Leafless

You come from the province that is 'king of the good old boys'. Your cowboy friends aren't going to like you.

I have always been happy with my North American built vehicles. And despite what you think, (relating to your dependency on Consumer Reports) all new North American built vehicles must meet federal safety and emission standards and come with a warranty. So, in fact all North American vehicles have been thoroughly professionally tested and you don't have to worry about second opinions from the likes of car jocks from Consumer Reports and others, whose opinion might not be the opinion of others.

It is the type of dangerous Liberal pandering that is the problem wth the end result being a loss of Canadian identity' our values and cutoms and traditions as a country in the singular sense and a dysfunctional federal government. Two wrongs don't make a right and if the Conservatives continue to cater to the same type of tactics as the Liberals, total political chaos could reign, but this is not totally a Conservative problem. You said it quite well: "The Conservative minority government is trying its best to govern while confined to a straight jacket." These are dangerous, difficult times indeed with parliamentarians failing to address and correct the root cause before all hell breaks loose.

Oh, really! Then check out CR's 2007 report. I have never bought a copy of Consumer Reports in my or any other similar magazine in my life and I am the judge of the cars I buy. Although I have purchased new vehicles, my rule of thumb, always buy a car at least four years old with a maximum of 80k or under. You automatically know which ones are chronic lemons by simple hearsay and local media reports or ask a local mechanic which are the troublesome vehicles. He will probably tell you, 'they all are', but some are a little more honest than others. If you are mechanically/electronically inclined check out the vehicles that are easiest and less costly to repair concerning accessibility to various components, parts cost, and are not over crowded with devices that make repairs difficult. Buy a car or truck you see the most of on roads and highways and you can rest assured that these are the vehicles that deliver the most for your dollar. A lot of times a vehicle rated as an underdog is a super buy and delivers reliability and performance but could be a little hard on energy cost along with a few minor minor defects or whatever.

No, not really. Our system of government being a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional democracy has been badly abused and IMO is only retained pertaining to the TRMENDOUS POWER given to the prime minister. For instance Quebec despises the Queen as our head of state along with the monarchy. It also is responsible for electing a separatist a federal party to parliament, while maintaining (not at the moment) close advantageous ties to the federal Liberals who have been directly responsible for social engineering for the benefit of Quebec. Our present system is broken and dysfunctional and our current form of government has been transformed into a cultural weapon and used by Quebec to beat down English majority interest in a totally legal fashion. Since when does a minority control the political interest of the majority?

I know how people drive and I know how many people maintain their vehicles. Many people, it is 'pedal to the metal', leaving every stop light or sign, fly over rough roads, negotiate tight turns like their vehicle is a play thing and many drive their vehicle as if it is a play toy. Many have rarely lifted the hood on their vehicle to do the scheduled maintenance. These are the people that cry the blues to places like Consumer Reports with their never ending list of component failures caused primarily by abuse and neglect. North American vehicles seem to be below par because their are more of them on the road. I have driven many North American built vehicles and have never had internal engine or internal transmission problems with any of them.

I am basically referring to imported smaller items, including clothing, which is pretty much the norm considering the stock most stores carry. But when it comes to major appliances, air-conditioners, furnaces, automobiles and the like, I purchase Canadian or U.S. I think the same way about imports. Everything in an import, appears to be well made but if you check individual components like the frame for your seats or the quality of fabric, quality of sheet metal etc., everything on the import is a couple of gauges lighter and the vehicles are generally small and pricey with aftermarket parts also very expensive. In this world you get what you pay for. I like a larger vehicle myself for safety concerns and the plain extra room. I find North American vehicles well priced. If you consider what you paid for a vehicle in the 80's, compared to what a dollar is worth to-day, a North American vehicle is a real bargain, but few people see it that way when straddled with high mortgages and taxes, energy cost etc.

What the Canadian English community is up against is the promotion of 'linguistic duality' by our dear friend, our federal government, with no input on what the Canadian tax payer has to day about all of this by way of referendum or whatever. http://www.cic.gc.ca/ENGLISH/pub/ola-action2004.html Constitution Act 1982, under 'Official Languages of Canada', Sec. 16(3), states: "Nothing in this Charter limits the authority of parliament to advance the equality status or use of English or French." This is most disturbing in a country that is suppose to advocate democracy but in reality, Canada is a country that rejects 'the will of the people'. I would say the unstable nature of our federal government pertaining to the actual government of the day, fueled by continual cultural unrest has destroyed the meaning of Canada as a country. Our government is obsolete and is in need of a major tune up, so that it will be able to perform its basic function, the administration or running of this country, rather than to be totally self absorbed with social engineering or statism.

Do you check the labels of every item you buy and buy Canadian? Certain items I check the label. But many made in Canada items, compared to imported products, don't stand a chance of maintaining competitive viability, whether I buy the product or not. These Canadian manufacturers are destined not to survive and will only be a matter of time before they permanently shut their doors. I think only the specialized manufactures stand a chance of survival and is what they are doing in the U.S. for instance and why they can still lead the world as one of the top manufactures. Third world countries are good at cloning many products, but there is a limit to their expertize and quality of individual components. Reliability, will be the ultimate test with items such as automobiles, produced by countries like China.

How about Canadians supporting the North American automobile manufacturers by buying their products.

It is ironic that a Francophone whose obvious mother tongue is French is always tested in English and not French. This obviously means many Francophones who speak slang french, could very well be incompetent in in their own French language.

I would go little further and say it is a sham. A constitutional republic with very restricted and well defined federal powers. Along with a proper bill of individual rights. Otherwise just scrap the whole thing and the provinces each go their own way. IOW, similar to a U.S. style government.

I think there is to many of them in there now. They should not be increasing any of them. If we had a population the size of the US they would likely have to build a new building for all the new seats they'd need. Increased representation does not necessarily mean more representation for Canadian citizens, as we know already, MP's tow the party line and ignore concerns of the electorate and do not even allow the electorate to participate in important matters involving our own constitution. Everything involving our form of democratic government appears to be a sham. I think Canada's only answer is for Canada to become a constitutional based federal republic as it is ungovernable as a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy with conditions worsening all the time making many Canadians second class citizens.

"One tiny, loose-knit group, populated in part by former diehard Reform party supporters, is even testing the idea of starting a new party on the principles of less government, lower taxes, greater accountability of MPs and judges, and an end to "enforced" bilingualism and multiculturalism." ------------------------------------------------------ I know how the Ottawa Citizen must love printing, anti-Liberal, anti-state-ism articles. "One tiny loose knit group", "diehard Reform party supporters", ha-ha-ha-ha, what bias. I have never heard one word out of the Ottawa Citizen denouncing the 'Bloc' as a federal party. http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/s...76-fe4dd79b43dd Well, I hope now this proposed party can provide Canadians with the type of representation Canadians deserve.

Peter, what I am saying is the 17% of all Canadians considered bilingual are 90% Quebecers. What Gatineau storekeeper "crap" are you referring to?

Quebec is a nice province when it isn't snowing. Outside of that they have lots of trees and federal financed James Bay Hydro and the Space Agency, Bombardier and many other federally financed initiatives. Their manufacturing sector is on a downhill slide. If they ever separate they will leave with very little including, probably, a lot less land area. http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive...7/27/c2151.html I don't think Quebec will be going anywhere and if they cosy up to the U.S. for business investment means here come the English, something Quebec won't particularly want to see happen. On the other hand I hope they will go and soon find out they are at the total mercy of the U.S. and won't be long before they are totally engulfed into the U.S. economy and end up another Louisiana. And the same goes for B.C. Rich to-day and poor tomorrow, if they ever separate.

It's not only power the PM's give Quebec, it appears they are the only privileged group in Canada ALLOWED to advance their society relating to "the will of the majority", while the majority English speakers in Canada are racially discriminated by their own federal government and the will of that majority totally ignored by our federal government. "The will the majority of Quebecers have affirmed since the 1960s to take control of their social, economic and cultural life and to make French the common and usual language of Quebec" http://english.republiquelibre.org/The_pri...language_policy Looks like we need a new form of federal government that will be accountable to the REAL English Canadian majority rather than to be humbled and humiliated by our present form of federal government.

Take away the Anglophone, allophones and Aboriginals and Quebec's net linguistic effect is reduced to about 18% of Canada's total population and almost equal to the 17% of all Canadians that are bilingual. English is the 'de facto' language of the country of Canada which includes Quebec. They were successful because: "The French were able to accept an African as French, if he gave up his African culture and adopted French ways, even including marriage with a French woman." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_Africa The French are linguistically insane it seems: "In the case of Rwanda in 1994, for example, France made the terrible mistake of seeing the struggle there as being fundamentally one between Francophone and Anglophone Africa. " http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_co...5/5.2smith.html Sounds familiar doen't it? Only under the federal fairy make believe kingdom are the official languages equal and not in the real world. Certainly. But by forced to co-operate by a phony, corrupt federal style municipal bilingual policy (Ottawa for example)is not the definition of "natural demand". It is a 100% failed issue considering the amount of federal money poured into a policy that was forced on the Canadian public, who had virtually no say in that discriminatory policy. If you consider 17% of Canadians who are currently bilingual a great achievement, considering the fact this represents 90% of them Francophone from Quebec, then good for you. Let's face it without Canada there would be no Quebec. Quebec at this time would probably be a U.S. possession similar to Louisiana with a lifestyle similar to residents of Louisiana. You have a lot of nerve suggesting Quebec is so different culturally while leeching off of the rest of Canada and taking advantage of the loyalist who voluntarily allowed themselves to be assimilated, to conform to American customs, that have benefited Quebec tremendously. It is dysfunctional Canadian politics that have allowed Quebec the right to retain the 'Quebec Act' when they should have been forced by federal authorities to surrender that document if they want to remain a province in Canada. You have demonstrated absolute contempt for English speaking Canadians and I will no longer be debating this issue with you any further as you are displaying the same type of unbearable arrogance Quebec displays towards Canada.

You almost make Quebec sound linguistically significant in comparison to the rest of Canada, when you KNOW, this is not the case. Official languages was established by a certain federal party sympathetic to (third world Quebec's) perpetual unrealistic linguistic plight based on constitutional rights pertaining only to the province of Quebec and nothing to do with ROC. The English were not stupid enough to waste time with a French minority that never had any intention to conform to English standards. Don't forget, the Roman Catholic religion was very influential at that time adding to the problems of assimilation. But I wouldn't go blaming the English for failing to assimilate Quebecers, because to this day Quebec still does not know when to throw in the linguistic towel, despite being outnumbered by hundreds of millions of anglophones. This of course does not say much for the mentality of Quebec politicians, as they must be fully aware their linguistic plight is the total destruction of Canada as a country, tit for tat. I certainly hope Canadian premiers of all other Canadian provinces are aware of this. I know for a fact, many store clerks are acting in solidarity to support the 'French fact' (tit for tat, but still FAIL to understand the difference between a majority and a minority) and only pretending they do not understand English. I checked and verified with store managers in Gatineau that employees of larger stores or chains are indeed bilingual and the Quebec ads in Ontario to come to shop in Quebec will verify this also. Gatineau which is part of the Outaouais, has one of the highest rates of bilingual francophones in Quebec. So, some people will sell their souls to the devil for advancement, nothing new there. BTW-I am not spiteful but am resentful of the fact the federal government stripped away my constitutional rights pertaining to 'federal official bilingualism' and resentful that the federal government ignored the 'will of the people of Canada' relating to this issue. For the federal government to have a high level contempt against its own majority English speaking citizen's is an abnormal and unacceptable occurrence and only shows the federal government of the past to actually be unnaturally biased against English speakers of Canada and hold the English accountable for problems they were unable to solve. Which begs the question to be answered: 'Who the hell is running Canada'??? What large francophone population? Approx. 50% of Quebec's population are separatist, that leaves approx. 50% some federalist others nationalist. At the very best your looking at 3-million people who are possibly in agreement with federalist policies. Please post those numbers for all to see otherwise we will take it for granted what you stated is BS, like mostly everything else you post. Canada is not Europe, we have rules governing official languages and Quebec is not a country. It is outright madness to enforce minority French as a language of equal importance to majority English to be used in the workings of our federal government outside of Quebec. As if Quebec cannot control French services within the province of Quebec utilizing modern technology. The current federal bilingualism ploy,is a spiteful game played by opposing federal parties who see French assimilation as a horrible insult and try to even the game by forcing unconstitutional policies for 'tit for tat, which in the long run are only inflaming the failed bilingualism issue.

"Premier Dalton McGuinty says Ontarians should be concerned about proposed federal legislation that shortchanges the province in terms of how many MPs it sends to the House of Commons. "It means that we'll exercise less than our fair share of influence, and that's important," Mr. McGuinty told reporters at Queen's Park yesterday." http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/n...db-3db7e61e5af8 ----------------------------------------------------------- I think premier Dalton Mc.Guinty is right on this one. But the question is, why is Quebec crying the blues when population growth in other parts of Canada require proper representation? If Quebec objects to this ---to bad! More on Bill-C-56. http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news...56-51aef1082fda

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/05/18/tory-document.html No wonder they want fixed election dates. Why don't you get your story straight? The Liberals started all of this earlier in the week: "Conservatives were still simmering over a Liberal ploy earlier in the week that sped a Liberal backbench environmental bill through a Senate committee in 44 seconds with no Tories present to stop it." http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/s...555fb00&k=71103

Before the 'Official Languages Act' came along, English was the 'de facto' majority residential and commercial language of Canada. The English language in Canada never required any officialization of any kind. 'Official multiculturalism' along with the 'Official Languages Act' and corrupt government made English and minority French the official languages of Canada with the intent to make Canada a bilingual nation. We all know the federal bilingual plan failed miserably, with at this time a little over 17% of Canadians are fluently bilingual, which basically represents the French population of Quebec and a handful of other French speaking Canadians scattered throughout Canada. But nevertheless the federal government never abandoned or discontinued as 'unworkable and racially discriminatory', 'federal official bilingualism' in the federal government. Why the federal government wishes to continue blatant discrimination against users of the English language with this useless federal bilingual policy only proves how dysfunctional the federal government really is. Why is the federal government making the majority English speakers of Canadian society unduly suffer, for parliaments incompetency and inability, for once and for all, to settle Quebec's grievances without dragging down the English speaking population of Canada to appease Quebec's self induced problems. My logic is not flawed but yours certainly is.

Sounds like you don't like democratic reform or the way democracy is designed to work. Your third reason is laughable.

Actually corrupt federal politics and confederation in Canada allows this unfortunate scenario. To bad ALL provinces were not like Quebec and didn't sign Canada's constitution, then we would see how far Quebec would get along in French only. Thank Canadians for the gift of being able to retain Quebec's language under our existing dysfunctional political system. I did a quick check on this subject and found many articles pointing in that direction, (thinking the U.S. would be also conforming to the metric system), but not much blatantly stating that fact, although I did not spend that much time researching. Regardless, this was a well known fact in the 70's. http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/ind...s=a1ARTA0005262 The federal 'official bilingualism policy' is discriminatory, as Quebec's legal place in Canada relating to the French language has never been legally established in respect to the majority English language used commercially throughout the country. If French is an 'official language' and used in the federal government, then why is it not an 'official language' across the entire country. This is what makes French NOT a genuine 'official language' but one the federal government chooses to blatantly discriminate against users of the English language.

Why don't you quote the article properly: "Cultural assimilation (often called merely assimilation) is an intense process of consistent integration whereby members of an ethno-cultural group, typically immigrants, or other minority groups, are "absorbed" into an established, generally larger community." So what are you exactly saying? Are you suggesting Quebec is a country and does not qualify as a plain old minority group? Your statement is NOT common knowledge: "If anything, English Canadians are now less like Americans since Canada switched to metrics." Canada initially began implementing the metric system thinking the U.S. would also be going ahead with the metric system, but never did. Canada was stuck and burdened by a half implemented metric system that serves no purpose other than confuse everyone. So your statement is FALSE and is NOT common knowledge that Canadians "are now less like Americans since Canada switched to metric. That is not the point. The point is that the Canadian English language has NEVER been threatened by the U.S., like you were claiming. "Canadian English however may be threatened by American English (other than writing color with a U), but that's another example of language usually being the major issue in terms of assimilation." Canada "gets it" because there is NO real federal government representing the majority of Canadians. What we have (again) is a dysfunctional political system caused by lack of federal leadership to kick out an uruly minority. Then the federal government is totally incompetent for implementing it, besides the fact it is being racially discriminatory. 'The Charter of the French Language' is an upscaled version of Bill-101. I already made clear I don't recognize Quebec's 'Charter of the French Language', 'OLA', nor the 'Charter of Rights and Freedoms'. That is the primary reason I don't vote. Our political system is constitutionally corrupt and dysfunctional. Place your bets, ladies and gentleman!