I agree with everything you wrote. Except for who I'm going to vote for... if my current (Liberal) MP runs again, I will vote for her because I like her a lot and she helped me out in the past with some dealings with the government. This overrides my dislike of Trudeau.

If she doesn't run again, then I dunno... I don't like any of the choices. I'll probably vote Liberal anyway because in my riding, the NDP has no chance whatsoever.

The thing is, the Conservatives do have people on their side. They have a massive lead in the polls compared to the other parties. The only reason the Liberals are still in power is they have an agreement with the NDP. So I don't know why the Conservatives are resorting to such childish and ultimately pointless stunts.

I think that the Liberals and NDP should simply unite to form a single party on the left to counter the Conservatives. I cannot see it happening before the next election, but when (not if) the Liberals and the NDP are decimated in the election, I suspect they'll be a lot more open to the idea of a merger.

Maybe so, but I find it less of a nuclear attack than labeling someone as Democrat or Republican is in the US.

And 99% of people from both parties will be re-elected

Nah, probably not. I think the Liberals will lose hugely in the next election in Canada. And unfortunately, the Conservatives are likely to win big, despite their childish antics and silly slogans in place of policy.

Canada is not (yet) like the United States where party affiliation is seen as a core part of one's identity. We still have a somewhat higher percentage of the population willing to change who they vote for based on policy rather than identity. But unfortunately, we are following in the footsteps of the US. :(

I wouldn't recommend installing and configuring Linux for the typical user, but once it's set up, it's no harder to use than Windows, and frequently easier because it doesn't blue-screen, demand to rebooted, or feed you ads whenever the mood strikes.

My late Mom, who was not a computer person, used Linux (because it's all I'd support.) Ditto my somewhat-technical sister and my very non-technical brother-in-law. My brother-in-law does Zoom calls, email, web browsing and the occasional word-processing. Linux is perfect for that.

It's really hard to limit kids' access to social media. But if you want to curb it somewhat, and still want your kid to have a phone, get a dumb phone. Calling and texting... that's it. Enough for emergency situations, but not enough to access social media.

Of course, your kid may well be ridiculed by other kids, so there's that...

Honestly, I'm in favor of just banning social media as a health hazard. The harm it does far outweighs the good.

How is having a city in one big line a great idea? It's a monumentally dumb idea. Do you know any livable city on Earth where the furthest points are 170km apart? If you made it a square or a circle, you'd cover the same surface area with a much smaller maximum distance between two points in the city.

Wow, so the megaproject failed? Well, nobody saw that coming.

Except, of course, for everybody.

Uh... sexuality is a pretty basic thing you need to know about in life. Things like safe sex, contraception, consent... these are fundamental to a healthy life. And parents don't always teach them properly.

Religion, I agree, should not be taught ins chools. Leave that nonsense to the parents, should they choose to indoctrinate their kids.

In my city's public library system, anyone can request that the library purchase a particular book. AFAIK, these requests are pretty much always granted.

Although I live in Canada, which is often derided as less friendly to freedom of expression than the United States, I am proud that my city's library removed precisely zero of the materials that were challenged.

Is there nothing productive that you enjoy doing so much that you would do it for free?

Yes. There is. I maintain a number of open-source software packages.

But I do that for me, not for an employer. The minute someone else gets to dictate what work I should do, you'd better believe I'll only do it in return for payment.

However, separating your work from your personal onto two separate devices is very good for security and for privacy. IMO, it's worth it.

I'm retired now, but when I was working I had a simple fix for not mixing work and personal stuff on my phone: I didn't give my employer my cell phone number (I had a landline... they got that) and I didn't set up any work-related stuff on my phone.

That's a good thing, though. You shouldn't mix your work and personal devices.

Slashdot continues its April 1st tradition, I see...