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There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

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Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#471

Post by pbourke »

jacquesm wrote: post #432
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was young and poor and crazy, I did the Greyhound trip to/from the GTA to the prairies a couple times and that is just the most insane stretch of highway ever, so mind boggling how long it takes. Lakes and rocks and lakes and rocks and lakes and rocks and trees and rocks and lakes... Sleeping pills, muscle relaxants, reading the entire Dune series from beginning to end, and waking up finding that you've fallen…

I think pbourke is talking about roads substantially North of that. There are bush roads going west from Timmins all the way to Wawa, there is absolutely nothing there but trees, and Greyhounds don't drive there, in fact the only thing you find there that drives is hunters and logging machinery.

No, I meant the trans-Canada. That’s remote enough for me :)

Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#472

Post by iainctduncan »

iainctduncan wrote: post #427

To folks saying "Vancouver will be fine, everything comes in on boats", here is an info sheet from the city of Vancouver detailing exactly where the food comes from. As you can see, meat, grain, and dairy will be heavily affected if trucks can't get from the Fraser Valley on east into town. http://www.metrovancouver.org/services/regional-planning/Pla... Aaaand it sounds like we're going into a provincial state of eme…

declared.

Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#473

Post by thaumasiotes »

ashtonkem wrote: post #467
thaumasiotes wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But I think the idea of backpacking deep into the woods for fun has exploded in popularity over the past century Have you heard about Robin Hood? ;D

Yes, but that actually somewhat reinforces my general point if you think about it. Robin Hood hid in the woods because that’s where the power of the state couldn’t reach him. The legend tips it’s hat to the general understanding that deep forests were effectively stateless territory beyond the reach of the law. For most of human history untamed woods and mountains have been dangerous, unordered places. This is where…

Living in the woods was for bandits. But it's not obvious that the idea was less popular then than now -- one of the earliest references to Robin Hood is just a complaint that the stories are so popular they're damaging the spiritual fabric of society.

Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#474

Post by cal5k »

sbarre wrote: post #457
cal5k wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canadian banks are the most profitable in the western world, because we pay the highest fees in the western world. A lot of it is hidden - Canadian banks charge outrageous sums of money for foreign exchange fees. Credit card interchange fees are reliably a full 1% higher than in the US. e-Transfers are intentionally limited in size so that banks can still make their money on credit card payments etc. Interac is a ban…

This is all true. What is also true is that Canada has never had anything like the S&L scandal in the 90s or the 2008 US financial crisis where massive swaths of the working class lost much of their savings. So sure, we have higher fees due to regulatory capture, but I'll take that trade to know that some unregulated finance bros aren't fucking around with my life savings.

Not just higher fees. Our GDP/capita relative to the US has been in steep decline. Cost of living is also higher across the board on everything from food to electronics, above and beyond what straight foreign exchange would suggest.

Gas is more expensive too. Oh, and wages are stagnant (except for in tech), which is a real problem when inflation hits 5% (as it is now). Productivity growth has been basically non-existent for decades.

Can I connect all of this to the banking oligopoly? No, but it's symptomatic of the larger problem: that Canada is a very difficult country to do business in. Ham-handed government regulation in every part of the economy is a huge drag on economic growth.

Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#475

Post by emodendroket »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #473
ashtonkem wrote: post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but that actually somewhat reinforces my general point if you think about it. Robin Hood hid in the woods because that’s where the power of the state couldn’t reach him. The legend tips it’s hat to the general understanding that deep forests were effectively stateless territory beyond the reach of the law. For most of human history untamed woods and mountains have been dangerous, unordered places. This is where…

Living in the woods was for bandits. But it's not obvious that the idea was less popular then than now -- one of the earliest references to Robin Hood is just a complaint that the stories are so popular they're damaging the spiritual fabric of society.

I don't think we could really describe living in the woods as hiking.

Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#476

Post by thaumasiotes »

emodendroket wrote: post #475
thaumasiotes wrote: post #473

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Living in the woods was for bandits. But it's not obvious that the idea was less popular then than now -- one of the earliest references to Robin Hood is just a complaint that the stories are so popular they're damaging the spiritual fabric of society.

I don't think we could really describe living in the woods as hiking.

The difference between living in the woods and backpacking through the woods is that when backpacking you don't expect to forage for your own food - you bring it in with you.

There is otherwise no difference; backpacking and hiking are separate activities.

Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#477

Post by tjr225 »

iainctduncan wrote: post #428
tjr225 wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> City folks who think this was just some rain are nothing but evidence of how disconnected city people can become from the infrastructure on which they depend. This is a really funny angle. I would think the city people are keen on how internationally connected they are as a coastal port city. Vancouver also has international access to the US. Vancouver can get goods from Seattle, Portland, SF, LA, San Diego, Alaska…

here you go, the food breakdown. Grain, meat, dairy all come into Van mostly from the east. http://www.metrovancouver.org/services/regional-planning/Pla...

Thank you.
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