mentality

Canada’s Bolsheviks entitlement generation nannystate 20 Comments

The last time I checked, the NFU was down to a handful of members and were being led by “farmers” so far outside the mainstream that they hardly qualified as such. I don’t know what’s worse: that these clowns are demanding a form of UBI for farmers, or that a mainstream media outlet reports on it so uncritically.

Farmers want Ottawa to set up a 10-year pilot project that would ensure they receive an annual income of at least $50,000, a rate that would rise by inflation every year.

David Thompson, executive director of the union, says a guaranteed income would help stabilize farmers’ incomes, which are often unstable.

Now they’re channeling Zoran Mamdani and this nonsense gets breathlessly regurgitated by the same bunch of toadies.

One resolution calls for the union to lobby the federal government to introduce legislation that would put a cap on the profits of major grocery chains that control the lion’s share of the market.

Another resolution calls on union to create a national coalition pressing the federal government to purchase food directly from farmers to be sold at cost in a “network of national/provincial/municipal public grocery stores.”

The Cheque Is In The Mail

Cronies entitlement generation It's Probably Nothing nannystate 19 Comments

I’m suspicious about the impact of these measures for a few reasons: voluntary departures come with severance; government retirement plans often require funding out of general revenue so early retirement just means more losses to cover; many eliminated jobs are potential positions as opposed to actual ones, and the timeline is an entire decade.

He said the company will use “attrition first” to downsize from the roughly 62,000 people it employed at the end of last year.

The company expects to shed 16,000 employees through retirement or voluntary departures by 2030, with an additional 14,000 leaving by 2035.

Quantum Shift?

47 nannystate There Goes The Narrative 29 Comments

If Kamala Harris were proposing that the federal government take ownership stakes in private companies, I can hazard a guess that Republicans would loudly oppose it. What’s going on with a party that has traditionally opposed government ownership of the means of production?

The Trump administration is in talks with the likes of Rigetti Computing (RGTI), IonQ (IONQ) and D-Wave Quantum (QBTS) to take equity stakes in them in exchange for federal funding, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Wishful Thinking

Canada’s Bolsheviks Gradually Then Suddenly nannystate 28 Comments

At this point, I doubt that any measures are going to amount to anything other than flogging a dead horse.

Ottawa said the corporation is losing about $10 million per day, despite providing a $1-billion injection earlier this year to keep it operational. Since 2018, Canada Post has accumulated more than $5 billion in losses including more than $1 billion last year alone.

But Canada Post’s business model is meant to support communities across the country — especially those in remote locations who are hardest for private firms to reach — rather than chase profits, said Ann Armstrong, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Institute for Management and Innovation.

“There is something sacrosanct about a postal service,” she said.

“It seems to me the model is perfectly viable and needs to be preserved, if perhaps costs and so on need to be adjusted.”

 

He Admires His Basic Dictatorship

Basic Dictatorship Great Moments In Socialism nannystate New Governor 24 Comments

Juno News;

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s plan to let the Canada Revenue Agency automatically file millions of Canadians’ tax returns is facing backlash from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, which says the month-long consultation preceding the rollout was a “sham” designed to rubber-stamp a power grab by bureaucrats.

The CRA’s consultation ran for only one month, from September 9 to October 9, ending just a day before Carney’s announcement on Friday. The consultation sought online feedback from individuals and organizations about expanding “automatic tax filing” services.

The government says the program, starting in 2026, will help up to 5.5 million low-income Canadians receive benefits they’re missing, such as the GST/HST credit and Canada Child Benefit.

Critics, however, say Ottawa’s timeline shows the outcome was pre-determined.

“Carney plans to give CRA more power with automatic tax filing,” said Canadian Taxpayers Federation’s Federal Director Franco Terrazzano. “Trusting the taxman to do your return is like trusting your dog to protect your burger. CRA acting as both tax filer and tax collector is a serious conflict of interest.”

Terrazzano mocked the idea that meaningful input was possible within hours of the consultation closing. “There’s no way bureaucrats pulled an all-nighter reading through thousands of submissions before sending Carney out to make an announcement the next morning,” he said. “Asking Canadians for their opinion and then ignoring them isn’t a good look. This was a sham consultation.”

The federation argues the plan will give unprecedented control to the same agency responsible for collecting taxes. “The CRA can barely answer the phone, so Carney shouldn’t be giving those bureaucrats more busy work,” Terrazzano said. “The CRA is a bloated mess, and Carney should be cutting the cost of bureaucracy, not scheming up ways to give it more power over taxpayers.”

Related bloated mess.

Circling Le Drain

Gradually Then Suddenly Great Moments In Socialism nannystate 17 Comments

One possible reason why gold is setting new records in dollar terms is fear of default; i.e. a growing realization that some governments are on the verge of stiffing their creditors. Today, default is becoming a possibility not just for third world backwaters, but for large economies such as France. The reasons are simple enough, as this video explains. France is spending itself into oblivion thanks to pensions that pay out more in benefits than a working person earns.

Shooting Your Own Foot

Canada’s Bolsheviks I, Napoleon nannystate 10 Comments

In response to the decision to close an Ontario liquor bottling plant, Ontario consumers may soon be unable to buy liquor made in Gimli, Manitoba. So much for inter-provincial free trade.

“A message to all the bigwigs at Diageo: I swear to God, those bottles of Crown Royal are coming off the LCBO shelves. When the last person walks out through that door, we’re going to make sure LCBO takes off their brands because we need to stick together,” Ford said during a union rally in Brampton on Saturday.

Diageo also noted that the company will continue to have a presence in Canada, including their Canadian headquarters and warehouse operations in the Greater Toronto Area.

That Sinking Feeling

Gradually Then Suddenly Great Moments In Socialism It's Probably Nothing nannystate New Governor 9 Comments

Not to worry. I’m sure this thing will pay for itself.

Canada recorded a slightly higher C$7.79 billion ($5.59 billion) budget deficit for the first four months of the 2025/26 fiscal year as government expenditures grew faster than revenues, the finance ministry said on Friday.

By comparison, the deficit in the same period a year earlier had been C$7.30 billion, it said in a statement.

 

The Cheque Is In The Mail

Canada’s Bolsheviks entitlement generation Gradually Then Suddenly nannystate 33 Comments

Our family farm used to have mail delivery to the top of our lane but that was discontinued sometime in the early 1960s. After that, we picked up our mail in a small town. In 1970, that post office closed and we used a community mailbox which is still in service to this day. Miraculously, the sky didn’t fall.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers went on strike Thursday after the government announced door-to-door mail delivery would end for nearly all households within the next decade.

Canada Post said the strike will mean mail and parcels will not be processed or delivered for the duration of the strike and no new items will be accepted.

 

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