Jerry J. Fortin

The question is actually relevant within our country at this point in time. Our country is being dominated in both an economic and cultural sense by our American brothers. They are very successful and we try to emulate that success here. The real issue here is how to retain our national identity in light of this.

Communism is unworkable, it simply doesn't take into consideration the reality of the individual. The use of "capital" is a debatable point though. There are in fact ways of doing things without it. As a matter of fact it is done daily in most parts of the world. It is called credit, the private sector version of the governments monetary policy.

Is there any room left over there?

If Harper is supposed to be a political genius, why didn't he simply issue a warning to citizens abroad at the begining of hostilities. Perhaps he will learn from this and change policy to reflect more citizen responsibility and avoid further foolishness. An individual travelling to a war zone is free to do so, but the government ought not to be held accountable for that decision. There is such a thing as common sense.

I stand corrected! Call me an anarchist from this day forward.

No matter which way you look at it, if you hold a Canadian passport and are at danger in a foreign state the government has a responsibility. Get the people out first, then worry about the cost.

WE don't have sufficient sea lift capacity to move a short division of troopers let alone 50,000 civies.

Actually I think that I meet more capitalistic zealots than religous ones.

I didn't see Air Force One pressed into service to fetch stranded travellers, why should we be any different in this regard? Look the smart way to do this is to have the LEBANESE government show us their balls and provide security to those who need to leave. The Jews would have to be nuts to interfere with a relief operation, frankly I don't see them as nuts myself. The situation in Lebanon is being exploited by everybody with a bone to pick with anybody else. That is the normal course of events overthere people! The citizens of the mideast are all political hostages in one way or another for one group or another. We need to realize that before we can actually do anything about it.

Sadly the government is responsible for its citizens both inside and outside of the state. That said, there is an obligation to provide timely assistance when citizens are endangered. Given our present military force structure we are incapable of providing this basic requirement. Perhaps this will give some people pause to reconsider the horrific state of our nation.

All these words are well and good, but their application to the current political realities that we find ourselves in are limited to say the least. You would be better off debating the differences between democracy and capitalism. Now those two little words have huge impact on our society. Most of us poor fools actually think we live in a democracy and work in a capitalistic society. Nothing could be further from the truth but we have been brainwashed into thinking so.

OUr problems with the US are simply that we are spineless, something they just don't respect at all. If you want to "deal" with the USA then tear up NAFTA. That will get their attention quickly. Once you have their attention you damned well better be prepared to "deal" with them. The thing of it is that we leave ourselves relatively devoid of manufacturing and rely on the exportation of raw material to them and everyone else then we import the value added products and feed their economy. If you want to improve our economic position you need only focus on creating small cottage industry consisting of manufctured goods and promote the hell out of them with tax breaks and buy "Canadian" campaigns. The little companies will grow up in an internal market structure and using that foundation they can then expand into larger export related markets. The thing is you need a solid internal market first in order for this to work. Canada can do this and earn the respect of the US, or it can sit back and watch corporate governance take root and this country will cease to exist within a few decades.

The unions in this country don't have the balls or brains to something like that.

Big brother is alive and well in Canada. The nanny state has relatives! Too much government, too much bureaucracy too little freedom and not enough democracy. We are taxed to death to cover debt and social programs. Unless of course you have enough money to buy so tax breaks.

As long as Harper limits this nations involvment to diplomacy and humanitarian assistance I will support his position. Canada has no place and no business in the politics of the middle east. While our Americans friends are very deeply involved that simply does not apply to us.

Nothing will ever stop terrorism, nothing. It is a crime against humanity. It is an international crime. This entire dialogue being conducted here in this forum is based on the false premise of something called state sponsored terrorism. The reality is that states support independent covert operations, they always have and they always will. Do these covert operations create terror, yes. Are these operations specific to any specific nation, no. Can one state provide logistic and monetary support to operatives of many different nationalities,yes. This war will not put an end to terrorism in the middle east, just as the current war on terror being conducted by western powers will not eliminate terror anywhere else. Terrorism occurs where ever an individual citizen perceives government action detrimental to their political views. This can and does occur in every nation on this planet. Sometimes a nation will support an individual citizen to conduct operations against another government in another nation, this happens. This will continue to happen. It is a fact of life, and always has been. There is no new world after 9/11. The world has not even changed. The same things are going on now that went on before 9/11. Those things will continue to happen. This is the way things are, and nobody is going to be able to change that through the use of violence. The violence may stop for a short time but it will resume I assure you. Mankind is a violent species. In many places on earth it is a way of life. No Pax anthing ever solves the problem. This current battle will not bring peace to either Arab or Jew, Palestinian or Israeli. The best plan for the nations of the world is to not respond in kind and provide assistance to the injured when the battles are over. The only logical move is to limit the damages that we do to each other by reducing the size of the conflict and not becoming a participant in it. The taking of sides by individuals and groups not directly involved in conflict inflicts greater harm and prolongs those conflicts. At the end of a conflict, a victorious nation should be judged by the international community for its conduct and behavior and by democratic means appropriately sentenced if found in guilt.

The problem in Canada is that we are a very diverse nation. The various regions of this huge land all have individual cultures. That is why we are advocates of multiculturalism. Along with this diversity we have economic disparity. Some areas are more industrialy developed than others, and some are more advanteged with resources than others. Canada is almost 10 million square kilometers in size and has a population density of about 3 people per square kilometer. We have the second largest country in the world with the 219th smallest of 230 countries population density. This is an immense nation with very few people and therefore we have a diversity with huge differences in opinion with our citizens. This is not merely a question of urban verses rural opinions, it is far worse than that. We have a language issue, a race issue, an economic issue to go along with all of the location issues. The citizens of Canada would fight to protect the interests of their fellow citizens in spite of their differences based on a mutual threat to the entire nation. But that simply won't ever happen. We have no enemies that are capable of threatening us given our geograhpic location as a vassal state of America. If nothing else the Americans would protect us in their own self interest.

Back to square one. Canadians vote against things, not for them. Remember how much Mulroney was hated? It got so bad he decided to retire, and left Kim Campbell in charge. She gets to hold the bag for reducing a majority government down to less than party status in the Commons. She didn'even get elected herself as the sitting Prime Minister and the party couldn't overflow a love seat! Canadians vote against things. In other words we are docile enough to allow our politicians to have a free hand in governing until a breaking point is reached and the politicians are surprised and removed. In some ways this is good, but in some it is bad. The entire design of the parlimentary system embodies the centralization of power and authority. Parliment is a place of patronage and partisan cant. There is little democracy within the House of Commons 99% of the time partisan rule is the means of government. More power is concentrated in a Prime Ministers Office than there is in the office of a President. From the basic foundations the representative parlimentary system is about the consolidation of political power. By design the government in its legislative efforts must be opposed in order to alter its chosen path of pubic policy. The citizens of the country simply reflect this political structure in their own efforts and vote against things. Until public attitudes are changed into supporting things instead of opposing things there will be little improvement in our interactive democracy. At the moment only special interest groups choose to support and lobby for specific political endeavors. The public gathers against policy, and special interest groups gather for legislative effort. Guess who wins mist of the time? We are being leveraged by special interest groups and partisan efforts, but that is not true democracy by any definition. All of this occurs because we lack sufficient national political will to effect beneficial change. That is a result of ineffective leadership being unable to bring adequate demographics to bear in a specific direction. In this nation there is a concentrated effort to engage efforts in the political centre because this is the largest demographic according to the spin doctors and strategists. However, these so called experts are wrong. The largest demographic in this nation, and in many others if the truth be known, is the apathetic voter. There are numerous political parties in Canada all competing for public support but many citizens are so fed up with the progress of political efforts they simply give up in a democratic sense and stop voting. These numbers have been growing for years and have now reached their current levels which now represent a majority percentage of all potential voters. The first leader to promote democratic change based on the empowerment of the individual will be able to convert the apathetic voter into a supporter of their cause. The apathetic voter will not be democratically inspired until that time and will continue to detract from political efforts of others, and allow the system of voting against something dominate the political landscape. Canada needs a leader.

If I had any friends or relatives visiting Israel I would warn them to leave, wouldn't you? I think that it is very likely that Lebanon will see a drastic reduction in their infrastructure unless they get their act together and do something about terrorism.

Personally I would prefer that the police and military services received increased wages in drastic fashion. We trust these people with our lives and they risk their lives for us, a little compensation is in order. Include into that plan a 20 year service full pension that pays 2/3 of regular wages and you will find lots of applicants.

That is the root of the problem with the Parlimentary system, we vote against things instead of for things.

I think that the intent is to bring the nation to its knees. If they want to win this war they will have to remove the current government and get one that opposes terrorism and its supporters. There is no other way to protect their northern border.

Hang on to your hats folks and fasten your seatbealts we are in for some severe turbulance.

More of a Libertarian I think, which makes him all the more desirable to me, but my opinion doesn't matter, just the citizens of that nation. If I could vote for a President, McCain would be my choice the rest of the republican field is far less capable.

More of a Libertarian I think, which makes him all the more desirable to me, but my opinion doesn't matter, just the citizens of that nation. If I could vote for a President, McCain would be my choice the rest of the republican field is far less capable.