Jerry J. Fortin

Who said we were a victim? Ontario has far too much power and influence in confederation. Without Senate reform the rest of us have no chance of ever being heard from in a meaningful way. The design of the Senate should have been to balance representation by population with representation by region. All provinces are supposed to be equal within confederation, that is what the Constitution says, but it also prevents that equality by stacking the deck. Each province should have five Senators, each elected for a ten year single term of office. That would provide equality in the upper house. No province should have more say or votes than any other in the Senate.

Islam knows no nation, it is a nation under God. Islam has no organized authority, it has scholars and followers. There are many more "sects" than most people know about. In virtually all cases these sects are a power and authority unto themselves. Who speaks for Islam? The very real threat is that extremists exist in ALL societies, Islam included. The difference with Islam is no single group can control them, that control is literally against their religion. No control equals no effective means of governance, which in turn means there is simply no way to address issues with Islam in any sort of diplomatic means. That limits non-Islamic cultures options. It is like having to reach politic agreements on a street to street basis here. This is a street fight on a global scale folks. Gang warfare if you like, but warfare nonetheless. Our functional options are limited, and any means of recourse is limited.

Okay, so why should the rest of the nation be punished for the growth of Ontario?

I think the Clarity Act addressed this issue. The harsh reality is that politicians fear the power of the public and the democratic rights of the individual because it directly affects the ability of the government to act on its own authority. It takes power from the government and gives it to the people, where it truly belongs. Political power and wealth are the purview of the most affluent in society and any form of direct democracy detracts from that authority vested in government.

The list is accurate.

Giving more power to Ontario in the Commons is exactly what the west does not want.

The Afgan wars are indeed more important than many believe. Not one single group has ever effectively taken over this tiny poor nation. From Alexander to the Americans, nobody but the Afgans wins. Strangely, the nation is fully capable of supporting itself. It is cultural differences that shake us up and prevent us from seeing the potential of this nation.

The answer to that is to lower our production costs. Again let me state clearly that automated production is the key. The use of highly advanced robotics and enhanced computer technologies make this not simply a possibility it makes it highly likely. In addition, we have the raw materials necessary for this type of production. Hydrocarbons and metals are both part of our resource cocktail. We can do this, and we MUST do this if we want to be competitive.

More will die, we are at war.

Affirmative action is discrimination, period.

Please understand that I do not advocate that we stop doing what we are doing. I merely suggest that we made mistakes developing our nation and that those mistakes need to be rectified. What I do advocate is enhancing our capabilities, I believe that is in the best interests of citizens. Instead of shipping logs out of the country, ship tables and chairs as well as 2x4 and the like. Instead of shipping potash, mix it with sulphur and other chemicals and sell fertilizer. Instead of shipping oil out of the country in a pipeline, ship it in 1 litre plastic bottles made in Alberta. You see where I am going with this?

I must agree. Pay them more and demand more from them. Its time to sort out the line cooks from the chefs. There are enough of these elected officials to do all the work, so how is it that they never seem to be working. Granted the cabinet guys have actual functions, but the back bench and the opposition do nothing. It is time to give them something to do, after all we pay them.

Well, the cupboard is bare now. This auto industry bailout will continue that good work.

Yes we are prosperous, we have a seat at the G8. Yes we are enjoying the richest time in our history. Then again these are very relative things. This nation is export dependent, yes or no? When the world economy tanks, we go with it, or more importantly when the American economy tanks we go with it since we are so totally dependent upon them importing our exports. The point is that we have never properly developed our own economy. We have chosen to be the hewers of wood and the drawers of water. We have failed to follow some very basic nation building steps, yes there were reasons for it but you can now see the results. We need more value added industries based on our natural resource wealth. We need to create manufacturing capacity and exploit our resource advantage. This is pretty basic stuff people, and we need to pay attention to the details. Admittedly we are a part of a global economy, where very few nations are in fact self sufficient, nobody would argue that point. However, this nation has resources with which to work with while many others do not. We have the technological capacity to mechanize production facilities to the point of virtual automation. This is where our fiscal ability should be put to its greatest leveraged effort. We need an internal market to start with before we head out into the global market. We need to be producing literally everything sought in the consumer market by our own citizens and brand it Canadian and provide a solid foundation from which we can then grow into international markets. We need to promote ourselves in our own country first. What has happened in the case of Canada is that we began our development in the correct manner then abandoned it for war time production. After the war we never turned away from this policy. Manufacturing was centered around transportation hubs and population centers in eastern Canada, the rest of the nation merely supported the efforts with raw materials. Little has changed from those days until now. Not withstanding normal development all sorts of efforts were made to concentrate industrial efforts in central Canada by the federal government. Foreign investment was the key to our development because the nation was young and without the capabilities to develop on our own. times have changed but the basic economic foundation in this nation has failed to keep pace. Now what we have is a contracting industrial base in central Canada, and a natural resource based economy everywhere else.

India will invade Pakistan, the US will want to invade Iran. North Korea will invade South Korea. China will threaten to invade Formosa. China will offer to stop North Korea if US gives up Formosa and not attack Iran, the bonus would be keeping South Korea.

The auto industry makes up 12% of the entire nations GDP. More than 150000 directly related jobs in that industry fueled the Ontario economy in 2001. That industry is now failing and will collapse completely without government intervention. The oil industry in Alberta just lost 35 billion dollars in planned investments. The fishing industry on the east coast took billions out of the economy as well. The housing collapse in the US will gut our lumber industry. I don't know what planet you are living on, but you should maybe read a paper or something, the economy in Canada is tanking fast. The government is going into massive deficits and our most prosperous province has just been declared a "have not" province. Trade surpluses mean nothing to unemployed workers, other than the fact that some corporation is making more money and paying less taxes than they are. Again, numbers are crunched in the same way statistics are produced. You start with an answer and formulate a question that fits the answer. The reality of the event is that this nation and the one south of us have declare a recession. Its worst in Germany, and they are the most productive nation in Europe. The next word you can expect to be used is depression. In other words the economy sucks! What is even more troubling, if you can believe there is such a thing, is the simple truth that we are no longer able to protect citizens and our domestic companies from foreign competition. We made that little action against the law with our trade agreements.

Not Iraq, but Iran. India and Pakistan have never been the best of friends. Naked aggression there could very well spark a Korean event, seemingly unrelated yes, but the reality is that the entire sphere is Chinese dominated. China is facing some very tough times contrary to what people think. Conversion from consumer goods to military hardware is far easier than the reverse. They MUST keep citizens working under their current plan. With the evaporation of their major market in the USA, something will have to give. It will have to be covert, because their reputation cannot be questioned. Along with this is the thirst for energy, and their major supplier of energy is Iran. Iran is known to support un-American activities in Iraq. This is a very tangled web, but don't confuse it for anything else.

Better off with free trade? First of all, it isn't and never was free. Remember the softwood issues? How about all sorts of agricultural issues? Like I said we have actually lost good paying jobs, and gained bad paying jobs. Our manufacturing industries have declined, but our retail has increased. What has really happened is that the overall economy has grown, but the true GDP has actually fallen. There is a very real difference in the production of domestic goods and the sale of imported goods. Its a numbers game played by politicians seeking to cover their asses. We are now unable to restrict business from moving into Canada. We MUST treat foreign business the same way we treat domestic business. What we have done is forfeit the ability of our government to legislate in the best interests of our citizens by providing "equal" opportunity to all. This is another of the democratic diseases that we have begun to understand. The rise of corporatism and the demise of democracy go hand in hand.

Of course not, and what happened to the Jews wasn't genocide.

In ALL cases of so called free trade, the entire design of legislation was to provide free trade for business. The individual does not come into play at all. So these trade arrangements are designed to benefit business not people. We have a free trade agreement with the US, but I still pay to bring stuff across the border a company does not. These agreements are not in the best interest of citizens, people need to understand this. How many jobs have we lost to these agreements, ad how many more to come? The concept is that we should be getting a lower price for products we purchase because of the tax savings. The other side of the coin is the loss of tax revenue from the company that used to manufacture the products here, and the loss of income tax from the individuals that used to be employed . Now since the products are actually here, and sold here, they are made somewhere else, imported by somebody else, and retailed by someone else. So the government counts all those minimum wage jobs as created with the importation of these products. Enron accounting practices!

Really? http://www.ndp.ca/platform/environment/aplanthatwillwork Implement our clean air and fighting climate change program: * Make big polluters pay. We will put a price on carbon through a "cap-and-trade" carbon pricing system which establishes hard limits on pollution and a tough charge on polluters who exceed the limits. * All revenue will be applied to environmental solutions. http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/feat...30-bddc41e05b64 The Bloc Québécois The sovereignist party is pushing for a cap-and-trade system to be implemented as soon as possible with stringent targets for industry. Like the other opposition parties, the Bloc also supports the Kyoto Protocol and stringent greenhouse-gas emission targets for Canada to achieve in short, medium and long term. Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe said he would examine the Liberal "green shift" carbon tax proposal in detail before deciding whether or not his party should support it. it sounds to me like these folks are hair splitting but also support the carbon tax concept under a different name.

Where is that? Not in this nation.

The Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc all favour such an abomination.

Why do you support trade that is not free? There is no such thing as free trade by the way.

Yet our governments let those companies in the door. That is a problem, I am willing to admit that. Are you then suggesting that we should do something about that? Are you suggesting that because of this the big three were harmed by government action? What are you trying to say?