‘More of us need to speak up so that our cultural heritage is not lost.’: The best comments from Hub readers this week

This past week saw Hub readers engage in discussions on where Gen Z stands on health care, the emptying of newsrooms, how we discuss Canadian history, and Danielle Smith’s invoking of the Sovereignty Act in a constitutional confrontation against Ottawa, amongst other topics.

The goal of Hub Forum is to bring the impressive knowledge and experience of The Hub community to the fore and to foster open dialogue and the competition of differing ideas in a respectful and productive manner. Here are some of the most interesting comments from this past week.

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Where’s the prudence? Freeland bets big on soft-landing fiscal plan

Monday, December 4, 2023

“The highest accumulated debt, the highest interest rates in decades, and inflated food prices along with the economic carbon tax. Let’s hope a new government can turn things around soon.”

— Gary Oxenforth

“It’s sheer folly for the Liberals to think they can cross their fingers and just simply hang in there in the hope that this looming debt crisis of their making will somehow fix itself. Despite their better wishes, that day of reckoning is coming—sooner than they would like to think.”

— RJKWells

“Economists are already predicting rates will start falling in the first or second quarter of 2024. Servicing costs will come down with rate decreases. It’s not like this government wanted to spend that money. They had to.”

— Michael F

Gen Z doesn’t care about your public health care hang-ups

Tuesday, December 5, 2023

“If personal experience and outcomes are bad enough, most people will be open to alternatives. Does that mean that we have a stark choice between continuing to ‘throw money at it’ or allowing for market dynamism to save it (for those that can throw money at their own health care)?

There are obviously many more options for the Federal and Provincial governments to improve the service and outcomes…and some harnessed market dynamism could very well be part of any effective solutions.”

— Rob

“The sad thing is that our system is more costly, with longer wait times, than most European countries where they already have parallel public-private systems. Surely we can look at all these other countries and come up with a good version that helps everyone.”

— Al Raftis

As newsrooms empty out, governments swoop in for the kill

Wednesday, December 6, 2023

“We need a robust fourth pillar or democracy will be out of balance. A strong, independent media is essential.”

— Michael F

“Journalism is an essential public good. As such it should be funded by society. Due to its adversarial role, its funding should be adequate, locked in long term, and firewalled from everything (people, government, business, special interests). It should have some sort of professional governance structure that provides assurance and enforcement of a baseline of conduct and output (the quality, not the content)…On the more realistic side, I do like the idea of funding the ‘most basic’ newsgathering in an open-source way, whether CBC funding to CPAC, or something else.”

— Rob

We are telling the wrong story about Canada

Thursday, December 7, 2023

“More of us need to speak up so that our cultural heritage is not lost.”

— Faye Perkins

“Recognition of the sins of the past is, of course, necessary, as is some form of restoration, but wrapping it all in one big ideologic shame fest muddies the waters and contributes to alienation such that any meaningful solution gets lost in the rhetoric.

Acknowledge, commemorate, and teach the terrible shortcomings of our fore-bearers, then put it behind us and move forward cooperatively to right those wrongs which can be righted and consign to history everything which belongs there.”

— Gordon Divitt

“Multiculturalism was an actively pursued national goal based on the notion that people from away would enrich our culture. First generations would tend to settle in a community of the same background, bringing security and ties to tradition. The second generation, educated in Canadian schools and conforming to our ways would assimilate while still holding true to their ancestral roots. Canada is a grand and bold experiment of which I am deeply proud. But it will take real tolerance and empathy—real Canadian values—to ensure this beautiful experiment is a success.”

— Michele

Danielle Smith is invoking the Alberta Sovereignty Act for the first time. Here’s why

Friday, December 8, 2023

“A large majority of Canadians want action on climate change. It consistently polls as a top concern for Canadians. Canada is no different from the majority of other developed countries in imposing a carbon levy on fossil fuels. Now Canada is taking the next step in capping emissions after doing a lengthy consultation process.”

— Michael F