In this context I see a baseline as a language that

1. A majority of the speakers have above-trivial skills in it, say above a sixth grade level in both written and spoken.
2. More than one-fifth of the population has this ability.
3. said language has extreme density in certain geographical regions, leading to dominance in those regions

And for some countries, there would be several that could fit both criteria. Switzerland would likely have French, German and Italian meeting all thresholds, allowing all three to be baseline languages.

Unfortunately, French does not meet the minimum-used criteria for Canada, as only 18% of citizens can speak it with any great skill. However, the geographical concentration criteria would likely overrule the usage criteria (via Québec), thereby allowing it to remain a baseline language.

Secondary languages would have similar criteria, only relaxed somewhat.

I’m wondering whether Europeans the other 96% of humanity

There, FTFY.

And yes, the other 96% of humanity would very much like to see Imperial measurements die.

Hell, as a Canadian born after 1970, I wouldn’t understand almost all Imperial measurements even if they smacked me clear in the forehead. About the most I have ever used are inches, feet, and pounds, and only because they’ve hung on in tightly-linked-to-America blue-collar industries and (until about a decade ago) grocery stores. I would have zero clue how much a cup or a Florida Ounce is.

And alt-right conservatives continue to openly demonstrate why Canada so desperately needs a well-funded, nation-wide network of mental health sanitariums that can thoroughly protect the wider public from them.

I would take the top-5 languages spoken in Canada and make the country multilingual based off of that.

If that just so happens to include Cantonese and Hindi, so be it.

If it includes Cree and/or Inuktitut, even better.

Sure, have English as the baseline. A baseline should always be the most spoken common language. But having an few other languages as “official” - and supporting numerous others in the way Europe does - would make Canada far more inclusive and intellectually robust.

the rest will retire in Kelowna.

Fuck, no! Not my home town! We have enough jacked-up and lifted pavement princesses with red license plates as it is!

our telecom infrastructure is privately owned.

This is the crux of the matter.

You look at Norway, Sweden and Finland, and you will find geography on-par with BC’s west coast and then some. And yet, they have full wired Internet access and LTE data throughout the region.

So geography is not a viable excuse.

Even if we limit ourselves to homes within city limits (so we aren’t talking about backwoods cabins, here), Canada has about 6 empty homes for every homeless person.

The problem isn’t a lack of homes, the problem is an excess of “investors” looking for a labour-free income stream parasitized off of the backs of the working class.

I am getting so sick of alt-right nutcases making up stories that they themselves would rather have a leading role in.

We all know most of the alt-right is just itching to unalive anyone not like them.

This is shameful. We should all be questioning Canada’s participation - or lack of action - in the genocide happening in Palestine. To have that kind of pro-genocide intimidation happening to anyone, much less legal scholars…