2026 Canadian Political Thread

licks2nite

Well-known member
Nov 30, 2006
1,287
269
83
VANCOUVER — British Columbia Premier David Eby says U.S. President Donald Trump's latest statement that he's not looking to renew the trade deal between Canada, the United States and Mexico is a "bit bizarre," given that the three countries are now in talks on the deal.

Eby says B.C. and Canada would prefer the stability of a 16-year extension, but status quo is fine as well.

https://www.biv.com/news/economy-la...ewing-cusma-lame-sequel-to-1987-book-12404792

Just Trump being Trump.

A compulsory option to renew each year up to 16 years while current terms of CUSMA remain in force.
 

80watts

Well-known member
May 20, 2004
3,447
1,310
113
Victoria
If Canadians manufactured their own shit, this would be a non-sequitur......
A year to year basis for renewal is not stable enough considering for all 3 economies.
 

80watts

Well-known member
May 20, 2004
3,447
1,310
113
Victoria
B.C. hospitals are increasingly dealing with a form of medical dine-and-dash, where foreign visitors get treatment and then take off without paying their bills.

The amount is spread over four years, from fiscal 2020-21 to 2024-25, with Fraser Health having the highest losses at $95.6 million, followed by Interior Health at $54 million, Vancouver Coastal at $31 million and Island Health at $21 million. Northern Health did not produce costs.

B.C.’s Ministry of Health said in a statement it does try to collect payment up front for non-residents, but that in emergency situations it will not refuse care if a person cannot pay.

“No one is denied care. Patients are triaged and treated based on severity of their illness.”

The government tries to recover medical bills “thoughtfully and thoroughly” the ministry said, without explaining how it does so and whether that process could be improved.

“Let’s say you did get health care in Canada, and you left, well, you’re not allowed back in unless you pay for the treatment,” said a physician. “And I think that’s fair.”

https://www.biv.com/news/commentary...d-dash-costing-bc-hospitals-millions-12394673

Canada supports reciprocal pension agreements with over 50 nations including China. But I'd doubt many Canadians take the reciprocity to balance payment unless working Chinese in Canada retire in China. Canada offers no reciprocal health care of foreign travellers.
Canadians becoming hard assed Americans should of been the tittle.... but hey our magnifique ideas of being fair and helpful fall down when people need a lifting hand.
United we fall.... is more like it....
 

Neelsmith1234

Active member
Dec 19, 2014
217
182
43
Canadians becoming hard assed Americans should of been the tittle.... but hey our magnifique ideas of being fair and helpful fall down when people need a lifting hand.
United we fall.... is more like it....
I dont buy this idea that foreign visitors are coming to British Columbia for medical care and leaving without paying. The ministry statement says that emergency care is not denied. It does not say all care is not denied. If someone is indeed in an emergency, the legal framework in our country requires that the emergency be addressed. The hospitals are required to stabilize the patient. Its the same in the US or any other developed country. If you visit there and have an accident, let's say a car accident and you have broken bones, they are required to treat you to stabilization -- surgery or whatever is needed, whether you can pay or not. They can deny you non-urgent after care without payment, which is the same in Canada.

For routine medical care, you have to produce your MSP number/care card.

Also, to put it into perspective, assuming the OPs numbers are correct, that is a problem of $200 million over 4 years. That is a fraction of the total health budget.

This seems to me more of maga style internet fear mongering -- illegal immigrant are destroying our health system by not paying.....illegals are jumping the line....etc. this kind of stuff is being spread around the internet in Europe, Australia too.

These days, we cant always believe what's on the internet.

Im not denying that out health care system doesn't have challenges. But we must be very careful about distinguishing actual challenges and facts from internet garbage.
 
  • Like
Reactions: westwoody and Ray

westwoody

Well-known member
Jun 10, 2004
7,703
7,252
113
Westwood
Emergency medical services are not the same as medical tourism. Are people with a bursting appendix travelling to Canada to get a free appendectomy? Not likely.
A friend of mine had a miscarriage while on holidays in Florida. If you see a woman hemorrhaging on the sidewalk should you just ignore her?
(A lot of you would, everyone knows)
I believe she Japan has started checking arrivals to see if they have health insurance to avoid this issue.

That linked article is deliberately vague, like Fox style rage farming.
 
Last edited:

licks2nite

Well-known member
Nov 30, 2006
1,287
269
83
Attacks were financed through currency exchange houses — an economy of Iranian underground banking and sanctions evasion tied to Middle Eastern, Mexican and Chinese criminal networks with refunds built in if the violence failed to materialize.

“If you send the Mafia, they can pick a place of their choosing,” explained to a source reporting to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. “If they hit, then that’s good, but if they don’t, then I get my money back. This is how the deal is.” He attempted to hire what he believed was a Mexican cartel operative to burn synagogues in New York, Los Angeles, and Arizona.

Police associations across Canada have repeatedly warned that the country’s youth justice laws are being used as shields by serious organized crime in this shooters-for-rent market.

What there is, on the face of the American complaint and the Canadian charge sheets, is something more disturbing — a marketplace.

In 2024, federal prosecutors in Minnesota unsealed an indictment charging a full-patch Hells Angels member from British Columbia, with conspiring in a murder-for-hire plot against an Iranian defector and his companion living in Maryland. The client was the network of a drug lord American and British officials say carries out assassinations and kidnappings of dissidents on behalf of Iranian intelligence. The negotiations ran over an encrypted phone service built by a defunct Vancouver company.

An Iranian intelligence ministry, contracting a Mexican cartel, to execute a Canadian politician in Canada’s capital: every layer of the marketplace, assembled in a single American court filing.

RCMP Commissioner answered: “what we have in our holdings is we have people that are intimidating people, harassing people, but connecting the dots to a foreign entity, regardless of the country, we don’t have that.”

There is no legal architecture that treats a money-exchange business for terrorism, a cartel’s police-corruption budget, and a biker gang’s murder contract for a foreign intelligence service as what they are: the operations of continuing criminal enterprises whose leadership, financing, and facilitators can be prosecuted as such.

Canada’s closest ally is describing it under oath in open session. What does not exist is the legal machinery to act on it, the candor to tell Canadians about it, and the political will to build both.

https://www.todayville.com/from-the...will-to-counter-state-and-cartel-convergence/

The problem appears to be if a Canadian or Canadian resident commits a crime in Canada linked to a cross-border criminal enterprise where another nation finds evidence to convict the Canadian or Canadian resident the Canadian or Canadian resident hasn't been extradited. As a first step at least I think non-Canadian residents should be extradited from Canada when a nation allied to Nato supports credible evidence of links to criminal enterprise outside Canada. The RCMP Commissioner comment suggests Canada lately hasn't been part of the Five-Eyes intelligence network. Discussion last year suggested Canada would be excluded from some functions of Five-Eyes over Canada's disclosure of pre-trial investigation and evidence given defence attorneys.
 
Vancouver Escorts