cannuck

Nor do they "NEED" to learn science, history, music, etc. Contrary to a much earlier post in this thread, education is NOT about being employable, it is about making a person well rounded individual who may appreciate being able to learn further. Language skills just happen to contribute a great deal to that process. Vocational education is all about employment, and that is why we tend to have very narrowly focused (or unfocused) professionals in our lives. Universities have deteriorated to the point where many faculties have become mere extensions of the community college system. People with professional degrees who went there just to pass the tests and be graduated as an "xx" professional tend to be pretty much useless in the real world because they lack the understanding of the scientific concepts of the technology that they use in their profession. This is something I have heard time and again from academia - 99% of the class just want to get to the end of the course, not learn the actual material and I see in the field when some academic whiz kid in one discipline hasn't got a clue how all of the rest of the science and technology in the equipment we support works - and when it is deeply needed to understand what problem we are chasing. One of my kids stopped teaching at nearby U as soon as her research was complete. Reason? You guessed it: sick of kids in her classes who had no interest in learning. My experience is that European schools do better at this, and Asian schools lag behind even North America.

Thanks for that link. Will be interesting to follow. I spend most of my time in some very red states, but have as well interests in the Big Apple. I have to reluctantly agree with Mr. Silver's software. While log leg....er Ms. Clinton is probably the most reviled candidate in the Midwest/West since Obama (and with good reason - she is dangerous to the US as has been each of the last 8 or so from the Uniparty), sadly the coastal states are home to liberalism in the extreme, urbanised populations (read: dependent) and will be moved by both sides of the Uniparty to maintain the status quo. The parts of the US where people actually work for a living and take responsibility for themselves are simply no longer a sufficiently large part of the population. While the press is making a lot of the Republican's disdain for their star candidate, I think (sincerely hope) that the people will listen to Trump and remember the words of Bernie Sanders and realize the Uniparty has led the economy from the absolute top of the heap to a rotting corpse being picked at the the Asian crows. Sounds as if all foreign policy will continue to be written by Tel Aviv and all monetary and economic policy will come straight out of Goldman Sucks. Sad part is: they will continue to drag us down with them.

Being rejected by the Republican Party is clear evidence that, for once, the Yanks have a candidate NOT from the Uniparty mainstream. Since he has never been a wealth creator, he is not my hero, but if he has the stones to shake up the Beltway and Wall Street, he could precipitate the saving of the US economy from the (Chinese made) dumpster. BTW: the fat lady won't be singing, she's running against Trump

I am always impressed by Euro kids who come out of B School speaking four or five languages fluently. Without those skills, they are relegated to a very short career path in the EEC. In the world of business, when you start crossing borders, you really need to know the other language(s). Now, since Canada's myopic view of the world features only the USA, in particular Wall Street, it would seem more useful for kids to be taught Spanish or Hebrew than French, but the preponderance of business that is handed whilly nilly to Quebec from our massively bloated government really means they need to have French as well. I agree with the previous posts, though: if you raise your children with the goal of being a Walmart greeter, they can get by with English just fine. My wife is the educator in our clan (one of several, but the leading light). When we were wee tykes, she took the trouble to explain to me what skills achieved in learning language (and music) mean to a child's future abilities with science and math. So, when we got married and had a family, our kids were raised with French as a first language and a very heavy music curriculum going back to infancy. We are genuine Anglos,.so it took a bit of effort. To those who learned French and can't be bothered to continue to speak: ANYWHERE in Canada, there is great access to print and video in French. Our grandkids watch French TV, internet sites and read French books living in the middle of a Mennonite community. I laugh at that, since one of my Uncles who worked in Foreign Service after retiring from the military picked up new languages before his assignments by buying comic books (as most were written for kids in those days). Even a linguistic ignoramus (such as myself) can stumble through just about any language at a very basic level with not too much effort. BTW: our kids speak: eldest - French/English/Math/Music (yes, the last two are "languages" in character), youngest fluent in French/English/Spanish/Ukrainian/music and conversant in German/Greek/Swahili. They spent a long time (21 years) studying mostly sciences and use their language skills regularly. Little kid recently applied for a super-plum position and was immediately moved to the short list - and they cited her genuine fluency in language rather than stumbling ineptitude of other applicants. It is anything but a government job. I guess the point I am trying to make is that adding a language (or more) to a child's education can be a key part in teaching them to love learning - and THAT IMHO is the ultimate goal. So, while I may be somewhere right of Ghengis Khan in most views, I will gladly pay the bill for language instruction for other people's kids, as it makes them a far better student and contributes to making Canada a better country.

Actually, there is. We call it the national debt.

What's "wrong" with that is it would cut out the "indian industry" - the army of government bureaucrats, their consultant and lawyer friends and the rest of the hangers-on who suck the guts out of the bux that flow exclusively to the chiefs and councils, seldom if ever landing in the hands or to the benefit of a single band member. Ever wonder why with billion$$$ a year going into IAF (whatever they call it today) there is still massive unemployment, housing and infrastructure deficiencies and rampant poverty on reserves?

I know that YOU know that if someone wants to keep the record of how benefits are bestowed, they don't send it in form of personal payments that will trigger a T1, nor necessarily by becoming a visible shareholder in a related entity. Conflict of interest is usually much more subtle, but extremely effective. That is why it needs to be explored and revealed under oath and by looking at the bank and GL, not just the balance sheet and P&L. THAT is what should trigger questions under oath.

We are not their employer. They are OUR representatives to the world and to the future law and regulations that we must support and obey.

Thing is, the information to which you (and most of the rest of the post) allude is NOT on a tax return. It is altogether the wrong document. I agree we need a very high level of transparency from ANY elected OR APPOINTED public functionary. There should be a public interest oversight body that gets to review submitted financial statements, demand what is within their limits and release ONLY the condensed information that fits into being within the public interest. that would include where did any money and how much came in to ANY controlled or affiliated entity, as well as personally to the party in question. THAT is where conflicts of interest could be revealed, not in a tax filing.

Because of the asses he kissed internationally, we can assume he was part of the problem, not the solution.

Could care less about BS and double talk. This is an elected official and if he has been involved in criminal acts that is all I need to know (and as taxpayers, we NEED to know that).

and, just who is going to write that curriculum? The same "professionals" who now know how to precisely measure something they do not at all understand? These are the morons (note: most seats in economic academia seem to be sponsored by banks) who think government can spend its way to prosperity. The sole function of this discipline is to maintain Casino Capitalism. About the only professional more incompetent and just plain stupid would be a civil engineer who would put steel rebar in concrete.

There IS an important issue there. Did our elected official ply out his addiction with legal substances such as alcohol or prescribed drugs or did he see fit to sustain his addiction by illegal means?

The law of Canada is what Canadians make it. The idea that some religious cult spewing its endless hate and BS could in any way make a legal precedent is ludicrous. MOST Canadians discovered just what the Vatican is made of from Mount Cashel (the one in Newfoundland, not the one in Ireland). We don't HAVE a "constitution" as Quebec has yet to ratify it, so at least for now, the BNA actually has legal precedent - except we don't even choose to follow the real law when administering to Canada. The concept of civil war with a group of people who have a tribal culture that accommodates administrative corruption long before social welfare or productive enterprise is laughable. Go and live on a reserve for a while and come back to me on that one. They could only wage civil war if we were to give them the funding and fight it for them. Not too many bureaucrats in the Indian Industry have the balls to pick up a weapon and use it. Moving refugees onto reserves is probably the best thing we could do for our aboriginal population. Having some role models who can get off of their ass and work for a living would be diametrically opposite to the Indian Industry that survives by maintaining the status quo.

well, to begin with, kids don't learn to learn in kindergarten. They have by then already had the best 5 years of learning they will ever do. They don't need to be taught to learn. HOWEVER: they will indeed learn whatever we choose to teach them. I am not sure I have made it to "civilized" quite yet, but I do keep trying. I grew up on DND NATO bases, and thought I had a pretty good idea of what the world was all about. Decades of travel doing business in Europe, MENA, North Africa and Asia (particularly China) sure changed my perception. I had the fantastic good fortune to have mentors in several countries that were part of the fabric of the nation and some historically significant times and events. Civilization has many faces and interpretations, and I think part of becoming civilized is to learn to assess things from different perspectives.

That is why I would see the punitive capital gains tax be reduced over time to regular tax rate. big tax up front bumps the game players out and has investors in place instead of speculators. How quickly we forget the dotcom debacle when 90% of the companies were never intended to do anything except use up the IPO funding while the street ran them up, cashed out and dumped the loss on the hoardes of suckers who came to the Casino late.

Once corporate taxes are paid, dividends are distributed from a tax paid source. Taxing the shareholder is a penalty on them for investing in what might well be a wealth-creating venture. it is double taxation. If capital gains are taxed properly (I am thinking 99% on first month then tapering down over ten or more years to corporate or personal rate) money will be invested in capitalistic enterprise (adding value to resources - i.e. making things, doing things) vs. casino capital play (speculating on the change in price of stock due to hype, greed, all of the things that have no relation to creating wealth, just re-distributing). Main Street has essentially been de-funded due to the orgy of speculative activity (never mind derivatives, yet another topic).

You seem to want to lump education with intellect - and that is in no way true. Best example: we have elected people who are by most standards "well educated" to run Canada - but you can see that their intellectual prowess is pretty much completely lacking. Give me a simpleton with the common sense to avoid doing incredibly stupid things that they have been educated to do - any time.

I think the last 7 months of government is adequate evidence that a significant portion of cabinet must be doing a lot of drugs.

To Argus' original post: Immigration: Our immigration policy sucks the big one. As has been pointed out: we are focused on bringing in the wrong people. Lest nobody happened to notice: we speak English and French here - because were are essentially a European country (culturally). Europe is being ripped apart now by its idiotic immigration patterns. We are culturally diverse, and that is "interesting" in both good and bad ways, but why would you want to destroy the very fabric of our society for some mindless trip through political la-la land?? re post 26, aboriginals: Origin al treaties were not from Canada, but from UK. We would be complete fools to take them verbatim - but we have gone even further and expanded things such as "basic literacy" in education to mean a life long free pass to attend any level of any institution and get paid a boatload of money to bring your whole family along for the ride. And on it goes. The "whites" around Winnipeg don't employ aboriginals because over the last two centuries, they have learned that the probability of them coming to work is exceedinly close to zero. Head for your nearest Northern reserve and see what business is there. Outside of the Northern store (formerly the Hudson's Bay company) and a few drug dealers, there aren't any. Even aboriginals don't hire aboriginals. Why do you suppose white guys should? The horror stories of housing are a double edged sword: the Indian Industry (both on reserve and on the Hill) shove Southern drywall shacks onto the reserves under the noses of people who are largely unemployed and surrounded by woodlands from which they could use that resource to build unlimited housing to their own liking and benefit. But: do you see anyone getting of their ass and doing so? Cut the BS out, give each treaty number a cheque from the feds and let them self-govern by taxing back what they need to provide whatever services - social and otherwise - their elected officials deem appropriate. sick care: we do a reasonable job of health care, and could do a lot more and better. BUT: we do a mediocre job of sick care since we live too close to the Yankee Doodle Dandies who think everything is a business. Every other developed nation knows full well that it is a social service, and should be treated as such. Most have private clinics and practitioners working alongside of public servants with same professional status. As I already mentioned: we are Europeans and need to behave like same, not Yanks - and many of the medical problems will be solved. re post 16, 17, 18 - economy: Surprise Argus missed this one, since without this being dealt with successfully, the rest is irrelevant. Again, we are too close to the Yanks, and have come to believe that Wall Street and Bay Street are part of a healthy economy. Nothing could be further from the truth. The majority of what they do is nothing but Casino Captialism, where wealth is redistributed, but seldom is any wealth created. That is why Manhattan is flying high while Main Street USA is in the toilet. AND, we are dead set (careful choice of words) on emulating. Solution is very simple: stop giving a free tax ride to speculative gains (in fact tax the shit out of it) and leave dividend income alone (i.e. no double taxation on it).

Thing is, it is NOT "our" money they are spending. We are long past broke and deeply in debt. It is our grandchildren's money and future they are pissing away. "Sunny ways" will be long gone before the bill comes due.

Since this thread has been totally derailed, I will tell you how my skiing buddy dealt with the last census. This guy hates government of any kind, having been USAF occupational forces after WWII and seeing the results of collapse followed by anarchy. So, filling out a census form was to him an incredible invasion of his privacy. Predictably, the phone rang, and some nice you woman informed him that he may be subject to severe penalties if he did not fill out his census. His reply was: "could you please send someone down here to fill it out?". Her reply was to the effect of why would they do that. He told her: "I hate to admit this to anyone, but I'm IGNORANT, I can't read nor write, so how can I fill out your form?". (Yes, he knows the correct term is "illiterate"). He was excused from filling out his census form. BTW: he celebrated his 94th birthday this spring, but we had no snow left to do our usual end-of-season ski trip.

As much as I admire his contributions of the past, he made a definite faux pas as an Ambassador - even though I am once more cheering for him.

Hey! I got it! Let`s send the refugees out to reserves. Our federal governments of every persuasion seem to want to give Canada to the aboriginals, so let`s REALLY give them a piece of the action. Let THEM take care of the refugees.