Maxime Bernier - True Hope for Canada

In "Why my new political movement?" Maxime Bernier mentions "Public Choice Theory." I remember when this was all the rage in the libertarian literature that I was reading back in the 1980's. (Like Reason Magazine)

It's easy to understand.

Concentrated interests, like egg producers, have a very strong incentive to maintain marketing boards because they make a huge financial difference - to them.

A Fraser Institute book I read (The Egg Marketing Board: A Case Study of Monopoly and it's Social Costs - 1981) explained, if my memory serves, that the cost to the consumer of maintaining egg marketing boards worked out to be the equivalent of breaking one egg out of every dozen.

Even today, at $2.27 for a dozen large eggs from Fresco, it's not a big enough expense to mobilize the public against the marketing board system. But that one egg per dozen represents a significant benefit to the producers. Therefore, they will organize and lobby strenuously for marketing board preservation.

Multiply the equivalent of that one broken egg from every dozen, across the entire Canadian economy, in all industries that recieve free money and other favours from an interventionist government, and it starts to add up to real money. In short, this system is ripping Canadians blind.

This is how when our boy king bloviates about preserving marketing boards as being equivalent to working in the interests of Canadians, I know him to be full of shit. (As with everything else he says.)

Maxime Bernier is a rare politician. He has the guts to stand on principle and to represent all Canadians, not just special interest voting blocks. It is no surprise, therefore, that his hero in real life is Ron Paul.

He's definitely worth serious consideration as someone who can make Canada great again.

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Uncle Block's Previous Rant

No Welfare for Immigrants

No Welfare for Immigrants:

How to achieve unanimity in the Canadian Immigration debate

Here's just a few, off the cuff, ideas for addressing most of the objections Canadian tax captives have about immigration.

In Canada as it is set up now, only a fool can be in favour of open borders.

As as libertarian, I remain 100% in favour of open borders, but only under certain conditions. The most important condition is that Canada be a free country. Since that is obviously not the case, I cannot support open borders at this time.

Here are a few other conditions that, if met, would make me more agreeable to open borders, even without abolishing state education, government medical insurance, welfare, public pensions, the CBC, and so on,

1 - no welfare payments, especially child tax benefit payments, for immigrants for at least a period of time, say ten, or X, years.

2 - no free medicare for X years. (The word is that there are a lot of Pakistani MD's driving cabs. Restrictions on the practice of medicine for them should be eliminated so that they could serve the immigrant communities, or the greater community for that matter, at market prices. If they are competent, they will prosper. If not, they can go back to cab driving.)

3 - no free education for X years.

4 - no free or subsidized housing for X years.

5 - no free language courses, or any other immigrant assistance programs, period.

6 - restoration of free speech, including the right to express dislike of alien newcomers due to their habits, customs, religious superstitions, body odors, food smells, or for any other reasons, including the hassles of attempting to communicate with people who can't speak our language, and even if one dislikes newcomers for no reason at all.

7 - the right to translate one's free speech into freedom of action so long as it conforms to the non-aggression principle. This would include the right to refuse accommodation, employment, taxi rides, washroom access, and so on, to anyone you don't like regardless of the reasons you may have for disliking them, or for no reason at all.

I would guess that these simple changes to the welfare state benefit system, along with the restoration of free speech, and freedom of association, would defuse the objections of the majority of the host Canadian population, as well as reduce the popularity of Canada as a destination for alien welfare tourists.

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Think about it. Do you feel like a refugee in your own country? Do you feel that your right to disagree has been diminished?

Will you stand up? Or bend over?

Update: September 21, 2018

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How to Save the Ontario Basic Income Program!

Background

Leftist Ontario virtue signallers have been freaking out over the Ford government's cancellation of the Basic Income free money project that was cooked up by the Wynne government to build up their voter base.

I follow a few of these caring individuals on Twitter to study their self delusions. They've all been afflicted lately with Ford Derangement Syndrome, peacocking their indignation at the cancellation of Wynne's free money giveaway "program."

But does the program really have to be cancelled?

Of course not. All it would require to be saved is for the virtue signallers, and there are loads of them, from Deb Matthews and Andrea Horwath, to a parade of obscure, Twitter addicts, and their offended fans.

The good news is that the program can easily continue on a voluntary basis. The only difference is that the leftists would have to reach into their own pockets to show how committed and compassionate they are, rather than trying to pilfer the earnings of all Ontarians.

I threw a few numbers together in pursuit of the perfect solution.

- Number of basic income recipients in Ontario - 4,000

- Average annual welfare payment to each recipient $17,000

- Estimated cost of program per year - $50,000,000

- Total number of leftist voters in June 6 Ontario election - 3,000,000

Analysis:

If all of the people of Ontario who voted for one of the leftist parties on June 7th were to reach into their own pockets, and make some very modest donations, the program could easily continue.

The $50 million cost divided by 3 million "caring" left wing voters = $16.67 per year, or about $1.40 per month. Less than the price of a Tim Horton coffee. Per month.

Who needs a government for this?

Next Steps:

Get on Twitter, get on Facebook, phone your leftist MP, talk to your virtue-signalling friends and send them the link to this page. Then they can set up a gofundme.com account or something. If the program is really as important as they seem to believe it is, they should all jump at the opportunity to preserve it.

Everybody ends up happy. Those who think this giveaway is a waste of their money won't have to donate. Those who think the program is vital, can put their money where their mouths are.

WE ALL WIN!!!

Hamilton Taxi Industry Running Out of Gas

Last night I was having a bad day because of a persistent mechanical problem with the cab that, despite several diagnoses and repairs continues to persist.

Then I started a conversation with a fellow driver who drives a Ford Taurus. I asked him how his car was running and he responded with a litany of complaints and tales of woe.

A couple of weeks ago, while running a fare in Hamilton's industrial sector, his vehicle was damaged by falling debris. At least one window was broken, and some body damage occurred.

While in the taxi repair shop, rats got into the trunk and began chewing on the wires. As a result, the instrument panel went haywire and the fuel gauge stopped working. To date, the mechanics have been unable to diagnose the problem.

As a result, he's been driving the cab without a fuel gauge for a while.

Given the difficulties Hamilton's politicians have imposed on rank and file drivers, especially with respect to it's granting Uber and other foreign corporations exemptions from the local bylaws, at the same allowing them to strip away the earnings of non-exempt cab drivers, this driver was pleased to get a passenger who was going to make a series of stops. He would get a break from the $6.50 fares after waiting an hour and enjoy this estimated $35 run.

The passenger was a senior citizen with a walker who probably didn't have a smartphone. The last stop he wanted to make was at the Tim Horton drive-thru on Kennilworth Ave. N. After they retrieved the order, the cab ran out of gas in the queue, blocking the vehicles that were behind them.

This describes a very stressful situation, as you can imagine. The driver then told me he called the dispatch office to request help. Apparently, the dispatch staff ignored him, so, in desperation, he got out and tried to push the cab on his own. In so doing, he lost control of the cab and it rolled into the street.

Talk about driverless taxis! You couldn't ask for a better scene for a sitcom. I could see Kramer as the driver.

Someone finally arrived with a can of gas and managed to spill half of it into the roadway.

At this point in the conversation, I was almost pissing myself laughing and my own complaint melted away.

Oh, and speaking of pissing myself. The passenger ended up doing exactly that in the back seat of the cab.

That's what you call a bad day.

Seriously though, this is the type of thing you ought to expect to happen when politicians make critical decisions that will have a severe negative impact on those affected. In the case of Uber, the city council voted "unanimously" in favour of blanket exemptions for so-called "ride-sharing" taxi companies, while simultaneously partnering up with them for a share of the loot.

The financial squeeze guarantees that important and critical repairs will be increasingly difficult to accomplish in an industry that has been stripped bare of its income.

It sickens me to hear these politicians piously state that their main priority in taxicab regulation is public safety when even the most cursory analysis exposes them as blatant liars.

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Coming Soon: Shock Collars for Population Control

“You know, there’s a level of admiration I actually have for China ….”

China? Why China?

“Because their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime."

-- Justin Trudeau

It seems that technology now being deployed in China will allow them to turn more than their economy around on a dime. They'll be able to turn their entire population around on a dime.

Intelligent Classroom Behavior Management System

Our politicians will finally be able to get everyone to quit smoking and drinking Big Gulp sugary drinks. It will be followed by the prohibition of a never-ending and growing, list of behaviors that "liberals" disapprove of. (driving, eating meat, free speech, and so on...)

This "intelligent classroom behavior management system," will become ubiquitous in a few years. Along with a cashless economy, the behavior of every citizen will be monitored.

Government schools are just prisons for children. It's a form of proactive rehabilitation. It turns out the question I asked my Grade 2 teacher, "Well if we live in a free country, how come we are forced to come to school?" was not so naive after all.

And since public schooling is nothing more than training for a life beyond "education," it's no coincidence that this technology is being employed against the defenseless young before it is more widely applied.

The final step will be mandatory shock collars for all citizens.

Some years ago, I informed a fellow cab driver about the City of Hamilton's plans to force all of its licensed cabbies into taking an expensive, and quite useless, as I predicted, and as it did indeed turn out to be, "Taxi Driver Training" program.

His angry response was, "What are we? Their pets?"

Yes. That is exactly how they see us.

Actually, it would be more accurate to say that they see us as their livestock.

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"Current events predict future trends."

-- Gerald Celente

I am probably going to vote Conservative on June 7th. (if I vote at all.)

It's not that I like the Conservatives. It's just that they give me the least taste of political sewage in my mouth.

For example, just look at Kathleen Wynne. Never have I witnessed such unabashed moral corruption. She is so consumed by her own hubris, that she truly believes she is capable of "building" Ontario, and giving out oodles of free stuff.

What kind of idiot actually believes that shit?

Well, apparently lots of idiots. Enough to make her a political force to be reckoned with.

I recommend everyone join Twitter and subscribe to Kathleen Wynne's Tweets. Here is Kathleen's smiling face as she "gives" free prescription drugs to a certain demographic group. There she is, smiling again, as she "gives" millions of dollars to some private company to "create jobs" and other such bullshit. Oh, and here she is pretending she gives a fuck about some minority group or religious sect.

When I read that puke in the Toronto Star (where else?) about Ontarians "not deserving" Kathleen Wynne, because she is such a genius when it comes to re-allocating other people's spending priorities, I asked myself, "Why do I dislike this woman so much? And what exactly do I know about her legislative and spending record, other than that she is hubristic enough to imagine she can also control the climate?"

It was then that I realized, I don't need to know any of that. All I need to do, to get a perfect understanding of her, is to read her Tweets. She sees herself, or portrays herself, as "The Great Giver." And knowing she has diddly-fucking-squat of her own resources to hand around.... she's not the one producing the prescription drugs, nor is she the one who will be babysitting the kids in daycare, etc. etc. .... she isn't the one paying for any of it ... I find her moral posturing obnoxious.

I can't remember the movie I watched which contained this line, "All politicians do, is make some people's lives more pleasant, by making other people's lives more miserable." And that is the ABSOLUTE TRUTH.

I couldn't vote for this woman even if I agreed with her.

And not that she is any worse than the rest of the politicians. Most of them are cut from the same cloth. They enter the profession in order to either get revenge, or counterfeit adulation (a statue or a sport venue named after them, etc.,) or to avoid legitimate employment. (The politicians call the shots, while the people do the hauling, planting, nailing, and healing.)

It's pretty hilarious when you think about it.

How Uber Silences Women After Sexual Assaults

"Our job is to tell the world that Uber has its lights on." Ha ha! That is truly amusing, coming from a company who, at least in my city, continues to operate with unmarked private vehicles, largely to evade local enforcement efforts.

As one local officer told me, the reason they only come down hard on identifiable (A.K.A. - non exempt) taxis, is because they can't find the Uber cabs. And even though the city has mandated that Uber cabs have identifying stickers affixed to their windshields, few Uber drivers comply. And why would they? The mobile enforcement officers are too busy rooting out "check engine light" violations on the cabs with roof lights, decals, ID numbers, and taxi license plates. Uber drivers, as with their parent company, consider compliance to be optional.... for them.

Duh!

This may be an old fashioned idea, but I will state it nevertheless... the law should apply equally to all citizens.

But that is not what politics is about, is it?