@newtboy,

??? How exactly do you figure cancellation of a billion dollar project is no where near the economic cost of blocking a border crossing for awhile at similar cost???

I'll tell you what the difference in Canada is, the dollars lost from the pipeline were being lost in Alberta, the dollars lost from the convoy were in Ontario. In Canada we've got a pretty sad history of if it happens to western provinces, it doesn't matter. Much like the urban/rural divide in the US. The response is pretty similar as well, the urban side just laughs at the loss of the stupid backwards country folk. When the same thing hits them though it's a national emergency.

I've tried pointing out costs and your just rejecting them out of hand , while whole hog accepting the highest estimates for the convoy cost as gospel truth. Like the literally a company walking from a multi-billion dollar project and you insist that's nothing and the days the border was blockaded clearly must have cost more...


For years now I've insisted that illegal blockades of worksites, job sites or trade routes should be met with prompt arrests and re-opening of the route/site.

Until January of this year, the entirety of the Liberal minded half of my country(Ottawa centric) called that authoritarian, repressive and were against the notion. Now I find myself in a weird spot, as suddenly that same crowd DOES want that action and more to be taken promptly. And the conservative crowd that agreed with me before is now kinda walking things back.

No thanks, we're fine. We still have AC for now, all be it in the Winter and our political system still seems to be functioning in all provinces except Alberta and some may say Quebec... but thats a long story .

Keep in mind, this is Edmonton.

It is not reflective of the rest of Canada. They call Alberta the Texas of Canada for a reason.

Uh, works for me in Alberta? =]

Great write-up here.

http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/news/blog.html?b=news.nationalpost.com/news/the-three-hours-of-lemelons-the-annual-alberta-race-that-pits-300-beaters
-against-each-other

*quality amazing and bump the *music selection for this *actionpack while we're at it.

From what he had said, it was the driver that refused to show their papers. In that case the driver was lucky to still be in the car the whole time.

The guy filming from the passenger side maybe should have been pulled out when he claimed to be a "peace officer". His name is Robert Menard, and the legal system is pretty familiar with his scamming other people already.

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/judges-scathing-ruling-against-alberta-freeman-could-signal-clampdown-on-anti-government-movement

The article above notes "Freemen have been trying to form their own “corps of peace officers.” In addition to Menard being mentioned by name in the article, his efforts to form his own police force is further documented by himself in the youtube channel this video comes from.

As a Canadian I would just like to say this is a bunch of bullshit. We have a lot of fucked up laws up here that they don't have down in the states. You can be sued for defamation and slander for mocking public figures here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_defamation_law

One of our Crown prosecutors tried to prosecute a man for disagreeing with some feminists on Twitter and northern Alberta has been turned into a toxic waste dump.

Our new Prime Minister is a sock puppets with a SJW's hand up his ass.

So if you see one of my smug countrymen telling you how much better it is up here you have my permission to kick him in the balls.

It's not exactly easy to move to Canada anyhow. Like most countries they want only people with very limited skill sets, which sadly I don't have. I can't move to New Zealand, Canada, the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Iceland or any of the places my ex-wife and I looked to move to ages ago. But yeah, semi-moot point about Harper now that Canada finally ousted him and his brand of crazy. They sadly didn't go far enough and still have a guy who favors things like the Keystone Pipeline (though I hear even Alberta itself no longer wants it).

I find it more amusing when Republicans voters threaten to move to Canada or the UK if a Democrat wins... everything they hate about the Democrats is there, times 10 or more. Leaving the US because of our crazy slide further and further to the right nearly makes sense (not the reason we were looking to leave, we genuinely wanted to move to New Zealand, and the others were secondary thoughts just to really change things up).

Pig powerful?

Well, that is definitely in *canada - and probably northern Alberta, judging by the 780 area code I saw on one of the signs.

"taber alberta is a real place". fucking lol.

Yes, that's kinda the point.
Per capita, BC doesn't have enough seats. We are far out weighed by Quebec and Ontario. And unfortunately, they don't care about what our opinions are. We vote differently than them in every way,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_alienation_in_Canada

Also, Ontario gets more seats than BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba Combined.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canadian_federal_electoral_districts

Lived in Ontario (28 years), Brisbane, Australia (5 years), Alberta (7 years), and now Texas (14 years).

Agree with pretty much with Boneremake on Alberta, gets more points than Ontario. My Australian experience was good, in both the city and rural (blew an eardrum due to infection in Longreach QLD at Xmas... the doctor was drunk when they wheeled him into emerg, but he was a gentle, caring drunk).

Small things in Ontario are manageable - anything requiring stuff beyond typical emergency room patching up in more rural locations (my definition - anywhere far enough from Toronto that you can't see the nighttime glow, so north of Newfenmarket sort of) is quite lacking (v. long wait times for things like weekly dialysis, MRI, even open MRI, GI tract scoping, ultrasounds, contrast X-rays etc). Parental unit #1 with diabetes requiring 3 times a week dialysis almost snuffed it as there were only 4 chairs in the unit 14 miles from home, got on the list and had to wait for someone to die before getting on the team. Finally snuffed it when they shut down these 4 chairs and the new unit was now a 90 mile round trip 3 times a week for man who could barely walk or see. Died from exhaustion, not diabetes. 2nd parental unit needs an MRI for some serious GI issues, can't keep food down, losing weight rapidly. Wait 4.5 months and we'll see if we can get you in. I'm having her measured for the box.

Having said that, the situation is easier to describe in Texas, the land of excess (excessive wealth and excessive poverty).

Good health insurance plan, preferably through employer with lots of employees = wait times for advanced procedures measured usually in minutes or hours, sometimes days, but not weeks or months. You get taken care of, and your birthing room at the local maternity ward looks like the Marriott (just Couryard though, so no mini-bar or microwave).

Mediocre or no health insurance plan = pray you never get sick enough to require more than what you can buy at the CVS or splint up by watching do-it-yourself first aid videos on youtube, because an unplanned night in the hospital or a trip to emerg in the short bus with swirly lights followed by admission can, for many, wipe them out or sure eat up Bobby's college fund. No exaggeration. I have insurance, but for a reference point, one night in hospital (elective) for a turbinectomy (google it people) including jello and ice cream came in at $14,635. Yes, one night. 24 hours. Do the math. An emergency room visit for a forearm cut requiring 13 stitches (and I didn't even bleed on their white sheets - just cut through the skin to the fat tissue) was billed at $2,300 bucks. Our new baby tried to exit the meatbag as a footling breach, so emergency C-sectioned him out, and one extra night in hospital (2 in total) - all up, billed at just shy of $24K. We now have 3 full service hospitals within 5 miles of our house, and a full service children's hospital in the same radius. And they just started building another. Somebody's making money. If you don't have insurance, or your insurance is shitty (huge deductibles, huge copays) you will eat much of these types of costs. Rule: cheaper to die than get sick.

Ontario and AB might have longer wait times, but even an 83 year old woman in a rural Ontario village with no pension, insurance, income or large stacks of cash can (eventually) get the health care she needs without spending unjustifiable amounts of money. Happy birthday mom.

My 2¢

2 week hospital stay nurses checking in every half hour, even while we slept.

liquid food for 8 days through an IV, nurse told me it was 750 per bag/24 H

Specialists attending..

Four CAT scans maybe six. depending on how you want to group the time frame.

um...

ambulance ride covered by the province.

they took blood work twice a day.. I mean people were all up in my shit, LITERALLY ! oh a colonoscopy, and dietician.

SO those two weeks cost Alberta/Canada a lot of money. How much would that cost a person who is poor as fuck with a pre existing condition ?

I really wonder because if it was more than 500 dollars I would be in debt pretty decent if it was not for the health care system Canada has.

This elective stuff.. when I was getting scanned for tumors in my head or abnormalities again a CAT scan, I had to wait for a month, and it was not life threatening stuff, the EEG I waited 2 weeks for. again not life threatening.

My experience has been very well, although sometimes it has pissed me off. If I had this shit happen to me in America I think a bullet that costs .05 cents would be a better option that a life of 12 thousand a year debt for.. ever.

I did not like that one person, senators a -ok, doctor a-ok.. name plate hidden jack ass- not so much.

Oh and my pills costs roughly 90-120 dollars a month, I actually don't know because I have never paid for them.

GO CANADA!
GO ALBERTA !
being poor sucks though. been sick for a year.

Alberta checking in. I have used all 4 options EvilDeathBee mentioned and have no major complaints.

Quebec construction industry is quite corrupt which is a factor in the Vendome hospital being delayed.

You should seriously consider Alberta. It is colder but your buying power is much better.

Alberta *canada