Here’s a lesson in statistics and manipulative media. Policy Options’s Eugene Lang takes a look at public service employment statistics and manages to get just about everything wrong by misrepresenting what the data actually says. His very first words are a fabrication: “Forty-three per cent. That is how much Canada’s ‘core’ federal public administration —…
Once again – the rising cost of housing has a lot more to do with private sector interference than it has to do with immigration. On the one hand, the housing available to Canadians is being reduced by speculators and would-be AirBnB hosts. “The Bank of Canada found that investors were responsible for 30 per…
How do you think a conservative administration will shape the future of Canada for the next 5-10 years? I’m getting ready for the recession now. Every time we have a Conservative government we have a made-in-Canada recession. There’s no reason to believe this time will be any different. Spending will go up, a lot, but…
All drawn from a Reddit thread. Here’s the setup. Calibre Magazine ran an article misleadingly titled ‘Total Spending On Long Gun Ban Will Exceed $100M This Fiscal Year‘. Misleading because the actual text of the government document references “to complete the collection and destruction of business owned assault style firearms and to establish a compensation…
Pierre Poilievre says he would defund the CBC. “I can’t wait to defund the CBC and sell off the headquarters for housing,” Poilievre posted on X this summer. I’d rate the CBC as neutral. As a left-winger I often find it too right-wing for my tastes – this is especially the case in news opinion…
In a click-bait headline, the Globe and Mail pronounces, A hard diversity quota for medical-school admissions is a terrible, counterproductive idea (link to paywalled article). All other things being equal, access to essential social services such as higher education should reflect the demographics of the wider society, within a reasonable margin of error. This is…
From grantpotter @grantpotter Pro-democracy activists have shown that far-right demonstrations of power have six core goals: To legitimize their views, strengthen their self-image as part of the downtrodden, unite their squabbling factions, attract new people to the movement, control media coverage, and feel powerful and heroic. https://bad-faith-times.ghost.io/weird-and-the-breaking-of-the-fascist-fever/ And from Anne-Marie Scott @Ammienoot@social.ds106.us @grantpotter “Progressives should…
Pierre Poilievre has said that if the Conservatives form the next federal government, it not would provide “a single taxpayer dollar” to supervised consumption sites (SCS) for addicts, calling them “drug dens.” Poilievre’s comments are a reflection of what you get when you address social problems with dogma rather than evidence. People don’t intend to…
On Reddit and the Star is was suggested that: Trudeau and Singh must look to France to avoid a Poilievre government In France, the lesson is that proportional representation is more democratic than first-past-the-post. In the recent election, the centrist Macron (similar to Trudeau) did not make any deals with the left wing parties. Rather,…
People are endlessly worried that AI will take jobs away from people. I don’t agree that jobs (librarians or others) are inherently good things. If I could do without a job, I would. What’s inherently good is the *income* we get from jobs. The ability to get the things we need and want to thrive…