Wilber

One thing I have never been able to sort out in my mind is how much of that opposition was due to "good judgement" (seems to me Martin was in favour at the time) and how much was due to plain old Anti Americanism, particularly when it comes to many of the comments made by Liberal party operatives at the time. It's a continuing dilemma that many Canadians face. The desire to do what is right versus the desire to do what the Americans don't.

The issue with private clinics are the ones in which the government doesn't pay on your behalf but you pay out of your own pockets such as the one tht Paul Martin goes to. The Quebec govt. doesn't pay the clinic for services rendered, it comes out of Paul Martin's own pocket and it's not cheap. Anyone in Ontario can go to the clinic that Leyton went to because it's covered under Ontario's healthcare system but this is not the case with clinics like the one Paul Martin use and the fear is that there will be much more clinics opening like this (and they are) and they will be raiding the public system for the best doctors because they can pay doctors more. Therefore, you would have a two-tier system. One in which richer people can go to these private clinics and pay for the higher-quality services, while everyone else (who can't afford the fees) will using the public healthcare and often with longer wait times and lower quality service. I favor a publicly funded system. I don't care if it is provided by a privately run facility. If they are efficient enough to make a profit at it using government fee schedules, more power to them. I also know that if I had a child that was in dire need of care couldn't be had in a timely manner from the public system, I would do whatever was necessary to get that care, regardless of where it could be obtained. Just like I can for my dog if I so choose. Layton and the rest could stick their dogma where the sun don't shine.

"Betsy must love two of my favourites: how they plan on getting rid of the Kelowna agreement and turning their back on Kyoto." This country never turned it's front to Kyoto aside from signing it. It is a prime piece of political hypocrisy. It was championed by a former Environment Minster who represented a constituency that still dumps it's untreated sewage into the Pacific Ocean. This country was never going to meet its Kyoto targets and the Liberals know it. Harper is right to say so and he is right to say that we need to come up with a plan that we can actually make work. As far as Kelowna goes, I am also curious but will keep an open mind until I hear more.

I don't think you will find Conservatives have a problem with Layton using a private clinic for publicly funded care. That's an NDP hangup.

Whether he knew or not he got the care he needed and used his care card not his credit card.

And why would we? What possible good would it do? We have politicians that love to commit our people overseas to get their 5 minutes of fame on the international stage and hopefully make a few points at home. Doesn't matter if we have the capability, the military just does the best it can with what it has because they have no choice. If we are going to continue to do this stuff, lets do it right.

I'm glad the ad was at least shown in Quebec. It finally confirmed the view that the present Liberal party has of the people who put themselves at risk for us. As for any other Canadians, Quebecers or otherwise who may share that view, to hell with them as well. It's easy to understand why Martin wanted to send troops to Sudan last spring in order to buy an MP's vote in the failed non confidence vote last spring. He never asked the military if we had them to send. He never asked Sudan whether they would be welcome (they weren't). And he wanted to send them unarmed so they wouldn't offend anyone. Lewis MacKenzie said it would amount to sending our people into a country full of warlords and bandits with a big ROB ME sign hung on their backs. Martin has no scruples about using them as a personal political tool when he feels it necessary.

I can't for the life of me understand why disaster response and SAR are military duties. There should be a seperate civilian agency responsible for domestic and foreign disaster response and recovery, as well as emergency search and rescue. Just what we need, another agency. Because that's what the military is for: a status symbol to show other countries how bad-ass we are. Couldn't Canada just buy a flash sportscar and get a young trophy girlfriend instead? Like it or not we live in a world where the ability to actually act according to what you say really means something. The rest of the world isn't just like Canada. We have the flash sports car and young trophy girlfriend but the rest of the world could care less. We don't even get respect from our friends any more.

Someone dropped the ball. There is a slight difference however. This guy hasn't been tried and convicted yet. Sven had when Layton brought him back. This will be an interesting riding to watch if he doesn't pull out. What happens if he wins (probably not likely now) and then gets convicted?

A VTOL AC like the F35 makes sense. They would be able to use it on the proposed small multipurpose carriers. This would give Canada the sort of respectability on international deployments that it has never had. As the F35 is the Harrier replacement, we would be in line behind the Americans and Brits so it would be a few years yet.

Yup, we'll put em all in Ottawa. What the heck, half of them are there already.

We have some reserves but no regular army west of the Rockies. We did have an engineer base at CFB Chilliwack until it was closed down a few years back as part of Martin's cutbacks. If we had a major natural disaster requiring the kind of equipment the engineers had, the nearest help would be Ft Lewis just south of Tacoma Washington, assuming they hadn't been hit by the same thing. Even though a good proportion of them are committed in Iraq, I bet they would still find a few to help us out.

The US Navy seems to like the F18 just fine (they have continually upgraded it and brought out new versions) and so do the Aussi's. As a percentage of our military it may be close in relative terms but that is just because we don't have very much. If it was close as a percentage of our population's, we would have 16,000 troops there, not 2000. If we are not able to accomplish much, it is our own fault.

You may have seen the post on our inability to deploy even six aircraft to Afghanistan for six months. (we probably have a couple of privately owned airlines that could do better). This is a NATO commitment remember. Perhaps if we could pull our weight on international issues, instead of just talking about them and bashing the Americans because they can and do, they might would pay more attention and give us a little more respect. Nobody likes a mouthy neighbor who is all talk and no action.

Too bad. it would have got some of the Storm Troopers out of the country where they can't be threatening our freedoms in our cities.

Good god, we can't even deploy six, I say SIX aircraft overseas for six I say SIX months. Ain't that something for Canadians to be proud of. We're number one, we're number one. Pathetic.

By turning our military into a bunch of Brownshirts, Martin has blown the military vote. But what the heck he's never respected them and made sure there aren't very many anyway. If he thinks recruiting was difficult before, just wait if he gets back in power. He may have a hard time hanging on to what we have. Only a real scumbag would have dreamed up that ad. When my son got out of high school, he thought he might go into the army for a while as he figured out his options. I told him that the military is a very honorable profession and I would be very proud of him, but this country and it's government pays little more than lip service to it's military and if he got killed or hurt because the country that loves to proclaim itself number one, put him in some piece of junk that many third world countries wouldn't use, I would be really pissed off. He thought about it, got some life experience, worked in victims services, went to college and became a cop instead. He still has to arrest the same people weekly and sometimes daily for the same things, because of the wonderful criminal code and judicial system the Liberals have given us, but he seems happy and I am just as proud. Thank you Mr. Martin for justifying everything I told him that day.

Now that is funny.

We all know she has left the party, doesn't like Martin and has an axe to grind but she was pointing out some inconsistencies in Martin's position on different issues over the years. Do you dispute them? You know the old saying don't you, about whats good for the goose is good for the gander? Maybe not.

Would this be an attack ad? Link

Well at least it would be about the real history of a real government, not some bedtime story of a bogyman and his hidden agenda.

We all knew these adds were coming if the election was close or the Liberals got behind. They have been a major part of their strategy for some years. It just remains to be seen what the public will make of them. I think the more you resort to them, the greater gamble they become because you never know which day the electorate is going to get sick of them and turn on you. I guess we will see by the 23rd. Every party has been guilty of using attack adds at some time or another. The trouble is, they are not inclusive. Instead of drawing someone to your point of view, they demonize anyone who doesn't agree with you, not just the people at which they are directed. It's little wonder politicians have sunk so low on the public's evolutionary scale.

I already asked days ago for someone to provide proof of anyone stating they hate Americans. Still Waiting. Oh come on Honest Politician...but if I must: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6010602237.html http://www.canadafreepress.com/2004/cover110504.htm http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor...s_name=&no_ads= LMAO I love Martin's quote: "a more sophisticated relationship based on informed dialogue, shared values and respect for our differences." I should also note I never called this forum's left anti-American, I always said the general Canadian left. Funny I don't recognize those people as being part of this forum. Nice try though. Why don't you tell that to cut and paste boy, River God. At least tml12 just provided links. I thought the Washington Post summed us up pretty well. Maybe one day Canadians will stop yapping and start listening when it comes to our relations with the US.

"Martin may be officially proposing now to simply pass a Federal statute barring the feds from using the clause...which as many have pointed out is hardly strengthening the Charter...any subsequent gov't can just repeal the statute...But, as I originally posed the post...am I wrong or did he not expressly challenge Harper to agree to a CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT to do away with the clause?" From another who has no more than peripheral knowledge of the law, can Parliament make constitutional amendments without involving the Provinces, even though those amendments may only involve the rights of the Federal government?

I have just watched those ads. They are hateful, disgusting, and if you buy into the Liberal-propagated myths, anti-Canadian. :angry: It's what they do best.