normanchateau

That's the way I saw it. It shouldn't be a problem for Canadians but it sounds like he will give it up if it turns out to be. Funny how all of a sudden loyalty to the party transcends all his previous assertions, and winning at any cost is now more important than what 'his mother left him.' I guess it is party, ideology and above all, winning at any cost for that Liberal. Funny how Conservative supporters were bothered by his dual citizenship and now they're bothered by his offer to give up his French citizenship. If I were Dion, I'd keep the dual citizenship since those who favour Harper won't switch to Dion over this trivial issue no matter what Dion does or says.

The only taxes churches are exempt from are property taxes on Church property, if they were required to pay them you would see a lot less charitable work as they would not have the money to do it. That would then require the gov't or individuals to put more money and time into charity. I would think those who oppose this should be careful what they wish for, as once religious groups are no longer constrained by the tax issue, they would be come far more vocal and politically active. Then watch out. Apparently having atheists subsidize churches through their taxes, a socialist concept, is fine with you. I guess even fiscal conservatives have no problem with socialism when it comes down to special interests like rampant religion which they favour.

When is the last time you saw welfare cheques distributed by churches? Yet churches are tax-exempt. They don't even pay property taxes despite using the same municipal services as home owners and businesses. The rest of society, atheists included, subsidize churches through their hard-earned taxes. The churches deserve a break. They are supplying a traditional service that also helps keep many Canadians mentally and perhaps even physically conditioned to persevere the many hardships of life, rather then end up in mental institutions or hospitals with society paying the full cost. The churches also supply moralistic and other beneficial traditional services to those who wish to subscribe to this beneficial organization which is also the religious HOME to the MAJORITY of Canadians. Not taxing churches means atheists and others who have no use for religious institutions subsidize them. I thought you were against socialism. Are you saying that socialism is OK as long as it's used to support religions?

The Native American Church is legally permitted to use the hallucinogen peyote just as some Christian churches use alcohol in their religious practices. http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/nachurch.htm

Paul Martin permanently removed her from the Liberal caucus after she did that. Martin's action ended her political career. Wrong!!! That was after Carolyn said she had "no loyalty to Martin". "Carolyn Parrish ...is from the suburbs of Toronto and is a member of the ruling Liberal Party, although that party's leader, Prime Minister Paul Martin has publicly joked about how he and Bush want to send her to Mars. Carolyn Parrish appeared on a Canadian political comedy show, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, stomping on a little Bush doll and smiling. She's called Bush 'warlike', said she was 'dumbfounded' that so many Americans had voted for him, and said that "that country is completely out of step with most of the free world." Nothing gets punished in politics like pointing out what is utterly obvious, though. So Martin removed Parrish from the Liberal caucus. The media are full of unflattering pictures of Parrish and accompanying admonishing editorials about her 'anti-American' behaviour."

I spoke to a Conservative Party supporter who was an observer at the Liberal election and she tells a somewhat different story. This is second-hand information so I don't know how accurate it is. Apparently a couple of Middle Eastern immigrants who were Liberal delegates approached a number of other delegates to condemn Bob Rae as being too pro-Israel. Their "evidence" was that Bob Rae's wife was Jewish and he had other Jewish connections. The person I spoke to could not confirm that the people actually were delegates or merely intruders.

When is the last time you saw welfare cheques distributed by churches? Yet churches are tax-exempt. They don't even pay property taxes despite using the same municipal services as home owners and businesses. The rest of society, atheists included, subsidize churches through their hard-earned taxes.

The fact that he said this in a question and answer period with ordinary Canadians says that here is a politician who will do things differently. A more traditional politician would have made an announcement to the press or saved it for a debate with Harper where it would have had more impact and disarmed his opponent. Dion's frank comments on the issue, especially his acknowledgment that it was an emotional issue for him, were in stark contrast to the arrogance of some of his precedessors. I don't expect that Dion will ever attract hard-core CPC supporters but his unique style will appeal to undecided centrists. Dion needs only to win over a significant number of Green supporters to win a majority.

Not a heck of a lot if they want to keep their heads There was a time when Christians killed heretics by methods far slower and excruciatingly more painful than beheading. But that was 500 years ago and Christianity survived that dark period when Church-sanctioned, Christian extremists murdered Christian heretics and those of other religions. I suspect Islam will survive their extremists as well.

Instead they used it as a place to park failed CPC religious extremist and anti-abortion candidates like Darrel Reid of "Focus on the Family".

I saw it. It was a question and answer format in which questions were thrown at him from Canadians across the country. He did not know in advance what the questions would be. I thought he handled the dual citizenship question, which he certainly was prepared for, extremely well. Was it my imagination or did I hear him imply that if the dual citizenship became an issue for most Canadians, he would give up the French citizenship?

It also reflects the views of most Canadians: "The most recent public opinion poll on same-sex marriages became available on June 19th, 2006. The poll, conducted by Environics Research, showed that support for the law increased, as Canadians accept gay marriage by a 59-33 majority. An Environics poll taken in January of 2005, showed the majority favoured the law, but by a tighter margin: 54-43. The poll also asked respondents if they favoured reopening the issue, as Stephen Harper has promised to do in the fall. 62% responded that the issue is settled, 27% felt the issue should be reopened. An Environics poll taken in January, 2006, showed a margin of 66-30 against reopening the debate." Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marr..._post-enactment The 33% now opposing same sex marriage is a figure so low that it's almost as low as current CPC support nation-wide. Even so-con Harper now realizes that taking away legislated rights from one sector of the population is far more difficult than granting them in the first place.

Canada bars Dutch reporters from Afghan base: http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/st...0f6f2b9&k=32720

Do you think that whoever offers voters the most money will win the next election?

Please let us all in on any leaders who had publicly insulted Dubya? Carolyn Parrish's stomp dance on a Bush doll on tv! Paul Martin permanently removed her from the Liberal caucus after she did that. Martin's action ended her political career.

Then why do you suppose Preston Manning got rid of Stephen Harper as Finance critic and replaced him with Herb Grubel, a fiscally conservative economist? Here's what Grubel thinks of Harper: "Cutting the GST rather than business or personal income taxes may be good politics but it is definitely very bad economics," said Herb Grubel in the Vancouver Sun on November 22 nd 2005.

Considering the majority of his party doesn't support the bill, not much. Hard to say but it sure won't hurt his own image and may make him a little more palatable to those who were on the edge. Wishful thinking.

If Harper wins a majority or retains a minority gov't, he will stay on, there are no plans as far as I know for another convention. If he loses badly there possibly ould be a convention as there would be about 4 years to do that. Considering that Harper is not seen by most reasonable people to be anything but a fiscal conservative (some say libertarian) my guess is he will stay on anyway. Most CPC (all that I know) do not want a 'so-con' as a leader, one reason why Diane Ablonsky didn't win. What if Harper wins a minority with less seats than the current number of CPC MPs? Hard to imagine that there wouldn't be pressure for another convention. With luck, the next CPC leader might actually not be a so-con. Harper is not a libertarian. He favours criminalization of marijuana, i.e., permanent criminal records and potential jail time for simple possession. That's the standard so-con position. Dion favours decriminalization. The NDP and BQ favour decriminalization and the Greens favour outright legalization. Even Joe Clark and Stockwell Day favoured decriminalization.

He'd need a majority to re-open it. Fat chance.

"We made a promise to have a free vote on this issue; we kept that promise, and obviously the vote was decisive and obviously we'll accept the democratic result of the people's representatives," Harper said Thursday following the vote. "I don't see reopening this question in the future." And we all know that as with income trusts, Harper always keeps his promise.

I wonder how much it will expand his base. Sure, I can just see all those Liberal, NDP and BQ voters moving to so-con Harper. And of course the Greens, whose electoral platform includes the legalization of marijuana, will now switch their votes as well.

Maybe when Harper gets a majority he can re-visit the issue once again. http://www.walrusmagazine.ca/articles/poli...the-theocons/2/

I think they'll be fine with it. Here's one opinion piece on how the theo-cons embrace Harper: "McVety and others on the religious right are equally convinced that Harper is one of their own. “We’ve got a born-again prime minister,” trumpets David Mainse, the founder of Canada’s premier Christian talk show, 100 Huntley Street. They see him as an image-savvy evangelical who has been careful to keep his signals to them under the media radar, but they have no doubt his convictions run deep — so deep that only after he wins a majority will he dare translate the true colours of his faith into policies that could remake the fabric of the nation." Source: http://www.walrusmagazine.ca/articles/poli...the-theocons/2/

So you think there is no need to allow more women to get out and work? Take a look at what the average Vancouver house costs and what the qualifying income is for a mortage: http://www.rbc.com/economics/market/pdf/house.pdf

Assuming that Dion doesn't win a minority government and Harper does, do you really think CPC will keep Harper? Adscam provided CPC with their best ever shot of forming a majority government and if the best they can do is get yet another minority government next time, I anticipate CPC will start looking for a new leader. A Conservative who is not a so-con like Harper would actually stand a chance of forming a majority government. Jim Prentice perhaps?