The CN Calgary to Edmonton Main Line runs about 500 yards from my door so I get to see how many trains are going by and what's on them. I've noticed over the years that the amount of train traffic is a pretty interesting indicator of the Canadian economy.
Sometimes we saw the midway headed north from the Calgary Stampede. Aother time, we saw a lot of tank cars going by, carrying I assume petroleum products. That went on for quite a while but I don't see tank cars much if ever anymore.
Lately, in the past week or two, I'm seeing maybe twice the usual container trains going by, so I have to wonder what that means. We know the economy is not all that great.
My guess is that Canadian retailers stocked up to get ahead of the tariffs, so we'll probably see a bump in the economy reported, BUT it will be followed by a slowdown since future business will have been sucked forward into these few weeks.
I also wondered about the monetary system so I asked my new best friend for an opinion. https://www.perplexity.ai/search/what-is-in-the-wind-about-comi-jIgfSrDdRCqTPQUKOP1TzQ
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Ottawa Funded the China Ferry Deal—Then Pretended to Oppose It
While Beijing-backed hackers infiltrated Canadian telecoms, federal and B.C. leaders quietly financed a billion-dollar shipbuilding deal with a Chinese state firm—then tried to pass the buck.
https://theoppositionnewsnetwork.substack.com/p/ottawa-funded-the-china-ferry-dealthen
Some of these things I still miss
I grew up without safe spaces.
I grew up without trigger warnings.
I drank water from the hose.
I ate peanuts in class.
None of us wore a helmet.
Kids got hurt. We fell down. And we signed a lot of casts.
We couldn’t pause TV. We’d call out “It’s on!” as soon as the commercials started to end (for those who had left the room). And we watched our favourite shows as a family.
There was no next day delivery.
There was no bundle this with that.
There was no internet. Skip the Dishes didn’t exist.
Fast food was not the norm. It was easier to eat healthy. There were home phones. There was VH.........
