Oh awesome! So pleased to see Mistral AI integration for paperless-ai.

These are for new flight bookings. International arrivals have already dropped by 11% as of February: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/250310/dq250310d-eng.htm

Doing so would be over Visa Debit or Mastercard Debit - not Interac. The only difference is that they have a lower interchange rate.

Dogfights aren’t a thing anymore in modern aviation. There’s a reason it was barely considered in the procurement process that led to the F-35 acquisition. Sure hope other countries step up to the plate to build viable exportable alternatives to the F-35.

Yes, clearly every trade agreement must benefit our local Canadian oligarchs – Irving, Weston, Rogers and Patterson. We certainly can’t use free trade and human dignity to work towards fairer, more equitable societies - that would be too logical right?

Canadian society is about supporting individuals

A strong, viable welfare system isn’t funded by good feelings. You too are also welcome to leave if you contribute nothing to society.

Yes, that seems to be the preference among this crowd. It’s good to lick the boots of monopolies and I’m sure everyone loves paying 3x the global cost for cell phone service.

My wallet shouldn’t be used to subsidize a fundamentally unproductive Quebec dairy farm because political parties need to prop up their Quebec MPs. Markets should be free, trade should be open and fair for trading partners that feel likewise.

They desperately want to flood our protected markets and crash our economy and are pissed we aren’t letting them - hence the threats. Literally every interaction we have had with the Donald government has been a goddamn threat. Let us crush your local production, let us have your resources, let us have the Arctic, etc etc

I think this argument is missing the bigger picture. Trade isn’t some one-sided plot by the U.S. to “take over” Canada—it’s about negotiations, and sometimes, yes, that includes pressure tactics. But the real issue here isn’t some grand conspiracy to flood our markets and crash our economy. It’s that the U.S. often pushes for one-sided trade deals that benefit them more than us, and we push back. That’s not an attack—it’s just how trade disputes work.

The real question is: why should Canada keep such heavily protected markets in sectors like dairy and telecommunications while expecting full access to the U.S. market? Competition is a good thing—it leads to lower prices and better services. Imagine getting European cheeses at a fraction of the cost or finally having real telecom competition. If the U.S. is willing to open its markets to our regional airliners, our softwood lumber, and other key exports, why wouldn’t we negotiate on equal footing?

The problem isn’t trade itself—it’s unfair trade. If the U.S. wants access to our markets, we should be getting equivalent access to theirs. That’s the real fight here. Instead of seeing this as a U.S. plot to crush Canada, we should be focused on securing a deal that works both ways—whether that means better market access, fairer tariffs, or even things like freer movement of citizens across borders.

The goal should be fair trade, not a lopsided deal where one side wins at the expense of the other.

This is what they want to do. They’ll put the tariff sticker on goods that are technically tariff-ed, but don’t even come from the US. They’ll stick that tariff sticker next to orange juice from Mexico (a country that isn’t tariffed).

This narrative is clearly designed to deflect blame for price hikes onto the Canadian government, much like how Tim Hortons and restaurants point fingers at provincial governments whenever minimum wage goes up.

Yes, the Canadian government implemented retaliatory tariffs, but let’s not forget that Loblaws consciously chose to stick with those specific suppliers. They have the power to decide what products line their shelves. As consumers, we should actively support stores that have made the effort to switch to non-American suppliers. It’s disingenuous to suggest that there are no alternative countries exporting similar goods like canned soup, deli meat, and fruit juice. They made a conscious choice to buy American - let those clowns watch their inventory rot.

The daily unlock code thing is a myth. The grain of truth is that the F-35 relies heavily on mission data files (MDFs), which are region-specific software packages that enable the jet to recognize threats, navigate, and employ weapons, and we depend on the US being willing to supply those updates voluntarily for our fighter jets to be useful.

When you have a large common market, there’s less need to look elsewhere for substitute goods. It’s a strong point for the market.

CETA is a great move, but let’s face it—many goods just aren’t worth the transportation costs when you have plenty of alternatives within the common market. So, it makes sense that the EU has a trade surplus with us, so good on them. :)

Don’t these petitions get dropped when an election is called? Unlikely that it’ll ever actually hit the floor.

This has been the playbook from day one—Trump throws out an outrageous statement, his lackeys rush to ‘clarify’, ‘negotiate’ or downplay it, and then, surprise, he meant exactly what he said.

The real problem is the constant gaslighting: pretending he’s just posturing when, in reality, he’s dead set on pushing his reckless, authoritarian agenda. At this point, anyone still treating him like a rational actor is either delusional or complicit. No rational actor would casually equate ethnic cleansing to a real estate transaction, or try and take over a sovereign state as though it was a ruthless corporate takeover.

There is no future in negotiating with the US - the only way out of this mess is to do what we should’ve been doing for the past 30 years - diversify our supply chains, build resilient trading relationships and establish the infrastructure to insulate ourselves from the whims of volatile US policymakers - even if that means cozying up to global partners with historical animosity.

Canadian tariffs are targeted in a number of ways. One of the ways is targeting American goods that have Canadian alternatives. So the goal is to make American products less attractive by making them more expensive, damaging the US economy while bolstering our own.

I feel like it’s often missed that it isn’t a binary Buy US/Buy Canada dilemma. Most goods have substitutes - there are other countries that can produce most consumer goods. It’s only when you start getting into high-value-added goods like turbines, flash memory, missiles and planes that there’s difficulties in import substitution. A 25% retaliatory tariff doesn’t mean your canned tomatoes are definitely going up by 25%, but you’ll likely start seeing Mexican, Peruvian, etc. canned tomatoes on Canadian shelves that weren’t there before.

And while patriotism is great and all, buying goods from other countries that we don’t have strong established trading ties with is a good way to make the case for closer bilateral cooperation and even future free trade agreements that exceed most-favoured nation benefits conferred by the WTO. When countries start building export-driven industries that give dignity and economic self-sufficiency for their citizens, that’s a future tiger worthy of negotiating a free trade agreement with.

I’m doubtful full membership will ever happen, and even an EEA Norway-style agreement where we adopt 75% of the EU’s laws without representation but keep our fishing and agricultural policies, would take decades to be negotiated, signed and ratified with all the dysfunctional, proportional representational governments in Europe right now.

I would be grateful for any kind of free movement agreement that gains traction right now.

This isn’t the major issue it’s being portrayed as.

Under Canada’s free trade agreements—including those with the WTO, CPTPP, and the European Union—Canada is obligated to allow foreign companies from these partner regions to compete for large government procurement contracts (typically valued at ~$230,000 CAD or more). These agreements ensure fair access without protectionist barriers and, in return, give Canadian companies access to similar opportunities in those markets.

Given this context, it’s not surprising that a significant portion of federal procurement contracts go to companies headquartered in the world’s largest free market economy, the United States. The fact that nearly 25% of federal government suppliers by total contract value being U.S.-based is not unexpected under these trade arrangements.

Consider the cost of inaction. A decade of lost economic growth, fewer jobs, and diminished competitiveness – all because we lacked the leverage to counter these blatantly unfair tariffs. Can we afford that?

Either those tariffs come down quick because we fight back, we massively expand our trading relationships with countries we don’t get along with (China, Russia, India) Erdogan-style, or we experience what could amount to a Great Depression once Trump escalates further again knowing we’re an easy target.

If you’re okay with older homelab-esque equipment, the ERA, also on eBay as Calgary Computer Wholesale, often has really cheap rack mount stuff. This being said, the ERA is a pretty sketchy organization overall (it’s closer to a small e-waste recycling business that takes advantage of its status to reduce liable taxes (with variable employee salaries equivalent to dividends) and take advantage of free volunteer labour, than an actual non-profit organization). Sometimes, provincial government surplus auction sites have rack mount equipment as well.