Jerry J. Fortin

The poll was like many others, ask the tight question get the right answer. In this case the numbers say one thing, and the question another. This poll could have been designed by a tory...........

The government of Canada, did not bow to the winds of political pressure from the UAE. A point for them, and ten for the rest of us citizens. Absolute nonsense is what this is all about. The government should recall our ambassador, and toss theirs out of the country. Next step is to prevent UAE citizens from entering Canada.

Where to start though? Would it not be wise to harness the energy of some groundswell of support, hijack the effort then head it in a different direction so it could be used to force the changes you desire? Make a big deal about the civil service at this point in time and you will be missing the big boat. The government is at least on board with the "its all about the economy, stupid" train and can take that as its starting point. The government is spinning a nice little web of crap today, a very good pre-election stance. What needs to be done is to point out that the last transfer of public funds into private ventures cost the tax payer 62 billion dollars. The so-called stimulus package benefited business, not the citizens, and those funds are now lost to us. A better use of those funds would have been to invest in some crown corporations, directly hire thousands of people to work on building and staffing production facilities. The capital investment can be recouped through an IPO with the employees at the head of the table. The north needs to be developed and this is the way to do it, while at the same time the public service can be rationalized in the name of the effort! The government must be seen giving with one hand and taking with the other, that is the true nature of government. Good government does things in balanced manners, its really about a method of political effort that we call democracy. The sheer numbers of the unwashed public are fully aware of their ability to vote and support political efforts. They are just rarely tempted to do so.

Well Mr. Hardner you have indeed made a valid point. One worth considering with some care however. Is the sole intent of the exercise to reduce expenses? That singular intent would best be served with eliminating either programs or services outright. Yet that is another political struggle altogether. So I can see your desire to attack from a different quarter, seeking a different specific target on the hard running animal of bureaucracy. All things considered in my opinion, there is opportunity to do "something" and quickly, but what that something is, eludes me. You may just be right.

WE are not yet ready for "Fortress North America". The Empire of the United States has not yet fallen far enough to consider the viability of such an alliance. In my view, the concept falls short of what it should be which is functionally constituting the "New World". Only then is a "new world order" possible. The available resources make the concept a viable option, the available markets for production make it a viable option. The problem stems from the immense greed of the capitalistic mentality, and its inability to step back from control and meld into cooperation. It will take time to do this and years in which society will suffer until the realization finally sinks in.

I would rather see this nation through its arms in the air and withdraw from organizations that do not serve the best interests of the citizens. If the UN is corrupt, then we should be saying so and working toward a resolution, if that can't happen then we should remove ourselves. That applies across the board to things like NAFTA and the WTO as well as NATO and the UN.

Anybody ever wonder how much dirty money from the rackets touches politics? That aside, anybody ever figure out why pork barrel politics have been so firmly rooted for so many years? Is not politics and corruption more common than ever before in the western world? In those contexts, why not legalize weed?

Well said.

I always thought there were a few Russian birds worth looking at. At this point the one that interests me he most is the SU30. Production costs appear to be somewhere between 22.5 and 42.5 million per bird. At least that is what they are saying in India, where they plan to build them on licence. Supposed cost to import them off the rack is 77.5 million. Nice bird!

I was never an F18 fan. I prefer the F15 or even the F16 to it. The F20 was damned interesting, yet not good enough. As it stands I would rather a couple of squadrons of F22's but that isn't going to happen. The F35 is about right for us, even if I am not a fan.

Good bird, yet too many issue for my likes. Wings too short, small combat radius, single engine, bad stall speeds, low weapons payload etc.

Now there was a bird that could do stuff! No good as a fighter, but gads the thing had balls!

I think you are right.

One of my fav aircraft of all time!

There is a good transparent government position for you!

NASA has a reasonable track record, volunteer employees to do the risky stuff, and all in all a fair to middling operation.

What a shock! Tax dollars being spent by politicians in a manner not in the best interests of the people. Stop with the handouts, to both people and business. Pay off the debt, trim the civil service and get back to a balanced budget with a savings account instead of using a credit card when the debit card is out of cash. Time to start running the government the way we run our own homes. It is our home, its is not a business, and it should never be setup to run a profit. Should the government desire to get into a business there is the means to do so though crown corporations. That is another story.

Really? Why bother? You and I as well as most citizens know that this kind of crap is pure vanilla for politicians. Billions of tax dollars at stake and simply no way not to spend them all! We would have been further ahead paying Bombardier to build a next generation Arrow and keep all the tax dollars in Canada, not just some of them.

Blue on blue is a horrific reality in warfare. Reducing the potential means a lot to our citizens under arms. The US has perfected a system for use with armour, and has carried it forward to some degree with its future warrior program. Nice toys, actually worth what they cost for a change! At any rate I must agree that the mission determines the hardware and old shit is bad shit within those confines.

Better to just modify the position of the Bank of Canada. Central banking is here to stay, and so is the fractional reserve system so why not just re-regulate the industry to take advantage of the opportunity to make a few bucks and straighten out the monetary system within the nation. Then nationalize the debt through an income tax levy as a last act before eliminating the CRA altogether. There are ways to do things outside of the box.

But it does highlight the need for change!

If I was Iggy, I would continue to sit in the weeds until the election is over. Only then will we know what the numbers really look like. At that point I believe that Iggy will have a majority albeit with a coalition, and then is when to drop the hammer and seal Harpers fate, but not before.

Strikes are bad business, and I think my union just dodged that bullet.

Nice read!

I look forward to the introduction of another tax, a carbon tax at that, with great hope. I hope the morons that proposed the damned thing realize that there are those of us who don't like the idea.