#Closing Cost in Ontario

[jacksondom]

I Want to Sell My House Fast: 7 Effective Ways to Speed Up the Process

If you're in a hurry to sell your home, the process can feel overwhelming, whether it's because of a job move, downsizing, or unexpected life events. I want to sell my house fast, but I'm afraid to wait months or have countless showings. Fear not! There are efficient techniques to speed up the process without compromising its quality. Even in a competitive market, we'll walk you through seven tried-and-true methods in this blog post to help you sell your home quickly.

1. Set the Right Price from the Start

The secret to selling your home quickly is setting the right price. Buying at a discount can save costs, but buying at a premium can turn off potential buyers. Make sure your home is priced fairly and not too high. Check out the most recent deals in your area to get the best deal. If you want to sell your home quickly, you can learn a lot by talking to a local real estate agent. They can help you set a price that will maximize your chances of a successful sale by considering comparable homes in your neighbourhood as well as current market conditions.

2. Enhance Your Home’s Curb Appeal

When it comes to selling a home, first impressions are hugely important. The exterior of your home should look good when potential buyers arrive. Start by mowing the grass, planting some new flowers, and removing any trash. A clean driveway and a fresh coat of paint on the front door can make a big impact. When you're trying to decide how to sell your house fast, curb appeal is a great way to improve your chances. A well-kept exterior makes the home more appealing overall by giving buyers the impression that the interior is just as well-maintained.

3. Declutter and Stage Your Home

It's important to declutter each room because a cluttered home can make a space feel small and unwelcoming. To start, clear the area by getting rid of excess furniture and personal belongings. Think about arranging your home to show off its best features, setting up a neat and uncluttered space that lets potential buyers see the home's full potential. The goal is to create a setting that lets people buying the home see themselves living there comfortably, whether you decide to use your own furniture or hire a professional stager. This small action can have a significant impact in attracting the right clients.

4. Make Minor Repairs and Upgrades

Homes that require a lot of maintenance turn off many buyers. But taking care of small issues like peeling paint, cracked tiles or leaky faucets can make your home look better and more well-maintained. According to House Buyers Ontario, even small improvements like changing out light fixtures, updating cabinet hardware or adding a new backsplash can increase the overall appeal and value of the property without breaking the bank. These small changes can have a big impact in attracting new buyers.

5. Use High-Quality Photos in Your Listing

Since most home buyers these days begin their search online, it's important to have great, professional photos to make your listing stand out. Photos of each room that are clean and well-lit make it easier for potential buyers to see what's in your home. This can be especially important when listing a property like Power of Sell Homes Hamilton, where great photography can greatly influence interest. Investing in high-quality photos can make your listing stand out, whether you hire a professional real estate photographer or take your own pictures with a fancy camera.

6. Consider Selling to a Cash Buyer

If you're looking for a quick transaction, selling your house to a cash buyer can be a great option. Cash buyers, who are typically business people or investors, purchase homes quickly and don't require traditional financing, appraisals or inspections. The speed of the transaction is a significant advantage, even if you don't get the full market value for your home. Working with a cash buyer can help you complete the transaction in as little as a week or two, whether your goal is to buy house in Hamilton or you just need to sell quickly.

7. Be Flexible with Showings and Offers

The selling process can be sped up considerably by accommodating offers and showings. To fit the schedules of potential buyers, offer your home for viewings multiple times. Be prepared to negotiate terms or price if you receive multiple offers. You may be able to close the sale more quickly if you are more flexible. Working with buyers to meet their wishes can be a huge advantage if you are trying to sell quickly. Hamilton Buy House may be the best way for interested parties to find buyers who are willing to cooperate.

Bonus Tip: Work with a Skilled Real Estate Agent

One of the best strategies for selling your home quickly is to work with an expert real estate agent who is familiar with the local market. They offer practical advice on marketing, staging, and pricing to set your property apart. Additionally, they can help you get the best deal in the shortest amount of time due to their experience negotiating with buyers. If you are interested in the performance of Hamilton real estate, such as homes that have sold, an agent can provide you with the most recent trends and sales information to help you make a decision.

Conclusion

Selling your home quickly doesn't have to be difficult. You can speed up the process and enter your new chapter with ease by putting these seven practical strategies into practice. Presenting your home in the best possible light, setting a competitive price, and accommodating bids and showings are all essential to a quick and successful sale. These processes can help you sell your home quickly and for the best price, whether you want to sell to a cash buyer or deal with an Ontario real estate agent commission basis.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Ontario tabled a bill Monday that aims to shutter 10 supervised consumption sites the government deems too close to schools and daycares.

The bill, if passed by Premier Doug Ford's majority Progressive Conservative government, would also require municipalities to get the health minister's approval to apply for an exemption from the federal government to launch new supervised consumption sites.

Health Minister Sylvia Jones said there is no situation in which she would approve a new one anywhere in the province.

"I want to be very clear, there will be no further safe injection sites in the province of Ontario under our government," Jones said at a news conference about the bill. [...]

Ontario is shifting away from harm reduction to an abstinence-based model and it intends to launch 19 new "homelessness and addiction recovery treatment hubs" — or HART hubs, as the province calls them — plus 375 highly supportive housing units at a planned cost of $378 million.

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @newsfromstolenland, @vague-humanoid

[ana-bananya]

Support the Hammad family

Moin

$20,420/$30,000

#752 on Operation Olive Branch's masterlist

Moin's instagram

Moin's campaign is supporting himself, his parents, his two sisters, and his baby nephew. Many members of his family are also suffering from health complications, including his mother who has a heart condition and his sister who is suffering from complications with her heart and liver. Moin himself is still recovering from a wounded leg.

Most of what the Hammad family's campaign has raised so far has been used to purchase items essential for survival. The funds that come in are quickly depleted because of the high inflation in Gaza. Moin and his family urgently need help so they can continue to afford supplies and be ready to evacuate at the next opportunity when the borders reopen. Please donate through either gofundme or paypal.

Kholoud Hammad and family

$3,660/$38,500 CAD

Kholod's instagram

Kholod is Moin's sister. She has a separate gfm to help cover the needs of her, her husband, and their son, Muhammed. The funds will be used to afford necessities, including diapers and baby formula for Muhammed, and save for their evacuation costs.

Haitham

£31,843/£70,000

#28 on Operation Olive Branch's masterlist

Haitham's instagram

The funds from Haitham's campaign will be used to help support his family and help him seek treatment for his dislocated shoulder and torn nerves.

Banan

$100/$10,000

#184 on Operation Olive Branch's masterlist

Banan's instagram

Banan was able to evacuate to Egypt, where he is seeking treatment for his injured foot. The treatments needed to correct his injury are expensive and on top of that he also has rent and groceries to pay for. What money is left over from his medical bills and living expenses will be used to support the rest of his family in Gaza.

Banan's gfm account was closed, so he is now using paypal.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jennifer Rubin at The Contrarian:

After two days of watching the markets tank, President in Name Only Donald Trump’s lackeys began to talk about a “compromise” on his wrongheaded, disastrous rollout of steep across-the-board tariffs on goods from Mexico, Canada, and China. This is a common Trump stunt: Make a boneheaded move, watch the fierce blowback, make a meaningless deal, and declare victory. In this case, the “compromise” appears to include a one-month reprieve from tariffs for automakers. However, after the one-month pause, those tariffs apparently will go into effect. No such relief was offered for other goods. Whatever wiggle room Trump provides, the damage is done. Markets, businesses, and consumers are rattled. (Even Trump acknowledged during his congressional rant that tariffs would require a “little adjustment.” I trust that may be code for “inflation plus job losses.”) In sum, Trump’s economic imbecility and on-again-off-again tariff scheme risks job losses and higher inflation. And he may have irreparably harmed relations with our closest neighbors. It is not hard to see why Trump should look for an out. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reiterated that “there is absolutely no justification or need whatsoever for these tariffs.” The excuse that Canada has not stopped the flow of illegal fentanyl is “totally false.” He stressed that this was all Trump’s doing. He even taunted him. “Now, it’s not in my habit to agree with the Wall Street Journal,” he said. “But Donald, they point out that even though you’re a very smart guy, this is a very dumb thing to do.” (One can seriously question the former; the latter is objectively true.) In fact, the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board citing the tariffs the “dumbest in history” may have been an understatement. The board went on: “Mr. Trump is whacking friends, not adversaries. His taxes will hit every cross-border transaction, and the North American vehicle market is so interconnected that some cars cross a border as many as eight times as they’re assembled.”

In addition to Trudeau, Ontario Premier Doug Ford (in multiple TV appearances) went right over his head to the American people, American businesses, and Americans who possess any degree of economic literacy. “Canadians love Americans. We love the U.S. It’s one person that’s causing these problems… It’s not you, it’s your president that’s causing this problem,” he explained on Tuesday. In direct, respectful language he explained how dumb the tariffs truly are—for both countries. “The market is going to go downhill faster than the American bobsled team. And we’re going to continue seeing in the U.S. plants closing, assembly lines shut down,” he said. All of this is “unnecessary,” he said. All Canada can do is “retaliate.” (Almost comically, he then apologized to the American people.) Ford also made clear how utterly isolated Trump is on the issue. “I’ve talked to Senators and Congresspeople and governors, Republicans and Democrats, not one of them agree with him,” he said. He added, “President Trump ran on a mandate to lower costs, to create more jobs. This is going to do exactly the opposite.”

Meanwhile, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum at her Tuesday press conference blasted Trump. “We don’t want to enter into a trade war,” she said. “That only affects the people.” She also made crystal-clear that any border issues are a pretext for Trump’s tariff war.

[...] Thanks to Trump’s thick-headedness and ignorance, American consumers, businesses, and workers will all face unnecessary pain. Sadly, Canadian and Mexican leaders have a far better grip on what benefits the American people than does Trump or his sniveling MAGA allies. Democratic leaders have an opportunity to defend our workers, consumers, and investors. They must seize it.

Love this excellent column from Jennifer Rubin on how Trump is clueless on the economy, unlike Trudeau (CAN) and Sheinbaum (MEX).

[mariacallous]

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has already waded into his future trade wars before taking office. His proposal of a steep import tax on all products from the country’s top trade partners gives a preview of exactly how his zero-sum approach to economics could quickly become zero-benefit for businesses and consumers.

Trump, who vowed during his campaign to slap tariffs on everything that moved, said on Nov. 25 that he would, on his first day in office, put a 25 percent duty on all imports from Canada and Mexico—the United States’ two biggest trade partners, all bound together by a trilateral, tariff-free trade deal that Trump himself wrote. For good measure, Trump also threatened a 10 percent tax on all imports from China. His demand was for those countries to take immediate steps to curtail U.S.-bound deliveries of drugs and migrants.

The response, at least from the country most directly targeted, was pointed: Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum told Trump in a letter, “Migration and drug consumption in the United States cannot be addressed through threats or tariffs,” and vowed the same kind of retaliation that the European Union and China have already promised if Trump makes good on his threats. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reportedly spoke with Trump sometime after he posted his statement online; Ontario Premier Doug Ford compared the threat to “a family member stabbing you in the heart.”

There are two ways to consider Trump’s latest threats of tariffs, trade wars, and economic friction. The president-elect’s backers view his threat of tariffs as a clever way to force China, Canada, and Mexico to come to grips with two things he considers primordial: drugs and immigration. Those folks believe that Trump will not have to implement the tariffs because those countries will somehow overhaul their vigilance and enforcement of two of the thorniest questions in cross-border relations. 

Alternatively, given that Trump has called tariff the “most beautiful word,” he could actually do what he just said he was going to do, as he has done in the past. Given that the combined trade of the United States with those three countries is around $2.5 trillion a year, with a lot of interconnected supply chains and a deep, decades-old interdependence that could not be jury-rigged on the fly, such a move would be economically devastating. 

Prices in the United States—Trump ran in part on fixing the problem of that runaway 2.5 percent inflation—will go up, because whether it is Canadian lumber, Canadian oil, Mexican produce, or perhaps most importantly, all of the many components that go into making a car or a light truck, all of it would cost more than it did before.

The charitable view of Trump’s tariff threat is that it is just silly and would be ineffective, as his previous four years of hectoring China over trade matters and fentanyl achieved very little. The uncharitable view is that it would be silly and catastrophic.

Mexico is the biggest source of U.S. agricultural imports and a big outlet for U.S. exports, as well. The problems with a neighborly trade war are many, and they hit close to home.

“The idea that we are going to have a guacamole tax on day one, right before the Super Bowl, is nonsensical,” said Scott Lincicome, a trade expert at the Cato Institute in Washington.

The first problem for Trump to do what he said he would do is that the United States, Canada, and Mexico have one of the world’s biggest free-trade agreements, the USMCA, or NAFTA 2.0, that Trump himself undertook and which went into effect in 2020. 

The proposed tariffs are “definitely a violation of the basic USMCA commitment to charge zero tariffs,” said Simon Lester, a trade lawyer who worked on NAFTA and USMCA issues for years. Trump could invoke the national security exception in the agreement, as he did years ago, to raise taxes on imported steel and aluminum, but that would just trigger a dispute settlement process, which would take longer to play out than the inevitable Mexican and Canadian retaliation would, Lester said.

There are problems even with using that national security exception: It would require an iron-clad executive order, potentially publishing notices in the federal register, and maybe a declaration of a national economic emergency. Social media posts are not policy.

“On the procedural issues, there are so many hurdles and gray areas,” Lincicome said. “I don’t expect those tariffs to be implemented.”

Regardless of the more mainstream names picked for key positions in Trump’s economic braintrust, such as hedge fund manager Scott Bessent to run the Treasury Department, many in Washington don’t think that will be a check on Trump’s anti-trade tendencies.

“Trump loves tariffs, and there will be tariff threats and maybe even tariffs,” Lester said.

The stock market seemed to take the tariff threats with a grain of salt: The Dow Jones industrial average, the blue-chip index, barely wobbled. The U.S. dollar hardly gained against either the Chinese renminbi or the Canadian loonie; the Mexican peso’s slippage against the dollar could be for any number of reasons.

But, given that Trump did campaign on the explicit promise to raise taxes and impede trade, what if they’re wrong? 

One of the biggest threats to the economies of the United States, Canada, and Mexico would come in the automotive sector. The original NAFTA, by breaking down trade barriers among the three North American countries, set the stage for an integrated auto industry where bits of a car or truck are made thousands of miles apart. This is big business: Automaking accounts for about 11 percent of all U.S. manufacturing and 5 percent of all U.S. private sector jobs, not even counting all the corollary and related jobs the sector provides. 

Trump’s revised USMCA made the relationship between the automotive sector and regional trade even clearer, especially by mandating that roughly 75 percent of all cars and trucks be sourced locally. One way to avoid the cost of tariffs, if they are implemented, is to source goods from elsewhere. That is not an option for autos. 

Trump’s trade policies are now going full circle. Manufacturers cannot get cheaper inputs from anywhere else, lest they fall afoul of Trump’s USMCA, but would have to pay more for everything because of his tariffs.

Similar stories could abound in agriculture, textiles, and even the construction industry. One of the big advantages of the USMCA, for example, was greater U.S. access to the Canadian market for agricultural products: What would be first on the list of Canadian retaliation?

Trump’s threatened tariffs would be economic insanity, which is probably why his surrogates present the very specter of tariffs as gamesmanship, and not a real blueprint. The fear, and it’s genuine one, is that tariffs just like those are exactly the blueprint Trump ran and won on. The worst-case scenario could become the default setting.

[kilov3books]

Canada's Super Bowl LIX commercial Warning to Americans:

Lights Out, Jobs Gone, and how Canada can easily Cripple America Overnight

By: Ki Lov3 Feb 10, 2025 (c)

During Super Bowl LIX, millions of Americans sat glued to their screens, expecting to see the usual mix of beer commercials and blockbuster movie trailers. Instead, they were met with a chilling message from Canada.

The ad, titled "Your Ally to the North," wasn’t selling a product. It wasn’t promoting tourism. It was a not-so-subtle reminder that Canada holds the keys to something Americans take for granted every single day—electricity and jobs.

Canada’s Hidden Power Over the U.S. Grid

Most Americans don’t realize just how dependent their country is on Canada for electricity and employment. Right now, 37 major transmission lines connect the U.S. and Canada, forming an integrated power grid that allows electricity to flow freely across the border. From New England to the Midwest, millions of homes, businesses, and even critical infrastructure rely on Canadian power.

And if Canada flipped the switch? Major cities would go dark. Hospitals, factories, airports—crippled. The economy? Devastated.

But the real disaster wouldn’t just be in blackouts—it would be in job losses. The American manufacturing industry is powered by cheap, reliable Canadian electricity, allowing factories to stay open and millions of workers to stay employed. Without that power, those jobs vanish overnight.

Why Would Canada Drop This Bombshell Now?

It’s no coincidence that Ontario spent a staggering $8 million on a 30-second spot during America’s biggest game of the year. The timing is crucial.

Recent U.S. policies are exerting pressure on Canada as tensions over trade disputes, tariffs, and political instability increase. The target audience for this advertisement was not Washington politicians. It was a stark warning to the American people that if trade ties worsen further, it would be common Americans who suffer, not politicians.

The subtext was crystal clear: "If you want to keep the lights on and keep your jobs, you better treat us right."

Who Is Actually Stealing American Jobs?

Trump's Hypocrisy. President Trump has been telling Americans for years that jobs are being taken by unauthorized immigrants. He isn't telling you, though, that his own policies are endangering millions of American jobs. Trump is doing precisely what he claims immigrants do: taking employment from Americans, by undermining a century-old U.S.-Canada power agreement that has sustained the American economy.

There will be more than simply higher electricity costs if Canada reduces its power exports. It means American manufacturers will come to a standstill, workers will be laid off, and entire industries would close.

There will be millions of job losses. So, consider this: Who is the true danger to American employment? Is Trump blaming the immigrants or himself?

What If the U.S. Tries to Take Control? 🪖🇺🇲

What if the U.S. government, under pressure from blackouts and public outrage, forcibly seized Canadian power stations?

It sounds like a dystopian nightmare, but in a world where economic warfare is becoming more common, it’s not unthinkable. If an administration were to take such an extreme measure, it would lead to:

🌎International Chaos – A blatant act of aggression against a longtime ally, sparking diplomatic crises, economic retaliation, and possibly even military consequences.

🔌Grid Collapse – The U.S. power grid isn’t designed to suddenly replace massive amounts of lost electricity. A Canadian energy embargo could take years to fix, leaving parts of America in permanent energy shortages.

💲Skyrocketing Prices – Even a brief disruption in power imports could send electricity costs through the roof, crippling industries and draining Americans’ wallets.

This Wasn’t Just an Ad—It Was a warning ⚠️

Canada’s "Your Ally to the North" campaign was anything but friendly. It was a strategic reminder of a truth most Americans don’t think about: our lights, our jobs, and our way of life are more dependent on Canada than we ever realized.

With tensions rising, it’s time for Americans to ask a hard question:

What happens if the north decides we’re no longer worth helping?

The answer?

You might want to:

✅start buying candles🕯️

✅looking for a new job 💼

✅Shop for new country &/or president 🇺🇲

[alicenpai]

idk if this is a dumb question or not, but how do you calculate shipping for pre-orders? ive searched around but nothing has given me a clear answer and i was hoping you might have some info? (im canadian btw, jic thats helpful info lol)

hiya! basically you just weigh the item and go to your shipping courier's website (e.g. im assuming most likely canada post, there are also places like stallion express and chitchats within canada) and you're aiming to find 3 basic rates: - domestic* - USA - international** within USA is easy since it's all one rate (i'm in toronto, for example if you're sending something as close as NYC, compared to cali, or hawaii, the shipping rate isn't that much different in my experience, maybe just a few cents) *within canada if you've ever sent mail, it depends based on distance, as you probably know. so id divide it up based on region and find a general rate for those (e.g. ontario, quebec, maritimes, northwest territories, prairies, BC) my rule of thumb is like, my home province is my "base" rate, and every other region would be like a few dollars more, places like the north where shipping might not be as accessible will be the highest unfortunately **internationally it depends on the country, and obviously it's impossible to generate a rate for all the countries in the world HAHA. i find UK the cheapest intl area to send mail to, and id price it around the same as other provinces in canada. generally it is still okay to send stuff to the EU and UK, none of my customers have had tariff complaints (and if you did im sorry :( i cannot control em...) places like australia and south east asia i find unusually high. with intl you also want to check if canada will even send mail there in the first place, mail might not get delivered to some countries/areas, especially if there are intl conflicts unfortunately, or remote areas. how to find shipping costs in the first place? well firstly you need an address.. and to find addresses? you can look up postal codes by area (this is public info) and plug that in, some websites won't work without a full address however. this is a really funny way to generate an address but ill like. find the city hall address or like, the address of a public building and plug that in.. and voila you get a general shipping cost for an area. it's weird but it works... there's also a canadian con discord channel that you can join and you might find useful! hope that helps!

[darkmaga-returns]

by Nicolas Hulscher, MPH

A new study by Chaufan et al titled, “It isn’t about health, and it sure doesn’t care”: a qualitative exploration of healthcare workers’ lived experience of the policy of vaccination mandates in Ontario, Canada, was just published in the Journal of Public Health and Emergency:

Background: When coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines became available, healthcare workers (HCWs) were prioritized for vaccination. Despite controversy, vaccine mandates were implemented in most healthcare settings across Canada, with many still in effect. Many studies have examined the perceived problem of vaccine hesitancy within the healthcare labour force. However, few have investigated the lived experience of mandated vaccination from the perspective of HCWs themselves. In this study, we examine this experience in a purposive sample of HCWs in the province of Ontario, including their decision-making processes, the mandates’ impact on their lives and livelihoods, and their views on the effects of mandates on patient care. The study is part of a mixed methods study reassessing the COVID-19 policy response in Canada. Methods: We performed a reflexive thematic analysis of qualitative data of responses to one open ended question and open-ended entries to closed questions, offered by 245 HCWs in a published survey of a purposive sample of 468 HCWs in Ontario, of diverse vaccination status, professions, ages, socioeconomic status, races/ethnicities, and genders. Respondents were recruited through snowball sampling via social media and professional networks of the research team.

[lostinhistory]

Hyperpartisan and misleading content from popular right-wing pages such as Canada Proud is thriving on Facebook as the election nears.

By Matina Stevis-Gridneff and Stuart A. Thompson

Matina Stevis-Gridneff reported from Toronto, and Stuart A. Thompson from Hamilton, Ontario.

April 21, 2025Updated 3:38 p.m. ET

Mark Carney was just days away from announcing his bid to lead Canada’s Liberal Party in January when his face popped up on a viral right-wing Facebook page.

Two photographs showed Mr. Carney, who became prime minister last month, at a garden party beside Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted sex trafficker and former confidante of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. There was no evidence that Mr. Carney and Ms. Maxwell were close friends, and his team dismissed the pictures as a fleeting social interaction from more than a decade ago.

But they were perfect fodder for Canada Proud, a right-wing Facebook page with more than 620,000 followers. For days, Canada Proud posted about the images, including in paid ads that repeatedly said Mr. Carney had been “hanging out with sex traffickers.”

This type of online content — hyperpartisan and often veering into misinformation — has become a staple in the Facebook and Instagram feeds of Canadians as the country heads toward a crucial federal election on April 28. While such posts have become familiar in political campaigns everywhere, the content is especially prominent in Canada during its first-in-the-world, long-term news ban on Facebook and Instagram.

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, blocked news from its apps in Canada in 2023 after a new law required the social media giant to pay Canadian news publishers a tax for publishing their content. The ban applies to all news outlets irrespective of origin, including The New York Times.

Amid the news void, Canada Proud and dozens of other partisan pages are rising in popularity on Facebook and Instagram before the election. At the same time, cryptocurrency scams and ads that mimic legitimate news sources have proliferated on the platforms. Yet few voters are aware of this shift, with research showing that only one in five Canadians knows that news has been blocked on Facebook and Instagram feeds.

The result is a “continued spiral” for Canada’s online ecosystem toward disinformation and division, said Aengus Bridgman, director of the Media Ecosystem Observatory, a Canadian project that has studied social media during the election.

Meta’s decision has left Canadians “more vulnerable to generative A.I., fake news websites and less likely to encounter ideas and facts that challenge their worldviews,” Dr. Bridgman added.

In a statement, a Meta spokesman said the company had been “forced to make the difficult business decision to end the availability of news to comply with the law.” That could change if the law is reversed, he said. Paying publishers would most likely cost Meta, which generated $164.5 billion in revenue last year, 62 million Canadian dollars a year, or about $44 million.

Canada Proud, which is now one of the most popular political Facebook pages in Canada and has more followers than the country’s major parties, has emerged as a particularly potent weapon aimed at the Liberal Party and Mr. Carney.

Since Mr. Carney called last month for a snap election, Canada Proud has averaged nearly 200,000 engagements a day, rivaling the engagements of official Facebook accounts for the major political party leaders, according to an analysis by The Times. Since January, Canada Proud has had more than nine million engagements on its posts and its videos have been viewed nearly 60 million times, the analysis found.

Canada Proud often posts news updates, citing mainstream news sources that are barred from sharing their content on Facebook. But the posts sometime add misleading details not found in the original reports, according to a review by The Times.

One of its posts this month said Mr. Carney had suspended his campaign because of “connections with China” and cited a major Canadian news outlet, Global News, as its source. But the Global News article did not mention connections to China. Mr. Carney had instead paused campaigning to return to Ottawa, the capital, to deal with tariffs imposed on Canada by President Trump.

“Canada Proud has been very successful,” Dr. Bridgman of the Media Ecosystem Observatory said. Social media, he added, has “shifted to the right and continues to do so.”

Canada Proud, which describes itself as a “grass-roots group of Canadians” concerned about the country’s direction, is run by Mobilize Media Group, a public affairs firm that has worked for Conservative Party candidates. The group was founded by Jeff Ballingall, a conservative political operative who has made waves in federal and provincial elections in Canada since he established Mobilize Media in 2016.

Canada Proud, which also has hundreds of thousands of followers on X and TikTok, does not disclose its funding sources. It accepts donations and sells merchandise.

Mr. Ballingall said that Canada Proud’s posts “speak for themselves, and we encourage people to watch and read all our content before rushing to judgment.” Canada Proud’s prominence in the election was reported earlier by The Logic.

Mr. Ballingall said that some traditional Canadian media should be held accountable, because the tax on Meta went into effect partly as a result of their lobbying the Trudeau government. “I’m a strong believer in traditional media, and Canada Proud is not trying to replicate that. There should be tons of different voices,” Mr. Ballingall said. “What we have now is this weird zombie ecosystem in Canada.”

Canada Proud has also bought more than $250,000 in ads on Facebook and Instagram since January, according to Facebook’s ad tracker, making it the 15th-biggest ad spender in Canada during that period.

One ad, published last month on Facebook and Instagram, included the photo of Mr. Carney with Ms. Maxwell. It was seen more than 100,000 times.

Dozens of political ads from other sources with content generated by artificial intelligence have also flooded Canadians’ Facebook feeds in recent weeks. The ads often masquerade as news articles from legitimate sources but link to fake websites that resemble mainstream publishers like the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.

Among some of the A.I.-generated content about political events that did not occur are plugs for cryptocurrency schemes.

The sites have exploited Mr. Trump’s trade war, which rattled Canadians and opened the door for marketers to push false investment products with a timely peg. In March, a securities commission in Canada issued a warning that the news site mimicry gave “their schemes the appearance of legitimacy.”

Canadian media have responded to the news ban on Facebook and Instagram by focusing on other platforms, mostly TikTok. A study last year by the Media Ecosystem Observatory found that after one year, engagement on social media with Canadian news outlets had fallen by about half.

Kenny Yum, the senior director of innovation and partnerships at CBC News, said his organization did not need Facebook to reach Canadians.

“They’re long in the rearview mirror for many of us in the Canadian industry,” he said. “They made themselves a non-news platform.”

[geezerwench]

Upstate NY farmer shocked by Trump tariffs, mistakenly thought Canada would pay

An Upstate New York farmer is reeling from the increased cost of business amid President Donald Trump’s trade war with multiple countries.

Nicholas Gilbert, who tends 1,400 cows at his dairy farm in Potsdam, close to the Canada border, told The Atlantic that a recent order of livestock feed cost him $2,200 extra due to tariffs. The feed came from Ontario, and he mistakenly believed his supplier at the Canadian mill would cover the difference.

“I’m not even sure it’s legal! We contracted for the price on delivery,” he told the magazine. “If your price of fuel goes up or your truck breaks down, that’s not my problem! That’s what the contract’s for.”

But the tariff was not only legal, it’s his responsibility to pay it. Tariffs are paid by domestic importers, not foreign exporters, despite Trump’s frequent claims otherwise.

And according to The Atlantic, Adon Farms is doubly stuck with the added cost because the price of the milk Gilbert sells is set by a local co-op and there are no U.S. suppliers nearby. Buying feed somewhere else would be more expensive, he said.

[dailyanarchistposts]

Disturbances & Revolutions

[A] disturbance is a change in environmental conditions that causes a pronounced change in an ecosystem… Deciding what counts as a disturbance is always a matter of point of view.[4]

My friends have started playing with

the word revolution again; not “the rev” [ed. – i.e. singular; see 'Not Fighting the Same Fight'], but revolutions and revolutionary change. We try it on to see how it feels. Words are hard, definitions are hard. Revolutions disturb the worlds that make up our lives. But, what counts as a disturbance? What is a pronounced change? When is that change something we want? What is the difference between change and harm? What are revolutions? Maybe there are only moments when things speed up and change happens faster. It is hard to find a strategy because the destination is unclear. What are our goals? Who are we, anyways? We search for new orientations, new possibilities.

The idea of permanent conflictuality has become a joke or a trope. Maybe we should say permanent engagement. There still isn’t a utopia or an end. It’s going to look like constantly engaging with what’s going on around us.[5]

Not a utopia, but a direction, a horizon.

According to Stephanie Phillips, “the [Saint Lawrence] Seaway had been the long-standing dream of both Canada and the U.S. as a means of improving shipping on the St. Lawrence and of exploiting the river’s potential for hydroelectric power.”[6] It was dug out to carry grains grown in the Midwest US to markets in Europe. “The need for cheap haulage of Quebec –Labrador iron ore was one of the arguments that finally swung the balance in favor of the seaway.”[7] The Seaway as a hydro-electric power project, involved creating a dam that flooded about 49,000 acres of land.[8] The project was finished in 1959.

This is a story about the Seaway. It is part of many overlapping stories. Stories of displacement, dispossession and disturbance. The story of the Seaway includes the story of the people in the community of Kahnawá:ke who had 1,262 acres of land stolen and whose access to the river was cut off when the Seaway was dug out.[9] “The construction of the Seaway was an attack on the community’s land base and resources, its political autonomy, and its way of life.”[10] Ahkwesáhsne had 130 acres of land stolen.[11] In total, about 11,000 people were displaced by the Seaway. Humans, animals, and biological ecosystems were altered forever.

This is an international story that crosses U.S.-Canadian lines; an inter-provincial story as it affected both Ontario and Quebec, and a story of the abrogation of long-standing treaties with the Mohawks of Akwesasne and Kahnawake. The story began late in the nineteenth century, heated up considerably throughout the early part of the twentieth, and became a defense imperative for both Canada and the U.S. during World War II. It is a story of political alignments and realignments, big business lobbies, grassroots social protest, community loss, and environmental change in rewriting the landscape of the St. Lawrence River.[12]

The story of the Seaway includes the stories of the canals that closed when it opened. It is the stories of the neighbourhoods around the closed canals that experienced economic shifts and population changes. It is the stories of the 22,000 people employed between 1954 and 1959 to work on “one of the largest civil engineering feats ever undertaken.”[13] It is the stories of the 200 odd employees for the Seaway Corporation who almost went on strike in 2014 over proposed automation of the lock system and fear that it would put them out of work completely.

The Seaway drastically changed the landscape between Montreal and Lake Erie. New canals were dug out, new locks installed. New islands made from the dug up river bed appeared. Whole villages ended up underwater. Called a great water highway, the Seaway is an infrastructure project that cost tens of billions of dollars. The Seaway both is and is not the river. You can’t swim in the water. There are signs warning people to not get too close to the locks. You can’t fish in the Seaway. “There are many unseen dangers in and around seaway channels.”[14]

What kind of river will the Saint Lawrence become when the Seaway ceases to be profitable? What futures are possible in the deeper waters and new locks that run from the ocean all the way into the Great Lakes? This project has permanently altered a landscape and everything that moves through it. How can we find the “life promoting patches” that persist in the aftermath of a colonialist and capitalist project, a disturbance like the Seaway?[15]

There is a vacant lot in a city near the Seaway. A vacant lot in a “revitalizing post-industrial neighbourhood.” Revitalized is the word for “there is capital moving through there again.” The abandoned factories have become art studios and tech start ups and condos. This vacant lot persists. The lot is covered in mugwort plants. It's the summer of 2011 and there is a crowd of people coming. You and I dart out in front of the crowd, carrying a big banner. We scurry up to a huge wooden advertisement for brand new condos and spend ten minutes trying to figure out how to drape the banner over the billboard. We succeed, only no one can read the banner because it won’t hang cleanly, but no one can read the billboard anymore either – a small act against gentrification.

Two days later I go back to the lot. I bask in the sunshine and pick a few mugwort plants. The banner is still there, flapping on the front of the billboard. I head home to stuff the mugwort into jars filled with cheap vodka. To let them sit in my cupboard for the rest of the summer until they become tinctures. The banner stayed up for months.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Hamilton, Ont., is close to introducing a first-of-its-kind renoviction bylaw in the province that will force landlords to obtain licences to legitimize repairs they make to their properties. The new legislation, carried 13-0-2 in a committee vote Wednesday, forces property owners to apply for a special permit for their rental addresses at a cost of around $700 when seeking a provincial N-13 notice — ending a tenancy due to a desire to demolish, repair or convert a rental unit. University of Waterloo professor Brian Doucet, who studied housing insecurity and recorded findings in the Hamilton Neighbourhood Change Research Project, characterizes the bylaw as a movement that will be “blazing a trail that others in Ontario will soon follow.”

Continue Reading

Tagging @politicsofcanada

[spentgladiator]

I don't know how many of you have had the privilege of having to shop for a used car in the last four years or so but let me tell you if you haven't yet, do everything you can to avoid it. What was once an exciting adventure has turned into the most nightmarish process I have ever undergone and I've had multiple colonoscopies, an abortion with complications, and dated an abusive, cringeworthy manchild for entirely too long.

This is worse.

Our particular constraints are this: nothing more than we can afford to buy outright. This is because you save a ton on insurance when you buy outright because they only have to insure the value of the vehicle, not the loan on the vehicle. These savings add up over the time you own the vehicle. Being in southern Ontario, our rates are some of the highest in Canada. By a wide margin. It's also because we are very, VERY debt-averse, which more people could stand to be imo.

This puts us square in the 2009-2015 range of used cars. Technically we could buy older but. We live in the Rust belt.

To circumvent this rust belting, our first instinct was to exploit a loophole in Alberta's insurance which is that a vehicle is technically considered road-worthy if insurance coverage has not been broken up to the point of sale, and purchase at an auction there and take our chances.

Three rounds of auctions later and we were outbid every time. There's only so much you should be willing to put up cash wise sight unseen and auction beaters used to be a very valid means of procurement. No longer it would appear. This was two weeks or so of looking.

So we switched out to local listings. Local auctions are mostly dealer-only so that way has been closed off to us, but honestly with how expensive auction beaters are now we're better off buying off a lot with a safety cert.

Cue three days of searching. Multiple bookmarked listings. And days of me scouring every single thread learning every single piece of info about the used car market out there.

Here is the process. You cannot skip any steps in this process under any circumstances. Never EVER skip one of these steps. Buying a used car is a huge headache and involves some SERIOUS legwork but that legwork will save you thousands of dollars in the long run and you will thank yourself.

So. Step one is to cold-call a lot. Don't book appointments to test drive, it prevents shady dealerships from clearing codes on cars before you arrive, making last minute changes, prettying them up etc.

Just show up, and start asking to look around.

This is Ontario specific but you're looking for CPO or at the very least safetied with some kind of warranty.

So the steps are.

Step 0. Find a car you like the dealership will sell CPO or safetied. Never EVER buy a car as-is. The difference in price between certified and as-is is in the THOUSANDS which means the dealership is willing to lose thousands by not having it safetied meaning it will cost AT LEAST THAT MUCH to pass inspection!!! Run don't walk away!!! You're gonna get screwed!!

1. This is the where the "fun" begins. This is your due diligence so you don't get ripped off or stuck with a money pit. Google "car make/model/year/Reddit" read at least 3 threads to completion. They will tell you common problems, pitfalls, mileages when it usually gives out, etc. decide if it's worth it. This is how I stopped us from getting stuck in an otherwise beautiful car that has class-action-lawsuit bad issues. Car Reddit is your new best friend.

Step 2. Get on your belly and look under the car. We live in the rust belt. Familiarize yourself with what rust looks like at different stages and what leaks look like. Also familiarize yourself with what oil spray OVER rust looks like. I saved us from a big mistake with that one. We live in the rust belt. Shady sellers will oil coat their rust buckets and say they were sprayed every year and that's a huge lie. Don't fall for it.

Step 3. Only get to this step if step 1 & 2 satisfy you. Start the car. Pop the hood, listen for anything that sounds out of time, it should be a consistent rhythm, no squeaking or inconsistent pops or shudders. It should start easily and smoothly. Sniff around for really notable exhaust fumes, smoking or burning.

Step 4. The actual test drive. This is very important, run the car with the window down, listen for any noise from the wheel wells (it helps if you have someone else with you to listen from the passenger side) make sure all your windows work, radio, AC, heat, watch the temperature gauge, feel how it shifts if it's an automatic, should not shudder between gears (when you speed up and slow down should go smoothly). Find a way to get it up to highway speed. Ideally not ON a highway, but get it up to 90-100km/hr. This will tell you what the engine really sounds like and if it's throwing a code (that's car talk for the onboard computer senses an error or problem) will probably make it show up even if the dealer already cleared it. That will tell you if the dealer is hiding issues. Out of the vehicles we have looked at, we are at something like 10:1 for vehicles looked at to test driven. We live in the rust belt.

IF FOR SOME REASON YOUR DEALER WONT LET YOU TEST DRIVE IT RUN DONT WALK AWAY. THATS 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩 LIKE THATS LESS OF A RED FLAG AND MORE OF A RED BILLBOARD.

Most will never get to the test drive phase.

If the test drive goes well, step 5 is "show me the Carfax!" Seriously. Read it front to back. The dealer SHOULD provide it, if they're not willing, you CAN check it yourself but that tells me they're hiding something in the history. Never ever buy anything with a rebuilt or salvage title. In ON a clean title is something that has a "None" branding by the MTO. Carfax clean, or relatively so (accidents will look very big and expensive on the Carfax but might have only been cosmetic damage, insurance rates for accident repair are astronomical and not reflective any and "real" value or cost, don't be too put off by it but ask about the details)

Step 6 is 3rd party inspection- find a mechanic you trust or at least one with majority positive google reviews and ask to book a pre purchase inspection. This will run you $50-$100 but could potentially save you thousands. This is to spot issues you didn't catch on your initial looking over. The reason you put so much legwork into looking over the car first is to save money by only bringing cars with relatively high likelihood of being a good purchase to your mechanic. You're trying to eliminate every possible defect or fault yourself for free before you pay to have it looked at.

IF YOUR DEALER WONT LET YOU HAVE IT LOOKED AT BY A 3RD PARTY (and no, don't fall for "you're welcome to bring him here to look" that's shady AF cuz it means dealer knows if your guy gets it up on the lift he'll see smth) RUN DONT WALK AWAY.

If, and only if your mechanic says he doesn't see any issues, it should run well for the foreseeable future. Then.

Run a quote through your insurance. And then run a quote through a couple different providers and make sure you can afford it!!! I know so many people who got fucked buying a car they loved only to find out the insurance is ASTRONOMICAL or worse, will only cover liability and nothing else (looking @ you, Kia soul owners) or they have to pay insane rates because of whatever.

Then and ONLY THEN do you start signing paperwork.

If you somehow managed to make it through this process unscathed then you must have a lot more money than me LOL

I'm so tired.

[wrestlingisfake]

Finally caught up on this weekend's Maple Leaf Pro shows, so here's some thoughts about the promotion.

The Forged in Excellence shows back in October set a very high bar, and made me feel like I was watching a very good TNA pay-per-view. But a lot of that was due to all the stars they brought in from AEW/ROH, New Japan, and TNA. The Mayhem shows had to follow that up with no Konosuke Takeshita, no Mike Bailey, no Athena, no El Phantasmo, and only an unadvertised run-in by Josh Alexander. So this time around it felt more like watching an decent episode of TNA Impact.

Without the star power from Forged in Excellence, the Mayhem shows seemed to revolve around...QT Marshall, of all people. Listen, I recognize QT's skill in playing a heel; he's very good at the little things. But a lot of his heel heat is less "I hate this bad guy" and more "they're pushing this washed-up loser again?" It's the same shit as Bully Ray in 2010s ROH, or Jeff Jarrett in 2000s TNA, or Baron Corbin's entire WWE run. Matt Cardona makes it work in GCW and the indies, but it feels bush-league when he tries to do it in TNA. I suppose MLP is bush-league, but in a lot of ways they manage to look better than that, so the QT stuff undercuts that.

As far as I could tell, the only TNA talent this time around were people who recently exited the promotion, and I think that's telling. MLP basically came about because Scott D'Amore was pushed out of TNA, and a lot of wrestlers were vocally upset about it. The exodus will be gradual as contracts expire, but we're starting to see which performers want to follow D'Amore out of TNA. Anthem has very little incentive to let their roster work MLP shows, so I expect them to close that particular forbidden door, if they haven't already.

I was surprised to see Kylie Rae vs. Zoe Sagar billed as a WWE ID match, because I didn't realize either of them was affiliated with the program. Apparently WWE covers travel costs when an indy promotion books two ID wrestlers against one another, so it makes sense from MLP's end. I doubt any Raw/Smackdown/NXT talent will be allowed on MLP any time soon, but I guess WWE ID is in a gray area that can co-exist with wrestlers from AEW/ROH. Whether it stays that way remains to be seen. Sooner or later I think D'Amore will be forced to choose between WWE-TNA or AEW-NJPW-CMLL-Stardom-RevPro. Where that would his relationship with the NWA or NOAH is anybody's guess.

My little fantasy for MLP is for it to be seen as a national Canadian promotion--probably not like CMLL in Mexico, but at least like RevPro in the UK. Even if they mainly stay in Ontario, I'd like to think eventually they'll run shows in Montreal, Calgary, and Vancouver, to establish that national-level credibility. It helps, I think, that the men's and women's titles they're creating are each the "MLP Canadian championship," as opposed to "MLP championship" or "MLP world championship." They're never going to be the top promotion in Canada, but they can be the top promotion that is exclusive to Canada. To that end, I think they'd be better off aligning with AEW and its partners, effectively taking the place TNA used to have. We'll just have to wait and see if anything like that happens...

[leaujongyongnews]

How Customs & Border Pro­tection catches coun­terfeit products coming into the U.S.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Thousands of people cross the Canadian border from New York every day. There are 16 border crossings across the state that are all hot spots for counterfeit products to make their way into the U.S. economy.

“We liken it to looking for a needle in a needle stack. Actually, that's how difficult it is,” said Kevin Corsaro, watch commander for U.S. Customs and Border Protection said.

What You Need To Know

Thousands of people cross the Canadian border from New York every day through one of the state's 16 border crossings

Counterfeit products are becoming more common across the border and it's taking a toll on our health and safety, as well as the U.S. economy

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents are trained with manufacturing companies to keep a close eye on the details that can differentiate real and counterfeit products crossing the border

The most common counterfeit products are apparel, perfumes and electronic goods

Earlier this month, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported that an Ontario importer pleaded guilty to trafficking $4.2 million in counterfeit merchandise from approximately Oct. 2016 to Aug. 1, 2017, and those costs come out of companies' revenues that make everyday products more expensive

Earlier this month, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported that an Ontario importer pleaded guilty to trafficking $4.2 million in counterfeit merchandise from approximately Oct. 2016 to Aug. 1, 2017. That process starts with a close eye used by trained agents at the border who know what to look out for.

“On the primary line, our officers are basically interviewing the driver and reviewing the paperwork," Corsaro explained. "If there's inconsistencies in the paperwork, they will refer that truck to the secondary area for an exam. And then from there, they're looking for any merchandise that's either unmanifested or any merchandise that may be counterfeit. Obviously, any illegal narcotics or any illegal substances that are in the truck that are being illegally smuggled into our country."

But as counterfeiting becomes more frequent, so does the cost of goods, which ultimately continues the cycle.

“It happens, often. Actually, it happens, maybe not on a grand scale, like in a large container,” he explained.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection sees about 3,000 trucks crossing the border every day. That’s where they find the most counterfeit goods at the border by land. Although, they can also be found via air and train travel, as well as in postal services.

“We interdict products that we suspect to be counterfeit," said Gaetano Cordone, U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s port director for the Buffalo area. "And we have strong relationships with the trade community. To talk to some of these companies and explore some of the products that we encounter and then make the determination as to whether or not it's a legitimate or something that's counterfeit, and that we actually need to seize."

Counterfeit products are most common in apparel, perfume and electronic goods, so agents have a working relationship with many brands to be trained on how they create the product, and how agents at the border can spot the differences.

“So the stitching here is not even across the cap here. So this actually starts to tell away and go low and then back high again. So this is not something that New Era would endorse and produce on their end, as well as the sturdiness of this cap. When you purchase these caps, they're a lot more firm than this. They're not falling as this cap is doing here,” Cordone showed. “We have things like these counterfeit jerseys here. They're labeled by Nike. But again, this is not a product that Nike would normally manufacture with this poor stitching. The labeling, the letters, not all of it being situated in the right fashion."

Items displayed are only about 5% of what they’ve seized so far this year.

“Some of it is folks just don't want to pay the top dollar for legitimate and noncounterfeit items," Cordone said. "So it's much cheaper to purchase these products at a lower price. But in doing so, they don't realize some of the unintended consequences that occur from that, as well as some of the harmful impact to the economy and to trade and certain health risks as well."

Health risks could apply to counterfeit perfumes or colognes. In many cases, they say, these counterfeit products are not made in an FDA lab, so the products could be made from harmful bacteria when applied to our skin.

“If they're not manufactured in a safe way, someone buys these Christmas lights online and then they put them up at their house, and then they can actually be a fire hazard in their home," he added.

However, he says the impact counterfeit products are having on the U.S. economy can be considered most impactful.

“If we're purchasing counterfeit goods, then the legitimate companies, in order to be able to make up the revenue loss, they are then increasing their prices. They have to increase their prices in order to continue to compete and make up for the revenue loss of the millions and billions of dollars that they're losing as a result of these counterfeit products being so,” Cordone explained. “Folks may ask themselves, 'Why does this matter? Why does it matter if I want to save a couple extra dollars to purchase a counterfeit jersey?' It does matter. The implications are significant. Some of these counterfeit products are produced through forced labor. Others are used to support the illegal drug trade. We're a week from Sept. 11. Some of these support, you know, transnational criminal organizations and terrorist organizations. So it has that negative impact on the economy and the businesses in the United States. So when folks are trying to maybe save a dollar, sometimes they have to take a step back and think about the other impacts, not just to themselves, but to our folks and the businesses in this community."

Cordone says that Louis Vuitton reports a $1 billion loss of revenue on an annual basis as a result of manufactured counterfeit products. The agency has also found dozens of counterfeit Super Bowl rings and high-end designer products. Its most expensive counterfeit catch so far this year was a watch that’s estimated at more than $1 million in value if it was real.

"If it's a Josh Allen jersey and you're getting it for $25, it's likely that it's probably counterfeit,” Corsaro said.

“This is just a small snapshot here for Buffalo. So I mean we have containers and containers of this stuff coming in through our ports of entry across the country,” Cordone said. “We encourage folks that when they're purchasing something online and it seems like the price is too good to be true, most likely that's accurate. It probably is too good to be true, and most likely is counterfeit."

As trends continue, and costs increase, the consequence can end up on the consumer.

“If we're purchasing counterfeit goods, then the legitimate companies, in order to be able to make up the revenue loss, they are then increasing their prices," Cordone said. "They have to increase their prices in order to continue to compete and make up for the revenue loss of the millions and billions of dollars that they're losing as a result of these counterfeit products being so."

USCBP says if consumers feel they’ve purchased something that may be counterfeit, if there is incorrect spelling on a product, or if the size or font is different, or packaging is poor material, they have the opportunity to report it to Customs and Border Protection at cbp.gov.

[vaingod]

making an appointment to talk to my doctor about booking my phalloplasty and im endlessly peeved that ontario has exactly 0 bottom surgery options for me outside of hysto. im not going to montreal i flat out refuse to be in their stupid healthcare where they make doctors/ surgeons/ nurses give out instructions in french even if the patient understands only english like id rather never get bedicked if i had to tackle bullshit like that during such a big surgery (or ykno go to a much more experienced hospital if im not gonna understand the language but even then if I go to Thailand i guarantee theyll speak more english to me than in GRS montreal 😒) .

so my only options are NY/ SF/ TX and ive already emailed them for consults, ideally id get it done in ny and traveling costs will be minimal but i wouldn't mind going to tx for the best surgeon - its hard to decide cus my best prospect fell through when he closed his waitlist to perfect his technique w abdo phallo and outside of him the nhs does the most successful abdominal phalloplasty and thats not an option for me obviously and ive recommited to a different type of phallo entirely while waiting - and MLD isnt exactly practiced everywhere. I kinda wish someone would start a phallo practice in toronto but even then i know they will only do forearm which wont work for me :^)