Levi Smith

Father, Husband, Lawyer, pondering liberal in an embodied conservative, political enthusiast, Batman fanatic

[Levi Smith @Levismith19]

@DCMultiverses @realbenjismith

[DC News & Updates @DCMultiverses]

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[Mark Carney @MarkJCarney]

Today, we unveiled Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s official portrait in Ottawa.

Mr. Harper served as Prime Minister of Canada for nearly a decade — the sixth longest tenure in our history. In a political climate increasingly buffeted by noise, he brought composure, intellect, and decisiveness to public life.

He was a conviction politician. But he was also, when circumstances demanded, a pragmatist. He came to Ottawa as a balanced-budget conservative. Yet when the financial crisis struck, he did not let ideology prevent him from doing what was necessary to support the Canadian economy through the worst global downturn in generations.

Mr. Harper’s portrait, painted by Phil Richards, will soon take its place alongside those of Macdonald and Laurier, King and Diefenbaker, Trudeau and Mulroney. Builders of our country in the past, examples to our country for the future.

On behalf of all Canadians, I thank Mr. Harper for his remarkable service to Canada, and for the legacy upon which we are now called to build.

[Pierre Poilievre @PierrePoilievre]

The Prime Minister told Davos he wanted to close the “gap between rhetoric and reality.”

Here’s how👇

[Melissa Chen @MsMelChen]

I think Trump's Davos speech should put to bed this idea that he had any intention of carving up the world into "spheres of influence" such that together with his buddies Xi and Putin, the 3 of them could rule like a triumvirate of Emperors over each of their domains - Putin over Europe, Xi over Asia and Trump over the Western Hemisphere.

European leaders have misread "America First" and the "Donroe Doctrine" as a US that only cares to secure its vicinity while abandoning other strategic regions.

Trump's remarks explicitly reject a passive or isolationist stance that would allow Russia or China uncontested sway - even in their own regions. And besides, if your home base isn't secured, how are you supposed to project power out towards the rest of the world?

Other nations didn't sign up to the "western-led world order" or to liberal democracy simply because it was inevitable or the moral thing to do. They did it because they wanted to emulate the West as the results - untold prosperity and strength - spoke for itself.

But Europe seemed to have forgotten why it was strong. They disarmed and deindustrialized, outsourcing their security to America while providing lavish welfare states for its citizens, and once infitinity immigration and Net Zero took root, the whole house of cards came tumbling down.

"Multipolarity" really only means one thing - US decline. The trend of the world seemed to be inexorably heading that way - Western decline was so obvious that other governing models around the world started to look appealing as those nations also began to assert their strength. Some even began to project their power (Belt and Road Initiative, Polar Silk Road, etc.).

What Trump has made clear now is that the US is going to reverse that trend line and hold on to the unipolar world for as much as it possibly can. The only way to do that is a strengthened America. Only then can it deny adversaries everywhere else.

[Michelle Rempel Garner @MichelleRempel]

https://t.co/e9G90jKPgI

[Dwayne Chomyn @Citizen004]

I give #yegcc credit. They made it clear they weren't interested in clearing snow, cutting grass, or filling potholes. Shovel and shut up.

#yegcc will tell us the lesson learned from all this is, "We can't change priorities or the budget; we aren't taxing you enough to clear your snow."

[Bill Moore, Esq. @lawyer_memes]

An intern asked if “final” means final.

I said “final” means someone was tired when they named the file.

They asked what “final2” means.

I said the same person got tired again.

They asked how to know which version to circulate.

I said use the timestamp, the email chain, and personal faith.

They asked why we don’t use version control.

I said we do. It’s called panic.

[Rikki Ratliff @rikkiratliff]

"If not for American Glenn Beck, Canadian Jolene Van Alstine could have been dead today."
https://t.co/VYdKScflLV

[Marc Dalton, MP @MarcDalton]

After the 2021 election, three Conservative MPs, including myself and Chris D’Entremont, ran to be Deputy Speaker. Conservative MPs had an internal vote and Chris narrowly won. This is how we do it for this post as well as Caucus Chair. Fast forward to this year. D’Entremont didn’t want a vote to happen. He wanted to be appointed. When that didn’t happen and he lost in a free vote to Tom Kimiec, he was very upset and made it known. BTW, I lost the vote to be Assistant Deputy Speaker to John Nader and I’m not sulking. Attempts to placate D’Entremont were futile. He thought he was owed this position but he was not. I can assure you that he would not have crossed over if he had won this ‘prestigious’ position & the extra $51K that goes with it. Take everything you hear from him about his reasons abandoning those who voted for him & the Conservative Party with a hefty dose of scepticism.

[National Post @nationalpost]

New report says Ottawa to blame for higher consumer prices after spending splurge

https://t.co/vHzD20VqJA

[Joey Swoll @TheJoeySwoll]

Last night I received an email from a father that his 21 year old son Anthony was walking in a crosswalk in Huntington Beach when a car hit him going 60 mph then left the scene in a hit and run. His son shattered both legs, broke all his ribs, his collarbone and much more. The father was so grateful his son was alive, but being he and his son are both gym rats that love to follow me, he asked me if I could email him some words of encouragement to help lift his spirts up as he lay in the hospital. I did him one better. Being that it was so close to me, I immediately called all local hospitals looking for a trauma center with his son in it. After calling 5 hospitals, I found where he was and around 7:30 PM drove over to surprise him. I knocked on the door and walked in to see the biggest smile on Anthony’s face as he said “No way!”. I explained to him that his father emailed me and I decided sending him an email wasn’t enough I just had to come see him. Anthony is truly an incredible, kindhearted young man with a long road ahead of him to heal. Please keep this young man and his family in your thoughts and prayers. I will keep you all updated as he hopefully makes a full recovery.

[Eric Daugherty @EricLDaugh]

🚨 BREAKING: SecDef Pete Hegseth stares right at the press and goes scorched earth, spelling out their insanity. I could watch this all day.

"You, and I mean specifically YOU, the press, you cheer against Trump so hard, it's in your DNA and in your blood to cheer against Trump, because you want him not to be successful so bad, you have to cheer against the efficacy of these strikes. You have to hope maybe they weren't effective."

"Maybe the way the Trump administration is representative isn't true. So let's take half truths, spun information, leaked information, and then spin it, spin it in every way we can to try to cause doubt and manipulate the mind, the public mind, over whether or not our brave pilots were successful."

"How many stories have been written about how hard it is to, I don't know, fly a plane for 36 hours? Has MSNBC done that story? Has Fox? Have we done the story how hard that is?"

"There are so many aspects of what our brave men and women did that because of the hatred of this press corps are undermined because people are trying to leak and spin that it wasn't successful. It's irresponsible."

"You're undermining the success of incredible B-2 pilots and incredible F-35 pilots and incredible refuelers and incredible air defenders who accomplished their mission."

"How about we talk about how special America is, that only we have these capabilities? I think it's too much to ask, unfortunately, for the fake news. So we're used to that."

[Jason Kenney 🇨🇦🇺🇦🇮🇱 @jkenney]

This way of presenting data on immigration categories is misleading. (Not the Post’s fault; it’s how Ottawa has always reported these data.)

In truth, two thirds of those admitted in the “economic” category are the dependant family members of selected economic immigrants.

In other words, only ~20% of new permanent residents are selected based on any kind of human capital assessment, e.g. skills, education, language proficiency, age, etc.. The other ~80% are their dependants, subsequently sponsored family, or humanitarian classes, e.g. refugees.

The Trudeau government *radically* lowered the standard for that assessment via the point system, i.e. the Federal Skilled Worker Program / Express Entry.

When the Harper government launched Express Entry, the threshold to be selected as an economic immigrant was a minimum of 886 out of a possible 1200 points.

The Trudeau government lowered that to 75! 😳 (That’s not a typo: seventy-five, out of a possible 1200!)

They turned the world’s best immigration system on its head, moving from a high human capital model, to a focus on flipping low skilled temporary foreign workers into permanent residency. They did so to achieve their stratospherically high immigration targets.

The policy quite literally became quantity over quality.

The upshot?

The profile of a typical economic immigrant used to be a professional in their thirties with a couple of degrees, meaningful professional or business experience, and high English or French language proficiency. Historically, these folks were making an above average income after a decade in Canada.

Post Trudeau, the typical profile of a new permanent resident in the economic category is someone who attended a one year diploma program at a community or private vocational college on a study permit, got an open work permit, and now works in an entry level service position, eg delivery driver or fast serve restaurant job.

(N.B.: it’s an open secret in many immigrant communities that many of the “jobs” used by low skilled TFWs as a basis to apply for permanent residency are, in fact, fake jobs based on fraudulent Labour Market Impact Assessments, which are sold for tens of thousands of dollars by unscrupulous employers, and or brokered by crooked immigration consultants.)

In other words, Canada made a deliberate decision to shift immigration from high skilled candidates (eg startup entrepreneurs) likely to make a significant net contribution, to low skilled workers at the bottom of the income (and therefore tax) scale.

This is a primary factor in the recent stark decline in per capita GDP.

Back to where I began: even amongst this cohort of low skilled “economic” immigrants selected for permanent residency, two thirds are in fact their dependent family members, with zero skill / language / education / work experience assessment. On top of that, many will subsequently sponsor parents / grandparents, who are also exempt from any assessment of skills etc., and who end up with little or no attachment to the labour market. Many of these folks quickly increase demand on the health care system, given their age.

All of this was done without any real public debate, and ignored a broad consensus amongst immigration policy experts.

Prime Minister Carney, and his very capable new Immigration Minister, Lena Diab, have an opportunity to repair the damage, and to make Canada’s immigration system the envy of the world once again. That means restoring an evidence-based immigration model focused on human capital, rather than chasing unsustainably high numbers.

Doing so will take real resolve. But if demography is destiny, it is perhaps the most important challenge facing the Government of Canada.

[Levi Smith @Levismith19]

@rthrash3 @Humanspective This is an excellent, well thought out response. Thank you for sharing. I understood there were anecdotal reports of myocarditis - do you know of any studies or data reporting on that?

[Konstantin Kisin @KonstantinKisin]

Prepare for the unprecedented: I am about to admit I was wrong.

https://t.co/BrMnpnufmp

[Bill Maher @billmaher]

Twelve days ago, I had dinner with President Trump, a dinner that my friend @KidRock set up because we share the belief that there has to be something better than hurling insults from 3000 miles away.

[Pierre Poilievre @PierrePoilievre]

The promise of Canada made everything possible.

Why did my wife, Ana, choose to leave a tropical country to come to a country where it still feels like winter in April?

Because only here could a refugee from Venezuela and the son of a teenage mother, adopted and raised by schoolteachers on the prairies, make it to this stage, in this election, fighting for the country they love.

To restore that promise for millions more Canadians, we need change.

Canada is ready for that change.

Vote for change. Vote to put Canada First. Vote Conservative.

[Shaun Newman Podcast @SNewmanPodcast]

Mark Carney just pulled off the greatest career con in history.

Elite connections and self-promotion landed him trophy jobs.

But British media warned for YEARS that he doesn't deliver results.

A warning from our commonwealth friends that Canada should listen to:

[Dwayne Chomyn @Citizen004]

This email generated a lot of interest, discussion, and anger. Here are my thoughts, for what they’re worth.

I see ABs falling into three categories: True Believers, Better Dead than Red (with "Red" referring to Canada), and Test Drivers.
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