BMO is a seller of mortgages, and therefore heavily invested in the financialization of housing. About 15-20% of their assets are in residential mortgages and HELOCs alone. Of course they want to talk about anything EXCEPT the root of the problem that is literally driving their profitability. This is like bringing up a study from the oil and gas industry to argue that greenhouse emissions are not a problem. And just like Oil&Gas keep pushing an inefficient and outdated energy technology stack and standing in the way of common sense electrification, the real estate financialization industry is keeping Canadian capital in an unproductive and parasitic sector. Imagine if we instead used all that capital not to invest in inert land, but to build up the Canadian economy.

Why is housing inelastic in the current system? Because it is not treated as a universal right, but as an asset. It is being hoarded by Real Eastate Investment Trusts who quite literally profit from maintaining scarcity. The solution is breaking the back of REITs and building non-market infill development across the country. Build the missing middle and keep it the fuck out of the profit-driven market, make it coops and public housing. Oh and guess what we need to do that. That’s right, workers, of which we have a shortage, so therefore …immigrants.

Here’s what Avi Lewis’ platform has to say about housing: https://lewisforleader.ca/ideas/housing-full-plan

If you call this “gaslighting” and “bad faith” argumentation, I honestly have no idea what you would consider “good faith” argumentation.

These problems aren’t caused by immigrants no matter what the frothing-in-the-mouth Right wants you to believe.

Little Quebec data point: the vast majority of immigrants move to Montreal. Guess where the housing crisis is more acute: the regions. Immigrants are not causing the housing shortage. Stupid car-centric city planning, NIMBY zoning, and the financialization of housing is what causes it. Read the CCPA report.

Youth unemployment? At the same time when our healthcare system is buckling from chronic under-staffing? And at the same time when we are missing teachers, early childhood educators? At the same time when we are faced with a climate resilience crisis, a housing crisis, sectors that require actual trained labour? Gee I wonder if there are some solutions to that. Maybe some kind of, oh I don’t know Green New Deal, funded by the ridiculous wealth hoarded by parasites like Galen Weston over the past few decades of neoliberal orthodoxy?

Immigrants are a rhetorical scapegoat, sold to you by demagogues who dream of bringing Trump style authoritarianism to Canada. We know exactly where that leads. No thanks.

Anything is possible!

Try Metaxa with ice and orange juice, and maybe a maraschino cherry ;)

Agreed on all counts.

Yes it was. At the same time, Yves Engler trying to hijack the NDP leadership contest to carry water for Putin was also not any kind of good faith politics.

If you’re worried about giving workers real power, the NDP is not for you.

Good luck convincing Europeans to let go of their traditional cheeses and sausages.

“Judaism overwhelmingly supports Zionism”

Wtf does that even mean. It’s like writing that Christianity supports Marxism. Religion supports political ideology. Doesn’t even compute as a sentence.

His constituents need to have this blasted 24/7 at the next election.

These guys are behaving like imperial Proconsuls, rather than ambassadors.

Let’s call this what it is: foreign interference with press freedom in Canada.

Edit: For context https://lemmy.ca/post/60363517

We should be concerned for the safety of our fellow Canadians of Muslim faith and/or Palestinian ethnic origin that hundreds of battle hardened zionists might be returning to Canada after having participated in committing genocide abroad. The Maple is doing the right thing blowing the whistle but they have only covered a small number of potential criminals.

Get rid of OSAP altogether. Make university free and fully taxpayer funded and introduce negative income tax for students.

If AI is going to be arbitrarily deleting a bunch of fields, the concept of “in-demand jobs” is pointless. “Basket weaving” type classes might sound silly to stupid conservatives today but might be exactly what makes an AI-based economy tick in a couple of years (eg., a linguistics and philosophy degree might be exactly what you need if you need to be able to effectively set up and debug an AI agent).

Not to mention of course that the point of a university education is not “jobs”, it is to have an educated citizenry that is the bedrock of any kind of democracy. Conservatives have never understood the point of education in the first place. Fuck 'em.

I just find the whole drama hilarious.

Molon labe.

What’s he going to do, impose tarrifs?

For young ones and new Canadians: FYI Petro-Canada was founded as a crown corporation and operated as such until 1991.

That’s not what I wrote.

If you don’t understand why we shouldn’t let Trump and his posse bully anyone they like in the western hemisphere, you’re more like CanadaMinus

Um, no they don’t.