Nid_Noi

Your statement is right out of the Liberal party propaganda minister, the CBC. The Canadian consumers relies on US power plants as much as US consumers relie on Canadian energy. The whole distribution system is made such a way it responds to the needs of states and provinces at their peak hours. The loss of energy during transport requires to feed the consumers from the closest power plants. In the last 10 years some Canadian provinces have been importing more than they exported (due to poor productivity following less rain). Baie James in Quebec has over capacity and uses the New England market to dump their overcapacity at discount prices. Hydo Québec sells its kilowatt/hour at $0.08 to the New England Clean Energy Connect Agency. But on the other side of the continent BC imports more electricity than it exports because the US northwest has ample energy sources and exports at cheaper price than the production cost in BC. Around the Great Lakes Canada has only 3 Nuclear Plants (Bruce, Pickering and Darlington) while the US has 23 plants. The producing cost in Canadian plants is much higher than in US plants (less power outages in the US than in Candu plants). Due to taxes and social benefits cost at the retail level is 8 percent greater in Canada and 30 percent greater also for industrial consumers. The lack of industrial output with its poor productivity has exacerbated the rising cost of electricity in Canada (as well as the decreasing demand for EVs). The Liberal policy about "climate change" and the carbon tax has stopped all the projects of natural gaz power plants of proximity which are the most profitable (no high voltage power lines with loss of energy). The trans-Canada gazoduct project has been shutdown by the liberal government and the eastern provinces have to rely on US side gazoduct pipelines (built partly with Canadian participation). All these data can be found in the government of Canada statistics website: www.cer-rec.gc.ca/en/data-analysis/energy-markets or this excellent study from the Fraser Institute: www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/paying-more-for power-rev.pdf

If the EU, the US and Canada had not put sanctions on Russia, maybe most of these « peskiest « Russians would have gone to France, Spain, Italy, Florida or Portugal and the millions would have been spent in Western Europe. Sanctions have side-effects you did not expect.

Always had dogs at home. Adopted soi dogs will show devotion and gratitude until death. Never been disappointed by one of them. You just need to take care of them as any other family’s member.

I must admit your description of foreigners riding motorbikes are pretty accurate. The more obese they are, the more they are willing to take some risks to spread their flesh on the asphalt. Too much clean-up for the Thai paramedics.

Your childish emojis don’t give any validity to your post.

Yes, Biden gave Trump the reason to prosecute the Biden’s family. The DOJ can subpoena Hunter to testify in court. Hunter have no choice otherwise he can be charged for contempt of court and sent to jail. So deflecting the charges from Hunter to other family members and other associates is not very smart. Also take notice that never in the history of the US a pardon has covered a period of 11 years so it will give reasons for the DOJ to look more closely to the events prior to the Maidan revolution and the actions of Victoria Nuland, Hillary Clinton and Obama and the laundromat which is Ukraine. If people still thinks that the « loans » to Ukraine will be honored by the Ukrainians are dreaming in technicolor.

You have no knowledge of how the judiciary system works. A charged individual is innocent until proven guilty. This is why people get their day in court to hear the decision of the judge. Either bail and stay free or in case of national security threat (spying, act of terrorism, first degree murder with possibility of evading the justice system). In the case of the January demonstrators innocent people are still in jail without due process. it shows that the justice system has been weaponized against the demonstrators because the decision to keep people jailed came from the court of appeals for the District of Columbia. So the court sided with the DOJ which means the judiciary system is not independent. As the videos have shown there was no threat to the members of Congress and the DOJ has not been able to prove the threat. The only victim was among the demonstrators.

What is the problem with the Brits? They have spread the gangrene throughout the dominions. It seems the Labour activists of the bankrupted governments of Wilson and Callaghan, kicked out of the UK by Maggie's policies, have infected Canada, Australia and New Zealand (and a few other countries where they migrated). Where are the Iron ladies of the 21st century? Nowhere to be seen....

Nobody invaded the White House. A few people were invited into the Capitol (People's house) for a free visit... and got shot at. Hope Trump shall replace your so-called "invaders" jailed without their day in court with the members of the January 6th committee.

Anybody who has assets in the US and gets revenue from his investment. As shareholder or bond holder of several listed corporations these forms are part of my income tax filing. you may chose to pay by withholding tax at the source or by adding these revenues to your tax filing documents in your country of fiscal residence. Based on your income bracket either one of the options may be better than the other one.

People should get a full refund. The cruise was a “repositioning” trip to Ushuaia so with or without passengers it had to be done. On top of that 20 days across the south Atlantic without sight of land deserve a compensation for boredom.

We have a pond with fish.

No close neighbours at this time…

But there is a direct flight from Vancouver to Bangkok with Air Canada used by many residents from the Seattle and northwest areas. Thai Airlines used to have a direct flight from New York to Bangkok 20 years ago. The aircraft was an Airbus A340. Service and food were exceptional but Thai was losing money (apparently too many royals and top government officials and families were frequent fliers…on points).

Who gains for the price of real estate? The government with all the taxes charged on acquisition and ownership. In Canada developers have to pay huge amount of money to develop the land and finance the infrastructure, making the price of housing obscene. Land by itself is cheap, ask the farmer whose land has been repossessed by their creditors and sold at auction. Municipalities and regional governments are the main culprits. Who needs a sport complex, a performance arts center, a stadium or a top of the art library in a 10,000 inhabitants town? Native people have been excluded from the economic environment by lack of education and opportunities and also mismanagement. Casinos have only benefitted a few. Federal funds have been associated with smuggling or other criminal activities. Many reserves have no running water and sewage system but huge casinos and other gambling outlets.

Exactly, there are so many countries where foreigners are landowners and can leave something valuable to their kids. You can’t even donate a 30 year lease to your kids. It will be on the edge of expiration.

‘Thailand needs to change. Cheap tourists and backpackers are the only ones coming to Thailand. Thailand does not smile anymore. 5 star hotels offer discounts to compete with 3 star hotels. Entire main streets have their stores closed with garbage piling up in the small adjacent sois, resorts are surrounded by slums and street vendors selling Chinese junk. No more Thai artifacts to buy, no more souvenirs to buy.

You don’t need 3 rai for decent house. We have a 400 square meter house on one rai of land. Enough land for 60 square meter pool and 1100 square meter garden, enough to keep a gardener busy 3 days a week. The car port on the edge of the driveway is enough for 2 small cars.

Land like everything else is managed by supply and demand. Why would Thailand be different from other countries? Thailand is for sale with so many acres of unused land without any maintenance. For sale signs are growing like mushrooms without any offers for years, keeping the landlords in poverty. Wealthy Thai families dictates what they are willing to pay, in fact not much. This is why you see so many developments unfinished. Concrete does not make nice ruins, luckily a rapid growth of vegetation removes any trace of these failures and its mountains of garbage. Many wealthy thais have more money than brains and are the worst culprits for destroying the landscape. Maybe Thais could learn how to develop their land harmoniously if they had competition from foreign investors. Zoning and architectural regulations should be implemented to avoid these modern slums. I have seen too many foreigners building beautiful Asian houses (for their Thai wives I suppose) being totally ruined by the construction of garages, poultry processing plants or dozens of slums harbouring migrant workers right to the edge of their properties. Their investment is not even worth the price of the land. Is Thailand able to become a country where the rule of law primes? That’s the million dollar question.

As the article mentions they are several workers from Myanmar.~ Families lost their only source of income. I hope they get some financial help.

Thailand does not smile anymore. The new generations have no knowledge of hospitality and they have no work ethics. 40 years ago more people spoke English, now almost none. Even with their smartphone application they can’t make a sale. Rama 9 spent so much money to educate the Thai, one wonders if this money has not been totally wasted.

All over the western world (based on my experience) all these documents issued by banks, department of finances, brokerage firms, etc…are sent by mail, usually with a return envelope but never by email. Some banks or other tax departments have an internal encrypted messaging module you can use after logging into your account. I still have one bank which prefers faxing confidential documents through landline’s connection with a proof of « received » transmission. I don’t know about Thai post but the couple of times I used Thai post my letters never arrived to their destinations. SoI’ll drop the forms at my K branch and get a receipt dated and signed.

Nothing to be excited about. I receive the same documents (and more) from my foreign banks (US, French, Spanish, Thai) where I have or had accounts. I declare to the Canada Revenue Agency I own foreign bank accounts. In 40 years I never received any request for additional informations and never paid any taxes on my foreign holdings. Canada does not care about what you own overseas as long as you don’t make an income from your overseas holdings. Many « snowbirds » own properties in the US, Mexico, Costa Rica, etc…and they list their properties for rent on internet or through real estate agents. For decades these landlords did not declare the rental income or got paid in cash. Now they need to prove taxes have been paid to either the country where the rental unit is or to the Canada Revenue Agency if Canadian resident. I think this is the next step for foreigners being home owners in Thailand. Do you get any income from your home or condo? Regarding the IRS forms they are standard reporting forms if you receive income, dividends, etc…from a US corp. Either you chose to add these incomes to your Canadian declaration or you may chose the withholding tax by the IRS. Not a big deal as long you can prove taxes have been paid. In conclusion these procedures were the results of wealthy foreign investors (either European but mostly Chinese) buying big chunks of properties, land, houses and condos and getting rental incomes in order to pay the local taxes, maintenance fees and mortgages. But they did not declare the rental incomes. It started by housing relative students studying in North America; once the students graduated, they would rent the units to other foreign students (or fake students) through a network of very elaborate connections. They would even « sell » their cars to the next wave of « students ». If you are not part of these « suckers » nothing to be worried about.

I haven’t been to the UK since the early 90s. Are they still speakers at Hyde Park Corner?

Why not Lampedusa? Free ferry service to mainland Italy.