Canadian Politics Thread

[Alflives]

8 minutes ago, 112 said:

Trudeau has to go, but I remain unconvinced that voters will get what they want from Poilievre. Douchebag vs. Turd Sandwich.

 

Ideally Trudeau would step down, although it might be political suicide for the person who fills his role.

 

'Axe the tax' is a stupid policy altogether, though. It's a good tax.

 

At the same time, there have simply been too many scandals with the current government. Trudeau's become very wealthy during his governance while normal Canadians are struggling to eat and maintain shelter.

 

He's still done some good things, but it's time to move on, and I'm not sure his party even recognizes this.

 

Likewise the NDP needs to move on from Singh.

Maybe the lady finance Minister could take over for Trudeau? She’s not as pretty (who is?) but might be a lot better as PM?

[112]

Just now, Alflives said:

Maybe the lady finance Minister could take over for Trudeau? She’s not as pretty (who is?) but might be a lot better as PM?

Freeland would be the most obvious choice, for sure. Joly is another I'd imagine would be up for the job.

 

People have thrown Mark Carney's name out there, and although I don't know too much about him, I think he'd be the most likely out of anyone to save the party in the next election.

[Alflives]

3 minutes ago, 112 said:

Freeland would be the most obvious choice, for sure. Joly is another I'd imagine would be up for the job.

 

People have thrown Mark Carney's name out there, and although I don't know too much about him, I think he'd be the most likely out of anyone to save the party in the next election.

Can Freeland speak French? Not sure on that? Really our PM should be fluent in both English and French. 

[RupertKBD]

42 minutes ago, King Heffy said:

Should never have gone to a referendum.  The average taxpayer simply isn't educated enough to be able to make an informed decision and is just going to think "tax bad".

 

That was another thing that bugged me to no end....so many people were blaming the Liberals for even holding the referendum, oblivious to the fact that once the No campaign had enough signatures on the petition, they had no choice....

[112]

4 minutes ago, Alflives said:

Can Freeland speak French? Not sure on that? Really our PM should be fluent in both English and French. 

It seems she can.

From Wikipedia:

"She has lived in Toronto since the summer of 2013 when she returned from abroad to run for election.^[23][92][33] She speaks Ukrainian at home with her children.^[93] She also speaks English, Russian, Italian, and French.^[94]"

[Alflives]

Just now, 112 said:

It seems she can.

From Wikipedia:

"She has lived in Toronto since the summer of 2013 when she returned from abroad to run for election.^[23][92][33] She speaks Ukrainian at home with her children.^[93] She also speaks English, Russian, Italian, and French.^[94]"

Impressive! 
She’s the “One”. 

[112]

1 minute ago, Alflives said:

Impressive! 
She’s the “One”. 

yeah, seems she's a bit of a polyglot

[Bob Long]

19 minutes ago, Alflives said:

IMHAO people living in big cities, who have access to good transit, don’t need any vehicles. Use transit or taxi. EVs are great but still add to congestion. 

 

unfortunately years and inertia of cars being king have left us with inadequate public transpiration. 

 

E.g., there's been a great plan to bring back light rail down the Arbutus corridor through to downtown for years, but the west side nimby's want their extra bike lane and think crime with come with trains. 

 

19 minutes ago, Alflives said:

In colder climates, where towns are spread far apart, an EV isn’t practical. The distances are too great. Imagine travelling from Thunder Bay to Sault St. Marie, in winter, in an EV. Some day there will be EVs that charge as quick as filling a gas tank. (Or close) Then I can see people using them in these colder areas. Right now, it just doesn’t make sense. 

 

those are small cases tho that we can allow to continue if we bring in more TVs to the city. 

[Alflives]

1 minute ago, Bob Long said:

 

unfortunately years and inertia of cars being king have left us with inadequate public transpiration. 

 

E.g., there's been a great plan to bring back light rail down the Arbutus corridor through to downtown for years, but the west side nimby's want their extra bike lane and think crime with come with trains. 

 

 

those are small cases tho that we can allow to continue if we bring in more TVs to the city. 

Relatively speaks yes those are smaller numbers than our biggest centres. But even those (smaller) cities still have over 100,000 people now. 20% of Canadians is 8 million people. 

[Attila Umbrus]

1 hour ago, Bob Long said:

 

PHEV is the answer for rural folks. 

My buddy has one and has been very pleasantly surprised by it. I wonder if PHEV will ever make it into bigger vehicles like full sized trucks?

 

It's good for commuting with him. During the summer he can drive the 60 km to work on a full charge, then plug in at work then drive home. No gas!

 

But winter time it drops to 50 % efficiency below - 15 C. So he ends up using the gas engine a bit. But still his gas savings pays for the vehicle loan. Pretty cool.

 

I wish I could use a vehicle like that but I need a work truck for my job, i've thought about an SUV but still won't do the trick for me. 

 

The other concern I have is that PHEV batteries need to be replaced after 10 years, I looked up the cost and that's gonna run a guy around 7-10,000 depending on the model.

 

It's even scarier for electric vehicles. A guy I know bought a Tesla up here...4 years later the batteries are already toast and not holding full charge. 20 K to replace. He's pissed.

[Bob Long]

1 minute ago, Alflives said:

Relatively speaks yes those are smaller numbers than our biggest centres. But even those (smaller) cities still have over 100,000 people now. 20% of Canadians is 8 million people. 

 

thats true, like I said it might only be a viable option as a 2nd family vehicle in the really cold spots where you can charge at home regularly. 

[Bob Long]

1 minute ago, Attila Umbrus said:

My buddy has one and has been very pleasantly surprised by it. I wonder if PHEV will ever make it into bigger vehicles like full sized trucks?

 

It's good for commuting with him. During the summer he can drive the 60 km to work on a full charge, then plug in at work then drive home. No gas!

 

But winter time it drops to 50 % efficiency below - 15 C. So he ends up using the gas engine a bit. But still his gas savings pays for the vehicle loan. Pretty cool.

 

I wish I could use a vehicle like that but I need a work truck for my job, i've thought about an SUV but still won't do the trick for me. 

 

The other concern I have is that PHEV batteries need to be replaced after 10 years, I looked up the cost and that's gonna run a guy around 7-10,000 depending on the model.

 

It's even scarier for electric vehicles. A guy I know bought a Tesla up here...4 years later the batteries are already toast and not holding full charge. 20 K to replace. He's pissed.

 

I have a PHEV, its great. Big heavy SUV that I typically get about 7.5l/100km with on the electric-gas combined option. I'm on the 99N a ton and its been great for us, but typically we don't ski when its more than -15C, too hard on the old lungs.

 

Ours comes with a 10 year warranty, so I don't really care about the battery, I'll deal with it then or trade it in for a new one when there's maybe a couple of years left on it.

 

[Alflives]

2 minutes ago, Bob Long said:

 

I have a PHEV, its great. Big heavy SUV that I typically get about 7.5l/100km with on the electric-gas combined option. I'm on the 99N a ton and its been great for us, but typically we don't ski when its more than -15C, too hard on the old lungs.

 

Ours comes with a 10 year warranty, so I don't really care about the battery, I'll deal with it then or trade it in for a new one when there's maybe a couple of years left on it.

 

Sounds like a great vehicle. But maybe more money than a lot of people can afford? 

[Attila Umbrus]

2 minutes ago, Bob Long said:

 

I have a PHEV, its great. Big heavy SUV that I typically get about 7.5l/100km with on the electric-gas combined option. I'm on the 99N a ton and its been great for us, but typically we don't ski when its more than -15C, too hard on the old lungs.

 

Ours comes with a 10 year warranty, so I don't really care about the battery, I'll deal with it then or trade it in for a new one when there's maybe a couple of years left on it.

 

 

Thanks, I didn't realize there is a warranty on the batteries. I wonder how rock solid the warranty is. My buddy's Tesla is not offering him warranty and he has to pay for new batteries himself. I wonder if they found him doing something he wasn't supposed to? I'll have to ask...with out getting hit by him lol. It's not a topic he wants to talk about right now.

 

I may very soon get an PHEV, they have proven to work well for people up north here.

 

Cheers

[Optimist Prime]

38 minutes ago, Alflives said:

IMHAO people living in big cities, who have access to good transit, don’t need any vehicles. Use transit or taxi. EVs are great but still add to congestion. 
In colder climates, where towns are spread far apart, an EV isn’t practical. The distances are too great. Imagine travelling from Thunder Bay to Sault St. Marie, in winter, in an EV. Some day there will be EVs that charge as quick as filling a gas tank. (Or close) Then I can see people using them in these colder areas. Right now, it just doesn’t make sense. 

I get the drift of what you are trying to say, but you have to admit your assertion lacks in real data to back it up. 

If an EV will go 800km's on a charge and recharge in 8 hours or less: most people don't drive more than 3 hours a day, 365, right? My family has 400 acres on one of several dairy farms. Combined, the three adults that work it, and their two hired hands don't drive anything for 8 hours combined a day, with the exception of  4 cuts a year where they are driving 12 hours a day each, almost in order to mow, dry, row, bail and collect all the hay for the cows wintering. So, 5 weeks a year max for that rural operation to have a high density of driving.

 

The vast majority of those 20% rural canadians, i would guess, don't drive over 8 hours a day on average excepting truckers and farmers 5 weeks a year. I just don't know, like I said, but thinking anecdotally, maybe 5% of Canadians fit your model of "ev's just not being up to the job of rural cold canada".

 

Shrug.

 

Again i don't know, but I can synthesize rather well and I don't see what you are saying as anything other than an exception to the rule, kind of a thing. Yeah EV's wont solve every driver's situation, but they can solve 89% up to 97% of every drivers situation, see what I am sayin?

 

It is certainly interesting, when I see the highway here on the Island, west coast of Canada, almost every single gas or diesel pickup truck doing an hour commute to victoria in the morning and an hour home at night has nothing in the truck bed, and one dude driving the truck. 

Every single one of those 'could' be an EV.  ((And yes every single one could be on mass transit systems of some kind, but you can't convince someone to give up their autonomy in a lot of cases the best you can hope for is to convince them to give up their emissions)

 

I am leaning towards the Silverado EV when it launches later this year. I have alwayys wanted a pickup to move stuff to and fro, and I have always wanted an EV since Tesla first came out. For a while I wanted the Cyber Truck, but then i realized parking it in Downtown Duncan would just be an invitation to every ahole in my home town to try to smash the windows out or shoot it if i go to Youbou. hahahaha

 

The electric Silverado seems like a perfect vehicle for me and by December, I very likely will have one.

[Bob Long]

7 minutes ago, Attila Umbrus said:

 

Thanks, I didn't realize there is a warranty on the batteries. I wonder how rock solid the warranty is. My buddy's Tesla is not offering him warranty and he has to pay for new batteries himself. I wonder if they found him doing something he wasn't supposed to? I'll have to ask...with out getting hit by him lol. It's not a topic he wants to talk about right now.

 

I may very soon get an PHEV, they have proven to work well for people up north here.

 

Cheers

 

I have this one (earlier model);https://www.mitsubishi-motors.ca/en/vehicles/outlander-phev

 

Mitsubishi has the best warranty of any car company, 10 years on battery and power train. They are also, relatively, cheaper than other similar things like the big Volvo PHEVs. 

 

I'd certainly recommend taking one for a test drive. If you like storage, the back is cavernous. 

 

Edited March 29 by Bob Long

[Bob Long]

5 minutes ago, Alflives said:

Sounds like a great vehicle. But maybe more money than a lot of people can afford? 

 

No, I got mine for 38k. It was during covid tho and I'm happy to take base models off the lot. I don't really give a shit about car fashion or dongles.

 

I think current ones come in around 45k if you go base model. 

[Alflives]

4 minutes ago, Optimist Prime said:

I get the drift of what you are trying to say, but you have to admit your assertion lacks in real data to back it up. 

If an EV will go 800km's on a charge and recharge in 8 hours or less: most people don't drive more than 3 hours a day, 365, right? My family has 400 acres on one of several dairy farms. Combined, the three adults that work it, and their two hired hands don't drive anything for 8 hours combined a day, with the exception of  4 cuts a year where they are driving 12 hours a day each, almost in order to mow, dry, row, bail and collect all the hay for the cows wintering. So, 5 weeks a year max for that rural operation to have a high density of driving.

 

The vast majority of those 20% rural canadians, i would guess, don't drive over 8 hours a day on average excepting truckers and farmers 5 weeks a year. I just don't know, like I said, but thinking anecdotally, maybe 5% of Canadians fit your model of "ev's just not being up to the job of rural cold canada".

 

Shrug.

 

Again i don't know, but I can synthesize rather well and I don't see what you are saying as anything other than an exception to the rule, kind of a thing. Yeah EV's wont solve every driver's situation, but they can solve 89% up to 97% of every drivers situation, see what I am sayin?

 

It is certainly interesting, when I see the highway here on the Island, west coast of Canada, almost every single gas or diesel pickup truck doing an hour commute to victoria in the morning and an hour home at night has nothing in the truck bed, and one dude driving the truck. 

Every single one of those 'could' be an EV. 

 

I am leaning towards the Silverado EV when it launches later this year. I have alwayys wanted a pickup to move stuff to and fro, and I have always wanted an EV since Tesla first came out. For a while I wanted the Cyber Truck, but then i realized parking it in Downtown Duncan would just be an invitation to every ahole in my home town to try to smash the windows out or shoot it if i go to Youbou. hahahaha

 

The electric Silverado seems like a perfect vehicle for me and by December, I very likely will have one.

I drive an EV. It’s great! Fits in the elevator and down the hallways just fine. 
But an EV just won’t be practical (yet) for 20% of our population and 95% of our landmass. 
I like @Bob Long’s idea of the hybrid. Then those in colder climates have a good option. 

[Optimist Prime]

Another thing I see in the farming community here at least, is the old conservative 'change is bad' farmer will say something like "fuckin tree hugger cars; useless as tits on a bull". Nothing factual at all in the statement, just a general dislike of EV's because they are new and maybe scary? lol....but then like hens in a coop the guy next to him says it again "yeah i hear they are freezin up north and wont move, stupid things". Then the guy beside him chimes in "and you can't do a 15 hour day bringin in hay on one charge, so what is the point" and all that 'for the culture' kind of sentiment...and then they all drive to Tim hortons alone in their diesel F350's. 

 

At some point folks just have to accept that change is constant and human driven climate change is real, and we humans must act to solve it. 

 

With my family at least, thinking of the farm a few blocks away from where we retired to, three households have seven vehicles that have not much to do with the farming that is being done: there are a dozen tractors too, but just road worthy vehicles: 7 for five adults in three houses on one farm. Trying to convince them that even just 3 or 4 of those could be EV's is like pulling teeth. It is definitely a culture of conservative resistance to change that is the issue, rather than an EV not being a good fit for their needs. Shrug. 

[Bob Long]

Just now, Alflives said:

I drive an EV. It’s great! Fits in the elevator and down the hallways just fine. 

 

 

 

 

 

Just now, Alflives said:

But an EV just won’t be practical (yet) for 20% of our population and 95% of our landmass. 
I like @Bob Long’s idea of the hybrid. Then those in colder climates have a good option. 

 

maybe hydrogen will be the thing for these folks, and long haul trucks?

 

[Optimist Prime]

7 minutes ago, Alflives said:

I drive an EV. It’s great! Fits in the elevator and down the hallways just fine. 
But an EV just won’t be practical (yet) for 20% of our population and 95% of our landmass. 
I like @Bob Long’s idea of the hybrid. Then those in colder climates have a good option. 

I only disagree with your numbers. 20% of canadians live in rural areas, but more than half of them don't drive more than an hour or two a day, so you can't lump them in as a full 20% that can't use EV's. More like 3 to 7% of Canadians..an exception not a majority. 

 

I would rather solve the problem of emissions for 93% and more of us, than not solve it because 7% or less the fix is no good for. Right?

[Alflives]

1 hour ago, Optimist Prime said:

I only disagree with your numbers. 20% of canadians live in rural areas, but more than half of them don't drive more than an hour or two a day, so you can't lump them in as a full 20% that can't use EV's. More like 3 to 7% of Canadians..an exception not a majority. 

 

I would rather solve the problem of emissions for 93% and more of us, than not solve it because 7% or less the fix is no good for. Right?

We could solve a lot of problems if city folk, with access to transit, didn’t own vehicles. It’s not just the type of drive that’s important. We need to change the culture too. No vehicles in big cities except for certain ones, like Taxi, bus, emergency, police, etc. we could reduce traffic and congestion by huge amounts. 

[Optimist Prime]

45 minutes ago, Alflives said:

We could solve a lot of problems if city folk, with access to transit, didn’t own vehicles. It’s not just the type of drive that’s important. We need to change the culture too. No vehicles in big cities except for certain ones, like Taxi, bus, emergency, police, etc. we could reduce traffic and congestion by huge amounts. 

Agreed, and I do think some city folks are giving up their rides. My two examples are my 83 year old father in law and his 61 year old girlfriend: both retired in Victoria, BC and she sold her car last year, and decided she didn't need it or the insurance or the gas to get along in James Bay area: three doors away from groceries and a great bus system. On the other end is my niece in Vancouver who is works but doesn't have much income and she was simply squeezed out of affording a used car/insurance/parking/gas. 

Both seem to be just fine without it. 

[Bob Long]

10 minutes ago, Optimist Prime said:

Agreed, and I do think some city folks are giving up their rides. My two examples are my 83 year old father in law and his 61 year old girlfriend: both retired in Victoria, BC and she sold her car last year, and decided she didn't need it or the insurance or the gas to get along in James Bay area: three doors away from groceries and a great bus system. On the other end is my niece in Vancouver who is works but doesn't have much income and she was simply squeezed out of affording a used car/insurance/parking/gas. 

Both seem to be just fine without it. 

 

83? 61? Who does he think he is, Anthony Quinn!

[6of1_halfdozenofother]

11 minutes ago, Optimist Prime said:

Agreed, and I do think some city folks are giving up their rides. My two examples are my 83 year old father in law and his 61 year old girlfriend: both retired in Victoria, BC and she sold her car last year, and decided she didn't need it or the insurance or the gas to get along in James Bay area: three doors away from groceries and a great bus system. On the other end is my niece in Vancouver who is works but doesn't have much income and she was simply squeezed out of affording a used car/insurance/parking/gas. 

Both seem to be just fine without it. 

 

It's all fine and dandy when the town is small enough to be serviced by a transit system that is appropriately sized - but the way the Lower Mainland has been developed means that you're stuck with urban sprawl that the transit network is far from being able to service effectively, and where the housing situation makes it more difficult to find a place that is sufficiently close enough to work, transit, or both.  And unfortunately, because of this sprawl, the network will take a crazy amount of $$$ to resolve the issue of consistent and reliable transit service to help even 80% of the people go to where they need to go to and back without having to build in contingency travel time.  That $$$ = political suicide, for any politician who wants to address it effectively.

 

So while it's idealistic to pontify and claim that a lot of the issues would be solved if people ditched their cars and took transit instead, the bottleneck isn't with the drivers - it's with the inability to properly scale up the transit network to offer that as a truly viable alternative to drivers.