Comments by "M Shastri" (@libshastra) on "CBC News" channel.

  1. I spoke with my friends and family in India. They are angry and very united against Trudeau. They specifically blame him for this rapid deterioration. I have never seen Indians this angry. The anger is justified given our Govts' inaction (not just this one). They don't trust us especially after the Air India 182 debacle. So good luck trying to "lecture" them about rule of law or sovereignty. I think things are going to become much much worse.
    496
  2. I think it's a big deal. ISRO and NASA signed Artemis protocol and this landing was one of the criteria for increasing future cooperation and further collaboration. One thing India really excels at is keeping costs low. SpaceX despite its innovation is still costs about $15k/kg. With ISRO's collaboration you can bring that cost down further. It just makes space exploration so much more cheaper and affordable.
    160
  3. If Unions can't get the Fed Govt to pay a livable wage, then what would that mean for the rest of us? Our Govt without question or scrutiny prepares aid package after aid package for a war in a distant land but yet can't find fund to pay those same workers who prepared that aid package a living wage. Treating our federal worker like a minimum wage worker is quick way to spiral into bad governance.
    136
  4. When will our experts admit that things are not working or as advertised? When people express concerns is dismissed as misinformation. Safe supply hasn't worked as advertised - we were told, it will reduce consumption, it will increase rehab, it will reduce crime, save lives. But ever since this policy was introduced, the exact opposite has happened.
    124
  5. It takes 3 weeks to get an appointment to a Family Doctor (even if they are your primary Family physician). Fruits and Veggies are 2x the price of what they were 2 weeks ago. Housing has become out of reach even for folk who earn more than 200,000/year. Yet our PM is Missing in Action sheltering in Ukraine, our Deputy PM is asking us to cut our nonexistent Disney+ subscriptions and they are gas-lighting serious national security issues as political polarization.
    109
  6. Trudeau is completely responsible for this diplomatic crisis. I don't care if India did it or not, but Trudeau and his immaturity got us here.
    93
  7. You can't keep snakes in your backyard and expect them to only bite others. We need to treat this extremism very seriously.
    91
  8. REM is running at slower speed and frequency. Despite that it was still faster.
    86
  9. India's politics is more polarized than Canada's but Trudeau managed to unite them all against his disaster of a trip. Even opposition media who are extremely critical of Modi in India had extremely strong words for Trudeau's remarks and stood behind Modi. A rare sign of unity. Even if Modi was not in power, the Indian govt would have reacted the same way. No one in India is interested in supporting secession movement.
    79
  10. The rice ban is not terrible as it seems. India banned export of wheat last year and ended up exporting them through Govt to Govt deals (Mostly African countries). Bad for markets, great for Govts and their welfare/aid programs. Unlike western countries, India does not have a commodities future markets, so volatility wrecks a lot of havoc in the market and seasonal inflation spikes more dramatic than western countries. This was something Modi’s farm laws would have fixed.
    60
  11. Banhammer Guibeault is one of several competing top reasons why I dislike the Liberal govt. There was no thought put into this policy announcement. The guy could said, "All large road projects should have bus lanes". It would have been particularly more effectively than banning "large" road projects. Edit: There are way better policy tools than banning roads - ever heard of toll or congestion pricing or even improved transit operations?
    56
  12. I used to be a Liberal, I believed them, volunteered for them, donated and campaigned for them. After 8 years of Trudeau, I'm done with Liberals. No more LPC until they ensure Trudeau's permanent retirement. Pierre has my support.
    54
  13. Trudeau invoked Emergency Act over a bunch of protesters making very loud noises (that was the initial complaint). No wonder the judges found it unreasonable. Also, the invocation of the Act made Canada look like fools on the international stage. Our most esteemed PM lectured the world's largest democracy about the right to protest but he couldn't tolerate a noisy one for more than a month.
    53
  14.  @edlubitz2968  I'm preparing myself to suffer through this. You best do the same. I seriously don't think we are going to come out of this in good shape.
    48
  15. LPC has lost sight of every issue that is important for the people. On Housing JT says, "It is not the primary responsibilities of the Federal Govt". We would not be asking the Federal Govt to do something about housing if lower levels of Govt did their bloody job. On Ukraine, when asked if Canada should pursue a peace plan, JT blames the person questioning for falling for Russian Misinformation. On Inflation, JT is silent. But somehow, Trudeau Govt thinks defending C-18 is more important than Housing and Cost of Living problems.
    41
  16.  @Grant_S_M That's bullshit. Indian politics is deeply polarized and in that polarized environment Trudeau managed to unite everyone in India behind Modi. It's very rare for Opposition media in India to support Modi's position. The incompetence is staggering, Trudeau with his virtue signalling managed to unite India but divided Canada. Trudeau inadvertently became Modi's best campaigner for the week. Congrats Trudeau.
    34
  17. Canada is engaging in the worst kind of value engineering. If you want to build a HSR, then build a HSR. HFR is not only expensive but it also compromises on everything a good rail network should be.
    31
  18. Immigration is not the problem. The real problem is pure negligence and incompetence of local and (to a lesser degree) provincial govts. Local govt don't want to issue development permits and are consciously or unconsciously intent to create slums everywhere.
    30
  19. Federal Govt could also listen to it's Unions and pay a livable wage. You can't prepare a quality aid for Ukraine without appropriately paying Federal workers. You can't pay for aid for Ukraine without CRA going out there and collecting taxes, auditing tax records and going after abuse of tax loopholes. Pay our Federal workers a livable wage.
    29
  20. NPR's foreign desk is US propaganda. Unlike it's domestic desk, NPR's foreign desk does not get to express it's editorial independence. Every foreign desk in the Western world works in the same way. BBC's foreign desk has no editorial independence and report to Foreign office in the UK.
    29
  21. Mitch is 81? Dang, he looks like he is close to 90. If he is like this at 81, means he is pretty unfit.
    28
  22. And why should we care? India has it's own affairs and they don't ask us to interfere in their domestic affairs. Also great day for Hindus. Jai Shri Ram.
    28
  23. Federal Government has $5 billion for refugees and $1 billion for DEI efforts but that comes at the expense of cutting defense budget by 1 billion, short changing Federal government employees by 600 million and taxing us with carbon tax to crawl back the deficit. Excellent budgeting skills.👏👏👏🙄
    27
  24. I'm from BC and I support PQ's protest. We don't need a monarchy, especially the one that pay allegiance to King Charles III.
    27
  25. Treasury board was darn insensitive. Paying Federal worker a living wage is not "writing a blank cheque". Every $1 given to Federal worker creates $5 of economic value. Every $1 paid to CRA workers gets $3.5 of revenue for the Govt. The Treasury board is woefully out of touch.
    26
  26. You can’t raise your rate out of a housing crisis. We need our leaders from every level of govt to do their job and build more housing.
    25
  27. How hard is it to understand, without a Strong Germany there is no Ukraine? Tanking Germany economically means tanking the ability to provide aid to Ukraine.
    24
  28. Environmental movement has become mental. They dropped the ball when they abandoned building consensus and opted for performative theatractics and NIMBYism. Blocking highways and ruining works of art tarnishes environmentalism.
    24
  29. To Indians, Trudeau is a bad faith actor. He's proved to be one, not once but thrice. His dress up trip in 2018, in 2020 when he opened his mouth about India's domestic affair and finally this weekend at G-20
    24
  30.  @ArbazAbid  they don't like Modi. This issue cuts across party lines.
    24
  31. We are looking at service cuts. Thanks Trudeau for the careless spending.
    22
  32. It helps consolidate Punjabi vote for JT.
    21
  33. Punjab used to be the world’s manufacturer of sporting goods but farmers killed that industry. Industry had to pay extra taxes to cover the state’s fiscal hole created by all the free stuff given to farmers. Punjab was charging its industries, a Cow protection tax before Hindu nationalists even dreamed of Cow protection squads. Btw, today the sports manufacturer’s kids are now moving to Canada by the plane loads.
    21
  34. Local reports suggests this was a failure of the switch (sabotage, mechanical failure, maintenance failure is yet to be determined, negligence). Switch diverted the train on to the parked freight train and caused the derailment.
    19
  35. Yes we need to provide Taiwan with Political support. Maybe also export LAVs to them to defend themselves.
    17
  36. 100 Million??? Wow, what would even get for that price? India's incentive starts at $10 billion, EU has theirs at $16 billion, why are we aiming so low?
    16
  37. The ban of Rushdie's book in India backfired a lot and was largely seen as appeasing Muslims. It became a seminal moment in the rise of Hindu nationalism. Ironically Modi owes it to Rushdie for the rise of his party to what it is today. For me it's a teaching moment, you can't compromise on Liberal values without damaging social cohesion.
    15
  38. Kharge is a Gandhi family loyalist. He named his Son after Rahul Gandhi, his daughter after Indira 'Priyadarshini' Gandhi. He is that Loyal. The family is not going away, they are going to use Kharge as a puppet.
    15
  39.  @nilanperera4774 call it what you want. But Trudeau managed to get Modi more support and votes with his idiocy. Great way to lend support to a "fascist".
    14
  40. I'd like to be a Trucker. But with high housing costs, I have no choice but to look for a better paying job so that I can afford to buy a place or pay rent. Trucking does not bring enough money for it be a sustainable job. The lesson here is, you can't have nice things in life with insane housing costs.
    14
  41. Anyone who comes from a democratic country knows and understands the sacrifices veterans make to keep their respective country safe. This is a value shared across democratic countries but we celebrate it in different ways. I'm a new citizen and I've been pretty upset that this country treats Remembrance Day like it's nothing and not an important value to adhere too or uphold. My City in BC has little to nothing to keep the spirit of Remembrance Day alive. It's time to fix that, I'm writing to my City Council who thinks it's absolutely necessary to pass resolutions about Gaza but not necessary to spend money for Remembrance day. We can't let people forget that there are veterans in country that have helped keep this country safe.
    14
  42. Modi's campaigner is back. CBC might cheer for Rahul Gandhi but it won't work like they think it would partly because the Party putting forward the message is incompetent and has long lost credibility with India's voters. The Congress Party dropped the ball on this issue IN Parliament when it's session was being live streamed across India. They raised the wrong issue at the moment when everyone was watching. 2024 is definitely going to be a win for Modi.
    14
  43. How about we handle Trump by electing someone who does not irritate Trump with his passive aggressive behaviours (and can be polite like Shinzo Abe)? That strategy would work much better than whatever stuff Liberals come up.
    13
  44. My provincial premier (BC) has passed comprehensive reforms but the Federal government is MIA. We did not even get a mention in the Federal housing accelerator. In BC, we have organized crime groups washing money thru our property market. It's something Federal government can help with but they've been silent about it. We've been asking you help with homelessness but the Federal government has been woke and performative about it. Federal government could push for ALR reforms. There's so many places the Federal government can help but it keeps hiding behind jurisdiction.
    13
  45. Liberal Partisan, in the comments can take this opportunity to learn something about what people want and addressing them. While you are at it, please let the Liberal caucus know. Pollievre at least has some credible plans to address housing. Is it great? Naah, but at least it is something. Guess what other are saying about Housing? Nothing. 8 years of voting Trudeau for housing and we the electorate have been reduced to picking up scraps from someone like Pollievre. It actually says a LOT more about Trudeau's governance.
    12
  46. In India, The Nehru-Gandhi family holds a tight grip on The Indian National Congress party. Rahul Gandhi, the outgoing 'interim' President, 4th/5th generation scion of the Gandhi family is ironically called Modi's best campaigner. And this party elected a Gandhi family loyalist, ya, 2024 is going to be a easy win for Modi. The Congress is going hand them at least 100 seats/ridings for free to Modi's BJP. If you thought Andrew Sheer or O'Toole was bad, wait till you meet Congress Party leaders.
    12
  47. I live in BC there is no rebate for me only increased carbon tax. And polls indicate we want Liberals out.
    11
  48. That's local commuter trains. This is a inter city, sleepers. They aren't as crowded.
    11
  49. Europe threw a tissy to oil prices. When they sanctioned Russian oil & gas (ships were sanction), they cut off almost 30% of O&G. Unless we somehow cut the demand for that 30% (or increase supply that accounts for that 30%), inflation is going to stay high. Man, that pipeline would have been useful, at least we could have used US refineries to refine Alberta oil.
    11
  50. Goodluck trying to work with Korea or Japan without India. Both countries are focused on Asia and we don't have much to offer besides gender languages and vague platitudes. Korea would gladly replace us in the markets where we're competitive - particularly in nuclear, pharma, green energy and high tech manufacturing. The sad reality is Trudeau destroyed our reputation in that part of the world. We are not getting it back until he's gone. We are also going to be a small power rather than a middle power. Thanks Trudeau, you took what was nice about Canada and made it into a nightmare.
    10