Mimas

Ok, there has been a lot of speculation on this one. But the big bag of election presents is out to the election call must follow it shortly. We got BIG presents for people who don't want to work. Really bad policy but great politics. http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2006/11/21/i...esplitting.html

I think that is a bad excuse for being blind to government waste. We should demand better and we can. I'm going to a rediculously expensive X-mas party in two weeks. The company is paying but I can hardly see any shareholder value in it. If you own shares, you'll be paying for my expensive dinner. Are you going to complain about that? I don't see anyone complaining about waste in private industries even though they are owned by the general population. The fact is, that as long as there are people involved there will be waste. Perfectly efficient enterprises don't exist.

It's not that they didn't do anything, they didn't do nearly enough. The Cons just came in and wiped out everything the Libs had done, even though it wasn't nearly enough. Now the Cons are accusing the Libs for their own inaction and the Libs are accusing the Cons for their own procrastination on the issue. Just lovely. On the other hand, I'd like to see them argue even more and louder over this. This should force the Libs to do something serious when they get into office. It will be difficult to back out of doing work on it after accusing the other guys of doing nothing.

You mean this part? If they're such big believers in mutual respect, maybe they should show some. -k They are. If they were not, they would come out telling Harper to remove the muzzles on his MPs before he lectures them on democracy.

George Galloway, whoever he is is not all that interesting here. What's interesting here is that Canada is making a great name for itself not only at the APEC meeting (everyone thought that Harper blundered there but were too diplomatic to say it, except George and his big mouth) but in Kenya too with Rona being the big hit there. Harper may have mastered politics at home and may have the media on his side but overseas people aren't being so convinced by his performance and the media is not so nice. I hope he stays at home more because things are starting to become embarrassing.

All it will mean is that Stephen Harper is incompetent..... really. The different regions of the country are doing just fine. There are a few voices that won't shut up slamming Canada cause they are afraid if they do the ROC will realize that their numbers are almost nonexistent. Anyone hoping for Alberta to separate should watch how many votes Snortin' Morton gets against Jim Dinning. THAT is how much support there is for separatists in Alberta. And is is a very, very small number. That may change as Albertans become more and more convinced that it is their brilliance that put the oil in the ground and that the rest of us lazy Canadians are trying to live off their hard work and sharp brains. Ok, that's a gross overstatement but in a few years time it may end up being pretty close to the truth.

The Statcan data shows 'Investment Income' at about 8% of all revenues. If Hydro-Quebec turns a profit, is that a tax? If it makes a loss, is that a subsidy? God knows. Ok, you are starting to lose it there. If you make a profit are you taxing your customers? If you have a loss, are you subsidizing your customers? Profit is profit. A loss is a loss. Simple. The confused philosopher. You should get some sleep. Well, that's how we always feel. That we are paying too much to the lawyer, too much to the garbage collector, too much for tuition, etc. It sucks to part with your money when you work hard for it and everything looks expensive. Especially, when you have to pay for things that you never realized you are using. But just because they are not right in your face, doesn't mean that they don't exist and that you don't need them.

Are 'employers' not Canadians? And are the owners of 'corporations' not Canadians too (many with families)? And who pays taxes on capital gains? Martians?The government can only tax people. If the government imposed a tax on vacuum cleaners, would you believe that vacuum cleaners paid the tax? So why do you believe that corporations pay taxes on corporate earnings? Dude, I told you that if you want to add corporate taxes to my taxes, you have to add the corresponding corporate income to my income. You can't claim that I pay my taxes + corporate taxes but I receive only my income and no corporate income. That's nonsense. But that's what the FI does. No matter how much you dig and try to spin things, you can't find the $200+ billion in taxes that never existed. The Fraser Institute is a bunch of conmen whose purpose is to defend and promote a certain ideology by whatever means will achieve that (including misrepresentation), not to inform you of the truth. It's a PR firm. Don't expect to find reality there.

This topic made me laugh so hard...... Sometimes it's embarrassing to think that humans are the smartest animals on the planet. Many of us prove this statement wrong. I'd say god was very, very drunk and high when he created us.

My problem is when the religious right assumes that religious freedom means the right to impose their beliefs on others. While I disagree with forcing ideas on children, I can't tell parents not to teach their children their beliefs (as long as they aren't harmful). But to force your beliefs on adults of other faiths or force other people's children to learn nonsense in school is far beyond what I would consider acceptable. The religious can live their lives any way they want but they have no business in other people's bedrooms or telling my kids in school that god made people out of clay.

Milton Friedman tried to convince us that letting our companies dump us for cheaper overseas labour (like China) was the greatest idea of all. It was a great idea for the companies but Western economies have stagnated as a result. IMO, a lot of his ideas had nothing to do with economic reality, most of them were born purely by ideological reasons. I am not impressed by his work. Sorry, Milton, won't miss ya. RIP.

In Ontario, accident payouts amount to only 1/5 of premiums. That's overcharging! The remaining 80% go cover the investment losses of the industry and to the shareholders. In Ontario, you'd be paying $2,000 not $1,000 for your Toyota SUV.

Calm down, breath deep, use your head, don't recite what you read in the Calgary Sun. Oil is a newly discovered commodity in NFLD. Second, there isn't that much of it out there at all. Third, it's in the ocean and it's much more expensive to get. Fourth, the federal government is not letting NFLD have the same deal as Alberta - in Alberta if you find oil, you develop it within 5 years or you lose it. In NFLD, you can sit on it forever. The reason being that Harper is an Albertan and not a NFLDer. So what's going to happen is that the oil companies will dig up all the oil in Alberta and then move to NFLD. Which is good because the oil rigs in Alb are ran by NFLDers anyway, so they are fully qualified to do the job. What may be inconvenient for you is that you'll have to move to St.Johns.

You've got to be kidding. Your solid economic values generated rich deposits of oil under your feet? That's rather funny. Your heads are spinning. Don't overestimate yourselves. That's what's going to cause tensions, nothing else.

Annual GDP for 2005 was $1,371 million. Consolidated (local, provincial, federal) government revenues in 2005-06 was $532 million. That's about 39%.Statcan I think Statistics Canada data on taxes/revenues exclude EI and CPP and other "public sector" costs and benefits. This probably accounts for the discrepancy between Statcan and the Fraser Institute. Only about 80% of government revenue is from taxes. Governments earn money from investments get the profits of crown corporations (which have been quite profitable lately). Government revenue does not equal tax revenue. ======== From the table you provided Sales of goods and services 34,913 37,653 39,055 41,274 42,592 Investment income 31,258 33,406 36,284 39,712 44,954 Other revenue from own sources 5,443 9,574 9,460 7,968 9,997 In 2006, the non-tax revenue was roughly $100 Billion (last column). Subtract if from your $532 M and you end up where I said you end up.