Record Low Scented Candle Sales in Alberta [Canadian Politics Thread]
KetBra
Dressed RidiculouslyRegistered User regular
Dressed RidiculouslyRegistered User regular
Look I'd make a fancy OP but whatever here's Justin Trudeau with a Beard
Hopefully by the time this thread is over we won't have to be worrying about pandemics anymore.
Presumably because some new horror has supplanted it, but someone's gotta wish on that monkey's paw.
Hopefully by the time this thread is over we won't have to be worrying about pandemics anymore.
Presumably because some new horror has supplanted it, but someone's gotta wish on that monkey's paw.
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Short of trump winning the election and declaring emminent domain on our ground water I can't fathom this getting worse.
Don't give him ideas in 2020 year of the monkey paw!
I keed, I keed, I.... *sigh*
We have Bill 24 which is a Covid-19 related bill that removes some powers but extends others. There is a criticism that I have seen passed around from the JCCF Justice Center for Constitutional Freedom. But looking into them they appear swing over to the MUH FREEDUMS!! side so take it with a grain of salt.
Bill 24 - https://docs.assembly.ab.ca/LADDAR_files/docs/bills/bill/legislature_30/session_2/20200225_bill-024.pdf
JCCF Criticism (unfortunately they dont point out the parts of the bill that they are concerned about, and I have no idea what half of the stuff means in it either) - https://www.jccf.ca/justice-centre-challenges-albertas-new-bill-24-as-one-more-dangerous-authoritarian-law/
Bill 26 changes how referendums are done in Alberta and what can be put onto referendum.. oh and changes rules on 3rd party donations.
Bill 26 - https://docs.assembly.ab.ca/LADDAR_files/docs/bills/bill/legislature_30/session_2/20200225_bill-026.pdf
Global news article - https://globalnews.ca/news/7100022/alberta-referendum-bill-kenney-ucp-ndp/
Bill 29 changes how donations to candidates work, how much can be donated and the need for disclosure of who is donating. Not at all concerning...
Bill 26 -https://docs.assembly.ab.ca/LADDAR_files/docs/bills/bill/legislature_30/session_2/20200225_bill-029.pdf
CBC artical on it - https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/new-bill-removes-limits-on-donations-to-trustee-municipal-candidates-in-alberta-1.5625799
We have a big one in Bill 30 an Omnibus bill that makes some big changes, just introduced on the 6th and the full extent of what it can do hasn't quite been parsed yet. It opens the way for more private companies to come in.
Press release here - https://www.alberta.ca/release.cfm?xID=72759790EE80B-0A15-1E9B-F71163657CCCCA0A
Bill 30 here - https://docs.assembly.ab.ca/LADDAR_files/docs/bills/bill/legislature_30/session_2/20200225_bill-030.pdf
Criticism here - https://albertapolitics.ca/2020/07/bill-30-the-ucps-health-care-omnibus-bill-is-bad-but-not-as-bad-as-it-could-have-been/
NDP put forth a few private member bills - Bill 202 which would have changed the Conflict of Interest rules (which are garbage here in Alberta) that died during first reading, not surprisingly.
Bill 202 - https://docs.assembly.ab.ca/LADDAR_files/docs/bills/bill/legislature_30/session_2/20200225_bill-202.pdf
As well Bill 203 which was made to protect the pensions of public servants in Alberta after the UCP moved many of the pensions under Aimco control who then reported a few billions of dollars lost in their portfolio....
Bill 203 - https://docs.assembly.ab.ca/LADDAR_files/docs/bills/bill/legislature_30/session_2/20200225_bill-203.pdf
Not sure what the status is of it... looks like it made it through first reading then the UCP got all pissy called a point of order and that was about it for 203 that I could find.
so... yea.. good times here in Alberta.
Poland got invaded from two sides, but we only have to worry about one.
France had a chance, but got stabbed in the back by incompetent generals and fascists.
Belgium was, basically, fucked with no chance of holding.
We are Belgium, with less linguistic conflicts, and a slightly better record when it comes to crime against humanity, but neither are exactly high bars.
On the other hand, worse BDs, but that one is a very high bar.
Russia eyeing the resources in our section of the north pole would like to have a word with you.
I almost mentioned it, but the good news is that we have at least a few years of global warming before that invasion route is practical.
EDIT:
Ironically, this would place us in a position orthogonal to Poland's: their plan was to hold against an attack from the west and move back towards defensive positions in the East, with rivers in the way of the attackers.
Then hold as long as possible, until France and the UK mobilize and open an other front. This was almost working, then the Soviet Union attacked from the East...
I have 549 Rock Band Drum and 305 Pro Drum FC's
REFS REFS REFS REFS REFS REFS REFS REFS
We need to start putting some aircraft carrier hulls in drydock or what
Most of the US's power was cultural and scientific. Not military. Hollywood did much more to place the US on top than the US military ever did.
With our approach to immigration, universities, economy, etc., we are actually in a good position to replace the US's cultural and scientific position.
It's not automatic, nor trivial, but it's doable.
And your just asking for a wealth flow rearrangement still comes from the global south up to us, that's imperialism
I have 549 Rock Band Drum and 305 Pro Drum FC's
REFS REFS REFS REFS REFS REFS REFS REFS
Of course we're in massive debt because of a global pandemic. It's not a little hiccup and there will be consequences.
The unspoken "we shouldn't have spent that much, govt is bad" schtick out of the conservatives is just a shitty way to say you would have been fine with thousands of people dying. That was the alternative course of action. There wasn't a magic conservative way of saving money and people with this so fuck off.
How we manage the recovery is a fair playing field for criticism but "the govt. shouldn't have gone into so much debt" is just fucking stupid.
Criticism of crony nepotism aside, I genuinely wish the opposition would talk serious counters to whatever the Liberals are doing.
But no we get this, ol' Pierre doing his attack-dog vitriol as usual, making some really great arguments. I mean, completely free of context as he usually is but:
Poilievre is an MP for an Ottawa-area riding and a piece of shit with bad hot takes.
If we had harper I think we'd be dealing with the light version of what the USA is dealing with.
We probably wouldn't have closed borders either now that I think about it so maybe it'd be full on shit show.
Come on man.
Trudeau's mom and brother have been paid to speak at WE events.
I have 549 Rock Band Drum and 305 Pro Drum FC's
REFS REFS REFS REFS REFS REFS REFS REFS
It's still stupid. Like, this is textbook level "what not to do" when dealing with contracts and conflicts of interest.
Literally. They covered that in the engineering ethics classes, and when I did a summer internship for the federal government.
Like, there's just no reason to keep engaging in these stupid little things.
My girlfriend just wrote an email to introduce me to a company CEO she knows so I can pitch a research collaboration to him, and we made sure to say clearly and directly that we're in a relationship in the email. I've also setup a research collaboration with another company in the past that involved my brother, who is a fully-qualified researcher whose expertise was needed for the project, and the first thing I did is disclose the family relationship to the company. This is the most basic step to take to avoid an appearance of conflict-of-interest and favoritism.
That the fucking Government of Canada cannot do as much is inexcusable and enraging.
Steam: CavilatRest
Giving a contract to your brother's construction company to build a government building. Yeah, conflict. But this is a bit outside of what I think the law should be concerned about. The Trudeaus don't actually work for WE, and technically got paid through an agency by ME to WE which isn't the same company, so we might now be heading into absurd territory where it's a conflict to award a contract to a company someone in your family has ever tangentially done business with, even if they don't necessarily stand to benefit. Like if your wife's nephew is a temp who sometimes works at Sam's Club in the US, then you can't be involved in the decision to give a contract to the WalMart Foundation charity.
I think the government has an exponentially harder time trying to identify the potential conflicts of interest.
As near as I can tell, there's no actual corrupt intent and there's nothing to support the idea that the decision itself was actually wrong, so... I guess the professional whiners can keep doing their thing.
There was one candidate.
Here, I'll elaborate: This is how you get your optics issues.
1) Ask underlings what your options are, and they tell you there's one option
2) You choose the one option
3) It never in a million years would occur to you that anyone could complain about that choice, so you don't bother to "recuse" yourself.
How many organizations capable of running a billion-dollar program as part of the pandemic response are we supposed to have lying around?
As a public sector worker with experience working in a supply chain department, yeah, explaining your soul sourcing is standard and required.
Also, no, there's more than one option. There's doing it directly, or using another charity.
Also also, it's trivial to leave the room during that specific part of the Cabinet meeting.
Like, this is really, really basic. So basic, we expect interns with no decision power to be able to do so if they have to make anything looking like a purchase request.
Companies don't spend all the time and money they do following these procedures just because they want to. Typically it is done to fulfill legal requirements or basic requirements to get a contract with the government.
This is the source of frustration. They can't even manage to follow their own rules.