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And so, when a narrative emerged from corporate media and analysts that Trudeau had to go because he had moved too far to the left, I did a spit take: What in the universe are they talking about?

The members of Parliament (MPs) who made this claim mostly spoke under a cloak of anonymity. Global News’ David Akin reported, “Almost all of the MPs Global News spoke to believe Trudeau has moved the party too far to the left and that shift has played a key role in the decline of the Liberals.” Akin didn’t say who or explain how these MPs were defining “the left.”

How can it be that a prime minister whose tenure saw record-breaking corporate performance paired with widening social inequality is also “too far to the left”? What kind of left-wing doctrine supports extreme income inequality and a tax structure that has failed to redistribute profits?

No one could reasonably believe that Trudeau’s economic policy was too far to the left. What they’re really saying is that Trudeau’s vibes were too far to the left.

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In the worst region, bordering BC and the Yukon, extreme conditions increased by 1.8 days every year over two decades.

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The labour board rules workers in different locations can bargain toward one contract covering them all.

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Journalism in Canada is at its lowest ebb in decades, as evidenced by the cancellation or pausing of several post-secondary programs in the subject due to the dismal job market.

Postmedia Network, Canada’s largest newspaper chain by far, is 98 per cent owned by U.S. hedge funds and has had to sell assets and lay off workers to make payments on the hundreds of millions in company debt the vulture capitalists also hold. The corporation has steadily tightened its grip on Canadian newspapers since its creation in 2010, buying: Sun Media, Canada’s second-largest chain at the time, in 2015; Brunswick News, the chain that monopolizes New Brunswick, in 2022; and SaltWire, the chain that dominates the rest of the Maritimes, earlier this year.

Canada’s current second-largest chain, Torstar, was taken over in 2020 by private equity firm NordStar Capital, which has been stripping its assets and eviscerating its workforce. Last year, it converted 71 Ontario community newspapers published by its Metroland subsidiary to online-only publications, laying off more than 600 workers in the process. It then cheated them out of the severance pay they were owed by taking advantage of our bankruptcy laws.

Our broadcasting industry isn’t in much better shape,...

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Gina Rinehart, an Australian worth $30 billion and an avid Donald Trump supporter, has changed Alberta’s politics in her relentless pursuit of mined coal.

The saga offers more evidence on how the wealthy exercise their raw financial power to engineer democracy for their own economic benefit. Political scientists call the oversized influence of billionaires “the wealthification” of politics. Witness how billionaires dominated the U.S. presidential election.

In the last three years she has repeatedly sued the Alberta and federal governments and challenged regulatory processes. And even though three separate courts have found her arguments baseless and without merit, she continues to sue.

Two outstanding lawsuits, for example, contend the Alberta government owes her billions because her mining plans were stymied. Overwhelming public opposition to coal mining forced the government to impose a coal moratorium in the Rockies to protect critical watersheds.

Outside of provincial and federal courts, Rinehart has hired two lobby firms with ties to the United Conservative Party government to actively promote her open-pit mining project.

When it became clear that citizens living in the municipal district of Ranchland, where Rinehart wants to build the mega-mine, were overwhelmingly opposed to its construction, Rinehart actively participated in a dubious referendum sanctioned by Smith in the neighbouring community of Crowsnest Pass. Rinehart’s company even drove voters to the polls.

[-] streetfestival@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 days ago

Pistons got a nice team, which is cool to see. Detroit Tigers are shaping up too. Nice time for Motown sports

[-] streetfestival@lemmy.ca 4 points 4 days ago

Good on you. Know what their issues are (e.g., affordability, carbon tax) and have some relevant, effective, and true points on hand (e.g., Most Canadians receive money from the carbon rebate program, and so PP axing that so-called tax means you won't get those quarterly checks. See it's actually a corporate tax that he wants to axe). Acknowledge their issue when they bring it up. Honestly empathize with the real aspects of it (e.g., you too know what affordability issues are like) and communicate this. And then casually explain why you're voting the way you are, or not the way that they are intend to. "And this is why the NDP have my vote because they've pushed to expand public health care start to include fully covered prescription medication. And I want to see more of that." (The Conservatives probably voted against that too)

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Name an animal (or several) you like and mention why you like it. No wrong answers!

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TIL. I knew there were many vegetarians in India. I just learned that that vegetarianism excludes chicken eggs, which as a North American caught me off-guard. I looked at a couple webpages, which means I'm an expert on the topic now /s

https://www.thejuggernaut.com/eggetarianism-india-eggs-vegetarianism

Many assume that India is a country of vegetarians, but that’s miles from the truth: 69% of Indians eat meat, and about 23% are egg eaters. Of this latter group, 9% identify as “eggetarians,” or vegetarians who eat eggs.

https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2601/why-are-eggs-not-consumed-by-many-hindus

Moral Reason: I have been taught that one reason such eggs are not considered suitable for consumption is that by preventing fertilization you are preventing the birth of an animal, which is considered unjust by some. The reasoning here is that blockading the creation of life is similar if not equal to extinguishing it.

Vedic Reason: According to Wikipedia's article on Sattvic diet, an unfertilized egg is considered Rajasic, or overly stimulating. Such foods are not to be consumed as they lead to an unfit state of mind.

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Editorial on (still) wearing a COVID mask By Senator Paula Simons. Good read

[-] streetfestival@lemmy.ca 52 points 5 months ago

Friendly reminder: Tim Hortons hasn't been Canadian-owned since 1995

[-] streetfestival@lemmy.ca 51 points 8 months ago

So true. As others have remarked on here, entshittification really changes the calculus of "is piracy worth it?"

[-] streetfestival@lemmy.ca 58 points 8 months ago

Great article. Nice to see an economist doing such important work. I don't really understand finances. I snipped the parts of the article that helped me understand the finding/headling. There's a great chart in the article of taxation differences since the 1960s too - staggering! Plutocracy in action!

Published in The New York Times with the headline "It's Time to Tax the Billionaires," Zucman's analysis notes that billionaires pay so little in taxes relative to their vast fortunes because they "live off their wealth"—mostly in the form of stock holdings—rather than wages and salaries.

Stock gains aren't currently taxed in the U.S. until the underlying asset is sold, leaving billionaires like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Tesla CEO Elon Musk—a pair frequently competing to be the single richest man on the planet—with very little taxable income.

"But they can still make eye-popping purchases by borrowing against their assets," Zucman noted. "Mr. Musk, for example, used his shares in Tesla as collateral to rustle up around $13 billion in tax-free loans to put toward his acquisition of Twitter."

[-] streetfestival@lemmy.ca 146 points 9 months ago

Shrinkflation noobs. Never specify the size of a (pseudo-)prepared product. It's better to use abstract terms like large, extra large, and jumbo that can be shrunk down in size without increasing legal liability down whenever you wish to juice your profits a bit (/s)

[-] streetfestival@lemmy.ca 80 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Definitely not genocide /s

[-] streetfestival@lemmy.ca 58 points 10 months ago

Defunding biodiversity science at a time like this...

[-] streetfestival@lemmy.ca 49 points 11 months ago

Anti-genocide and anti-apartheid ≠ antisemitism

[-] streetfestival@lemmy.ca 48 points 11 months ago

Quotes from UFC champ Sean Strickland at media day 😳:

Misogyny:

Take Wednesday’s pre-fight media day, for example. Strickland showed up in a T-shirt that read: “A woman in every kitchen, a gun in every hand.” You know, just in case we were in danger of forgetting that this is the same fighter who has repeatedly insisted that women shouldn’t be allowed to vote or hold jobs.

Homophobia:

When Lee replied that he’d have no problem with having a gay son, Strickland replied: “Well, you’re a weak fucking man, dude. You’re part of the fucking problem. You elected Justin Trudeau, and he seized the bank accounts. You’re just fucking pathetic. And the fact that you have no fucking backbone, and have him shut down your country and seize fucking bank accounts, and you ask me some stupid shit like that? Go fuck yourself.”

Transphobia:

“Here’s the thing about Bud Light,” Strickland said. “Ten years ago, to be trans was a mental fucking illness. And all of a sudden, people like you have fucking weaselled your way in the world. You are an infection. You are the definition of weakness. Everything that is wrong with the world is because of fucking you. And the best thing is, the world’s not buying it. The world’s not buying your fucking bullshit that you’re fucking peddling. The world is not saying, ‘you know what, you’re right, chicks have dicks.’ The world’s not saying that. The world’s saying, ‘there are two genders, I don’t want my kids being taught about who they can fuck in school, I don’t want my kids being taught about their sexual preference.’ Like, this guy [gesturing to Lee] is a fucking enemy. You want to look at the enemy to our world? It’s that motherfucker right there. Asking me stupid fucking questions.”

[-] streetfestival@lemmy.ca 104 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Removing downvoting feels intuitively wrong to me (eg, I believe that dissent is a really important part of a healthy democracy). If all those mega-corp platforms are removing downvoting, then I'm pretty confident my intuition on this matter is correct

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streetfestival

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