Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 185 posts

Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control

#51

Post by thinkloop »

DKnoll wrote: post #40
wrong_variable wrote: post #3

Canada seems to be in so much trouble - I am wondering how things are there. # Massive flooring of the Canadian dollar. # Continued job losses months on end - Unemployment rate of 7.1% ! # Most expensive Natural Disaster in Canadian history. At least they got their Obama.

1. The value of the Canadian dollar right now is much closer to the historical norm than it was when at parity for a relatively short period. 2. The unemployment rate is marginally higher than in the USA. It's bad here, but it's bad over there too... the recession never ended. 3. That's true, and to be honest, I'm glad it's expensive. Expensive means there is something and/or someone there worth saving. I would argue…

The Obama comparison resonated with me - not in the specifics like policy, or how left/right they are - but in spirit, level of excitement and general sexiness. Obama after bush feels alot like Trudeau after Harper.

Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control

#52

Post by MichaelGG »

And yet, Canada turned down help from Russia and the US. Then went around and hired 300 firefighters from South Africa that have no experience with this type of fire or equipment (they said due to lack of water, they use sticks to beat the bush fires). I understand it's more of a social help program ("Working On Fire" job assistance), but still it seems bizarre.

Or maybe I've been reading the wrong news sources and there's more to it? Cause it seems unreal.

Edit: Some sources: http://globalnews.ca/news/2690570/trudeau-criticized-for-ref...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/fort-mcmurray-fire-so...

Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control

#53

Post by tn13 »

MichaelGG wrote: post #52

And yet, Canada turned down help from Russia and the US. Then went around and hired 300 firefighters from South Africa that have no experience with this type of fire or equipment (they said due to lack of water, they use sticks to beat the bush fires). I understand it's more of a social help program ("Working On Fire" job assistance), but still it seems bizarre. Or maybe I've been reading the wrong news sources and t…

I suspect Canada's prime concern was the very high carbon footprint of firefighters from USA and Russia.

Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control

#54

Post by thinkloop »

serge2k wrote: post #34
soperj wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His dad has a horrible legacy out west.

The west doesn't tend to have a lot of influence. Especially when a candidate is popular out east (Ontario and Quebec). When it's conservatives coming to power it's different since Quebec tends to avoid voting conservative. I'm from BC. Polls close and the victory is called before votes even results even really start coming in.

That's not a representation of influence, if timezones were reversed the same would happen with Quebec, minus the larger population.

Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control

#55

Post by fuddle »

wrong_variable wrote: post #3

Canada seems to be in so much trouble - I am wondering how things are there. # Massive flooring of the Canadian dollar. # Continued job losses months on end - Unemployment rate of 7.1% ! # Most expensive Natural Disaster in Canadian history. At least they got their Obama.

If it's in so much trouble, why are property prices increasing at a ridiculous rate? http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/top-busine...

Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control

#56

Post by dang »

miguelrochefort wrote: post #24
dang wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment breaks the HN guidelines, as have others you've posted. We ban accounts that do this, so please stop doing it, and instead post civilly and substantively, or not at all. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11833516 and marked it off-topic.

I respect your work and I have no intention to challenge your authority. That said, I fail to identify the guideline that lead to this decision. Perhaps someone can enlighten me? I'm also willing to justify my claim, if it seemed gratuitous to any. EDIT: I'm unable to justify any of my claims. I'm unhappy about living in Canada, and I can't help but feel jealous of american people when being exposed to HN or mainstre…

I appreciate your responding thoughtfully, when it would be easier to double down (as many people do).

On HN we're trying for respectful, substantive discourse. We don't always get there, but it's clear that we can't have users putting down entire countries without things degenerating pretty quickly.

If you'd err on the side of editing out incivility from your future comments, we'd appreciate that too. It's something a lot of us have to work on (including me) and are learning together. I'd like to think the community is making slow progress in that direction.

Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control

#57

Post by sn0v »

tn13 wrote: post #53
MichaelGG wrote: post #52

And yet, Canada turned down help from Russia and the US. Then went around and hired 300 firefighters from South Africa that have no experience with this type of fire or equipment (they said due to lack of water, they use sticks to beat the bush fires). I understand it's more of a social help program ("Working On Fire" job assistance), but still it seems bizarre. Or maybe I've been reading the wrong news sources and t…

I suspect Canada's prime concern was the very high carbon footprint of firefighters from USA and Russia.

You're kidding right? This wildfire isn't doing anything to help Canada's carbon footprint.

Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control

#58

Post by beloch »

na85 wrote: post #36
schwap wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Calgary is a very conservative city Economically? Sure. Socially? no way.

>Sure. Socially? no way. Compared to what? Calgary is more conservative than Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal, Quebec, Vancouver, and Victoria. Perhaps it's more liberal than Red Deer or Kelowna, but that's not saying much at all. It's also just an awful place to live. The urban sprawl makes public transit pale in comparison even to Vancouver which also has really bad transit. It's an 80 dollar cab ride to the airport whi…

Calgary is demographically young and cosmopolitan. The average Calgarian came from somewhere else in Canada. Their political views reflect this. When Nenshi was elected, Toronto's media had a massive freak-out over the fact that he's a Muslim. This did not happen in Calgary because Calgarians didn't view his choice of religion as being pertinent to his job. Meanwhile, the enlightened, progressive people of Toronto elected Rob Ford.

Calgary's CTrain has the third highest annual ridership among North America's light rail systems [1]. The bus system is lagging behind, but the LRT system is being expanded. The airport is a 22 min drive from downtown under normal circumstances. There is traffic congestion during peak travel times, but absolutely nothing like in Toronto or Vancouver.

If all you know about Calgary's cultural scene is the Stampede, one has to wonder if you've even been to Calgary.

In short, thanks for slagging a city you clearly know nothing about.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_North_American_light_r...

Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control

#60

Post by dkn »

MichaelGG wrote: post #52

And yet, Canada turned down help from Russia and the US. Then went around and hired 300 firefighters from South Africa that have no experience with this type of fire or equipment (they said due to lack of water, they use sticks to beat the bush fires). I understand it's more of a social help program ("Working On Fire" job assistance), but still it seems bizarre. Or maybe I've been reading the wrong news sources and t…

Actually our airspace was saturated. We had more aircraft ourselves we could have put up but it would have been unsafe to do so.
Post reply on HN