Scott

The cynical answer is that "look jobs!" is easy while making tough and uncomfortable choices that might piss of the states isn’t.

Why did Canada release a defense industrial strategy before a defense strategy? Shouldn't we figure out what we want to build and buy before we get to work on the how?

Supreme Court cancels result from federal election in Terrebonne riding The Supreme Court of Canada has annulled the result in the Montreal-area riding of Terrebonne from last spring’s federal election.

I don't have a strong opinion on whether the result should stand or not (slightly towards new elections because it was Elections Canada's error) but doing this 10 months later is insane and no way to run a country
www.ctvnews.ca/montreal/art...

Not even willing to build new government institutions. Where is a dedicated foreign intelligence agency so Canada isnt as dependent on the good will of allies to share intelligence?

One issue with our ability to adapt to crisis that Paul Wells recently noted is that we are intensely reluctant to consider physical solutions to urgent problems.

Everything happens within a comfort zone of legislation, litigation, and negotiation.

Remember when in the final Trudeau days he was considering a big rebate which the finance minister as she was resigning called "a costly political gimmick the country could ill afford"?

For some reason I'm thinking about that now

But remember the most important thing is that canada doesn’t and never will have a two tier health system

From the linked BBC piece "Jacob was on CNN a few weeks ago. For whatever reason, the interviewer asked him about my Parkinson's diagnosis," she recalled. "I thought it was kind of odd, but then the next day, one of the top Parkinson's experts in the world reached out to me and asked if he could help me." Reid explained: "I've never gotten to talk to a Parkinson's expert. I've been on a five- year waiting list here because I live in a very small place. "Now he's found me a Parkinson's expert, a neurologist, and I have an appointment in a couple weeks. "That could change things for me because I'm not really getting the treatment that I should be getting."

🔒: "So much patriotic ink has been spilled over Heated Rivalry's success, but the most Canadian detail is in a BBC piece: the author has Parkinson's disease, and was on a 5-year waiting list for treatment until she entered the ranks of the nation's elite"
www.bbc.com/news/article...
🇨🇦

Archeology is the knowledge it produces is a public good. Its crazy to expect that individuals, rather than the government should shoulder the burden.

How has it only been 19 days since the Venezuela operation?

Can someone explain the link between this and the gun confiscation program the government is running?

Congrats!

Someone added the podcasts email to their distribution list. We talk about the latest drama on this week's pod

One frustrating thing about governments now saying "Housing isn't our fault. Developers just aren't building!" is that, years ago, I met with multiple politicians who assured me that it was fine to add requirements and costs, saying "Do you really think developers are just going to stop building?"

Yeah, though a lot of that is because the NDP listened to the activists that wanted this to be as police light/ police free as possible and didnt think the public order concerns were worth considering or planning for.

It is a real cautionary tale

Its notable that for all the talk at the start about the Portugal model, we didn't actually follow that model's prohibition on public drug use.

BC tried a laissez-faire decrim compared to Portugal's non-carceral but paternalistic decrim.

The former was politically diasterous, after public order decayed while public drug use skyrocketed while the later has proven politically sustainable and a model that continues to be held up.

What Canada failed to learn from drug decriminalization in Portugal Experts say Canada adopted Portugal’s language of decriminalization, but not the system features that made it a success.

There was an interesting article on the ways BC different from Portugal's decrim policy.

Big one was BC took a much more hands off, police light approach, compared to Portugal where public drug use is is illegal and people caught are referred to treatment

www.canadianaffairs.news/2026/01/13/w...

Honestly if you describe how zoning works to normies it sounds legitimately psychotic. Like, daycares are presumptively illegal in most parts of most cities. Hell, until recently in Ontario daycare was not a permitted use *in schools* as a rule.

Slightly diminish a band: Odd Al Yankovic

My kingdom for a defense procurement policy that is just get the enough quality equipment at the best price we can.

I knew Canadian military procurement is obsessed with “industrial benefits” rather than cost, but it is usually related to the the production and maintenance of the actual equipment, not some unrelated sector!

I've tried to understand this a few times and have sort of ended up at:

1. It's rare for Crown to recommend charges for retail theft
2. When they do, it's rare for any meaningful consequences to happen
3. The reasons for 1+2 are complex and ppl inside the justice system are very bad at explaining

To fix transit in Toronto, we need to embrace a simple idea: subways subways subways. Rob Ford's maligned motto contained a nugget of truth.

The Finch LRT will hopefully force Toronto to reckon with two things: that street based transit will *almost* never compete with driving (especially in the burbs) and that people really care about speed. My new piece in the Toronto Star highlights that and makes the case for subways and railways.

Toronto hate crime suspect denied refugee status in 2018 | Globalnews.ca The case of Osman Azizov could raise new questions for the government about public safety.

Between courts giving sentencing discounts to non-citizens and this, one could be forgiven for coming away with the impression that the Canadian system was actively trying to undermine the public's confidence in itself

globalnews.ca/news/1159270...

I can't imagine work loads not factoring into a decision. It might not be a formal factor, but human nature being what it is, it will be an subconscious factor in any decision

The dark side of the force is a pathway to returns many consider to be unnatural

Britain is trying to arrest its national decline by...

...trying to root out secret freemasons in the police force

Wait, what!?