Wilber

I agree, with the emphasis on vindictive. I wouldn't, as much as it's opponents on both sides of the border complain about NAFTA, it benefits both countries.

According to our Finance Minister's speech, the country ends at the Rocky Mountains. According to his budget, he means it.

Exactly, the only concern is to get rid of Fidel regardless of the cost to the Cuban people. Sometimes I think that many Americans are so frustrated with the fact that they haven't been able to get rid of a tin pot dictator right next door for over 45 years that it colours everything they do regarding Cuba.

Been recycling for years. Vehicles are diesel. Energy consumption is a definite consideration when I purchase products. Decided some time ago that my next heating system would be Geo thermal. So my answer is no, not really.

A minority PM cannot call an election. He has to be defeated on a budget vote or non-confidence motion. Actually he can unless the opposition could somehow combine to cobble up a coalition, but they wouldn't need an election to do that. Harper has committed himself to fixed term elections so the only way around that without breaking his word is to somehow be defeated on a matter of confidence.

This forum's equivalent of Whack a Mole.

The cost of oil is determined by supply and demand. Devaluation of the US dollar will have no effect on what you pay for oil unless your income is in US dollars or in a currency that is pegged to the US dollar.

Something I disagreed with.

To do that you would have to double the size of the Commons. One of the criteria for alloting the number of seats a province gets is determined by its population in respect to the rest of the country. BC has approx 1/3 the population of Ontario and approx 1/3 the number of seats. Double Ontario's and you would have to double BC's.

I don't dispute that the Cuban government has done what it can to embarass and inconvenience the US. I am not talking about governments but the average citzen. The embargo has done nothing to loosen Castro's control over the country but it has had a major effect on its citizens.

How have they made them worse?

No Brittney Spears or Celine Dion. More seriously, the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1989 has led much more to the decline of services and goods in Cuban lives than any period in the past 45 years. Indeed, before 1990, Cuba was advertised as a strong and vibrant defiance of El Bloqueo by Yankee dogs. Thorough analysis here: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/pagerende...ageindex=1#page Celine was still Canadian the last I heard and could travel to Cuba if she chose. The fact is, the embargo has made life worse for Cubans not better.

I think its called "trickle down" economy. Everything I have invested outside of a RRSP was with after tax money. I won't complain if I get a bit of a tax break on anything I make when I sell it.

What has the US embargo done to make the lives of Cubans better for the last 45 years?

Oh I see, each individual property owner will decide who and how many people he will import into the country. Would those people be free to go where ever they wanted once their importer collected them from the airline or would they have to be passed on to another property owner? Who takes responsibility then? Kind of sounds like the slave trade don't it? Or at least indentured service.

The number of bilingual Canadians is far greater than 8% but for a large number of them, French is no longer one of their languages.

What do transportation companies have to do with all public property being private? If privately owned airlines owned the airports, they could bring who they pleased.

I'm going to call you on that one. Provide some proof instead of just ranting. I'll bet it is less than 4% in some parts of the country. Wonder what the average is.

I don't think it's racist, just stupid. You say that transportation companies should be responsible for those they bring to this country and next you say people should be able to travel and live anywhere they want. You make no sense.

That's too obvious.

I don't have a problem with adding things to the ballot during regular elections. The Charter would still protect minority rights. However it is unlikely that we could get past "the too much democracy is dangerous" Canadian mindset.

We don't have to smuggle them. Come on up, you can buy them anywhere.

Perhaps not something you can expect the citizens of a country 0 Trudeau units north of you to take well.

Very good point. We have one riding in Toronto that has one MPP and one MP - with a population larger than the whole of P.E.I. which has 6 MP's, 4 Senators plus an entire freakin' legislature. It's four MPs and four senators. Not unusual. Abbotsford where I live has 11,000 fewer people than PEI and only 1 MP. We do have 2 MLA's though. At the present rate of growth we will have more people than PEI within a couple of years.

They didn't just show up, they were detained in another country for travelling with false documents. You are proposing that we go and get them. Do we do the same for anyone detained for traveling with false documents anywhere in the world if they happen to have a plane ticket to Canada and want to claim refugee status? These people already tried to enter as refugees and were refused after ten years of process. How many times should they be entitled to go through the process. Remember, you will be paying their living expenses as well as their and the state's legal expenses as long as their claim is active. I wouldn't mind some kind of link on this case. I must have missed the news stories and haven't found anything on it. How did they leave Iran? Were they allowed to leave or did they sneak out? Did they leave the country using Iranian passports or Greek passports? One reason people destroy their documents is because it is difficult to claim you are fleeing persecution when a country gives you travel documents and allows you to leave the country. What do they have to back up their claim?