Jerry J. Fortin

Alberta does in fact need pipeline construction to continue to develop our economic infrastructure. Having said that, the quick and dirty brute force business model that has been floating around since the Progressive Conservative government in Alberta first came to power. back in the early seventies has since proven to be functionally impaired. Alberta needs to do far more than simply develop primary industry, we need to develop secondary industry as well. We have very little manufacturing infrastructure outside of the petrochemical industry, very much a one horse economy. Pipelines actually add to the problem unless they are moving finished product to retail operations.

I am in favour of voter initiated referendums out the wazzoo! I must also agree with very nearly every word you wrote! Nice post!!

You are thinking a stock spike with a Liberal Government???

Welcome to the New World Order ! You can deposit a check, but you can't cash it. You can take money out of the bank, but only three hundred Euros at a time. They did fire the CEO of the central bank, the government is new. Now they have one long term bad day syndrome to deal with. Capital controls are in place, there is now two kinds of Euro, one inside Cyprus and one outside Cyprus. The public will take a while to figure this out but I think it will be a rude awakening for many people. Banks are no longer a safe place to put your money. Stocks are too volatile, bonds are taking a beating. The entire monetary system is starting to show some very large and problematic cracks. World debt is not sustainable, people need to understand the size and scope of the problem. Things are not going to get any better, in fact they will get even worse. The only solution is a general debt amnesty, an option not available until modern times. As we slip into a world of macro-economic considerations there appears to be few available options to a one world currency, a one world bank, a one world economy. A debt amnesty is a far better alternative.

Trudeau Mania 2.0, just watch him.

The power of partisan politics is indeed awesome. That in fact is the problem, we need more democracy not less. We already have and need the right to speak our minds, yet that does not seem to apply in true political terms which is the cold hard reality we are talking about. Elected representatives are what we are talking about, nothing less. We cannot vote for PM, we cannot influence the PM. We can and do vote for representatives to the House of Commons, and according to everything I have every read about this nation, our entire system of government is based on the will of Parliament being enforced by democratic right of the people. Now I know there are a ton of arguments out there about how the system really works in practical terms, but this is a little different in my books. An elected member of the House of Commons is required to represent the will of constituents, not partisan factions. This is the core of our system we are talking about. There simply are no rules, just mere tradition and precedent. The Constitution of Canada does not clearly define the roles of elected individuals. The House of Commons is where all decisions are made according to the Constitution, not the Prime Ministers Office, which by the way is hardly mentioned in the Constitution, the same applies to the Prime Minister as well. Everything says Parliament is supreme from tradition to constitution. According to our law of the land it takes a majority decision on the part of the House of Commons to create legislation. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Harper, like all those before him, has had to date so little respect for the will of the people. I can now say that our leaders have in the past shown little respect for the constitution of the nation as well, in my opinion. An elected representative of the people is being denied the opportunity to speak for their constituents and its not even against any rule. Its not a matter of Privilege, its not a matter of Order. The is no power or authority within the Constitution of Canada that has been violated. The Prime Minister has done nothing wrong according to the law, which of course means since it has worked once it will work again. Time and again really, since the nation was created. The blatant flaws exposed within the system are being viewed by the public under a new light. As per usual, nobody in the government has done anything wrong, so there is nothing that can be done about something that simply isn't wrong in the first place. I am hoping what really happens is that the 24 backbench MP's involved in the non-rebellion enjoy their muzzles or join an opposition party out of spite. Either way the elected representatives in question are in a precarious position, screw the political consequences, leaving cabinet or caucus has huge personal financial consequences, MP's could be losing literally hundreds of thousands of dollars in perks and deals every year just by pissing off the Prime Minister. Not something you really set out to try and do in politics nowadays. Then again, shit does happen. I think I am going to enjoy how all this plays out. The PM can't really let these guys say what they want to say because he wants to control the message. Simply claiming scheduling issues will not cut the mustard here, waiting their turn will not suffice as an excuse. Harper has already drawn the line in the sand, and its there for all to see. Harper now gets to eat some raw crow and bring them back into the fold, or he fries up that crow and serves it up at a nice partisan buffet. The real key here is how the partisan base views the issue, not something the public will have any say on mind you. Its an internal issue, Harper has ruled with an iron rod for a long time in political terms. The elected MP's in the limelight have a hard choice to make, but one in which their constituents have a vested interest. They and their tax dollars support a representative that has limited political clout, and now has been determined to have little to say as well. Those constituents have been muzzled by Harper as well, and that is something a large number of those citizens will start to focus on. The stakes are very high. The game is afoot and the players are dug in. What could never have been predicted is now possible. Those 24 MP's could be defecting from their conservative block, and it could cost Harper the government.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/03/26/conservative-mps-accuse-harper-government-of-muzzling-them-on-abortion/ "Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said Warawa’s point of privilege is one of the most important she has heard. “It cuts to the core of what is wrong with parliamentary democracy,” said May. “We are not here as teams. The principle of Westminster parliamentary democracy is that we are here are representatives of our constituencies and our constituents. Incidentally, we are merely members of political parties.” This kind of thinking could very well see myself actually supporting this women. The Lady has a point, a very valid one. Its time to rethink some things, and just maybe Harper will end up eating some crow.

I wonder just how many people actually understand what went down to lead to the creation of Canada's National Energy Program. The artificial bubble that lead to the "OIL CRISIS" in the seventies compelled the PM of the day, P.E.Trudeau to attempt a country wide standard for domestic production price controls. Those controls did not actually transpire until the eighties, and as I recall it wasn't fun. My union had signed a contract with 12%,9% and 9 % raises to have a cap imposed and we ended up with far less,how much exactly I cannot recall, but we had ratified it prior to getting screwed. The point is there was much going on. Lots of people think that the NEP hurt Alberta, sadly they were not here to watch how it all played out. The NEP basically made Alberta what it is now, it was a incredible boon to the province. It was the citizens that got screwed, that is a fact. Still people blame Trudeau, not really understanding that it was Lougheed as well that signed the deal. Pierre got only what Peter was selling nothing more. Over here in Alberta the province attached taxes where there were none before and revenues flew through the roof. Inflation abounded and bankruptcies hit all time highs as adjustments were made. The big real estate crash caused the disappearance of a domestic finance giant, Principle Trust.......forget the big stories on the tv, what was going on at home simply was not pretty. Now consider this....King Peter had claimed that the previous government had a debt issue to win his crown. In plain terms the Progressive Conservative party convinced the citizens that the Social Credit Party was incompetent in dealing with business. King Peter took his crown and starting cutting deals with the oil companies. Money flowed into the province from everywhere except eastern Canada. Bay Street was not happy and Wall Street was making money. Like I said there were lots of things going on. There was reasons for things to happen and they did. My complaint about the entire mess was that there never really was much of a national energy plan to begin with. It was a tax grab, nothing more and nothing less to the citizens here in Alberta. Had we developed a pipeline industry to disperse production from a refinery system that we created then I would have said that they at least attempted to develop an energy plan. Not exactly what happened. Of course there is the interesting angle about our crown corporation Petro Canada, but that dimension is purely political and not really an economic issue for Alberta other than to say thanks to King Peter from King Pierre. Once again not the province that got screwed so much as the citizens. These are the things that happened in my universe that I can remember at least.

So there we go...another bailout. Each bailout sets new highs in the EU effort to replace the greenback. Precedents are made but each case is unique we are told. The latest twist is a shell game to tap depositor victims of banking incompetence, who gets to pay? In truth...everybody gets to pay. Pay who? The bankers...nothing changes. Save the bankers, save the banks......whodda thunk!

The entire nation is talking about Trudeau. That is the opportunity he needed, free publicity, and he has been getting it in spades. What are his views? As if any politician is going to hand out a playbook for their detractors to follow along. Go figure, they guy has positions that are unknown. The guy is running for leadership of a partisan faction. I would suggest that people simply read the party policy to find out what the positions are. Anything outside of that stated policy may or may not be the mans personal position, but as a party leader he will in fact push current policies and you can be assured that anything else will require the consent of the entire party. Until forming a government partisan policy rules, empowered with a mandate a leader then sets policy on a moment by moment basis with each decision. First the guy gets tagged with..."Just watch me", now we ask the question what are his views? Hahahaha, well played!

Its not a conspiracy, it is a reality. Only a fool would believe that the creators of the modern banking system are hard done by. Only a fool would believe that family has not become the literal owners of the financial system. There is simply no question that fractional reserve banking system is responsible for the problems we have within the industry today. Lending out more than what is held on deposit, a simple math problem. Yet one sanctioned by law in every nation on this earth. The money supply is controlled by banks, not nations. Nations are controlled by banks, go figure.

We are all entitled to our opinions Mr. Hardner. Mr. Trudeau, who is not yet a party leader, is now experiencing what every up and coming new political leader does, trails by fire. In a very real way it can be said that the mantle of leadership is a burden known only to incumbents. No person is ever really prepared for the job, not even the number two person in the command chain. The real key lays within the ability of a leader to acquire administrative staff that can work together effectively. "Economics, global politics, the challenges of communicating in today's environment, the challenges of the Canadian business environment - those are the things that I fear he doesn't understand." Those are just some of the paradigms we need to address, and doing the same thing and failing the same way year after year are the rewards we have earned by defending the political entrenchment we have slaved over for decades. The old ways no longer work. Reaganomics don't work, and deficit financing doesn't work either. The entire monetary system is fundamentally flawed because of privately owned central banks and a fractional reserve banking system. The systems were never designed to do anything more than leverage capital in the first place. They were designed to profit themselves, and that they do very well for themselves. The legal pyramid scheme that is the monetary system will work until the little guy quits buying in. Which ushers in the mention of global politics to which I assume the author suggests Mr. Trudeau does not understand. I too am guilty of not understand international politics. However having said that, I am sure that any leader this nation chooses will have little if any impact on international affairs. This nation has never desired international leadership and has never sought to attain it. Mr. Trudeau will not be voted world dictator by Canadian citizens any time soon. I would suggest we look toward cleaning our own act up before we worry about the acts of others. Canada has more pressing internal than external issues to resolve at the moment in my view. Communication is everybody's challenge not just a Trudeau challenge. In fact as a communicator he has obviously acquired sufficient skills to rally a following. The Canadian business environment is needlessly complicated with taxes and regulations designed in previous centuries. Efforts to reform or modify this business model have been suggested at mainstream levels within government however to this day the paradigm remains. If and or when Trudeau becomes the leader of the Liberals, citizens will have the choice of something different or something the same.

I think that Justin would have to be a complete idiot not to capitalize on every single thing he could. He has this leadership race by the short hairs. The old guard wants back in so bad they will do anything to get there. The new guard is carrying him along nicely. He has media attention out the wazzoo and he has no public accountability. Talk about setting the stage for the next election! The vote splitting issue is real, its what killed them. They remember that even if we don't. Not allowing that to happen again is job one for the new leader. There is only one candidate in favour of uniting the left at this point and it isn't Trudeau, so it will not happen now. Later is another story entirely, and I am willing to bet that he has an action plan for it. I suspect a bombshell within 24 hours of the election being called. A strategy waiting for the proper tactical moment to be applied. Between the next election and now I would strongly suspect that Justin aims for bridge building status seeking support from everywhere.....and he will be doing it all the time. Trudeau will travel the country being seen by a media entourage supporting the average guy, knocking both the government and the opposition day in and day out. Its a functional formula.....I expect it. Trudeau Mania 2.0 has been launched, does anyone care to deny it? Citizens need to rethink the Liberal brand, and they will as soon as Justin takes control of the party. The public eye will be upon him, the opportunity he has himself created has arrived, and the party he represents has in fact changed drastically. Liberal party policy now includes the legalization of pot for profit. Their numbers indicate billions in savings based on costs per conviction, and billions earned in revenues realized though taxation. One recent study accounted for 3.2 million regular pot smokers in Canada, wow that is nearly 10% of the population using an illegal drug that costs society billions per year. Cannabis accounts for .3% of GDP nationally but it accounts for nearly 4% of GDP in BC. That is a lot of revenue escaping the tax man, the Liberal Party of Canada wants to tax that money, and if rumors are true, the tax plan for pot is ear marked for debt reduction. I would call that a different approach, a new and better one than what we now have, A way forward through an end to war on pot. Justin Trudeau has much opportunity ahead of him, as do we all. Support him, or oppose, him either way its all good as long as you vote. I really believe that ending political apathy is what Trudeau is all about. He wants the nation to move forward, one way or another, he would prefer it his way. I will support him. Thats it...paint me Liberal.

I think that the privately owned central banks in Europe, who are the actual shareholders in the European Central Bank, have decided its pay back time for Russia. It took a century, but those shareholders waited..... Cyprus has been written off by the ECB, they will close the virtual doors in Cyprus by stopping the support for the financial system there. The Russians are going to start paying back what they "borrowed" at interest and its going to happen now. The nation of Russia cannot act because it does not have the available means, but Russian oil companies do have the means. The nation has used is leader to defend citizens dollars held in Cyprus from foreign interests. With the weight of political influence and the strength of monetary resources behind it, Russia is muscling its way into the EU. The ECB does not want Russia in the EU period. Battle lines are being drawn in a very brutal fiscal sense. In my view more importantly, the Rothchild family is now involved, and not merely whispering in the ear mode anymore. The ECB is a tool to be used at their whim, and apparently now is that time. Payback is a bitch, and Karma always gets you where you live........ When China reclaimed Hong Kong all foreign banks came under their control, a strange revolving door appeared. Capital had both a way into China and a way out, but the international banking agencies held the keys to unlock that prize. Nothing seems to have changes since that day, deals were made that much is clear. Those international banking folks were of the same clan as the EU folks in the business. Its really a family business, being the bankers of the world that is. Guess what...Russia is surrounded by bankers. Those same bankers want to have hiway sex with Russia. I am most likely very wrong but, If Russia is surrounded by financial enemies the world is about to change. This kind of scenario brings international pressure to bear not subject to the whims and approvals of legislatures. Decisions are being made in board rooms and CEO offices under the duress and influence of monetary considerations irrespective of national origin. Governments cannot control the financial industry it controls them. In my view the Rothchild family through its actions undertaken with the ECB has decided to act and recover funds lost to it nearly a century ago. Russia is ripe and about to get plucked. Foolish enough and greedy enough, Russia is about to finish coming apart at the seams. That poor nation has gone from a position of dominance to that of planned obsolescence, played like a fidel. Meanwhile the world turns slowly day by day. The rich get richer. Well played!

i am going through the motions of retirement now.and the tax issue has bothered me all my life. There is no way in hell I cost the feds or the provinces and cities anywhere near what they cost me. I invite each person to make their own calculations and reach your own conclusions as I have done. For me the answer is clear, Canada has proven to be an expensive place for me to live and in my view too expensive to stay in. This is a matter of personal choice but after having worked outside in this country all year long for decades I have no desire to see another snowflake as long as I live. When I couple that desire with the notion of a personal tax load projected to be more than $ 18,000.00 a year the nation of my birth is forcing me out the door. The thought of paying 18k a year for the privilege of Canada's social largesse while paying to fight the environment and keep myself alive on a fixed income is now very problematic and personal. As a retired person, my only personal requirement is of funding heath care for myself and my wife. I have no bills outside of utilities, so converting to a fixed income is relatively simple for me. The goal being to stretch available income the biggest bang for the buck is a tax load reorganization. I have discovered that becoming a non-resident of Canada changes my tax status in as much as withholding taxes can be circumvented. International tax treaties allow that citizens pay taxes in the nation of residence. There are many nations that provide a tax free status to residents and I have chosen Belize as one of them to be my desired place of residence. Sadly this nation of my birth has become too expensive for me to spend my retirement in. While I could retire here and continue to subsidize the efforts of others, I would rather retire where I pay less tax to the government and spend more on myself. Yes this is selfish and I am okay with it. Written on the paperwork from the Canada Revenue Agency is a little statement about how each citizen is entitled to arrange their affairs to pay the minimum tax required by law. That is exactly what I am planning to do, act within the law and reduce my tax load. In my retirement I fully expect to pay mega bucks for healthcare, that is a known thing for me and In fact all of my expenses are known things to me. I can buy private healthcare and I am not requiring other services from governments so I do not desire to pay for them. I can lower my carbon footprint by not using natural resources to avoid freezing to death, andnot require those resources to provide delivery of food to my table. Not working, not paying tax, turning to permaculture, there is simply no downside to moving to Belize for me.

Corruption in Cyprus is not news worthy, until now. The haircut that depositors are about to take are a direct result of the EU and the IMF cracking down on money laundering, specifically that of Russian customers. Last year Russian customers deposited 119 billion and withdrew 129 billion from Cypriot banks. The bailout in Cyprus is to cover losses in the banking industry which had book value assets in excess of five times the entire economic output of the nation outside of the financial industry. This is the first of the visible BAILOUTS to come in the EU. So far the EU and the IMF have helped countries deal with their economic problems without the need for circumventing the intent of deposit insurance, things just changed. The mere concept of taxing citizens savings through the financial system caused huge increases in ATM activities, and with the banks being closed there until Tuesday financial markets in Asia and Europe have taken big hits, now with New York opening the trend is extended to North American markets as well. Inside of the next twenty four hours literally trillions of dollars worth of transactions will take place as European depositors start taking money out of banks and start looking for other places to put it and hide it from the taxes that now being sought to coverup the biggest scandal the financial industry has ever seen. Bank runs will begin in the rest of Europe by Wednesday having already been started in Cyprus on Tuesday morning. By Thursday even Asian banks begin taking hits and by close of business Thursday North America will see the DOW tumble. I don't think the spin doctors or the media can even begin to alter adverse impact of a bank run. European citizens now know that their savings form a cornerstone of the new financial bailout industry growing up in the smouldering ruins of European economic activity. The common citizen, once proudly part of a middle class, has been reduced to that of a serf, striped of rights and possessions to cover the losses of corporate and governmental greed. The shit is about to hit the fan folks.

My point was that taxes are a means of providing the funding required to maintain the programs and services that are mandated through public means. There is a reason for them, we need them to pay for the stuff we want. The problem that is exists is the relatively unstable revenue model that has wide variations in its calculations, we are using a model with variable equations that fails to balance revenue with expenses. Revenues are not fixed numbers and expenses are not fixed numbers, they vary. Logic dictates that the books will never balance, and we have known this since the country began.

The Governor General, a figurehead with an actual function and a paid for job. Hand picked, long term employment with an all inclusive deal providing classy accommodations and your own golf course. The Senate is a job for life, these are known things. There is only one way to change the Senate without legislation and that is to appoint people who are about to drop dead anyway to vacant positions. The Government can encourage current senators to retire using incentives. Use the options we have to empty the seats, Filling them back up is another story, but it is relatively simple to empty them.

There was a time before the implementation of taxation, we all lived in trees or caves at that point. From the day we moved out of the caves and trees we have been taxed. The big guy is going to take your grubs from you, its that simple. When humans organize, interact with each other, socialize....we create order. In doing so we apply rules. The big guy enforces the rules. The big guy charges you for the service. You get taxed. Taxes are a reality. Society is a reality. Politics is a reality. We cannot deny reality, we must give it the respect it deserves. In one form or another those three things; taxes, society, politics are what we call life. We need them as we need water to drink, air to breath and food to eat. The question at hand is whether or not a provincial sales is should be considered as a solution to budget deficit issue. My suggestion is that we evolve our system of taxation, not merely slap another bandaid on it. Government revenues determine program and service availability to citizens. In every nation on earth we measure a standard of living, and that is in the hands of the governments of those nations. Higher standards of living require higher kevels of funding which translates back into higher levies of taxation. This is a reality as well. This is the paradigm we are dealing with. Its always been this way,,,,,,,, but it does not have to stay this way. Resolving the budget issues are a mere political exercise nothing more. The reality is simple governments can and do impose taxes, citizens can and do have a voice. We can speak out against things. Which is what we all do on these forums. It is our little apple box we use to rant! As my son so correctly suggests I like to rant about the government. The problem as I see it with government finances is related to debt and deficit. In Alberta we have already slain that dragon once, and there are damned few citizens that want to engage that beast again, the cost was horrific. At this point this province is one of the few jurisdictions in the world that can lay any claim to fiscal responsibility. Within that context our government has done well to avert or mitigate the effect of poor fiscal management. Yet for some reason on their own website they actually put up a budget calculator to resolve the deficit. I played with it and came out with a surplus after reducing the crude oil factor! The point is that it is a game for government to play and a cost for citizens to pay. When the government starts to talk about a sales tax, citizens should worry. The fact that they did not choose at this time to dive into a sales tax does not lead me to believe that they will forget about the idea..

The debate rages on...........I still don't like the aircraft and hope it is cancelled. We can't afford to buy a known hanger queen!

Raiising royalties IS raising taxes. It seems that some folks bellieve wholeheartedly in the tax and spend concept of our Canadian governments at all levels. Taxation is the beast carried on the back of the citizens, it is a burden that must be undertaken in order to move forward. Even so, when the weight of the burden impedes the progress, logic dictates alternative methology. Of course logic and governmental activities equate to politics. The art of communication without purpose has grown to new heights. I AM proposing to move, and leave Canada to retire. Not because of Alberta government action or runours of possible changes to the tax situation of provinces, but simply because of the income tax act altogether. This one hits home because it is upclose and personal, the government will withhold a significant percentage of my fixed pension income, which in my view leaves me little alternative. My projection is this, I will be charged more than $ 15,000.00 annually for the privilege of dealing with snowflakes. I think not.........but I digress. While I do understand the need for the government to provide the services we have mandated it to deliver, the method of revenue stream generation lto fund and operate such a system eaves much to be desired in my view. The Canada Revenue Agency is charged with the acquistion of operating funds for the Government of Canada. They have all the power and authority to maintain a revenue stream and they do so in a wholehaeartedly dysfunctional and discriminatory manner. Notwithstanding any specific tax, of which there are many, the foundational mistake we designed into the system was in the application of income tax to revenue generated within Canada. It was a fundamental error to institute withholding taxes and discriminate against the citizen that received a paycheck for working for a living. No paycheck, no withholding tax, pay taxes due quarterly or annually. There is a large difference in how citizens are treated because of this. There are tax paying citizens that work for a living, and the there are citizens working that do not pay tax. Is there any other way to say that the system is neither fair nor functional? Simply raising taxes does nothing to address the real issue which is spending. The very idea that a government can count how much money it will spend a year into the future, and be wrong ALL THE TIME does not lead me to believe that budgets are worth the time, effort or even the expense of the paper they are written on. There is a real problem here, and it is in fact spending not funding, Yet the only question that seems to be allowed to be asked is how to fund that spending. Since we have to spend money on the programs and services we have mandated the government to deliver we are compelled to look at the funding model for operations, okay so be it. I do believe that should the public care to address this one single issue, they would discover a key to be used to resolve other issues. The Progressive Conservative Government of Alberta has held power for decades. Here as well as in other regions throughout Canada, over the decades the tax systems put in place at all levels of government have evolved and shifted the tax burden from business income taxes which originally made up nearly eighty percent of government revenues, to the individual income taxes covering eighty percent of government income tax revenuses. During this shift in tax burden, there was a huge expansion of programs and services, The end result of course being an ever increasing bureaucratic administrative expense, we now know that we caused our own problems by spending our way into them. It seems a tad senseless to me that we would hold the citiizens we demand provide services for us hostage over the expense. In short it is not the public service fault that they work for the government, we hired them. Pay them or fire them and do whatever it was that they did yourself. I would be okay with the idea of a PST if there was no GST, or income tax. In fact I support a tax on spending, call it a transaction tax and apply it to everything down the line with the exception of basic necessities much like the GST is structured. Everytime a transaction occurs the government can get paid, we can pay off all debts and do it quickly. We could balance a budget, we could move forward. Tax reforms could in fact change our world, they could make it better. Without reforms additional taxation will yield only addition problems.

Rumor has it that the Premeir has been listening too some folks who are touting the creation of a provincial sales tax in Alberta as a way to stabilize government revenues and provide a large boost to government income. The tax if designed as is being proposed would bring billions into the hands of the government, who currently is billions short as projected in the last number of provincial budgets. I am drawing a line in the sand .................if my government begins to talk about this as a solution to their spending problems I will make every possible attempt I can think of make a very loud noise about this. Tax and spend works really well for the government, but it screws the citizen into the dirt.

I think they should be imprisoned forever, never see the outside of their cage. They are animals and should be treated that way. Lets be serious here, we are not talking about CGI, or the existance of old pictures, or the misguided efforts of a child, we are talking about people taking advantage of children in the pornography industry, and the purchase of that garbage by perverts. It is illegal, it should stay that way and it should be heavily reniforced with all available legal means. A society that does not defend its children offends me.

While this may in fact be just Tom's problem, because of who he is the optics change everything. His association with the party being both extensive and influential by definition indicates that his views were not merely listened to but acted on as well. This puts the partisan effort of the Conservatives in a light entirely undesired. The entire party is tainted, and by extension both the Government and the PMO as well. The entire nation appears to be distancing itself from the former cabinet minister, and the entire nation remembers what political party he came from. I will suggest that what happens in the next two months will determine the direction of politics for the duration of the current term of the Government of Canada. While the Official Opposition has the soap box, and the Liberals choose a new leader, the fate of the government is simply not in question until 2015. Granted that is a long time off, yet it may not in fact be time enough for the Harper government to mitigate this latest disaster.

This in fact is my point entirely.....should we not learn from our mistakes?