Jerry J. Fortin

Free trade is a delusion. Look at our own agreement with the USA. Trade is only "free" for business, not individuals. So as long as your idea is to wholeheartedly support business and corporate profits, then sure NAFTA is for you. On the other hand, remember soft wood! That is only the tip of the iceberg, and you must already know this. We have marketing boards in this nation that are all about protectionism and restraint of free trade, again not against the corporate efforts but against individual efforts. Out here in the west we literally prosecuted farmers for selling their grain to the USA instead of through the CWB. "Free" is a very relative term. Look, I did not advocate "dumping" free food on the third world, what I did advocate was providing real aid for the needy by delivering food that did not require any processing, to avoid any middlemen, to a population that needed food. I also stated that we should provide this through utilizing"excess" production. To return to free trade, the entire concept is geared toward removing any ability of a nation to protect the interests of their own free enterprise in favour of that of another nation. The public line is that it provides cheaper goods to citizens by utilizing the lower production costs of another nation to deliver products. The reality is that in so doing you disposing of manufacturing jobs in your own nation. This entire concept began with the rise of multinational corporations shifting production to nations where labour costs are lower and regulations relevant to that particular industry allow for higher profits. So the products are in fact cheaper when imported, but you are losing good paying jobs and dissolving secondary industry in the effort. This hits across the board with lowered government revenues streams from the reduced tax base and increased government expenditures based on the demand for public programs and services that citizens can no longer afford due their own reduced incomes. Lets not forget the investors in companies that are getting the hell kicked out of them by the loss of profits in our own industry, GM ring a bell?

You people have to wake up! There are enough problems here in this nation to deal with before we can even dream of helping others to the degree we are speaking of. When we can clean up our act, then I will suggest that we can reward ourselves by helping others just not before. Handing money over in the form of foreign aid is not real bright. In a lot of nations that money will just disappear into corrupt hands. If you really want to do some good then why not send excess domestic food production overseas. Even that requires a little thought. I mean look at the "big picture" for a minute, where are the flour mills in Canada? Lets just say that there are none in Saskatchewan or Alberta, where the damned wheat is grown. So before we start wanting to help others lets figure out how to help ourselves get there in the most equitable manner first.

I am sick of Canadian politics myself. Not for your reasons though. In fact I dispute your premise that every discussion is from the left perspective. I will suggest that you are only listening to one side or the other instead of hearing what both sides have to say and forming your own opinion. I will suggest that you are being lazy in your approach by not looking for your own answers and instead complaining not only about the opinions of others, but the questions at hand as well. You are the typical Canadian voter, apathetic. You just don't give a damn because it doesn't interest you. The problem with that is that politics are about the group not the individual. You seem to have difficulty with your own identity.

I understand the need for a revenue stream to pay for the programs and services that citizens want. What I do not understand is the sheer number of citizens employed by the system. The reason government run operations are so inefficient is due to the immense demographic known as the bureaucracy. There are far too many fingers in the pie.

I think this should be viewed as another or any other case would be. Provided the application to enter and remain in Canada was legal and binding then he should be allowed to stay. On the other hand if any lies were told, then he should be forced to leave.

A little too reasonable. The First Nations peoples should be compelled to choose Canadian citizenship or self government, enough is enough.

It would be preferable to staying in this taxed to death nanny state of Canada! Of course sovereignty would be my first choice, just because I am not to keen about the USA's foreign policy.

Income taxes are the wrong way to go. Nobody likes them, but we never do anything about it. Perhaps all of this new debt the government is taking on will wake a few people up when their taxes go up to pay for this debt and their services are cut to fall into line with the decreased revenues.

Equalization is wrong enough here, let alone everywhere else. Lets think about this for a second. We are already losing massive amounts of employment to third world nations due to the vast differences in living standards. Now should we actually implement such a foolish plan I will suggest that to level the playing field we would be required to lower our standards because there is no way possible to raise everyone else's to our level without virtually destroying our economies to do it.

An interesting way to promote native self government. Cut off all services and the flow of federal tax dollars, and offer to bring them to the table to settle all outstanding claims.

You have to be kidding, a world wide equalization program! I have a great big problem with the one we already have and you think that folks from around the world would agree to do this?

I am still waiting for my refund!

The leaders of these partisan factions have become the targets of much abuse. But it is not them we should worry about, its the issues............

He did coin the phrase, but to suggest that it be called the Eisenhower Paradigm and that the Americans abandoned it is simply foolish. They never adopted it in the first place. Ike tried to warn the people but they would not listen.

I think we need to "rethink" the military. In my view we need to expand our military in the order of 500%. Young Canadians should have the opportunity to join the armed forces and acquire secondary education at no cost. I view this as a positive method of dealing with the recession.

If it was my call I would prosecute ALL involved. The Minister, the Deputy, the staffer, the reporter, the editor and the networks executives. They were all guilty with respect to how the property of the people of Canada was handled.

Yeah and Red Ed was once a the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party.........

So they are not, yet that is the basis of their association. There is strength in numbers, the power of collective bargaining and the like of such things were once a source of pride and benefit. Such things have become very political and devolved into merely another form of taxation upon citizens.

Everyone wants to blame the politicians for the problems we have. If they had real control of society then this would be a valid case of finger pointing. The truth however is that business calls the ball, they are the tail wagging the government dog. The rise of corporate governance has yet to be viewed by the "experts" for what it is. That is unfortunate for the citizens, but it does provide a nice little smokescreen for the power brokers while giving governments the smelly end of the stick. It has worked so well, that old divide and conquer strategy, that nobody has bothered to say anything when organizations begin to appear that have nothing to do with the private ventures that is the operational meet of their business venture. The World Trade Organization, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, groups of very powerful people working together to conduct operations beyond their countries of origin. Multinational and transnational business are the rule of thumb these days, and buzz words like global economies and economies of scale. Kiss goodbye any thought of traditional values and heritage, open the doors to child labour, environmental harm and economic terrorism perpetrated by the folks that really call the ball.

I wasn't saying that one poll could be read to apply to another question at all. What I was saying was that if you do what the polls do, that is stretching what is really being said, that you could jump from one conclusion to another. I am not a big believer in polls because I understand them.

Personally I think you guys are nuts! Income taxes are repressive and a solid wall against wealth creation. Normally I would say that governments have or should have nothing to do with wealth creation, however taxes have a negative impact in wealth creation and therefore are detrimental to growth in all respects. Abolish income taxes, replace the government revenue stream with transaction taxes on the sale and purchase of goods and services. Make essential goods and services tax exempt to consumers, not to vendors. On the surface this would appear to be revenue neutral, in reality it would result in huge savings for busioness as their tax load would be in reality completely paid for by the end consumers. It would represent a huge savings for lower and middle income citizens because tax is applied on sales and purchases on a pay as you go basis. The less you spend the less tax you pay. This is consistent with taxation based on the ability to pay. You want widespread non-partisan support for a political agenda that would serve to eliminate apathy, then taxation is your issue. It is the one area where everyone agrees, we pay too much tax. On the bright side, removing income taxes would bring a lot of professional and corporate action into the nation. Tax is very important to business, they go to great lengths to avoid it and spend much needed capital in the process.

The measure of a man is not what he says, but what he does. The UN is not what it should be. It is not what it can be. It is not what it once was. The UN needs to change, and it needs to change quickly. It cannot be a place of politics, it must be a place of communication and a place of help. The nations of the world must make it apolitical instead of immoral. That is not to say that it is immoral now, but that it needs to change in a specific direction.

Let us hope that the Canadian Government will allow the private citizens to purchase these shares when the time comes, instead of rolling them out to the fat cats of Bay Street!

A Liberal government will only say that it was saddled with problems from the previous administration and tell the public it will take time to correct the problems they inherited. They will do nothing right according to the Conservatives and the NDP will say they are ignoring the needs of the people. The same game will be played with players in different positions but the whining will be the same only spun in a different direction. I can only hope that the public will soon wake up and demand that representatives start pushing the government to act. The action required is to research and develop a functional means of utilizing the governments revenue streams in a meaningful way to benefit the CITIZENS of Canada. They need to understand their spending and plan for expenditures instead utilizing their political knee jerk reactions to everything under the sun. Is it not yet time to become a little more proactive in the pursuit of governance.

Well Borg I had no idea you were part of the family, I guess I just wasn't paying attention. For that I am sorry, and because of your family status, I owe you a measure of respect that I have not previously paid and for that I am sorry as well.