Jerry J. Fortin
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Posts posted by Jerry J. Fortin
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There is a difference between investing and bailing out.
There is a difference between setting up an independent investment board with a board of governance that is expected to get an investment return of 4% over the next 75 years versus politicians handing out money based on how their constituents may vote in the next election.
It should be clear that having governments bailout business failures is contrary to the basic principles of capitalism and in fact it reeks of corporate governance. The very essence of our political and economic infrastructure will be viewed under a microscope, and be seen to reveal corruption and incompetence.
Just knowing that the Government of Canada is involved in an investment strategy gives me pause for concern. The citizens of the nations, from one end of the world to the other, are being taxed to cover the banks and the business failures that we continue to see pop up here and there. Entire nations are yoked with debt burdens to those same banks and business efforts.
Hopefully sooner rather than later, those folks in charge of things need to start an effort within its own group to consider a general debt amnesty. If you ever wanted to gain public approval of a policy, this is the way to do it.
It is time to rethink the things that have been done in order to avoid doing other things.
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Can we deport convicted felons to the local Native self government run reserve? Let the other First Nations tax paying citizens pay for the incarceration. Or is that asking too much?
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The jet doesn't meet the requirements and the Conservatives are backing away from it.
Given the current budget environment I would say that there may be smoke where there is fire. The F35 meets the Canadian DND budget, guess who wins......
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OAS is the smallest form of pension I have ever seen. How the hell can a person live on that! Lets be honest here folks. Forget the program and the cost OF programs. Sit down and design the 'Canada" plan.
Governance should not depend on fiscal prudence at any time. Nor should it ever. Government needs to do what ever it is that is right then find a way to pay for it. The Canada that folks want has not yet been defined. What we have here is a lot of unfinished business, about what you expect during a MINORITY government. It should not be expected with a majority government. Here is a chance for Harper to have a real legacy!
What we are getting is the death of a penny. Wow, an 11 million saving!!! Mr Citizen. the government now says you will work longer and wait longer to get a pension. The government gets a virtually free pension that allows you to get full benefit pensions working only a small fraction as long as the citizens do. I will not bet on the citizens being very happy with the concept to start with. Through a little lime light on it and see where it goes I guess.
I suppose you can't expect much from a guy who got to be the Prime Minister without ever having a real job. The man that never worked a day in his adult life is now in a position to TELL the working class citizens of Canada any damned thing he wants. I do not think that is a good thing at all. I think its a little disrespectful to the citizens who had to work for a living. Then again that is just one working citizens view. I have two years left to work to get my pension. That will make the economic butchers bill to be thirty five years of my life to QUALIFY for a pension. Go ahead and ask me if I think that the citizens in Canada are treated equally. Perhaps they should ask me if I thought the politicians were worth their expense.
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Just what is your idea of "viable", Dr. Dre? When you look at each of the planes you have suggested, they ALL would be flying bullseyes in a modern combat situation!
How about a suggestion that might WORK? You only emphasize my point that if we are not willing to pay for a workable military solution then we should stop BS'ing ourselves. Let's have NO military and forget about playing any useful peacekeeping role. We will depend totally on the Americans for our defence and just accept that we will be forced to dance to their tune as payment.
If we ever are attacked we will just immediately capitulate.
Without an effective military there are NO other options for us! It's true that we can't afford to spend an equal amount to Uncle Sam's figures but there's a big difference between that and not making at least a reasonable contribution to the group's defense!
That was the original idea behind NATO. Somehow over the years the idea was perverted into "let's get the Americans to pay for everything!". Now America can no longer afford to protect the entire globe. She's cutting back and expecting her allies to be more self-reliant.
She should have done that 50 years ago!
Face it, my good Doctor! We have been freeloaders! Bums! It's time to stop fooling ourselves.
I don't think the Americans get to pay for everything. I do think that America is the weirdest global power the world has ever known. What they can't control with commerce they control with military presence. They fight wars with dollar bills and take down a superpower like Russia, destroying the Soviet Union once and for all. They form alliances and support their friends, they are the first ones to show up in the case of any kind of disaster. WE still complain!
Leave the Americans to their own designs. They are harmless friends of ours. That is because we mean them no harm, and they know it. They put up with their silly northern neighbor because they have concluded that we pose no threat to them. Instead of us detracting from their strength, we should be supporting it.
You want F35's, trade them some oil for them! Alberta can buy the damned planes if they want to. They don't want to. We need to grow up in political terms. This country is different, we need to remember that.
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I don't think it's unreasonable for the government or its agencies to invest money held in CPP. That is how it can grow fastest. We all know that the stock markets outperform bonds in the long term, and CPP certainly is long term. It's not like they are recklessly investing in just Skype, this is only 0.3 billion out of 116.6, I'm sure they have a diversified range of stocks, bonds, and cash.
Of course, I think it would be much better if the CPP didn't exist and people were instead charged with saving for their own retirement, rather than expecting the government to do it for them. But unfortunately being responsible for one's own financial well-being is apparently too much to expect of most Canadians these days. So if the government must take our money and save for our retirement whether we like it or not, it may as well invest in a way that is likely to provide decent returns, rather than barely keeping pace with inflation.
Just curious, where did you stand with the bailout of Detroit, or the bailout of Wall Street?
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I would be okay with the government spending the money here.....
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Well, since we can't take a Russian or Chinese plane without getting kicked out of NATO, I guess this confirms my premise that we can buy F-35s or nothing at all.
Unless Macker can tell me how we can create an entire warplane industry, complete with all the engineers with all the required knowledge and build a plane of our own, within the same budget and deliver before 2017 or so.
I think the engineering skills would be the hardest. Few Canadian students take such studies, because there are so few jobs available. Those that do of necessity leave for the States. Once settled down there it's not likely they would pack up and move their families back to Canada.
Talk to the clever folks at Bombardier. Lots of engineer types floating around over there, all on the tax payers dime I might add. That company owes the nation a deal of money. Since we will never get it back anyhow, then why not just toss them their last bag of dollar bills until they produce what would amount to a sixth generation fighter. The Americans got two aircraft for less than 700 million. They picked one and we bought it.
Figure a way to build an aircraft a month, no more than that until final production model rolls off the lone. At that point production can be doubled or tripled depending on capacity per location. Spread the program cost out to three or four regions or production facilities. Design and maintain a single central final assembly facility. If every dime is spent in country we will effectively tax back the costs of the program. No reason to ship tax dollars out of the country if we can avoid it. WE can and should avoid it.
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"As one of the presumed mix.."? Didn't we already flog this to death, Waldo?
Where's the mix? Where are all these alternatives? Haven't seen any that have stealth. Haven't seen any at all in the F-35's class. Wouldn't any country flying F=35s have an overwhelming advantage in any combat situation?
Can you offer a valid alternative? One that's not a flying bulls-eye in the modern world?
If not, then I say again, our choices are simple. F-35s or nothing at all.
The only alternatives I am aware of are no longer airworthy; that is the doomed X-32 Boeing bird, and the Northrop YF-23 bird that lost out in the competitions in the first or should I say last place.
Russia has a bird at about the same production stage as the F35, their Sukhoi T-50/PAK FA and it is costed out at less than 60 million an aircraft. China has the Chengdu J-20 running at about 110 million an aircraft. The F35 is simply the bird that lived.
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As currently planned, we won’t receive our initial F-35s until later this decade with the bulk being delivered in the early 2020s……or peak production……….If we ordered them later this decade, we won’t receive them, at best, until the late 2020s and our current Hornet fleet will be hard-pressed remaining in service until the early 2020s, at which point the average airframe age will land between 35 and 40 years old……..
We started receiving the Hornet in the early 80s, but the Hornet’s development started in the 1970s……..Can you imagine our air force in the early 80s still flying fighter aircraft of WW II vintage? Or our air force, in the early 1980s, ordering a frontline fighter developed in the 1950s, and then what started production in the early 1960s, then flying said vintage design into the 2020s? Sound rather crazy eh?
Yet, many are advocating we take a similar track today.
The F35 is a dog, not a bird. Lots of development issues to say the least. There is no alternative to the F35, unless we want to wait for generation number six.
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that was for premier. Its like the presidential election, not the congress.
This should be interesting.
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The PCs and Wildrose are now tied.
This is surprising news. The PC's actually have a race to lose. New leaders from both parties mean that they are relative unknown qualities, and even so people are picking sides. If the electorate shows up to vote the PC's could very well be deposed.
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And considered means just that: considered, which leaves the option to take what's being considered into account or disregard it.
Let's not overdo it.
Too late, the entire concept is overdone. Both sides acting in a manner non conducive to settlement, we are doomed to continue the farce.
You cannot a mandate settlement, the best that can functionally be sought at this point is to begin a true dialogue. That would take more courage and fortitude than many of our political representatives have available for public use. Even so there really is no time like the present to begin. I think this is something that needs to get done, and to delay means to impede resolution. In my mind getting in the way of resolving outstanding issues with the First Nations peoples of Canada, is tantamount to criminal neglect. If we understand that the Government of Canada is mandated as custodian of indigenous people, then we can understand the urgent need to act within that purpose. This really means delegating the necessary authority to NEGOTIATE as equals. The Canadian nation needs to do no more than invite any First Nations representatives to a conference and establish protocols for discussion. Once procedures are established then true discussions begin within an open format. Everything must must available to be put on the table with the intent of resolution. If Canada can pull this off it will create an international stir, and set a new bar of conduct in terms of governmental behaviour and act as a model for international dispute resolution.
The key is simple, place the items of dispute in front of the negotiators, with an impartial referee between the two parties. Discussions then become more serious very quickly.
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Goes anyone here believe that those who were involved acted in a manner considered criminal? If not then would you vote in support of the partisan party involved? To me these are the only real questions to be answered. Those questions can only be asked in a general election. The opinions of all mean nothing in the absence of an electorate exercising democratic rights.
Is that odd considering the nature of the question? There is no doubt of it at all, and yet it is the only solution. With each exercise we need top make changes and go through it all over again. That is the way the system actually works. Its time to wake up to the power and nature of real democracy. You can say what you want as long as you vote. Let the people decide, always.
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Bombs/missiles aren't kinetic energy weapons. Being a kinetic energy weapon implies damage is caused largely by mass and speed. A bullet, or armor-piercing round, is considered a KE weapon. A bomb or missile is just an explosive.
Anyway, regardless of the F-35's capabilities, I think by now it's pretty clear that the program is one of the biggest debacles in US military procurement history.
Ever hear of the phrase too big to fail? There are simply not enough bullets to bury this dog even if it could hunt. Every two bit nation AND their dog is in on this gig. There is money flying out the door by the billions, and its going everywhere. This baby was not designed as an aircraft any less than it was designed to make money for its builders. The program runs deep in every state and even in the number of investing nations that it makes it hard to believe its true. But it is true.
Good luck to you investing types of folks, for a very real reason. That reason is that the American government has made a business out of war. If any leader of that nation fails to belly up to the counter and buy some ammo, I will be a monkeys uncle. One way or another, meaning just that by the way, somewhere on the planet some lunatic is buying guns by the boxcar to conduct a war somewhere. The Americans, and very nearly everyone else by the way, make and export weapons daily. We are killing each other over nonsense instead of building schools and hospitals. Instead of actually giving a damn about their own citizens, they would rather tax us to buy guns to sell or use themselves. I think it was Ike that coined the phrase.."military industrial complex." Catchy phrase that it was, it went nowhere fast. In my view he touched the essence of the real problem, and nobody cared to listen, and that is the real tragedy.
History should be teaching us that we must learn from our mistakes. Instead it has taught us all that written history is written by the victorious and not a word from the vanquished.
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I believe most Canadians are right fiscally to the left socially
I find myself agreeing with you..
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I watched the debate last night, and will venture to say that I actually liked Cullen of all their candidates.
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For the same reason a false flag operation is carried out.
You think they are that astute? I am not so sure they are that smart.
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q1. Youth unemployment is "somethiing like 80%"...I've heared it's around 20,which is bad...
a. http://www.youth.gc.ca/eng/audiences/unemployed_youth/index.shtml . No sorry but unemployment is only a measure of those who are looking to find work who can't find work, as opposed to youth who arn't looking for work and don't have work, the REAL unemployment factor, also one must take part time hours and fold the total part time hours into full time equivolents, yeilding an 80% youth Unemployment rate.
q2. By the way,any ideas on how to cut the deficit?
a2. Sure. Don't spend. The long answer of course is much more complex, Government have cut down whole forests not to come to this resolution. I come from the non keynesian party. Here is the formula.
1. Remove the debt by imposing a direct tax to apply against the debt.
2. Conversion of all debt to Canadian dollars.
3. Create a wealth export tax
4. Rapid Inflation of Canadian currency through massive printing
5. Print all funds needed to pay beyond revenues.
6. Merge government services
7. The Social Platform of paid health insurance for the wealthy from a national plan.
8. Having corporations pay for infrastructure.
9. Increase royalties as a percentage of the rate of increase in the price of resources matched to the CLI, and export taxes on domestically in demand products, set price caps on strategic resources until essential domestic demand was met, essential domestic demand would be the measure in which shortage results in failure to perform or reduced service on fair market value
10. Support the construction of a handful of public refineries owned by the public
11. Run government departments from the sectors they administer. Eg. Fisheries and Martime would be funded from revenues from those segments. Industry from Industry, Health from Health, etc..
12. Selling products like flags, flagpoles, pictures, etc.. selling second rate consulate posts
13. renting out the Canadian Forces as security guards with revenue return to the GC.
14. Employing the CF as resource gatherers.
15. Not giving licenses for resource extraction to international companies and instead developing the billions of dollars of resource ourselves?
16. Making standards that Canadian companies will be advantaged by so that money stays local.
17. Developing renewable resource industries.
18. Developing greenhouses in the North. Food is so expensive up there some Federal Greenhouses would make so much money.
19. Divulge the debt on a per capita payment and create a death tax, for anyone that doesn't pay off their portion of the debt before they die, with hardship taken into consideration.
20. Create a development strategy to employ the unemployed that directly lowers the cost of providing for those living in poverty, through renewable streams of support such as co-op gardens, capacity building projects, habitat for humanity programs, and startup to compete with imports.
21. Creating a waste import fee for environmental costs of imports made of plastic or similar materials that are of a non biodegradable composition. Also set this fee for domestically produced products that are non biodegradable.
22. Convert social programs into work insurance programs.
23. Build the Navy from a Merchant Marine that required imports into Canada imported by the Canadian Merchant Marine ships. Afterall a Navy costs money commercial ships make money.. If all you are doing is watching the water put it on boats and do stuff while you watch. throw a couple missile platforms and CAWS and there yah go. Its not like they wont be sunk in a real naval battle anyway.
The key is having government do as little as possible and have self supporting programs in their place.
#1 Rapid Servicing of the debt to remove it at the earliest possible time outright.
#2 Conversion of the government into essential services, and program support services. Essential services would be reoriented to be tasked with economic development, while support service programs would be turned into fee based services
#3 Poverty elimination and reorientation of poverty people into productive members of society if they weren't before.
#4 Creating a duplicity economy both separate and non dependent on and aided by the West such as America and Europe.
Canada is big, it has many resources, it don't need no body else. So #1 is attain autarky #2 is create and support a strong export market in renewable resources and services. #3 is reduce poverty. #4 is create stability in the system.
#1 Service the debt through direct taxation to the debt.
#2 Balance the budget through the essential/program division.
#3 Have Canada maintain its wealth by self provisioning
#4 Increase productivity of those in poverty.
If you have more specific questions, you can ask and someone will give you an answer.
What you do is take every need of Canadians and have Canadians provide for it. While anyone who wants to take from Canadians, take an equal amount or greater amount from them?
For every public need insure the public can fullfill it.
You can give me any need and I can make it self supporting.
You get my vote.
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punked, you completely missed my point! You really should read the thread before you make such statements!
Who cares if they reveal their info? Vic is a politician! Bury him in his own dirt, I say!
The issue is that Anonymous is using it as blackmail to get the government to withdraw the Bill and have Vic resign!
Plus a few more demands of the same sort. This is what disgusts me! Who appointed Anonymous as our head of government? When do I get to vote for any of them?
What happens when the next issue is something that perhaps some of today's supporters don't agree with at that time?
I've made my position clear in earlier posts. Some seem to support Anonymous as a sort of benevolent dictator that as far as Vic and his crime Bill are concerned is on their side so they see nothing wrong with what they are doing.
As I said, if the shoe is on the other foot with the next issue it would be interesting to see how today's supporters handle it!
Talk about your situational ethics! Or rather, a total lack of ethics, replaced by blind partisanship!
Again, if they want to hang Vic I might buy the rope! It's just as a libertarian when some vigilante political group wants to use blackmail for their own political ends I truly start to fear for my country!
Anonymous should just reveal everything they have on Vic! Or any other politician, for that matter. I would hope they would not be partisan about it but after this I won't hold my breath.
If you were running for office I would vote for you dude. Damn well said.!
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Sure...if you ignore that the entire reason for the success in the west over the east at the current time rests completely on the multitude of wealth generating resources in the ground.
Is that right? You sure those resources weren't there before maybe the damned country even got its current name. You mean since the natural resources were deemed to be of more value than the overinflated egomaniac bureaucrats passing judgment over the geographic location of said resources? Get a grip.
Ontario/Quebec manufacturing sectors have successfully priced themselves out of business. Oh well, rough break for those folks I guess. Maybe they should move to somewhere that they can find work or start a business. They can stay where they want for all I care. They should be free to do as they please in my view. Just stop fretting about the success of others, either join the fun and work for something you want or please stop complaining about the folks that want to work. We work, we pay taxes just like everyone else. We are in fact more alike than you might think.
Success is built by individual effort, applaud it or not. We have made efforts, we have been successful. Get over it.
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Alberta assumed they'd get less than they were due? What a funny thing to assume. They got exactly what they were due, by virtue of their population, in this case.
Alberta this or Alberta that, but no mention of the centre of your universe. No Manitoba this and Manitoba that??? That's right just beat-up the bad bad bad Albertan. Guess what Smallc? Alberta acts different just because we think we are different. Say what you want. Alberta was to start with, has been since, and will always be that way. Just a little different, neither better nor worse you understand, just different. How is it that folks from other provinces seem to leave us dumb Albertans feeling just that...dumb. We can't seem to figure out why the folks looking down their noses at us are calling us arrogant. I suppose you have no idea how much that kinda stuff tends to weigh upon us. How about for a change you look at ways to find commonality instead of division between yourself and Albertans. I have no idea why you don't think very highly of us, and I am okay with that.
Perhaps what many folks, yourself included, don't seem to realize is that Alberta is the name of the province, not us. We are citizens of an entire nation, just as you are. Playing province against province may well be your cup of tea, and I am willing to bet that most other folks in this country would say that it isn't their. Maybe what you don't understand about Alberta citizens is that they are pretty much independent thinkers. Like manner others we don't like to be told what we can and should do by anybody else. Is that one of the things that make us different? Perhaps, or maybe not.....that is a perception call in my view.
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Utter drivel.
Both railroads were built specifically to exploit the resources of the West, not as some fantasy charity act to benefit the West.
'Connected to this land', what sort of fairy tale world do you inhabit?
The Aid to Alberta farmers consisted of them being forced to buy inferior, expensive Ontario built farm equipment with no option. Then they got to ship their grain east to a single customer. Other 'Aid' consisted of Eastern banks foreclosing on Western farms during the Depression. That worked out kind of OK, both Social Credit and CCF were born of that and became transformative links to a stronger, less dependent West.
Ahhh..... the oh so sweet words of reality cut a tough course for the un-Albertan!
Well said, and so very well done, nice post.
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Alberta is booming. There is no reason whatsoever that it should be running any kind of deficit. It ought to be running a surplus and putting that excess into developing other industries for when the oil runs out, diversifying its economy, and a rainy day fund. It's not doing any of that. They could easily reduce spending and raise taxes now, given how low they are, and accomplish much, not the least of which is eliminating their deficit.
If they don't do it now, in boom times, when on earth will they?
The PC's could very well get tested at the next opportunity! Yet they are not dead yet. Keep in mind how they got into power in the first place. The entire government is based on the lie that was put forth in the very successful campaign that killed the Socred's. That lie was all about, yes you guessed it, debt. That was back in '71. These guys were good, so good that a few years later they actually got to blame the NEP on Ottawa. The funny thing is that they got away with it. Talk about unite the right, been there and done that decades ago. Today in Alberta the right is splitting apart in big visible chunks.
So much for history. In terms of a boom, you haven't seen anything dude. This time there are serious efforts being made in diversification. This time the public is paying attention. The government of the day,is now officially cornered. It projects deficits, spends more and more to serve a growing bureaucracy made up of folks the good old boys have to hire and promote for partisan purpose. The trough is long and deep. That is the truth, whether people want to believe it or not. The word connections means everything in either business or politics. Add the word dollar bills and there is no end to the hunt for accountability.
The Alberta Heritage Trust Fund, ended up being nothing like the Alaskan Permanent Fund, even though it too was designed by a Social Credit Treasurer of Alberta. The people of Alberta have been taken for another multiple decade political dynasty. This one saw much growth and wealth accumulation.
How do you decide how to vote in Federal Elections?
in Federal Politics in Canada
Posted
Strangely enough out here in Alberta we are as isolated as Quebec. From my own perspective I tend to agree with you about the size of government. Implementing democracy over an expanse the size of Canada is a daunting task. Perhaps a task that the current round of politicians are incapable of accomplishing. On a person by person basis, from a western perspective, we tend to disapprove of the appointed Senate, disapprove of the equalization formulas, disapprove of fiscal imbalances at the federal level, and particularly in Alberta folks do not like the federal debt load. For an Albertan to figure out that when more of their tax dollars are leaving the province than coming back, is to be saddled with an additional federal debt burden on a per capita basis! We have no provincial debt, even with the last couple of years in a budget deficit position we never went back into debt.
From an Albertans perspective, at least this Albertan, the question of how do we choose to vote in a federal election is simple, we side with other Albertans against the wishes of Ottawa. At least that is what we used to say when the Conservatives were not in power. With a majority conservative government, we are far more circumspect with our political views. Ottawa has become a front for our interests. That is not idle boast, it is a fact. Money talks, bullshit walks. The former industrial heartland of Canada, that Hamilton to Montreal corridor, is currently in a state of disarray. Most foreign investment is in the west and the north. Domestic investment is another story, and a far smaller story than most Canadians really know. Its only the banks and not private ventures from the east that are investing out west at all. This is the land of black gold and foreign capital. We vote to preserve our interests. Folks in eastern Canada should know all about that.