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Where you rather be today, in Harper's position waning or languishing in the latest national polls, and less popular than Jack Layton, the leader of the New Democrats, or in Stronach's position as a cabinet minister in our current national government? Some people have said Harper wants the prime minister's job too badly. Others say he doesn't want it enough. Which is it?

One thing I was hoping to discuss with this thread is the compensation to the these corporate exercutive jerks who get rewarded for bad behaviour. It is no wonder the business community has little respect outside its own little private clubs. CEOs' reigns of error have big payoffs

Toro.......do you know anything about what really happened with Bre-X? I don't mean who carried out the salting as apparently it was Michael de Guzman and his Filipino buddies, but who actually was behind the fraud. At one time I thought Felderhof might have been involved in it but I have now have my doubts even about that. I just think he was incompetent. One thing I am almost positive about is that de Guzman did not jump voluntarily from that helicopter. He was either pushed out or he is still alive. and the fact that one of his 4 wives said she received a money order from Brazil for $25,000. this year, makes me think he is still alive, although she has not provided any evidence to back up her claims. What's your take?

Unfortuately for Harper he is now in a dammed if you do, and dammed if you don't situation. But when the public attacks from within, such as Crosbie start going public, the Conservative leader is probably are going into a political party crisis, from which it is almost impossible to recover. I actually believe the PCs and the Alliance merging was a mismatch from the beginning, and I think what is happening now confirms that in spades. Bernard Lord is salivating waiting for the Conservative leadership, and if the Conservatives were wise they would dump Harper and replace him with Lord immediately. But I doubt they are that wise. The other problem for the Conservatives is that I am not sure there is an appetite for their brand of politics in Canada, at least not enough support to form a majority government. Conservatives need to be a bit more realistic and start seriously looking at changes that could help them. Leadership is definitely number one. But apart from that there are some other changes in policy from which they would benefit. Conservatives should stop looking at the NDP as their enemy. It is the Liberals that is their enemy. Conservatives should consider supporting the Layton New Democrats with PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION from which the Conservatives will eventually benefit. And they need to lower the decimal level about scandals. No one cares anymore about Adscam. The Gomery commission and the courts are doing their thing and PM Martin is coming out unscathed, otherwise he never would have made that commitment to call an election for 30 days after Gomery's report is made public..

Liberals seek to woo West at caucus meeting The Liberals are going to be in the West this week for both caucus and cabinet meetings but primarily to gain voter support. With the drop in support for the Conservatives, is Canada basically turning into a one-party state? As much as I would prefer to have the Liberals in power as opposed to the Conservatives with their social policies, quite frankly I don't see very much different between them. They appear to be just two groups of Canadian elites fighting amongst each other for power rather than for the people. However having only one party consistently as the government is not healthy for any society. Yes, the Liberals have been successful politically but at what political price? It is very hard to fathom, I scratch my head about it sometimes, for a country that has often been touted as the number one destination for citizens from other areas of the planet, there are now two groups of people within Canada that seem quite dissatified with the status quo. I believed that Trudeau's approach with Quebec was the right one, and if what I have been reading recently about Quebec is any indication, separation is no longer on the front burner, Trudeau seems to have prescribed the correct medicine. As far as the West is concerned, are there really legitimate beefs or are we just hearing more bellyaching from another group of elites? I agree with Peter Newman that the key to power for the West is economic. not political, which appears to be happening. We live in a system where supposedly all our votes are equal, but until the West has as many people as there are in central Canada they will always come out on the short end of the stick seatwise, and rightly so. The Senate reform idea is not going anywhere, and nor should it, as it is a useless institution and ideally should have been abolished a long time ago. If, as some people say, the breakdown in number of seats in the House of Commons between the provinces in not FAIR because of their populations then that should be addressed. I thought it was. Is there not some kind of boundries commission out of Elections Canada that makes revisions to the seat boundaries every 10 years or so? I would assume the people involved with Elections Canada are unbiased neutral civil servants. Anyway we are rapidly approaching the end of the summer doldrums. It will be interesting to see what proposals the Liberals are going to offer up this week to appeal to Western voters.

I think alternative sources of energy such as solar & wind, which use renewable resources are our future. This summer I visited some friends in the Caribou of BC and they decided not to hook into the BC Hydro grid system. They are using solar power and wood, and it appears to be working fine for them. They also use a small amount of propane. They try as much as possible to do their activities during the daytime as to not waste energy but that's no biggie. That's just being smart. Solar power systems will eventually come down in price as more and more people gravitate to them.

Kimmy.....sorry for the nonsense the other day. Is PM Martin going to see Dick Cheney at the Fraser Institure next month in Calgary or doesn't he have the entrance fee?

Toro.....I know that jack Layton is a respected scholar. Here I hope this helps:

No, just proper reading of the English language.

Blue turns green when Layton talks This is quite remarkable. Young Quebecers are stating that if Layton were our national leader they would consider dropping their push for sovereignty. Layton is a big environmentalist not having owned a car for the past 15 or more years. Apparently he bicycles to and from work and everywhere else when he has the opportunity to do so. He is quite the role model for young people particularly for who care about our fragile planet and our environment. He walks the talk. No wonder more and more Canadians are connecting with him.

Technocrat.........precisely. Thank you.

Very often we are treated to the latest violent crime incident in our communities on the corporate TV News at nite. What seems to be kept hush hush by our corporate media is the corporate white collar crime. Apart from a few big sensational cases such as the one mentioned below, we rarely hear about corporate white collar crime: Fade to black for Conrad

Doug Christie. Now there's a wonderful inpiring symbol for a new country. The reality is there are no prominent and credible Canadians who support this silliness.

Perhaps this fellow has at least a partial solution to our huge energy crisis. What are we waiting for, let's get moving! Answer is blowin' in the wind

Canadian Broadcasting Without the Canadians? It's about time to bring in an arbitrator to settle this thing. I can't stand corporate radio with their total lack of any substance except their ads.

Whatever happened to the federal investment review agency (FIRA)? I always thought it was essential for Canada to be able to say yea or nay as to who was going to control our resources. Perhaps we need to slow down our exports of oil and gas anyways to make sure that we will have enough for ourselves in the years to come. Hopefully these softwood lumber criminal antics by the US is the straw that breaks the camel's back and that we pull out of NAFTA. I am so tired of our national governments being run by captains of industry which constantly cut business deals that screw the average working Canadian.

Another BS thread. Jack Layton has a PhD. I doubt very much he would have said that the oil industry is a monopoly. Another drive-by smearing attempt. Maybe one of the conditions before people post here is that they learn how to read.

I am really looking forward to our new GG. I have seen some of her documentaries on CBC and she is a talented woman. Canada is fortunate to have her: The reality of the vice-regals

CN incidents are becoming like the Energizer bunny. They just keep coming and coming: Another CN train derails

Name me one prominent Canadian who supports Western separation. Just one!

Adler blasts Harper: Harper fails to hook GG issue

One Conservative at least thinks Crosbie has lit the bomb on the fuse. One thing about Crosbie is that he is colourful. I'll always remember him for his tangling with Sheila Copps.

Hey, What's That Sound? Maybe when the results of the 2006 Congressional elections are in the Republicians will begin to clue in to what the rest of the planet knows by now.

Politics of Quebec, then and now I just wish people who want to comment of this GG issue would at least have some understanding of the current Quebec. It seems like a lot of people are living in the past.