WestCoastRunner

BC will actually allow grocery stores to start selling beer and wine in grocery stores this year. However, as long as Harper is in power, marijuana will never be legalized.

As for beers, the LCBO routinely offers high alcohol craft beers (up to 8-10%) in singles, so you don't even have to buy a case. None are more than $3 a can. $3 a can! wow, here in BC, for a single can of local craft beer, it will cost around $5.00. Where do these high alcohol craft beers for $3 a can come from?

You seriously believe I want those people dead? What an immature response.

Let's hope these pings are the real deal. As to the debate between Wilbur and Guard for thee, it sounded more like a conversation to me. Does every post in this forum need to take on a debating style? Just wondering. I see lots of threads with experience, personal opinions, bias etc thrown in.

This report 'Justice and the Poor' provides some very good information about policing the poor. The chapter 'Justice in Policing' provides some information that I drew upon for my statements. It's a very long report by the 'National Council of Welfare' that was written in 2000 but is quite excellent if anyone is interested in this topic. http://www.oaith.ca/assets/files/Publications/justice_andthe_poor.pdf

While this fact may be true, let's not forget that people living below the poverty line are treated quite differently in the legal system than with folks having higher incomes. Higher income allows access to more resources like highly paid lawyers. If a young person with wealthy parents commits a crime, chances are, these stats won't be captured or reported in any statistics. Lower income people hang out on the streets for lack of nothing else to do. The police like to target them because they receive complaints of loitering etc. and the slightest misdemeanor could get them busted. This also skews the statistics.

It's a bit different here in the lower mainland. Condos and other real estate are priced at a higher premium if they are located closed to skytrain and the Canada Line stations. Commuting in lower mainland by car is absolutely crazy. People that live in the suburbs out here would love to have fast transit that can take them to Vancouver if they were available. If transit were built out in the surburbs, they would certainly be used.

I didn't cherry pick anything. I just copied and pasted some lines. I could have copied and pasted the whole article but that would be silly. Why do think I provided the link. So folks can read it themselves.

1.1% is not considerably higher.

I suggest that Wilbur and Guard on Thee provide links to their resume that they might have posted on monster.com. Then we will know for sure that they aren't imposters. Oh wait, they might provide links to resumes that aren't theirs!

http://career-advice.monster.ca/salary-benefits/salary-information/salary-increase-forecast-canada-2014-ca/article.aspx Monster has put out an article forecasting wage increases for 2014. In summary: technology workers (+ 5.5%), oil sands employees (+4.2%), and financial professionals (+3.2%). Services (+3.3%), Credit Unions (+3.2 %), Chemicals (+3.1%) and Utilities (+3%) are industries forecasting increases that are higher than the national average. Overall, the private sector is expected to provide noticeably higher salary increases (+3%) than the public sector. Salary increases of 4% could be the norm for IT/software development. Administrative professionals are anticipated to rise an average of 3.5 per cent in 2014. Other higher than average sectors: chemicals (+3.3%), Business/professional services (at 3.2%) and private sector utilites (at 3.1%). If these increases were to occur each year over 4 years, they would be comparable to what the teachers are asking for and there is no reason to believe that this wouldn't occur.

You are right. A good read!

I have read that book, among others about Afghanistan, why my attachment to Afghanistan. But, thank you for the recommendation. Was a very good read. I highly recommend it to anyone here reading this thread.

I am specifically talking about Noah. There are no women mentioned in Noah at all. How can that possibly be??

I get they aren't in the private sector. they are public employees, teaching our kids. And they deserve to be paid just as much as other professional occupations. Do you not want your kids to be taught by the best teachers we can hire in BC?

I think to some small extent, it was worth it, just to give hope to women in Afghanistan. I hope that they do fight for their rights and their children's rights. But, I also believe that once we are gone, the Taliban is back at it. I'm not sure what else we can do to help the women and children of Afghanistan. We need to stop thinking of the men of their governance of the country. We need to give governance to the women of Afghanistan.

I get that. Your point?

I do feel that the afghanistan women would agree it was worth it and are horrified that the western countries are leaving. For a short period of time, they were able to attend school, etc. Unfortunately, the Taliban will quickly rule again.

So my question to you is "was it worth it'? for the Canadian Expedition?

Oh, I absolutely agree with you. The taliban are unfortunately making inroads again and the women in Afghanistan have warned about those exact actions happening again. It is very unfortunate. So again, was it worth it?

And I am deeply concerned for the women and children in Afghanistan, but at what cost should we help them? That is the bigger question.

Oh, that's interesting. I didn't hear about his relatives killed by a drone strike. That does put it into a better understand (not to say that it was right) but we need to remember the politics in another country. These were 2 women who were shot at point blank, the afghan interpreters and other afghan employees were left untouched. Why should we monitor these elections? What is in it for us? Should we sacrifice our countrymen's lives? These are all troublesome times in Afghanistan.

I wouldn't know where to begin to address this thread?

This has really turned into a complicated conversation.

Some of these responses make it seem like because they are 'teachers' they should sacrifice their wages and not expect to be paid comparable to professionals because they teach 'children'. Children are some of our most precious assets. Let's hope they get educated by the best teachers we can find.