Rovik

Yes, there are many type of courses that can be done this way. People can download course content (much of the content may be contained within .pdf files for example) onto a diskette, cd or mini-drive. People could do exams online and if they need extra time, they can book in advance for it and explain the need for it (i'm sure most CAP centres would allow this.)

Some of you may have a misconception that this program pays for Internet right to your house but this is not true. This is community based, usually at a school or community centre, where one has to sign in for limited time 15 min to 1/2 hour at a time and with strict guidelines on what you can or can not do. This is to ensure equal access to all in the community, especially does who can't afford to have Internet access at home. It also provides job, even student jobs for those at these centres who answer questions to newbies who don't know how to use the Internet.

The importance of picking up a few over-represented Labrador votes? First, Fabian Manning is not the MP for Labrador and second are you implying that a vote in labrador is worth more than a vote in Alberta or Ontario?

I have never used the term"redneck" and if people from Alberta believe it's derogatory, then yes, I will not use that term out of respect. There are many Newfoundlanders who believe that "Newfie" is derogatory. Personally, I have friends who have worked away and been victim of the locals using that term in a "not-so-nice" way..(phrases like "stupid newf" or "where's your rubber boots newfie") Ask your Newfoundland relatives if there are people here who don't like the term if you don't believe me.

There are several reasons why Global warming may never be addressed, not in the scale that it should be at least and future generations will suffer because of it. First, countries don't have the will to fix the problem. Governments don't want to pay the political price for a large hit to the economy if global warming was too be stopped and reversed. Such governments may even pay the price politically as angry voters (especially ones that lost their jobs) oust them. Next, countries do not want to lose any competitive edge to other countries. Therefore, they would say, "what should we cut back on emissions when other countries don't." Sadly, to successfully fight global warming, all countires must be willing to join in the fight or else it is doomed to failure. This would be tough because countries like China and India are developing their industrial base at breakneck speed and the one country in the world that might best be able to provide leadership in the fight, the US, doesn't want to make the sacrifices required to slow down and reverse the global warming threat. Third, many people say that there is no proof or say it just a naturally-occuring pattern that the earth goes through. They say this even though a majority of scientists believe that global warming is indeed happening. artifically not naturally. The problem with having absolute proof, or "the smoking gun" is that we will only see this when the damage has already been done, when the impact is irreversible. Up to that point, there will be people who will still say that it is part of some natural process that the Earth goes through every so often.

I don't think that Iggy will suffer much of political fallout as the Conservatives say he is. Let's face it, if Iggy became the leader of the Liberals, the Conservatives would lose some of their right-wing vote to him, therefore, it's in the Conservative's best interest to make a mountain out of a molehill. The reason why I think he won't suffer much of fallout is because because he is right and most people know it. The Israeli's did commit war crimes; killing innocent civilians, destroying infrastructure that will set back Lebanon's economy and their use of the incidious cluster bombs that are still killing civilians today. There is also no denying that Hezbellah also committed war crimes, but I bet you that there wouldn't as been as much of an outcry if he focused on Hezbellah. And just because he criticized what Israeli did in the excursion, doesn't mean he is anti-Israel. For example, I don't like the fact that Americans had secret prisons world-wide that they interrogated prisoners, but that doesn't make me anti-American. For anyone to make such assumptions, including Harper's ridiculious "ant-Israeli" comments, is been unfair and unjust.

Interesting new development. Manning Working to Extend CAP I have to give credit to Conservative MP Fabian Manning, at least he understands the importnace of the program.

I agree, the Liberals screwed up because they weren't willing to pay the political price for implementing the changes that were required for Kyoto. The Conservatives govt., know that they would also pay a political price, especially in their stronghold of Alberta, refuse to take seriously, the warning of future disaster by the increase of greenhouse gases and its negative influence on Earth's climate. It's typical human rationale. Who cares about the future, let's think about today. The economy is booming, Canada is doing well from oil and gas, the automobile industry has a major impact on Ontario's economy, people are making lots of money, there are lots of jobs....things are great so why would we want to change that. Let's zoom back 100 years in the fishery, lots of fish, people are working, companies are making money...things are great. What? There are people that say if we catch too much fish that eventually the fish will diminish, jobs will be lost, species of fish will be threatened to the point of extinction...nahhh...just scare tactics, it'll never happen. People back then only thought of the now, not the future. The same thing is happening today. Industry continues to spew out gases, there are indications that the Greenhouse Effect is in its starting stages. A majority of scientists say that its points to devastation in the future. Of course, some of you will say that there are also scientists that say it won't happen, but I would have to point out two things. These scientists are in the minority and many are employed by ogranizations that are sympathetic to "big business." The tobacco industry for years used to cite scientists that said who there was no proof that tobacco was harmful.... The problem is that we are too greedy, who cares about 100 years from now, when we won't even be alive...all we care about is the now and the near future. I wonder what our grand grandchildren, when they are suffering from the full impact of greenhouse gases will ask about this generation. One question I'm sure they will ask is why we didn't try to stop the devastation from starting when we had the chance and they will wonder how we could have been so cruel to allow it to happen.

Actually, that ad has caused some controvsery here in Newfoundland, a lot of people don't like it and some believe it should be taken off the air. This is not a minority rights issue. It doesn't matter if Newfoundlanders made up the majority of citizens in Canada. It's the principle and i'm sure no one likes to be put down or ridiculed. If someone asks me not to use a certain term because they believe it is offensive, then out of respect I won't use that term. The last thing I would do is to respond in a sarcastic and frivilous way.

It sounds quite the opposite to me. It sounds like the people in Labrador are the ones being smug. It sounds like they are saying: "Everybody else has it. Therefore, we should have it too." -- as if they are entitled. My response is this. Is it fair that the government provides subsidies and tax breaks to automobile and oil and gas companies and in the process provide people with high paying jobs, while Labradorians, who are paying taxes don't benefit from these subsidies.

Thousands upon thousands of Newfoundlanders have already gone West and elsewhere, enriching the coffers of the provinces they go to (in paying taxes) and lessening the amount of money that Newfoundland receives. It was mentioned in the local paper one time that if all the people that left for jobs (in the last 100 years) came back, then the population of Newfoundlland would be well over 1 million. I believe that Newfoundlanders have helped quite a bit.

My point was that yes, Internet access is not a necessity but it can have a positive, important impact on someone. Look at the Conservative's policy to give tax credits to people using public transit, it's not necessary but it is benefical to the environment. Same logic when you compare the two. I believe it can be a quality of life issue. If someone can do an online course that wouldn't be taught locally, perhaps to complete a course towards a university degree or even to finish high school then yes, it's a quality of life issue. Perhaps if the govt. cut all subsidies for corporations, that would lessen the tax burden on yourself. Often these transfer programs don't supply enough once the critical areas such as healthcare, infrastucture and so on are taking care of.

Actually there is a program that provided for free usage of satellite phones in the winter time when travelling through Labrador These remote areas often provide the raw materials that are manufactured elsewhere (factories and the like) so they are pretty important in the scheme of things. And what is your justification for the govt. subsidizing corporations? I'm sure that taxpayers in Labrador see no benefit in their tax money going to oil and gas companies in Alberta or automobile plants in Ontario. In a perfect world, all provinces are equal and net contributors but due to economic and other factors as plain luck (easy access oil fields and close vicinity to the US market,) this is not the case. We as citizens of Canada, would like to see basic standards in all provinces from coast to coast and sometimes to ensure standards, the net contributors give to the dependents. Right now Alberta, Ontario and BC are net contributors but who is to say how things may be like in 50 years. Maybe by then they develop an alternative to oil and gas and due to beneficial changes in Newfoundland, Newfoundland is the net contributor and Alberta is the dependent. I would have no qualms about Newfoundland giving to Alberta because that's what good neighbours and partners in this Confederation are for...to help others in need and to be helped when in need. You might laugh when I say that Newfoundland could be a net contributor, but one must remember that Newfoundland has come a long way recently, for example, the last few years have had a balanced budget, which were unheard of in the past. If Newfoundland can negotiate a fair and just royalty system with the oil and gas companies, if the mines in Labrador continue to prosper and grow, if the fishery is "fixed" and if other opportunities such as tourism continue to develop then Newfoundland could be a net contributor in the future, happy to help out any of its partners in Confederation who are in need.

Well if you want to talk necessities, you could also include television, internal plumbing. automobiles, etc.....nice to have but not necessary to live. Yes, Internet access is not a necessity but it is a huge advantage in today's technological world. People with the Internet can pay bills online instead of driving and using up gas to go to the bank to pay. I could go into numerous other examples on how it improves on quallity of life, therefore is it fair to deny people, who can't afford the Internet, the advantages of the Internet. And how many times must I hear the mantra of the right-wingers to make the provinces pay for it. That's great of you have Alberta's, BC's or Ontario's money because they can afford it, but not so great if you are one of the poorer provinces where you are just trying to break even with what you have now. This decentralization of the Federal govt. will only serve deepen the rifts between the haves and the have-nots in this country and aren't we suppose to be a country of 10 equal provinces.

The CAP centers are in community centres and schools downloading porn is not one of the reasons for its existance. I would day that anyone caught surfing porn would be banned and I would say that there are porn blocking software on those computers. Here is the ratioanle behind the CAP centers from the following site: CAP Site Services I don't see porn listed as a service

I don't live on the coast of Labrador or any outports in Newfoundland, work at a good job in St. John's (and hard work doesn't scare me), never been on EI but I'm glad that there is something there that these people can fall back on. Most of the younger people in these communities have left for the west or if they were lucky found a job in the St. John's area or the nickel or iron ore mines up in Labrador. The seasonal workers tend to be older, late 40s and up with little or no education and all they know how to do is fish. Many have built their own houses or have houses pasted down by their parents with little or no mortgage. So would you tell these people to work at some menial job in Alberta, living in a basement apartment paying >$1000 month rent. Many of these people would be worse off, not better and you expect these people to willingly go to where they would be not as happy? Before you left to find your job, did you have an education? Were relatively young? Have a job waiting for you? Have accomdations waiting for you? If you said yes to even one of these questions, you were in much better shape then many of the people I talked about. There was a interesting interview on CBC Newfoundland last week with a lady in Calgary who dealt with the homeless. She basically said that unless you have a place to stay before you get to Calgary, it would be best not to come. She said that she has seen many people from Atlantic Canada with good paying jobs lined up but were forced to live on the streets or out of their cars because there were no where they could stay. One individual who came from Newfoundland and who secured a good job before he left Newfoundland ended up on the streets for he had no place to stay and got hooked on some heavy drugs. This was pretty scary stuff to me and made me glad that I wasn't in that position.

We are not talking about some vacation home or some dream home. We are talking about people who work hard for half of the year and live on EI for the other half because there is no work. They are not leaving in luxury, that's for sure. There are no movie theatres, there are no stadiums, there are no Tim Horton's or even MacDonalds. Economic realities are much different here than much of the rest of Canada.

If you believe that the writers of this article have cited inaccuracies, then perhaps you should contact them and question them about it and then post their response here. And even if the costs are closer to say $1500 instead of $2000, many people still wouldn't able to afford it. You have to remember that the coast of Labrador is one of the poorest parts of Canada and coming up with that kind of money would be hard for a lot of families

Let me get this straight. Just because I question right wingers, I'm automatically anti-Albertan?!?! Well, it could also be a typical town in BC or Ontario. Uh Oh. Guess i might be labelled as anti-BC or anti-Ontario now. Askl students that don't have a computer and Internet access at home if the Internet isn't important. They are at a big disadvantage iin regard to studying and research for homework assignments without the Internet , that is just a fact of life in this day and age.

I'm sure 100% of all Newfoundlanders don't believe it has negative meaning but many do. From article in Wikipedia: Newfie

I'm sure that the people in coastal Labrador don't think it's foolishness. Kleenex sounds nice, the three-ply Ultra if you got it.

"This nitwit"...well, well...I've either flustered you or you don't know how to respond civically so you resort to childish name calling. Tell you what. If it doesn't go ahead, I'll post that info as well. Be the fair thing to do

I agree that the practice should be banned in both domestic and international waters. It's a fairly big story here in Newfoundland and the last I checked we are still part of Canada. Hearn, when he was in opposition, was big on the protection of marine life advocating such things as custodial management of the Grand Banks amongst other things but since he has become the Fisheries minister, nothing has changed. The sad state of the fishery today is indeed the fault of the Liberals but also the Conservatives who have had power at different times since Confederation with Canada in 1949. Both have mismanaged the resource badly and things don't seem to be changing with this govt.

This practice by the deep sea trawlers provides few jobs in Newfoundland. And in fact, most Newfoundlanders are against it. By the way, I don't know if you are aware of this but many Newfoundlanders (including myself) consider the term "Newfie" as demeaning and derogatory.

My goodness, quite the backlash from the right-wingers here. Several points here: - The article cites $220 a month, therefore say about $2680 a year per community, so in a 100 redisent community this would be almost $27.00 per person. How about a family of 4 in this 100 resident community; well that's $27 x 4 = $108 per family. - Second, many of these communities have less than 100 residents, therefore the costs to residents would much more per person. - Third, many of these people are seasonal workers, therefore cash flow (when the fishery is in offseason) would be a problem. Even an extra $27 might be a luxury when one is on a tight budget. - Fourth, many people don't have a computer and/or Internet access in their own homes, therefore for people who can't afford a computer or Internet, this access is a no-cost tool for them to do such things as research for a school project or email to friends and relatives elsewhere and too put them on a more even level field with families who can afford computers and Internet service I made the example of the Albertan town because, most because they can afford to put in place such an activity (because of the benefits of been in such an oil-rich province,) many of these towns on the Labrador Coast can't. And to suggest it has anything to do with Albertans not voting Liberal is completely ludicrous.