Jerry J. Fortin

Cons 123 Libs 101 Bloc 37 NDP 47 I wish!!!

The Senate need not go, nor should we want it to go. What we should want is a leader that wants to make the Senate a more functional democratic tool of government. The Senate is SUPPOSED to be a system of regional representation. That was the original intent of the design. It can be enhanced to finally fulfill that role in a manner that is beneficial to all citizens. The Senate can be given a specific roll to play by having defined responsibilities more closely integrated to the purpose of regional representation. By this I mean to say that the Provinces can have a voice, through their representatives to the Senate in Legislative matters. This would at least serve to limit the powers of the PMO within the supposedly separate branch of government. It is a small step, yet one that is intended to become foundational in a system of reforms. Reform must come from the top down in a planned manner. Restricting the power of the PMO must be considered one of the primary goals in any type of democratic reform.

This election is a very strange one. Harper numbers are currently falling and Iggy's numbers are rising. The same applies to the parties, more strangeness. Perhaps the apathetic voter is waking up, who knows?

I wish the Liberals would grab a brain and get on board with this.

The entire partisan faction is tight lipped with Steve calling the ball.

The cold hard reality here is child poverty. Single moms are not the only ones that need this, but there are a lot of families with two working parents busting their behinds just to make ends meet. What is the shape of social engineering, this is it. Guess what....it needs doing. The monetary cost needs to be formulated to be sure, but it is another of the things we need to do. Such as reforming the welfare state altogether. We need to have the cradle to grave benefit debate. The entire concept of entitlement must have a front seat by the big stage. The nation needs to wake up! Its not just healthcare and education that need attention but instead the entire designed system we have put in place.

I wish the public would wake up. There is far too much for the government to do to keep playing games like this. Even so I relish the opportunity to vote against my sitting MP, fire him. They all need to be fired. They are supposed to be working for us, not against us. It is the good opinion of the people that support any government anyway, so why not shake the place up? Who the hell has a good opinion of government! So much waste of tax dollars, so much corruption, the state of our democracy is one of disrepair.

True enough. However I would not bother to waste my time time counting chickens just yet. The only poll that counts is the one on election day. The undecideds will carry the day, unless the non-voter decides he suddenly has cause to voice an opinion. There is the real demographic, about half of the voting population. Gain the interest of the apathetic voter and the entire game is over. There is a reason for the apathetic voter, they are unsatisfied tax paying citizens. These folks don't think the governments do enough to warrant attention, they feel they get little for their money and the concept of being represented in Ottawa don't wash with them. Politicians speak for and do for themselves, that is the perception these folks have. Yet wake them up and see what happens.

Most generous terms in my view.

The way the system is designed, partisan politics are over when the election is finished. After that, it is the simple numbers of representatives that decide how and who forms a government. The right thing for our representatives to do, is after the election get ALL representatives together in one room at the same time and have real democracy apply itself. There should be a position of responsibility and accountability for every single member of Parliament. That would be a step up from where we are now. Yet none have the balls to do what is only right.

Yeah, I like them too. Not often I get a chance to fire a politician.

It is indeed.

I refute the premise of your statement, I will suggest that it has been society that has been abused not the prisoners. We need less citizens in prisons, not more. Prisons should not be places we desire to go to. Violent offenders are a special breed of criminal, and we need to recognize that reality. These are the people who cause citizens the greatest grief and I will suggest that the public would agree. For them, the only solution is incarceration, permanently. To let them out represents a risk to society. Non-violent offenders should be made to "work" off a predetermined debt as levied by a judge. If they don't want to work then join the violent offenders on Ellesmere Island. Crime is a dirty business, dealing with it cannot be expected to make anything clean by any stretch of the imagination. Its a mess that we need to deal with.

I will suggest that money IS politics. Monetary and financial policies are the bane of our existence.

On the other hand, we just treat them with comfort and let them out early. Some people deserve to have their freedom taken away, and some need to pay for their crimes. We are talking about people who piss on the rights of others. We are talking about criminals guilty of mistreating citizens. We are talking about the expectation of justice from the perspective of the victims of those crimes. Society needs to recognize that the consequences of crime are extremely dire.

What is up for grabs is political control over this nation. Serious stakes, there is much to gain from an attempt at acquiring power. Put the partisan cant aside for a moment and simply consider that whoever gains power gains access to your pocket. We waste all of our time worrying who takes power and in the end there is no difference from one partisan faction to the next. Once an election is over, the platform is destroyed and promises are broken, the day to day operation of government takes precedent over the desires of the public. We are controlled by our representatives, instead of us controlling them. In my view the entire lot of elected representatives should be fired outright and a new set of representatives brought in. We need to clean up our political system, and quickly.

There is no way around our system in this regard, short of cutting a deal with the G.G. of course. In our system the majority is "King",as it should be. Minorities are completely constrained in Parliament.

That would be the will of Parliament, or the consent of Parliament if you choose to call it that. In any case, the government has its fate controlled from Parliament, if the government does not have the numbers its all over but the crying.

Work should be a privilege for them. Violent offenders should have nothing more than solitary confinement.

The fate of all minority governments is the same. They govern with the consent of Parliament. Failure to acquire that consent always has and always will result in an election. Those are the rules.

I stand corrected on the production numbers, but don't expect them to build any more Raptors once the next couple are delivered because that is it. The most expensive piece of junk ever bought by the USAF. There is a damned good reason they stopped production, it sure wasn't because they were making too much money on the damned things. That said, I am sure there is something better hiding in the wings somewhere. The F35 is the next evolution of the fighter aircraft. It covers all the American requirements for all branches of service. It is their platform of choice. The production run as planned will reduce the cost per plane for later deliveries. The funny thing is that I agree with the guy that said we should develop something on our own and retain the design costs within the nation.

Well we might not be able to buy any F22's but then again, the poor Yanks can't either. Program is dead as a doornail, I think there are maybe two or three left to construct but that is it, less than 100 birds I think, instead of hundreds as planned.

That is very likely the long and the short of it.

The Queen speaks through the G.G., and the G.G. is chosen by the Prime Minister of the day. Don't expect anything creative from that corner.