Nationalize the railways. - ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

tyolsen.bsky.social • 54 days ago

Nationalize the railways.

What's a crazy thought you have about how Canada should prepare for potential military aggression from the US that a year ago you would've instantly rejected out of hand but now think is at least debatable?

I'll go first: Canada should think about developing nuclear weapons as a deterrent.

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tyolsen.bsky.social•54 days ago

(This is not 100% serious. But it's worth at least thinking about.)

tyolsen.bsky.social•54 days ago

I also think it's worth at least discussing reciprocal moves that could hurt us but also hurt powerful people in the US who might find some incentive to tell the US president to shut up.

tyolsen.bsky.social•54 days ago

Before we do anything, we need to talk (loudly, so people in the US hear) about doing the things. The talk can make it so we don't have to actually do the things.
https://bsky.app/profile/dawe.bsky.social/post/3lf6dpj73bc2t

dawe.bsky.social•54 days ago

But we need bill gates to activate the microchips, alienating him would be a mistake

stillwellgray.ca•54 days ago

We should have already 1000 times

dawe.bsky.social•54 days ago

Why that particular policy for that particular contingency?

tyolsen.bsky.social•54 days ago

Control over the movement of goods is essential during any military thing. I think that is unlikely. Beyond that, with Trump saying he plans to use economic force, the control over movement of goods in Canada is critical to our economy's health.
Also... I dunno? I could be persuaded otherwise.

tyolsen.bsky.social•54 days ago

But the idea is that if the US government was to leverage its power over CN or CKPC's US operations to convince them to alter how their Canadian operations function, that's a problem.

dawe.bsky.social•54 days ago

Railways as the ultimate fixed asset are pretty much always in control as soon as we might decide to control them (I don’t disagree with the overall policy provided we have a good idea on what we want to do with the railways)

tyolsen.bsky.social•54 days ago

Yeah, though given the speed our governments move at, it's worth game-planning years in advance of actually doing the thing.

dawe.bsky.social•54 days ago

One thing that I think we should do on tariff day one is stop all the Roberts bank coal trains at the border

thesaanichdaily.bsky.social•54 days ago

That's just a good idea no matter what.

drewbrayshaw.bsky.social•54 days ago

why stop there. nationalize the social media.

tyolsen.bsky.social•54 days ago

*deep breath*
Have you met Canadian governments? I do not want my government controlling information algorithms.

drewbrayshaw.bsky.social•54 days ago

And yet... they'd still do a better job of it than Musk and Zuck do.

themichaelg.bsky.social•54 days ago

I believe, that generally Canada could do worse than build out a stronger industrial base that has a mix of rail/logistics/military to it. The globalized and free trade world is changing, it's probably time for Canada to start realizing that. Rail would be a great starting point.

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