You’re right that it’s not the same intensity of stupid. But it’s still the same kind of stupid, one that says that we are eager to break commitments for short-term benefits.

Because while we may be in good company in having slow progress towards Paris, if we speed in the opposite direction from the people we need to be allied with — they will not stand with us.

Appreciate the confirmation.

CPC strategy meeting: so our market research has uncovered that as people are exposed to him, PP drops in the polls. What can we do to minimize this?

He pals around with Danille Smith, Kevin O’Leary, and folks from lil PP’s team. So it’s not entirely surprising that someone as stupid as Trump would think that Canadians are on board with this idea. His personal experience validated it.

Not directed at you, OP — but unwanted “annexation” is invasion and we should use the real words even if they frighten us.

Nice! By the way I wasn’t trying to win some dick measuring contest, when I say I’m going to meet him it’s more like I’m volunteering for the election and I’ll get maybe a few minutes at most in. I appreciate your activism, you fucking rock.

But housing has been my #1 issue and only recently dropped to #2 thanks to our need to defend our country and economy. However using BC lumber to build Canadian homes and apartment buildings instead of shipping it down south ties into that at least tangentially.

I have written my MP about this multiple times, signed a counter-petition against a movement to block a high rise in my building, and promoted the development with my neighbours. I’m also meeting my MP tomorrow and I won’t shut up about this, I promise.

And if they don’t move the needle I’m gonna vote the bastards out and support the next ones instead. I don’t care if it drops my house value — because my kids deserve to be able to afford to live.

You’re correct that no one says that, but that seems to be what’s been happening. So I want the focus to be on the things that are going to deliver the actual results.

But maybe also I can get my head out of my own ass and not derail your enthusiasm for helping things in the here and now. So yeah, I’m with you. But let’s make those things a comma. I want my leaders at the federal, provincial, and municipal level to start moving the needle today, and stay focused in the months and years to come and ensure that the steps they are taking are the ones that are making meaningful improvements.

Normally I’d argue that in our current political system, to state your preference for the policies you want you’d often have to choose the party platform you agree with and base your MLA/MP on that.

But I won’t make that argument, because even just the BC Conservative party itself was trash. The fact that she seems to be the trashiest of the trash but every voter in BC who supported them BC Conservatives are guilty of that same lack of oversight. And I’ll accept some blame for assuming that people would realize this on their own, and not getting out there to help fight against them.

What’s done is done though. And in the here and now, this MLA needs to go.

My take: if you’re too extreme for the extremists who were themselves kicked from the BC Liberals, you’ve got absolutely no business representing a Vancouver riding.

Let’s imagine a world where an unapologetic socialist NDP leader stood up and said: “the market has failed to deliver homes at a price the median Canadian family can affords. So our govt will build homes across the country, employing Canadians and using Canadian products. These will not be luxury condos for the rich, but they will be functional and good, and will be made the wood and materials we used to send to America at a discount. And we will close the gap in 5 years, and deliver public monthly status reports on what we have accomplished.”

After the election, assuming Singh steps down, can we all agree to get someone who says something like that? Pretty please? Because I already got my wish with a perfect candidate to match my way of thinking, and I want you to be waiting in the wings if our way fails yet again.

I’m 100% on board with solutions to help mitigate the short-term effects if we also start building now for the medium and longer terms.

The reason I was being prickly on this is that my home city and province (Vancouver) has been doing these feel-good things for years as a politically expedient distraction and excuse to not prioritize building.

So it scares me when people suggest these as the solution —and I’ll include Carneys announcement in with that same bucket. If folks suggest these as a stop-gap relief to the current situation and are also gonna build our way out? Alright I’m on board with that.

Many of these things you’ve suggested have been tried in various parts of Canada, and while they feel good they haven’t been effective at lowering prices.

We need to build more homes. That’s it. That’s the thing we need to do. Build homes at a faster rate than we add potential new homeowners. Block nimby laws that prevent density and keep building until the prices go down.

Like markets? Enable the market to build em. Socialist? Have the government build em. Someone’s got to. If you want to focus on Airbnb and other feel good stuff fine I won’t stand in your way if we also just build more goddamn homes.

As a fellow dishwasher powder cultist enjoyer this was unwelcome news as I was super happy to discover Finish was European.

But also glad you did more research. Nellie’s is outrageously expensive for a commodity product, but also I can’t go back to pods.

Great Value is obviously American, so is Cascade, and apparently Finish too fml.

Nature Clean gel might be the best option for me right now. Or suck it up and go with Nellie’s.

Best wishes to you and yours. Having been through that move — likewise with young kids — it’s not a simple endeavour.

Feel free to reach out here or in DMs if you have any questions about the process.

Absolutely, with this site being a good example of such an alternative approach. I think it’s a good clarification you highlighted that may have been underserved in my original piece.

The technologies involved in the websites I listed are largely free and open source. Many of them can be operated relatively inexpensively.

So we don’t need to cut and paste these things exactly, but we can use them for inspiration of what to build next. What’s been stopping us is the inertia of the network effect — why would I comment on Lemmy and not Reddit; Reddit has the people and so that’s where the discussion goes.

What I was trying to get at is that this is a remarkably unique opportunity to overcome that network effect. People want to sever themselves from American dependencies — not just in Canada but in Europe and further abroad. So it’s an enormous opportunity to bring change — for a technologist this can be very exciting!

Well I moved back in 2018 after making the decision to unwind my commitments in the us back in 2016…

So I think the book has closed on “fad” for me at least.

But anyhow, don’t let me stop you — keep on licking them boots. Get em all nice and polished.

Why would someone put a dumpster right next to their front door?

As a former ex-pat Canadian who worked for a major US tech company, this was my message to my former colleagues. I thought some folks here might enjoy it as well.

At the very least, joining with their economic standards is a path we should move towards.