Canuckistani

You replied that crime is at a 40 yr low in response to concerns about gang violence, which implies that we don't have much to worry about. Again, gang violence is definitely not at a 40 yr low, this is a subject we do have to worry about. Just tough on crime stuff won't fix it, either.

Any group with a Glock (presumably illegal) is a pretty scary proposition, no matter what you call it.

That doesn't mean we get to pat ourselves on the shoulder and relax either. Gang crime ain't at a 40 year low. We need to deal with it, on all fronts.

WTF does Paul Martin have to do with socialism? A heard headed socialist was Tommy Douglas - we could use more like him.

Actually that was a pretty ecumenical project. Protestants and Catholics did that. I suppose it was better that your army just killed your Natives instead of trying to assimilate them. Separation of church and state and all. Bet American Natives felt much better about it.

If you mean the Catholics in Ontario, then I know they're not, in science classes. It's not part of the school curriculum, nor is it dogma of the Catholic church. Whether they discuss it in social studies, I don't know, and don't care. In fact it should be discussed there.

Yep. They're not learning that Nessie is real and that evolution isn't.

Just because it's not pc, doesn't make it wrong.

It's just a lot easier to gush over Michelle Obama than Ann Romney. Course if Mitt would just allow his other wives to be seen in public, there might be one with a personality among those. (See Mitt Romney, 'wifer controversy').

To repeat:

Which is why I said on reservation. The 3rd world conditions are on reservations in the middle of nowhere where there are no jobs. Everybody that does't work for the band council is on welfare. Are we really supposed to give them a middle class lifestyle. Why them but not non-Natives on welfare? But, there are instances of housing on reservations near cities being in poor shape too, even tho the band council is sitting on millions. What's their excuse?

Got a link for that? I know that even in our treaty negotiations in BC, Natives were very reluctant to give up tax free status, and there's a long period after the treaty is settled before they actually have to pay any. Also, if you're just sitting around on your duff, because the white man didn't give you any jobs on your remote reserve, what income do you pay taxes on?

Yes, I blamed the local officials. I believe they were even prosecuted. No government builds housing for people, they have to pay for it themselves. Public buildings are paid out of taxes, something Natives on reserves specifically don't have to pay. So the ROC is paying to have natives live on welfare. It's not good for them, and not good for us. Time for them to work and pay taxes, same as everybody else.

So we're going to keep building them water treatment plants, schools and other infrastructure, none of which they bother to maintain? How about they actually do something for themselves instead of just sitting there with their hands out, playing the victim? Do we really want to create, or more accurately further develop, a system where by some people in Canada get a share of resource income just by nature of their genetic makeup, without having to lift a finger to do a lick of work to earn it? Will that really do them any good?

And are benefit ting from us developing those lands and creating a modern economy on them.

More reductio ad absurdum, but it follows from your argument. Can we afford not to train the people we need? Why doesn't the govt know? How about finding out before letting somebody in the country? Because we don't have our door open to the whole world - the unemployed welders in Ontario will go to Alberta if the wages are high enough.

Why don't we just shut down all schools then and import all the skilled workers we need. Think of the money we'd save. Plus those immigrants aren't so uppity and will work for less. Again, what's the point of importing people because they are doctors and then not recognizing their credentials? Of course they will. But if labor is in short supply, demand should drive wages up, no?

Immigrants aren't adults with families?

We've run out of space to build more tech schools, have we? Just can't be done? The MD shortage in the 1990's was caused by the govt purposely limiting med school spaces to reduce the number of doctors to reduce medicare costs. When this resulted in long waiting lists (duh) their response was first to import more doctors, many of whom couldn't practice because the medical associations wouldn't recognize their credentials. Does that make sense? What's a competitive rate - if there's a shortage of welders, wages should go up, no? If wages go up it should draw people to those jobs, and draw people to be trained as welders. If govt doesn't train enough, why don't corps train their own? Better yet, why don't we do it like Germany, where corps, govt, and unions co-operate on training?

If we don't have enough welders, let's train more instead of importing them. If the corps only pay min wage, let them go without workers, not accede to their pushing wages down. In times of labor shortages, wages are supposed to go up, not down.

What can be done is not let them in. Have the employer pay a wage that attracts Canadians to that job. Are we really going to employ the third world while Canadians don't have jobs?

How so - vigilante justice? I would guess most Joe the Plumbers would still meekly slave away for the job creators. And the job creators would hire private armies to protect themselves. What's the reduced govt going to do, send em a nasty letter?

Yes, but they could still go after the mortagee for the balance. So unless they've declared bankruptcy, they're still on the hook.

How so?

So let's see - Aboriginals are entitled to the same govt expenditures as any other Canadian, plus whatever extras the Indian Act calls for. And we give them a part of the resource revenues. Sweet deal if you have the right genes. At what point do we just start calling then Canadians++ or C++ for short?