It sure would be useful if Trudeau believed that passing proportional representation was the one thing he could do for a viable bid for re-election at this point

So long as we only compare ourselves to the US, we look great on many fronts, and that’s what most Canadian politicians and mainstream media do - which is absurd and serves an agenda. Compare us to all OECD countries (same as or similar to wealthy peers), and we look middling or abhorrent on many fronts. For example, I know we’re almost at the back of the pack of ~40 countries in terms of disability services. I realize the article is probably about economic indicators more so than health and quality of living. My comment is really “who we compare ourselves to matters a lot to the evaluation” and comparisons exclusively to the US are self-serving and of little value

over 10% of an Alberta town’s population signed a petition

Democracy in action, all voices carry equal weight, majority rules, etc. /s

Great shot, and I really like the wood and white combination

This is written as if it is bad news, but it’s good news right?

It’s mixed news. Less money into fossil fuels is good but little investment in renewables so far is bad

Because Doug Ford is trying to privatize healthcare, like Smith is in Alberta. They’re trying to break it up bit by bit. Ford is giving money that would have gone to publicly operated hospitals and employees to private ones instead. And patients are forced to use these often because the public option has already been eliminated or is underfunded, and they’re told it’s the only place their OHIP applies. These private companies are then going to bill both the province and patients and deliver worse service and worse jobs - because they are profiteers. And down the road, it’ll be hard to back out of privatization when we no longer have any public infrastructure (which is when the private clinics can start gouging the province even more ;)

Thanks for spreading the word about this. I wasn’t aware. What an unfortunate development. I’ve never encountered mandatory FR in Canada, thank goodness

I love the look on the other cat’s face: I got woken up for this too and I’m not even mentioned in the toot

I love your idea in theory. In practice, I think it’s far too easy to hide CEO compensation and too effortful (ie, costly) for the government to track that. The easiest solution would probably be a carbon tax - which I figure would be linked to more transparently documented corporate revenue. As important historical context: that is the pro-business solution to navigating the climate crisis that the Conservatives and the ownership class wanted: a market-based solution without direct government regulation. Years later, they’ve rejected the most pro-business solution that they themselves championed and have worked hard to turn average Canadian voters against it through propaganda that the carbon tax is taking money from average Canadians. Now the Conservatives and ownership class’s solution to navigating the climate crisis is: pretend it doesn’t exist, keep riding this blip of unsustainable profitability as long as possible, and prevent everyday Canadians from realizing what they’re doing. The carbon tax should have been able to fund good jobs in a new economy

Bless the EU

Big agree! I think they look solarpunk

I think we as a society may have underrecognized the impacts of newspapers and traditional/smaller media companies going out of business and the consolidation of news companies. Like twitter, I don’t think they’re being bought for investment purposes, I think they’re being bought for the sake of covertly spreading misinformation (which is a longer term investment for Big Money). I think a lot of people believe the ideas that are common in the news diet they consume, and those who wish to influence policy have found a pristine opportunity to shape that diet on a large scale for a bargain of a price (e.g., local newspapers facing bankruptcy and motivated to sell)

(Edit: here’s a fitting headline from today- https://techcrunch.com/2024/08/29/x-caught-blocking-links-to-npr-claiming-the-news-site-may-be-unsafe/)

There should be a special place in hell for people who privatize public services

(Edit: And separate from abstract issues with privatization, we already know that the new healthcare administrator Smith wants to bring in specifically excludes - for religious reasons - reproductive care (for women) like birth control and abortions. That’s right. We’re rolling back our clocks about a 100 years on the separation of church and state. And with healthcare being a provincial mandate - will Albertans whose local healthcare is under the new Christian and/or Catholic administration be able to drive across provincial lines for birth control or an abortion? It’s hard to believe these might be relevant questions IN CANADA in the next few years)

Everyday Canadians should not be expected to lead the transition to green energy while our politicians resist it: vilifying the carbon tax, expanding pipelines, levying Chinese EVs, the RCMP terrorizing Indigenous land defenders, all the pro-oil and anti-renewable stuff in Alberta (eg, windmills disrupt pristine landscapes and are prohibited while multibillion dollar oil companies are slapped on the wrist when they desecrate our environment).

We urgently need climate leadership in Canadian politics

Have we as a country ever met a climate target? In fairness to our politicians (not really), the O&G industry regulates them and not the other way around. Until that power relation changes, our targets are just greenwashing

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Nice to see more Canadian news outlets owned by a US hedge fund - that is sure to serve our public and national interests well /s. It only cost them 1 million dollars too [pocket change on their scale] to buy control of the largest newspapers in Atlantic Canada. That’s pretty inexpensive for the amount of control over information and opinion it will provide. Absurdly inexpensive actually

The only real news is independent news

In much of Europe and China the progress being made on renewables is awesome to see. In contrast, Canadian and American decision-makers seem hellbent on stymying this continent’s transition to renewables

With an election less than 2 months away? Sounds like probable corruption to me. And boo on losing the dynamic of two conservative parties splitting the conservative vote

Both privatization of healthcare and relegation of women’s reproductive healthcare. Sad and shameful