mentalfloss

As opposed to his monumental failure if he doesn't?

It goes without saying there should be tighter restrictions on business owners and corporations.

Where do people have the time to be this creative? Fiorito: Mayor Rob Ford is Toronto’s Schettino

oooookay then.. edit: thanks for getting rid of that spam.

C'mon now.. this is 2012, not 2006.

Not sure if this has been posted yet, but it is promising.. Canadian fatwa condemns 'honour killings'

And pandas.. Oil sales, human rights on Stephen Harper’s agenda in China The prime minister is courting China as a customer for Canadian natural resources — insisting it’s in Canada’s national interest to send oil and gas to Asia — and looking to sew stronger economic ties with the world’s fastest-growing economy. To do so, he has brought a handful of senior cabinet ministers and a few dozen Canadian business leaders with him on the trip, including executives from the petroleum, aerospace, forestry, agriculture and uranium sectors. Chinese-Canadian community leaders and the president of the University of Western Ontario are also in the country to attract China’s best and brightest to Canada. At the same time, the Conservative government says it’s “disappointed in the extreme” with China for vetoing, along with Russia, a United Nations resolution effectively calling on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to quit in hopes of ending the bloodshed in that country. Harper is also looking for commitments to improve human rights in the world’s most populous country and will have a chance to deliver the message directly to China’s current and incoming leadership during a series of bilateral tete-a-tetes over the next four days. http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/07/oil-sales-human-rights-on-stephen-harpers-agenda-in-china/

Ford tries to keep his subway dream alive Stintz and 23 other councillors support the resurrection of four light-rail lines that were part of the Miller administration's Transit City, and they're fighting the Ford's push to bury part of the Eglinton LRT. With 45 members of council, they are in the majority so the mayor has to convince someone to switch their vote to keep his subway dream alive. http://www.680news.com/news/local/article/327986--ford-tries-to-keep-his-subway-dream-alive 23... seriously... 23... I can already see the spin coming from the SUN when Ford pays off a couple councillors for the vote. Huge Victory for Ford! etc..

They're probably looking at economic growth as a percentage of job creation.

Canada no longer leading the G7 in economic growth OTTAWA — It's going to get harder for Prime Minister Harper and his ministers to keep boasting that Canada is No. 1 among economic rivals. As the year unfolds, analysts say it will become increasingly apparent that Canada no longer leads the G7 in economic growth and job creation. And as unlikely as it seems, it's the United States -- troubled as that country remains -- that's likely to relegate Canada to second place, if not third behind Germany. The switch has largely already occurred, although some of the numbers are just catching up to the reality. Last week's jobs number was the most graphic example. The score was 2,300 jobs added in Canada in January versus 243,000 in the U.S. Even allowing for population differences, that's 10 times more jobs created in relative terms. The trend on the jobs front has been going on for some time. Despite all the bad news emanating from south of the border, employment has been rising in the U.S. at twice the rate of Canada for a year. And U.S. economic growth as a whole is slated to outpace Canada's this year for the first time since 2006. Canada no longer leading the G7 in economic growth | CTV News

Well.. it looks she got her wish.. Toronto council to debate transit future

Doesn't work unless you become a permanent resident - which means you need to be in the country at least 2 out of the last 5 years. Immigration will know if you spend more time abroad or you plan to come back for 'convenience'.

Caterpillar has been around for a long time. The fact that it is so profitable in light of these "bloated wages" just goes to show that they aren't bloated at all. But now, because of Caterpillar's stubbornness, we've lost 450 manufacturing jobs and all those tax breaks the corporation was granted are going to be used to fuel their business in the U.S. So, basically, the taxpayer gets screwed because corporate tax cuts had no influence whatsoever on Caterpillar's decision.

This whole thing is becoming a huge joke and looks bad on the Sun and the ministry of citizenship. Sun TV plays dirty with 'CBC porn'

Yes, that was my intention when posting the bit.

So they've reverted to simply outright lying?

This is dumb. The guy made a stupid comment. It might have been emotionally fueled, but he should have known better. His personal situation doesn't excuse him from ridicule. Exactly. And CPC are now using his situation as a cloak to deflect answering questions during question period. Business as usual.

Federal bureaucrats posed as ‘new Canadians’ for Sun News event Documents released under Access to Information legislation show that just a few weeks before Canada’s Citizenship Week last October, Mr. Kenney’s staff directed departmental officials to add a last-minute citizenship ceremony at the network to their list of scheduled events. Bureaucrats scrambled to work out the logistics, suggesting to the minister’s office that Sun News could cover one of the 13 scheduled ceremonies in Ontario – four of them in Toronto, including one at the Air Canada Centre. When a bureaucrat sent Sun News a list of possible citizenship ceremonies to cover in Ontario, a network employee suggested another scenario. “Let’s do it. We can fake the Oath,” reads an email from a sunmedia.ca email address, the name blacked out of the document. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/federal-bureaucrats-posed-as-new-canadians-for-sun-news-event/article2323570/page2/

Okay.. Lower income workers.

So, Ford isn't responding to receiving lobby funds now.. Leiper was unsatisfied. “I wrote to Mayor Ford to confirm his obligation to obey council’s decision,” she wrote. “I advised Mayor Ford that asking lobbyist-donors for the additional favour of forgiving repayment could amount to a breach of the Lobbyist Code of Conduct.” Ford has not responded. Leiper found that 11 lobbyists or clients of lobbyists donated a total of $3,150 to the Rob Ford Football Foundation, which funds school football programs, between August 2009 and May 2010. Council agreed with Leiper’s finding that Ford improperly solicited donations from lobbyists and improperly used his influence by making appeals for donations on his official city letterhead. Integrity commissioner scolds Rob and councillor Doug Ford in separate reports

Mississauga mayor says Ford transit plan can’t come at other cities’ expense “I give (Ford) all kinds of credit if he can implement his promise to build all underground without funding from the province and federal government that would impact other communities —Durham, York, Halton, Peel. If the province has to allocate the money to go underground, it has to impact the projects in the other regions,” McCallion said. “What Mr. Ford wants to do, contrary to what Metrolinx wants to do, with the limited amount of money available — I don’t want funding to go all the way underground in Toronto to interfere with the other regions.”

The question of free speech in this case ultimately comes down to consequence of the whip. MP's who really care about pertinent issues would vote for what they believe in, regardless of what kind of fancy bonuses or pre-paid flights they could stand to benefit from.

Can't find a link, but there is a comment I heard on CBC from the Parliamentary Budget Officer where he admits that changing the eligibility age for OAS will not bring any significant revenue to help pay for the supposed sustainability problem, but will simply hurt the lower income contributors.

Of course. But raising the age limit is clearly not the first step that should be taken to ease up the costs a bit.

OAS is not unsustainable. -- "Some of the rhetoric has been exaggerated on both sides of the debate," Kevin Milligan, associate professor of economics at the University of British Columbia, told CBCNews.ca. But Milligan, who has studied OAS for over 15 years, said with an aging population and rising life expectancy putting stress on public finances, the core policy issue is a reasonable one to raise. A recent OECD study found that Canada has a "more favourable demographic outlook than many European countries. The analysis suggests that Canada does not face major challenges of financial sustainability with its public pension schemes." Milligan pointed to Italy, which spends 14 per cent of its economy on public pensions. "We're going from 2.4 to 3.1 per cent. Italy has that for breakfast," he said. Carleton economics professor Frances Woolley said OAS is an easier issue for the government to deal with, because the political fallout is light compared to dealing with the costs of health care — the real problem. "Is Old Age Security going to bankrupt us? No. Health care and long-term care are the big ones." http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/01/31/old-age-security-sutainability.html