Jerry J. Fortin

Rights must apply to all citizens unless you wish to re-create a class structured society where privileges take precedence. That is not a likely sale in the eyes of a majority of the public, therefore there should never be either an individual or a group that has any legal entitlement to anything that any other individual or group is not entitled to. Anthing else is folly and flys in the face of democracy.

Thats not scheduled until the next election.......

This should be a priority, and that should be a priority and so should.... Look the place came unglued years ago and now people think somebody can come by and snap their fingers and shazam all will be super cool in the great white north. Sorry, it just doesn't work that way in the real world. What would be nice is a clever solution to government spending, like maybe slow down on spending tax dollars until the debt is covered. Look people, the budget surplus is money you were personally overtaxed and that money can go to buying off the debt penny by penny. Once the debt load is covered the sad billions of dollars that are spent servicing said debt don't have to be handed over anymore and then the fed can lower the freaking tax rates! Lose the nanny state mentality of tax and spend, get into the habit of covering the debt with every available dime until it is retired. The damned politicians love to be able to buy your votes with your own tax dollars, we need to change our attitudes if you have any realistic hope of getting the national act together. We need to find 50 billion dollars a year for 25 years to cover the current debt. In one generation this stupidity can come to an end, provided the country act now to actually do something. Continue to spend and it will never go away.

You just sit there in your little prairie city and admire how multicultural Canada is. You'll have second thoughts when that "multicultural heritage" starts showing up in your neighbourhood and taking it over. I wish. My little praire city? I live about 3kms from a town with about ten houses and no business's in it. I choose to live away from the city life. You chosse to live in it. You can complain about yours if you like but I am fine with mine! If you don't like the city excercise your options and leave. If you don't like the freedom of people to move around North Korea seems to have a government just for you. Why does everybody have to agree with you or be the same as you? Are you afraid of people?

I do not favor either abortion or capital punishment. Then again I am a guy and will never have to make the abortion call, so that one is out of my hands and I would literally abstain if it ever came to a vote. Capital punishment is different as well. I just don't trust the court system not to make a mistake and kill the wrong person. If it isn't okay for me to kill you or you to kill me I hardly think it wise to let the government kill either one of us.

You know Kindred you are very right, we are guilty of a lot of terminological errors.

Keep swinging Argus I think you got him on the run!

I hope you folks understand that this has nothing to do with Canada, and it is something we should stay the hell away from. The United States has some very serious friendships that come with obligations over there but we do not. This could end up being a lot worse than we currently think folks. We literally can't do anything for anybody over there because we simply don't have either the hardware or the manpower to do it.

Whether or not an individual stays or leaves is up to them, its a free country. Or at least it should be for crying out loud. You know this goofy country of ours still hasn't figured out that us low life citizens are not happy about losing our property rights in that scap of paper we call a constitution. Its kinda hard for them to figure out that people coming to Canada might actual want to go to the places that have a ton of services just around the next corner and a bunch of low cost housing. Go figure.............

The Conservatives are fiscal morons but political spin masters. They are using the Liberal budget and fudging numbers to shift funding requirements and allocations. Wait and see what their numbers look like in spring with a new budget. They are currently spending more than the Liberals did and taking a reduction in revenue, how long can a surplus exist in that kund of economic environment? There is no doubt in my mind that we are looking at a tax cut in the next budget, but it will not work here the way it has in the states because we don't have the economic volume thaty they have and growth projections are not high enough to pay for the lost revenue. Don't forget the nanny state has a lot more social expenditures than our southern brothers. That being said, I have been an advocate of income tax elimination for years and using a sales or transaction tax as a replacement. Hell you can drop off thousands of tax related clerical jobs, not just in government but private industry as well. But that won't work in Canada, it might in Alberta because we have a smaller population and a greater per capita rate of production along with our constantly expanding oil patch.

The sky is falling!

What is with you people on this forum! In a country that claims a multicultural heritage I am hearing a hell of a lot of racist like commentary. The more I hear from you people in central and eastern Canada the more I want to distance myself for you guys. Its like a crime to some of you that because we live in a nanny state that some of our best trained and educated citizens move to the states where they can make some money and live as they choose to! You are not happy for them, and congratulating them for advancing themselves instead you worry about the pressures on the socialist programs we are being taxed to death for! Why do you think they left in the first place, better pay and less taxes! You don't want some low life from another country to come here and bust their butts for minimum wage to make a better life for themselves. Instead you want to keep Canada for Canadians! Good Lord you people deserve to keep this nation all to yourselves!

Give me a break Rue, where do you live in the socialist nanny state of Ontario or Quebec? You do realize theat Alberta citizens subsidize about 90% of the equalization formula for the entire nation. With a quarter of Ontario's population we are paying almost ten times the total they are paying and you dare accuse us of anything! This is that attitude of eastern Canada, Alberta is beholding to American interests. It has nothing to do with the efforts of the citizens of this province does it? Its just big bad corporate governance......

Hey thats a good idea! Have the feds ban extracting oil from the tar sands! I like that, it will damned well guarantee that Alberta separates. Failing that you folks can go for NEP2 or a carbon tax, either way I can see a free Alberta in a heartbeat. Thats what I want to hear from you eastern fellas, talk like compulsory government controls. We like to hear you guys say things like that!

I agree that there were cases of abuse. A hell of a lot of them! One would have been too many but this was a horrific tragedy and nobody in their right mind would ever contest that. But having said that, where do we go from here, because that is where we are. The past is over and we want to fix what we can today. There is a requirement to upgrade the living conditions of the First Nations peoples. It may not have sounded like that was my intention, but it is. I truely want and end to this stain on my society. I don't want to beat a dead horse with what was, because there isn't a damned thing I can do about what somebody else did sometime ago. I am interested in knowing what can be done now. I can write letters to MLS's and MP's, and I can write to newspapers and I can participate in some local activity to do what I can. The only real question is what can I do?

Well maybe not screw business, but look man some of these folks have had it pretty rough in this life and moving to Canada gives them a shot a something better. What on earth is wrong with that? We need workers, and they are willing to work, so what is the problem I say. Urban sprawl is a problem for the folks living in the big cities true enough. Having said that I don't think immigrants from some brutal former country are really going to make it a whole lot worse, and the point needs to be made that you guys should deal with that problem anyway.

So in all instances the current market price is the best economic practice regardless of any other consideration. Under this concept no regulation of industry is necessary, nor is there any need for trade agreements. Is that an inaccurate desription of your intent?

Hey August I am off the wall! I am prone to thinking outside of the box. The same kind of thinking that got us here won't get us out !

Sliding scale royalties would not be my first choice. Given the choice from my perspective, I would charge the same rate of royalty as the country the company comes from. If you have a US company then I would charge the highest US rate available. Just charge them what they charge themselves, lets be fair.

This problem will not be solved until the Palestinian question has an answer. The only viable option is to provide free choice to affected citizens. The only choice they have is war or peace. If it is peace, then well and good. If it is war, then an end is near to their plight. But they, like any other people deserve a choice. It is simple really, just have Israel offer to move the citizens out who wish to live in peace. Those who wish to fight can stay and live or die until the war is over. But give the civilians, the citizens, a choice.

A true Christian would turn the other cheek right?

Just don't send them postage due! Oh yeah and don't forget their affordable housing tab you folks are getting from the feds too.....

Well guys, I think that when Quebec goes it will find itself either shy a few of its assets or short dollars covering its debt. Currently they are net recepients of billions of dollars a year in equalization, that money did not come from Quebec and it won't get to an independent Quebec either. Quebec can stroll from its debt, no question about it. But that will not help their credit position. Quebec can use Canadian dollars all they want, no problem. Just try replacing them. The simple reality here is that monetary supply is the perogative of a sovereign nation so they can do what they want within the context of independence. They will just have to face the reality of the finance industry at that point. How many federal dollars went into Hydro-Quebec or Bombardier? Don't think for a second that Canada will not wish to recoup those investments in some form. In terms of an international court Canada would prevail in attempting some find compensation, you can bet on that. Meanwhile during any dispute with the feds, their support would be withdrawn. That will no doubt leave a lot of people out of work that used to work for the feds in Quebec. But have at her fellas, I want to watch how it works so Alberta can go to school on you and make sure we get a better deal!

How long will it take people to abolish minimum wages? Okay I will bite, how does that pretain to gas price?

Debating spirituality with an atheist is like an environmentalist arguing with an oil company about global warming. Interesting excercise, but a comlete waste of time because you simply will never convert them to your beliefs.