blueblood

Or the Libs could if they really wanted to cut costs is have a secret ballot in a caucus meeting. Caucus of MP's pick the leader for this time only until time and money can be spent on a proper convention years down the road.

I don't know, it was fairly interesting, a ten dollar fee to vote in the new leader of a political party. I think there had to have been choices or something as Stelmach came up the middle. It seemed a really fair way of doing it.

Is that like how they did it in Alberta with Stelmach's election?

Wrong!! Mulroney pushed too far in his majority (which in the long run was the right thing to do) and the PC's got anhialated. Push too far and it's bye bye gov't next election. Harper knows this. A majority gov't is not the keys to the candy store

I know, he does something the electorate doesn't like the conservatives get ran out of parliament again. This isn't Russia and Putin we're talking about.

What a bloody hypocrite Dion is, honestly it makes me sick. It's bad for Harper to spend money on advertising to attack Dion's credibility, but it's alright for Dion to take out advertising to attack Harper's credibility by trying to link him to G.W. Bush. give me a break.

of course he's going to dance around the question he's a politician. But the double standard remains, you say it's alright for McKenna to have personal views and not impose them, but Harper who is doing the exact same thing is getting crucified for it. That's BS and you know it.

Shall we axe the cbc too? I wouldn't have a problem with that. This above is a waste of money. Those Quebec votes are expensive. Pandering is no way to get votes and creates a culture of entitlement. I am not happy with Harper about this...

I would have no problem if our equalization payments were cut, it would mean less needless social programs. We don't need social programs to live. A large part of the farm income crisis years ago was the high taxes we were having to pay. Spin it any way you want, taking money away from someone who is rich and giving it to someone who is poor by force is punishing someone for being rich. If Ontario didn't have to give it's money away, they would be in much better financial shape and could diversify from their dinosaur dying manufacturing industry that is more and more being outsourced to poor countries. Shouldn't poor countries be allowed to manufacture goods, or is that Ontario's God given right? Let Ontario help themselves, lowering their sky high taxes is a start. Taking money from the rich to give to the poor is how to tank an economy, it takes away incentive. How about leaving everyone alone and letting the poor work themselves up? This is why the world economy is in the tank right now is quite simply forcing the rich to give to the poor.

So it's alright if McKenna has these views, but not Harper. That's a huge double standard.

Equalization was around for ever. The National Energy program shot our economy in the foot. How come there is no national manufacturing program that ensures all areas of Canada get cheap Ontario goods? You seem to think that we are all in the same boat when we are not. I would have no problem if Ontario and Alberta turned our equalization dollars off. Alberta is not entitled to anything Ontario has and the same the other way around. Punishing regions for getting ahead is not the way to go. Western Canada shouldn't have to pay the price because Ontario's dinosaur manufacturing industry won't modernize. I say leave everybody alone, you want to spread the wealth by punishing those who succeed, that's what makes me a tory and you a Liberal. Give me a break about the high dollar, I am involved in exporting yet I still had high prices with a high dollar. Lots of Canadians did good shopping for cheap american machinery and consumer goods. Manufacturing in Canada is on its way out, we are players in a global market and Canada is just too expensive to run factories in. Ontario either has to make goods we want, or take a pay cut.

You give Ontarians a bad name, there are other posters from Ontario who know how the game works and are smart enough to cash in on it. It's people like you that elect people like Trudeau who only serve their own self interests. Simple economics dictates that devaluing our exports is economic lunacy. I give it two years max and then the party gets started again!!! In case you haven't noticed I'm a grain producer, bio-diesel is far more beneficial to me than high oil prices. What you also don't realize is that grain prices will shoot up and you'll be complaining about how expensive food is and how you think your entitled to my grain at less than cost of production.

Alberta also has a much higher GDP per capita and the west bankrolls half the Toronto Stock exchange. The economy is skipping town. During the summer it was the resource sector that kept the TSE going. Keeping Canada afloat by punishing our exports. Another dumb Trudeau policy. Trudeau's escapades handed Mulroney one of the biggest majorities in Canadian History. NEP is a prime example of why socialism is a complete failure and stupid economic policy. Our Oil industry was set back big time because of this. Let the west make our money. The carbon tax was another attack to the west similar to NEP. Alberta doesn't owe Ontario a dime. Ontario has no God given right to the West's resources and can pay the price like everyone else. Alberta has now put itself to be in a much better financial situation than Ontario permanently. Those Oil sands last a long time, by then Alberta will have diversified. You have a very naive view of how Canada works. Where was Ontario when our grain industry was in the tank? Where was Ontario when oil prices crashed in the late 80's? Should we have a national manufacturing policy where the west gets all of ontario's manufactured goods for dirt cheap? No we pay market price like everyone else.

happy workers are productive workers, happy workers also won't unionize. The oil companies know this and that's why they do so well.

Oil field workers aren't unionized and they are on par skillwise as Walmart employees. Oil field workers get paid more to boot.

When the company is running in the red. No company = no jobs period. Better to take a pay cut than take no pay at all.

The national energy program was for Eastern Canada. It literally screwed the west out of money. We don't owe you cheap oil and cheap food. Oil companies are the new manufacturing sector. The better the oil companies do, the better Canada does. Our manufacturing sector has been rendered useless by developing countries. We are no longer a developing country and working in factories is a thing of the past.

At least we know the Cons are kicking ass in Question period!!!

You've never heard of a pyrhic victory? The one where the cost of victory is so great that it renders the army useless.

a pyhrric victory is still a victory...

The easterners won't like Harper running deficits, nor would I. He'd lose his newfound Ontario ridings for sure. Maybe a few in the west. He has to spend in order to appease urban voters, I don't think he likes that too much at all. But he's running a country, not a company.

And Harper is paying the price for blabbing. If Harper does a good job at governing he could possibly pick up more seats, there were some real nail biters. If Harper makes ammends with Quebec, he could pick up some more seats. Personally I'd apologize for the gaffe, but that's just me. However if Harper goes into major deficit and the CPC for some reason causes a catastrophe, Harper will lose, just like Mulroney did. My prediction the next election will either be a landslide CPC win or real close minority for the Liberals depending on what happens and how bad the CPC handles this mess.

There is a problem with potashcorp and it's unions, they are demanding profit sharing. Even though potashcorp is spending it's profits to open up new mines and explore. Their little shenanigans are shooting up the price of fertilizer unecessarily. Even though their wages are comparable with oilfield workers and their cost of living is much less than Albertans. Viterra also has had a problem with it's unions. Viterra is trying to expand the company to be a bigger player in the grain industry but it's unions are putting a damper on it. Viterra is unique in that it is unionized in SK and not in MB. Collective bargaining punishes the "workers" in that company and rewards the "slackers". If your a worker in that organization, you can do very well for yourself. The unions kept the big 3 down because they wanted the big 3 to be dinosaurs. The unions fought tooth and nail against plant automation, which is the main advantage the foreign imports have. The big 3 are paying the price now. Walmart has the right to shut the store down if it wants. That is their store and they can run it how they see fit. There are lots of other jobs in the country to apply for. The employees definetely have the right to collective bargaining, Walmart also has rights of its own. Harry Rosen is a retail store that I think is successful. And yes my redneck ass has bought stuff from there. They have excellent customer service, and I think that their workers get paid very well. That kind of customer service does not come from 8 bucks an hour. Mind you your spending a king's ransom on clothing. I don't think unions would let their workers work as hard as they do.

I don't think they'll be implementing the cap and trade. Politicians break promises, it happens. The gun registry isn't the main reason, but the symbolism behind it is a contributing factor. The CPC has been able to court Ontario and Urban voters without alienating its base. The CPC could have had quebec had they kept their mouths shut, you would have heard no complaints from westerners. If the CPC can make gains why not the LPC???

Walmart employees have bargaining control, they can go get a job elsewhere. Having one union set up sets a precedent and would result in more set up. Unions are notorious for gouging employers which is part of the reason why the big 3 automakers are in trouble. Walmart is a huge operation, they can afford to shut down one store if it means saving a huge amount of money by keeping the unions out. Walmart has a right to run it's business how it sees fit.