Category: nannystate

The sky is falling! This time we mean it!

Cronies Insufferable Twits Media nannystate 19 Comments

Friends of Canadian Socialism….oh, wait, Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, says that Canadians ought to boycott Instagram and Facebook essentially for complying with the edicts of the Trudeau government. The first thing that popped into my mind when I read this is, “Are these dinosaurs still around?” I remember their frantic assertions in the early 1980s that Canadian TV would soon be destroyed by cable TV due to the boogeyman of “audience fragmentation”. That was, of course, prior to satellite TV and long before streaming services even existed.

The Friends of Canadian Broadcasting group is asking people to stop posting content on Meta’s platforms on Aug. 23 and 24.

The group says the move is meant to show that Canadians won’t be pushed around by Meta, which decided to pull news from Canadian publishers from its platforms in response to legislation that recently passed.

Don’t make me come up there!

Alternative Subsidy entitlement generation nannystate 27 Comments

There’s two ways to comply with Canada’s recent legislation regarding online news: either pay every time a user on your social media platform links to said news, or block the link and pay nothing. Meta has chosen the latter option.

The federal government’s response: We demand that you make a different choice! If you don’t, well, …. we’ll complain a lot because what else can you do when you’ve painted yourself into a corner.

The Canadian government on Friday demanded that Meta lift a “reckless” ban on domestic news from its platforms to allow people to share information about wildfires in the west of the country.

Chris Bittle, a legislator for the ruling Liberal Party, complained on Thursday that “Meta’s actions to block news are reckless and irresponsible.”

A zero percent interest miracle

DigitalCurrency entitlement generation nannystate 13 Comments

The fact that the idea of parking interest rates permanently at zero gets any academic attention at all, is in itself worrisome. It’s no secret that this was an idea embraced by none other than John Maynard Keynes, who thought it would be the key to effortless financing of whatever projects a central planner might dream up.

If the interest rate were permanently zero, the government’s fiscal levers of taxation and spending would be the alternative means of controlling inflation.

Naturally, this nonsense goes hand in hand with direct central bank control of individual spending decisions:

Also worth mentioning is the current push by the Bank of England towards central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), in which buyers and sellers would transfer money directly without having to use the banking system. This could enable central banks to encourage or discourage certain spending in more targeted ways, for example by restricting what can be spent by people in certain areas or income brackets. If inflation was controlled using only fiscal levers, CBDCs could be used to reinforce this policy.

Socialisme pour les Quebecois

Alternative Subsidy Great Moments In Socialism nannystate Protected Class 14 Comments

Central planning is like a washing machine cycle that never ends:

Step 1: Subsidize production.

Step 2: When production exceeds consumer demand, subsidize the losses.

Step 3: When the losses become terminal, pay producers to exit the industry.

Step 4: When prices rise, go back to Step 1.

The first stage of the production-cut program is voluntary. Those that agree to participate must leave the industry for a minimum of five years. Two-thirds of the cost will be covered by Farm Income Stabilization Insurance, a taxpayer-funded provincial program that, when market prices are low, covers the costs of production. One-third will be paid by Les Éleveurs de porcs du Québec.

This will mean that every producer who remains in the sector must pay $2.86 to the union for every hog they sell, to cover producers’ share of the expense, according to reporting by La Presse. The pool of cash will be used to pay producers who leave.

“We understand we need the taxpayer helping us‚ but at the same time we bring lots of money, too,” Mr. Roy said.

Drunken policy

entitlement generation nannystate 15 Comments

My advice for any company investing in Quebec? Get out, while you still can.

A Quebec trucking company has been ordered to reinstate a driver who was fired after she drank at least nine beers before she lost control of her truck on a Pennsylvania highway.

Labour arbitrator Huguette April says the driver’s drinking was from alcoholism — a disability — and that trucking company Groupe Robert should have made a reasonable accommodation for her.

Surplus value

nannystate Safe and Effective Tommy Douglas: Not Dead Enough 33 Comments

If you are wondering what factors have contributed to economic dislocations, business failures and rising prices since the Covid pandemic began, part of the answer lies in governments splurging on items for which there is little, if any, consumer demand. That splurging eats up capital that cannot be deployed for production of goods that consumers actually have a use for.

The federal government is sitting on a stockpile of 39 million extra rapid tests for COVID-19 and is struggling to get rid of them without chucking them in the trash, an internal Health Canada memo shows.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Canada has spent roughly $5 billion on rapid tests.

 

Unexpected headlines

Cronies nannystate There Goes The Narrative 14 Comments

Did someone replace all the staff at CTV news recently? That seems to be the only logical explanation for the presence of such a story on their website. A number of water carriers for the current regime appear to have failed in their duty.

According to the report, Canada’s economic output per person (real GDP per capita) has actually been decreasing for many years.

Back in the 1980s, the report points out, Canada was doing better than the average of advanced economies by about US$4,000 per person. Over time, however, the advantage faded, and the U.S. jumped to US$8,000 a person, according to TD.

Before anyone gets too excited however, it’s obvious that the report is careful not to dig too deep when it comes to reasons for the trend. That might invite criticism of our burgeoning welfare state and the exploding debt levels that go along with it.

Canadian “exceptionalism”

nannystate Tommy Douglas: Not Dead Enough 12 Comments

It’s becoming increasingly obvious that Canada’s stubborn obsession with single payer health care is taking a massive toll on the budgets of governments and the health of Canadians, but that won’t stop Medicare’s supporters from continuing to insist that government payments to a few select private clinics constitutes “privatization”.

You’re seeing a lot of controversy about the introduction of “private health care” into the Canadian system. But you can all relax, because it’s not actually private health care. It’s still public health care, but just the worst possible version of it.

In Canada, it’s illegal to buy insurance for anything covered under the public system. Nobody else does this. In The Netherlands, New Zealand, Japan, the U.K. you can pony up a few thousand dollars each year in private insurance and — if you need stitches — you can either go to the public hospital or use your insurance to get it done privately at an entirely different health care system over here.

That’s private health care.

No speech for you!

Freespeechers nannystate Quackery 10 Comments

Some foolish ideas just refuse to die. Ideas like the claim that laws against murder are an infringement on freedom, but a very acceptable and necessary infringement. It never takes long for someone to take that preposterous argument to the next level, and before you know it there’s no freedom for anyone.

You will see throughout our constitution, yes you have rights, but they are restricted for the common good. Everything needs to be balanced.

“If your views on other people’s identities go to make their lives unsafe, insecure and cause them such deep discomfort that they cannot live in peace then I believe that it is our job, as legislators, to restrict those freedoms, for the common good,” Ms O’Reilly added.

Unfortunately, the Irish Green Party’s views on the nature of freedom would be right at home here in Canada. Our entire constitution is based on the idea that every individual has freedom…until a majority of the tribe decides that you don’t.

Scapegoating as a national sport

Cronies Great Moments In Socialism nannystate 20 Comments

Sometimes one has to wonder why any investor would bother to park his money in Canada these days. In the case of a particular parliamentary committee looking at food prices, the solution being offered to rising prices is to hit competitors with higher taxes. I’m sure that will make food prices go down, right?

If Canada’s Competition Bureau finds that grocery store giants are profiting excessively from food inflation, the federal government should consider slapping a windfall tax on those excess profits.

Rather than condemn such a ludicrous idea, the  milquetoasts at the Retail Council of Canada had this to say:

“While we welcome the collaborative tone of the report, we would caution against increased government intervention in the operational aspects of the retail food business.”

Regulate me harder

Great Moments In Socialism nannystate 20 Comments

In an industry in which competition is legislated out of existence, it’s no wonder that Canadian airlines are little more than poorly run, expensive public utilities that excel at fleecing consumers. The government would rather preside over this sorry state of affairs than, God forbid, allow foreign airlines to offer services within Canada.

Budget airline Swoop will shut down later this year and have its operations folded into WestJet, the company announced Friday.

The merger into WestJet’s operations is expected to be completed by Oct. 28, the Calgary-based airline said. Swoop will operate its existing network until then, and Swoop employees will move to WestJet once the merger is completed.

Embrace the minefield!

I, Napoleon Insufferable Twits nannystate 24 Comments

For a societal problem that is alleged to be so deeply ingrained as to be nearly intractable, it’s surprising to find out that employees of the City of Winnipeg can liberate themselves in about thirty minutes.

The course provides a great overview of the importance of using gender-inclusive language and looks at how misgendering, or using the wrong pronouns, can feel and shares best practices for avoiding misgendering going forward.

Reality bites

Great Moments In Socialism It's Probably Nothing nannystate 26 Comments

When pandemic measures began mandating restaurant closures and the segregation of businesses into “essential” versus “non-essential” enterprises, we were assured that this could never be a long term problem because the economy would “recover”. In reality, recovery is starting to look an awful lot like recession.

Bankruptcy filings in food services have spiked 116 per cent since 2022, according to Restaurants Canada. It says about half of restaurants are unprofitable right now, compared to only 12 per cent before the pandemic.

Restaurants Canada is calling on the federal government to extend the CEBA repayment deadline. The program offered interest-free loans of up to $60,000 to small businesses and not-for-profits. The deadline to pay back loans is Dec. 31, 2023.

Restaurants Canada estimates 20 per cent of its members won’t be able to pay back the loans by deadline.

 

Planning for chaos

Freespeechers nannystate 18 Comments

So the federal government believes it is not only necessary but worthwhile to regulate the internet? They used to claim such authority due to the supposedly “limited” nature of the airwaves, but when it comes to an information firehose piped into your computer or smartphone from all over the world, that argument is more than a little harebrained.

Streaming platforms will have to promote Canadian and Indigenous films and television shows not only in Canada but around the world under the new federal online streaming law…

Nonetheless they’re pressing ahead, even if they don’t really understand what it is they are supposed to regulate.

The regulator also says it intends to explore what constitutes a “social media service,” to help it develop a clear understanding of which “online undertakings” fall within its jurisdiction under the new law.

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