Jerry J. Fortin

Look at it from an Alberta viewpoint.

Remember the movie "Field of Dreams", if you build it they will come. First things first. You need a nation with a political will to actually do something. That means standing up to those who do not agree with you. Canada does not have this first basic requirement. Make no mistake in this regard people because the military is the long arm of failed diplomacy which sadly is a fact of life in international terms. The use of our military by political design has been relegated to peace keeping instead of offensive operations. That puts our requirements in a very different light. So we have unique needs for our armed forces. This nation has failed to understand its own needs as determined by our political leadership. Should the country ever decide to actually defend itself the required investment in infrastructure would blow the minds of most individuals. The cost is staggering almost beyond comprehension. Try a trillion dollars for an aircraft carrier with all the toys on bard and ready to sail. I don't think we even have a dock large enough to berth one of those monsters, let alone a dry dock for construction and maintenance. You need at least a frigate screen to support the carrier. That is leaving aside the traditional submarine screen that the US Navy has used since the second world war. Lets say about another two trillion for the support system just to handle a single carrier group. Now multiple that time at least four. One for each coast plus one deployment force. You are talking real money here folks and that is just for the navy and to cover the cost of getting Canadian troops to places they are required in their peacekeeping roles. Now start costing out coastal defenses, ever thought of how much coast line we have? The answer to that is 202,080 kms, did you know that? There are no fixed set of numbers to compute these things but most nations with navies have on average of three frigates per thousand km of shoreline to cover. Granted that much of our shore is ice, there is still lots on the east and west coasts to fully protect. So I guess maybe we are getting off pretty light, but we are still short a few hundred ships at least. We haven't even counted on an army or an air force to protect the country, you begin to grasp the nature of the problem here. If we decide that the Americans will not invade us, and we decide that we will not even attempt to defend that border then we can start to think about our own defense. Anybody that wants to get here will have to come from the sea, which is why coastal defense makes sense. That does not mean we will need no army to actually defend our land, nor does it mean that we will need no air defense. It does mean that we can actually focus on the true mission of defense, because we know the nature of the threat.

I would rather see our armed forces with the V-22. A few squadrons of these along with sufficient carriers to transport them would make a great deal of sense to me. Such a force could represent an out of country contribution to peace keeping by Canadian Forces. A single aircraft carrier to operate a squadron of F-18's would be even more helpful. What I am saying is that I would think it beneficial to the best interests of Canadians to have a least one single group that is capable of deploying and being supplied by our own means. Yes we need heavy sea lift and air lift capabilities, but we also need a force deployment plan to go along with our political objectives. This is not something to be done lightly, nor will it be inexpensive to do so. Yet it must be done.

There are lots of dreamers, but they need focus and conviction. That is what this country needs, a visionary leader.

The terrorists have already won. We have changed our lives and changed our society just to acknowledge their existence. Harper is only a minority government politician, that does not give him the "handle" leader. He leads a small partisan faction is what he leads. Its time for folks to wake up and realize that we are being played. Its time to grow up and achieve a level of discernment that will create the conditions in this nation for a representative of the people to actually provide some true leadership. Harper isn't the man to do this.

The capitalistic system that we have created does not envision an endpoint dude. Its all about wealth creation, literally making something more from something less.

Really, and who gets to make this determination? The government? You perhaps? I will suggest this line of reasoning deserves to be deep sixed immediately, unless of course you wish to bring back Uncle Adolf from the dead and perhaps recreate a Fourth version of that era.

First nations peoples are literally our long lost brothers. DNA has been identified that confirms European and Asian ancestry dating from the end of the last ice age. East met west and the rest is history. Hundreds of years later Europeans returned to the continent, but the battle has not yet ended.

Thew "rich" are defined as folks with high "net" worth. Between the falling dollar and the stock market crash these folks are about to take a big hit. Now the icing on the cake would be a credit crunch that pulls the rug out from under the housing sector. When that happens the remaining leverage some of these "rich" folks have on paper will disappear. The key to surviving the coming months will be not merely getting "liquid" but instead being out of debt entirely aw well as not requiring credit at all. My advice? Get out of debt, stay out of debt. Buy stocks and bonds with your own money, not borrowed money. Buy precious metals in the form of coins or wafers. Buy real estate only to rent out, and only then if you can afford not to borrow money to do it. You can assume an existing mortgage as long as you can pay it down enough to avoid the coming loss on real estate values. Give it time, say 6-8 years before things turn around.

2010? The economic wizards can't predict what happens tomorrow let alone two years from now. Harper should concern himself with the falling numbers of jobs in the manufacturing sector. Ontario is being slowly bled out of employment, and that fellow citizens is indeed bad news for Canada.

Let me begin with stating quite clearly that the function of government is in fact designed by the will of the people. Having said that all kinds of economic and political theories have both form and function that are separated by nothing more than partisan support. Citizens out number politicians by numerous decimal points in the equation. Governments are merely a reflection of the will of the people. Now, considering this reality it is clear that we in fact get the governments we deserve. It is an exercise of choice, There are guns and knives, intimidation and oppression that factor into the equations of course. There is religion to account for as well as geographical economic strengths and weaknesses. In the end however the people support whom they choose to and retain the leadership they desire. Now as to the disposition of wealth, there are rich folks and there are poor folks and there are those that are neither. There are more poor folks than rich but there is far more that are neither. In truth the neither crowd is the determining factor in any society, they are the ones that make the difference, they have the numbers in any kind of calculation that ultimately have the ability to change society. It is that large demographic in the middle that pay a majority of taxes, preform a majority of the productive capacity etc, etc. The rich folks are no more human than the poor, we are all in the same boat. After having said all of this, my point is simply that CITZENS make a difference. They do so by acting. They say something and they do something and change does in fact comes. With all due respect to posters in this forum, we can and do make a difference. I do not advocate the leftist liberal stance, nor the rightist conservative stance. I do not desire to live in a completely capitalistic world, nor a completely communistic world either. There is no single functional design that will serve citzens with perfection. There is of course direct democracy which comes close. The true problem as I see things is that this nation as well as other nations are simply to large to be equitably governed. Geographics and demographics provide sufficient differences within nations that pit one citizen against the other. It is not merely equality that is at stake or even sought but more often than not it is advantage that is sought. Here lies the world of politics. It is the cause as well as the solution to our problems.

Keep Harper in power and Ontario will be on the have not list inside of five years.

Integrated at the federal level? There are a few Albertan's that would have what could be described as issues with that SORT OF SOLUTION. In my opinion that kind of solution would be a mistake.

I will predict that there is a leadership race in the very near future for the Liberal Party of Canada. I will predict that Bob Rae will run in this contest. I will predict that he does not win.

The Libs will return to power soon enough. Don't count them out.

Get back on topic folks! Justin is capable of delivering the leadership that citizens want. He is young, he has actually worked for a living. He is green leaning. He has the old man's way with words. Watch this guy in the near future.

Then look at the Swiss model. Direct Democracy is about a light year ahead of what we now have.

Considering that almost half of the citizens in this nation did not vote at all, I will suggest that there is no party that can lay claim to any version of strong support anywhere in the nation. Damned near 1 of every two citizens simply didn't vote. At best all of the parties share about half the support of Canadians, that is the long and the short of it.

You are very astute. This will go on until Dion gets the boot. Then expect a confidence motion and subsequent election.

Harper will in fact act as if he has a majority and play upon the oppositions disorganized approach. Harper will force all kinds of votes. That is his trademark, he wants to govern.

The next big political story is the future of the Liberal Party. Who will lead, what direction will they take. All leaders alluded to working with others in order to govern effectively. The door is open for radical change on the Canadian political landscape yet the public itself rejects the relevance of politics. Participation in the political process is at an all time low. Leadership in all the partisan factions is lackluster at best. There is no leadership in this country, nobody inspires the voters.

I was way off! The BQ did far better than I thought they would. The Liberals were judged hard and found wanting. The NDP surprised me. The big story to me was the continued rise of the Harper star. Still not enough for a majority, yet subtle inroads were indeed made. On the other hand, Alberta actually was not swept up, and Harpers demise was elected in Quebec. Dion is done like dinner, that is the one real difference after the election. He will face a leadership review, one that he will not likely survive. I expect Rae, Ignative, Garneau, Kennedy and yes even Justin Trudeau to be testing the waters within the coming weeks. The big question is what kind of a budget will Harper put before members in the Commons. Will the opposition pass a budget they don't really want to avoid the next election?

Another minority..... None of them smart enough to govern.

I don't want a majority! Too much power for Ottawa to handle, their track record has displayed much agony to citizens.

There is a Nanos poll that shows something different. 10% Bloc Quebecois 32% Conservative 8% Green Party 28% Liberal 22% NDP The only poll that counts is the one on Tuesday.