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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

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[-] [email protected] 49 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

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.

https://www.mcgill.ca/channels/channels/news/expert-canadas-dental-plan-expands-cover-children-people-disabilities-357790

This month, the Dental Care Plan is expanding again.

Citizens earning less than $70,000 are eligible for coverage:

https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/news/2025/03/canadian-dental-care-plan-expands-to-include-millions-of-new-eligible-canadians.html

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 :

https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/ca/news/life-insurance/clhia-governments-pharmacare-plan-set-to-be-more-burdensome-479479.aspx

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.

[-] [email protected] 26 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

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.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duverger%27s_law

[-] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

How are Boeing planes?

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/737-max-plane-was-built-by-clowns-and-monkeys-claim-boeing-workers-czk3txqq2?region=global

After multiple plane crashes and 700 deaths, the CEO was rewarded with $33 million dollars:

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/departing-boeing-ceo-gets-nearly-33-million-2023-total-compensation-2024-04-05/

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.

[-] [email protected] 80 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Imagine if Microsoft banned Windows users from downloading software outside the Microsoft store.

Imagine if Microsoft required all Software developers to give them 30% of their income or be banned from Windows

This is nothing but pure extortion.

Thank god for the EU, which forced Apple to back down:

Fortnite, one of the world's biggest video games, is available as an iPhone app for the first time in four years. However, it will only be available to players in the European Union. This is because EU law requires Apple to allow third-party app stores on its devices - other parts of the world do not have comparable legislation. The game was removed from the App Store in 2020 following a payments row between Apple and Epic.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c70j5rx72yvo

As for canadians/americans, they are in jail.

Imagine your friend in Europe sends you a phone invite to play .

-"Oh. I'm sorry but I am not allowed to do that 😢"

[-] [email protected] 58 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Installing Linux was a good decision.

I have not gone back to Microsoft Windows.

Don't listen to people telling you it's hard. I don't have any IT degree or engineering degree

Installing it was easy. Linux is elegant, secure and powerful. I love it.

[-] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

China is a dictatorship country with many flaws.

But for too long, Canadians have ignored the vicious American Gorilla standing up at their door.

[-] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Yes, we all need to collectively eat less red meat to reduce emissions enough so Felon musk can eat lunch in Paris 3 times a week

Actually, eating less red meat would also be great for our health:

https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2021-07-21-red-and-processed-meat-linked-increased-risk-heart-disease-oxford-study-shows

https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/study-sheds-light-on-link-between-colorectal-cancer-and-diet-high-in-red-meat/

We need to tax criminal oligarchs AND eat a bit less red meat.

It's not one or the other.

[-] [email protected] 25 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

To be clear. This is a government agency endorsing the software as safe and effective. So bureaucrats and employees can't be reprimanded if they use them.

This isn't the French Prime Minister announcing the country will cancel Microsoft Office subscriptions and build a fund to support FOSS projects. Gimp has nowhere near the ressources they actually need.

[-] [email protected] 104 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

To be clear. This is a government agency endorsing the software as safe and effective. So bureaucrats and employees can’t be reprimanded if they use them.

This isn’t the French Prime Minister announcing the country will cancel Microsoft Office subscriptions and build a fund to support FOSS projects. GIMP has nowhere near the ressources they actually need.

[-] [email protected] 118 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

To be clear. This is a government agency endorsing the software as safe and effective. So bureaucrats and employees can't be reprimanded they use them.

This isn't the French Prime Minister announcing the country will cancel Microsoft Office subscriptions and build a fund to support FOSS projects. Gimp has nowhere near the ressources they actually need.

[-] [email protected] 34 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

A vial of insulin costs far more in the U.S. than it does in Canada.

Drug prices are set by Canada’s Patented Medicine Prices Review Board which sets price caps by comparing drug prices across a group of 11 countries. The U.S. used to be included in the formula, but was removed from the group in 2022 — because U.S. drug prices are an insane global outlier.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patented_Medicine_Prices_Review_Board

A group of Pharma companies including Pfizer and Merck have asked the Trump administration to put pressure on Canada. They are accusing the country of unfair trade practices.

[-] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Justin Trudeau is a decent man. In a world where many leaders are thugs. He has done a lot of good things such as assisted dying, legal marijuana, strengthening competition law or that bill against greenwashing.

However, the single biggest failure of Trudeau was immigration.

Justin Trudeau's immigration policies were absolutely extreme. Under his leadership, the Canadian population increased by 3% a year. This is far more than France, Britain, the United States, Mexico, Turkey, Brazil or Saudi Arabia. In fact, the only region of the world where you see a 3% annual population growth is Africa.

This extreme population growth triggered an unprecedented housing crisis. Visible homelessness is rising in every single canadian city, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. People are scared to end up homeless. New migrants are viciously exploited by unethical landlords.

You can't tell people from around the world "Come to Canada" and think it will have no consequences on housing.

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dwazou

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