42 Comments
Aug 15Liked by elizabeth nickson

In case readers didn’t make it to the end of this excellent article:

“ Canada’s rural regions represent a huge growth opportunity for citizens and public wealth alike. However, command- and-control planning has drawn down the rural population and the rural economy. This must be reversed if Canada is to meet its obligations with regard to pensions and health care. Our public debt, like that of all the Western democracies, is high, and our unfunded liabilities are worrisome. Canada, however, unlike many Western democracies, has the land and resources to grow the economy in order to meet those obligations.”

As someone who has driven across Canada several times, and flown across it hundreds of times, the amount of undeveloped land in Canada is staggering (once you get 100 km North of the 49th parallel…) The lumber, minerals, arable land, fresh water and petroleum reserves are incredible.

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Aug 15Liked by elizabeth nickson

If Canada only allowed development of that undeveloped land up to 100 km North of the 49th, the wealth created would be unimaginable.

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“It is physically impossible to completely exhaust the mineral resources in a gold camp through mining – there are always resources and exploration potential left behind after every mine is closed. Increases in gold prices, new exploitation technology, and new concepts or knowledge can rekindle interest, investment, exploration and discovery in any gold camp whether long-established or recently discovered.”

https://resourceworld.com/great-canadian-gold-camps-untapped-gold-deposits-still-awaiting-discovery/

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““Central banks can hold the government bonds of other countries, and they also hold actual dollars. The Chinese Central Bank actually holds hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars. Dollars are very liquid, so are government bonds, especially of a Western country.”

(Yeah, US Bonds, created out of printed money…)

https://globalnews.ca/news/2508940/canada-sells-nearly-half-of-all-its-gold-reserves/

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Aug 15Liked by elizabeth nickson

I am certain all of the Chinese "immigrants" allowed into the country would voraciously attempt to take control of that land (and ruin it) if any restrictions were undone. Of course, perhaps that has been the plan all along.

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It requires a deeply involved and responsible local government. My father was at town meetings three times a week, and he employed 1200. It was once considered the mark of an adult.

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That’s an excellent point, Elizabeth. Politics start at the municipal level - it’s our duty to be engaged at all levels, otherwise they will run rampant with our money 😉

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A good book to add to the reading list is Daniel Greenfield's "Domestic Enemies", just published. He traces the identical personalities then as we see today, and yes they are identical in every aspect of what they say and how they behave, during the first 100yrs of the US against the moral courage needed at the time. His book is a great read, fast paced and loaded with quotes that self-reveal how destructive these people are throughout time with which every generation is forced to contend. Understand the basics of this personality and you are forever armed against their nefarious and manipulative schemes. More than that, you can teach others and your children at an early age which is what we need to do build a resilient society against these individuals who are ever present.

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Aug 15Liked by elizabeth nickson

Happy Birthday. Thank you for understanding the economics of education. As a lifelong learner it would be exceedingly expensive to have paid subscription to the many excellent internet writers who like you have given tremendous effort to truth and logic. With all the areas that government is intentionally lying to us about Health,Environment, Economy, War, Crime, Terrorism, Drugs..lying about everything including elections. It is nearly impossible to stay current and informed. Congratulations on making it 2 years in the current age of censorship, and deplatforming.

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Aug 15Liked by elizabeth nickson

Happy Birthday Elizabeth!

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Aug 15Liked by elizabeth nickson

Elizabeth I look forward to seeing / reading literally every one of your efforts posted here.

I'm in for your endeavor, getting out into the grass roots so often spoken of but also so often ignored as are the values to be found there.

Our country's strength is in its people, and the Constitution that defines our freedoms and our authority. We're different, and lucky, in that regard.

Yet now we find we're on the cusp of a turning away from all that has come of that instrument at the behest of despots and career criminals who think and speak nothing but lies and untruths.

You understand how we can do better in overcoming all this, you're worth the minor sacrifice I've made that it might help you in your work.

Oh, and happy birthday as well!

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Aug 15Liked by elizabeth nickson

Happy birthday!🎇🍦🍿🎂🎁🎁🎁🎁

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Aug 15Liked by elizabeth nickson

Consider this absurdity:

To save spotted owls, US officials plan to kill hundreds of thousands of another owl species

https://apnews.com/article/shooting-barred-owls-wildlife-service-9081f926f3ebd27ac3ddc2ceaf332ca2

By MATTHEW BROWN, AP

Updated 9:47 AM PDT, August 9, 2024

To save the imperiled spotted owl from potential extinction, U.S. wildlife officials are embracing a contentious plan to deploy trained shooters into dense West Coast forests to kill almost a half-million barred owls that are crowding out their cousins.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service strategy released Wednesday is meant to prop up declining spotted owl populations in Oregon, Washington state and California. The Associated Press obtained details in advance.

Documents released by the agency show up to about 450,000 barred owls would be shot over three decades after the birds from the eastern U.S. encroached into the West Coast territory of two owls: northern spotted owls and California spotted owls. The smaller spotted owls have been unable to compete with the invaders, which have large broods and need less room to survive than spotted owls.

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Aug 15Liked by elizabeth nickson

Forgive my thoughtless vanity for not wishing you a happy birthday in my fruitless effort to be the smartest commenter in the room in my new paid subscriber comments. Sooo... HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELIZABETH!

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Aug 15Liked by elizabeth nickson

We are in the north central Texas area about 90 minutes north of Dallas. Luckily, we ended up rejecting the urge to move to someplace with waterfalls and great hiking. About 12 years we found 43 acres to buy at a reasonable price and set about building a log cabin ourselves. The land came with a native forest, year around live creek, lots of critters, ideal neighbors, gunfire about.

Here, we’d have to come up with something really awful to be restricted. We all have a burn pile now and then, just so it’s kept contained. We bow hunt deer, with a license, but control ourselves from bagging productive does. I could ‘mine’ my land for sandy loam but big trucks would ruin the setting and worse I couldn’t show my face at the local feed store. After passing the ‘perk’ test for septic we can do pretty much anything we want. Guess what? It works! Who would have known.

In this setting there are all sorts of situations of folks coming up with things to do. I busy myself with growing tomatoes and doing woodworking. A good bit of the woodwork is from our forest thanks to my chainsaw mill and bandsaw.

Compared to distressing stories like what Elizabeth describes, we’ve got it made here. We live like kings except some of us, like me, tend to be always broke.

So, as long as things stay this way, we’re good. But things change. Currently Dallas is coming here! Developments of various types have arrived from minuscule to suburb size. It’s not difficult to come up with a septic plan. How many of these newbies are seeking the homesteading lifestyle? I’d guess 2%.

Many years ago I grew 100 tomato plants. They came in. I had no idea what to do with wheelbarrow loads of toms. I started knocking on doors in new developments because hey there’s lots of doors all lined up! I sold exactly zero of my world class tomatoes. I switched to the ‘old’ part of town, the ones with 100 year old houses. Responses were “thanks for coming!” “Yes, those are beautiful!” “Will you be back next week?”

In a perfect world the new Dallas people arriving might consider growing a garden and having a few chickens first thing vs buying more stuff from wallyworld to put on their walls.

The new people are something we have to contend with. So be it. The truly distressing things are the 30x30 or is 20x20? plan to control land. THAT I’d like to learn more about and would go to meetings and maybe more. To not be in control of one’s own land is inconceivable. If anyone knows more about it please post it. Elizabeth posted something a months ago in south Texas but the links failed or something.

I gotta get to work.

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Aug 15Liked by elizabeth nickson

Why is "public" land owned by the government, and the land owned by the public is private land?

Because so-called "public" land is not really owned by the people. It is owned and controlled by the people in the government, who control us.

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Aug 15·edited Aug 15Liked by elizabeth nickson

First happy birthday Elizabeth.

I was glad to see you refer to the importance of that most basic law of economics, the supply/demand curve. It is one of the few things that all economists agree on, whether they are Austrians or Keynesians or anything in-between. And it is fundamental to understanding many of the issues facing us today.

I recently disagreed with a substack post arguing in favor of a much higher federal minimum wage law in the USA. While everyone would like more money, the fact is that no employer (except maybe the government) can afford to pay employees more than the value of their economic production. A quick way to instinctively see this is to ask, if a higher minimum wage is the solution, then why stop at say $20 an hour? Why not $100, or $500? People 'know' those numbers make no sense; what they fail to recognize is that ANY minimum wage law basically prices some unskilled labour out of the market. Without the ability to enter the workforce at the bottom, many of those folks will be denied the opportunity to become productive members of society, for which we all pay in the end.

The only way to fix 'broken' Western economies, here in North America or in Europe or Japan or anywhere, is to make major cuts to government spending. Which of course also gets the government out of things best left undone -- like all the 'environmental oversight' your piece laments. Just close those departments and let people work things out themselves! A clean environment is a luxury good -- something that people with their basic needs met will pay for voluntarily, and generally in ways that make more sense if done locally. As standards of living improve, the quality of the environment does so as well. Nobody is a better steward of a plot of land, than the person who owns it. Instead of centralizing control (if not outright ownership) of the land, find ways to get it into private hands. Homesteading worked back in the 1800s, how about a modern homesteading rule? Here's 160 acres (edit: sorry, 65 Ha), yours free and clear if you clear it and farm it for 10 years (you can of course keep a woodlot and other dedicated uses for a certain part of your land -- you don't need to turn every acre into ag land). Worth a try in my book.

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Aug 15Liked by elizabeth nickson

A musical gift for your B Day Elizabeth… goes best with too much fun😊

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dhdOPhTHeoE

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Aug 15Liked by elizabeth nickson

Happy Birthday. Thanks again for your work.

When travelling through the countryside I raise many little praises to the farmers and feel such gratitude that many are hanging in.

Ideology rules the day. The cities feel so uncomfortable. Trudeau is handing out money to build - the 'stack em and pack em' WEFFER 15 minute city, without citizen vote. Many cities have passed new zoning laws to allow up to 4 homes on single properties, regardless of the heritage or location and six-level buildings side to side along bus routes and bus feeder routes which will result in intense crowding.

School zones are reduced to 30 km speeds from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day, regardless of whether school is out.

Some streets are designated 30 km for bikers, who then feel obliged to ride in the center of the lane, and some do so regardless of the speed, forcing traffic to a crawl.

With the flood of immigrants, people walk all over the place, regardless of lights or walk signs. I know for a fact that many who do not yet have a driver's license drive anyway. On the prairies, this means mayhem, especially during our long, brutally cold winters.

The future? What's that?

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Aug 15Liked by elizabeth nickson

Happy Birthday, Elizabeth! Thanks for another highly educational post. The major issues are planted, and I’m on to learning the specifics with each read and re-read. Someday soon I hope to have enough knowledge to engage the fight. Thanks as always, and God Bless You. Peace

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Aug 15Liked by elizabeth nickson

happy birthday, beautiful one!

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Aug 15Liked by elizabeth nickson

As a matter of fact, I'll be traveling to the Olde Country in a few days and was wondering what to read during the ordeal of Air Travel these days - I've had How Nations Fail on the to-read stack for almost a year, and it's time to read Eco-Terrorists again, so that's covered now.

I'll be just across the Strait from you for a week - and as always will be thinking of you and wishing and praying for your health, happiness and prosperity.

So Happy Birthday, be well, watch your 6, and Don't Feed The Trolls!

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Aug 15Liked by elizabeth nickson

Happy Birthday! I would have guessed you are a Leo (insert lion roar here).

Please keep up the great work / writing and let me get to PayPal :)

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