[Richard White]

Bell has unilaterally said they are 're-evaluating' the scope of the project because there are no longer enough potential customers in some areas, which I interpret as they have dinked around for so long that people have gone to other options like Starlink ($$$). Win/win for Bell since I'll betcha they aren't giving money back to the government.

As someone who has had proposals given to me by Bell to install fibre in condo buildings they can be both stubborn and hard to deal with. They tend to want exclusivity when they cannot get that, they leave.

My guess is that they were not getting the level of new business they wanted and abandoned the project.

 

[lenaitch]

As someone who has had proposals given to me by Bell to install fibre in condo buildings they can be both stubborn and hard to deal with. They tend to want exclusivity when they cannot get that, they leave.

My guess is that they were not getting the level of new business they wanted and abandoned the project.

Fair enough. Upfront infrastructure costs can be high, but when you given a bag of public money to install a service, and agree to the terms of receiving said bag of money, pure business decisions should become different. A big part of the problem lies with governments for not enforcing or auditing the terms they set out when doling out money.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Canada woos US H-1B visa holders: PM Carney says he will soon roll out an offer - The Times of India

Rest of World News: Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney announced plans to attract skilled foreign workers, particularly those to be impacted by the US's new $100,000 H-1

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

If I was Carney I'd be more worried about keeping talent in Canada, since with the changes to the H-1B Visa, if Silicon Valley can no longer easily bring in Indians and Chinese to do their high skilled tech work, they'll look to Canada's skilled workers who can be easily imported with a much simpler and cheaper TN Visa. If I'm a smart tech worker in India, I'd come to Canada on Carney's tech Visa program, get my Canadian citizenship, and then book it for the high income, low taxation USA under a TN Visa.

 

[Richard White]

Canada woos US H-1B visa holders: PM Carney says he will soon roll out an offer - The Times of India

Rest of World News: Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney announced plans to attract skilled foreign workers, particularly those to be impacted by the US's new $100,000 H-1

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

If I was Carney I'd be more worried about keeping talent in Canada, since with the changes to the H-1B Visa, if Silicon Valley can no longer easily bring in Indians and Chinese to do their high skilled tech work, they'll look to Canada's skilled workers who can be easily imported with a much simpler and cheaper TN Visa. If I'm a smart tech workers in India, I'd come to Canada on Carney's tech Visa program, get my Canadian citizenship, and then book it for the high income, low taxation USA under a TN Visa.

Here's the thing though.

Who would want to move to India or China for work?

 

[Admiral Beez]

Who would want to move to India or China for work?

To India or China? I don't get it.

 

[picard102]

If I'm a smart tech worker in India, I'd come to Canada on Carney's tech Visa program, get my Canadian citizenship, and then book it for the high income, low taxation USA under a TN Visa.

The US would be under a new administration (presumably) by the time you qualified for Canadian citizenship.

 

[Admiral Beez]

The US would be under a new administration (presumably) by the time you qualified for Canadian citizenship.

It is folly to assume that Trump is an aberration and that commonsense and compassion will return to the US governance once he's gone. This is the new America, and as Kamala said, we're not going back.

 

[Mihairokov]

The US would be under a new administration (presumably) by the time you qualified for Canadian citizenship.

There's no guarantee things get "better" post-Trump. He's a symptom.

 

[Richard White]

The only way things will get better in America is if the US is if the rest of the world turns their back on them.

If for some reason, Americans were required to have stricter Visa requirements to travel/study/work outside the US or if US facilities overseas were suddenly closed by the host countries you watch how fast their tunes changed.

If foreign economies start scrutinizing US financial transactions or those of US citizens... things would change.

 

[guavadelic]

The only way things will get better in America is if the US is if the rest of the world turns their back on them.

If for some reason, Americans were required to have stricter Visa requirements to travel/study/work outside the US or if US facilities overseas were suddenly closed by the host countries you watch how fast their tunes changed.

If foreign economies start scrutinizing US financial transactions or those of US citizens... things would change.

The Washington Post recently had an opinion column where they outlined how "American Exceptionalism" made them susceptible to this democratic backsliding. They might need to hit rock-bottom before they wake up.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/09/26/trump-ignore-rules-visas/

 

[Northern Light]

It is folly to assume that Trump is an aberration and that commonsense and compassion will return to the US governance once he's gone. This is the new America, and as Kamala said, we're not going back.

Agree with what you're saying......except for one thing......does the TN Visa survive?

 

[Northern Light]

The only way things will get better in America is if the US is if the rest of the world turns their back on them.

If for some reason, Americans were required to have stricter Visa requirements to travel/study/work outside the US or if US facilities overseas were suddenly closed by the host countries you watch how fast their tunes changed.

If foreign economies start scrutinizing US financial transactions or those of US citizens... things would change.

I can support the thrust here............but any one nation or region pulling this stunt against what is still the world's strongest economy (for now) is playing a very dangerous game. It would need to be a coordinated effort, between, at least, The E-U, Canada, Japan, South Korea and Mexico.

More would be better, but anything less would leave the U.S. far too many levers to pull.

 

[Richard White]

I can support the thrust here............but any one nation or region pulling this stunt against what is still the world's strongest economy (for now) is playing a very dangerous game. It would need to be a coordinate effort, between, at least, The E-U, Canada, Japan, South Korea and Mexico.

More would be better, but anything less would leave the U.S. far too many levers to pull.

Agreed but honestly, I can see that coming down the pipeline.

The US is one executive order away from dictatorship and only those outside the US see it coming. When I look at Trump and the current mechanations in the the US, I see shades of Nazi Germany.

I would not be surprised if we saw something similar to the burning of the Reichstag in the US to justify Trumps actions.

Yes it sounds extreme but then again....

 

[Northern Light]

The Washington Post recently had an opinion column where they outlined how "American Exceptionalism" made them susceptible to this democratic backsliding. They might need to hit rock-bottom before they wake up.

View attachment 684608
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/09/26/trump-ignore-rules-visas/

Its a decent piece, and American Exceptionalism is a problem in so many ways (hello country resisting Metric, and Celsius)

The thing to understand is, the U.S.. has never really suffered for its exceptionalism, and indeed, may well have benefited in many ways.

How many products are Americans denied access to because manufacturers/distributors won't put Imperial measures in the Instructions/Manual?

The answer is between very few and none, because no one wants to pass up on access to that market.

The U.S. Dollar remains the world's reserve currency and its only potential serious rival, in the near term, the Euro, has largely floundered, what would have made it work was Britain a full member and the
Pound Sterling merged into the Euro; but that didn't happen, and the near term prospect for same is fairly close to zero.

The U.S. had de facto control of the world trade and monetary regimes through the WTO, the World Bank and the IMF. Notwithstanding that, it routinely ignores rulings from the former that it dislikes and/or end runs same.

The advantages that accrue to the U.S. in the existing world order are not to be under estimated. They can be overcome, but not easily.

****

To come back to the exceptionalism issue. The U.S. political cleavage is reinforced by social media, and 'mainstream' media as well.

That cleavage leaves 1/2 the population, roughly, ignorant to how the rest of the world operates; while the left in the U.S., particularly at the national level, has been engaged in
culture war minutiae almost as much as the right, and unable to grow a bigger tent. Its also more nativist though than you would think/hope.

Change, if it comes, will either take ages, or be one hell of a miserable spectacle.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Its a decent piece, and American Exceptionalism is a problem in so many ways

It is amazing that a nation of 340 million people, where the top 1% controls 35% of its wealth, where over 65% of adults >25yrs have no postsecondary education, holds court over 8 billion.