Jerry J. Fortin

The Conservatives have spent a lot of money, like the Liberals before them.

Sometimes you need a union. Sometimes the employer is greedy, sometimes nasty. The unions were the ones that got labour law to where it is today.

I would describe it as a blow torch.

At least he was there, doing his duty....sort of. How many members were not even there?

Dresden was over the top, then again there were many thousand bomber raids. Cologne,the first was a success, but Essen the second was not. Bremen fell short of the four digit number, there was the Ruhr and the Rhineland efforts then Duisburg. Massive RAF attacks were matched by US efforts as well. These were indeed fierce and did in fact target civilians. The A bombs dropped on Japan were a horse of a different colour in my view. The Japanese were actually warned ahead of time and were offered terms. They declined and as a result the bombs were dropped. Perhaps toward the point, civilians have ALWAYS been targeted, if not during battles then during the aftermath when then undefended. Cities were surrounded and starved out or burnt down from the beginning of time. My point is this; there is the victors and the vanquished in all conflicts. The Afghan case is no better or worse than many others.

Bingo! Which is why I said that.. "This is one subject where the citizens are screwed." This is no easy fix. On the other hand if you did open up the constitution you could sure do a lot of good, or cause a lot of bad.

This will get messy!

A swamp that was agreed to be wallowed in within the hallowed chambers of the United Nations. Lets not forget that operations in that theater had the blessing of the entire planet at the time they begun. They are not over yet, and no attempt has been made in the UN to stop the war.

This is one subject where the citizens are screwed. Te fact is that the Queen is our Head of State and the only thing that can change that at all is an amendment to the constitution. No amount of citizens assemblies or referendums can change that little fact.

It just seems to me that with the information age upon us that we should be able to expect better.

Dude you slay me! I really enjoy your wit and your true patriotism. I believe you are a great citizen for your country.

You are a genius in your own mind dude.

I think you need to see an eye doctor about your sight.

Get a freaking grip and start to try and make some sense.

What on earth are you babbling about. George Washington was only part of the independence movement, not all or even the most important part just a part. With all due respect we are a small and young nation. As far as taking as much as we can, I would like to see that backed up to some extent. Can you do that?

I will suggest the "how" exists within the parameters of the largest demographic inside this nation , and that is the apathetic voter. Now the question of gaining their support becomes the question du jour. The key to that equation is displaying the one single issue that citizens agree upon, and that is their dislike for income taxes. A vast majority of Canadians believe they pay to much tax. There are three levels of taxation plus the various forms of sales taxes and consumption taxes. All of these things detract from disposable family income and that pisses off the citizens. Hoist that flag in front of the voters and you will get their attention at least if not full blown public support. Of course we all know that those taxes pay for all of the programs and services that we desire. Cutting any of those programs will prove detrimental to acquiring the support desired. Therefore an alternative form of revenue stream generation for public expenses must be found to replace the existing framework. One way to do that is to eliminate income tax altogether and replace it with a consumption tax based on a percentage designed to be revenue neutral to the existing framework. This can be calculated by using the posted GDP and dividing it by the federal budget. Those number vary day to day, but you get the idea. Call it GST on roids if you like, but it would get the feds out of our pockets and only be taxing us on what we spend, not what we earn. This is similiar to how tax is calculated on business, not on earnings but on profits.

Here are the same numbers; My link

Was not '29 painful enough, were the lessons not learned? Yes Canada is tied to the USA, I have never said otherwise a fact that does not impress me with the lack of vision in my own nation. 1929 changed everything and brought about the conditions which permeated the world and caused the second world war. Can you not see us headed down that path once more as if nothing happened between then and now? You were not heavily invested in their banking were you? Aside from that your nation and its lenders did not seem to read the writing on the wall of the Japanese collapse given that what caused it was exactly what has put your financial industry on its ears, a real estate bubble. Billions of dollars of home owner equity disappeared overnight with your burst bubble, and that was leveraged six ways from Sunday. The problems you now face are dire indeed and that equity has been lost to your citizens and migrated into bankers or investors hands. The reality is that the net worth of your citizens has taken a hit and that effects everything. The next hit is commercial and that will cost more jobs and more equity before it is resolved. The "new World Order" was a phrase coined by an American, and misapplied at that. The political map is changing and the empire is falling. slowly crumbling before your eyes. Employment numbers suck, GDP is mostly retail and debt and deficit grow daily. These things are far different from when America was the manufacturing king with rising employment increasing GDP and international trade surpluses. This is different indeed. Nothing other than the USA no longer owns the moral high ground either.

Its all over but for the crying. Keep dreaming if you think you either can or have avoided the trap set for you. The fat lady is warming up in the wings. The US Dollar is compromised, it will soon cease to be the benchmark it once was. People and nations are buying gold. The Canadian dollar is above 94 cents, for no other reason than the weakness of the greenback. Real estate bubble number two is about to be realized, that is the commercial end of things, and if you thought residential demise was a big thing wait and see how this one plays out. It will have to trigger another round of bailouts by the US government just to keep the banks afloat. Meanwhile the price of oil will go through the roof because of the soon to be falling US dollar, that will trigger a forced sale of US bonds and T-Bills held by foreign interests which will create a shortage of US dollars that the government will be forced to print just to cover the debt. That little scenario will trigger the ultimate collapse of the US economy. It will also force the emergence of a new resource based economy and stop the growth in China in its tracks. The new world order is about to be realized in a few short and painful years.

9/11 was an act of terrorism, pure and simple. It achieved its goal, our society has been changed and our security has been brought into question. We fell into the trap that was laid for us and have entered into a phase of warfare not merely misunderstood, but instead misdirected. The only way to fight terrorism is to destroy the terrorists. Conducting open warfare upon entire nations will not get rid of terrorism. Destroying the perpetrators will. The trap that was laid before us was an old one, which pits one religion after another. Its an us or them scenario. In todays global society that is a problem for us, not for them. It pits neighbor against neighbor in our society, but not in theirs. What has really happened is that our society has been disrupted but not theirs. They have succeeded. In order for us to prevail we would have had to take a different path, and we have not done so. The option is no longer available. In short we have lost the battle. Not here within our own shores you understand, but the world has changed on foreign soil. No longer is the USA the dominant player that it was. This war on terror has been part of the problem that has begun to cripple their society. Far too much money has been spent for far too little gain and the net benefit to citizens is extremely minimal. The goal of the original act was to remove the USA from the position of power it once had. It was a political statement that said "we can do what we want, in spite of what you say". As I have said we lost that battle, yet the war continues. We are fighting it on the wrong premise and until we wake up and see the reality of the situation for what it is we will continue to fight to no advantage or avail. This is a fight about power and ideology, religion and morality. It is not one that can be won outside of our own nations, nor inside theirs. The only way to win this war is to step away from it and dictate terms of resolution. Those terms must be made from a position of political power and influence. It means sacrifice and deprivation are the tools of statecraft that will work as a functional resolution.

For me, this democracy is a long way from being the enlightened society of my dreams. In my view we have much to do to get to that point.

Just how many jobs that you can think of may cost you your life? I actually believe that all policeman, fireman, and soldiers deserve special treatment. They do for us what we can't do for ourselves and that should be recognized.

I am happy to see him stand trial. I believe we should have got our mitts on him and tried him ourselves some time ago.

Ouch I stand corrected.. I wasn't paying attention to details! The date went over my head, the fact of the matter was that at that point he was indeed part of the British military and was fighting French Canadians and Indians and in fact defeated by them in latter engagments, he surrendered to them.

I would suggest that we need to expand our military and to do that I think we need to take better care of them. Full 2/3 pension after 25 years service, full healthcare, access to all government programs and services. Free secondary education for them and their immediate family. Tax immunity for life.