I would never suggest cutting off the flow of refugees from wastelands ruled by oppressive totalitarian regimes.
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Here are the questions I need answered:
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Does Montana get to retain it’s identity? That is, does it get Province status straight away or is it a Territory?
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If it does not maintain it’s identity and added to the existing provinces, will BC get the NW Corner or will Alberta just take it to aid in getting a pipeline to the West.
A follow on to that question is will the new borders continue straight down across the state or could we petition to at least respect the former county lines? Missoula is definitely more B.C. than Alberta.
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I have relatives in Montana. You don’t want them, Canada. They’re Trumpites. Think: eastern Oregon and Washington. Yeah.
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Whoa, slow down there, Slick. We haven’t even set up a parliamentary committee to advise the government on whether to ask the Governor-General to appoint a royal commission to look into the matter, and that isn’t likely to happen until the petition closes and the “for sale” sign goes up.
At first glance, “Montana for $1 trillion” doesn’t sound like a bad opening offer, but when even the proposal admits that “Montana is useless”, I think we can do better. Personally, and I stress that this is just my opinion and not the official position of the government of Canada, I would counter with Washington. Washington (or Baja BC, as it would be renamed), would make more sense as the next phase in consolidating Canadian control of the west coast, and as a stepping stone towards the ultimate goal of a warm-water port in California. (I note while writing this that @chgoliz concurs.)
As for provincial status, I don’t think that’s in the cards. In addition to being constitutionally difficult, it would be a slap in the face to our existing territories. Possibly a new class of probationary territory could be created. Most provinces currently allow for a cooling-off period during which a consumer can back out of a contract with no penalty. In Ontario, for example, this period is 10 days (20 days for door-to-door water heater contracts), so for something as wide-reaching as the purchase of a state a 10-20 year period would seem reasonable.
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I think we should also look at the $1tn price as a starting point. Like at a car dealership, the goal is to give them just slightly more money than it costs them to get rid of it. Or, in the case of an undesirable asset, just give them a pittance as they’re looking for an excuse to get it off their lot anyway.
What I’m saying is, with this much debt involved, better to not pay sticker price and wait for the fire sale.
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Plus we could point out in negotiations that it’s only fair after Roosevelt made us give up the Panhandle.
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Michael Cohen wasn’t the only person testifying against their government’s leader, today:
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<sigh> I miss Jack Layton. Trudeau fils is not too swift, and Scheer is likely to be worse than Harper.
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The main difference between Scheer and Maxime Bernier/Doug Ford is that Scheer is better at seeming respectable, while still pushing for mostly the same things.
And I am very afraid that they will get in. Racism will stop a lot of people from going NDP even as a protest, but they aren’t so consiously racist to vote PPC and split the right. They’ll just mumble how “something” about Singh makes them feel uncomfortable, and stay home. And I am afraid Bernier won’t split the right enough, allowing Scheer to paint himself as the only alternative to those hopelessly corrupt Liberals.
Thing is, I believe Wilson-Raybould. Which makes Trudeau a bad boss. And as I have said in regards to the US situation, if we won’t accept that behaviour from women (and we shouldn’t!), why the fuck are we willing to excuse men?
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From Singh’s own Twitter – the NDP has allied with the Cons. Fuck.
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I want to know how it got up on the roof in the first place.
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I don’t know what BC’s winter’s been like, but the piles of snow around here would make it pretty easy to get up onto some car ports.
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On Dasher, on Dancer, on Bullwinkle…
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That’s a good point: maybe Bullwinkle had been taking climbing tips from Rocky.
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Actual Canadian company logo (Manac):
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On the one hand, I give him credit for the sheer stupidity and egotism necessary to think that would work.
On the other, from anyone competent, I’d call this reverse psychology, trying to guarantee that teachers will strike, in order to paint himself as the hero.
Back on the first hand, that was going to happen anyway; this will probably just expand the strike
to pretty much every teacher’s union in the province, and probably lengthen it, which can’t be good for Ford.
I’m leaning towards “incompetence” here, but maybe not.
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Keep in mind that for a good deal of his voters, union = bad, teachers = evil leftists so teacher’s union = outright tool of Satan. A long strike will just make them hate teachers and unions more.
I know, because I grew up with that. My dad was a PM-04 (I know you will know what that means), but didn’t even like his own union even though he was at that weird level of management where he couldn’t strike or do a lot of union stuff, but fell under the contracts. To him, there is no way teachers look like they are victims of anything. Every time there’s a strike (and he hasn’t had kids in school for quite a long time), he gets vitriolic about it.
That’s what Ford is counting as a win/win. Either the teachers capitulate early (he wins), or a strike drags on and his voters get more pissed off and motivated to stick it to the teachers and he wins some more by promising to make them pay for neglecting kids, and because he’s strong enough not to give in to their demands.
Either way, it’s kids that suffer. (BTW, he couldn’t pull this stunt in BC. Court ruled that class-size cannot be deemed non-negotiable, and must stick to what was agreed upon in the contract. Christy Clark was pissed when that ruling came down. Maybe that is a solution for Ontario teachers?)
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But he could have gotten approximately the same result by doing a wage freeze or pay cut.
This way, the optics are that teachers are actually going to be doing this for the kids.
Or alternately, for their very jobs, in an environment where Ford has said that there would be no job losses under his government.
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It is a continuing shame to a large swath of Ontario’s citizens that they even half-heartedly believed either Ford brother’s promises. They always sound too good to be true, and impossible when any of them are put next to each other, because the promises as stated never form a coherent whole.
ETA: $#×@!!! autocorrect
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