“The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.” – Bertrand Russel
@BrendanManz The Regina game was actually an Argo Home because BMO stadium was unavailable because of FIFA. The amazing thing was that 25000 people showed up compared to 18000 at a BMO game!
I usually agree with much of what LWM posts but he’s off base on this one.
Canadians expect their national symbols (and 24 Sussex is one) to be maintained. Trudeau (and even Stephen Harper) abrogated their responsibility for shallow political reasons.
The media spin on 24 Sussex is darkly hilarious.
Canadians are sleeping in tents in public parks, rent is breaking working families, and Ottawa’s big moral emergency is apparently whether the prime minister’s official mansion gets a national makeover.
Well OK. Nobody is saying Carney should bunk with rats. We’re saying maybe, just maybe, a government presiding over a housing crisis should read the room before launching another prestige project for the political class.
Pierre Poilievre said it exactly right in his press conference. The average Canadian could not care less about polishing up a politician’s residence while they’re watching their own rent, groceries, taxes, and mortgage payments eat them alive.
This is Ottawa in one picture: citizens in tents, elites in committees, media pretending the real scandal is that Canadians are too cheap to fund the mansion.
Fix the country first. Then worry about the Prime Minister’s roof.
#cdnpoli #HousingCrisis #24Sussex #Carney #Poilievre
@MccueDarlene Agreed, the building is likely beyond restitution but the winning design for replacement should adopt and preserve much of this historical heritage as possible. Modern ‘progressive’ times are too quick to discard the past for flashy contemporary style which loses its appeal.
@CrisCDA2 Indeed, but it’s not Carney’s residence, it’s the people of Canada’s property assigned to the Prime Minister, just as Stornaway is assigned to the L of the OO.
@jonkay In third world countries there is trash everywhere, but then, they don’t have receptacles and so nowhere to put it.
As to NYC, it was a clean city in recent years up until immigration began to creep up.
There must be a disconnect in her DEI mind: truly disturbing.
@alleria_eh You haven’t been listening. This is what Poilievre has been saying all along and is CPC policy across the board: reduce the red tape, give people freedom to act quickly in their own best interests.
@terrynewman@preta_6 Unfortunate choice of words, ‘mediocre university grads’, with no evidence to support this. The issue is leadership, and possibly institutional inertia, not credentials. High intelligence and advanced education are not substitutes for vision and stamina.
Great piece by @HadleyFreeman in Britain’s @thetimes about the Great unmarked graves social panic of 2021-26. The story makes Canadians look like gullible idiots, but it’s a valuable international case study in mass hysteria & journalistic incompetence
https://t.co/KiibJJ8HYB
Sagan’s warning fits Carney perfectly.
The danger is not just ignorance. The danger is ignorance managed by credentialed power.
Carney represents the modern technocrat: fluent in the language of science, finance, climate models, AI, central banking, global governance, and “expert consensus.” But the ordinary Canadian is supposed to nod along while the country gets poorer, less productive, more indebted, more regulated, and more dependent on systems almost nobody can challenge.
That is the combustible mixture Sagan warned about: immense technical power in the hands of a few, while citizens are told they are too uninformed to question the plan.
Carney talks about AI, climate, productivity, investment, and global competitiveness. OK. But Canada is now in a technical recession, and Carney himself has warned that the data will be “uneven” as his government pushes reforms. Reuters also reported his AI strategy promises 250,000 jobs by 2031 and a 3% GDP boost, which sounds lovely, but Canadians have heard glossy Liberal promises before.
The Stoic questions are simple:
What is true?
What is proven?
What is assumed?
Who pays if this fails?
Who gets protected from the consequences?
Science is a way of thinking, not a costume for political authority. You do not get to wrap ideology in graphs and call it wisdom.
Canada does not need more priesthood politics, where the public is told to trust the experts while food banks grow, productivity sinks, housing becomes absurd, and young people wonder if adulthood has been priced out of reach.
A Stoic citizen does not reject expertise. He tests it.
Carney may be brilliant. That does not make him right. Intelligence without humility becomes arrogance. Expertise without accountability becomes rule by managers. And power without public understanding becomes exactly what Sagan feared.
My hard line:
Do not confuse credentials with wisdom. Do not confuse models with reality. Do not confuse technocratic confidence with truth. A free country needs citizens who can question power, especially when power speaks in polished sentences and calls itself science.
@ryangerritsen I’m not sure which is worse in the Cochrane m.o.: deliberate Liberal propagandist or willfully blind to his own perceptual bias. I think the latter if he pretends to be an honest journalist.