SpankyMcFarland

In human history, any time you move people off their land, there will be trouble. That is one element of the current conflict that should always be remembered, no matter how heated and sectarian the dispute becomes. When even someone like Bill Maher discusses Israel and Belgium in the same breath as having exactly the same problem with Islamic extremism, he is not telling the whole truth.

Giorno puts the case well here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/guy-giorno-proportional-representation-1.3463105

That's why he lost the election badly.

Even if only one team got kicked out every ten years? I think the system could cope with that. You would agree the situation in Toronto over the last few decades has been pretty hard to take? Massive profits for dreadful performance.

It's just an oddly anti-meritocratic aspect of North American life for me, a cozy club where the goodies just keep coming. I suspect the Leafs could play as badly as they wanted and still make loads of money from their captive audience. Even if the league eliminated one team every ten years, it would restore some semblance of accountability.

Yes. That is one drawback. Although look at the EPL leader at the moment, Leicester City, a team with very modest resources. My principle objection to the franchise system is that it offers a job for life to billionaires irrespective of performance. In a relegation league, many smaller cities would lose their teams but the Leafs would probably face competition from a nearby neighbour, if they managed to stay in the league. It's a bit ridiculous that a hockey mad area like the Golden Horseshoe has been limited to one team that has done so badly for years. The fans basically have no alternative.

I will never get used to the franchise system. It just doesn't seem right to reward poor performance instead of punishing it. In the English Premier (soccer) League, the bottom three teams are kicked out every year and replaced by the top three teams from the lower league. In many seasons the most exciting games are those to try and avoid relegation. Many of the relegated teams go bankrupt and they always undergo painful changes and loss of star players. So when I see the valuation put on a team that has won nothing in decades, I can't get too enthusiastic.

According to most of the typically fevered commentary on this thread, you would think we had been enjoying massive real surpluses until Trudeau came in, that he has been in power for years and is entirely responsible for the current situation, and that no external events have occurred to make matters worse.

I see this AC list about connection times. It's a bit optimistic about Pearson. http://www.aircanada.com/en/travelinfo/airport/connectiontimes.html#faq:3-*

We are not much better, let's face it. We have had some rebranding and mergers.

How would you rate Canada's airports for travel to and from the USA? I recently went to Seattle via Calgary and returned via Toronto. Calgary was very quick and Toronto on the way back was chaotic. There were three lines for non-connecting passengers, connecting passengers and the Nexus crowd and the connecting line was not clearly indicated. I had to sprint to catch the plane and was the last person on. In future, I will give myself two hours to catch a connecting flight in Toronto.

So you want a return to clan justice? I would not be fit to make a judgement there because I would probably want to maim the perp myself.

Ah, now. You're scraping the barrel there. Ford was a decent skin, though - a guy with integrity. Probably not madly egotistical enough for the top job.

Punishment does not interest me. What I want to see from prisons is, for some offenders, deterrence and rehabilitation, and for others, protection for the public. Some murderers cannot be rehabilitated with a satisfactory low risk of reoffending and should be kept behind bars until they no longer pose any danger. Giving such offenders reasonably pleasant conditions probably makes the lives of prison guards easier so I would be for that. Victims of crime and their relatives have valuable but highly subjective perspectives on crime. We should not rely on them to dictate reasonable policy any more than we would ask patients to draw up chemotherapy regimes.

One word - oil.

Wait a second. What is stopping anybody else producing decent TV in this country? There is no law against that.

It's more than 150 years, isn't it, to answer my own question. The US is PRI with two wings.

Not everybody in Canada works for the CBC. What's their excuse?

When was the last President from another party? The US is no longer a model to follow when it comes to political systems.

Appear to. I'll have to send you my final video to get that 'appear to' overturned.

It is a big problem. When did another party win the Presidency? You have two perpetual ruling parties. Other parties have a very difficult time winning elections down there owing to the way in which elections are organized. That's primitive. It's like having two ancient companies in the country that make everything.Dump the Electoral College, a bizarre anachronism, and take a long look at FPTP.

That's one of those big what ifs. Let's hope we don't have anything similar in the next decade.

Cruz has no answers for the big challenges of today. He is not exactly loved by anybody and is despised by Hispanics. Of the four Republicans left, he would be Hillary's choice.

Fairly hardline views, guys. I can see trouble ahead putting this into practice.

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