Drea

I, for one, need my vehicle. I'd look pretty funny riding around all day on my bicycle in my skirt in the pouring rain! I'm looking into buying a new car -- a hybrid for $35,000 or a regular car for less than $20,000. The savings from the hybrid don't add up to $15,000 over the life of the vehicle so it's still more economical (from a personal perspective) to buy a gas powered car. If "they" really wanted us to stop using gas powered vehicles, alternative powered ones would be more affordable.

DARE is not only in Alberta... my son went through the program in grade 5 (we live in BC) DON'T do drugs or drink in FRONT of your children! Bubber has said he smokes weed. We can get that here in Canada no problem, no need to go to Mexico for it.

Where does it say that the 11 men were native? I didn't see it in the article. Is this an assumption or fact?

Reserves promote a culture of dependance. Obviously you are independant as you live off reserve. Why did you leave? Of course there are bad apples in every bunch (re: wastes of skin in the GTA) Ever notice when you have one rotten apple in the bag the rest of the bag goes rotten very quickly? I live in the Fraser Valley of BC. 20% of my clients are native people who are very successful in business. Not one of them live on a reserve. All the successful ones (like yourself) have gotten out and made something of themselves. Just the other day I was talking to a salon owner (the best hairdresser in the world IMO) and asked her how she got her start. She got a business loan, just like everyone else. She didn't get one cent from the govt in the form of grants. I hold her up as the model for business people everywhere (not just natives). I am not responsible for what happened 150 years ago. If we all could go back, there is a brewery in Austria that belonged to my family until Hitler came along... should I go see if I can get it back? There is (was) no land ownership in native culture. The worst things are the residential schools and the reservations. Reservations have done nothing to promote keeping the native culture alive. Residential schools.... we all know the sad stories that came out of those. Catholic priest abuse children no matter what culture they are. You are not going to "guilt" me into feeling sorrow for what happened. I have never believed in seperating people and never will. Is it not better to have all people assimilate into the country? Should new immigrants be segregated based on race or religion? Should we have special "areas" for them to live?

I show a little smiley face... and you type this... It's not really THAT serious of a topic. Boo Hoo

My husband met a couple from Isreal. They said that our "Indian problem" is similar to their "Palestinian problem". NOT! Not one single native person has ever blown themselves or other people up. On that note... I do not agree with "reserves" in this day and age. They simply encourage the "bad" culture of laziness and personal "unacountability". How can a young native person growing up on a reserve be expected to grow up with any self esteem at all? By being segregated on a "reserve" he is being told that he is not "worthy". How can he grow up with any sense of accomplishment when the govt has provided everything for his family? How can he grow up with a work ethic in this situation? I know many many natives who do not live on reserves who are very successful. I say tear up all those old "treaties" and let the people be free to work and live just like everyone else. Yah want land? Save up and buy it, just like the rest of us.

What difference does it make what language any country's anthem is sung in? As long as the people singing it feel the patriotism IMO it would be hard NOT to feel patriotic when you're singing the anthem of your country! Whether or not you speak the language or were born there -- people should just appreciate that these immigrants care enough to sing the anthem at all. English - Oh Canada we stand on guard for thee! German - OH- Kanada, das wir auf Schutz für thee stehen! French - Oh Canada que nous nous tenons sur la garde pour le thee! Spanish - ¡Oh Canadá que estamos parados en el protector para el thee! Arabic - يا كندا نقف علي الحرس انت! Chinese - 加拿大为保护好我们站在你!

RE: lowering the GST by 1 cent.... We are looking to buy a new TV. Probably going to spend $2000. We save whopping $20. If I buy a new suit for $200 I save -- whoo hoo -- $2! LOL I usually shop at Value Village so I will save a quarter of a penny on a $25 suit. Pretty piddly. IMO that (the Great GST Cut) is almost as lame as the Great Baby Payment Plan. I do agree with paying down some of the debt. But realize that we must also have some in "savings". If you came into a windfall would you pay off everything or would you put some away? In our household we would pay off some of our debt and put the rest into savings or investment accounts. There will be "rainy" days ahead and we should prepare for them.

Only for "believers" tho. For non-believers this is a non-issue. No one needs to be "saved" from anything. I agree with the poster who says you cannot go from being attracted to women then BAMB! all of a sudden you are sexually attracted to men. As a heterosexual female, I cannot imagine myself having sex with a woman (icky! and unfullfilling IMO). The manliness of a man turns me on, the womanliness of a woman does not. This will never change with me, 10 years down the road and I will still want intimacy with a man. Same for gays. The gay woman cannot imagine sex with a man (icky, in her opinion). Why are people NOT okay with this? Why is it such a big deal to some people. Live and let live I say.

oops double post

I agree. We should save it -- although we (the country, economically) are doing great right now, it's always wise to save for lean times. And yes, some of it should go to paying off the national debt. Some of it should go to national programs like the military for example).

As this is my first year (2005) earning big bucks (over 40 grand) I am quite shocked at how little I paid ($8000)! I even get 25% of it back because of write offs. I can imagine the business owner who pulls in 100 g's plus has enough write offs to pay next to nothing. I love my accountant! For $52 she did my return and found tons of writeoffs. Next year I should get even more back because I know better how to keep track of my expenses. If you have any income at all other than employment income, or if you are in sales, I recommend seeing a real accountant, not just H&R Block. As we own a duplex, we can write off all repairs and reno's. As a sales rep, I can write off my vehicle, fuel, lunches, travel for training, etc.

In supplementary insurance right? Like prescriptions and things like that? I was pretty sure Alberta was the only province with health premiums, but I may be mistaken. No, not for extras. I paid the $93 a month to the BC Govt as a premuim for my regular health insurance. Even when I was making next to nothing (minimum wage) I paid $65 per month for the two of us. How much does the minimum wage earner pay in Alberta? How much if you aren't low income and don't have coverage through an employer?

Personally, I see some value in universiality, so I do think taxes are reasonable to cover those that are actually disadvantaged, say below $24,000 in household income. Other than that, it should be somewhat premium based, so we all pitch $100 a month or what not. (Remember our tax bills would be reduced about 1/3 by that move so you'd have alot more money each month) We do pay monthly premiums. I paid $93 per month for my son and I before I got coverage through my employer. I agree completely. Nothing is worse than the people who have to see a doctor once a week for the sniffles! Perhaps user fees would eliminate these unnecessary visits and lower the overall cost of healthcare. You and I are paying for it Drea, one way or another. It doesn't change if we pay it off our paycheque or pay it off our paycheque in taxes. I agree, we cannot have our sick people denied coverage. And I also believe that we can't treat health insurance the same as car insurance. I had an accident last year and now my car insurance premiums are going up by $400 per year. One accident in 25 years of driving. IMO it would be very difficult to "monitor" risk factors -- "did you eat trans fat?" "do you eat your 5-10 servings of veggies today?", "did you do your workout last week?" How about private clinics paid for by public insurance?

Where, if not from taxes, would funding for our health insurance come from? It's insurance, just like any other insurance. I've insured my vehicle for the past 25 years and have only used it once. I'm sure I've paid out way more than I've used. I go to the doctor once a year but pay premiums and taxes the same as the person who goes once a week. I'm not disturbed by this. Why? Because if I get cancer or some other disease, I am covered because I've paid into my insurance.

IMO a person who is attracted to the same gender doesn't just "change", nor does a person who is attracted to the opposite gender just change one day. If you are a man and men's butts turn you on how does one translate that into being turned on by a woman's butt? A while back I saw these two beautiful young women all huggy and kissy and I thought to myself "they just think they are being cool -- they are not really gay". Gayness (at least between women) is considered "cool" among the young set these days. Not so with gay men. It's still very difficult for a young man (say in college) to be gay -- he is much more ostrasized than the female gay (men have always fantasized about woman on woman sex ). I don't think anyone (cept those "cool" young women) would actually choose to be gay. It would be a very difficult life IMO.

Just last night friends were discussing this and the main point was "does Harper live in a cave?" Does he not know that 80% of the world despises GW? Does he not know that by following in GW's footsteps he is alienating Canadians? Regardless of whether or not he "wants" to follow Bush, he is percieved as doing so. If Harper wants to hold onto his govt he should realize that the majority of Canadians want to distance themselves as far as possible from GW (currently, the most despised man on the planet).

The reason a single mother on welfare does not qualify for daycare subsidy is that she is not working and thus does not require someone to look after her children. Now, if she is going to some type of retraining then she should recieve the daycare subsidy. The lady you speak of would have been better off simply looking in her local newspaper for someone to care for her child. Most "official" daycares (the YMCA for example) do not have shift care, for shift care you would need a homebased childcare situation.

It IS my reasoning that providing the low income family with daycare subsidy will prevent them from being on welfare. For instance... a single mother currently on welfare. Welfare says "get a job". She says "Ok" and proceeds to get a job at WalMart. She now needs daycare! She now needs daycare subsidy! If the gov't said "sorry, no daycare subsidy for you" then she would not be able to work.

If by low income you mean low enough that they are on welfare, then yes I agree. I also beleive this can be a self-funding plan if the amount they save on welfare is at least as much as what it cost for the child-care subsidy. As welfare is a provincial responsibility, there is no need for a federal plan or funding in this area. Actually a person on welare has no need for daycare so we can't really subsidize welfare-daycare now can we? We need to subsidize daycare for the poor sap who works at Wal-Mart, not the mom sitting at home in her quarter million dollar house, nor the mom sitting on her butt on welfare -- just because these two moms "need a break" from their kids, it's not up to us taxpayers to support their "breaks".

Rude comment directed at the poster not the issue... More rude comments directed at the poster not the issue... And again... Have you read this? http://www.mapleleafweb.com/forums/index.p...&CODE=01&HID=17

Drea, most of those sites you've linked are selling kits or other products. Sure you could pick up a few pointers or two...but in the end, they're all trying to sell! Survival plan in cases of disaster falls under Public Safety! A comprehensive information should be provided that changes with the kind of threats the population could be facing. An organized response to attacks, including that of the citizenry, is part of a good defense plan. My son has a cool book on survival. He got it as a present, when I find it, I'll give you the title and the author. Geoffrey wrote: The government should pay for daycare for low income families (how many times do I gotta say this?) Better they get daycare subsidy than pay for the entire family to be on welfare, no?

I have a mom who's pregnant again, and is moving out of town. She doesn't want any institution for a daycare...wanting a home environment for her kids. She's thinking about staying home and taking on a couple of kids. You'll see that this Harper daycare plan will induce a lot of moms opening up daycare spaces in their homes. Btw, come to think of it, all of my parents do not want institutionalized daycare. Some of them do not even want to know whether they are qualified for sibsidy or not. The issue I have with Harper's plan, Betsy, is that it goes to even those parents who are "rich". If I had a baby, I would of course get the money, even though last year our family income was over $100,000 and we really don't need a government hand-out. At my income level there is just no way it would be feasible for my family to lose it if I had a baby and decided to stay home. I would have no issue paying a daycare out of my own pocket -- I would be concerned about finding a space to put my child. What I'd like to know, is those news reports that tell us there are no spaces, do they include home day/evening cares or care like the YMCA provides? In our little city we have some daycare providers that are advertising that they have space. Renegade, Yes, I believe subsidies should only be used by low income families. Yes, they should be used to help a family get off welfare (and stay off).

Any ideas on how that could be done? LOL I wish I knew. Just like anything else I suppose. When we need more military recruits we do a marketing campaign -- so maybe a marketing campaign on becoming a care provider? IMO a short term marketing program would be cheaper in the long run than handing everyone $1200. The Great Baby Payment Plan will go on forever and cost us taxpayers more and more each year. A marketing campaign would be perhaps a year long and be a "one off" expense. We have a single mom where I work and she is finding it very stressful to work fulltime and look after her kidlets. She is really unhappy at work and wishes she could just stay home. I am encouraging her to take on a couple of children so she can be at home and have less stress.

Don't even have to go to the library... Survival Websites