"Every dollar of capital that goes into bidding up existing housing is a dollar NOT going into machinery, technology, R&D, or building businesses that sell things to the world."
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https://t.co/VsUUAUGj20
In 2023-24, 13.8 cents of every tax dollar collected by the federal government was spent on Indigenous peoples, programs, and treaty settlements.
Indigenous peoples make up ~5% of Canada's population.
Over the past 50 years, the federal government has spent an estimated $400–$475 billion (in inflation-adjusted dollars) on Indigenous peoples, programs, and settlements.
No simple answers, but this doesn't seem like a sustainable level of spending and living conditions / quality of life outcomes don't seem to be improving.
Canadians should be able to have a rational conversation about this without being accused of being racist.
Global Affairs Canada has a searchable database that contains spending details for all international assistance projects.
The ten projects that received the largest individual grants since 2008 include:
- $3.8B for a worldwide partnership to defeat HIV, tuberculosis and malaria
- $1B to accelerate energy transition away from coal
- $900M for a vaccine alliance that has helped vaccinate >1.1B children around the world
- $500M for a climate resilience accelerator
Link in 🧵
More on tariffs: How Canada wins.
You beat a gorilla by outsmarting it. You can’t compete with a gorilla on strength and size. You use his strength against him.
Here are the facts. Please have an open mind and don’t let your hatred of the US president blind you to doing what’s best for our country.
1. Trump campaigned on delivering results for the border and reducing fentanyl. He promised tariffs as a way to get what they want. He is under huge pressure to get wins for his base. Look at the highly televised ICE raids. They want a spectacle.
2. Trump cannot afford to look weak with Canada because the rest of the world is watching. The US’s policy on Russia / Iran / China / NK will not work if they see the US capitulate to Canada in any way. We must not puff our chest and dare Trump to crush us. Our response must be smart and measured.
3. Trump is not the God-Emperor of America. He is on a 2 year election timer. If the Republicans lose the midterms, the rest of his agenda will be stonewalled. He doesn’t have time to f*ck around which is why the administration is moving so fast.
4. Tariffs are not universally popular in the Republican Party. If he tariffs too hard for too long, his own party will begin grumbling.
5. Trump has shown that he cares massively about maintaining face and how the US is perceived. We will use this against him.
6. Important! Escalating will only cause more pain. The US has limitless levers it can pull. The quickest, sending our bond market skyrocketing, is easy — any of the nuclear options will bring us to our knees.
Here’s what we should do to win:
1. Commit publicly to working with the US on border security and drug flow. Be so loud about cooperating that moderate Republicans and Democrats fight on our behalf. If we keep on threatening war, it will be political suicide for any US politician to defend Canada.
2. Levy a few strategic retaliatory tariffs to save face and target their weaknesses, but open the door to negotiation. We must give them an off-ramp that guarantees mutual prosperity and safety.
3. Announce the greatest set of policies unleashing free enterprise in Canadian history. Build more pipelines, open up trade routes, cut taxes, subsidize our businesses from trade. This won’t solve the pain of tariffs today, but markets are forward looking so they will reward Canada.
4. Make a win-win deal. Give Trump a political win for his base, we’ll take the economic win and spend the next 10 years building our country.
5. Publicly commit to hitting our 2% GDP defense spending target within 12 months.
To suggest it’s cowardly or treasonous to make a deal is completely foolish. If you wish to marytr Canada’s economy because you want to prove a point, I believe you are the real traitor.
For better or for worse, our country shares the longest land border in the world with the world’s greatest economic and military superpower. Our fate is inextricably tied to theirs. Nobody is coming to save us. But we can find a path to common prosperity and self-reliance by getting our house in order.
Canada is a day away from economy-wide 25% tariffs.
Today, the government gave $81.8M to nonprofit organizations across Canada to deliver mental health, 2SLGBTQI+, business support and tourism projects.
That’s the equivalent cost of leasing 33 Blackhawk helicopters or 698 SkyRanger R70 drones to help address US concerns about border security and avoid the tariffs.
👇Projects announced today👇
- $41.5M to 106 2SLGBTQI+ projects across Canada
- $20.2M to 10 nonprofits to administer the School Food Infrastructure Fund (SFIF) to “further distribute” funding to additional nonprofits
- $17M to 10 nonprofits and universities in BC to support business development
- $2M for mental health supports in Nova soctia
- $1.6M for tourism projects in Newfoundland
- $3.5M to nonprofit orgs in Nova Scotia that run business development programs
- $1M to 7 projects in Corner Brook, Newfoundland to “stimulate the economy”
- $1M to develop an “energy innovation hub” in Saskatchewan
🔗 in thread
@zachcoelius Check out Jonathan Haidt. Substack (https://t.co/NCjjFIdO3x ) or long form podcast (https://t.co/YspQWMbzBc ) depending on your preference.
@emilyhawkins__ Agreed on #5. Enertel decreased our spend 5x by reducing our auto-suspend from the default 600s to 60s. I'm with the 'enemy' crowd on Snowflake defaulting users to paying for 600s of warehouse every time it's queried with a limit 10. Should be opt-in.
@jthandy "Diminishing returns to fidelity" has been the largest divide between data and software engineering teams for me - I just didn't know to call it that when it came up.