SpankyMcFarland
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Posts posted by SpankyMcFarland
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Spanky , your liberals cut the military by 30%, trying their best to bring it down enough that we could never afford to build it up again. That was a real hidden agenda, to destroy the military. It takes time and money to rebuild and since we are stuck with a incompetent bureaucracy, that can.t handle any big purchase anymore.
I think we need to admit that there is strong bipartisan, actually pentapartisan, support for keeping military spending very low in this country.
The Conservatives have had nine years to change direction and they have not done so. The US is not impressed.
BTW I have never been a member of a political party and I have voted both PC and Liberal in my time.
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And how did the Current host treat him?
In the past they would actively and obviously hate anybody like him.
Last crisis, which was about 1993 and oil was <$20 barrel, a newly elected Klein whacked expenses hard.
Prentice luckily has either course open to him- he can afford(politically and economcially) to raise taxes, cut costs or do both. He'll do both I think.
There have been musings about a sales tax, inlcduing from Prentice lately, but I think he will first and foremost abandon the flat tax for the standard progressive tax. That alone would balance the budget with $40 oil.
I thought she treated him pretty well - maybe a little flippant at the beginning but he did most of the talking.
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O'Toole is a good communicator who doesn't have to stick to the talking points. He is a huge improvement on Fantino. Politics is not for everybody, clearly.
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The oil crisis is going to bring about some dramatic changes in govt. policy in Alberta, probably including large tax increases. A party like Wildrose will have an opportunity to offer a different mix of responses, perhaps going more with spending cuts.
Prentice was impressive this am on The Current. There was implicit criticism of the fiscal management of the province since Lougheed's time.
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Harper the control freak, sounds a lot like chretien and even trudeau with what he has done so far. Harper the war monger, he has sent 12 or so planes with personal and some SFs, compared to chretien sending us to Afghanistan and martin ratcheting it up even more. The dictator, that sound s a lot more like trudeau himself again. So funny .
He wanted us to fight with Bush in Iraq. You do remember that, eh?
The paradox about Harper has been explained by Wells. He loves power more than policy. So all that Reform talk of openness and accountability has been binned and MPs now describe themselves as performing seals who might as well go home after the election. In Iraq we have six fighters trying to do their best. Canada's military spending is a national embarrassment. You'd think the leader of such a country would stay pretty quiet.
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Harper the control freak, sounds a lot like chretien and even trudeau with what he has done so far. Harper the war monger, he has sent 12 or so planes with personal and some SFs, compared to chretien sending us to Afghanistan and martin ratcheting it up even more. The dictator, that sound s a lot more like trudeau himself again. So funny .
He wanted us to fight with Bush in Iraq. You do remember that, eh?
The paradox about Harper has been explained by Wells. He loves power more than policy. So all that Reform talk of openness and accountability has been binned and MPs now describe themselves as performing seals who might as well go home after the election. In Iraq we have six fighters trying to do their best. Canada's military spending is a national embarrassment. You'd think the leader of such a country would stay pretty quiet.
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Go argue with the scientists, guys. There's no point scoring points against random loons like myself about 50 year averages of sea levels in Vancouver. The debate has moved on to protecting ourselves from the damage we have already caused and trying to minimize further problems.
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IPerhaps you can share something with me - and remember - I've already admitted to being a swing voter and would seriously consider voting for Garneau if he was leader. What I'm asking you is..... what is driving you to thinking that Harper would have such a negative effect on your freedoms. I just don't see it.
Well we're not talking the end of the world here, I'll grant you. My life will go on exactly the same whoever wins. However, I think he's had some effect on the atmosphere in the country e.g. CSEC, the census, the rows with the Supreme Court, robo-calls, the silencing of government scientists, the 'fair' elections act, the antics of Calandra et al in the House of Commons, the foreign policy lurches trashing Canada's traditional role as peacekeeper, the persecution of critics of Canada's so-called environmental policy, the opposition to needle exchange programs, the neutralizing of MPs and their committees and the hostility to dual citizenship. On internet surveillance, we don't have proper parliamentary oversight of what the spooks are getting up to and have to rely on people like Snowden and reports from the US and the UK to fill us in on what is going on. Of course, I don't know if the Liberals would be an improvement but I believe it's time for a new bunch of scoundrels and their cronies to have a go. On the other hand, I like getting angry and Harper certainly provides that.
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OK I got it - too much on stimulus......but the Liberals wanted to spend it faster, if not more......and the NDP wanted to spend much more. The Auditor General report on stimulus spending was actually quite kind, saying that for such an aggressive program, the money was all reasonably accounted for. Somehow, you believe the other parties would have either spent less or done it better? Do you have anything to back that up? Did they say anything of substance that makes you believe this would have been the case.
I've mentioned more than once that if the Liberals had a leader like Marc Garneau, I would strongly consider voting for them again. I believe that Canada's two founding parties are usually close enough in values that changing back and forth periodically is a good thing. You however, appear to be a diehard partisan - who for seemingly emotional reasons would never vote Conservative.
One of the things I like about the current government is that relatively speaking, they have not thrown money down the drain with corruption or boondoggles - and one only has to look at the McGuinty/Wynne gang of crooks as a benchmark for incompetence. Your reference to "gutting" Veterans is a good one. They have increased spending on Veterans substantially since they came to power, building on the Charter that the Liberals initially put in place. One can criticize how there are barriers to getting money where it should go - but to say the system is "gutted" is plain stupid. And the problems are being addressed. As for the F45s, a contract has not yet been signed so there is nothing to complain about yet. Whether it's robo-calls or Duffy's payment - there have been several tempests in a teapot that make for great news stories - but don't amount to a hill of beans when it comes to managing the government purse.
The Liberals tried sensible leaders and they got beaten. I would have preferred Garneau but the Harper attack machine would have gone after him just as hard as they hit JT.
I'm a fiscal conservative who would have preferred MG. I have voted for the Liberals and the PCs in the past. I would consider the Conservatives with a different leader but I just cannot stomach Harper - too authoritarian for my taste and too much of a phoney tough guy in foreign affairs. With a few exceptions, his MPs are just performing seals now, barking out the same tedious talking points
We haven't had a significant change in economic policy in Canada since Michael Wilson's time. I'm more worried about Harper's effects on our freedoms than Justin's damage to our wallets.
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From everything I have heard Mulcair is a nasty sort of guy, an overbearing bully who can't let an opportunity to take shots at people go by, including the reporters who interview him. As for Trudeau Junior, he seems to make spur of the moment decisions based on how that will make him look in the press. Having an election with him against Harper will be a fight beween Style with no Substance and Substance with no Style.
Mulcair nasty? What is Harper then? Who are his friends? He's a Nixonian figure - calculating, paranoid and vindictive.
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Unfortunately, I fear he can. Canadians have largely given up on federal politics and don't seem to care about robo-calls, scientific liberty, the Dufster, carbon emissions etc. etc. Jason Kenney has worked a minor miracle in the 905 among new Canadians and has broken the Liberal stranglehold in Ontario. Like JP in 95, I fear money and the ethnic vote will win it for the enemy. The anti-Harper vote is much bigger but is split and the primitive FPTP system favours Harper and his hardcore believers. And then there is the Trudeau factor. He just doesn't seem to accept that the main priority is to run a tight ship and avoid ANY departures from the script. Certainly, he cannot afford another year of dreadfully inappropriate impromptu remarks and cringeworthy 'jokes' as he will be eaten alive in the campaign.
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They would still have lost badly but not THAT badly. For no particular reason, I would give them 30 seats under BM.
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Harper had been criticizing the blatant, violent aggression long before he met with Putin and told him the same thing to his face.
What would you have Harper do, whine quietly in private while Ukraine gets publicly raped?
Whining quietly or pretending to buttonhole him amount to the same thing without big changes on policy.
If Harper was as keen on the military as he claims to be, he would have increased spending to British or French levels. That has not happened. Canada does not pull its weight in NATO.
On Ukraine, we were slow to be tough on Russian oil companies in Canada.
And, oddly enough, despite the bellicose speeches, Canada's official policy on the Occupied Territories has not changed very much in the Harper years.
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Even Harper admits climate change is real. It's over, guys.
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Is this a joke, Mr. Canada? What a grotesque idea. I love Canada just the way it is.
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So many unknowns. A military coup would have been impossible in the 'good old days' but Putin may have opened the door with his brand of amoral authoritarianism and the wee taste of prosperity that has trickled down to the lower orders. I'd say assassination would be the best first step for any plotters. He wouldn't be as slow to react as Gorby was.
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This sort of thing used to be merely spoken. Now, through a miracle of modern technology, young people can ruin their lives by documenting every depraved idea they have for posterity (and don't most of us entertain some unspeakable thought at some point or another?). I just don't get Facebook at all. Nobody under 40 should be trusted with it.
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In answer to the original statement, timidity is not a problem that Netanyahu suffers from. He has always been brash and he seems to make a point of pushing the boundaries with Obama.
Leaks like this happen with every administration. They don't mean anything in themselves but I'm sure a lot of US officials are exasperated with Bibi.
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This quote is dripping with arrogance. Junior partner? A relationship between two countries is a relationship between two separate sovereign entities, there's not a "junior partner". Israel is not America's territory or protectorate or vassal-state. Is Canada the "junior partner" in international relations with the US? Is the UK the "junior partner"?
There's always a junior partner in the real world. Canada and the UK are definitely in that category.
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..I will want to talk to some real Ontarians and ask them why, why do so many of you turkeys vote for Christmas? I meet very few Harper fans offline in Atlantic Canada, or at least very few who are willing to admit they voted for him.
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It's an enormous city but the famous sites are fairly close together. The Hagia Sophia is up there with the Pantheon in the top ten intact masterworks of the Roman Empire. We felt there was a good atmosphere, friendly to foreigners, although the calls to prayer take a bit of getting used to.
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Then you'd be the kind of politician we don't want.
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I think I can say without fear of contradiction that I too would make an appalling politician. I wouldn't vote for someone like me.
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By elections which the Liberals lost.
Well, yes but it's what they portend for the GE. You wouldn't seriously expect the Liberals to win in Alberta?
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She behaved badly here. Politics is a tough game but there are accepted ways of doing things. Leaders of the opposition don't cross the floor. She should have resigned and made her position clear first.
Palestinian Unity Government
in The Rest of the World
Posted · Edited by SpankyMcFarland
One question for Conservatives. Does Israel really support the position of Europe and North America on Ukraine? I can't imagine Netanyahu confronting Putin on this matter.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-diplomats-nix-drone-sale-to-ukraine-report/
It seems to me that Harper and Bibi have agreed to disagree on this issue and not mention the difference.