blueblood

I live in an area where nobody wants to live, hence the low land values. (Western Manitoba), bah i slipped it's 500-1000 bucks an acre where i'm from and more around the peg, my apologies.

Wouldn't Harper almost be better off giving the land away? I know land adjacent to Winnipeg is well over 1000 bucks an acre (saw it in the western producer), land rents for 43 bucks an acre where I live, it sells for probably 500-1000 bucks an acre depending on quality. Anyhoo, the point I'm trying to make is wouldn't it be more symbolic to toss the Quebec farmers (who he's pandering too) a nice bone by making it free. Jeez the aboriginals are going to have a coniction fit when they get wind of this.

What about the democracy used in Antiquity? What about MP's picking the PM like they pick the Pope?

CTV Hmmm, interesting way to try and boost support in quebec. I don't know how much land is worth in Quebec, but I don't think your run of the mill farmer is going to be able to afford it. I can see that land going over a thousand bucks an acre.

We wouldn't be short of them if they could pay wages comparable to a water truck driver on the patch.

It's not Saturn, what do we do with the waste? Nuclear is the ultimate passing of the buck to future generations. Can't we just shoot the old nuclear waste in a rocket up to space.. maybe towards the sun? We can also put a kitty cat in the front of the rocket and film him getting all paroid and afraid as he meets his destiny. Rocket launches have too high a failure rate to seriously consider that proposal. You'd be needing a huge rocket, piles of money. I don't think a rocket is the most efficient way to transport things (most of rocket used just to get out of atmosphere). Youd be better off with deep burial in precambrian rock with an education program saying that theres waste there. The problem with waste is that it takes way to long to become safe, on the order of thousands of years, I don't think the world will be quite the same geopolitically, culturally, language like in that time. Disposing of waste is one thing, but to keep others informed that the waste exists throughout time would be another.

I rarely disagree with you, but I couldn't disagree more. We need to take our ideology to the Muslim people, and start teaching them that the world has advanced beyond the medieval blather of ummahs, Muslim lands, non-Muslim lands, ghiza and dhimmitude. What's funny is in Medieval times Islam was arguably the most advanced and progressive civilization in the world, my times have changed...

Some form of subsidies goes on in everything. Why not debate instead of being a wiseass? The OP was merely suggesting a good topic to look at. Maybe he has a dog in this fight, like maybe a farmer in the family, either way it is a an interesting topic. Besides that, she is trying to get elected so she concentrates on home turf. Why bring in something taht affects none of her constituents. I am a dog in this fight, I find it ridiculous that She is complaining about all those Canadian subsidies and protectionism when the Americans are guilty of just that, its a two way street and she should realize that. It's the North American Free Trade Agreement, not the United States Free Trade Agreement.

HAHAHAHAHAHA, she's bitching about subsidies!! She only has to look in her backyard, her prairie boys get subsidies second only to the E.U. I think their ag subsidies are similar to our Healthcare expenses in terms of costs. No wonder they are in a deficit. Any american bitching about Canadian farmers getting subsidies is a hypocrite.

Can Blackdog, Higgly, Figleaf, et. al. answer what people like Arar do for Canada? Why would we want the likes of him moving here? Apparently, and I'm not too sure was that he was and his wife were very highly educated. he is an engineer I think, so it's not like he's a mindless barbarian, he's just greedy going after the 37 million.

Eastern Europe has their ag back on line or they are very close to it. They might not get 1 CWRS with 15 protein, but they produce a lot. The thing with the USSR was that it was state owned land and the workers could give two shits about it. When 5 bells hit they would shut down and you cannot have this in ag. Our markets for ag are in fact countries in OPEC not eastern Europe anymore. If the countries that exported grain formed a cartel like the Arabs did, they'd be hooped. Oh you want the price of oil sky high, well we'll just take your share of our wheat exports and turn it into biofuel. If we really wanted to we could hoop them with that. Look what's happening in Palestine, we cut them off and now they're fighting each other.

I suppose he's mad at the approx. 20% that make the rest look bad. I'm not saying that education is worthless, it's just not the holy grail of society, a person can make it without a university degree. Would those numbers on the income be before or after taxes because even for University grads. those are some low numbers. Funny thing is my fuel bill is 60% of a university grads salary. I'll concede that maybe living in a city an education is more important, but living in the country a person can manage.

I could care less if a cabinet was all purple skinned people. Stelmach figured this was the best cabinet to suit his tastes. should he be all Politically Correct and not have the cabinet he wants? If his government does a good job, then maybe having a rural cabinet with mostly white males is the way to go. Stelmach runs the show and he can pick whoever he wants in his cabinet, thats the beauty of being a premier. Its not like the people who didn't get cabinet positions are going to starve.

No, the dems would still lead 50-49, if they replaced him it would be 50-50 and somehow that works out the the GOP having control, im not sure how, check out the link at the top.

Would they be wanting to hoard all that money for their adventure in Afghanistan as that's all I can see them wanting to spend money on. I heard that somehow they spend a lot of the surplus, but I'm not sure on what.

I heard somewhere that England was planning to put windmills in the ocean to generate power, I don't know if this is feasible or not, but it wouldn't be a bad idea here to put a couple of those suckers in Hudson Bay, you wouldn't lose any landspace, and i'm pretty sure its windy there a lot of the time.

Rob is not liked whatsoever by his constituents... they just support the CPC through him. With a high profile Liberal speaking of making small business and investment work in this country running there, he'd have a chance against Rob. Rob is a backwoods idiot most days (I admire his stances on human rights, however) in a not very backwoods riding in Calgary. Are you from Calgary? Do you know what Calgary-West is? It's a pretty nice area if your not from here, we're not talking Calgary Sun reading Forest Lawn folks that start banging their beer on the table when Anders makes a silly comment. These are generally high-income professionals, they vote for whoever cuts them a better deal. Would Kennedy win? Maybe not this time around. But boy it'd send a message. A Liberal hasn't been elected in Calgary since the '60's (may have been '58....). Having their heir to the throne run here, that'd be a statement that never has been matched before. Winnipeg South has the big ole U of M there, with a ginormous university population and the tory MP won by a hair. A high profile Lib candidate would get this riding for sure.

I'm too biased in agriculture to offer much of an opinion. I'd say some interventionist methods are a good thing if it nets us more money like the entertainment/recording industry and with Monsanto's little plant breeders act. The big corporations have their benefits such as providing infrastructure with the Alberta oil industry, but the thing is to keep their power in check otherwise we end up with something similar to feudalism and that I believe that will hurt everyone. I suggest getting rural industries back on line, I believe it will take some of the pressure off of the cities, and generate a stronger rural economy. I think we should try and diversify our economy away from oil with our newfound oil money. The more money that stays here the better. I'd like to suggest that the feds try and pass a law making student loans interest free from financial institutions operating in Canada, but the business community would skin the feds alive and there are problems I can't foresee with that. Also I'd say that we should bring in a two tier system, but it should be heavily regulated by the gov't. (Standard wages for both, heavy penalties for getting your training in Canada and then going to the states) But that's borderline communism and won't fly with the Medical association. Childcare, I don't think we can afford a program like that. If we could slow down inflation in BC and Alberta and drop those house values, both parents wouldn't have to work, but I haven't a clue how to fix that. I think that the corporate tax rate should be lowered like they are in Alberta, I think they can make the money lost through cuts with a booming economy. For crime, I'd say harsher sentances, and make our jails profitable. Why should we have sweat shops in indonesia when we have perfectly good prisoners here that will work the same hours for the same wage. Plus the savings on shipping would be huge. The poor, oh boy I don't know that one, there are some that just refuse to work and some that don't have the opportunity. I'd spend the money to provide the opportunity instead of nursing the cycle of dependancy. For the whole reserve thing, rip up the treaties and say get with the program or starve. Immigration, I'd say tighten up the controls on it so we get the best immigrants to our country and put them straight to work, People shouldn't be coming in to form gangs and the like. For voting, I'd say make it mandatory like the census, but in the mail send out a ballot and the platforms of all the canditadates/parties in the riding so that the person has a chance at making an informed choice. This can be abused, but hell any voting system can be. The best way to fix Canada is for every Canadian to smarten up and realize that the gov't cant fix all of their problems and that there are things we can do for ourselves, and for all people to be less greedy.

That's not that impressive, I out do you by 20 points. But oh well, what's a number anyways. It's dangerous to think your never wrong... the most brilliant minds are the most likely to re-examine their thinking. Single-track, always right types generally tend to be the guy in flannel at the bar spouting off about those darned brown people next door. EDIT: And by the way Mr. Brainchild, I don't know where you were educated at, but in the rest of the world, random writting in funky fonts don't represet a valid source. You have no reliable source listed for your Somali quotes beyond "I'm never wrong." 136 is pretty good, 156 is impressive, that is genius. 130-144 is gifted though, i'm only 130, average is around 100. Should start sending people to IQ test.com, hahahaha. Geoffrey's right on this one. I heard the people debate the best is when they are arguing a point on which they don't agree with as they tend to get "blinded" on topics that they feel passionate about

You are not questioning the government. You are blaming the eastern bastards for the policies of the government you elected. Harper does not need to get rid of the wheat board and he is not that stupid - he knows very well that doing so will not help the farmers (or the family farm). Now you ought to stop whaling about the eastern bastards and blaming all your problems on them and the liberals and you should place your dissatisfaction where it belongs - with the politicians you elected. The eastern bastards didn't vote for him, nor for his policy on the wheat board. No I blame the "eastern bastards" for believing its their God given right for cheap food, for electing Liberal MPs which resulted in lack of action which resulted in the farm income crisis, protectionist laws for Monsanto, none for us. The tories inherited this mess, Notice that the document on the NFU site was addressed to a Liberal MP, hmm. No I will blame the Liberals for their part. We elected other MPs than Liberals in the late 90's, so it's not our elected MPs fault. Don't worry thought if the CWB goes and the crisis gets worse, I'll be pissed at the Tories for that too. But most of the other Tory policies I agree with, hence the dilemna.

All i've got to say is my Tory MP, was the only Tory to vote against the wheat board thing. I think the tories should change their stance on this, they aren't Republicans for goodness sakes. You can't be that right wing and succeed in Canada, everybody knows that. MP vote See for yourself http://www.theholmteam.ca/WP.Wilson.pdf The Conservatives don't care what you think because you'll vote for them anyway. The squeaky wheel gets the grease and you won't get your way by praising Inky because supporting the Conservatives means that they will get their way. If you support the government, you support its policies (including dismantling the wheat board) and you don't have the right to complain. So I'm not allowed to question the gov't? I support most of their policies. I can complain, every voter has the right to complain. Im not going to not support something just because I don't 100% agree with it. What are we all clones? I'm not a partisan hack, I'm not going to say everything the CPC does is right, that is foolishness. The Tories believe that dismantling the wheat board will help farmers, personally I don't agree with it, but they are trying. They are doing the biofuel thing, and the GST thing REALLY helps me out. That kind of logic is what they have in Iran or with Saddam Hussein, if you question the leader your against the gov't, give me a break.

All i've got to say is my Tory MP, was the only Tory to vote against the wheat board thing. I think the tories should change their stance on this, they aren't Republicans for goodness sakes. You can't be that right wing and succeed in Canada, everybody knows that. MP vote See for yourself

I told you what you want left of center policies, yet you prefer the Conservatives and the two don't add up. Your love of blue is based on something other than policy. It's funny that you are about exactly opposite of Harper and you are such a great fan of his. I find blueblood to be extrememly left wing though. He is left-wing (not extremely left-wing but he seems to support left-wing ideas nevertheless) but he doesn't realize it. He somehow thinks that right-wing ideas are the same as his ideas and he considers himself a right-winger. It could be that he associates libertarianism with right-wing and hence doesn't understand the difference between the two. Hey, blueblood, what are your thoughts on this? Well seeing that the CPC is in fact a centrist party nowadays, they are not Republicans as some would believe, and i was close to centre, i'd say i fit in. I'd say the test is sort of messed, i strongly agreed with the eye for an eye thing for instance. I'd say i'm centrist and there are more things that appeal to me that the CPC has instead of the Liberals (with exception to the wheat board), I'd say im a red tory.

No I don't blame them for that, that's people wanting a career change. I realize that and don't like it. Let's get one thing straight, when it comes to small business and industry, the government should intervene when there is serious trouble. I find it funny when you say that thing in the CRTC thread when I in fact said pg 2 CRTC thread Yah I sure said they should get out of that, puh lease. Let me put it this way I'm all for Canadian industry/business, I believe that small business is a way that allows us to keep and make most of our money, i'd rater see the money here than go down south. I believe the gov't should stay out of things like gun control, Same Sex Marriage, the Day Care thing, taking away junior's licence so he HAS to stay in school, the losing war on drugs, and things like that; there is a black and white difference there. When the Liberals have policy that doesn't piss off westerners, they won't be evil anymore. Are you serious, do you know why a lot of stuff is so expensive? because of only the 2 or 3 companies producing everything, they can charge whatever they want, if there were 2 or 2 hundred companies there would be more competition and lower prices. obviously you are quite aware of this thing (pg 2 of CRTC thread, and if it happens to the ag industry like you want, your gonna get gouged, and your calling me a hypocrite. What i'm proposing helps everyone out. You wouldn't be bastards if you didn't treat us like serfs.As for Wal-Mart, you should check the hansard for all the wonderful speeches the Conservatives made in parliament praising Wal-Mart for being the greatest corporate citizen. The Conservatives love Wal-Mart, you should too. It must be ok for city people to lose their jobs and work for minimum wage at Wal-Mart because of Conservative support for multinationals. It's just not ok when it happens to YOU in farming. The West is Tory blue because you are nuts. It's a mean thing to say, but when somebody's ideology is bleeding you and you still vote for them - that's pretty nuts. You don't care for the actual Tory policies, all you care is that they somehow supposedly hurt the east. Not true, but hurting the east and banning gay marriage are somehow the most important goals for prairie dwellers and anything that may appear to achieve these goals is what you'll vote for. Even if it comes back to bite you on the ass.

Economic Left/Right: -1.13 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.56 What in the blue hell?