There are truly so many good ones. I’ve never before seen such extensive creativity in name calling. It’s something I go out of my way not to do with almost anyone else. But while I still try to keep things tame, it feels like I’m dishonoring myself and respectable Canadians any time I use Dumpster’s real name.
While Cadence will technically report to Alto, the consortium will maintain control over both building the line and running its trains.
The federal government will subsidize the consortium’s work but will have little control over how its money is used.
It sounds like the public role is “moneybags.” While Cadence is pretty much running the show, it’s quite unclear to me where actual ownership lies, though. In an article of this length, that’s a disturbing detail to find absent.
In my opinion it should be at minimum 51% public owned, and ideally 100% of at least the land/stationary assets.
Not only should it be publicly owned, the contract with Cadence for ongoing management should have an exit/public buyout plan, possibly with different terms depending on who wants out and whether it’s early or at renewal time. Give Cadence the reasonable guarantees they need to reach a fair return on investment, in a manner that still depends on the quality of their long-term stewardship. There can even give provisions for renewal - but nothing in perpetuity, ever.
We have the right leadership for the moment and I hope we manage to keep it through the election. But even with his expertise, this isn’t really something I’m confident Carney will handle any better than Trudeau will have done. Maybe eventually we can elect someone with some faith in the public sector, and the confidence to either drive harder bargains or be willing to forge our own path. But I know we’re going to overpay long term for the private investment. We always do, and it’s my biggest worry considering the generational investment we’ll need to pivot away from heavy U.S. trade reliance.
“There’s a mentality in government that a public corporation can’t do things, even though there’s no reason why VIA Rail couldn’t be tasked with developing higher-speed rail by itself,” the research concludes.
Yep. Sometimes I think neoliberalism is imposter syndrome in a trench coat.
And it’s one that will take too long to have any bearing on current challenges anyway.
That said, Dumpster’s moves are mostly ridiculous because he’s trying to speed run something that was coming eventually. He’s just skipping the rather slow but crucial propaganda step to manufacture consent, and trying to de-integrate our economies at self-immolating speed.
I think it might be a good idea to explore membership in the Schengen Area and/or European Free Trade Association, but full EU membership is more trouble than it’s worth and Eurozone membership (giving up our currency) carries serious drawbacks alongside benefits I wouldn’t expect to fully realize with our geographic separation.
We can and should be looking for better economic integration as part of our trade diversification. But we also need to preserve our own internal autonomy and power, and shouldn’t be expecting any meaningful protection from across the pond. I mean maybe fellow Commonwealth states will militarily support us, but not likely the EU, and definitely not within a decade. We’re not like Ukraine who sit between them and a hostile neighboring state, softening the latter without costing EU lives.