Liberal (Minority/Majority) Government 2025 - ???

[Eaglelord17]

Unlimited growth is an inherently irrational concept on a planet with finite resources. Thats the inherent flaw of modern capitalism and part of what's driving the youth to be highly critical of it. Something is going to give, Im hoping its the top 5-10% recognizing they need to do more for the commons like their predecessors did around 100 years ago. Based off what Im seeing thats unlikely so the young and desperate will probably get more radical and violent over the next generation.

Sometimes you need to give a little socialism so the people dont demand a lot of communism. Even arch-conservatives like Bismarck understood this.

Capitalism never made things better for the workers/lower class, only the fear of them uprising did.

I think youre letting the continued subversion of country and its systems off the hook to easy.

While there is passive growth I am sure, there is also active work going on.

Some active subversion, some just realizing the system is rigged against you unless you have the money to play it.

 

[lenaitch]

What you’re saying is NO different than any government this country has had for the last 50-80+yrs

True, but the current young generations have been raised on a bombardment of social media, citizen journalism and outright information manipulation, and an absence of global conflict - even the cold kind. Previous generations lived through both. If they immigrated, they might have come from a place where they experienced non-democracy first hand, and the news came formally on radio, TV or print, a few times per day.

An issue to remedy the housing question is to remove the existing legislature around density and protecting existing farmland around our urban centers. Housing is about availability of land for development. The moment the 'Greenbelt' was created around the GTA is defined the availability of land for housing - inside the belt vs outside the belt. I know that the GTA is not all of Canada but I'm pretty certain all provinces have similar legislation. Open up existing farmland to housing development carte blanche and housing prices for new homes will drop accordingly. A parcel of 100 acres of farmland in the GTA, inside the Greenbelt, that could be developed for housing, would currently sell for around 7-10$ million. Farms outside the Greenbelt currently cannot be sold for housing development - Learn - Greenbelt Foundation - EDIT - Maps - Greenbelt Foundation - The 'Greenbelt' clearly defines the land that can be developed vs the land that cannot be developed in the GTA. Less land available means scarcity and scarcity means higher prices, simple economics.

In the US urban sprawl is the 'norm' (look at Atlanta, Raleigh, Dallas, Houston, Detroit, Chicago). Suburbs spring up further and further from the city boundaries because of the availability of cheap land for development. People live with well water and septic systems for decades, well after the semi-rural suburb has been swallowed up into the newly created urban areas.

Inside alot of the older parts of the existing cities found within the GTA, there is no land left to build on - its either tear down existing houses to build newer and much bigger houses on or utilizing 'brown fields' within the city and building very dense houses on. So, young people wanting to live in those cities (Burlington, Oakville out where I am) have to either compromise and live in a condo, in newly created 'brownfield' condos, buy a small older home that requires alot of TLC (hopefully outbidding a developer looking to tear the house down and build bigger) or look elsewhere. In cities such as these its very much 'location, location, location' and there is NOTHING a government can do to change what the market will pay for 'location'.

Milton is a perfect example of a city in the 'Greenbelt' in the GTA that was identified as a 'growth center'. When we were looking to buy our first house in 2003 (moving from midtown Toronto - St Clair and Bathurst area) we looked in the Campbellville area, located just west of the then town of Milton. Our real estate agent showed us 2-3 places within Campbellville and then drove us about 15 min east to the areas on the east side of Milton where farm after farm was being destroyed and massive new subdivision were being created and said 'this is the future of this area, are you sure you what to live around this since its done?". We choose to buy north of Georgetown on the Niagara Escarpment in a protected area from new suburb development.

In 2001 Milton was a town of about 30k and had barely changed in size for decades because the entire town was on 'well water', meaning the town obtained its potable water from wells that supplied the entire town, thus limiting its growth to only that which the wells could support. Around 2002-3, the far eastern end of the town tapped into newly created water mains from the west end of Mississauga and BOOM - massive scale growth occurred. By 2011 Milton had a population of 84k people and rampant growth continued. By 2021 Milton was sitting at over 130k people. The 'town' had added 100k in 20yrs.

I think that I've mentioned before that my wife is a Speech Pathologist. She used to work in Adult Rehab (think stroke patients or traumatic brain injuries) but she's now worked in the Halton school board for the last 15yrs. She has colleagues who work in the Milton schools, (all part of Halton Region, which covers Burlington, Oakville, Milton and Georgetown/Acton), who service public schools that have 30!!! kindergartens in a SINGLE school because of the growth. How do you build for that type of growth? What type of infrastructure do you put in place for the short term, medium term and long term? What I mean by that is, a school, all schools, typically has a school population that 'ebbs and grows' based on the population that lives immediately around its borders. So, taking the example of a single school having 30 kindergartens located within it, as the population around the school ages, the number of children feeding into the kindergarten programme will begin to dramatically fall off. In 5yrs it might be down to 18 kindergarten classes and in 10yrs it could be down to 3 kindergarten classes. So, how much money is needed to be constantly changing the internal layout of that school - a classroom layout for 4yr old's is much different than a class for 12yr old's. Is there a need to remove (scrap?) playground equipment that was geared towards 4-7yrs old when the school had 30 kindergartens vs having 3 kindergartens? Where do the 27 kindergarten teachers all go? Can they be re-assigned to older grades? What about the ECE's (Early Childhood Educators) assigned to assist the kindergarten teachers in each of classrooms, where do they all go? Pulling on this thread even more, what do you do 30-40yrs down the road when the population has matured, there is substantially fewer children in the area around these schools and the 'utilization' rate of the school has fallen below 60%? Do you do what alot of these school boards do and sell off the land to developers and have the school becomes a new mini subdivision?

If the younger generation wants to live in a single detached home, then they will have to be wiling to allow for greater urban sprawl, less farmland and less protected green spaces available around their cities.

it might help housing but imperils productive farmland, groundwater, etc. Low density sprawl is expensive to maintain since publicly-funded infrastructure serves fewer people per kilometer.

If people are insistent, or are compelled to by employment, to life in cities, they need to accept higher density, and cities need to make themselves as livable as possible.

 

[Halifax Tar]

If people are insistent, or are compelled to by employment, to life in cities, they need to accept higher density, and cities need to make themselves as livable as possible.

Speaking of work... Working from home and remote work should be offered everywhere possible, IMHO.

 

[YZT580]

Speaking of work... Working from home and remote work should be offered everywhere possible, IMHO.

Sadly it doesn't work as it should and not always because people are milking the system although that is prevalent as well. Families grade school children at home for the summer are constantly distracted unless the kids are in full time camp or some other 'away from home' facility. Yet it is hard to budget 500 or more extra per week to take advantage of these opportunities and quite frankly, they don't exist in the numbers that would be required. Perhaps if the old concept of a neighbourhood still existed kids would have the capability to entertain themselves outside as was the case up until the 80's at a guess. And then there are the ones who take their laptops to the beach or justify a quick outing. Some surveys say it is less prevalent than one might think and there are definitely those who work well for the company regardless.

 

[Halifax Tar]

Sadly it doesn't work as it should and not always because people are milking the system although that is prevalent as well. Families grade school children at home for the summer are constantly distracted unless the kids are in full time camp or some other 'away from home' facility. Yet it is hard to budget 500 or more extra per week to take advantage of these opportunities and quite frankly, they don't exist in the numbers that would be required. Perhaps if the old concept of a neighbourhood still existed kids would have the capability to entertain themselves outside as was the case up until the 80's at a guess. And then there are the ones who take their laptops to the beach or justify a quick outing. Some surveys say it is less prevalent than one might think and there are definitely those who work well for the company regardless.

What is milking the system ? If someone isn't being production and that performance/behavior isn't corrected that's either a failure of leadership/management or cause for dismissal. I view the manager who allows this behavior/performance to continue as milking the system. You're paid to manage, so manage of move on.

If you can be productive from the beach, home, park why not ?

We need to modernize the way we view work where possible. AI and robotics will replace almost all of our professions within a generation two max, we may as well prepare for a new reality.

 

[Czech_pivo]

Sadly it doesn't work as it should and not always because people are milking the system although that is prevalent as well. Families grade school children at home for the summer are constantly distracted unless the kids are in full time camp or some other 'away from home' facility. Yet it is hard to budget 500 or more extra per week to take advantage of these opportunities and quite frankly, they don't exist in the numbers that would be required. Perhaps if the old concept of a neighbourhood still existed kids would have the capability to entertain themselves outside as was the case up until the 80's at a guess. And then there are the ones who take their laptops to the beach or justify a quick outing. Some surveys say it is less prevalent than one might think and there are definitely those who work well for the company regardless.

There are many ways to ensure that an individual who is home based is pulling their load.
Failure to meet timelines/deliverables/attend meetings/meet productivity norms should all trigger status meetings with their managers where feedback on not meeting expectations are delivered. Continued failures should result in return to office fulltime mandates and as a last result, termination.

 

[RangerRay]

Capitalism never made things better for the workers/lower class, only the fear of them uprising did.

Some active subversion, some just realizing the system is rigged against you unless you have the money to play it.

I think capitalism is great, but sometimes capitalism needs to be saved from its excesses.

 

[Brad Sallows]

I think capitalism is great, but sometimes capitalism needs to be saved from its excesses.

It's really instructive to dive deep on the "excesses of capitalism" to learn how overwhelmingly often the faults are "excesses of government".

 

[dapaterson]

I think capitalism is great, but sometimes capitalism needs to be saved from its excesses.

The difference between capitalism and communism is that under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's the other way around.

 

[YZT580]

There are many ways to ensure that an individual who is home based is pulling their load.
Failure to meet timelines/deliverables/attend meetings/meet productivity norms should all trigger status meetings with their managers where feedback on not meeting expectations are delivered. Continued failures should result in return to office fulltime mandates and as a last result, termination.

Both you and Halifax skirted around the the issue of distraction and went straight to the punitive. There is no benefit in providing an option that can lead to dismissal any more than is absolutely necessary. From family experience I can attest to the problems associated with working from home in the summer when children are involved. Our society is not set up for full time i.e. 12 months a year schooling or at least group supervision of pre-teens in particular. The parent at home is left with a Hobson's choice: take time to attend to their child which is their primary obligation or ignore the kid and lock oneself in their office and give the time to their employer. Working from home has many advantages I agree but I am not sure that there is enough to counter-balance the cons. In my family's case they actually look forward to their mandatory 2 days in the office as it provides time to focus away from the distractions.
So do you simply offer it as an option when hiring, provide it with family flexibility written in or take the simple solution of mandating time in the office? Just asking.

 

[Czech_pivo]

Great question.
When my kids were smaller I never had any option to work from home. Sadly a fair amount of that time also required me in a suit/tie. So the summers were a challenge because we have no family anywhere near my wife and I and we always had to find F/T summer camps for the kids and pay accordingly.
Again, it comes down to meeting your deliverables/expectations. If that means logging on in the evening and on weekends, so be it. Working from home can be successful for all as long as the expectations are clearly understood.
I’ve been doing it since Covid for about 90% of the time now and haven’t had any issues with my team or with those I report up to.

 

[PPCLI Guy]

If you can be productive from the beach, home, park why not ?

We need to modernize the way we view work where possible. AI and robotics will replace almost all of our professions within a generation two max, we may as well prepare for a new reality.

For many workers work is an activity, not a location

 

[The Bread Guy]

Transport minister to Billy Bishop airport:

More in his statement on the socials ....

... and via MSM:

Federal government not supporting Ontario's plan to expand Billy Bishop airport

The federal government is not on board with Ontario's current plan to expand Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport. Read more.

torontosun.com

Federal government rejects expansion of Toronto’s Billy Bishop airport

TORONTO — The federal government has rejected Ontario's plan to expand Toronto's Billy Bishop airport to accommodate jets on a longer runway. Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon said public consultations on the future of the island airport got feedback...

nanaimonewsnow.com

 

[YZT580]

Transport minister to Billy Bishop airport:
View attachment 101441
More in his statement on the socials ....
View attachment 101442
... and via MSM:

Federal government not supporting Ontario's plan to expand Billy Bishop airport

The federal government is not on board with Ontario's current plan to expand Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport. Read more.

torontosun.com

Federal government rejects expansion of Toronto’s Billy Bishop airport

TORONTO — The federal government has rejected Ontario's plan to expand Toronto's Billy Bishop airport to accommodate jets on a longer runway. Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon said public consultations on the future of the island airport got feedback...

nanaimonewsnow.com

I wonder. If they were to confirm the addresses of those who responded how many were residents of the Islands themselves or owned harbourfront condos? Because for the people and businesses north of front street there would be no increased noise and no increased traffic. Even the approaches can be and already have been profiled to stay away from residential areas. As well, the A220 in particular has a lower noise profile than the traffic currently legal for the approach. All prop/turboprop a/c are acceptable. Wards Island would receive peripheral noise but the worst would be the far side of Humber Bay and altitude on approach would negate most of that as would an arced approach.

 

[Czech_pivo]

I wonder. If they were to confirm the addresses of those who responded how many were residents of the Islands themselves or owned harbourfront condos? Because for the people and businesses north of front street there would be no increased noise and no increased traffic. Even the approaches can be and already have been profiled to stay away from residential areas. As well, the A220 in particular has a lower noise profile than the traffic currently legal for the approach. All prop/turboprop a/c are acceptable. Wards Island would receive peripheral noise but the worst would be the far side of Humber Bay and altitude on approach would negate most of that as would an arced approach.

Notice anything in the bottom right corner of the pic? That was from our approach to land at Pearson on Thursday evening.

 

[Jarnhamar]

Notice anything in the bottom right corner of the pic? That was from our approach to land at Pearson on Thursday evening.

Better yet, where's @mariomike

 

[YZT580]

Notice anything in the bottom right corner of the pic? That was from our approach to land at Pearson on Thursday evening.

looks good, well out over the lake and on approach to TZ. Appears to be downwind for 26. Base will be over the lake turning final clear of Tommy Tompson Park. If he is on a visual he will turn inside the park over the eastern gap so never over housing. RNAV approach in IMC will also keep clear of any residences. So what is the problem. Extending the runway simply puts the base further out over the water and final completely over industrial land. I have flown out of TZ on numerous occasions, both commercially and privately and there is no problem with remaining clear of all residences. This is purely a buy Toronto voters off decision by Ottawa

 

[Czech_pivo]

looks good, well out over the lake and on approach to TZ. Appears to be downwind for 26. Base will be over the lake turning final clear of Tommy Tompson Park. If he is on a visual he will turn inside the park over the eastern gap so never over housing. RNAV approach in IMC will also keep clear of any residences. So what is the problem. Extending the runway simply puts the base further out over the water and final completely over industrial land. I have flown out of TZ on numerous occasions, both commercially and privately and there is no problem with remaining clear of all residences. This is purely a buy Toronto voters off decision by Ottawa

I had no issues with seeing the plane there, just came as a bit of a surprise and a reminder that TI is an active airport.