cannuck

I look at it a bit differently: Being Premier is a paid job, and that job should have some holiday provisions. Where he takes those holidays is of no concern, but taking days he is paid to be on the job, I DO have a problem with. That said, communications in Costa Rica may well be sufficient for him to carry out his required duties. Now the little ***** in Ottawa: I would LOVE to see him take 10 months (or more) a year holiday in Costa Rica, without any phones or computers to distract him.

There was: Bernie. BUT, the left was so confused about which direction they were given by their handlers, they nominated the wrong candidate. Sanders would have caused some very good and very needed discussion on just how the economy works, for whom and why.

Yes, the Uniparty is definitely able to cede its power to Goldman Sucks regardless of who they have in the Whitehouse. Only Bernie Sanders had the sense to realize that. Not sure how Trump will deal with this (if at all) since he is not a wealth creator, just another wealth re-distributor.

I could have cared one way or another about Trump - until I saw how he got under the media and left-winger's skin. Now I love him. While he is not even looking at the biggest underlying problems in the US, at least he is putting the predatory trading nations on notice that their free ride on the backs of American consumers is coming to an end. About time. What DOES worry me is that Obama ran up more debt than the rest of all US Presidents combined, and Trump seems to want to carry on the drunken sailor spending habits. What the election demonstrated is the the US electoral system represents its style of democracy, and even the Democrats can't seem to live with that. Reality TV has never been better.

No actual food scientist (or those from many other disciplines) ever bought into the eggs and butter BS. That started from one extremely flawed "study" in the '30s funded by those who would go on to establish processed food products (margarine at the top of that list). Don't sell science short if you don't bother to pay attention, inform yourself and know about it. There were comments about the government determining what is and is not good for us (nutritionally). It just so happens, that in Canada we not only have a large sick care business, but we actually have some genuine health care. Much of that is provided by...wait for it...our government. The beauty of having such an impartial body is that it is, well, impartial. Particularly free of the bias of industry that you cite (correctly) about our sources of "scientific" missinformation. While nothing is perfect, we have a very good source of information from Health Canada in the form of the Canada Food Guide. I have access to some pretty dedicated and motivated people in food science, and they tell me the CFG is usually out of date by a bit, but overall, not bad information at all.

well, Dr. Spin, that is the choice the left has made many, many times already.

I do work for several energy companies, and can tell you that NONE of them "skimp" on quality of pipelines, power lines, transformers, pumping stations, or ANY parts of their infrastructure. Contrary to the mindless blather of the eco-terrorists, doing so "for profit" is about as stupid as opposing pipelines on the basis of no intelligent or logical thought. Energy infrastructure companies, be they public, private or crown corporations are by the nature of the business in it for the very long haul. This isn't real estate where a developer can double his money in a single transaction - this is a highly competitive and regulated business where paybacks are measureed in DECADES, not years. Any kind of pre-mature failure costs a staggering amount of money, and is avoided at the construction phase by extreme attention to detail on quality and compliance with quality standards set by the project owner. Contractors who would take a shortcut "for profit" open themselves to mega lawsuits for the liability that comes along with the territory. How much do activists and activism cost? Just came back from the Manitoba Hydro Bipole 3 DC transmission line project. It will be a $5Bn project because the former NDP government could not face the activist and aboriginal difficulties of permitting the direct route from Keeyask Generating Station to the Riel Conerter Station - costing an extra $1Bn to the 1 million people in Manitoba. Instead, they chose to route the line down the same allowance of the first and second DC lines - bearing in mind that the third was built because a storm took out both lines in 2009 indicating a different route was needed for supply security reasons. That one single example cost them a thousand bucks a head for ever man, woman and child in MB - and since something less that 1 in 6 people actually do the productive work that pays the bills, that means each genuinely wealth creating person is on the hook for 6 grand.

I actually get asked this question a fair bit when working abroad. For expedience sake, I have a couple of canned answers: 1. When asked about a good purchase, and American will beam with pride at having got 3 of something for the price of one. A European will explain that it cost a lot more than what he had budgeted and took forever, but he got the best one he could find. Canadians are somewhere in between. 2. When an American comes to your country, he will immediately assume you should want to be just like him, and expect you to sign a contract so he can get along to make the next dollar. A Canadian will hang around long enough to get to know you and understand your culture, then try to come to an agreement you can both live with. 3. An American briefly in your country to sign a contract will mistake your good manners for as a sign of affection. A Canadian is more likely to become someone YOU would call a good friend. 4. Every American company will tell you that they are the best in the world (and a few percent of them actually are), but a Canadian company will be surprised to find that you know and value their product or service and maybe one in three who you encounter actually work at an internationally recognized level of great competence. 5. In academia (and other fields) a Canadian will follow the rules, and American will follow the money.

Let's just see what the Trump cabinet can and can not accomplish. IF he can put Pruit in EPA, that will signal something that US business has needed for a LL-OO-NN-GG time - bring that rogue band of loonies under control. Yes, every country needs to take care of its environment, but NOT at a rate and level that will make it uncompetitive and destroy its economy (the real economy that actually makes things and creates wealth, not the Casino Capitalist economy of Wall Street and big finance). I would like to think he could slay the Uniparty's biggest dragon (Goldman Sucks and Wall Street), but it looks as if he will have to stroke the kitty before it can be put in a bag and dumped in the river - IF he can get that far. I am liking this Trump guy more every day.

While I can agree 100% with this, reality is EVERY "economic development" officer at the federal, state/provincial or municipal level thinks jobs are "created" by luring big business into their back yard, and the principal tool they have to do so is $$$$ in tax breaks or outright gifts. Established business (Carrier as a good example) will simply put production wherever the best handout or tax regime might be. So will any other large company with the sales volume and resources to do so. Reality is: new growth and wealth being created comes from small business that grows and competes - but are in no condition financially to make big demands and move assets all over the globe. Essentially, what the hand-out morons do is bring a company in (or keep one) by making their neighbours and competitors subsidize them to do so. They are too lazy and too stupid to do their job in the best interests of the taxpayers who fund them. Now, Trumpet dropping the corporate tax rate is a pretty decent deal - because it SHOULD meet what I consider the ultimate measure of good legislation and policy: EVERY business will be on the same footing and enjoy the same advantage. I think the handouts to Carrier were really about a gesture in the VP elect's back yard to show some kind of meeting of election promise(s).

Quite true. One the Super Hornets, though, a significant portion of that production will be done no doubt in Quebec - as part of the Federal government's full time job of pandering to its every whim to keep them in confederation (and no doubt feed the machine that kicks back a significant amount of money to the political machine). We don't need an air superiority fighter, as our role is covered by MRCA far better. "Creating jobs" in Canada is just like Obama did with QE - brag about corporate welfare handouts deals.

Ever do any business in China??? You have no idea what protectionism looks like - and since China is a predatory trader and the one that has bankrupted the American economy, I am sad to say that counter-tarrifs on ANYTHING that is damaging the real US economy is fair game at this point. Yes, the may well cause a worldwide trade war and "depression", but that is something we need to hang on people who allowed trade without any kind of demand on equivalent standards being met by imported products and their production.

Argus: thanks for pointing that out. BUT: what makes you think that Trump is a "conservative"??

Canada will be hosed. Wongly, though, as we are the only people in NAFTA who actually play by the rules. The US has set itself up to be the target of very biased trade - particularly from China - and needs to get back to work and protect what little is left of the capitalist economy. It is granting Wall Street unlimited privilege to play at Casino Capitalism under the very mistaken belief in speculative gains as "economic activity" that exacerbates the situation.

I can sympathize with your feelings, but Aid to Civil Power has been a longstanding part of Canadian Armed Forces policy (actually law). We don't hesitate to call our reserves or regular forces for floods and fires, but I don't think we should have politicians rattling that sword vis-a-vis citizens who are not terrorists (yet?).

My problem with going cashless is that it takes to the extreme the ability of banksters to charge whatever they want to your account, each transaction, or for access to the system. Just a socialism fails due to the greed of those granted privilege, capitalism has deteriorated greatly because we have granted virtually unlimited privilege for financial institutions to have an unregulated orgy of greed - with we peons as the ultimate victims. Also: what I find doubly alarming is that consumers/taxpayers do not seem to realize that increasing the money supply in ANY form is increasing the debt to the taxpayers to make good on the value of whatever the chosen marker might be. We let the Casino Capitalist side of finance redistribute TRILLION$$ into their world of synthetic instruments through this privilege of unregulated (and often unknown) financial activity.

It is every bit as "Canadian" as GM or Ford is "American" or Volkswagen is "German". Just think Ford, Durant, Stronach.

But, no one company moreso that Magna - that is very international and very Canadian (although now traded NYSE as well as TSE).

The largest independent supplier of automotive sub-assemblies (to the world, I believe) is...wait for it...Canadian (Stronach). In spite of the massive difference in population the automobile trade is much more in balance, as it is at the OEM and tier 1 supplier level, not consumer only.

irrelevant amounts compared with what we sell to and buy from the US. Latest numbers I could easily find were for 2012, not that much different today I expect. Table 26 Major goods trading partners, 2010 Exports Imports Trade balance $ millions Total 404,834 413,833 -8,999 United States 296,672 259,953 36,719 Japan 9,717 10,067 -351 United Kingdom 16,986 9,561 7,425 Other European Union countries 19,476 30,788 -11,313 Other OECD countries 17,908 29,013 -11,105 Other countries 44,076 74,451 -30,375 Note: Balance of payments basis. Source: Statistics Canada, CANSIM table 228-0003.

Because we don't sell diddly squat to Uganda or China. We share an economy with an elephant that is 10x our size and by far our dominant markeplace. That is reality.

Hmmm. Let me see: the US industry is where that vast majority of cars and trucks are made and sold on this continent, and those we make are exported in great quantities into that market. So we - a deficit financed nation that depends on exports for the preciously small value added component of our resources are supposed to create a complete new set of rules different from our primary market? Why? Just so we can employ more left-leaning (and voting) bureaucrats? Or just because you think our taxes are not high enough and we are doing too much export business now?

If we spent as much time, money and effort solving the problems of sick care instead of naval gazing over metrics, politics and the rest of the BS, we might not be in such bad shape. BTW: for reference - my niece's Mother-in-law died this week in the waiting line. Since she is an OBG (and her husband a DDS), pretty much tells you that not even being "inside" the system can solve your family's sick care problems.

To show you just how dogmatic the current federal socialist party is about sick care, you will notice Phillpot attacking Saskatchewan's simple solution to MRI wait times. We allow a private MRI to be done by a private, fee-for-service clinic, and in exchange, the clinic must provide one matching MRI for free to the public waiting line. Simple, effective, cost the taxpayer nothing - but SAVES the taxpayer an amount equal to every private MRI performed. On top of that: does what the federal idiots can not seem to do - dramatically reduces wait times for EVERYONE. What seems to be well beyond Phillpot and Trudeau's obviously limited intellectual capacity is that all of those people who are freely choosing to buy private MRI services are going to do this anyhow. If they can not do it at home, they will go to AB or MN or wherever else they can find a free country to support with their $$$$. I suppose it is in honour the JT's idol's death this week that they are now attacking everything and anything that Castro would not have approved.

Good discussion so far, but there is one thing missing on the coal front. The genre of truly mindless tree hugging seems to need some incredibly simplistic theme to carry on their war against common sense. It has been consistent: all nuke = bad, all pipelines = bad, all coal = bad - when in reality, the associated technologies have most of the answers to accomplish for real much of what this misguided mindset thinks will come from bottling unicorn farts. Let's start with the real elephant in the corner of the room. Most of these so-called "green" technologies are all centered around continuing to live exactly as we do - wasting energy, resources, our future at an astounding, and totally unsustainable rate. Part of it is population based, and a good bit more is based upon the expectation of each emerging economy to be just like the developed nations who set the pace of waste and excess. Each newly developing economy - China now, India tomorrow and Africa next week - will duplicate exactly what we did (rape and pillage resources in a filthy mess of low-tech emissions). Until we gain the sense to deal with these issues, the rest is not that important - it is only going to delay the inevitable. So, if we keep on down this road of trashing the technologies we know to cling to some that are very tenuous at best, we will trash the economies that have to work well to be able to afford the real solutions that MUST be found. We can't waste our opportunity to avoid the inevitable instead of just delaying it. It is not about using nuclear power, petroleum resources or transporting them in the safest way possible (i.e. pipelines), it is in HOW we use these resources and how much of them we continue to use. Nuclear tech is in the process of commercializing technologies that will cut spent fuel down more than 100 fold and operate fail-safe. Clean coal technologies already exist, but hardly anyone actually uses them. Just as we have dropped automobile emissions dramatically, we can cause the same to happen from coal fired plants by simply requiring the emissions to meet regulatory standards that will need full blown CCT. The CO2 side is easy - sequestration. BTW: if you ever wonder why Brad Wall is so much in Trudeau's face over this carbon tax thing, there is really only ONE coal plant in the world that is using every available clean coal technology - and it is Saskpower's Boundary Dam retrofit. Yes, it has cost a great deal of money, and no, it is not yet fully operational - but no project that is breaking this much new ground ever gets built without some complications. The thing is, when you realize how many new coal fired plants are being built around the world, if you want to have any real environmental impact, you/we need to spend our time, money and vision on solving the problems that are real and current, not tilting at windmills (sorry for the alternate energy joke, but it was irresistible). In the megawatt + wind turbine business, for instance, Canada is not even a bit player. But, we (and I mean the "we" in Saskatchewan) are ideally positioned to lead the world in CCT technology - since this is the first place with the balls to put the cash on the line to do it full scale. Let the countries that have the cash or who are willing to bankrupt their grandchildren's future chase down the holy grail of alternatives. We need to use a bit of common sense and just take advantage of the reality that is right before us and solve the problems that fit into the current reality of the infrastructure we have.