the watcher

Agreed I wouldn't call inflation rampant YET. But it is heading that way. All I said was having lived through it, in an industry that carries heavy debt loads it scares the hell out of me. I dont find it at all a joking matter.It changed my view of the business, politics and economics and the world.. Interestingly it moved me to the left.

Yes, but we were subjected to skyrocketing interest rates due to a falling dollar. The falling dollar had alot to do with poor economic decisions by the government and rampant inflation. You may not want to call it " hyper inflation " ( as in prewar Germany ) but it was " hyper " enough to be the basis of a near collapse. My point was rampant inflation is no joking matter. To belittle it , and mock the fear of it is ridiculous. I

I lived through %20 interest rates. I saw real good people lose their farms out of nothing other than bad timing. So that's their business, their homes , their lifestyles and dreams. It took damn near a lifetime to recover. So ya, it scares the hell out of me. It's not a joking matter. I'll just add I don't really care about " agendas," left or right or the name on the party. Just decent government. I have voted for both Doer and Harper.

As someone who absolutely dislikes Trudeau and won't vote for him I have to give him credit for his handling of this. I doubt he runs again , he had such a low % of the popular vote. % 32 , which is lower than the PCs had. ( that happened in the last election as well mind you ) But if this protest has done anything , it has probably increased his popularity. Many of the Conservatives are pandering to a segment that will vote for them regardless. They are pushing away the more centralist segment of the population. It's the old " cutting off your nose dispite your face " bit. It's going to cost them.

This was the risk with not responding with a heavy hand right away. ( and I understand the hesitancy) . Now a path to success has been laid for every nutbar group around the world. Whether it was successful or not doesn't matter , as it is seen as that.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/20/ottawa-protests-capital-police-clear-blockade The delusional led by delusional cowards.

Agreed, it's mostly about the melt. The other issue is the drainage that has occurred. Previously as the snow melts the water would fill the sloughs and lower areas which would lower the peak flows. Many of those areas have been drained and ditched and that melt water just fires through. It's been an odd winter. My life lately consists of snow blowing my close to a mile long lane. I don't ever recall getting Alberta clippers like this. There's been no big Colorado lows ,just non-stop clippers. As Spock use to say "Fascinating"

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/21/mark-finchem-trump-arizona-elections-secretary-of-state Their system contines to crumble.

Gardwine is running ads for truckers every morning on CJOB. They make a point of "saying without saying " that they can still use unvaccinated truckers. When this whole thing started I said that it was all BS. I seriously could find a job for any competent trucker vaccinated or not in an hour. That's not an exaggeration.

It's hard to believe the same species that is doing this is also carrying on like idiots here on the ground.

Funny, I've just been taking stock of the misconceptions and ignorance . It's another pandemic. No seems to know : - What the Charter of rights and freedoms really says -What freedom in a society means - the difference between want / desire and right - whether you like a particular leader or not is inconsequential. They were elected by our democracy. - What a Nazi is. In particular that neither our current PM Trudeau or our previous PM Harper are or were Nazis - What an Anglo- Saxon is , or the history of them. - That there are no real " pure races " - Lastly , history. There seems to be an amazing lack of knowledge about the history of the world, from ancient to recent.

Depending what happens over the next decade we could easily become the USA 's " Ukraine. "

Everytime I hear " their version of " I think back to 20 years ago when my 10yr old son and I found a " Spaderman " in a dollar store . It looked exactly like you would think a " Spaderman " would look like. So bad It was awesome. I so regret not buying it. I would post a picture of it every time I heard that phrase " their version of "

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/16/ottawa-blockade-strong-ties-extremists I'll add this , it's what the world gets to see of Canada now. I agree with your post %100. Part of " Law , order and good government " is squashing these extremists before it emboldens those who quietly support their ideas. It was left far to long.

Sometimes this doesn't look like Canada anymore.

Utterly disgusting. Wheres our common decency ? Where's our self- respect ? Where's our leadership ? This needs to end now.

So Ford has cleared the port of entry, Kenny has cleared the port of entry and our Premier is negotiating. Personally I would prefer the negotiation tactics of Korbin Dallas in The Fifth Element. https://youtu.be/n4Qcm24dxaA

I think you are right in that there will be alot of regular Conservative voters that will be angry over this. Will they move their vote ? Maybe. I have an extremely flexible vote that depends on the Leader and the issues of the time. I have decided I can't vote Conservative Federally or Provincial again until they : 1- find proper leadership, 2- embrace the issues of the time, not the issues of the previous generation. 3- can reflect the will of the general population , 4- can convince me that they aren't willing to sell their soul ( and mine lol ) to just get elected.

Since many provinces have now announced the removal of restrictions in short order and the blockades and protests continue, it's obvious that there were other reasons why they are there. I think it's a desire of of many of them to be involved in a Trump/ Maga type movement. That includes all the ugliness and hate that is deeply imbeded in that movement. I find it shameful and embarrassing to have the world watching this. I hope that there are many people moving away from supporting any political party that is not actively fighting and resisting that movement.

Yes, but the zambonie wont accidentaly run into them.

Kind of crazy that Ford seems to be a voice of reason ( sometimes ) in all of this. Yes, it's one of the 1st things I noticed after 2 years of " we will have to watch the numbers as time goes by. before we make that decision " Now its set in stone.

I'd hoped to see this opening done alot slower. Start with numbers per sq ft. Then I guess the cards. Then finally masks. Maybe be all in by May or June. To this old farmer that would be the intelligent way to do it. The one thing I really don't want is to go back to full lockdown because we rushed it. A week or 2 ago they said they wanted to be open by spring. Now its a month ? In my mind this is being rushed due to the pressure from the Anti everything's. And that's wrong. Just like dealing with a bratty kid, you can't give in.

Let me preface my comments and say I am a big supporter of balanced budgets in most situations. One of the reasons is that it then allows us to run a deficit in tough times. I fully understand where printing money and hyper inflation takes us because Ive lived through it. I'm vaxed, still go out and have been a big supporter of our rules. And would like to see the rules slowly reduced. I agree maybe let's ignore the Nazis at these protests. But %90 the others that are protesting have been fighting the rules all along. If we had followed their ways we would have overwhelmed our hospital system. Look up the numbers. Can you imagine matching Peru's %6 fatality rate ? I know multiple anti vaxers whose lives were saved in ICU when they got Covid because there was room for them. These are people who have fought any rules from the start. There is no nation, no society , no civilization ,nor has there ever been one that has not had restrictions on freedoms. What we can't allow is a small group of people to do is stop business, stop trade, and give a black eye to this country internationally. The City, the truckers association, the business associations all are asking for it to be stopped. As far as your solutions for fixing our healthcare system let's discuss #1 ,going totally private. I will ignore Switzerland because they are an outlier in every discussion on anything. Let's look at the US. MY figures are prepandemic and off the top of my head but they should be quite accurate. Cost, Canada - % 10.7 of our GDP. US - % 17.3. Effectiveness, Canada 12- 14 th in life expectancy. The US 32- 35th in life expectancy. Just for fun see if you can name 35 modern, advanced functioning countries. It puts them down with some very ugly company. The last time I looked, the number 1 cause of bankruptcy in the US was illness. The vast majority of people in the US want universal healthcare. But their well to do people are quite healthy. A totally private system can't even enter the discussion. There are many other systems we can look at to fix the inadequacies in our system. Interestingly France had quite a low death rate during Covid and their particular system is often rated very high. But there is no system in the world that wasn't overloaded in Covid. Finally I know just as many people who have been affected by the rules who are pro mask, and vax, as those who aren't. What we see at the protests and blockades are the childish ,arrogant , selfish and thoughtless ones.

One more point for every level of government. Precedence is being set here. The next time indigenous, LGBQT, the gun lobby , the anti gun lobby or any other group with a bone to pick , just or not ,have an issue, they have a template on how to get attention. . Let's see if Mr Goertzen is so understanding then.

Goertzen on the radio " alot of people ,depending what SIDE OF THE DISCUSSION you are on want us to tell the police to end it. You might like it this time but next time........ blah blah." These morons don't get it. First off , what discussion ? The protestors are breaking the law . Laws you enacted. You have a very small minority demanding they control health regulations. Its effecting business and trade. I'm pretty sure if this goes much longer violence will end up happening. It's embarassing that the US would feel they need to offer to step in. Edit : I just fired off an email to my MLA expressing my view that this needs to end now. I doubt it gets a response or even read but you never know. If they hear enough voices .......