LoveCanada

Its true. Ultimately all land in Canada is ultimately owned by the Crown and can be expropriated at the gov's desire and no citizen can stop it, no matter what. We do have good laws around being fairly compensated, but you still lose your home, no matter how much you've invested in it or how many generations your family has lived on it. My brother in law just lost his because of a new highway coming right through his house. Yes, he got paid out, but its really hard to see 20 years of hard work and a house you built taken away for a road.

You must be in ON, cause I can assure you that in provinces where the Landlord-Tenant board actually functions, like Alberta, thats NOT happening. Its not a Canadian problem, its largely an ON and BC problem and the reason its a problem in those two provinces is because of their restrictive rent controls. They SOUND like a good idea at first but when the rubber hits the road, you cant tell a landlord they can only raise the rent by 2% when inflation has been rising by 4% to 8% and expect them not to use any means possible to raise the rent. Maintenance goes up, supplies go up, appliances go up, trades go up, taxes go up, insurance goes up, but the landlord can only absorb so much and then something's gotta give and 2% doesnt cut it.

Here in Alberta we can raise the rent by any reasonable amount we like and it works. Rents go up in times of shortage but they also go down when there is an oversupply. So in the last year, the rents in Calgary have DROPPED by 9% because there have been a lot of new rentals come on the market. It works. Rent controls do not.

Western Canada: "You have VIA rail service?"

I dont know about scared. I do know that we've had 15 years of the same leadership and I have yet to see things start to move in a positive direction for Canada. Everything seems a bit worse than it used to be and everything is definitely far more expensive than it used to be. I feel that's directly related to the government pumping billions of our hard earned tax dollars into the economy with "economic easing"/money printing and subsidies and caused massive inflation, huge deficits and massively wasteful overspending. I dont think its in Canada's interest to keep doing the SAME thing and expecting different results. We need a change but the timing is the critical problem.

I grew up during the Cold War. Im well aware of the difference between the Red Threat and every other country in the world. With all due respect, you sound a bit naive about China.

But teachers on the grid get their yearly grid increase plus the 3%, so if you're a teacher in Calgary with 6 yrs of education you were starting at 68,995. Now next year you'll get the one year grid increase to 83,078. So in a year your salary has jumped up 13,258. That's a 19.2% increase in one year and not exactly chicken feed.

The only teachers who dont see the grid increase are those at the top of the grid but with 6 years education they will be making 119,033 a year, which is a pretty respectable income.

I just cant see a teacher getting a 13,258 increase saying that they're still so angry they want a general strike. Yes the gov needs to come through with some changes after they collect the classroom size data they are now collecting, but if they follow through on their promise to add teachers and EAs, it will deflate the current frustration significantly.

Im not going to bother watching this. 456,000 Albertans just signed a petition to keep Alberta IN Canada. You know how hard it is to collect nearly half a million signatures with 6,000 volunteers in a few weeks time? VERY hard. But they did it because Albertans dont want to leave, that's just hype and hot air.

Well, to be fair they got a lot of what they were asking for. They are getting a 12% raise over the next 4 years. They are getting 3000 new teachers and 1500 new Educational Assistants. And the government is asking them to submit accurate classroom size counts so they can see where the greatest needs are. The UCP have also pledged $8.6 billion investment over seven years, to build up to 90 new schools across the province and modernize or replace up to 24 existing schools.

It's not like they got completely ripped off - they didn't get the concrete plan for dealing with class sizes and complexities, but in what scenario does everyone walk away happy? They got a decent deal, even if it wasn't 100%. And its not enough of a disappointment to actually walk off the job. Teachers love their students, they're glad to be back in the classroom because they already have 3 weeks of curriculum to catch up on, they're not going to walk off now.

Source: Former principal with four immediate family members who are teachers.

I dunno, I listened to Gil McGowan's half hearted speech and he SAID all the right words, but it was so unconvincing that I dont think the people in the room were even convinced they could pull off a general strike. Give it a couple of weeks, with kids back in class and the gov now actually calling for schools to send in exact data on class sizes, and I just dont think people will care enough to actually strike. Be disgruntled, sure, but that's not enough to topple a government, except for the wishful thoughts of the NDP/unions.

You're right its going to take time. Im waiting to see what the budget actually says but the fact that the Liberals are splitting the capital costs and operating costs into two different categories for the deficit is troubling. Then apparently things like corporate welfare are now going to be considered capital investments which count as a positive on the capital side? Hmm... this does sound like cooking the books to make a horrible deficit look not so horrible.

Im just not sure I trust their motivation as the Liberals, for the last 15 years, seem to be very good at spending more than they take in and now they're going even deeper with the same strategy and saying 'just trust us'. I dont think I do. We're already so far in the hole and where's the good news from the last 15 years?

And both the Liberals and Conservatives are hinting that it might cause an election. Yikes. Its only been 6 months. Dont think anyone would be too thrilled about that, but it is what it is.