?Impact

I will use US FBI data for 2014, because black crime is certainly higher in the US than Canada. This is for violent crime arrests: “White” 6,056,687 or 69.4% “Black or African American” 2,427,683 or 27.8% “American Indian or Alaska Native” 135,599 or 1.6% Asian 100,067 or 1.1% “Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander” 10,629 or 0.1% ​I will let you conclude who is the racist.

The Bible is rife with inconsistencies, there is no unity. The individual books themselves, even chapters, are full of internal inconsistencies. Just one of thousands of examples: Genesis 1:3-5 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. Genesis 1:14-19 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. I'm sorry betsy, but you can't build an argument when your foundation is crumbling under your feet. Was day and night created on the first or fourth day?

Perhaps so, but some of their rolling stock was built in 1954-55, that is 60+ years old.

Legacy systems have their own security risks. There is no "tried and true" solution, voter fraud has been around much longer than IT solutions. Have you hear about ballot stuffing, misuse of proxy votes, invalidation of votes, and the 1000 other problems with the legacy systems?

From what I have read of the leaked document, it is about new construction after the year 2030. I am wondering what would be spent in the next four years to address something that is still 14 years in the future.

Yes, Trudeau is in the wrong and should apologize. What about the NDP children however, they should be sent to the time out chair for the rest of their term.

As I understand the situation, the total number of household staff has not changed since the Harper's. Yes, the Trudeau children are younger so the duties may be different. We have a 'nanny' dressing the children instead of a 'butler' dressing the old man.

While I don't have a problem with someone holding membership in many political parties, the parties themselves do. How do you answer the following question for the Conservative party? Conditions of Membership: I do not hold membership in another federal political party. .. or the Member declaration for the NDP? I hereby state that I am not a member nor supporter of any other federal political party, nor a member or supporter of any other provincial or territorial party where there is a provincial or territorial NDP. I don't see the statement explicitly in the Liberal party membership application, but you do agree to abide by their constitution which includes the following: Qualification for membership (d) not be a member of any other federal political party in Canada;

Last pre-election interview with Peter Mansbridge, Stephen Harper had 25 ah's, and 29 um's Transcript is available at: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-election-2105-full-text-of-peter-mansbridge-s-interview-with-stephen-harper-1.3218399 As I said before, when delivering a practiced speech he was ok but when talking off the cuff he was full of um's and ah's. This is not much different for anyone else. It is more visible in Justin Trudeau because he does not avoid the press.

No, I am saying the Ontario did a terrible job of educating the public. I expect BC was the same, but I wasn't there at the time. People are not 'stupid', they just don't have background on the topic or for that matter the commitment. We elect representatives to, hopefully, be educated on the issues and make proper decisions. Are you promoting direct democracy, or just on the issues that you want?

Often, those who speak off the cuff will have filler utterances. Many people learn to use adjectives, my favourite is 'actually'. Listen to someone speaking, especially someone from California, and every other word is 'actually'. Once you listen for it, you start to laugh at how often it occurs. Stephen Harper usually delivered prepared speeches, but listen to him when responding to other, his speech was full of um's and ah's.

What happened in Ontario and B.C.? No wonder the Globe editorial, which clearly favours the status quo, wants a process that guarantees their own preference.

The "First Lady" of Canada is Sharon Johnston.

Via Rail has a single shareholder, the Government of Canada represented by the Minister of Transport. That makes it an independent Crown corporation.

Just how many tens of billions is the airline industry subsidized every year? CATSA alone gets a half billion dollars a year. Then we have the airports capital assistance program, the airports operations and maintenance subsidy program, etc. etc. Sure, a few of the larger airports probably pay their own freight but move away from Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, and Vancouver main airports and the subsidy dollars just roll in.

Interesting argument, do you think the judge will buy it when I say that the money I stole was such a small sum compared to all the money stolen in the world that I should be given a good boy star for being so insignificant?

Yes, this is a huge fire and we won't know its true extent until it is eventually extinguished. It is however far from largest in Canadian history. What makes it 'unique' is its proximity to a major modern settlement. As I stated earlier, the Mirimichi fire was about 10 times this size, and it destroyed about 1/3 of Fredericton and several smaller communities. About 5 years ago, and not that far north from the current wildfire was the Richardson Fire which was about 3-4 times the size of the current one and also threatened some of the oil-sands operations. The Chinchaga wildfire was the largest in Alberta, about 6-7 times the size of the current on. These all pale however in comparison to those in other parts of the world, like in Indonesia (Kalimantan and East Sumatra) which had one about 15 years ago that was over 50 times this large.

The Miramichi wildfire in New Brunswick was about 10 times the size (based on current size of Fort McMuray wildfire, and killed over 300 people. I would say we have done a lot to improve the outcome over the intervening years. The experts will do a proper analysis of the current fire after things have settled down, and help us to learn from mistakes made. I expect the biggest questions will be around when the decision was made for a full evacuation, I am not so sure that much more could be done to protect property, but I await detailed studies. I remember hearing one report that the fire was already well established when first detected, but I await more definitive reports to clarify or counter that point. If so, perhaps more could be done with technology to improve early detection. One of the complicating factors here is that this is still relatively early in the season, and perhaps some resources were not fully at the ready. I saw one television report showing firefighting aircraft still in the hanger completing over-winter maintenance.

That is per-capita of the provincial population, not the area affected. That doesn't change things that significantly, but the threshold for 90% is reached after about $60 million in disaster assistance for Alberta. Yes, the federal government will be picking up the majority of the disaster assistance and it will be a big number. Remember however that disaster assistance does not include the cost of rebuilding, private enterprise insurance companies are on the hook for most of that.

Quite correct that in continental North America, the predominant natural cause of forest fires is lightening. Human caused forest fires are far more frequent (over 80% are human caused), although in terms of total burn area they are about equal. That is because generally human caused forest fires are closer to civilization and firefighting resources and are caught and extinguished sooner. One example of natural cause of a forest fire other than lightening is spontaneous combustion. This is where a pile of decaying organic matter traps in the heat of an exothermic reaction, and that builds to a point high enough to cause ignition. Not a very common occurrence in nature, but not totally unknown either, and the long dry spell would have contributed to it. Where man has built piles of organic matter (e.g. straw, compost, sawdust,...) this happens more frequently but it can and has happened without human influence as well.

The insurance industry is $45 billion/year in premium income. We don't have any idea at the moment what the claims from this fire will be so I wouldn't begin to pronounce doom and gloom for the industry just yet.

$180k profit? So you are suggesting that the house she bought, and the university decided to make an official residence several years later, did not increase in value like the rest of property in the country during the intervening years. You are suggesting she take a $180k loss, just to satisfy your rightie sensibilities?

I agree with an appointment committee, but believe the respective provinces should have equal say in its makeup. The committee should be virtual, and convened on the appointment of Senators to represent the various provinces. I also think that the opposition parties should have some say in the makeup of the appointment committee, perhaps on some proportional basis. Trudeau has made a first step, now he needs to see it through.

I agree, and that is exactly what I heard is happening. My previous answer was directed specifically at the question Big Guy posed. Additionally there are some stragglers who, quite understandably, want to protect their assets. They might mistakenly think that a garden hose is going to protect their house, or they are worried about looters. The best action is for them to leave, and as I understand it the RCMP have been telling them that and people have been complying.

Legally, yes. According to section 17 of Alberta's Emergency Management Act: Any person who (a) contravenes this Act or the regulations, or (b-)* interferes with or obstructs any person in the carrying out of a power or duty under this Act or the regulations, is guilty of an offence and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than one year or to a fine of not more than $10 000 or to both imprisonment and fine. ref: http://www.qp.alberta.ca/documents/Acts/E06P8.pdf#page=12 * How can I disable the emoji that automatically displays when I leave out the "-"