Hydraboss

Ha! It's been a few decades since I was called "kid" 😄

I doubt it. Tigers don't change their stripes often, if at all. I've been sparring with him on MLW (yes, I know the name is outdated) for about 19 years. Pretty sure I have a decent read on him. Honestly, the board has pretty much the same actors it did back then - names have changed but they could just as easily be people that used to frequent here. Left - Right - Center.....always the same sentiments. One day maybe people will realize those terms are 100% relative to a personal position. Michael hasn't changed anymore than the rest of us. Go back and read some posts from the early 2000's - same positions for the most part.

Meh. Michael is a lot of things - we disagree on almost everything, particularly political views, but I've never known him to be a liar. And I might have been around here just a little longer than some.

But there has never been, and will never be, a government in this country that will actually push any type of prosecution upon a previous government. Not sure if that's a "professional courtesy", fear of the electorate freaking out, or just a "we can't do that because then they'll do it to us the next time they're in power". The problem with laws in this country is the next government just changes them anyway...see: mandatory minimums from Harper.

Exactly. We had those rusted out old green "multi boxes" back in the early 80s, and to this day, I still don't know a single person that gets mail directly to their house (and I'm only a short distance outside of Edmonton, not out in the boondocks). And seriously, if THIS is the biggest issue that someone can point to to generate the old "fear the Conservatives because....cuts!!!", then their argument is extremely weak.

I think of it this way: Canada is one part EU and one part UN. EU - We use a common currency. Some pseudo-council (our federal government) lays out what they feel are important policies on law, immigration and taxation and not all provinces agree (too bad for you, Mr Province but here's your carbon tax so we can feel good on the world stage). UN - As a group of "countries", completely dysfunctional and useless. We fight among ourselves constantly, none of us particularly liking all the others, but no matter what individual provinces decide as a group - here comes one of the ones with a permanent "veto" (Ontario or Kwebek) to impose their views on the rest. Any country this large is artificial. Look at the US - the United STATES of America. Ask the Maritime provinces why they don't just drop their individual provincial names and go with "Maritimes". Canada as an entity is about as unreal as you can get. As for whether or not "many of the current provinces would be better off"........ Alberta separatist, remember?

What? You've never been held up at turban-point? I agree. The turban argument has been going since a Sikh walked into a Legion wearing one.... I see the stupidity of the disagreement from this point: You cannot discount "Canadian traditions and laws" to make allowances for a turban, and then turn around and start berating people for "violating Canadian values" (like wanting border laws enforced). These ill-defined values are no more important than these traditions or laws. It's hypocritical to argue both sides of what is essentially the same damn argument.

Eyeball, you're contradicting yourself. The fact that our money is going abroad speaks to the fact that we are paying for whatever resources we obtain in other countries. We are not stealing like some country from the dark ages - we are trading our money for those resources. Which means that other countries have absolutely no claim to anything in Canada. Whether or not you feel this is exploitation is irrelevant. Our interests are focused on what we need as a country, not what the other country needs. It's up to them to raise the price of what we want if they feel they are being unduly exploited.

The use of my taxes should be narrow and small. "Thinking bigger" will simply spread the money of Canadians too thinly and gain basically nothing. All the while, Canadians go without in this country - and that should be our only focus. edit->sp

And that means???? I'm not sure what your "zooming out" has to do with anything. Existentialism?

Not sure about him, but I would ignore their peril because they're not my responsibility and therefore not my problem. Now, other Canadians are my concern.

"Hate" in this case is appropriate. In the same way that people "hate" a certain brand of coffee or "hate" anything in broad terms...."I just hate the oil business". Nobody in your part of the world knows where Scheer is from....yet. As we get closer to election time, you can be sure the rhetoric will ramp up...comparisons to Harper, Manning and Wall will be all the rage. The media will play the fact that he's from Saskatchewan as an anti-east thing. Ideas won't matter - the election will be based on the same things it always has: Are Canadians ready to get rid of Trudeau yet? Are there still enough hand outs being given to "me"?

Really? Watch what happens when any party puts an Albertan at the helm. Remember the whole "Harper is from Alberta!" ranting that hit the Toronto Star, etal? Care to make a bet that the same thing happens to Scheer because, well, he's not from Kwebek or Ontario? We do the exact same thing out here to anyone from the Middle of the Universe.

Canadian politics has always been about regionalism. If you hate Alberta, you get elected in Ontario. If you hate Ontario, you get elected in Alberta. If you hate Alberta and Ontario, you get elected in BC. If you give away free money, you get elected in the Maritimes. Canada is a zero-sum game and the guys pulling the political strings know that. Pareto efficiency.

Trudeau certainly would eliminate oil and gas employment if it meant he would be reelected. You are correct that most governments wouldn't do that - but you ignore the fact that Justin Trudeau is of substantially lower intelligence than the people that run "most governments"....and the re-election is all about him working his way to his real goal. Secretary-General of the United Nations