General Politics Discussion

[jeffster]

I'll add it to my depressing list.

Someones upset.

I understand the local issues. Even the provincial and federal issues.

Thing is, at the end of the day, a money talks issue. For any living paycheque to paycheque, or even trying to save a little, this cap&trade and green energy was a bad idea. "Greenifying" the province wasn't going to solve the issues at hand. It primarily helped the wealthy, the ones that could afford to spend $20,000 putting new windows in their house, when it really wasn't needed, and getting $5,000 in return. Meanwhile, someone who needed new windows still couldn't afford it, especially NOW that their paying more for hydro, more for gas, more for water, more for gas for their car, and more for everything else. It was good for the wealthy that OWNED their homes and could afford the heat pump and get a large rebate. For the ones with a good job, good income, and were willing to take a very small risk and put solar panels on their roofs with a very good return. Screw the renters, the ones living in small homes, townhomes, and ones with no south facing roofs, they have to pay for it anyway with their hydro bill. The eco-return refund for electric cars, again, only helping ones with more cash. The ones, at least the ones I personally know, drive around in their 'green' cars to work, looking all proud, the ones with the Tesla and their $14,000 rebate, meanwhile keeping their SUV/Land Rover/Hummer or whatever else they have, for their weekend vehicle. Really, at the end of the day, you have some 6 or 7 figure income earner, driving his Tesla, not paying any road taxes, and has solar panels on his mansion, so basically not paying for electricity. No saving the environment there, when one comes to think of the carbon footprint at building these e-cars with their huge batteries. And really, anything we do that is positive is more symbolic right now, as long as Canada continues to have harsh winters (after all, we need to heat our homes), continues to be huge geographically (green energy options not sensible with a country this size), and sits next door to a country like the USA. The only thing that really happened with these green initiatives was it helped push businesses out of Ontario. In another thread, we were discussing London Hydro's idea of perhaps pursuing smaller utilities. Looking at Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro, the amount of "large" customers they have can be counted with your pinky fingers. That's sad. You need an economy as long as we're an economy based world, as we haven't yet reached "Star Trek" style economy (where money doesn't exist).

Trump is a tool. But he speaks to the fear of Americans, the ones that "think" have been left behind. Well, some have been. Some don't have the brains to get a decent education, nor the finances to do so. At one time, getting a high school education (for free) was enough to get yourself a good paying job, one that earn you a house, a car, 2 kids and a spouse and a family vacation every year. Those days are over, but Trump promises to bring those days back. And by judging it so far, it's happening. Will it explode in his face? I think it will. Unless I am mistaken, the US is a full employment right now, and two things (or as Trump would say "too things") are likely to happen; 1) productivity will drop as unemployable are employed and 2) as businesses start losing business due to productivity losses, job losses will start to mount and/or for certain businesses, to stay in business, they'll increase wages to employee the employable. Either way, for the USA, I see this as short term gain for long term pain. It won't make the USA any wealthier in the end, I truly believe, anymore than the Canadian budget "balancing itself". Even immigrants (legal immigrants that is) like him because he wants people to play by the rules They went through proper routes, worked hard, and want to see more value for their hard earned dollars.

As for their immigration 'crisis' that they have, children being separated from their parents have been happening for a long, long time. Only difference is that their is a huge crises in central America, and more Latino's are flowing through Mexico and into the USA, and so the numbers are up. And for the media, this is very good for their ratings. And it's Trump. If it had been happening with Clinton (as it had been happening with Obama), then nothing would be made of it. In no way to I defend what is going on there, it just isn't 'new' and therefore, shouldn't be 'news'. Canada, likewise, has done the same, but smaller numbers, and since Trudeau is PM, it's not big news.

As for Trudeau and his election reform, anyone with a pulse knew this was never going to happen. It sounded good, got him a few votes, but most people knew he had zero intention.

Unsure if I'd call Ford a blowhard. Awkward, yes. He's not winning awards for his body, his style, his eloquent use of words. But being that just about everyone outside of Toronto voted for him, I think is revealing. You look at the 905 (Brampton and Mississauga), full of new Canadians; working hard, working 2 or 3 jobs to make ends meet, only to see their money vanish between higher taxes, higher energy bills, insurance rate that are of control, among other things. I think we'll see how it goes with him. Can he bring back businesses to Ontario? Can he deal with the epic homelessness that has ballooned over the past 10 years? The drug epidemic that is so bad that we know have to have safe injection sites? Somehow I doubt it, as many of those people will never have normal lives now, but those are also the ones that were left in the dirt with Ontario's "new" economy.

Of course, we'd all be naive to think that any politician can solve any of todays problems. They haven't in the past, and they still haven't. People need financial security, family security, job security. They need food, clothing, shelter. And this has gotten worse, not better, over the years.

I remember growing up, and going to Cameron Heights for 5 years (back when OAC was still an option). There was homelessness, as we were going to the arcades or one of the malls every day and saw them sometimes, and we knew them by name, that's how few they were. Who here remembers Mr. Kaufman with his buggy? I worked in DTK in the early 90's and it was a little worse, but you could still go DTK and quite often see no one (homeless) some days. I worked in UTW for about 20 years (damn), by the end of the 20th year, it went from seeing the one fellow with the dreads (can't remember his name, he's dead now though) to having some guy pull a knife on my son when we were there last year. I got to the point that I no longer felt safe if I was working after hours. I now work in DTK, and you can't go a block without seeing a homeless person or addict. Is it the fault of our strategies? I don't know. But obviously things aren't working.

I guess what I am getting at, is I didn't see any hope with what we were doing in Ontario, in Canada, and really, in the USA. I don't see hope now either. Both are mean spirited, just one has a nice way of doing it. Wynne: "Oh, you'll love paying more for everything, and having a hard time making ends meet, unless you're an elite, which you won't mind supporting the rich when they go buy a Tesla and geothermal heat pumps, in fact, you'll quite enjoy it helping the wealthiest." vs Ford "You're not getting a raise on your minimum wage salary for while, haha, but on the bright side, you won't pay more taxes on it either and your hydro and natural gas prices will stabilize." Of course, then you have Horwath, who from the start had a huge mistake with their budgeting which was easily caught by the PC's and lying about Ford privatizing healthcare (guess what, he can't, it's a federal issue). This was like when the National NDP were talking about getting rid of the senate (guess what, they can't, only the provinces can do that).

It's anyones guess how things will turn out. For Ontario, for the US, for Canada...for the world. What I do think though is that many have been forced to endorse things (rather than just tolerate or accept) that they might not necessarily want to endorse. This is why you have movement "to the right". Of course, things like this can end up mean spirited, and personally, I believe in all human rights, so in as long as it isn't forced onto others (be it thoughts religion, thoughts on sexuality, thoughts on immigration, etc - no more thought police), and mutual respect of every type of person, whether you like it or not.

Anyway...those are my opinions (and that's all they are, not too many facts).