👉 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/danielle-smith-adolf-hitler-netflix-rachel-notley-1.6836160
Many people in rural Alberta listen to her. They genuinely like her and trust her. She knows that.
This is how you end up with a major disease epidemic.
You really ought to be ashamed of yourself.
All this effort instead of constructing traffic calming road features. Oh wait, that doesn’t generate revenue…
Speed cameras actually generate very little revenue compared to the financial cost of car crashes: Ambulances, drugs, police, surgeons. If speeding fines were to truly reflect the social cost of car crashes, they would be significantly higher.
Also, the people who oppose speed cameras will absolutely FREAK OUT if you propose to reduce lanes. Look at what just happened to Toronto bike lanes.
This is a great article from Dalhousie University.
Justin Trudeau tried to reduce the use of single use plastics. He faced enormous political backlash. Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Conservative Party, campaigned on defending plastics:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/poilievre-scrap-plastics-ban-1.7514037
Poilievre claimed that the federal Plastics ban was inflicting financial pain on Canadian families
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bri5-IqHqw
Evidence‑based solutions are indeed under political fire.
I studied in Montreal and I left the country a long time ago. Yet I still pay close attention to Canadian politics. Because I really want to see Canada improve.
How can I say this without offending anyone?
I feel I can speak my mind bluntly precisely because I am a foreigner.
Brutal truth
Many Alberta politicians act like absolute cunts.
Alberta is one of the Jewels of Canada. It was named after Princess Louise Alberta, the favorite daughter of Queen Victoria, it's a province that was blessed with great beauty and enormous ressources.
One of the responsibility of having enormous natural ressources is managing sustainably to ensure the next generations can live in a good environment.
In 1974, the New York Times reported the province has SO MUCH money it doesn't know what to do with it:
ALBERTA FLOODED WITH OIL REVENUE
At time when most governments at every level, are struggling hard to stay solvent, Alberta, which produces 83 per cent of Canada'' oil, has more money than it knows what to do with.
Yet all I hear is constant whining, whining, whining. Why? What the hell is going on?
According to Statistics Canada, under Justin Trudeau, Alberta reached the highest oil production levels in modern history. In fact, Justin Trudeau opened a brand new pipeline:
For the fourth consecutive year, production of crude oil and equivalent products reached a record high, up 4.3% from 2023 to 298.8 million cubic metres in 2024.
The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion began operation in May 2024, providing Alberta crude oil with increased access to Pacific Ocean terminals and markets abroad.
Despite this, all I keep hearing from Alberta politicians is how evil Justin oppressed/raped/humiliated ordinary Albertans. This is insane.
Alberta politicians just keep whining about environmental rules. If they want their constituents to have cancer because of heavy metals from fracking and mining, if they want Alberta lakes and rivers polluted by plastics, it's horrible, but it's their choice.
The core issue is these Alberta corrupt politicians seem determined to blow up the planet, claiming there is no alternative. Fort McMurray burned the fuck down. Jasper burned the fuck down. But clearly the Alberta political leaders learned nothing from it.
Alberta has produced many great artists, historians, authors, scientists. They gave Canada many great figures. I hope that one day, people take back their province from these crooks. They deserve better than their current dumbass leaders. I believe Alberta should aim to be like mini-Norway.
Norwegians heavily tax oil and don't let filthy rich Oil CEOs get away with murder. Norway has an investment fund to support the next generations. But they are extremely environmentally conscious. Norway invests heavily in electric cars, public transit, and takes strong measures against plastic pollution. It would be very sad if Albertan leaders led their province to become like so many ressource-rich failed states
Oh hey, you’re back. 954 posts in 19 days. Still absolutely normal. Nothing suspicious here…
I'm posting an absolute SHIT-TON of content because I want to support Lemmy.
I will spare you the pain of reading through all my Lemmy posts to try to build my psychological profile (some people will do that). There is no need for it. You can just ask me.
I speak fluent french and lived in Canada for a while. I really hate car dependency and I'm very worried about pollution. I oppose corporate power concentration and I want stronger labor rights. But I lean centrist socially. I have a lot of free time and try to encourage people to engage in local politics. I support open source software like Gimp, Krita, Inkscape, VLC, LibreOffice. I don't like AI.
Any question you have ?
Since when Iran has any terrorists in the united state and canada?
Are you serious...?
Canadian Intelligence foiled an Iranian attempt to assassinate a former minister:
According to a source, the RCMP on Oct. 26 informed Mr. Cotler, a former Liberal justice minister, that he faced imminent threat of assassination within 48 hours from Iranian agents.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) told him that he was a high-profile target of Iran. The close protection provided to Mr. Cotler includes bulletproof vehicles, heavily armed officers and other security measures.
Iranians agents tried to kidnap a woman in New York City:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/nyregion/iran-masih-alinejad-kidnapping.html
Iranians agents tried to blow up the Saudi Ambassador to the United States:
https://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/30/justice/new-york-saudi-assassination-plot
As part of her climate change plan, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo is pedestrianizing streets, building bike lanes, and planting trees. The goal is to reduce carbon emissions, reduce traffic noise and make the city more able to resist heat.
She has been very aggressive and upset some car drivers. But the results are starting to pay off.
It's a tram/light rail project meant to connect a large island in Eastern Helsinki with downtown. The most significant part are 3 new bridges that only carry trams, cyclists and pedestrians.
The tram will start operation in 2027, but the bridges are opened for pedestrian traffic as they are completed. The next one should be finished later this summer.
Here's a short video of the project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTW2VIf5k0I
But the tax is set to be fully repealed on July 1. Its abolition was one of the first acts of Premier John Hogan, who took office in May. He said it was contributing to affordability issues in the province.
Very short-sighted decision.
Obesity costs the Canadian Healthcare system billions of dollars every year:
https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-025-21905-2
Currently, most Canadian politicians are treating people like little children.
It's time to tell people the brutal truth:
"We can end traffic jams in our city. But we are going to increase parking fees. We are going to build a bike lane network. Many drivers will be unhappy and will have to change their habits. Do you think it's worth it?"
"We can reduce the number of car crashes. Less people will die. Less people will be injured. But the number of speed cameras will increase. A lot of speeding citizens are going to receive fines and will be furious. Getting a driver license will also become much harder for older people. Do you think it's worth it?"
"We can make our healthcare system more financially sustainable. We can do that by increasing your income tax. Or we can increase the sales tax. Or we can tax all business owners. Or we can increase the alcohol tax and sugar tax. Which tax do you prefer? What do you think?"
"We can reduce gun trafficking. We will do it by tripling the number of inspections of trucks and cars coming from the United States. But this means longer waiting times at border crossings. The number of american tourists will be reduced. The price of some imported things may also increase. Should we do it?"
"We can significantly reduce homelessness. But we are going to build very tall buildings like in Eastern Europe blocks. We will ban cities from opposing housing projects that meet legal norms. In many neighborhoods, individual homeowners will be outraged. What do you think? Should we do it?
No pain, no gain. It's true at the gym. But it's also true in politics.
There are some decisions that are easy wins : cracking down on tax evasion, using open source software, stronger ethics laws.
Unfortunately, most decision aren't easy wins. They actually require some pain if you want gains.
Time to start treating people like adults. Tell them the brutal truth.
I'm not a Canadian citizen. I studied in Quebec before moving back to my country. I love Canada and I follow Canadian politics very closely.
Justin Trudeau has done some disappointing things. Bill C-59 is not one of them.
In fact, I believe Bill C-59 is perhaps the single greatest bill adopted under Justin Trudeau.
This bill gives enormous new powers to the Competition Bureau:
https://theconversation.com/canadas-competition-laws-just-changed-heres-what-you-need-to-know-220020
This bill also allows the Competition Bureau to punish companies that knowingly lie about their environmental record:
https://ccli.ubc.ca/bill-c-59-anti-greenwashing/
Here is a funny thing that happened. A few hours before Bill C-59 was set to pass, some oil companies started deleting content from their websites:
Pathways Alliance, a coalition of Canadian tar sands producers aiming to build a massive carbon capture project in Alberta, scrubbed their website of its content June 19.
In its place is a notice indicating the organization “removed content from our website, social media and other public communications” and that they had done so in response to anticipated changes coming with Bill C-59.
https://www.desmog.com/2024/06/20/pathways-alliance-website-scrubbed-ahead-of-new-greenwashing-law/
It's just outrageous to see Danielle Smith and these CEOs whine like that about Bill-C59.
If you don't break the law by knowingly lying, you have nothing to fear.
The United States and Canada have the most expensive elevators in the world. Prices charged in North America are at least three times those charged by the same manufacturers in comparable mid-rise buildings in high-income countries in Western Europe.
As a result, the U.S. and Canada have fewer elevators per capita than any other high-income country for which data could be found
Unique North American elevator standards have led to no discernible improvement in safety outcomes compared to those in Europe.
https://admin.centerforbuilding.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Elevatorsexecutivesummary.pdf
Canada has a very high immigration rate combined with strict zoning rules.
The result? The country is facing the worse housing crisis in the Western world. Rents have increased at double digits. Visible homelessness has skyrocketed. People are ending up on the streets. Landlords are abusing vulnerable women.
Olivia Chow claims to be a progressive fighting for ordinary people.
That turned out to be a lie. If you live in a country with a major housing crisis and oppose making housing more affordable, you aren't a progressive.