cannuck

While little tur....TRUdeau...is simply an airhead (and I suspect pothead during his teens, otherwise how else could one account for the level of brain damage?) what is really dangerous is Goodale. Junior and the newbies in cabinet are but puppets in the hands of the Lib old guard - that is still clinging to the traditions of their Communist Party member and idealog - Saint Pierre.

Yet we stand idly by and watch our noble government import thousands of them into Canada - and claim that they will fit in just fine.

I am a Canadian citizen and resident, but most of my business is located South of the 49th. That probably destroys my objectivity as a "foreign" observer. However: I do have an opinion (as a Canadian) of what US politics is all about. First of all, the Constitution is a fantastic piece of work crafted by some very smart men...a very long time ago. The party "purists" take a hard line about following it, and, for the most part, that is very appropriate. If only the democratic part was still democratic, instead of a front for "rule-by-special-interest". Most Canadians see two parties, I see just one. All of the partisan bickering is nothing but a front for the golden rule (he who has the gold, makes the rules). Goldman Sucks has bought every administration for the last several decades, lock stock and barrel (not a second amendment joke, but I'll take the giggles anyhow). The administrative part of government has grown into a massive self-serving bureaucracy that is out of control of politics, since politics is busy listening to lobbyists and donors instead of constituents. The business of government at the legislative level has become to dispense privilege at the order of the political machine. I see a country that is trying to cling to the long dead glory of its productive years, with politicians now so focused on plundering the corpse, nobody is dealing with the real problems (and there are some REAL problems). It is appropriate that a reality TV personality is now running the show - and I am hopeful for the country as he has at least put on the table for discussion and hopefully action some of the things that really need to be addressed (influence by the Liberal/Globalist media being one of them). What is entertaining is watching the Democrats and their media bosses squirm. For example, BOTH sides of the Uniparty had a very long time to do something about North Korea. What they did was send over reactors and billion$$$ that resulted in a rogue nuclear power. Trump for all of this theatrics have brought the NoKo leadership to the table...for the first time. Three decades of trade screw-ups and imbalance have knackered the US economy. The Uniparty knew it, and what did they do about it? Trump called it on the money. Your damned right US politics is interesting...as it determines what happens to the largest (and still leading) economy in the world and Canada's largest trade partner and closest ally.

You are preaching to the choir. NOTHING makes me more upset that driving down a US interstate and seeing exactly the same load going one way as the other. Then one starts to think: all of this trucking is going on because we can't be bothered to manufacture diddly squat on a local basis, where only some raw materials need to be moved in bulk, but we let the cheap labour in another country take resources shipped often from here, to there, made into a lot of garbage quality products and just load up our landfills much faster. The displaced workers get to be greeters at WalMart to watch what was once their jobs go out of the door all day long. Sorry, waste really gets me wound up. Two comments, though: One of the problems with the anti-carbon and alternative fuels business is that we expend massive amounts of resources to figure out how we can continue to waste even more energy doing the stupid things we do now to a greater extent. Seems impossible to get the human animal look at the real problems and do something about it. Which brings me to the second: this is a really nice 1Bn or so planet. How does anyone expect our species to be sustainable when we are closing in on 8Bn and reproducing like rabbits?

I applaud the Prime Minister for his restraint in this matter. I suppose the real story is they couldn't afford the royalties to get the rights to Khadr's image.

I don't think you fully appreciate the SIZE of the Athabasca Oil Sands. At the very least (what can be produced from existing technologies) it is greater than the deposits of the Middle East. On the other end of the calculations: future technologies could give access to the rest of the deposit that is probably greater than all of the hydrocarbon reserves of the rest of the planet. Reality is: the end of cheap oil is just around the corner, but hardly the end of petroleum. While energy sources will likely shift to renewables and alternatives (which pisses me off instead of simply learning how to reduce consumption - we are just looking for other ways to continue wasting energy at an ever increasing rate). While we still have a carbon economy (and make no mistake, that is exactly what we have and will have for a very long time to come) Alberta might as well cash in on the shift to expensive oil - that is exactly what the Oil Sands is - plays right into its economic hand. What NEEDS to be done, though, is limit exports to synthetic crude, not dilbit.

The KM pipeline feeds Husky and Chevron (now Parkland) refineries that fuel most of BC. The slight excess capacity in the pipeline goes to the export terminal.

Contracts made by a foreign power? You want to believe it.

I think you heart is in the right place, you just need to get your mind to catch up with reality. Yes, the culture that ONCE defined First Nations did have a great deal to offer the world. To survive as hunter-gathering peoples (and I can only speak for plains and subarctic tribes) there was a need and a defacto society that was not self-reliant, but co-reliant. Families took care of any children who were around. There was no idea of individual property, everyone simply shared what was available (which is why we have so much trouble in our property-centric society in understanding why what we determine to be theft would simply have been tolerated as "he must have needed it"). In my younger years I would spend months in the bush with aboriginal friends and customers who still clung to those ancient values. Tolerance was one of the absolute #1 factors. To earn respect, you had to be true to your word, respectful and helpful to your neighbour and community and most of all, be able to laugh at yourself and not take things too seriously. The creation of reserves and granting of treaty rights were meant to allow this society and culture to be physically capable of surviving as such. Segregation WAS part of the white conquerer's natural and normal racist tendencies, but it was with some good intention and reason that things were organized to allow the aboriginal faction to survive without having to integrate. That is NOT what current leaders are trying to accomplish. Listen to what is being said. They are looking for economic benefits and advantages to be able to have a genuine western capitalist pig lifestyle but without the need to go out and make the sacrifices, do the work and take the risks that the rest of the world must do. This new and very different culture of the "1st nations" uses the kind of top down, entitled, dictatorial kind of government that is surprisingly similar in charactaristics and flaws to those in sub-Saharan Africa. If you want another Nigeria/Somalia/Uganda/Zimbabwe/etc. within our borders, just continue following the mindless path of pacification and pandering that the politically correct bozos from BOTH of the leading national parties, and that is exactly what we will get.

You are living in the past. There is nothing, nor has been for generations forcing anyone to stay on reserve. One thing I can tell you: give me the amount of unaccountable money it takes to sustain someone living hundreds or thousands of kms away from the bulk of the population and transportation links, and I would not be a success, I would be nothing but a welfare case - just like any other ward of the state or any government employee or institution. Business in general and entrepreneurs in particular simply don't work that way. Since you raise the point though, let me share some experiences. About 40 years ago I was enroute from my home in the Thompson to Winnipeg. When I landed for fuel in Norway House, the power was off so I couldn't get gas. While waiting, the Manitoba Hydro guys had chartered the Aztek based there to go to another community that also had no power. I was asked to ride right seat, so climbed aboard for the trip. On the way the Hydro guys told me the story: they pay a staff of people to monitor the diesel genset that powers that community but none of those paid to do so ever bother to actually do ANYTHING such as read the fuel or oil levels or top them off. They just radio out to tell Hydro when the power goes out. When we landed I was told to stay and guard the airplane - otherwise the avgas would be drained from every tank before we got back, and it would not be safe for me to be there, as they only needed the Hydro guys to get power on, not me for any reason. Almost 20 years ago we (JV) built a portable (skid) sub station and supplied a power transformer for one of the Ontario reserves North of Red Lake (up in Treaty 5 country). The purpose was to tap into the nearby transmission lines so this community and two nearby could have much cheaper and more reliable line power instead of off grid diesel gensets. When we arrived with the transformer, it had to be placed off reserve. When I asked why I was told that if it was on one reserve, they would turn the power off to the next one down the line when tribal disputes or just a lost hockey game could get them wound up. We placed, assembled, filled and tested the transformer and left it until the substation skid was delivered. For nearly a year we did not get paid for the sub. When we investigated, the excuse was that the power was not coming down the line. When we investigated further, we found that the transformer and substation had been vandalized to the point where they were both beyond salvageable. Five hours up an ice road, do you think "whitey" drove up there to do that? Yeah, he drove up there and spent millions to give the aboriginal reserve grid power, but the respect shown for that effort was to dodge paying the bill....all the while you can believe the Chief and Council were quite contentedly driving around their shiny new Cadillac (actually Expeditions then), living in their free home, and taking air taxi out to collect their per diems for endless meetings about nothing. Almost two decades later, that reserve still is not on the grid. Welcome to one small slice of reality.

Land is the surface, not the mineral rights. Charter DOES alway apply to you, but some idiots think they can give one class of Canadians "extra special rights" not available to others. It might work in the short term with political correctness dominating Ottawa thinking but in the end it will fail. There is simply no way that having multiple "sovereign nations" within one nation is workable or sustainable. Treaties are irrelevant to us.

First of all, the resources in Canada belong to Canada. The original treaties gave rights to fishing and hunting, not mining. IMHO, those who have negotiated comprehensive claims have far over reached their authority when it comes to resources. When it comes to producing resources, the people who make billions are also putting billions at risk to earn them. It is no different from what happens on ANY other crown lands. There is nothing to stop you or anyone else from founding a federal political party and running for office, but that would be subject to running within an established constituency. As a member of a rump party, you would have as much impact as BQ....i.e. none. But go ahead, knock yourself out.

THAT would be a divisive and failing move. What we need to do is NOT polarize politics into special interest groups (such as the amalgamation of the CCF with the Canadian Labour Congress to form the NDP). That would once again set Saskatchewan into a flight-of-capital mode the could last decades before the world could trust our government once again and return to our province. Everyone seems to think we have been surging ahead of the rest of the country for the last 10/15 years, but in reality we were just playing catch-up from a half century failure in political experimentation. If you want to make a difference take a look at which parties have been able to SUCCESSFULLY do anything for Saskatchewan, vs. do things TO us and join that party (which, at this time would fairly obviously be the Saskatchewan Party). I know your participation would be welcome. If you mean federally (as it appears you did) more of the same would apply, except that there are two viable parties. To form a racially defined special interest party it would NEVER get to be government thus be able to have ministers or "co-ministers". Come to think of it: you should run for leader of the Liberal Party of Canada....they NEED someone with at least one foot planted firmly in reality.

What I have seen is that if you come from a reserve, an inner city a country or whatever where you will be housed and paid whether you have a job or not you will not have that very strong drive to better yourself because it will not mean surviving or perishing. People are social animals, and the tendency is to do the group-think thing. If the society in which you live doesn't place any value on being productive and getting some kind of career or business life, it is very easy to simply get in sync with those around you and fit in. In some reserves that DOES mean getting an education, a trade or a career, an on others it can be spending a life in crime, violence, alcohol and drug abuse. In THOSE reserves the people who want to get ahead usually get out rather than lifting the rest of their peers up to their level. On many reserves, where Chief and council help themselves to endless rewards well out of what would be normal for their responsibilities it does nothing to inspire people to lie cheat and steel as THAT is the example their leaders provide (gee that reminds me so much about Wall Street but for another day). You can''t just blame whitey for this situation and you can't just lump every band into the same pot either. BUT we really need to stop repeating the same mistakes over and over and expecting a different outcome.

Most of the people I know who have used Mayo paid out of pocket. The sick care system does allow for referrals and full payment to just about anywhere in the world, but it very seldom happens for diagnostic services. The only one of which I am personally aware was a severely disabled fellow (due to work injuries) who was found by a person who is a very capable workers's comp adversary (advocate to those misstreated) who made such a compelling case for the abuses of this person's' rights that he embarrassed them into paying for a trip to Mayo, and the subsequent referral to a clinic in FL that did what is truly well out of scope for Canada and restored partial site from total blindness with some very advanced (at the time) stem cell therapy. We have universal insurance, and a few options on service delivery, but very few health regions will reach outside of the comfort zone by very much. MOST things depend upon procedures that are "insured" (i.e. approved by the provincial college of physicians and surgeons) at the prescribed rate of compensation. Reaching out to US is complicated and expensive (but still possible).

Kinder Morgan has been shipping crude oil and refined product from the existing pipeline of for decades. The Asians have been drinking it, not the salmon.

And you don't think the millions of cars and trucks on the road, the hundreds of thousands of building, the road and rail infrastructure, and everything else everyone in BC has and does every moment of every day has not encroached significantly on the "natural beauty:????????? I think it is poetic justice that the NDP government of one province has to threaten the NDP government of another one when faced with the harsh economic reality that Alberta has no resources on tidewater. Turning down the oil flow to the BC refineries would not be my plan, turning it OFF is. I would guess that about 1 week until the inventories are gone and BC will have had enough "natural" living in a few short hours. It is probably worth noting that BC was fine with ripping out all of the virgin timber and shipping it out as logs or cants, making a HELL of a mess of their land and waterfront. The very minor and temporary disturbance of a few pipelines and the slight increase in the marine traffic pales by comparisson. BTW: I AM on board with NOT allowing dilbit (dilluted bitumen) to be shipped, though. I believe it would be a PITA but bery good in the long run for AB economy to require value added to upgrade unconventional reserves to syncrude (Synthetic Crude) status before allowing it to be exported. We have to learn how important value added is to develop our economy. Not to mention how much safer it is to transport.

Good point. As reserves belong to the crown, it is not that easy to do. HOWEVER: that would be nickel and dime compared with the resource revenues that ARE accumulating to bands that have made land claim settlements or other resource sharing deals.

Please explain

Near Saskatoon. Boil water advisories apply to reserves and small towns all accross Canada. We had a business associate from Ireland during the construction boom period who brough in some trades, but wanted to introduce some rock crushing technology. What came with that was exceedingly good water treatment technology that was demonstrated in SK, and then Potlotek in NS. It is all tied up in the federal bureaucratic BS because of course, water on reserve is a federal responsibility, and you then must deal with the :"Indian Industry" cadre of consultants, etc. that suck all of the money out without putting diddly squat that works back in.

First of all: the crime, employment and incarceration numbers for aboriginal Canadian, particularly on reserve, is very similar to US inner cities, sub-Sahran Africa and a number of other places. Similar seems to be the case with leaders having access to resources and helping themselves to whatever they please at the expense of their subjects. What was said earlier "to have a purpose" is very much on target. The idea mentioned that Canada should be returned to its "rightful owners" us preposterous. "Ownership" never was part of aboriginal culture, but territoriality of bands was. Again, rather than trying to claim Canada is something different from the rest of the world, we need to look at how populations have migrated for millenea. If the host country resisted migration, there was conflict. When the conflict concluded someone was the ":winner: and that gave the the right to rule and determine what laws would exist and how they could be applied. The business of "owning" property is a creation of what has evolved over centuries with capitalist systems where individuals HAVE rights to "own" property. That system did NOT exist on this continent when aboriginals occupied Canada, just as it did not exist in Communist USSR or China - until they joined the rest of the world in a property owning society and culture. There is no inherent "right" to ownership, as ownership did not exist and again as in other countries, the change to ownership was decided under the authority of the state. The British, however, DID have a system that recognized personal property and state-owned property - and as a result, when they negotiated treaties, aboriginal leaders signed away much of the territories they occupied in exchange for certain things, including to be able to live on a reserve owned by the crown. When it appears there is a legitimate claim, the state has in many cases and continues to negotiate land claim settlements under the law that exists in this country. Why did I go through all of that? Precisely to point out that a reserve is NOT the property of the band but a place where the state is responsible for the welfare of its treaty inhabitants. treaty Indians have not be forced to stay on reserve for many decades now, nor are inner city residents of the US required to stay in ghettos. One must first recognize that while it may be difficult to break with the status quo there is nothing physical or legally binding on residents to remain in an environment that fosters dependence, poverty, violence, crime, abuse, etc. The culture of first nations today was decided by the English conquerers and aboriginal leaders of another millenia. It persists to this day largely because the infrastructure to exploit this very large level of tax dollar funded spending has a nice, comfortable life provided by maintaining the status quo. Step number one is to eliminate the free ride for those who rob the system and process blind (something like 70% of all such money never sees a living, breathing aboriginal ordinary citizen. There is a overall concept of self-government for first nations, both from the state's official perspective and from aboriginal leadership. If you want to see genuine self government, IMHO, the right solution is to agree on what benefits in value are due to each status member, and cut them a cheque each month. The band and its nation can then tax back what they need from members, and be held accountable to THEM.

middle of SK. Usually when visiting the Treaty Commissioners office. Meeting aquaintances from my previous business - dealing with nearly 100 first nations (and often their leaders) from 4 provinces. Helping a business friend with 1st nations potable water issues. Sitting down with one of my best friends of the last 50 years (national leader).

Pone I can not offer the support of Betsy's link, but just a note of caution. I have done support for a patient's activist group and saw how the medical profession can throw up a "green wall" when defending their members. Also, the "popularity" of those members within the College of Physicans and Surgeons plays a big part. I have seen a totally incompetent surgeon who was caught drunk as a skunk in surgury - but the consequences were for the guy who turned him in to get run out of town, and he carried on as usual - part of being in the core of the "old boys'' club". You need to know your enemy better before you go after him. If they can afford it (and that really IS a big "if") diagnosis at its finest comes from the Mayo Clinic. We do NOT have anything equivalent in Canada and I don't think any health region will refer you there and pay the bill. I have seen some really incompetent attempts to diagnose in a few places in Canada, and the patients had gone from one quack...er "DOCTOR" to another within their health disrict and had HORRIBLE results (multiple ridiculous diagnoses WITH follow in inappropriate treatment - one of which was to cut off the patient's leg when an "out of scope" diagnosis and treatment had him walk into the meeting with Minister and our group all on his own). Pretty much every case I have seen that got to Mayo (including some referred and paid under our universal sick care system) has offered conclusive diagnosis and referral to the very best of people who specialized in treatment. Nothing is medicine is 100%, but there certainly are situations such as you cite that can be 99% wrong.

Again, a cause that YOU assume to be based on race. The law makes no such assumption. Yes, Trudeau and his justice Minister do, but they are walking examples of rampant racism pretending to be some holier-than-thou types.

The problem is that juries are selected by the law, and aboriginals either don't bother to show up for selection or don't meet selection criteria. It is the same process, the same rules for EVERYONE who goes to court. Claiming that someone has some special privilege to have a jury that is racially to their liking is racist BS at its best.