-TSS-

As I checked the history of elections in Quebec http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Quebec_general_elections it seems that the split in the nationalist vote in 2007 hasn't hurt the nationalist cause even though in that particular year it gave the Liberals a victory but the combined share of the seats won by the nationalists has been higher since the split.

Does any state in the US have power to force municipalities to amalgamate? Not that any municipality next to Detroit would want to amalgamate with Detroit but as a theoretical question it is interesting to know.

Vancouver had been described as the most European style Canadian city despite that it is as far away from Europe as is geographically possible.

If you vote for Harper's party in the election you know you'll get Harper as PM. Nothing wrong with that. However, if Harper resigns in the middle of the term and someone else takes over as party-leader and PM. That someone may be someone that had you known that he/she would take over the party and become PM you wouldn't have voted for Harper's party.

Here in Finland our PM announced yesterday that he will not seek another term as party-chairman of the National Coaltition party. So he will resign as PM as well. The party-conference which elects new party-leader and hence PM takes place in June. Until then our politics is in a state of limbo with a lame duck leading our government. This raises some thoughts. Even though I am a fan of parliamentary democracy myself as opposed to the US-style strong presidential rule, when a PM resigns in the middle of a term there is an untenable situation that a new PM is not elected by the electorate but rather by a few hundred party-activists at a party-conference. Therefore, there should be a post of deputy-PM for these kinds of loopholes in the system.

Thanks for the compliments guys. I am a product of the Finnish school-system which once again was in the recent PISA-test the best in Europe. As for the issue, Canada is in a fortunate position that it can really choose the people it wants and reject the ones it doesn't want. Therefore the immigrants always tend to be of high quality and there is little reason to be anti-immigration. It's a bit different here on the old continent.

There is an Irish website I frequently visit and since I don't seem to have ad-blocks on my iphone there's always this advertisement which comes: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/ I wonder does Canada really need to advertise itself to attract people to immigrate. After all Canada is 3/4 most wanted destination in the world depending whether it is more or less wanted than Australia. The UK and the USA are easily the top two. However, that site was very informative. I wish we in Europe, or at least in Finland, had sense to have similar immigration-policy as in Canada. Judging by that site, for example, I couldn't even dream of moving permanently to Canada. I am too old, I have no special skills that are needed, nobody of my family already lives in Canada, I have very limited ability to speak English or French.

Though the city of Detroit has lost a lot of population the Detroit metro-area has remained more or less the same. People have just moved to the suburbs. I don't know how it goes in Canada but in the USA the value of your house is determined by various factors and, unlike one may think, one factor which increases the value of your house is that there is not a railway anywhere near it. Almost anywhere else having a railway near your house increases the value of your house because having a railway near you means you are within good connections. In the US cities, except for the very big ones like NYC or Chicago, the situation is different. Having a railway near your house means that there is bound to be public transport near your house and public transport means poor people who can't afford to drive and having poor people near you increases the worry that they bring all kinds of social problems.

If the reasoning is that the Crimea used to be Russian then the next logical step would be that Russia invades Alaska to get it back to Russia.

What is your view: Could Detroit's downfall have been made less dramatic if the state had intervened earlier? For the reasons of political correctness the state may have hesitated too long to put a stop on what's going on in Detroit.

Not on the same scale as Detroit but I have seen here in Finland how once thriving little communities can turn into decay very quickly. Namely, as you may know, pulp-industry is a very strong industry in Finland but as the corporations have shifted production more and more into cheaper countries many mills have been closed down. Many towns in Finland are totally reliant on a paper-mill located in the town. All life in those towns is in one way or another geared around that factory. If the corporation decides to close it it destroys the town as there is really no other work available.

The American city of Detroit used to be a proud city of car-manufacturing and various other industries. A truly diverse city of various ethnicities. Unfortunately, the present state of the city looks like this: http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/tag/detroit A completely collapsed city where everyone with means and opportunities has escaped from. The city is today 80% black and an economic basket-case. However, only recently has the Michigan state-government finally clamped down on the city. Their hesitation is purely political. The city is black, the state is white. When you want to look at the future of many, if even not most, European capital cities, just look at Detroit. I'm sure that not even the most ardent multikulti-lovers can say that Detroit is a success-story. They have to invent other excuses for its sorry state. Is there any possibility that any Canadian city turns into one like Detroit?

The Americans get constantly ridiculed how they never leave their own country. Very often those who ridicule the Americans for that fail to realise that the US is a size of a continent and even if you stay within the US it is possible to travel more extensively than Europeans within Europe within 15-20 countries. I live in Finland which is of a geographic size smaller than about half of the US-states. Yet, the only foreign trips I've ever had have been to the neighbouring Russia. I've never bothered to visit Sweden or Estonia which are also next door. Anywhere further afield is an absolute no no as I have a terrible fear of flying. So if anyone deserves to be called a yokel it is not those Americans who never leave the US but me.

Indeed, Ukraine would be attacked on two fronts.

Even though international politics doesn't affect very much Americans' voting-decisions the way how Putin is making Obama looking like a novice just can't hurt the Democrats chances in this year's mid-term. In two years time during the next Presidential election the Ukraine crisis will be over and forgotten. Or not, in the worst case-scenario Ukraine is developing into a country like Somalia when it comes to division.

Sanctions on Russia could cause the value of the rouble to plummet, which would make some oligarchs very angry. Similarly, there will be travelling restrictions imposed on Russian travellers. All these measures can cause a lot of nuisance but will do nothing to persuade Russia to withdraw from the Crimea.

You have to understand the Russians' desire to annex the Crimea against the background that Russia is such a tiny country on a very small plot of land. They are in a desperate need for some extra territory.

This sad incident is nearing its solution: http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1456068/no-one-has-survived-missing-malaysia-airlines-plane-lost-ocean-says?utm_source=edm&utm_medium=edm&utm_content=20140324&utm_campaign=breaking_news

You don't have a lot of Somalis?

About time too. Difficult to say what prompted the authorities to intervene but hopefully this sets a precedent and helps to put an end to barbaric practices based on superstitious claptrap: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2586074/Doctor-NHS-hospital-man-charged-carrying-female-genital-mutilation.html Btw, what is the situation in Canada regarding this subject?

The annexation of the Crimea is a done deal now as the superpower of Kyrgyzstan has recognised it as legal: http://en.ria.ru/world/20140320/188606372/Kyrgyzstan-Recognizes-Crimea-Referendum-Results.html

Whatever sanctions the US and the EU can come up with none of them is anything Russia wouldn't have anticipated.

Surprise surprise, 95% of the Crimeans voted in favour of joining Russia.

Kerry called the Crimean referendum as being against the international law. Look who's talking now but however he is right on that one.

I guess that if an aeroplane crashes into the sea in the South China Sea people's bodies get totally eaten within 24 hours by all the possible sea-life there is but the absence of debris from the aeroplane is what is confusing.