• 4 Posts
  • 281 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
Cake day: August 7th, 2023
  • pedz@lemmy.catoCanada@lemmy.ca•How To Destroy A Leadership Campaign On Day One
    1·
    16 hours ago

    I didn’t vote at the last federal election. I wouldn’t have voted for a Conservative, but I was extremely disappointed by both my Liberal and NDP candidates.

    Right now my MP is the Greenpeace militant that is now a spokesperson for the oil companies, also supposedly the environment minister.

    Even if they protest and don’t want it, natives are gonna have a pipeline through their land. But no clean water.

    Also, rail worker? Get back to work. Postal worker? Get back to work! Natives protesting? Get back in your reservation!

    That’s all very inspiring to vote for the Liberals. (/s)

    I know the Conservatives would have done the same, and then some. I know it’s still preferable to have Liberals in power, even with their despicable hypocrisy. Quite frankly I would prefer NDP policies but they are pretty marginalized on the federal level.

    It’s just very difficult to find the motivation to vote for any of the candidates in my riding.

    Depending on the polls for my riding I may go vote ABC. But since I’m on the Plateau (Laurier Ste-Marie) in Montréal, if anything, Steven Guilbault is going to be replaced by a Bloc or NDP candidate. There’s never been a Conservative elected in my riding since its been created in 1988. It’s the riding of Gilles Duceppe after all. I don’t know. It’s really hard to go past my apathy and cynicism since the last couple of elections.

  • pedz@lemmy.catoFuck Cars@lemmy.world•Does having to drive make you less likely to go places?English
    2·
    1 day ago

    I can understand. I could have stayed in a small town and just accepted it, and try to just use it as sparingly as possible, but stubborn me decided that I wouldn’t cave to this.

    That’s why choice was in quotes. As much as I could drive, it scares me and makes me anxious. And the easiest way to avoid that was to move.

    Obviously I can only encourage you to continue finding ways to avoid drive a big metal box around!

  • pedz@lemmy.catoFuck Cars@lemmy.world•Does having to drive make you less likely to go places?English
    1·
    1 day ago

    I have a health card with my picture and it’s official ID where I live. I can buy alcohol, cannabis (legal here), rent bikes, whatever. I can even vote without a driver’s license, imagine that!

    And for everything else, I have a passport. I have been in multiple countries, booked hotels, bought booze, et al., without the need of a driver’s license.

    Would it sometimes have saved me trouble with stubborn people thinking it’s the only valid form of ID? Yes. But they’re in the wrong.

    I will gladly insist that my health card is a valid ID where I live, and use my passport elsewhere.

  • pedz@lemmy.catoCanada@lemmy.ca•Delays, Trudeau resignation threaten Toronto-Quebec City high-frequency rail project
    3·
    2 days ago

    Agreed.

    However Quebec has seen an exception to that with the REM because it’s taking from the public to finance an investment fund. So the government gave a whole public train line and is choking the rest of the public train network.

    In essence, Philippe Couillard and Denis Coderre started the slow privatization of the public transit network in Montreal by giving public assets and carte blanche to an investment entity that’s gonna charge the public transit entity fees for every passenger using its new network. And the public transit entity cannot compete against the investment one, by law.

    So obviously, being for profit and for ‘friends’, the project went ahead at record speed.

  • pedz@lemmy.catoPolitical Memes@lemmy.world•Trømp
    15·
    2 days ago

    As a Canadian, I approve the Danish takeover of the US. And don’t forget Alaska.

    Denmark is already one of our neighbours, via Greenland. Denmark would now surround Canada at the east, south and west, but it would probably be a less contentious neighbour than the US.

    We could even start a new Whiskey war for Point Roberts, or Angle Inlet.

  • pedz@lemmy.catoFuck Cars@lemmy.world•Does having to drive make you less likely to go places?English
    151·
    2 days ago

    Yes. But it’s more than this for me.

    I got my license years ago but it expired because I didn’t want to drive a car. I have none and don’t really need one where I live. I really really didn’t want to drive a car so I moved in a city where it’s not needed. My whole life is organized around avoiding cars.

    However my family still lives in the countryside and there is no public transit to go there. In summer I cycle the 130km ride to go there, and back. But in winter, it’s a problem and I just stop going to see them. It’s unfortunately too much of a hassle. I will not get a license back, rent a car and drive there. They have to come and get me at the closest bus station. If they don’t want to, I’m not going.

    I also mainly refuse to take taxis because it’s also perpetuating car dependency.

    Also, if I want to go to a national park, I cycle there. Not in winter, but I plan a trip in summer and just cycle to some of the closest parks. It makes me pass through villages and towns that I would never have seen by taking a car.

    In fact, I left the fuckcars subreddit two years ago because people there were telling me that I was too much against cars.

    Sometimes my “choice” of not wanting to drive is obviously limiting, but it pushes me to find other ways and in the end, it makes me glad I did.