Land of the Maple Leaf ~ Canadian Club

Brendino said:
So over the past few weeks and months, Commander Chris Hadfield has started to become a bit of an iconic figure, and arguably the most prolific Canadian astronaut that the country's ever seen- even getting quite the positive review from Buzz Aldrin about making space exciting again. Everything from his daily life videos aboard the International Space Station and a music video (sung by himself, of course), have gained millions of views on YouTube. Despite all this, though, the government will be cutting $25 million in funding to the Canadian Space Agency, and Canada won't sending another astronaut into space again until 2016 at the very earliest.

Just wondering how everyone else feels about this (should we be spending tax dollars on a program primarily run by the U.S./Russia, continue funding it the same way, etc.), and curious about everyone's response to some of the positive light he brought to himself, Canada and the space program as a whole.
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2016 is only three years away o.o

CSA hasn't really had a lot to do since our role with the International Space Station largely wrapped up. We do have missions, objects, and projects lined up but they are largely satellite based than manned.

CSA's pretty nifty in that it makes revenue, quite a lot of revenue. Almost $330 million! The $25 million cut in funding brings down the public funding to just under par with what the agency brings in on its own. So, $325 million or so. Adding those together and I don't think they're scrapped for cash.

I'm all for more investment in science, math, research and development, and everything else that stems from that field. But, our role historically (this agency has only been around for as long as I've been alive XD) has been to assist or lead in international missions. They're not really happening right now. NASA's gotten budget cuts, so I don't think a new large program is on the horizon in the near future, so it doesn't make a sense for us to try pick up the slack - we're not really getting somewhere without anyone else. When they need us to make another Canadarm, we'll be there.

I quite like Hadfield. He was a good national spokesperson of sorts
 
TRIFORCE89 said:
CSA's pretty nifty in that it makes revenue, quite a lot of revenue. Almost $330 million! The $25 million cut in funding brings down the public funding to just under par with what the agency brings in on its own. So, $325 million or so. Adding those together and I don't think they're scrapped for cash.

I'm all for more investment in science, math, research and development, and everything else that stems from that field. But, our role historically (this agency has only been around for as long as I've been alive XD) has been to assist or lead in international missions. They're not really happening right now. NASA's gotten budget cuts, so I don't think a new large program is on the horizon in the near future, so it doesn't make a sense for us to try pick up the slack - we're not really getting somewhere without anyone else. When they need us to make another Canadarm, we'll be there.
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I would've never guessed that the CSA was making quite that large of a profit, especially with the way some media outlets had been talking about the upcoming budget cuts. And while it would be nice to see Canada take a little bit more of a leading role in something like this, we'll never be able to compete with other countries like the U.S. and Russia financially, so I guess we have no choice but to play the waiting game until NASA decides to move forward with a larger project.


Another interesting story that just showed up in B.C. yesterday were the events of the provincial elections. Heading into the day before voting, the NDP had been polled at having a 7.5% popularity lead over the Liberals, with at one point this month leading by more than 20%. Despite that, the Liberals not only won, but managed to gain a majority in the provincial government. On top of that, though, Premier Christy Clark wasn't even able to win the majority of votes in her own riding, meaning that she's technically the head of the government, without even having her own seat in the legislature for the next few months (this is only time that this has happened in provincial history). I try not to follow politics too much even though I voted yesterday, but every single news story on TV, in the newspapers, and even on different websites I visit all seemed to be covering it.
 
Brendino said:
On top of that, though, Premier Christy Clark wasn't even able to win the majority of votes in her own riding, meaning that she's technically the head of the government, without even having her own seat in the legislature for the next few months (this is only time that this has happened in provincial history). I try not to follow politics too much even though I voted yesterday, but every single news story on TV, in the newspapers, and even on different websites I visit all seemed to be covering it.
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I don't think its a big deal. Some Liberal MPP in a secure riding will step aside and let Clark take their riding. Then they'll hold a bi-election so that it's legitimate.
 
Hope that everyone had a good Victoria Day weekend (or National Patriots Day in Quebec). It's always struck me as odd how Victoria Day is considered a statutory holiday by the federal government, yet not all provinces elect to uphold that, so not everyone gets the long weekend.

Another interesting note is that there is a petition going around to rename the holiday to 'Victoria and First Peoples Day'. I'm sort of on the fence with this one, seeing as there is no real relationship between the two, and there's already a National Aboriginal Day in late June. After reading some other people's opinions, I'd like to see National Aboriginal Day recognized as a statutory holiday and keep the two days seperate, but I'm curious as to what everyone else thinks about the situation.
 
They can make National Aboriginal Day a statutory holiday if they want. I'm all for more days off. But don't overtake an existing holiday where the two themes have little to do with each other.

We've celebrated Victoria Day since before Confederation and she had a great deal in promoting Canada's unity. Seems worthy enough to me to be a dedicated holiday and not have its day shared with another holiday.
 
Didn't really read, but if they want to give us another holiday based on their values/history/culture, make it in August. There are no paid time-offs in August. Civic isn't a paid holiday :(
 
Brendino said:
Maybe they should repurpose the Civic Holiday, since it's a statutory holiday in some provinces (including BC, where it's named BC Day), but not in others like Ontario and Quebec. Or they can do that along side adding Aboriginal Day as an official holiday. I don't think too many people would complain about an extra day off.
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Canada is actually one of the worst, if not the worst, for stat. holidays. I can't remembber 100% but I think that it said other countries get about 20 paid stats. while Canada has like, seven or something lol

So new holidays is definitely nice... Puts us back up there.

Looking at this list, it says:

- Spain [22 Stat. Holidays; 14 Public]
- Venezuela [24 Stat. Holidays; 12 Public]
- Sweden [25 Stat. Holidays; 11 Public]
- France [25 Stat. Holidays; 11 Public]
- Britain [28 Stat. Holidays; 8 Public]
- Greece [28 Stat. Holidays; 12 Public]
- Bolivia [25 Stat. Holidays; 12 Public]
- Poland [26 Stat. Holidays; 11 Public]
- Malta [24 Stat. Holidays; 14 Public]
- Austria [25 Stat. Holidays; 13 Public]

Noting a lot of these countries have 2x pay on Stats and not 1.5x like in Canada.

Now for Canada.

9 Stat. Holidays. Pending where you live, some apply to you, some don't; some provinces even have up to 11 Stats.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_holidays_in_Canada#Nationwide_statutory_holidays_in_Canada

Not sure about public non-paid i.e. Valentine's Day, but 9-11 is still way below the 22 that Spain gets or the 26 that Britain gets.

Just to prove a point that Canadians are getting screwed out of holidays :( No wonder our stress levels are through the roof.
 
I don't know if we'd quite need anything like 26 statutory holidays, but having at least one a month seems more than fair, plus some in the same timeframe like Christmas/Boxing Day/New Years and Good Friday/Easter Monday. Considering I've had to work every stat holiday aside from New Years Day this year, I'd have no problem if they threw a couple more holidays in there (and getting paid double time instead of time-and-a-half would be nice, too).
 
I guess since I've always lived in Canada I'm used to it but I can't imagine adding too many more holidays to the mix. o_O; I just feel like there would be so much less time to get things done...

I miss having a guaranteed one a month like I had in mandatory schooling though. :(
 
Let's not look to places like Spain, Greece, Venezuela, etc. for inspiration. Not exactly economic role models there.

More days off would be good though. You want to hit that sweet spot, wherein a well-rested/happy employee with sufficient work-life balance leads to an increase in worker productivity. I think aiming for one a month is good, we're not there yet . We don't need an abundance though like in the areas cited, then productivity goes down. Even France's short work days are increasingly fading away. Such things aren't sustainable
 
Yeah, I'd just like one a month :) Otherwise everything seems so long... January has New Years, February has Family Day*, March has nothing, April has Easter, May has Victoria Day, June has nothing**, July has Canada Day, August has nothing, September has nothing, October has Thanksgiving, November has nothing, and December has Christmas.

* Only certain areas i.e. Ontario
** June has St. Jean Le Baptiste Day in Quebec, but not Family Day

So we have a lot of months we could improve on.
 
I think that's most parents' reaction to even more holidays, though. Even for older kids, school is still essentially a free daycare for 6-7 hours a day, and I think parents want to be able to take advantage of that for as long as they can.

Maybe if we need some new holidays, they can implement the "It's Too Hot to Do Anything Today Day" (as in, it got over 30 degrees here today, and I had to work all day in a long sleeved dress shirt).
 
So my fam have decided to take a road trip to Maritime Canada. We don't have a set itinerary, especially towards the end of the trip. Does anybody live there and know what's good? Or anybody that's been there before have recommendations?

I was talking to a coworker of mine about a friend of hers, and she ended up telling me that she lives in New Brunswick. I guess I gave the impression that I wanted to meet her :P
 
Over the past 24-48 hours, there has been some massive flooding in Calgary, which has caused a mass evacuation of the city, including the downtown core where over 350,000 people are living and employed. I haven't heard exactly what caused it yet, but there have been reports of placing like the Saddledome (where the Calgary Flames play) taking in thousands of litres of water a second, and has the building completely flooded right up to the luxury boxes, which are 20ish rows up from ground level. There are also bridges in and around the city that are completely submurged, and even the Calgary Zoo looks to be underwater.

I've got some family living there, including my mom, so it's some pretty scary stuff. I can't remember if we had any Calgarians here (I know that we have a few people from Edmonton), but hopefully everyone stays safe and followed all of the evacuation orders that have been sent out.
 
I'll be leaving for Wetaskiwin Alberta next week with my family to see if our friends there are ok.
 
No!

I've got fencing. How do I celebrate Canada? I don't even remember what I did last year... listening to gunshots fireworks outside. The only red and white shirt I have says KOR for Korea on it >.<

Happy Canada Day.
 
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