SpankyMcFarland

That may be true here but take a gander at other websites and you will see clearly rightwing characters blasting this plane as a jack of all trades that is not worth the money.

In my online meanderings, I can't help noticing that Canadian opposition to the F-35 is across the political spectrum now, way beyond card carrying Liberals. It looks like a dubious purchase at this stage. Come back to us when you have the glitches sorted seems to be the general message.

I don't like the sound of being forced into buying this thing. The costs are alarming.

OK on the general topic of military procurements, what do we have to do? Our politicians are expressing us really. Harper was ginger on this topic too. We Canadians are happy to leave defence to the lads down south. This is not a problem of just one political party. We seem to be more and more in the realm of wishful thinking on our military. We do not want to spend the money required.

I think Oz, for example, spends more than we do in absolute terms, never mind per capita. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures It sure isn't much of a defence but that's the country I see around me, one where at every election the sitting govt gets criticized for spending too much on the military. We need one of those national conversations to decide if we are serious about defending ourselves.

I am beginning to think not, and the Danes seem to be better shipbuilders than we are these days. Each large military purchase we try to make gets bogged down in endless controversy, no matter which government is in power.

Can Canada afford to stay in this game? The national will to pay untold billions for such hardware seems to be lacking.

I have yet to hear any reasonable argument AGAINST such disclosure, at least for Cabinet Ministers.

Calandra allowed himself to play the fool in the House. If this kind of eejitry is permitted to proliferate with every party, Parliament will become irrelevant. Nobody is going to watch stupid answers to sensible questions.

I don't like her, mainly because of her manner. Take a look at the some of the old Power and Politcs episodes and see if that changes your mind. The evidence on the McCallum episode is very clear for all to see, though. Rempel behaved like a petulant child, even trying to drag the Speaker into a moment of harmless fun. I'm sure her rivals are quietly pleased. She's smart, pretty and young. The whole episode is extremely minor, not even a one-day story, but I would like to see Rempel laugh at herself a little more. Most successful politicians have that capacity.

Apparently, KPMG has now obtained a gag order preventing the Commons finance committee discussing the Isle of Man caper because it is before the courts: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/kpmg-isle-of-man-commons-testimony-1.3622824 This would appear to give the company an incentive to drag the case out a little more.

Anybody at that level has talent and she has lots of it, clearly, but she needs to lose those sharp edges. Right now, for me, she comes across as arrogant. BTW that comparison is a little dubious. McCallum answered the substantive question AND responded to her lame joke with a better one. By contrast, Calandra embarrassed himself and Parliament with a reply that was completely irrelevant. No MP should be allowed to get away with that.

That Iran has an enduring relationship with India, and India, Iran and Turkey see themselves as major regional powers in West Asia. Iran remains key.

Yes, I would actually. If you listen to his additional reply to her question you'll see he clearly distinguished between his responses to her question and to her remark about photo-ops. Smirky Rempel started the smart-alecky stuff there as she often does. On Power and Politics, we have had to endure ten years of snide remarks from Rempelsmirksin. One of her fave starters is 'I'm curious' when she is not curious at all but is preparing to be sarcastic. A little more of the self-effacing humour of Mr. McCallum would do her image no harm at all. She's much cockier than Ambrose, Raitt or Leitch.

I don't think this aspect of India's foreign policy got much airing by Mr. Modi in Congress today: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Beijing-rattled-says-Indias-Chabahar-hopes-wont-live-up-to-high-sounding-rhetoric/articleshow/52634499.cms

The direction should be a little sunnier. Attending the Press Gallery dinner on a regular basis might be a good start. Rona Ambrose did well there the other night: http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/parliamentary-press-gallery-dinner-2016-1.3617005 By contrast, Michelle Rempel made a fool of herself by getting so angry with John McCallum's harmless joke about his own appearance: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/wherry-mccallum-rempel-joke-1.3620841

Like our FPTP system, the US presidential set-up is best in a two party race. I suspect we will see more complex races in future and maybe the third party candidate will get a decent vote this time as well. In a situation where nobody gets more than 50% of the popular vote, a run-off between the two top candidates would be preferable.

The Vickers event appears to have produced only mild excitement in Ireland and the protester himself was pleased with the publicity. Here's a humorous piece on the front of Ireland's largest Sunday newspaper today that praises Vickers' action: http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/brendan-oconnor/shock-as-two-people-do-something-34754808.html

Canada has many connections with the Easter Rising. Here's an interesting one. This soldier was convicted of murder, was sent to an asylum and managed to emigrate shortly thereafter to BC. His eventual obituary in the Vancouver Sun was a little economical on these details:http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/irish-easter-rising-killer-took-refuge-from-ira-vengeance-in-british-columbia

On sites like this in Ireland, e.g. Politics.ie, posters are, on average, more unhappy than happy about the intervention. Whether they are in any way representative is another question.The protester was an invited guest as it turned out who clearly misbehaved himself and the Irish security forces should probably have grabbed him first. The Irish government wants no trouble given the fact that its police force is already under intense scrutiny over various scandals. I still suspect Vickers will be recalled within the year.

This is not the ambassador's role. Both countries want to minimize the incident but I suspect a recall will be on the cards once the fuss has died down.

I don't think anyone would accuse Charles Murray of being a liberal. Here is his assessment of Trump: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/435805/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-why-hillary-is-even-worse-doesnt-cut-it

PC is not confined to the left any more. Right wingers also use it as needed.

This is me on my iPad. Typos are inevitable. Back to content. Quite a few observers think that things ARE different this time. I posted two representative links earlier in the thread explaining why but this stuff is easy to find. AI may represent a watershed in human history. Let's hope the doomsters are wrong.

I think Portland has done the same. It cuts the police workload considerably. The other thing is more psychiatric beds. We have cut them back too far.