I was really pleasantly surprised to hear him and the journalists switch from English to French and back to English seamlessly and without drama.
That is (happily) common in Canadian politics. Bilingual politicians are happy to reach a larger audience, just as journalists prefer to have quotes in their target language.
If Trump catalyzes good things in Canada, then Trump will have done something good in his life, against all odds.
Definitely. It's incumbent on us to make that happen, though. Politicians haven't prioritized it for the last fifty years - they'll only do it if they receive pressure.
I really like the idea of opting out of IP agreements, but it's unclear how effective it would be. AFAIU jail breaks are illegal in the US thanks to the DMCA - if Canada produces the kits, it's still a risk to American farmers/Tesla owners to use them.
And:
But you know what Canada could make? A Canadian App Store. That's a store that Canadian software authors could use to sell Canadian apps to Canadian customers, charging, say, the standard payment processing fee of 5% rather than Apple's 30%. Canada could make app stores for the Android, Playstation and Xbox, too.
This requires cooperation from the platforms we're attacking. The EU had the clout to force Apple to open their platform, but would Canada? Would a bellicose US allow one of their most profitable and iconic companies to do that? Given a choice, I suspect Apple would happily make the "alternate app store" experience so user unfriendly that most users would avoid it.
Android has allowed side loading forever, and has a bunch of non-Google app stores, but they have only gained traction in limited circles.
It's a fun idea, and it'd be interesting to see how it works out, but I'm not sure it would have a significant impact.
Ottawa should enforce the law limiting foreign ownership of newspapers
...
Our limit on foreign ownership was imposed in the 1960s after US chains threatened to take over newspapers here. A 1999 study of coverage in Canadian-owned US newspapers of the Québec independence referendum noted that most countries prohibited or limited foreign media ownership “at least partly out of fear that foreign owners would use those outlets to manipulate public opinion in times of national crisis.” It indeed found evidence that foreign ownership “influences newspaper coverage and editorial commentary about key political issues in the parent company’s home country.”
I think the most reasonable complaint against direct carbon pricing is that people who are living in poverty can't afford to wait for the next rebate to come in.
It sounds like Carney is just proposing incentives (which seems kinda ineffective for consumers), which wouldn't have that drawback.
Canadian governments have been able to pass significant legislation since repatriation. We're fine.
Centralizing power with the PMO just means the prime minister can make more partisan changes by fiat. We usually go to the polls every four years, so that's a long time to wait for accountability.
"It is imperative for the Prime Minister's Office to give this issue the importance it deserves and for appointments to be made in a timely manner …The government's inertia regarding vacancies and the absence of satisfactory explanations for these delays are disconcerting."
...
"In some cases it may be that all relevant vacancies must be filled, as where serious crimes are not prosecuted in a timely way such that victims, the public and accused are denied justice," Brown said.
Fitting.