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The Canada Appreciation Thread

tpatta
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Archer Archer
I would not expect anything different in this great country…one of the two leaders debates is moved up in time just the day before it happens, because of a hockey game. 🥰

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Got to have your priorities straight. 😎
 
Pastorbottle
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Archer Archer
Until fairly recently, we didn't have fixed election dates - elections were called after parliament was dissolved by the current government, or they were defeated if a minority. Governments could last 4 years traditionally, but no more than 5 years between elections.

A particular government then decided in 2007 that politicians were calling elections when it was most beneficial for them to do so, and therefore we should have fixed election dates, so they made a law setting elections every 4 years. But they still maintained the power to call an election early, so the only real effect was to change the maximum time from 5 years to 4. Of course, they were the first government to not follow the spirit of that law, and call an election when it was best for them to do so, just about 18 months after their own law was passed.

I'm not necessarily a fan of fixed election dates, so I'm not terribly upset that they are not followed. For example with our fixed dates, we would have had an election this fall per the schedule (third Monday in October is the fixed date, 4 years after the last election), but pretty much no one in the country, regardless of political affiliation, wanted to wait for that. All of the major party leaders were asking for an early election, and the polling showed that the vast majority of Canadians wanted an early election.

The length of the campaign here has a range (37 to 51 days), and the shortest range is what the current PM chose for the election we are in now, so our election is April 28th.
We do have other triggers for early elections too and the trigger has been pulled on occasion, one famous or infamous occasion depending upon your political preference, was back in 1975 when the opposition had blocked supply (money to pay the government's bills) and arranged for The Governor General to constitutionally dismiss the government, put the opposition in charge as a caretaker government until elections could be held. (the caretaker government won anyway, so I guess it could be said that they followed the will of the voting public at the time) but to this day 50 yrs later, it is a very sore point for many!
 
hansaboy
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My wife came home from Toronto recently, and she loves the city and the people!
She goes there once a month, and she has noticed the different attitude they have nowadays to the US and A...🙁

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CalgaryJim
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hansaboy hansaboy
My wife came home from Toronto recently, and she loves the city and the people!
She goes there once a month, and she has noticed the different attitude they have nowadays to the US and A...🙁

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She was lucky to get that maple syrup out, it’s one of our strategic resources 😉
 
Lucky14
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Canada is a great country full of wonderful people. So much so that I married the best girl in Montréal. Ive been lucky to travel all over Canada and made quite a few lifelong friends.
My Canadian Mother-in-law passed away recently and we’ve been working to settle her estate. As an outsider, it has truly been eye opening. The province and city are taking the lion’s share of my Mother-in-law’s lifetime of hard work. It seems like punishment for success. Don’t get me wrong. She lived a great life. There is a value to that but WOW! Nonetheless, that’s a Canadian prerogative. Not mine.
P. S. Although I prefer corned beef to smoked meat, Montréal steamies are better than Chicago hotdogs 😀
 
Archer
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Lucky14 Lucky14
Canada is a great country full of wonderful people. So much so that I married the best girl in Montréal. Ive been lucky to travel all over Canada and made quite a few lifelong friends.
My Canadian Mother-in-law passed away recently and we’ve been working to settle her estate. As an outsider, it has truly been eye opening. The province and city are taking the lion’s share of my Mother-in-law’s lifetime of hard work. It seems like punishment for success. Don’t get me wrong. She lived a great life. There is a value to that but WOW! Nonetheless, that’s a Canadian prerogative. Not mine.
P. S. Although I prefer corned beef to smoked meat, Montréal steamies are better than Chicago hotdogs 😀
Smoked meat is way better than corned beef! 👍

But anyway…

There are no inheritance taxes, as such, federally in Canada. There are capital gains taxes on some assets in the estate (unless passed to a spouse), but the primary residence isn’t taxed. So if there are income properties, then yes 50% of the value would be subject to capital gains taxes.

Registered retirement plans are considered to be withdrawn at the time of death, so they are taxed at the current rate.

Other than that, it’s mostly just the regular income tax on whatever income the deceased had in the last year.

So if your MIL was asset heavy of the type subject to these taxes, there will be money due of course. But the deceased is taxed, not the person inheriting the estate.

You do mention that it’s going to the city and province…this is Quebec and they have different laws there in many respects compared to the rest of the country. That whole “distinct society” thing…
 
Peemacgee
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I can’t imagine why I haven’t posted this before now.

I like to make my own bread and I won’t use anything other than strong wholemeal flour made from 100% Canadian wheat.

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Dsloan
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pdxleaf pdxleaf
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/...e_code=1.AU8.X-1Y.3OvqERcj1sfT&smid=url-share

Canadian astronomers discovered K2-18b in 2017, while looking through ground-based telescopes in Chile. It was a type of planet commonly found outside our solar system, but one without any analog near Earth that scientists could study closely for clues.

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I know it's a bit of thread drift, but this science story is so cool! I can't wait to see if they are able to get any stronger evidence.
 
Archer
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Election day!

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Maeve was eager to help. For all the Canadians out there, regardless of your political stripe, get out there and vote!
 
Dsloan
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Hey Canadian friends, it looks like I'll be in Banff in August for 1-2 weeks. Any suggestions on activities for a nerdy family with a 7-year-old?

My kid's obsessed with dinosaurs, so I'm trying to see if we can rent a car and check out dino related stuff nearby.
 
CalgaryJim
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Dsloan Dsloan
Hey Canadian friends, it looks like I'll be in Banff in August for 1-2 weeks. Any suggestions on activities for a nerdy family with a 7-year-old?

My kid's obsessed with dinosaurs, so I'm trying to see if we can rent a car and check out dino related stuff nearby.
Drumheller has an amazing dinosaur museum. 1.5 hr drive east of Calgary though.

Also, for the adults, Kananaskis valley has awesome scenery. The turnoff is 30 minutes east of Banff.
 
Dsloan
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CalgaryJim CalgaryJim
Also, there is a world class fossil area, the Burgess Shale, at Emerald Lake. 30 minutes west of Lake Louise I think.

https://parks.canada.ca/pn-np/bc/yoho/activ/burgess
Whoa, I didn't realize the Burgess Shale was so close! I'd love to check that out, but I can just hear my kid now, "but there's no therapods! I want late Cretaceous megafauna, not Anomalocaris fossils!"
 
p4ul
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pdxleaf pdxleaf
Congratulations on your new PM.
‘Build That Wall’

😉 Too soon?😀
 
Faz
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Dsloan Dsloan
Hey Canadian friends, it looks like I'll be in Banff in August for 1-2 weeks. Any suggestions on activities for a nerdy family with a 7-year-old?

My kid's obsessed with dinosaurs, so I'm trying to see if we can rent a car and check out dino related stuff nearby.
Quite a ways east of Banff but worth it if you want to make your kid super happy!
https://www.albertaparks.ca/dinosaur.aspx
 
Canuck
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Dsloan Dsloan
Hey Canadian friends, it looks like I'll be in Banff in August for 1-2 weeks. Any suggestions on activities for a nerdy family with a 7-year-old?

My kid's obsessed with dinosaurs, so I'm trying to see if we can rent a car and check out dino related stuff nearby.
The only place to be is in Drumheller if dinosaurs are an interest. The Royal Tyrell Museum is world class! A few views. It is about a 2 1/2 hour drive east of Banff, but it is not to be missed.
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