~*Official Canada Thread of Good Governance and Unnecessary Apologizing*~

[CitizenVectron]

The solution is not too hard:

• Allow any type of residential in any density in any zone (except industrial, I guess)
• Make it cheaper/easier to build lots of new units
• Ban ownership of residential units by corporations (except apartment buildings)
• Ban foreign ownership of residential units

The only one being considered is the last, and that's because politicians don't mind riling up people against people outside the country. No politician will allow homes to fall from $1 milion to $500k because then all the boomers who plan to use their equity to retire (because they didn't save enough) will turn against them.

[Jason]

12 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

Allow any type of residential in any density in any zone (except industrial, I guess)

 

Japan has a great zoning system. IIRC even their "lowest nuisance" zoning allows for stuff like small corner stores. Also it's illegal to buy a car without being able to prove that you have an off street parking space lined up for it. 

 

12 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

Ban foreign ownership of residential units

 

This is a complete red herring. I never see any actual data backing claims that this is a problem and the claims pretty much always seem to involve xenophobia. New Zealand tried banning foreign ownership to solve their housing crisis and it did jack shit. Like, not "oh it helped but nowhere near enough", it just didn't do anything because it's not the actual problem. 

 

Legalize building lots of housing and you won't need to fret about who's buying it. 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

You also need to expand transit (subway, regional rail, trolleys, busses, and alternative transportation) to go along with the increased density otherwise it’s a snarl of car traffic and actually sucks because instead of having cool, small green spaces, you need that space to store cars. 

[AbsolutSurgen]

There are lots of different opinions on how to fix the housing prices in Canada (which have increased 180% in the last 10-years).  At this point, I'm not sure who to believe, however...

1)  There seems to be a general consensus among laypeople that prices will continue to increase, and they need to "get-in"

2)  Low interest rates have allowed prices to increase

3)  There seems to be a mismatch in availability vs. demand.  Single-detached housing in Southern Ontario in particular has sky-rocketed, and it is no longer just in the GTA.  Even small towns are seeing these increases.  [Anecdotally, I have had numerous cousins move out of the GTA to WFH in smaller towns during the pandemic.]

4)  We are still seeing high levels of immigration which is adding to the demand side of the issue.

9 hours ago, CitizenVectron said:

The solution is not too hard:

• Allow any type of residential in any density in any zone (except industrial, I guess)
• Make it cheaper/easier to build lots of new units
• Ban ownership of residential units by corporations (except apartment buildings)
• Ban foreign ownership of residential units

The only one being considered is the last, and that's because politicians don't mind riling up people against people outside the country. No politician will allow homes to fall from $1 milion to $500k because then all the boomers who plan to use their equity to retire (because they didn't save enough) will turn against them.

• Putting any density in any zone doesn't always work.  You need the infrastructure (schools, utilities, transportation, etc.) to support the density.
• How do you do this?
• Is this a widespread issue?
• This is clearly part of the problem in Vancouver/Toronto.  Foreigners parking their money in real estate (often leaving the units unoccupied).  However, even if it was eliminated, I think it would only have a marginal impact on pricing.

[chakoo]

I'd also add we're seeing a flood of immigration and raised salaries in the tech sector that increases what people can spend on housing. As well from what I'm hearing there are less seniors moving in to LTCH which is reducing the usual property churn.

 

I was looking into properties with the wife recently and there really isn't much out there in the GTA and what is, was going for above listed prices but that looks to have cooled off some. Yet it's inflating the listing prices on new listings. There is a building not far from me where condo units are selling for north of 2 mil and that is crazy (it's not even like these units are in a expensive hotel or highrise, it's a 30-40 year old building).

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

1 hour ago, chakoo said:

raised salaries in the tech sector that increases what people can spend on housing.

Well well well if it isn’t the consequences of America’s actions on immigration and housing that affects you guys. 

[chakoo]

23 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

Well well well if it isn’t the consequences of America’s actions on immigration and housing that affects you guys. 

Well more specifically, Trump is a big cause for this and how complicated the US has been making the visa process for skilled workers. So big, and small, Bay Area studios have been setting up shop here in Toronto to have a sizeable presence outside the US.

[CitizenVectron]

Senators overwhelmed by emails, calls pushing conspiracy theories about basic income legislation | CBC News

WWW.CBC.CA

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Members of the Red Chamber have been hit by a wave of questionable correspondence from Canadians convinced that a pending Senate bill would take away their pensions and lead to some sort of totalitarian world government.

 

Quote

Tens of thousands of calls, emails and handwritten letters urging senators to oppose Bill S-233 have flooded into the Red Chamber. The emails — many of them based on outlandish conspiracy theories — have at times overloaded the Senate's servers, bringing the normal workflow to a grinding halt.

 

Bill S-233 calls for the creation of a national "framework" to allow the federal government to begin studying a "guaranteed livable basic income" program in Canada.

 

Quote

If passed, the one-page bill, which was introduced by Ontario Sen. Kim Pate, would not establish a basic income program in Canada. It would simply compel the Department of Finance to study the concept and report its findings.

 

[AbsolutSurgen]

It's not like the Canadian Senate does anything useful anyways.  I would prefer if Senators couldn't introduce bills.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

24 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

Senators overwhelmed by emails, calls pushing conspiracy theories about basic income legislation | CBC News

WWW.CBC.CA

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Members of the Red Chamber have been hit by a wave of questionable correspondence from Canadians convinced that a pending Senate bill would take away their pensions and lead to some sort of totalitarian world government.

 

 

 

Wait…the red chamber?

[CitizenVectron]

1 minute ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

Wait…the red chamber?

 

Nickname for the Canadian Senate, since it's carpeted in red (as opposed to the House of Commons, which is in green):

 

[AbsolutSurgen]

For those not familiar with the Canadian parliamentary system, the Senate is NOT democratically elected.

 

It's a holdover from a bygone era, that probably deserves to be abolished.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

1 hour ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

Nickname for the Canadian Senate, since it's carpeted in red (as opposed to the House of Commons, which is in green):

 

Dope name at least

[Brick]

Fun fact: the carpet is stained red from all the blood spilled during the Great Canada Geese War of '73. That's why those nasty cobra chickens are such assholes as they're still not over it.

 

True story. 

[CitizenVectron]

Well that's good, at least

 

 

[CitizenVectron]

Pierre Poilievre is appearing to really fire up the base of the CPC, drawing thousands of people to sold-out rallies. 

 

 

Unfortunately, his rallies are also 99% white, even in places with large minority communities (that rally above, for example, was in Calgary, where 33%+ are visible minorities).

 

However, the worse news (so far, of course) for Poilievre is that while he's very popular inside the CPC bubble, he doesn't appear to be as much within the general public, where he performs worse than a generic CPC leader:

 

 

Having said that, while Charest appears to be a more palatable leader in much of Canada (since he is generally more progressive), he does far worse in Quebec (because of his record as premier, there). The wildcard here is Patrick Brown, who, while also only doing middling-to-poor in current polling within the CPC, is known to be very, very effective at signing up new supporters, especially from minority communities. There is a decent chance that he could come in 2nd or even 1st simply by signing up new members across Ontario (hence his recent stances on the Tamil Tigers, etc). 

 

It will be an interesting race, and then an interesting aftermath. Personally I'd feel much better if Charest or Brown ended up as leader simply because they are more moderate, as Poilievre is a piece of shit.

[AbsolutSurgen]

Charest is a Liberal -- I don't think he is electable.

Pierre Poilievre is too far right -- I don't think he is electable East of Manitoba

Patrick Brown has checkered sexual harassment history -- I don't think he is electable.

Leslyn Lewis is a staunch social conservative -- I don't think she is electable.

 

Conservatives are in for a rough ride.

[CitizenVectron]

32 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

Charest is a Liberal -- I don't think he is electable.

Pierre Poilievre is too far right -- I don't think he is electable East of Manitoba

Patrick Brown has checkered sexual harassment history -- I don't think he is electable.

Leslyn Lewis is a staunch social conservative -- I don't think she is electable.

 

Conservatives are in for a rough ride.

 

Their hope (since Harper) is that Trudeau faces such a large scandal that the public has no choice but to vote CPC. It worked for Harper due to Martin being embroiled in the sponsorship scandal (and the Tories at that point being much better at ethnic outreach, from 2004-2011 or so), and also the Liberals having horrible leaders. But as long as Trudeau remains liked in Ontario and Quebec (which he has, along with urban centres across Canada to one degree or another), then the CPC needs something else. I don't know what it is, to be honest. Honestly I think their best hopes are one of the following combos:

• More moderate and competent leader combined with post-Trudeau LPC (or some new big Trudeau scandal)
• Huge ethnic outreach combined with collapse of PPC 

Right now the CPC base continues to shrink (western conservatives and white, rural conservatives elsewhere in Canada) while the potential base of the LPC and NDP continues to maintain/grow (urban centres, non-white voters). I think Poilievre's outreach to millennials on housing is the right move for the CPC, but I'm not sure that he's really offering any different of a plan than the new Liberal budget.

 

 

[AbsolutSurgen]

 

If the Federal Conservatives could bring out the vote in Ontario like Doug Ford does, they would form the Government.

[CitizenVectron]

5 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

 

If the Federal Conservatives could bring out the vote in Ontario like Doug Ford does, they would form the Government.

 

It's interesting that Ford and Trudeau are basically allies at this point—they both know that the other holding government continues to provide them with ongoing support. Very strange.

[chakoo]

It's not shocking to see the OLP back in second place because the ONDP forgot they were official opposition for a few years. With that said the OLP needs to be doing more to pull away more ONDP supporters because I'm still expecting something to go wrong/south over Covid and Doug piss a lot of people off over it.

[AbsolutSurgen]

3 hours ago, chakoo said:

It's not shocking to see the OLP back in second place because the ONDP forgot they were official opposition for a few years. With that said the OLP needs to be doing more to pull away more ONDP supporters because I'm still expecting something to go wrong/south over Covid and Doug piss a lot of people off over it.

I think he will be more right than wrong on the BA2 wave. Wastewater signals are decreasing, many other places didn’t have a huge wave and the ICU numbers haven’t spiked. 
 

There are still a lot of people upset about the previous Liberal government. 

[chakoo]

2 hours ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

I think he will be more right than wrong on the BA2 wave. Wastewater signals are decreasing, many other places didn’t have a huge wave and the ICU numbers haven’t spiked. 
 

There are still a lot of people upset about the previous Liberal government. 

I don't think he will be. Lots more are getting sick this time around and we're seeing hospital numbers going back up (see Quebec for instance).

 

People don't remember things very far back and a lot of the anger was more focused on Wynne. I can guarantee lots of support that left OLP for ONDP last election will return because it's leader did ***k all during the height of covid.

[CitizenVectron]

 

 

"I don't care if they want our oil or not, we are going to build a pipeline to everyone and dump the oil on their yards and send them an invoice and if they don't pay the invoice we're going to send truckers and those truckers will be true Canadians strong and free and we'll show them and show the world and stand on guard for what is right and true and oil and north and white and what I meant by white is the true north white and free not white skin tone hehe did you see my wink there you all know what I mean"

 

That's effectively the CPC, now.

[Jason]

Is up his butthole a valid direction? 

[silentbob]

40 minutes ago, Jason said:

Is up his butthole a valid direction? 

He seems pretty full of himself already. So I don’t know if he has the room. Love to stuff him in one of them pipelines and send him off somewhere away from here.

[dualhunter]

Quebec health ministry accidentally tweets link to adult video instead of COVID-19 portal

MONTREAL.CTVNEWS.CA

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The Quebec Health Ministry’s official Twitter account got some extra traffic Thursday morning after a link to “inappropriate content” was shared with followers.

 

[AbsolutSurgen]

 

[AbsolutSurgen]

Wearing a rumal in a Gurdwara is common courtesy, and a sign of respect. They are literally at the door for visitors to put on. 
 

Criticising someone for wearing one makes you a racist POS.

[CitizenVectron]

57 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

Wearing a rumal in a Gurdwara is common courtesy, and a sign of respect. They are literally at the door for visitors to put on. 
 

Criticising someone for wearing one makes you a racist POS.

 

What's this in response to?

[AbsolutSurgen]

10 hours ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

What's this in response to?

The response to Poilivere going to a Sikh temple. Including the University of Ottawa professor who said he should have worn a hat. 

[chakoo]

54 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

The response to Poilivere going to a Sikh temple. Including the University of Ottawa professor who said he should have worn a hat. 

I googled and still can't find shit about this. 

[CitizenVectron]

58 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

The response to Poilivere going to a Sikh temple. Including the University of Ottawa professor who said he should have worn a hat. 

 

I'm not seeing anything about this either. Is it a real reaction, or something manufactured by his opponents in the race? Sounds like it might be contained to your social media/news bubble.

 

[AbsolutSurgen]

 

[AbsolutSurgen]