Wilber

The same kind of wealth redistribution goes on inside Alberta. According to your logic the beef farmers should stop asking for BSE handouts, declare bankruptcy and go work on an oil rig. They can ask for handouts if they want but it's up to Canadians as to whether they want a beef industry or not and it's not just Alberta ranchers who have been effected by BSE, but if I had to quit ranching or anything else, move to Alberta and go work on an oil rig to make a living, that is what I would do.

The country would be better off if the oil wealth was distributed across the country instead of concentrated in one part of one province. It is distributed across the country in the form of taxes paid by Albertans and equalization transfers just as Ontario's economic power was in the past when the west was little more than an economic colony of Central Canada. Alberta's oil patch wealth is just the latest version of Ontario's Golden Triangle. Canadians seem to think we can somehow make every region of the country equal. The world doesn't work that way and never will. I've been fortunate enough to have never been unemployed but I have moved across the country and back and gone offshore twice to keep it that way. You do what you have to do. I have no patience for people who sit where they are and tell others they are owed.

Canadians have been dealing with a politically demanding linguistic minority for 140 years. Our experience is relevant to Americans. Our experience maybe but not our opinions. I can just imagine the reaction on this forum if Americans started telling us what we should do with our anthem and what languages should be used to sing it. Bush is the President. If he believes the anthem should only be sung in English, he should say so and he did. Save us from politicians who say what they believe. I believe his Spanish is very good so it's not like he can't understand it.

What does this have to with Canada/US Relations? It's the American's national anthem. Canadians should keep their opinions to themselves.

Well, I take this stuff pretty seriously and the one outside my house has been going up and down like an Chinese elevator for the past few days. Now, thanks to your dad, it's up again. "Sparky, fix the petard! Prepare to hoist!" I've been pretty quiet on this thread because I think the only opinions that count are the ones from people who have walked the walk. Just passing one along.

And kill off many non-oil based export industries in the process. Albertas wealth does come at a cost to the rest of the country. You mean the country would be better off if Alberta had no oil and their huge contributions to the tax base and equalization didn't exist. Odd logic if you ask me.

Just came back from celebrating my fathers birthday, he turned 89 today. He's a WWII RCAF vet who served overseas for four years, two in England and two more in India and Burma attached to the RAF. I asked him what he though of the flag flap. I wondered what he might say because we had some spirited discussions leading up to the election and he was no Harper fan. As far as he is concerned Harper got it right on this one. Remembrance Day is for the vets and you don't differentiate between those who fell by which war they happened to be in. He feels somewhat insulted by the politicking that is surrounding this. Think about it. If lowering the flag for every death was policy during the World Wars, our flags would have been at half mast for years at a time.

Well why don't you just mail of a cheque for an additional 2.3% of your income to cover that chicken feed. I would rather not. Those are just the programs we know that have gone badly awry. What about all those we don't know about and the cost of bureaucracy that is just there for its own sake. It may be changing some with the new regime and Hillier running the show but did you know that there are more military people packing briefcases around Command Center Ottawa than there are in all the regular army battalions and all the operational ships in the Canadian Armed Forces? We have a government that operates by a grant system. Make enough noise and you get a grant from another citizens pocket. How about these guys. NCC

More than debatable in many areas and incidences. HRDC, at least a billion. Gun registry, over a billion and growing daily. Aboriginal Affairs, 7 billion. Yup, but a billion here, a billion there and pretty soon you are talking about real money as the man said. Chicken feed to you I suppose but remember whenever someone goes to government for a hand out, it is someone elses money they want.

I hope you made at least $500,000 to pay a tax bill that large!!! Do you have NO expenses? Never worth every penny! Where do you live? Even if you lived in Hong Kong which has a flat rate of 15% you would pay $75,000 in income tax on a $500,000 income. Income tax is only a part of your tax bill. 35% of every liter of fuel you buy is tax. GST, PST, property tax, entertainment tax, liquor tax, food taxes at restaurants, dog licenses, vehicle licenses, yada yada yada. The fact is more than half the average persons income goes out in taxes. Tax freedom day is now into July in most provinces isn't it? That means you are now into the seventh month before the money you earn starts going into your pocket instead of some governments coffers. The people who think we should be taxed more are free to put their money where there mouth is and write the government a cheque. I'm sure they won't refuse it. Was the HRDC scandal worth every penny? How about Shawinigate, Adscam, the bloated gun registry? Aboriginal Affairs? Of course we wouldn't know about Aboriginal affairs because we are not allowed to. I'm sure each of us could point to Provincial and Municipal abuses of our money. The feds are the most visible because they affect us all and are the least accountable. All worth every penny? Governments are no different from most people, the more you give them, the harder they will work at finding a place to spend it.

Unlike our PM a US President it only one part of the equation. He does not control the Congress. He does not even control his own party members within the Congress. Hopefully softwood lumber will disappear from the headlines. It has been in the headlines far too long. I don't know what you have against milk producers. There are many of them in my area and they are some of the hardest working people I know who have millions invested in their operations. Canada has a quota system for milk producers which requires them to have quota to sell to dairies. Quota is sold on the open market and many farmers have millions invested in it. The idea is to provide a stable market instead of a boom bust cycle but the cost of quota is part of a farmers operating cost and has to be reflected in the price. It's kind of like a limo or taxi license. The city may only charge a couple of grand for the license but because there are limited number they may go for tens or hundreds of thousands on the open market. If you are going to tear apart that system you will have to find a way of reimbursing those farmers for the money invested in quota government forces them to buy in order to be part of the system. Otherwise you will end up bankrupting those who played by the rules and rewarding those who didn't. Blame the system if you want but don't blame the producers

How are they doing this? Are they making everyone on the list carry transponders or are they having people follow them full time continually posting their location on the web?

I think the great majority of Canadians want a universal system where no one is denied access to health care. I do think that if we are going to continue to have one, people will have to park their prejudices and take a good hard honest look at how we can accomplish it. Otherwise it will just continue to degenerate.

If the provinces and the companies think this is a good deal then we should go for it. As far as the US consumer and their National Association of Homebuilders is concerned, they are getting screwed by their own government and by their own forest companies, not by Canadians. Let them fight their own battles.

Spending up over 40% in the past four years I understand. Wish I could do that. Guess I am, on taxes.

I don't know why anyone would be concerned about the US consumer the way so many Canadian communities have been devastated by these tariffs. They could have pressured their government for a better deal. I don't know why anyone would be upset that the money should be returned to the forest companies. They were the ones who ate the tariff in order to stay in business, not our governments. The result is an industry that is more efficient than that in the US. The US loses on that score.

Once again a lot of doctors have always been against our health system, they could make a lot more money if they didn't have to go through the goverment system that puts a cap on their charges. Why don't people realize this. Nothing to do with it. Why did I have to take up a hospital bed for the better part of a day recently for minor surgery that could have been done just as well in a privately run clinic but paid for by Medicare. Why did I have to take up a hospital bed for nearly half a day for a colonoscopy when it could have been done just as well in a privately operated clinic and paid for by Medicare. Those beds could have been much better utilized for people who were really sick or injured. Where does it say that our Medicare system always has to use government built, government run facilities to do their job? Your GP is a private businessman operating out of a privately run facility under Medicare. Most medical lab work is done by private labs and paid for by Medicare or group medical plans. The only question here should be, who pays the bills, not who provides the service. That should be done by those who can provide the best service for the customer, who is the patient. God forbid that someone could do that and actually make dollar out of it. That would be absolutely immoral. Far worse than people lying around in emergency wards for days. Private businesses actually know to the nickel what it costs to provide their services. If they don't, they go broke. Government run businesses don't have that incentive.

One reason US doctors use so many tests is that they are scared stiff of malpractice litigation. Personally I am not a big fan of the HMO system. I am also not a big fan of the way our system is being run. A big story in BC at the moment is that the ER doctors in Vancouver General and Royal Columbian hospitals have stated in writing that they have lost confidence in the ER system in their hospitals. Not because of the ER's themselves but because there are no hospital beds to move the ER patients into for very long periods of time. They point out that elective surgeries are being done in public hospitals while emergency patients needing those beds lay out in halls and doorways. The obvious question that many of them ask is why are we doing elective surgeries in public hospitals? The answer of course is that to do them in privately set up clinics drives the anti private crowd nuts, even if those surgeries are paid for by Medicare. Never let common sense and the welfare of the sick get in the way of a good dogma.

Hard to tell what the difference should be. Somehow you would have to use some sort of average exchange rate for the entire period the tariff was collected versus what it is when it is eventually paid back.

Can the families of their victims sue? They may have paid their legal debt to society but what about their debt to their victims and their families?

Tell that to the parents of a victim, face to face. I don't think I would want your subsequent dental bill.

This forum is well named. Little of this has to do with soldiers but everything to do with politics.

Playing devil's advocate - don't the citizens of Canada have the right to observe their fallen sons returning ? If the media sees fit to honour them in that way, why does the government feel that it knows better ? They are not the media's to honour.

It's too bad that there are so many Canadians who cannot separate doing the right thing from their own personal feelings toward the United States. Until Canadians can make that distinction, Canada's so called "Identity" will mean little more than not being like the US.

]"The debate over flag-lowering has garnered mixed opinions from veterans' groups. Bob Butt, a national spokesman for the Royal Canadian Legion (Dominion Command), said the legion was initially opposed to the practice. But once the flag was lowered for the first Afghanistan casualties, that started a tradition that should continue, he said. ''If you do it for one, do it for all,'' he said. ''You can't be selective.'' Cliff Chadderton, chairman of the National Council of Veteran Associations, which represents 55 veterans' groups, said it was a ''mistake'' to start the half-staffing in the first place. It unfairly distinguishes those who die in Afghanistan from those who have died in past wars, he said. The memories of soldiers who have died in Afghanistan, he added, should be commemorated along with those of every other military death when the flag is lowered on Nov. 11, Remembrance Day. ''We don't draw a distinction on a death in Afghanistan or a death in Normandy,'' he said from Florida, where he was recovering from back surgery. What's more, he added, he plans on advising the Conservative government to stop the practice when he meets some members of Parliament next week. Ottawa Citizen"