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Just now, Master Mind said:

 

Close to Toronto. If you think Leafs coverage is overbearing there in BC, I assure you it could be much more in your face haha

 

I'm one of the few out here that likes Toronto. The city, not the team. Been a lifelong jays fan tho.

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6 minutes ago, Bob Long said:

 

I'm one of the few out here that likes Toronto. The city, not the team. Been a lifelong jays fan tho.

 

One of these days I'd like to visit Vancouver, would be interesting to see how it compares to TO. Would be nice to catch a home game for the Nucks too.

 

I'm a Rangers fan in baseball, but I went to a Jays game a couple years ago and it was a fun atmosphere.

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13 hours ago, Wiggums said:

 

 

The OP was about happiness and mental well-being  .  Basically all studies from anywhere will conclude the same thing in that regard

 

And I'm just saying, the world isn't this simple.

 

New study questions trope that conservatives are happier than liberals

Alleged happiness gap turns out to be a survey artifact, researchers say

 

Years of psychological research have suggested that people who are politically conservative are happier than their liberal counterparts. This so-called "ideological happiness gap" has inspired elaborate theories for why conservatives enjoy life more than liberals do.

 

But there may be no happiness gap at all. According to a new study published online today in Science, the tiny differences found in previous studies may have resulted from a slight tendency on the part of political conservatives to "self-enhance," or view themselves in an unrealistically positive light.

 

Happiness is hot stuff in psychology. One reason is that the tool used by nearly all studies in this field—surveys asking people to self-report their happiness on numerical scales—is cheap and easy to implement. Plus, the results matter to policymakers: People's happiness correlates with important life outcomes such as health, wealth, and even life expectancy.

 

But there could be a simpler explanation. Rather than truly being happier than liberals, conservatives may be more prone to put a positive spin on their lives. To test that possibility, Sean Wojcik, a psychologist at the University of California, Irvine, and colleagues devised a study that aimed to assess not just happiness but also people's tendency to self-enhance.

 

To get enough subjects to nail down this tiny statistical effect, the researchers used a website—YourMorals.org—open to people of any political persuasion. A total of 1433 people filled out and submitted not only the standard happiness questionnaire but also a series of questions called the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding. That instrument measures "the tendency to engage in self-deceptive enhancement." For example, people who highly agree with statements such as "I am fully in control of my own fate," or, "I never regret my decisions," are deemed to be self-enhancing.

 

https://www.science.org/content/article/new-study-questions-trope-conservatives-are-happier-liberals

 

Conservatives report, but liberals display, greater happiness

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1260817

 

Research suggesting that political conservatives are happier than political liberals has relied exclusively on self-report measures of subjective well-being. We show that this finding is fully mediated by conservatives’ self-enhancing style of self-report (study 1; N = 1433) and then describe three studies drawing from “big data” sources to assess liberal-conservative differences in happiness-related behavior (studies 2 to 4; N = 4936). Relative to conservatives, liberals more frequently used positive emotional language in their speech and smiled more intensely and genuinely in photographs. Our results were consistent across large samples of online survey takers, U.S. politicians, Twitter users, and LinkedIn users. Our findings illustrate the nuanced relationship between political ideology, self-enhancement, and happiness and illuminate the contradictory ways that happiness differences can manifest across behavior and self-reports.

Edited by DSVII
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The immigration wars are just getting started

  • US presses Canada to impose visa requirements on Mexican visitors

The least-talked-about secular trend right now is diminishing enthusiasm for immigration in the west.

 

It's real and it will have profound implications for economic growth, demographics and inflation. I've seen it first-hand in Canada, which is typically the most-open country for immigration in the world. 


image.thumb.jpeg.dea120f14352699da527d3c066a31a15.jpeg
 

There has been a 180-degree turn in the past year or so and the next election is likely to be fought over immigration. It happened after a surge in immigration over the past few years as foreign students and Canadian colleges exploited a loophole leading to a cheaper, easier path to permanent residence.

 

It broke the social contract, along with the Canadian housing market and government services.
 

It's certainly not contained to only Canada. Immigration and illegal immigration will be a pivotal issue in the US election. We've already seen surprising election results in Holland and Germany that have been fuelled by immigration. In Australia, the immigration target has been cut by 50%.

I suspect this is just the beginning and that the implications will be far-reaching.

 

The WSJ reports today that the US is pushing Canada to impose visa requirements on Mexican visitors because of a surge in people flying to Canada and then crossing into the US from the north.

There is a gamification of immigration and asylum rules that's ongoing and growing. Opaque information about the paths to reside in foreign countries has spilled out into the open, revealing that refugee claims take upwards of two years and that deportations are rarely enforced and can easily be tied up in courts.

 

The inevitable result will be declines in low-cost labour and highly-attractive talent. There is an opportunity as well for places that can curate the best of the best. The will of foreign nationals to move to safe, prosperous locations is unabated and as borders are closed, there will be an opportunity to select the best.

 

But it will only work for governments that can deliver on housing, education, healthcare and prosperity. That's a short list.

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21 hours ago, Bob Long said:

 

I'm one of the few out here that likes Toronto. The city, not the team. Been a lifelong jays fan tho.

It got some cool things to it. Great food and neighborhoods with cultural identities, vibrant music scene and the people were friendly on my visits. Decently clean. It isn't really a pretty city even with water nearby. As far as fun goes in Canada Montreal > Vancouver/TO/Winnipeg* > Victoria in your early 20s . I guess Calgary is there too if you like country music and fucking your relatives. Vancouver is getting less and less fun but my memories of concerts and skateboarding in the late 90s and early 2000s are of some epic times 😉

*in the summer

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38 minutes ago, Gnarcore said:

It got some cool things to it. Great food and neighborhoods with cultural identities, vibrant music scene and the people were friendly on my visits. Decently clean. It isn't really a pretty city even with water nearby. As far as fun goes in Canada Montreal > Vancouver/TO/Winnipeg* > Victoria in your early 20s . I guess Calgary is there too if you like country music and fucking your relatives. Vancouver is getting less and less fun but my memories of concerts and skateboarding in the late 90s and early 2000s are of some epic times 😉

*in the summer

 

I can't stay awake late enough for Montreal to work for me, plus I hate dressing up all the time.

 

Vancouver isn't for everyone but I like the outdoors access/just enough city stuff mix.

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3 hours ago, Bob Long said:

 

I can't stay awake late enough for Montreal to work for me, plus I hate dressing up all the time.

 

Vancouver isn't for everyone but I like the outdoors access/just enough city stuff mix.

I live in the mountains so not going there for outdoors activities but that is Vancouver's strong suit for sure. And it, from afar, is beautiful. I am 45 now...night life is very low down my list of wants and needs these days. I tend to hit a concert, the Loose Moose or another dive joint and go continue on at the hotel nowadays. Got dragged to the Cambie pre covid after Iron Maiden...was a buncha ESL kids. The bathrooms were still horrendous and Lucky Lager was on tap but otherwise no sign of the days 3 guys were slanging drugs at the jukebox 😉

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21 minutes ago, the destroyer of worlds said:

People's Party of Crazy folks.  The party that folks how find the CONs too tame.

 

"Those who threaten the West’s freedom and way of life are in Ottawa, Washington, and Brussels, not in Moscow.

 

 

 

So that's where this take is coming from, I was wondering.

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3 hours ago, 4petesake said:

 

Question for you.  If Trudeau had a majority government and didn’t need Jagmeet to stay in power, do you think he would have agreed to this particular Pharmacare deal?

 

The deal will cost upwards of $40 billion per year.  I’m not saying it’s a good or bad deal, I’m just wondering if Trudeau would have agreed to it as the way the legislation has been drafted if he had had a majority government?  Agree to a $40 billion a year deal so he can push back the election to 2025.  In effect, that is what Trudeau is doing…

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4 minutes ago, Elias Pettersson said:

 

Question for you.  If Trudeau had a majority government and didn’t need Jagmeet to stay in power, do you think he would have agreed to this particular Pharmacare deal?

 

The deal will cost upwards of $40 billion per year.  I’m not saying it’s a good or bad deal, I’m just wondering if Trudeau would have agreed to it as the way the legislation has been drafted if he had had a majority government?  Agree to a $40 billion a year deal so he can push back the election to 2025.  In effect, that is what Trudeau is doing…

Minority governments historically have the best outcomes for Canadians.  The one exception in my lifetime as an adult was Harper not being able to co-operate with the other parties enough.

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23 minutes ago, King Heffy said:

Minority governments historically have the best outcomes for Canadians.  The one exception in my lifetime as an adult was Harper not being able to co-operate with the other parties enough.

 

Minority governments work because of the coalition. I do agree on that. However, what is happening right now is that Trudeau is passing legislation that is not actually his legislation, or at least not the way it is being drafted.  It is the legislation of the NDP party.  For people that support the NDP, that is great.  But they only control 25 seats in the House of Commons, yet they are passing through their own legislation into law.

 

At some point, the coalition will fail, just like it always does.  Minority governments on average last only 2 years.  The electorate doesn’t want to go to the polls every 2 years.  And elections cost money.  The last election that didn’t change anything cost the taxpayers $600 million.  That’s not a sustainable way of doing business.  And it’s a waste of taxpayer’s money. 

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8 minutes ago, Elias Pettersson said:

 

Minority governments work because of the coalition. I do agree on that. However, what is happening right now is that Trudeau is passing legislation that is not actually his legislation, or at least not the way it is being drafted.  It is the legislation of the NDP party.  For people that support the NDP, that is great.  But they only control 25 seats in the House of Commons, yet they are passing through their own legislation into law.

 

That's a good thing.  Multiple parties compromising and supporting each other ends up benefiting more Canadians.  Majority governments give a blank cheque to a party the majority of Canadians didn't vote for, every time.

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