Experimental Podcast Episode 0.60: A bad response to a tragedy in Alberta. Why the Liberals can't fix themselves. Another brutal day for Canadian journalism. And why fame gives you brainworms.
"Until you are talking about Supply Management, Fuck Off And Die." 100%! My kingdom for a journalist who says that to ANY of Junior, Singh or Poilievre. The latter at least knows better and in my dreams I hold out hope that he might do something about it if he wins after campaigning without saying anything about it. The former are simply economically illiterate clowns. But nobody who won't do anything about it should ever have their hands on the till.
I wouldn't call them illiterate, they just think that Quebec will leave Canada if they don't allow dairy farmers (and processors) to rip off a captive market of Canadians. It's a bribe, giving them a free protection racket.
I would agree that, although on its face their take on the "Grocers are gouging the public, just look at their profits" is clear evidence of economic illiteracy, ultimately their refusal to end Supply Management is potentially more indicative of simple political corruption than economic illiteracy. (A constant question with Junior is trying to determine if a particular pronouncement/action is an example of his stupidity or his corruption - the answer, as here, is often, "both".) That said, a minor quibble is that I disagree that they are motivated by fear that Quebec will leave Canada - I think they are much more motivated by winning elections. They give a rat's ass about the west (who at this point are at least as likely as Quebec to launch a successful rebellion) but likely would if they needed the west to win elections.
Furthermore, their dealing with the housing issue by goosing demand and doing nothing for supply (until arguably a few days ago) is pure economic illiteracy. Also not to mention their bungling of monetary policy generally, thereby creating the very inflation they are now trying to blame on Grocers. So yeah, I am on board with classifying them as both corrupt and economically illiterate. And I should have done a better job of parsing the distinctions a little better in my original post.
Glad to hear the pod will continue, and that you’ll get to escape the tech headache side of it. I hope you’re considering publishing simultaneous ad-free versions for paid subscribers, though. Substack definitely has that capability (e.g. Blocked & Reported)
I know some commenters have been threatening to unsubscribe over some of your (perceived) positions; as for me, I have no issue paying to hear some viewpoints I may disagree with, but just not super keen on paying in both money *and* ears.
Even those woke on trend land back clowns at Canadaland have two different streams, paid and unpaid. If they can do it shouldn't be a problem on your end
All right, all right...I'm now OK with the modest swearing (or perhaps I've downgraded my definitionof "OK ness"). Whatever, The Line is the best subscription I enjoy.
With the demise of MetroLand, is there an opportunity to recreate a subscription version of Rex Murphy's "Cross Country Checkup"--weaving in very localized commentary with The Line product?
It's been a well known secret in Alberta for a long time that AHS food inspectors would give restaurants umpteen chances to clean up their act. Sure they would fine, but permanently shut down? Almost unheard of. We are "nice" Canadians who hate confrontation after all.
Hopefully moving forward they get a bit of the same zealotry that the AGLC inspectors have on someone violating a ridiculous liquor law. In the meantime, the courts will be busy.
I liked it very, very much. I've "lapped" your generation so you guys keep me connected to yours and others one introvert at a time. (Don't do social media.) Speed read the transcript, while imitating your voices in my head to figure out some transcript bugs. Works for me.
Enjoyed you guys this morning and glad to hear you’re taking your podcast to the next level. The E. coli cases in Alberta are brutal and heartbreaking, and I look forward to reading your take on it next week. Mother Jones columnist David Corn has written “American Psychosis: A Historical Investigation of How the Republican Party Went Crazy.” It’s a riveting read and I’m wondering if elements of it are creeping north of the 49th parallel (Mike Roman’s connection to Harper and company) and the convoy protests last year on the Hill. Something to keep an eye on, especially if Poilievre wins the next election.
A question: how many little kids <10 yrs have been hospitalized or (God forbid) died with E Coli, vs how many were hospitalized or (God forbid) died from Covid?
The overall mortality rate for E.Coli is much higher for kids than it is for COVID. That said, remember that virtually all kids caught COVID, whereas E.Coli outbreaks are rare and contained.
Great comments on journalists making Twitter the job. I know a few of who you're talking about... and I believe one may have published here early on in the project a couple times!
Love your podcast, hate ads and I hope we subscribers can be spared. My only wishlist is that Jen and Matt temper your assumptions about Liberals. We aren't all old (well, unless 64 is really old), or living in the 90s, nor are we necessarily Trudeau fans. I can't vote for him again, but I can't endorse the other two either. And I listen to The Line which means I'm open minded! So remember that you are so good that a whole range of listeners subscribe, and try to be open minded about us too.
Just a brief comment on your points about the Feds setting the goalposts at 'outputs' for municipalities, as opposed to 'inputs'.
The issue with setting Federal funding for infrastructure as contingent on the number of units that are built is that, by and large, municpalities don't actually build anything. You can have the most liberal, progressive zoning bylaws and approve as many units as you can fit into a Planning meeting, you can ignore the NIMBYs and embrace the YIMBYs all you want - but if the developer isn't building (which is a huge part of the issue right now, in Ontario at least) then you're punishing local property taxpayers for a problem that isn't within their capacity to fix.
The biggest issue facing developers right now, in my opinion, is financing (interest rates, supply chains etc all playing a part). After that is labour. Municipal regs are still an issue, but if developers are following the regs as they go through the permitting process, the turnaround can be quite quick.
(For the record, munis can still definitely improve things. They just aren't the roadblock folks make them out to be. They are, however, a VERY convenient scapegoat for the otehr elvels of government and the development community.)
Uh... there won’t be any ads for paid subscribers right? That’s the deal? Your podcast is the absolute best and I loathe ads.
"Until you are talking about Supply Management, Fuck Off And Die." 100%! My kingdom for a journalist who says that to ANY of Junior, Singh or Poilievre. The latter at least knows better and in my dreams I hold out hope that he might do something about it if he wins after campaigning without saying anything about it. The former are simply economically illiterate clowns. But nobody who won't do anything about it should ever have their hands on the till.
I wouldn't call them illiterate, they just think that Quebec will leave Canada if they don't allow dairy farmers (and processors) to rip off a captive market of Canadians. It's a bribe, giving them a free protection racket.
I would agree that, although on its face their take on the "Grocers are gouging the public, just look at their profits" is clear evidence of economic illiteracy, ultimately their refusal to end Supply Management is potentially more indicative of simple political corruption than economic illiteracy. (A constant question with Junior is trying to determine if a particular pronouncement/action is an example of his stupidity or his corruption - the answer, as here, is often, "both".) That said, a minor quibble is that I disagree that they are motivated by fear that Quebec will leave Canada - I think they are much more motivated by winning elections. They give a rat's ass about the west (who at this point are at least as likely as Quebec to launch a successful rebellion) but likely would if they needed the west to win elections.
Furthermore, their dealing with the housing issue by goosing demand and doing nothing for supply (until arguably a few days ago) is pure economic illiteracy. Also not to mention their bungling of monetary policy generally, thereby creating the very inflation they are now trying to blame on Grocers. So yeah, I am on board with classifying them as both corrupt and economically illiterate. And I should have done a better job of parsing the distinctions a little better in my original post.
Glad to hear the pod will continue, and that you’ll get to escape the tech headache side of it. I hope you’re considering publishing simultaneous ad-free versions for paid subscribers, though. Substack definitely has that capability (e.g. Blocked & Reported)
I know some commenters have been threatening to unsubscribe over some of your (perceived) positions; as for me, I have no issue paying to hear some viewpoints I may disagree with, but just not super keen on paying in both money *and* ears.
We will bring this up to our podcast producers. JG
Even those woke on trend land back clowns at Canadaland have two different streams, paid and unpaid. If they can do it shouldn't be a problem on your end
All right, all right...I'm now OK with the modest swearing (or perhaps I've downgraded my definitionof "OK ness"). Whatever, The Line is the best subscription I enjoy.
With the demise of MetroLand, is there an opportunity to recreate a subscription version of Rex Murphy's "Cross Country Checkup"--weaving in very localized commentary with The Line product?
It's been a well known secret in Alberta for a long time that AHS food inspectors would give restaurants umpteen chances to clean up their act. Sure they would fine, but permanently shut down? Almost unheard of. We are "nice" Canadians who hate confrontation after all.
Hopefully moving forward they get a bit of the same zealotry that the AGLC inspectors have on someone violating a ridiculous liquor law. In the meantime, the courts will be busy.
Had me worried for a moment that you're going to stop making these! I need my Friday evening review of the crazy.
I liked it very, very much. I've "lapped" your generation so you guys keep me connected to yours and others one introvert at a time. (Don't do social media.) Speed read the transcript, while imitating your voices in my head to figure out some transcript bugs. Works for me.
So glad that you guys are continuing the podcast!
Phew, thought we were gonna lose potty mouth Jen!!!
Enjoyed you guys this morning and glad to hear you’re taking your podcast to the next level. The E. coli cases in Alberta are brutal and heartbreaking, and I look forward to reading your take on it next week. Mother Jones columnist David Corn has written “American Psychosis: A Historical Investigation of How the Republican Party Went Crazy.” It’s a riveting read and I’m wondering if elements of it are creeping north of the 49th parallel (Mike Roman’s connection to Harper and company) and the convoy protests last year on the Hill. Something to keep an eye on, especially if Poilievre wins the next election.
A question: how many little kids <10 yrs have been hospitalized or (God forbid) died with E Coli, vs how many were hospitalized or (God forbid) died from Covid?
The overall mortality rate for E.Coli is much higher for kids than it is for COVID. That said, remember that virtually all kids caught COVID, whereas E.Coli outbreaks are rare and contained.
Great comments on journalists making Twitter the job. I know a few of who you're talking about... and I believe one may have published here early on in the project a couple times!
Love your podcast, hate ads and I hope we subscribers can be spared. My only wishlist is that Jen and Matt temper your assumptions about Liberals. We aren't all old (well, unless 64 is really old), or living in the 90s, nor are we necessarily Trudeau fans. I can't vote for him again, but I can't endorse the other two either. And I listen to The Line which means I'm open minded! So remember that you are so good that a whole range of listeners subscribe, and try to be open minded about us too.
We love you, Sue. But for whatever it may be worth, Trudeau’s last block of support are women aged 55 and up.
Just a brief comment on your points about the Feds setting the goalposts at 'outputs' for municipalities, as opposed to 'inputs'.
The issue with setting Federal funding for infrastructure as contingent on the number of units that are built is that, by and large, municpalities don't actually build anything. You can have the most liberal, progressive zoning bylaws and approve as many units as you can fit into a Planning meeting, you can ignore the NIMBYs and embrace the YIMBYs all you want - but if the developer isn't building (which is a huge part of the issue right now, in Ontario at least) then you're punishing local property taxpayers for a problem that isn't within their capacity to fix.
The biggest issue facing developers right now, in my opinion, is financing (interest rates, supply chains etc all playing a part). After that is labour. Municipal regs are still an issue, but if developers are following the regs as they go through the permitting process, the turnaround can be quite quick.
(For the record, munis can still definitely improve things. They just aren't the roadblock folks make them out to be. They are, however, a VERY convenient scapegoat for the otehr elvels of government and the development community.)