Slim MacSquinty

Yes the Libeals should stand against ideology, since they have none of their own it is fair to suppose they should try to prevent everyone else from having any either. Then we can all sink down to thier mindless moral relativism.

Do any of you profound pontificators know anything about EA's? Seems perhaps you do not, since federal and provincial EA's are nearly identical unless they invovle a federal waterway. This policy is largely to eliminate duplication of work for things that normally only require a federal EA because they recieve federal funds. If this was a provincially or privately funded project no federal EA would be required.

He is supporting the American president in his fight against protectionist policy makers in the US, and it is very good for Canada, when is the last time Americans were interested in listening to a Canadian PM. Don't be so petty and small minded.

but almost anyone can be a Liberal. And anyone can be a Conservative, so what is the point of the argument?

Dodge is definately a Liberal, prior to being appointed to head of the BoC he worked for the finance department under Chretien. Extremely unusual for a former head of the BoC to take a stand like this, predicting the outcome of this recesion is like sooth saying, he should know that and he should keep his mouth shut and NEVER undermine the present head to the BoC. Says alot about his character. Growning up on the Oak Ridge Moraine - I saw the meadows and the lakes - the swamps and the diversity of anicent plant life - underneath this ridge was the largest and most pure ancient water supply on the planet - I watched them destroy the place...I know what was lost - those that are there now have not a clue what was squandered and passed over to habitualist developers who raped the most valuabel land on the planet. I live in the ORM and am offended by the ORM act, this piece of Liberal legislation is nothing but smoke and mirrors, while I can't do anything on my land because it is environmentally protected, if I sell to a gravel company they can mine to within a foot of the water table nature be damned. If this was truly to protect water, the Lafarge and Dufferin couldn't do what they do. This act is purely to protect the gravel resource, enacted by the Liberals when Sorbara (the developer) was in charge to protect him and his friends like Larry Tanenbaum (pres of Lafarge). I actually drink the water here, not a bunch of tree huggers in the city or Sobara and hsi developer friends.

BC, I agree, the opposition party's are perhaps even less willing to participate in any meaningful level of inclusive behavour especially the NDP who vote against everything. Why haven't you cahnged your name to McCain/ Palin?

Everyone I mentioned in my post is a member of an organized religion that believes in some type of creation, why is it only Conservatives who profess membership in organized religion are subjected to loathing and attack. Either you apply your theory universally or you admit you are a member of Iggy's smear army. Interesting to note that although the Conservatives used attack ads effectively (and all the party's use them) only the Liberals consistantly use smear techniques. And even more shameful is the amount of people willing to set aside any small amount of reason they may posses to pass along the gossip.

Chretien and Martin both attended Church and were avowed Catholics this converstaion never happened, what about Navdeep Bains and Burbax Sing Mali both who wear their turbans (religious symbols of faith) in the house, please publicly ask them to dis avow their beliefs. While your at it tell Scott Brison to keep his gayness under wraps, after all we shouldn't know. You and the rest of the smear army never say a peep because you are dishonest. Don't pretend to take the high road, stick to the gutter.

What a thorough waste of even feeble brain power, left wing flaming and baiting. Here is an interesting link that has a list of countless PhD's, scientists and other intellectuals who seems to have personally resolved this stupid debate and apparently retain(ed) employment in scientific fields: http://www.tektonics.org/scim/sciencemony.htm Just because someone professes a faith in religion does not mean they take the Taliban approach to interpretation. Remember, you Liberal flamers, Paul Martin the church attending Catholic? Why did you not take him to task on this issue? What a bunch of disengenious party hacks. Personal religious view are personal, not government policy why is it you can understand this when a Liberal is in power but not otherwise?

Although I largley agree with your idea your two examples really demonstrate a different issue: Isaac Newton could have vacationed in Majorca, safe in the belief that the government (someone else) will worry about future generations. Instead, Newton religiously worked and invented calculus. Newton developed calculus quietly over his lifetime, mostly in his youth, because of a compulsion, and in an era of science for science. If that argument doesn't work, let me consider this one: Mrs. Einstein says to Albert: I'm off to Cuba. The government pays for university education in physics now - apply for a student loan/bursary. Likewise for Einstein, he was a patent clerk when his formula finally got attention, he had been obsessed with light his whole life and had concluded that all energy was related to light, his famous formula was simply his observations of light combined with newtons formula for energy. I have heard it postulated that there were more scientists alive in the 70's than had ever lived in all of history before this time and that the reason for the decline in progress in scientific breakthroughs was the result of the corporatiztion of science. Which, using your two examples, would be easy to agree with since corporate science simply wants to bring things to market and focuses on finding ways around patents and not on theoretical principals. There is another statistical fact which also somewhat challenges your hypothesis won't leave as much to their offspring, that they simply have far less offspring to leave their money to, therefore in real dollars it may be less but it won't be distributed as widely. However there exists the real possibility that with higher life expectancies many will work much longer hampering the ability of the gen xers from full employement or alternatively parents who run out of funds could become a burden on their own children. What many do not realize is the significant role that inheritance has played in our standard of living in western society. In any case its an interesting topic.

This incident is a black eye on an honourable branch of the public service for a number of reasons, four lazy cops arrive at a disturbance, being impatient they asses the situation for perhaps five seconds and attack with force. Not satisfactorily subdued by one or two taser jolts while writhing on the floor they hit him three more times. Under questoning they claim to have followed proceedure, though clearly they did not, they were not even aware he could not speak english though there were several people standing there who could have filled them in on this trivial bit of information. Worst of all they refuse to assume any responsibility and try to smear this poor fellows character. Pitiful really. Hope they never come into my office when I'm in the middle of attaching several pieces of paper together. Oh and to follow along on some of the logic in this thread, if all measures are acceptable to keep cops from harm then why do we pay them so much, statistically it is more dangerous to be a farmer, construction worker or factory labourer, why not transfer the danger pay to any of these less noble occupations.

That's it Harper haters roll out all the sorry old mischaracterizations, at least when the conservatives went after Dion they were spot on. I suspect there is much dirt on Ignatief, and the media has given him a fauning bye instead of a cold hard look. I look forward to hearing some good dirt on this guy, I particularly did not like his arrogant "I'm putting the government on probation" line, from an unelected leader of an essentially bankrupt rump of a party, image what a twit he'd become if he got anywhere near power.

Unless you've tinkled glasses with the GG at some elegant dinner party you probably have little in common with this fellow, I think it's interesting to note, most of our ancestors arrived here to enjoy democracy and escape some form of oppression, Iggy's family came here as escaped oppressors leaving behind some form of crude democracy. I've always been uncomfortable with those who felt they were "men of destiny".

When Flaherty was in charge of roads in Ontario, there was a lot of hype about his government's plan to rebuild our highways, and he made good on a lot of the promises. However, when it was learned that all the contracts went to a Quebec firm, who for the most part brought their own workers, I'm surprised he escaped with his life. In the end, it cost taxpayers more and left many Ontarians unemployed, adding to the discontent with the Harris government. Mr. misinformation king, it seems you misremember the facts, Flaherty was never in charge of the roads in Ontario, and it was the Torys in Ontario who brought the fairness iis a two way street bill into law which prevented Quebec workers from entering Ontario until Quebec allowed Ontario workers in. http://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/news/2002/02-08b.html As for the rest of this thread, you Bush haters are finally getting your wake up call, Bush didn't kill the economy, gready bankers with the support of Democratic congress (party of the saviour) caused the credit bubble. This is the same Democratic congress (party of the saviour) who are pushing protectionism and sabre rattle about nafta, both before and after the election. Now Obama (the saviour) although eloquent, is almost completely untested politically and simply has benefitted from the projection of the hopes of the American electorate who came to hate Bush. I know your trying to do the same with Iggy though its unlikely to work because his views are widely recorded and will only serve to demonstrate his flip flops. The Cons are using Michael Wilson, who is our well respected ex finance minister, and others to make a good economic arguements rather than play spoiled child antics to convince the US that it is in their best interest to continue to play ball with Canada. As a fall back we have nafta which we would in all likelyhood win, but would take so long it would be ineffective in helping the economy. As has been pointed out our economies are so intertwined it would simply be a mess to try and figure out what constituted "made in America". And it seems to be working: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1248975 Try reading some stuff for yoursleves instead of buying into all the propaganda.

So what would be the punishment in their home country for a volunteer who refused active duty in Iraq? What is it that they are escaping?

Martin's (and Chretien's) reputation as a 'deficit fighter' are, at best, greatly overstated. It is true that Mulroney failed to cut the deficit himself (for which some criticism is deserving). But, when Paul Martin came to power, he had several advantages: - A period of strong global economic growth and low interest rates - The previous conservative government had voted for tax increases, much of their impact took place after the conservatives lost power (so the conservatives get the blame, the Liberals get the glory) - The previous conservative government had also negotiated free trade deals, which improved our trade surplus and would have provided even more money to the government - The presence of a conservative government in Ontario who was willing to cut spending (and in many ways acted as a scape goat for many of the problems in central Canada) It should also be noted that the Liberals also significantly cut spending in areas such as health care and the military, something that shifted the burden of 'deficit fighting' to either the provinces (in the case of health care cuts) or future government (in the case of military cuts, where the current Conservative government has to spend more to replace outdated equipment.) Given the economic win-fall that the Liberals experienced (much of it out of their control) and the willingness to pass the buck to others, pretty much anyone could have eliminated the deficit Getting warm, both Dalton Camp and Chretien gave credit for cutting the deficit to Michael Wilson the previous conservative finance minister, as he put in place much of what Martin executed. In addition Martin, the snivelling weasel, took liberties with his "blind trust" and greatly assisted his own financial position through his holdings in CSL. On his watch as finance minister the money poured out for the sponsorship scandal, which it is highly doubtful he knew nothing about, however as with much else in his life there was an abundance of fall guys to protect him from harm. In the end his spoiled child blind ambition was both fulfilled and his downfall as it left him isolated from much of his party and left to his own devices he was a singular failure. Starry eyed fawing for these liberal elites is the hallmark of the weakminded lemmings who propagate myths to get close to liberal power hoping to enrich themselves at the government trough.

We need to regain confidence in Canada. Regardless of our own opinion of the Parliamentary crisis when you read comments from places like New Zealand, Great Britain and even the US; most can't believe that Harper is still in power. McCain pulled the 'socialist' card and Obama turned it into a plus. With a grave face he announced that when he was in kindergarten he shared a peanut butter sandwich with a friend so must be a 'socialist'. We've become a joke. Harper's inaction on the economy is the message across the US. In Europe they are amazed that we don't understand Parliamentary law. They say with a non-confidence vote on the table that must be followed through before any attempt to stall Parliament. I do agree that a weaker Canadian dollar should help trade but with a global recession I doubt it will matter much. We need a change in government to convince the rest of the world that we are taking the economic and environmental crises seriously. What an absolute crock, you Liberal hack plant of a hypocrite, when Chretien was in power and the dollar was in the 75 cent range this was the greatest thing, you neglected to inform the generla public it was simply a way of hiding productivity declines, but now when the dollar bounces back into the mid 80's you make it sound like an international crisis. How can you type with all your fingers crossed? A crisis of confidence would almost certainly result from the overthrow of the elected government by that rag tag coalition of yours, and most Canadians, not nearly as highbrow as you, used their common sense and figured that our despite your hysterical protestations. If indeed we've become a joke its because of amoral puppeteers like you who put political self interest above all. Do us a favour and stop starting threads like this one.

Wow, Joe Clarke, the bitter deposed red tory is now posting here, geeze Joe I know you hate Harper, cause his shadow was too big for you, but Iggy won't be nice to you, he's not nice to anyone. You sir are no Tory, and this I know as you immediately cite Liberal propaganda to support your very weak argument. Iggy's past writings in many areas contradict Liberal talking points, further he is not surrounded by any brighter lights than Harper, on the contrary the Liberal party may be at its lowest in terms of available help. Iggy is Iggy, he is not JFK, he is not Obama and he is not Trudeau. His only similarity is none of the comparitors did much for Canada either. Now go back to the Red Room with kinsella and Reid and try and do better next time.

Jimmy Carter wrote a book vaguely on this topic a couple of years ago, he being a strong evangelic christian (southern baptist) has a very strong faith but effectively argued against the rise of political influence of the southern baptists and religion in general into the US political sphere. His intepretation of his religion, which he says equates to all protestants, says that they should remain out of politics in terms of their religion, he goes on to describe in great detail how he was able to make that work while president without diminishing his presidency or his religious practices. What you are proposing Mr Canada, contrasts his position, and in fact strikes me as dangerously similar to the Muslim idea of Sharia law. My religion, and I suggest yours as well, is between me and my God, is my right to practice as I please and not to be imposed on others any more than the religion of others should be imposed on me. I believe the conservative party of Canada shares my interpretation of this matter. That being said there are limits to the freedom of religion that could cause damage to others while at the same time all religions share some fundemental moral principles which one could easily confuse with fundemental human rights ideology before it got sidetracked by special interest lawyers. If you are so willing to push christian principles out into the political sphere then you had better be prepared to swallow muslim, buddist, jewish, hindu etc etc as well. No thanks

Pretty loose statement by the BoC and even looser exaggerated reporting. We do not have a real estate bubble happening like in the US therefore the underlying value remains in the asset and people are far less likely to forfeit on their mortgages . From what I see, just like recessions before, most folks just sit on their wallets until they figure prices have bottomed, then when suitable conviced they get back to spending. So what we need to here is we've reached the bottom lets get going. It looks to me like the stock market bottomed about three weeks ago, house prices will likely do the same before spring time. So with the slightest bit of good news we could start to come out of this next fall. I finally agree with Dobbin on something, recessions are really about economic confidence in the economy.

Here's a link to his resignation letter: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/p...esignation.aspx Totally political, accepts no responsibility and apparently even the problems with the Liberal party and more particularly his leadership all fall at Harpers feet. Not a graceful exit.

Seems they have already appointed Iggy leader and they're back to talking coalition. Just another example of disconnected Ottawa.

What about the rank and file, you know democracy?

I guess back room deals are alive and well in the Liberal party.

I can't see Rae giving in that easy.