I don’t think it’s only you. I remember him saying (and even tweeting) that 2015 will be the last FPTP election if the liberals were elected. I was younger at the time but I remember a lot of people reluctantly voted for him instead of the NDP just to finally end FPTP and be able to choose the NDP as their first choice in the next election (but still choose the liberals as their second choice, to keep the conservatives out). Further reading for anyone interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vote_splitting

Then they won, claimed that they couldn’t find an alternative that everyone liked, and apparently that was it.

My understanding is that many people would have been happy with “anything” besides FPTP, but weren’t able to agree on their first choice? …surely it’s not that ironic? Or maybe there’s more to it than that?

Anyway overall the liberals may have still been the best choice… but this wasn’t some minor promise that he made. I think this is what was most important to a lot of people. Err… I think? No one seems to talk about it now.

edit1: added link to tweet

edit2: This article seems to summarize the timeline: https://globalnews.ca/news/3102270/justin-trudeau-liberals-electoral-reform-changing-promises/

edit3: this seems more helpful: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_Canada#2015_federal_election

To clarify on this: even the people who use gibberish as their password and don’t store it and rely on password resets via email are actually somewhat safe if their email is also highly safe. Maybe their password strategy for CRA implies they don’t take their email password security seriously either… but still, my point is just that “at least as secure as your email” can be an incredibly high bar if you do it right

Yes but you’re free to use an email provider which also supports security keys, which gmail and proton mail* do. I understand that the CRA needs to accommodate the average person who doesn’t care about security, but I think everyone in this thread appreciates when they also cater to people who care deeply about security and are willing to use strong unique passwords in a password manager and security keys or at least TOTP.

* it seems like they require keeping TOTP enabled because their mobile apps don’t support security keys. Meh.

This may sound like a wild fantasy to some, but the US IRS seems to have some partnership with ID.me which supports security keys. But I’m impressed that the CRA supports TOTP before major banks so maybe this could happen.

Granted they also have separate logins for state income tax and California is… well let me just say that I’m grateful that the CRA doesn’t force you to reset your password every 4ish months. (California state income tax (FTB?) does).

Ah, I hadn’t heard of the SSL issue, thanks for sharing!

I’ve noticed that Tangerine only allows for a 6 digit pin, but I think they might also allow for a security question and SMS 2FA? I started signing up with them and gave up when they required a Canadian cell number (I hadn’t yet switched due to high costs, but recently they’ve become surprisingly reasonable—ignoring roaming) and I saw the 6 digit pin password requirement.

I think it was also BMO that a friend told me required a maximum 8 character password until very recently?

Anyway overall, thanks for reassuring my suspicion: I should just pick one of the banks and not let “perfect” (or even “decent”) be the enemy of “almost adequate but not great”.

Thanks, I suspected this (I only see “authenticator app” when I log in on a new device or periodically, but I wasn’t sure.

Related: for finance related services like Questrade, I’ve stored my TOTP keys on a U2F key, Yubico in my case. Besides the hassle of managing physical keys, is there any drawback to this approach? I’m slightly worried I’ll lose all my keys in a house fire or something, but I assume there’s a recovery option.

Unfortunately I think this is the norm with big banks in Canada, and it is similar to a credit union in the US from when I briefly lived there. Security seems to be a second priority to people losing access (presumably only briefly, since they have brick and mortar locations everywhere).

Wealthsimple and Questrade seem to support TOTP but I’m not sure if you can still bypass it with SMS. I don’t think so but I haven’t dug into it.

I’ve used CIBC before and they also seem to require keeping SMS 2FA enabled. Also they send me fraud alerts over SMS, “respond Y to authorize this suspicious transaction”, and I’m dreading the day where I have to enable roaming while travelling just to send a text. They send push notifications through the app to login on a new device though, so maybe in 10 years they’ll do it for transaction approval too.

Also aside about TD: is there really no way to download a CSV file of all your transactions? My partner uses them and I think we were limited to 18 months, and may have even had to download each much separately (luckily I can use use a program like cat to workaround this, but that seems like a pain for most people). CIBC has irritated me in a lot of ways but I think I can download transactions from back to 2012 when I first opened my credit card, maybe earlier.

Do you or anyone know about other big banks? My partner and I are looking into a joint account and I want to be able to download all transactions to CSV. Ideally we could get TOTP only (no SMS 2FA) but I’m not counting on it.

Thanks, I edited my comment. No idea how I missed that it was 30 seconds for all this time. It looks like my own TOTP codes are even 30 seconds so I don’t know what I was thinking.

It looks like you may be able to disable SMS 2FA entirely? It’s unclear to me (edit: if this is a viable option):

Can I stop getting Short Messaging Service (SMS) messages for CRA’s Multi-factor authentication?

Yes. You can text “STOP” to 27223 or reply “STOP” to the message containing your one-time passcode to stop receiving SMS messages to that telephone number in the future. However, it is important to note that CRA’s Multi-factor authentication (MFA) service is mandatory and a passcode is required to sign in to the CRA’s sign-in services. Texting “STOP” will prevent your telephone from receiving an SMS message with your passcode in the future. Without the passcode, you will be unable to access the CRA sign-in services using this option and will need to choose an alternate MFA option to use. This option applies only to Canadian telephone numbers.

I’ll probably leave it enabled anyway just in case (given that I only log in to CRA once per year or so), but I applaud the potential of relying on TOTP only, and not allowing SMS 2FA as a “back door”.

Also big pro is that they allow third party TOTP apps instead of making their own like TD and even Steam (bundling it into their main app).

Not OP but I wanted to read more (edit: about CRA’s approach to TOTP, before getting the chance to try it myself), I searched and found this: https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/e-services/cra-login-services/multi-factor-authentication-access-cra-login-services.html#toc3

What is a third-party authenticator app?

A third-party authenticator app can be installed on an app enabled mobile or desktop device to be used for MFA. The app store offers many free third-party authenticator app options to choose from. Users will need to download an app that is compatible with the CRA sign-in services.

Using the app, the user scans a QR code with a mobile device when prompted. If unable to scan the QR code the user can manually enter the setup key the CRA provides into the app. The app will now be set up and the user will not have to complete this step again.

The app will then generate a 6 digit Time-Based One-Time Passcode (TOTP). When signing in to the CRA sign-in services users will be required to enter a one-time passcode provided by the app. For security, the app will generate a new TOTP every 30 seconds.

Edit: This is awesome, I’m so glad I can switch away from SMS 2FA on yet another service (and such an important one). But I am curious about a few things, see below.

Some thoughts:

• (edit: my bad, I thought 60 seconds was more common but I checked my other TOTP and they seem to be 30 seconds) why is it 30 seconds instead of 60 seconds? I’m pretty sure every other TOTP I’ve seen is 60 seconds. What is the benefit of this? Someone has 30 fewer seconds to read the code over your shoulder and log in on their device?
• TD offers a passcode generator app, but it seems like you can’t disable SMS 2FA, so if you’re worried about SIM jacking then you are out of luck. Presumably they’re worried about people losing their device with the TOTP secret, but I usually back that up on multiple devices and have recovery codes. I think all the big banks are similar. Edit: I’m curious to know what CRA does, but I’m away from my PC right now.
• nit: the previous login requires you to re enter the code from SMS 2FA or the grid thing every 8 hours I believe. But most other services seem to let you persist a cookie on the device for 30 days or so, presumably because cookie theft isn’t a huge risk, and because entering your password alone is enough to prevent other people with access to your computer from accessing your sensitive CRA account

Anyway, sorry for the negativity. This is a great step and I shouldn’t focus on negative things. I just hate how accounts I don’t care much about like Facebook (and formerly Runescape) accounts seem to be more secure from malicious logins than my bank and possibly CRA accounts.

I still prefer a physical SIM for my main cell plan, but when travelling to other countries it is so amazing to be able to just download an eSIM and avoid roaming fees. Airalo is quite convenient, but I hear it’s getting pricey compared to other options.

Plus with dual SIM I can disable roaming on my main SIM but still receive texts for free, but use data for cheap with the local eSIM at the same time.

Disclaimer: I live in Canada which has some of the most expensive cell plans in the world. Roaming in the US is $13 CAD/day and $16 CAD/day in the rest of the world. That seems like blatant extortion to me, they can’t blame Canada’s large size for expensive roaming fees (right?). I think US plans are a lot better, and I assume European cell plans are generally even cheaper.

Edit: I prefer physical SIMs for my main plan because if my main phone is dead or broken, I can just pop the physical SIM in an old phone that I bring while travelling. Until eSIMs can be somehow transferred like that, I don’t see myself using them for my main cell plan. Just remember to set a SIM PIN so that if someone steals your phone, they can’t use your SIM card to receive 2FA texts.

Edit 2: eSIMs are generally a pain to transfer between phones. I think my cell provider lets you do it online by scanning a QR code, but I know some make you call them and read 16 digit codes over the phone. Some even charge a small fee. I dread the day where other cell phone manufacturers follow what Apple did in the US (I think?) and make eSIMs the only option.

I really like Aegis for 2FA/TOTP:

https://github.com/beemdevelopment/Aegis

Edit: also Element, a matrix client, for messaging: https://element.io/download

Edit 3: Feeder for RSS (Google Play), (F-Droid), I really like how you can extract the text of articles without ads.

Edit 4: Simon Tatham’s Puzzles, a bunch of simple puzzle games, no ads or BS (Google Play) (I think this is the right one: F-Droid). Fun fact: he created PuTTY.

Edit 2: also minidlna (apparently called ReadyMedia now) as a UPnP/DLNA server to host music and videos on your PC, then you can easily watch using VLC on a phone/computer (and any smart TV with the VLC app, probably) within the LAN. I’d be interested to hear any recommendations for how to easily access my UPnP server from outside my network from my phone. I’m sure there’s some way to do it with a VPN, but I’d rather only route the media streaming traffic through my home network, not all my phone’s traffic.