shoop

On Thursday the story broke of Michaelle Jean's possible separatist ties. As of the writing of this post the CTV, Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, and Montreal Gazette web sites all have stories about the issue. Nothing can be found about it on the CBC web site. NOTHING. I understand that the CBC is in the wringer on this one. After ceaselessy trumpeting Jean as a great selection, and an inspired choice for GG, they are left looking foolidh. Honestly though, doesn't the Canadian public deserve to hear more about this story? What motivates the CBC's breach of professionalism on this topic? Are they protecting one of their own? Is it because Jean's appointment so neatly fits in with their agenda that they can't fathom doing their job by actually reporting the real news of these accusations?

It truly is sad that Martin made such a weak choice. Gotta love this quote from the CTV piece. "Gilles Rheaume, president of the Quebec-based organization against Canadian corruption and propaganda and a former president of the Societe St-Jean Baptiste. Rheaume said Thursday that Prime Minister Paul Martin should have checked Jean's credentials more carefully and called him "an amateur to name a person who many believe is a sovereigntist, to name this person head of state.'' " AMATEUR What a brilliant adjective to describe Mr. Dithers.

As more and more of Jean's separatist beliefs and leanings come to light it will only serve to strengthen the BQ and the PQ. Great work Mr. Dithers....

Moving from 'none' to 'a huge majority' didn't choose Harper as their second choice is a huge back down. But you will expend time and energy on these boards. Hmmmm, me thinks it is because there is no support to be found for your silly, and baseless assertions. (Another post on your part saying you don't have the time or won't spend the time would be pretty lame. In the time it takes to post that on three different occasions would DEFINITELY be enough time to find support for your statement, IF it really existed. Too bad it doesn't... ps, were am I wiggling? Man, you are weak.

Right on. Leads to a much bigger point. The Canadian Left is all about ensuring individual rights and respecting diversity. Unless of course it is somebody expressing different political views than theirs. Then you are a "nazi", "reiligious wing nut", "christian" or some other equally offensive term. That's ok. when Mirror is still working at the same coffee shop 20 years from now, he will always find solace on rabble...

I wonder if we gotta love the separatist connections as well? http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor...354/?hub=Canada Yet another 'brilliant' move by Mr. Dithers backfiring when faced with the light of public scrutiny. Isn't a separatist, by definition, excluding from being considered a great Canadian?

43% of people think Martin has done a good job of eliminating the democratic defiicit? wtf? what planet are those people living on? man I hate agreeing with anything published in Ezra's little rag.

Nice. Cover your laziness and try and hide the stupidity of your claim with more insults. i.e. putting my foot in my mouth and a sideswipe at my "politcal awareness". But I like how you are back down from "Take away the supporting vote for Harper and there is probably none that would make him a second choice." To a "huge majority" NOT having Harper as a second choice. Good backtrack on that one. What is your next step, from huge majority to most?

Here is a great book on the Japanese political system, it's called The Enigma of Japanese Power. http://shorterlink.com/?P8S4DZ It is a little dated (1990) but still amazingly accurate. Deals with the postal system as well as a myriad of other issues.

yaaaaawn. any support for your grand assertion about no support for Harper as second choice or links to your "polls on party support and second choice." Like an actual aticle or study or poll result perhaps? Is EVERYBODY who voted Liberal outside Quebec going to have Jack Layton as their second choice? Pretty counter-intuitive. The rapture is a pretty central tenet to Christian belief (divine is redundant if using the term accurately). If you honestly didn't intend it as a slight to Christians so be it. But it is an extremely odd coincidence, pretty insulting and very easily interpreted the way I did. Funny how people tend to make mistakes like that, 'mistakenly' go a little too far with an insult, yet add fuel to an unfair stereotype in the process.... btw, what exactly did you mean by the reference? (The reference is also weak as the rapture would be more of an emotional state rather than a source of inspiration, so perhaps when you 'accidentally' use this insult in the future you would be better off saying "perhaps you were in the throws of rapture and don't recall writing it".) btw, If you take a second look at what you were replying to when spreading your ignorance and religious-bashing venom you will find that the sentence doesn't refer to the quote it follows, on top of being stereotypical and intolerant. I can only hope sir that a substantial majority of Canadians are not as biased and bigoted as you. While you are feeling superior to that poor, stupid, 'religious wing nut' Stephen Harper, you should take a look at the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This document guarantees freedom of religion. While you may think you are simply dismissiong people who disagree with you politically by 'accidentally' insulting their religion - some of these people can see through your pomposity. Some of these people, who have actually graduated from high school, will turn the other cheek at your insults and trust in the collective common sense of the Canadian electorate as a whole to fairly and honestly examine Stephen Harper on his record, and not just on the attacks levelled at him by arrogant pseuod-intellectuals... Back to the topic of the thread. Rove should absolutely lose his job, and face prosecution if the charges were true. Good enough to just get Novak off the air.

Right on. It is easy to whinge about the goodness of re-distributing wealth when you are making f**k all. But the costs in terms of lost productivity are real and tangible. No Canadian government will ever create a GAI in Canada. That would be political suicide. As would a return of inheritance taxes for that matter. (Although I don't really have an issue with inheritance taxes in theory, I definitely think a GAI is insande.)

Depends how they 'engineer' this defeat. Harper has built a solid platform to run on. Probably best to wait until Gomery reports, but you never know...

Brilliant. Who refers to Southern Ontario as a political unit anwyays? Gotta love Mad Michael referring to himself as an 'urban intellectual'. Dude, do you work at a Starbucks or a Chapters?

Touche, You are correct. Just used the simple logic to refute an earlier quote. But what value is there in this line from thelonius then? "I don't believe Harper has what it takes to be PM(nor do the majority of canadians, obviously)."

Ahhh, I see you stoop to another lame and vacuous stereotype about the CPC. Nothing in my post, or any of my posts, has been indicative of religious beliefs 'clouding' my political beliefs. But all the supporters of the CPC HAVE to be religious wing nuts. Do you truly favour the Charter's guarantees of religious freedom, or is it only for religions you 'approve' of? Hmmm, in that Environics poll released on July 28th no leader got even 1/3 of the support for "Best Choice for PM" question. Not even PM Dithers. So the majority of Canadians don't really think anybody has what it takes to be Prime Minister. Sure every party has jackasses for MPs. It's unfortunate the MP in your riding is a CPC jackass. I think the federal Liberals are stagnant and corrupt. They have successful demonized Harper so far, to an extent. He did win 99 seats in an election that started with Martin talking about setting a record number of seats in the House. Is Harper perfect? Definitely not. But he does deserve one more shot. Do me a favour and take a minute or two to open your mind. Go to the CPC web site and just take a look. If it confirms all the demonizing, great. But maybe, just maybe, you will see the party isn't as bad as the Liberals have painted them to be.

Hard to work when you are stuck in a 30 year old time warp. GAI was discredited and abandoned as ridiculous decades ago. Hey mirror, why not put your powers of political discourse to use fighting for the cause of the Avro Arrow. How dare the Canadian Government abandon a great Canadian accomplishment in high technology....

How is this related to anything else in this thread or Novak's comments? Thank you for proving my point about the Canadian left's knee-jerk correlation between the Conservative Party of Canada and neo-cons in the U.S. is just lame and vacuous. Your quote is weak and intellectually lacking. You harped on the same theme that has been gloated on repeatedly on this board. "Harper is bad, thank God he will never be Prime Minister." (I am soooo great and mighty in my moral superiority.) To avoid fulfilling the stereotype of close-minded smugness why not actually find a way to bash Harper that is actually related to the thread? ps. Your 'coalition of the coerced' tagline is soooo hip. Did Judy Rebick supply you with it personally?

Kudos to Toro. The additional problem with money spent from the post office is that the money spent from its annual profits is off-book money. So this money is not subject to parliamentary review as it is not considered general revenue. I think sparhawks point is a little weak. Smaller remote communites won't pay more for their services. They will just be forced to drive further or accept a lower level of service within their community. I think you will see smaller communites see the size of their post offices shrink and become like the postal outlets you see in Canada today. Would any Canadian argue still argue that these moves were for the worse? Oh no, I have a super mailbox instead of home delivery I also wonder how much money will be saved when they do away with Saturday mail delivery. Money losing post offices in small centres will be closed. Without the profits of the banking and insurances wings of the current postal system to subsidize these unnecessarily huge, unprofitable branches they will be forced to close and the citizens of the major metropolitan areas can reduce the subsidies they are sending to the countryside (inaka) a little. Japan is in need of massive amounts of structural reforms. Reform in the private sector banks was a good first step. Letting the zombie company's go bankrupt, like discount retailer Daiei was a good second step. Postal privatization is a good, and desperately needed, third step. Japan's huge debtload is a big ticking time bomb. The biggest thing that has prevented that bomb from going off to date is the TONS of cash in the postal savings system. If it is privatized it will be the largest private bank in the world. This election will be an interesting one. The Japanese public care very little about the postal privatization issue. Koizumi won't allow the LDP councillors who voted agaiinst the bill, guaranteeing it's defeat, to run again for the party in these upcoming elections. I've read that these candidates running as independents could split the LDP/New Komeito vote and allow Minshuto (Democratic Party) to form a government. My take. Koizumi's personal popularity will win out and his coalition will gain a new majorityin the upper house in the fall.

I think there is a GREAT potential for a new and improved Harper to emerge after Labour Day. The issues are breaking the right way for him and he does appear to be making steps in the right direct. Bad news for the Liberal hegemony. Poor Paul Martin, all his superb work as Finance Minister over shadowed by his dithering as PM...

Absolutely and this postal reform plan is a great first step in the process. Too many old buggers with vested interest fighting him in the LDP. If he wins this election reforms will go through easily. If not, look for an almost immediate return to recession for Japn.

Al Gore should have been become President simply because he won Florida and the Supreme Court erred in its decision to stop counting. (Personally I though Bill Bradley would have made a better nominee, but such is life.) Rockefeller is an interesting choice, but who else is there? As it turns out he was competing with Nixon for the moderate Republican delegates in 1960 (libreal Republican is a pretty big misnomer). In 1964 he was insane to run anyways, NOBODY could've beaten Johnson with the nation grieving like it was. 1968 was Nixon's chance to shine. Looking back though, there isn't much competition. Since 1952 all the VPs have gotten the top job eventually or won the nomination only to lose the general. With the exceptions of Dan Quayle (who nobody thinks would've made a great President) and Rockefeller. Oh yeah, I forgot about Spiro Agnew, but I guess the bribery charges (with the nolo contendre plea) sorta exclude him.

He is a jackass and clearly the pressure of the Plame case are getting to him. I'm surprised that CNN is still running his column on their web site. Guys like Novak make many Canadian conservatives cringe and the reason why the Canadian left's knee-jerk correlation between the Conservative Party of Canada and neo-cons in the U.S. is just lame and vacuous. It is possible to support the CPC in Canada and the Democrats in the U.S. without any conflict whatsoever.

So the LDP lost the vote on postal reform in the upper house and Koizumi has dissolved parliament. The 22 members of the LDP who voted against the bill won't be allowed to run for the party again. If the Japanese people are serious about reform they will give the LDP-New Komeito coalition a renewed mandate. http://www.cnn.com/2005/BUSINESS/08/08/jap...loss/index.html Anybody else out there interested in Japanese politics? bueller?

Does anyone actually have evidence on either side as to the energy savings for Canada? The U.S. isn't really bullying anyone on the issue. As our biggest trading partner it makes sense to follow their lead. Intuitively I would think Canada would also save energy by making the move, although I am open to seeing actual information from anybody on the issue.

Don't really get the Hall-Dennis reference, but I agree that Harper is honest and does want to do good. He just has to keep the course. If people will actually listen to him, then he will be fine. But it will be a slow process. He has been demonized by the Liberals for their own political gain. Hopefully the NDs realize how badly they got jerked around by the Liberals in the 2004 election.