hmmm wonder what's the likelyhood of being a visible minority and going on a road trip across the border and having something like that happening as a canadian.

Here we go again with the tariffs: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/tru...sday-1.7473227

What a dick.

I guess we'll see if he blinks again tomorrow.

Honestly just get it over with. Impose the tariffs and let's get cracking on making sure we have avenues with other countries and ourselves to completely isolate the US for the next 4 years and see how things go.

And I hope (Doug) Ford will follow through on his threat and cut off energy to the US with a smile on his face too.

The Doug Ford who was vacationing in Florida this past weekend and who still hasn't torn up the Starlink contract?

TIL: Canada's economy is the same size as Russia's.

Russia may seem like a great power but it's actually a house of cards and beyond their nuclear weapons I'm now surprised at how weak the responses have been over the years to Russia being a bully.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...y_GDP_(nominal)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o..._by_population

Russia is "only" the 11th biggest economy in the world and is 9th in population (Canada is 9th and 37th respectively. The EU is 450m people (vs 120m Russians) and it's total GDP would be #3 after the US and China (Germany, the UK and France are #3, #6, and #7 respectively).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...y_expenditures

Russia's military spending is sky high though - #3 in the world and 5.9% of GDP but the EU is more than 3x Russia's. Ukraine itself spends about 60% what Russia spends plus whatever it's getting from other countries. That said, the US spends the most by far - almost 9x what Russia spends and nearly 3x the EU but because their military is located in so many places it's not the most efficient military.

I sorta knew that Putin was propping up the economy with the war but there's really no reason why the EU couldn't win this war by themselves if they wanted to - it's just a matter of will (they have to accept the costs in terms of money and potentially of lives especially if Putin wants to put nuclear weapons into play).

Trump abandoning Ukraine makes it harder for Ukraine to win but I don't think it's game over now - the EU just needs to lean in on this (and they should).

Edit: Canada is 16th in military spending - not terrible but certainly not where it should be but even if it spent 2% of GDP it'd still only be 12th. I think Canada may want to consider what it would take to spend 3-4% of GDP as it can't rely on the US any longer and Russia is right there.

When you list spending, is it purely on dollars spent or has it taken into account the differences in price parity? A dollar in Russia or Poland is going to go farther than a dollar in Canada or USA.

we could spend 10% but who's going to fly the planes, shoot the guns etc

who's joining the military these days? what's the numbers like?

I guess tariffs are gonna happen tomorrow, glad we're just pulling the band-aid off.

I was listening to a news analysis piece from DW recently, and the piece mentioned that in terms of the overall total number of troops, Russia and the EU would roughly have the same number of troops available. I forgot how the total amount of arsenal compares, but it is generally believed that the EU has more advanced and precise firepower as well as defence capabilities. The 2 primary problems with the current EU with regard to defending itself against Russia aggression is:

- coordination between troops from different countries
- costs and production capabilities

On the Russian side, the military is just that one single force, so they can coordinate their strategies and plans of attack. On the EU side, each member country would have its own force, and in an actual war situation, it would work best if command of the troops are centralized so that coordination can happen. (I believe this is what happened in the different WW2 continental theatres.) But even if that were to be set up, it'd take some time for central command to familiarize itself with the various capabilities of the different troops from different countries.

The bigger problem is, Russia has already shifted into a military economy, and they already have mass production of military equipment in place. This means they can replenish their (military) consumables and supplies in a mass production environment where the per unit cost is sufficiently low.

Contrast that with the EU, mass production of military equipment is basically non-existent. The current production rate is very low / slow. I can't remember whether it was UK, France, or Germany, but the news piece mentioned that they can only produce some 20 - 30 tanks in a given year, and the per unit cost of each tank is very high because the low production numbers mean they can't take advantage of economies of scale.

So for EU to properly support Ukraine / protect itself, they'd really need to shift their economies to increase the production capabilities and lower costs. And the problem with that is -- it takes time.

Part of spending 10% would be to pay people more which would make it more viable to have a military career.

-Mark

Cannot confirm if this is real but it doesn't even matter anymore since it's impossible to make up stuff that is stupider

https://i.imgur.com/79TqW8u.png

Edit: It's real KEKW

Wow... Good luck middle class and lower class Americans, your living costs are going up another 10% just like that.

And when countries hit them with reciprocal tariffs, everyone will be buying more of their wheat, corn, and soy from Canada :awwyeah:

I have a few reservist buddies, I thought recently about joining myself as a part-timer, as there are a few perks that make it worth it.

I've kicked around the idea for a few months since my work is flexible, but I dunno man. I'm almost 40, I travel too much, and the idea of writing off my summers doing training isn't too appealing, I also don't like taking orders.

I can't imagine accepting some guy yelling at me at 5am because I didn't make my bed correctly :lol

It's still been a thought nonetheless.

@Traum if you would like an hour long deep dive into it by a Aussie defense economics consultant: https://youtu.be/7giYIisLuaA?si=q-mZ3lVOSK0bHGnz

This guy was about the only one I saw speaking out in the first days of the war sayings that Ukraine was going to take it to the Russians and that this would drag out for years. His typical format is 1 hour of .PPT slides... so it's not for everyone that's for sure.

edit: He also did an hour on how Canada's armed forces procurement is a disaster. FeelsBadMan https://youtu.be/27wWRszlZWU?si=vfVRKWB6yGa4Y0KQ

maybe it will help lower the obesity rate in USA when people start to starve.

Maybe Trump's team is taking a page from the great Chinese famine

*the biggliest

Here's a pretty decent summary of whether the EU can replace the US military not just in the war in Ukraine but in general (eg. the Americans completely desert Europe and move all their troops out - this is a very unlikely scenario and would take a decade to do at which point the next King of America would/could reverse it).

It adjusts for purchasing power such that Russia is spending about the same as the EU and points out that the Russian war machine is up and running so they're cranking up production of ammunition, tanks, drones etc.

It doesn't tackle the economic part though - that Russia's economy is a house of cards compared to the EU. In a short war Russia can win but it doesn't seem plausible that Russia can win over the long term - the hope would be that if the Americans do withdraw from Ukraine that it happens slow enough that the EU can get up to speed.

It'll probably get worse when Jack in the Box starts selling discounted freedom burgers made out of shit they wouldn't even put in hotdogs

He's great. I've been listening to him since his first slideshow telling us he has no clue if he's gonna get an audience. The occasional joke he cracks, and the way he can break things down with the hypothetical Kiwiland and Emutopia is great.

I understand though probably not everyone appreciates the format.

Another guy I would highly recommend, also Australian, is Economics Explained.


This one is his take on Canada most recently. My wife finds him too fast but I like the delivery. EE is also on Spotify.

Now that this trade war is on, like many Canadians, we've been looking at our purchasing habits and trying to support this country when we can. I'm purchasing my car parts from Autopartsway and I'm trying Parts Avatar for the first time, for example, rather than Rock Auto.

Flying in this country is so expensive, but my wife and I have decided to take our kids to see other cities in Canada this summer rather than go somewhere in the Western US. We're taking the kids to Central Canada for first time, spending time in both Montreal and Toronto for a few days, along with a day trip to Niagara Falls. We'll also take them on Via Rail train from Montreal to Toronto to give them the authentic Central Canada corridor travel experience. We want to show them that we have a country worth fighting for.

Vive le Canada.

That's gonna be such a cool trip. Of anywhere in North America I've been, Montreal is my favourite experience. I'm not exactly well travelled but it's an amazing city and so different from Vancouver.