As a Canadian I’m proud of my fellow countrymen for helping and accepting refugees. Although most arrive here with nothing, studies have shown they benefit our society in the long run. They contribute massively to our economy and enrich our culture. They overcome daunting obstacles and become productive members of society, and they make Canada a better, fairer and more inclusive place
I hope they can use part of those tax revenues to fix our healthcare.
Canada is no longer a shining first world example of success (if it ever was). We used to boast about how great our healthcare system was, but it’s had serious problems for years and those problems just keep getting worse. If I were a tech immigrant looking to move to a rich country I don’t think I would choose Canada at the moment.
I don’t know about Canadian news but Google has blocked bard (their AI chatbot competitor to ChatGPT). Not sure if it’s related to this but Canada is one of the few countries worldwide (along with the likes of Iran and China) where bard is not available.
You can drink beer and wine (not sure about spirits) in parks in Quebec as long as you have food. Some people just bring a few packets of chips or cookies to comply. But the police are relaxed about it (at least in Montreal)
High inflation is worse for workers than high interest rates since wage hikes always lag price rises. This round of inflation was brought to us by poor economic decisions … pumping billions of dollars into the economy without raising taxes, as well as the Ukraine war. It wasn’t caused by corporate greed, as some claim. The BoC is doing absolutely the right thing. If they don’t raise rates now they only kick the can down the road when the pain would be far worse.
I think we should let the Ukrainian military decide what weapons they need.
You can’t solve a shortage of houses by discouraging people from building them. Canada is simply not building enough housing and has not been doing so for a long time. Your proposal would have a marginal effect at best and would in any case be only a temporary solution. People who buy second homes do so in places where there are generally few jobs. And people who buy houses as an investment need to rent them … which is not necessarily a bad thing. The problem we have is that home prices have risen to such stratospheric heights primarily because of policies that discourage new development. The only way to fix that is to promote legislation that penalizes NIMBYism and encourages building in urban areas.
My parents were British and they used to have two washing bowls. Pile the dirty dishes into one and fill with warm water and dish soap. Clean water in the second bowl for rinsing. After a while the second bowl builds up residual soap so it needs to be emptied and refilled. I figure I use the same amount of water rinsing under a running faucet. But the soak thing is a great tip - leaving dishes in water to soak makes cleaning them so much easier.