Les Stelmach 🇨🇦🇺🇦

Was happy to be able to watch some live again this year

💀

@wrongonanylevel @RealTalkRJ Those hospitals aren’t private and are open to anyone. I guess what bugs me, is that if instead of Catholic nuns starting hospitals in the Prairies decades and decades ago, it was a different religion, would the discourse today be the same? I doubt it.

@LesIsMore1 @RealTalkRJ Agree - but trying to stand, somewhat on principle. Not a fan of public funding for private schools, so need to be able to extend that concept across to healthcare.

Catholic-run healthcare facilities receive billions of dollars in Alberta, but refuse to provide public health services like MAiD and abortion. Is it time to tie funding to full access? 👀 FULL: rtrj.info/031926MAiD 🎧 FULL: rtrj.info/031926 #MAiD #abpoli #ableg

@wrongonanylevel @RealTalkRJ Besides, if you are looking at stats that reflect value for money, Covenant outperforms AHS. Way better on capital, too.

@wrongonanylevel @RealTalkRJ I would think by definition that already happens.

@ianbremmer @gtconway3d And that $180 billion was inflated. Lots of old equipment that would otherwise have been scrapped, especially in 2022/2023

biden total spend on ukraine: $180 billion the pentagon just asked for $200 billion for war in iran.

Trump is, again, lying about shortages of ammunition for the war against Iran due to some imaginary supplies to Ukraine. Here are some facts: The kinds of weapons we are using to strike Iran were NEVER sent to Ukraine: PrSM (entered service in 2024), LUCAS drones (brand new), Tomahawks (Trump talked about sending some, never did), and of course B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, F-22 Raptors, and F-35s -- obviously none were ever transferred to Ukraine. The only weapons one might plausibly refer to would be ATACMS: the entire stock we deigned to send Ukraine was about 50 rounds (we had used 800 in the opening days of the Iraq invasion). The US used over 20 weapons systems to hit over 1,000 targets simultaneously during the opening hours of Operation Epic Fury. An estimated 300 Tomahawks were used and the Pentagon ordered... 57 new ones in the current fiscal year. There have been no deliveries of THAAD interceptors since 2023 and no new orders were placed this year. The military will get 39 in 2027, six years after ordering them. If we are running short on ammunition, it's because the people ordering this war did not plan adequately for contingencies and spent like drunken sailors, not because of our (really nonexistent for the past year) aid to Ukraine. Our big problem is that right now, we are still using extremely expensive systems like Patriots ($3-4 million per missile) and NASAMS/AMRAAM interceptors ($0.8-1.2 million per missile) to combat mass-produced $20,000 Shahed drones. This asymmetric exchange ratio between offense and defense is what kept analysts at night during the Cold War and why eventually defense systems would be scrapped for being too easily overwhelmed by numbers despite being technologically superior. Ukraine has been fighting and innovating precisely to deal with the asymmetric offense capabilities of Russia for years, and they have learned how to do it. But when they offered to help us last year, the Trump administration arrogantly brushed them aside. Now we are squandering premier weapons designed to stop ballistic missiles on cheap drones. And we can't keep doing it no matter how wealthy we are. Missiles take months, sometimes years, to make, while drones can be mass produced in weeks. You lose wars not when the offense peaks --- as the current bombing afficionados at the White House have you believe with their nonstop meming about raining destruction on Iran -- but when your defense capacity is stretched to its limits and cannot cope with things that keep coming at it.

@ColinGWright1 @irbrodie That’s an interesting interpretation. He wasn’t just a guy eating an apple. He was - he is - leader of the opposition and he was polling well against an unpopular leader. Like you say, some liked that performance, some didn’t

@LesIsMore1 @irbrodie People in Canada and other countries saw it and said, "Hey, listen to this politician push back on the BS. We need someone like that." It resonated with a lot of people and, admittedly, pissed off a lot as well. That much attention paid to a guy eating an apple - legendary.

Mr Rogan, who criticized Mr Trump’s comments on Canada, is a popular podcast host. If we want to shape the USMCA negotiations, Mr Carney should designate ministers to be on his show often if Mr Rogan would take them. Or, he could form Team Canada and ask Mr Poilievre to return regularly.

@ColinGWright1 @irbrodie “Legendary” in that it did what for him in the end? Poilievre did well in the Rogan interview because he chose his spots. Didn’t bite at some of Rogan’s more ridiculous comments, and corrected him, politely, most times when it mattered.

@irbrodie Rogan wouldn't want Liberal ministers because they're not interesting. Poilievre has garnered global interest because he's straightforward, and ordinary people can relate to what he's saying. He's worth a listen. His humiliation of the apple orchard 'journalist' is legendary.

@Stu_parnell @Scaramucci @ItWasACoup Points for the Dodgeball reference.

@Scaramucci @ItWasACoup It’s just going to go to China.

Let me get this straight: We attack Iranian oil facilities to hurt the regime, then we unsanction Iranian oil in hopes they sell it to our allies, so that we can continue to bomb the regime. It's a bold strategy Cotton, let's see how it pays off for 'em.

I think Pierre Poilievre did a good job on Rogan. I can see how it’s not a bad forum to engage, given our troubles with some elements in the U.S. He was reasonable and measured. Worst part is listening to Rogan hold forth; given his resources, he should be better informed.

@herncosta @stphnmaher Give it a rest with the whataboutism.

@stphnmaher "I won't criticize him on foreign soil" Carney or Freeland had no problem criticizing him on Jon Stewart and Bill Maher when they were running for Liberal leader, they refused to criticize each other.

This is good stuff. Humble Poilievre is much more likeable than abrasive Poilievre. There's a story to be told about how he smartened up. Not hard to imagine this guy as pm one day if he keeps this up.

@PythiaR Yup. But I mean, if we are talking residential home prices, rising annually at the pace of inflation is basically where you want to be. It’s just that it is occurring after such a run.

I remember being told ad nauseum by friends & acquaintances in 2021 that it was impossible to lose money on real estate in Canada. I wish I were joking but that is verbatim the language that was used & I still hear it from time to time. Generational reset in attitudes required.

@fakeezzie I’m working my way through it, but only because you highlighted it. Listening to Rogan is a slog as he’s basically everyone’s half-cocked uncle. You could spend the whole session correcting him. Pierre doing a good job though, I must say.

Honestly, not a bad interview. I will rarely give this guy props, and there's plenty to disagree with, but this was a smart play. It humanizes him. The big question, how many who aren't politicos or right wing (already support him) will see this interview?

@VetDad25 @FPWellman @Acyn He’s referring to the Iranian schoolgirls which were killed when a Tomahawk missile hit their school. Trump at first denied it (of course). Since then, it’s been confirmed. No apologies though.

@FPWellman @Acyn First time I’ve seen 171 children. Can you pls share the source?

They killed 171 children and refuse to even acknowledge the error. That isn’t how we fight. These bloodthirsty jackals are just evil. When the truth is finally revealed these sick SOB’s will blame the troops and go back to their money grifting schemes.

@michaeldweiss @yashar Is that number at original gross book value? Sending old equipment to Ukraine that is obviously depreciated (like they did in the early months/yrs) means even that number likely inflated.

@yashar You’re making me work for it tonight, aren’t you, Yashar?

US military aid to Ukraine since 2022: $66.9 billion.

Qatar realizing they gave Trump a $400M Boeing jet just to be used as human shields.

@KristinRaworth This is a complex issue, for sure. But I seem to recall a libertarian Danielle Smith. Not sure what happened to her.

My step mother used MAiD. I don’t know if she would have died within a year but I know she would have lost capacity to consent, advanced consent being also removed by this bill, I do know she was in pain every single moment of her life. I know her disease was going to kill her slowly and brutally. I know MAiD was what she wanted and the most peaceful way to go. This bill is not reflecting the reality of those who are dying from debilitating illness.

Is Qatar going to want their plane back?

@classik_e Less than a heavy year

How far is a light year

@Stu_parnell @HumansNoContext

@LesIsMore1 @HumansNoContext That’s your role. Reach in push it down

A or B?