CalPal

2 Hot takes:

1. This is, what? The fourth election the Conservatives have lost in a row? The third since the Liberals first ran for retaining their position as the governing party, at the least. If they aren't winning with moderate candidates, and they aren't winning with reformist far-right candidates, how can the Conservatives justify to their own party that they can competently prove themselves to be a governing party when seemingly no leadership style is shaking the Liberals?

This is likely going to lead to the Conservatives splitting between the reformers and the moderates once more, as either is going to believe the other side is inhibiting their ability to lead a new government. Reformers will likely solidify everywhere between the East of the Rockies and West of Ontario (Eastern BC and all the Prairie Provinces, I'm thinking), while the Conservatives will have to once again fight for representation largely in Ontario and (maybe) the Atlantic Provinces.

It would be nice to see the Right-wing splitting their votes the same way the Left does for NDP and Liberals, if for no other reason than to help make Minority governments more prominent in Canada as a whole; however,

2. Doug Ford might genuinely abandon the Provincial government and use this as a chance to catapult his brand to the Federal level. He could also (maybe?) be the first politician to serve on a Municipal, Provincial and Federal level within a single career. As much of a shit-show as he is, he also undeniably can win seats in Ontario, most crucially in the Toronto area, and the Federal Conservatives really need someone who can do that.

Simple why it's so effective:

Institutions are facing increasingly insurmountable problems, and people are not dealing with the consequences and stress that comes from these problems. They want answers and solutions.

Institutions ask for you to have patience and give them time to fix the issues. Problem: people already don't believe that the institutions are fixing things, so you can't rely on them to fix it. The solution, they feel, has to come from elsewhere.

Left-wing propaganda says that the institution is broken, they will fix it. They want to take the money away from the ultra rich and give it back to the public as a form of equalization. If you are part of the ultra rich, you don't like this.

Right-wing propaganda says the institution is broken, they will fix it. Right-wingers generally believe in the accumulation of capital for themselves via "merit", which means the upper class and billionaires are likely to be supporting / using them.

People believe that things need to be fixed (which is likely true). Only left-wing and right-wing propaganda say that the institution needs to be fixed, it definitely isn't coming from the institution itself.

The ultra rich fund whichever propaganda will allow them to retain their own benefits and works to suppress the propaganda of the ones who work against their interests.

Hence, right-wing propaganda is massively inflated to support fixing a system that allows retaining wealth, while they suppress left-wing propaganda which says wealth needs to be redistributed to the masses.

To clarify: "The Crown" is often a short-handed statement for the executive government, which is basically the Cabinet for the PMO (Prime Minister's Office) - all the Ministers of different government departments. Symbolically, they work in the interest of the de jure (written in law) authority of Canada, which would be the Monarchy in Britain (who is also symbolically head of state for every other Commonwealth nation). Now, as to touch on the British Commonwealth (since "The Crown" in Canada would basically be decimated in a conventional confrontation with the US):

It would turn into an existential crisis for everyone, I assume. A lot of "every man for himself" sort of mentality, but I assume there would be those who would want to fund a Canadian resistance (even if paltry) simply on the notion that an Imperial America is a FAR worse threat than anything Europe had faced before (expansionist policies, current global economic power, utterly disconnected from mainland Europe and the largest navy and airforce combined... kind of a worse situation than Fascist Germany, since it would be far more difficult to deal any direct damage to US infrastructure from the other side of the pond).

I'll be honest, I would have no idea if the Commonwealth would actually step up in a way that is remotely similar to what we have done for Ukraine. I would honestly expect more help from Mexico and Latin Americans than I would the Commonwealth, as they would see that the US would be a very tangible threat at this point and also share the all-too-important land boarder.

The following statement is entirely relevant to this game:

Fuck Jimmy.

I don't want to comment one way or another on the health and well-being of Doug Ford in this particular instance, other than to say thank god he didn't actually die, but for those of us who have had any regular experience driving on the 401, how are we fucking surprised by this?

The driving is absolutely atrocious even without dangerous, reckless and incompetent drivers, and our infrastructure and institutions basically are forcing more and more drivers to be on the roads, even when the science explicitly states that the only way to reduce traffic is to reduce the number of cars on the road, full stop. Do you think, by chance, that this would have happened on a train? A bus? I know that there are physical and logistical impracticalities of getting the Premier transported securely and safely outside of a dedicated transport vehicle, BUT THAT IS EXACTLY WHERE WE THE PUBLIC ARE STUCK.

I'm sure another fucking highway to nowhere will solve all our problems...

They once said that Ukraine would get absolutely rolled by Russia within 3 days, 2 weeks tops.

Never underestimate a pissed off underdog, especially when fealty to the US President is nowhere near as "strong" / co-opted as in the Russian Federation.

Yeah, that's probably correct... but what the hell kind of a solution are we supposed to be looking for? Reason is being lost on them, and it becomes increasingly exhausting to try and convince them to not believe in something they want to believe in.

Maybe it doesn't do anyone any good, but I'm fucking tired of pretending that their opinions are in any way valid.

I'm gonna bet that someone is connected to Enbridge and they had people whispering to Doug "hey, just so you know, gas is clean. It doesn't burn dirty, you can't even see the fumes! It's totally fine, you can trust us with a bigger contract!"

I don't know, but that's management's excuse. It's their right to manage, even if it's a shit job.

Like I said, it's exhausting dealing with people who are just absolutely disconnected from driving conditions on these roads. And to me, it seems like management is perfectly okay with closing their eyes to the issue.

Good, challenge Ford. Don't let him get away with dumb shit like this.

I don't work for TTC but another transit agency. I mentioned to my union rep that we should be using the cameras WE ALREADY HAVE (in case we get into accidents) to record when people do shit like this in front of our buses, and they said that was a really good idea. I also submitted a service enhancement form to management to suggest this very idea.

You know what their response was?

"It is a privacy concern."

Yes, taking pictures of license plates, WHICH ARE LEGALLY REQUIRED TO BE DISPLAYED WHEN ON PUBLIC ROADS, is somehow considered to be a PRIVACY ISSUE by a PUBLIC TRANSIT AGENCY.

This is what our management is like. Suffice to say, I've given up on expecting anything better anytime soon.

The guy has 34 felony counts on him, as is. What's one more legal violation, at this point?