wampus

joined 4 months ago
[–] wampus@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Couple notes.

If you read the mandate letters handed out by the BC NDP to government agencies, many don't have any real direction to take action on Canadian supply chain integrity / tariff stuff. For example the BC FSA mandate from May 2025 includes verbiage like:

In the current economic and fiscal context including the threat of U.S. tariffs and other global economic challenges affecting British Columbian families, your organization is to work with ministry staff to review all existing programs and initiatives to ensure programs remain relevant, efficient, sustainable, grow the economy, and help keep costs low for British Columbians.

The direction of action in the second half of that line, does not require specific action in response to the tariffs/global trade situation noted in the first half -- it's more a general direction to try to "keep things cheap", than it is "try to keep things Canadian / secure". And that's the directive to an industry defined as critical infrastructure in Canada.

Similarly, the mandate letter to the folks in charge of BC Ferries makes mention of the global issues / tariffs, but mostly directs the Minister of Transportation and Transit to keep costs low, with no explicit directives to ensure Canadian supply chain sovereignty nor security.

So despite all the "pro Canada" marketing that goes on by our government, they aren't actually telling anyone in an operational sense to follow through on any of it. Hell, our government couldn't function without Microsoft even -- it's hard to argue we have sovereignty, when our own government is dependant on a subscription to a US company to exist/function.

Other note worth pointing out is that the process for getting the ferries was a bid open to Canadian shipyards, but no Canadian ship builders bid. Freeland can be as dismayed as she likes, if no Canadian business felt capable of competing for the work, it's not like the government can force them to take it. Besides, companies like Irving Shipyards, with their Bermuda tax haven to dodge taxes in Canada, aren't exactly stellar role models of Canadian industry in the first place.

The feds and prov governments have basically engineered Canada's economy to be driven by Oil exports, housing and healthcare, for practically decades. Throwing your hands up and acting all shocked and dismayed that other industries have generally withered and died in the country, is just stupid. It's not like Freeland and the Liberals weren't part of causing this problem for the past 40+ years -- JT was the guy who even declared Canada a post-national country, abandoning even the idea of a unifying Canadian identity.

[–] wampus@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 days ago

I think there's a bit more to it. US support and ability to get other countries to go along with that support, is what has provided Israel with its arms and ability to intimidate regional neighbours. If the US's global influence wanes, it's an existential threat for Israel. The US's global influence is waning. The damage done by Trump, so far, will take decades/generations to correct in a best case scenario. Israel is desperate to re-orient power dynamics in the region while they still can.

Eg. If BRICS, and specifically China/India become more dominant / insulated from US 'sanction' coersion, as they generally are trending, then China and others may take a more active role in providing trade and support to countries like Iran -- China already buys like 90% of the oil from Iran, so it isn't unbelievable that they'd have an interest in preventing Israel from randomly blowing shit up there and destabilizing their cheap, largely uncontested oil supply. Similar story for Russia, who are buying/using Iranian drones in their war in Ukraine, and will likely integrate their use more thoroughly in their military going forward given the efficacy of the tech. Either Russia or China could supply Iran with Enriched Uranium, and other tech. Especially as there's less reason to participate in any sort of Nuclear non-proliferation treaty these days, given how things have played out.

China/India have long been thought to be 'rising' super powers, with many articles/models previously forecasting their 'ascent' in the latter half of the 21st century. Israel's actions are basically accelerating the negative trends for traditional powers, as a gamble where they hope they'll come out ahead once the dust settles.

[–] wampus@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 days ago

It's too bad our government doesn't seem to share this stance. There seems to be more and more cases where they use 'elbows up' type marketing messages, while implementing an 'elbows down, cheeks spread' set of practices.

Was just looking at some of the govt sector mandate letters for 2025, and.... while tariffs are mentioned, there's no real direction to take action.

Like in BC, Eby and them attempt to paint themselves as pro Canada, only to issue these lame-duck mandate letters to gov regulators/industry. An example? The closest the BC FSA (financial regulators) 2025 mandate letter comes to the subject is prolly with this line:

In the current economic and fiscal context including the threat of U.S. tariffs and other global economic challenges affecting British Columbian families, your organization is to work with ministry staff to review all existing programs and initiatives to ensure programs remain relevant, efficient, sustainable, grow the economy, and help keep costs low for British Columbians.

Note that the 'actions' directed in the second half of that line, don't actually address the threat noted in the first half. There's no push to distance from US tech companies; so long as they're cheap, sovereignty be damned.

The BC financial regulators are fully entrenched in Microsoft products / American cloud systems. So the regulator of one of our "Critical Industries" can't perform their duties without paying a subscription to a US company. Totally sounds like we're a sovereign nation to me....

[–] wampus@lemmy.ca 0 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Meh, a direct pissing match against a bag of piss isn't likely to go well.

Carney pre-removedification had the right idea -- he just needs to remember what he'd been saying on the campaign trail. Like how he wasn't going to pre-emptively make concessions/statements, as that would harm trade negotiations.... but then when he gets into the hot seat, he's pre-emptively bailing on the DST. Or how he confidently said shit like "We need to focus more on the things that are in our control, as the US will do whatever the US will do" (or something along those lines) -- just let the piss bag piss himself, and focus on other markets.

Waa waa, it takes time to detangle supply chains! Well it's been 8+ months, how much progress have these companies/industries made? Any? No? Well too fuckin bad then.

[–] wampus@lemmy.ca 21 points 4 days ago (2 children)

It's a really good way to bribe politicians and public figures.

[–] wampus@lemmy.ca 27 points 4 days ago (4 children)

digital services tax.

[–] wampus@lemmy.ca 3 points 4 days ago

Walk away, let him tariff whatever. Bring back the DST to make the tech companies whine. Only remove it if the US gets serious about getting something in place. zzz.

[–] wampus@lemmy.ca 23 points 4 days ago (6 children)

So if he isn't bothering with a trade deal, I guess Canada can bring back the DST?

[–] wampus@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 days ago

In many cases, I'd say it's because they aren't IT or IT Security focused businesses. A pizza shop, clothing retailer, or whatnot, needs IT stuff to function, but that's not the focus of their business. Hiring an IT team at IT worker rates is expensive, especially as a support/tertiary role for your business.

[–] wampus@lemmy.ca 17 points 5 days ago (1 children)

If Justin Trudeau is going to date any 'celebrity', it should be Olivia Wilde, not Katy Perry.

Olivia Wilde's ancestor, George Cockburn, is the guy responsible for burnin down the White House.

[–] wampus@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Wouldn't designating a stall or two in the women's as pee only, so that the pee'rs can go quicker without having to wait for people doin other stuff, basically rectify that.... without needing to gum up the more efficient urinal situation men get? That way they'd have that 'fast lane' option, just like guys, while guys could still have the more convenient-for-their-body urinals to use. Maybe get an engineer to make like a pee-troth for women to squat along for peeing en masse, and designate half the bathroom to that, like how urinals are done in mens rooms.

Equity should generally be about improving the situation for the disadvantaged demo, without dragging everyone else down, no? Not causing added issue for existing people / setups is also an argument for lettin trans people go wherever they're comfortable -- cause it wouldn't make sense to have to setup a bathroom for every gender identity out there.

[–] wampus@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 week ago

Eh, online polls, with practically no respondents from one of the most important demographics (only 47 FN in the mix), are pretty lackluster / non-news. Part that seems worthwhile in the article is the note that better surveys should be done. Seeing the article on a FN news site, I'm surprised they didn't attempt to poll their readership to get another data point.

Also, francophones being more positive on this front wouldnt be a huge surprise. The rhetoric / angst for the history is largely aimed at anglo colonials -- and it's such that it targets all english speaking white people, regardless of whether their families were around during the period or not. The french are likely more prone to absolve themselves of guilt, because "we were oppressed by those anglos too!". Kinda like how none of the asian/middle eastern/african immigrants I know, think any of this stuff applies to them / is a dig at them. When non-Caucasian Immigrants see anti-colonial graffiti scrawled all over an alley, they don't generally seem to take that as a demand being made of them.

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