Context
Alberta is a conservative Canadian province that is rich because they extract a lot of oil. The Alberta Government opposes all measures that could reduce oil-production or oil consumption.
For instance, when the Canadian Federal Government tried to take measures to reduce plastics pollution, the Alberta Government publically protested.
Calgary is the largest city in Alberta. The city has a traffic violence problem. Data shows it has the worse road deaths and injuries rate of any major Canadian city.
Jyoti Gondek, the Mayor of Calgary, recently suggested building more safe bike lanes to reduce car dependency. A few days later, her office received this warning letter
Elle ment comme une arracheuse de dents.
On la voit sur cette photo avec plein de drapeaux russes derrière et photo noir et blanc de soldat soviétique ce qui correspond bien à la marche des immortels.
https://x.com/ChrisChassaigne/status/1922542784105378193/photo/2
I normally don't support bypassing paywalls for newspapers.
Quality journalism has a price. We should all support it. I lived in a country where all great newspapers collapsed, because no one wanted to subscribe (cultural reason). Only clickbait trash survived. I can assure you it's really not a nice country.
However, I'll make an exception for The Times, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch.
The same Rupert Murdoch who owns The Sun, Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, and many other media organizations. He also owned News of the World, a newspaper which illegally hacked crime victims and broke into the homes of UK politicians.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-68615789
Rupert Murdoch once attempted to blackmail the British Prime Minister
https://www.channel4.com/news/major-denies-sun-editor-abused-him-after-black-wednesday
He is also a huge climate change denier:
https://time.com/5765304/rupert-murdoch-son-climate/
This man has done more damage to democracy than any other Australian.
Fuck Rupert Murdoch.
Thank you so much. This means a lot to me.
I come from a third world country with tremendous inequality. I was born in the most privileged classes.
In my country, poor people who don't pay a lot of money die like DOGS in hospitals. Private hospitals don't hesitate to overcharge sick people as much as they can. If you are not happy, if you protest, they just let you die. We have mostly free elections. But they are useless. Because most of the time, useless and ignorant politicians get elected. Very few people read investigative journalism. In fact, our newspapers are mostly dead. I'm one of the very few people trying to financially support quality journalism in my country.
I used to think our problems were specific. We are dumb. We are fools.
Our problems are actually surprisingly common. I lived in many nations around the world. I noticed that in some countries, some cities, politicians can achieve absolutely amazing things in public health, labor rights, housing. They can really take great decisions. And I noticed that in some rich countries, like the United States, incredibly dumb and corrupt politicians can get massive popular support. And ordinary people always pay the price:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/02/10/inhaler-cost-death-optum-rx-walgreens/
My conclusion was simple. At the end of the day, everything stems from the people. In corrupt places, like my country, people don't pay attention to politics. They don't educate themselves about policies. They don't read quality newspapers. Few people get involved in the local community. As a result, they can be easily lied to by oligarchs.
In democracies that work great, like Denmark, you have ordinary people that educate themselves and actively get involved in their local community. They support strong independent newspapers. They join community organizations pushing for change. They pay close attention to their MPs and their votes.
If my comment helps people pay closer attention to politics, then I would have achieved my goal.
Understanding the politics.
After the last 2021 election, Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party didn't have enough seats in Parliament.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Canadian_federal_election#Results
Jagmeet Singh (NDP) asked Justin Trudeau for 3 laws:
A law creating Dental Care
A law creating Pharma Care
A law protecting striking workers against scabs.
In exchange for these 3 laws, the NDP signed an agreement where they promised to not bring-down the minority Liberal Government.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60837941
The 3 laws were voted by Parliament.
Liberals agree to launch dental care program in exchange for NDP support
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeu-jagmeet-singh-deal-government-1.6393021
Liberal, NDP bill to cover diabetes and birth control medication receives royal assent
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/pharmacare-bill-passes-senate-1.7349433
Liberals table bill to ban replacement workers, fulfilling a key NDP demand
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/anti-scab-labour-federally-regulated-workplaces-1.7023020
The agreement between Justin Trudeau and the NDP ended prematurely in 2024. Singh noticed that Trudeau was becoming politically toxic. But Dental Care was adopted. Pharmacare was adopted. That's what's important.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/jagmeet-singh-ndp-ending-agreement-1.7312910
This is why I love multiparty politics. It forces governments to be more responsive.
Countries with proportional representation often end up with better governments than country with 2-party politics. My dream is for Canada to change the first-past-the-post voting system. The First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) voting system is the reason why some countries only have 2 powerful political parties.
I have my fair share of criticism with Jagmeet Singh. But I'm very happy about what the NDP parliament members achieved. Politics can be very ungrateful and brutal.
In this election, the NDP was crushed.
To quote this recent article:
A bitterness is emerging from the results of that agreement which the NDP undertook to get solid benefits for Canadians The NDP were propping up Trudeau’s minority government as the tradeoff for getting those results for Canadians. But for the most part that commitment and effort is falling short of recognition and did not produce electoral results for the NDP in the April 28, 2025 election.
https://islandsocialtrends.ca/ndp-made-canadas-dental-plan-possible-now-carney-promotes-it/
https://islandsocialtrends.ca/ndp-made-canadas-dental-plan-possible-now-carney-promotes-it/
(Alistair MacGregor is an NDP MP who just lost his seat)
Most Canadian voters may not be aware of it - sadly - but you guys made Canada a better nation.
Thank you so much.
Why are you saying all this?
Results are important. But it's also very important people understand how we got there.
So. What now ?
Children under the age of 18 are now covered by the recently created Canadian Dental Care plan.
This month, the Dental Care Plan is expanding again.
Citizens earning less than $70,000 are eligible for coverage:
The Canadian Labor Unions have called Mark Carney to expand Pharmacare immediately:
https://canadianlabour.ca/canadas-unions-call-for-immediate-expansion-of-universal-pharmacare/
I urge people to resist any propaganda from insurance companies like Sun Life. For these corporations, this is a direct threat to their business :
https://www.sunlife.ca/sl/cdcp/en/
The Canadian Insurance Companies publically called Canadian lawmakers to NOT vote Pharmacare :
They did it anyway.
The campaign finance system isn't as corrupt as the US (thank god), but they still have allies and friends. They can pay youtube influencers to lie. They can buy ads in newspapers. They can pay shady "think-tanks" that don't disclose their source of funding. So be on your guard. If you can afford it, please support quality journalism. We need it more than ever.
The hard thing is going to be managing DentalCare and Pharmacare properly. It will require honest and determined leadership. It will also require funding. Hopefully, the Carney government will keep rolling them out.
Mark Carney tried to politically capitalize on them during the election. This means they will hopefully be safe.
Je suis globalement d'accord avec toi. Mon argument n'était pas de dire que Libération était parfait.
Cependant, en terme de qualité de l'information, ce genre de journaux restent bien au dessus des imbécilités qu'on retrouve sur les réseaux sociaux.
I'm not British. But this is what I think Britain needs :
1. Campaign finance reform. The United Kingdom is one of the only democracies in the world where corporations are allowed to wire hundreds of thousands of pounds to political parties. Brits often argue their system is better than the US. I'm sorry, but being better than the US is the same as having no standards at all.
2. Publically owned water companies. The senior management of UK water companies have looted the country. Billions were lost. It's a complete disaster.
3. A ban on gambling ads. Gambling ruins the lives of so many people.
These 3 policies are not extreme in any way. They are not far-left, hard-left, communist, or whatever. They are simply about creating better incentives for a better country. Implementing them would help ordinary people.
Yet Keir Starmer doesn't have seem to have the guts to do that. I hope I'm proved wrong.
Britons deserves better.
Libé est devenu l’organe de propagande de Kretinsky
Voila un peu ce que je dénonce.
Une inquiétude totalement légitime (l'influence de l'argent sur la couverture médiatique) qui se transforme en pur complotisme ("Kretinsky veut que les journalistes de Libé détruisent la gauche").
1. Daniel Kretinsky n'est pas un actionnaire de Libération.
2. Libération n'est pas un journal poubelle comme Cnews ou Valeurs Actuelles. Libération emploie de vrais journalistes, qui ont une vraie formation de journalistes, et qui sont dotés de vraies cartes de presse.
3. Le directeur de la rédaction de Libération est élu par les journalistes. C'est très rare en France.
4. Libération a gagné l'immense majorité de ses procès en diffamation
5. Ces dernières années, Libération a sorti des affaires véritablement hallucinantes :
👉 https://www.liberation.fr/dossier/hommes-rue-du-bac/
👉https://www.liberation.fr/societe/education/derriere-les-murs-de-lecole-la-plus-riche-de-france-jeannine-manuel-une-machine-a-cash-alimentee-par-largent-public-20241107_SHQISFYPTBFZRM7QBMIBJAA63Q/
To do list for Mark Carney:
Encourage all Government Agencies to switch to Linux. It's completely ridiculous that hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money are wasted every year on Microsoft licenses. The French Gendarmerie switched to Linux and they never went back to Windows. They saved millions. Money that they can spend on actually doing their job.
Create a Canadian fund to encourage Open Source Software. A $10 million fund over 5 years would not be much money, but it could help open source software developers. A small $100 000 grant could really help Gimp, Kdenlive and Krita fight Adobe. Too many Canadian artists and Canadian production companies are exploited by Adobe.
Ban foreigners from owning more than 40% of any Canadian media outlet. It's absolutely sickening that an american hedge fund (Chatham Asset Management) currently owns 20 different canadian newspapers.
Reduce the immigration rate. Justin Trudeau did a lot of good things, but immigration was one of two biggest failures. Under his leadership, the population increased by 3% a year. The Canadian population increase twice as fast as the population of Mexico, Brazil, Spain, the United States, Turkey, Saudi Arabia. This is too extreme. Canada should aim for 2% population growth instead of 3%. Also, don't concentrate people in a single place. It's wrong to have a 4% population growth in Toronto and 0.5% elsewhere.
Improve the voting system. This was the second failure of Justin Trudeau. The First-Past-The-Post voting system is just flawed. It is basically designed to create two very powerful political parties, at the expense of pluralism. FPTP is the reason why the US is stuck with only two parties.
I'm not Australian and I don't know much about Australian politics.
However, I know that Australian people drive some of the biggest cars in the world. Car companies just manufacture huge SUVs and sell them to the Australian, thinking "these dumb fucks will buy them".
That's not good for the climate. That's bad for the roads. That's not even good for Australians themselves, because it's very unsafe for pedestrians. I heard that Albanese encouraged mandatory rules for better fuel efficiency. Which is a good idea. I just don't understand why the other bald guy says they are bad.
In the 1990s and 2000s, the US Auto Industry successfully fought against every attempt to impose fuel efficiency rules. After US Auto manufacturers went bankrupt in 2008, President Obama bailed them out and forced them to save some fuel. Because outside North American, no one wanted to buy american cars anymore.
During his first mandate, Trump rolled back all those Obama fuel-efficiency rules:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/15/us/politics/trump-obama-fuel-economy-standards.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/13/climate/cafe-emissions-rollback-oil-industry.html
Lack of strong fuel efficiency rules is the main reason why American cars are so heavy and consume so much oil compared to European cars. The bald candidate is wrong to say fuel efficiency rules are bad.
How are Boeing planes?
After multiple plane crashes and 700 deaths, the CEO was rewarded with $33 million dollars:
If you crash several planes in China, you face death penalty.
Recently, a factory exploded in Tianjin. At least 20 people were hanged. The owner of the factory, the director of the factory, the managers of the factory, the city safety inspectors. That's the Chinese quality insurance system. This is how they keep businessmen in check.
Petroleum producers and refiners pocketed after-tax profit of $192 billion over the last four years alone. That is four times more than in the entire 2010s.
https://centreforfuturework.ca/2025/05/30/albertans-economic-hardship-reflects-provincial-policy-choices-not-attacks-by-the-rest-of-canada/
Under the Trudeau Government, oil production reached the highest level in Canadian history
https://www.statcan.gc.ca/o1/en/plus/7940-another-record-year-canadian-crude-oil-crude-oil-year-review-2024
In fact, Justin Trudeau opened a brand new pipeline:
https://www.statcan.gc.ca/o1/en/plus/7940-another-record-year-canadian-crude-oil-crude-oil-year-review-2024
Are some Albertans not aware of this? !!!!