Jerry J. Fortin

.......and an empty head.

The only indicator that really counts in my books are the debt and deficit that enslaves the tax paying citizen.

Look people, we lack sufficient air bases, and building those isn't cheap either. A few carrier groups would provide the means to project force as well as acting as a coastal defense platform. Once again the enhancement of our military will not be cheap, it never was a cheap exercise and it never will be. A carrier can take up to 90 aircraft at a time. Of these aircraft you will have helicopters, transport aircraft, air tankers, airborne radar all this in addition to fighting aircraft. Of course there are numerous other ships in every battle group and the costs of building entire carriers groups is staggering. On the other hand, that translates into thousands of jobs, if done in an in house manner.

In as much as we don't have a completely written constitution, then I would suggest if those powers are not defined then they cannot be enforced since they are not contained within the law. Any challenge put before the Supreme Court could only rule in favour of the written law.

Actually we solved your fire control problems. The airframe is indeed a dinosaur, and yes I really do mean in spirit. TAM has a very nice mockup for those that want to see an Arrow, but sadly the bird is dated and not worth rebuilding. An Arrow II would simply be picking up where we left off. Once again we need to build something to defend our norther frontier and coastlines. I would suggest something both land and sea capable. We need aircraft carriers, yes plural, as well as land based aircraft. Given sufficient aircraft speed and range we could in fact save money with carrier operations. The entire effort will costs hundreds of billions.

I am willing to wager the CPC will actually lose seats in the west next time around, say something like 8-10 seats. Quebec is almost a writeoff for them, figure the loss of another 10 seats there. Ontario will likely shed CPC seats as well. Atlantic Canada will likely retain its few CPC seats.

Really? Describe this so-called reserve power and its nature. The GG and the Queen are in fact on the books but they by design do not interfere with the will of Parliament.

The deal is simple, carry Ontario and Quebec you get a majority. Ontario alone yields a minority.

Hey folks, the point is that we built it ourselves! It was in fact very advanced for its time and the fact that the American nation indeed convinced us to dump the Arrow in favour of unmanned missiles. They of course sold us the missiles which were obselete before we got them. The net effect was we gave up a fledgling aerospace industry and became totally dependent upon the Americans for defense and armaments. The exact thing that Avro needed to survive an export market, we literally gave to the Americans and helped make their industry more viable and profitable. Thanks to Dief the Chief. A travesty of justice in my mind and something that has since held us back and contributed to the demise of our own armed forced. If you really want to put 10 billion to good use, blow the dust off the Arrow plans and update it to modern standards. Build the damned thing all over again.

Ever here of due process? These things take time, and that is a good thing. Put the refugees in camps like they do everywhere else and I assure you there will be less applicants.

Gaza will soon cease to exist in my opinion. Some fool will start rocket attacks from there and the Israel Defense Forces will level the place once and for all.

The answer to our problem does not involve hiring even more bureaucrats.

The Queen is a figurehead, with no power or authority, read the Statute of Westminister 1931 http://www.solon.org/Constitutions/Canada/...estminster.html

It depends where federal politics go. The BLOC is about ideology, and the current trend is economics, not a strong suit for the BLOC.

First of all, there never was an Arrow prototype, it went from design to production which was the first of all of its "firsts". Here is a nice little list of other firsts; 1) First a/c designed with digital computers being used for both aerodynamic analysis and designing the structural matrix (and a whole lot more). 2) First a/c design to have major components machined by CNC (computer numeric control); i.e., from electronic data which controlled the machine. 3) First a/c to be developed using an early form of "computational fluid dynamics" with an integrated "lifting body" type of theory rather than the typical (and obsolete) "blade element" theory. 4) First a/c to have marginal stability designed into the pitch axis for better maneuverability, speed and altitude performance. 5) First a/c to have negative stability designed into the yaw axis to save weight and cut drag, also boosting performance. 6) First a/c to fly on an electronic signal from the stick and pedals. i.e., first fly-by-wire a/c. 7) First a/c to fly with fly by wire AND artificial feedback (feel). Not even the first F-16's had this. 8) First a/c designed to be data-link flyable from the ground. 9) First a/c designed with integrated navigation, weapons release, automatic search and track radar, datalink inputs, home-on-jamming, infrared detection, electronic countermeasures and counter-countermeasures operating through a DIGITAL brain. 10) First high wing jet fighter that made the entire upper surface a lifting body. The F-15, F-22, Su-27 etc., MiG-29, MiG 25 and others certainly used that idea. 11) First sophisticated bleed-bypass system for both intake AND engine/exhaust. Everybody uses that now. 12) First by-pass engine design. (all current fighters have by-pass engines). 13) First combination of the last two points with an "ejector" nozzle that used the bypass air to create thrust at the exhaust nozzle while also improving intake flow. The F-106 didn't even have a nozzle, just a pipe. 14) Use of Titanium for significant portions of the aircraft structure and engine. 15) Use of composites (not the first, but they made thoughtful use of them and were researching and engineering new ones). 16) Use of a drooped leading edge and aerodynamic "twist" on the wing. 17) Use of engines at the rear to allow both a lighter structure and significant payload at the centre of gravity. Everybody copied that. 18) Use of a LONG internal weapons bay to allow carriage of specialized, long-range standoff and cruise missiles. (not copied yet really) 19) Integration of ground-mapping radar and the radar altimeter plus flight control system to allow a seriousstrike/reconnaissance role. The first to propose an aircraft be equally adept at those roles while being THE air-superiority fighter at the same time. (Few have even tried to copy that, although the F-15E is an interesting exception.) 20) First missile armed a/c to have a combat weight thrust to weight ratio approaching 1 to 1. Few have been able to copy that. 21) First flying 4,000 psi hydraulic system to allow lighter and smaller components. 22) First oxygen-injection re-light system. 23) First engine to have only two main bearing assemblies on a two-shaft design. 24) First to use a variable stator on a two-shaft engine. 25) First use of a trans-sonic first compressor stage on a turbojet engine. 26) First "hot-streak" type of afterburner ignition. 27) First engine to use only 10 compressor sections in a two-shaft design. (The competition was using 17!!) So you can see that it was innovative, so much so that it was a technological threat to other nations designing their own aircraft. Our government for whatever reason abandoned the program and in the process say 25000 jobs disappear overnight.

It seems that we forget that the mass of our citizens are well able to control our democracy with their votes. We can label them majorities or minorities but the truth is that public perception is gauged and followed by the governments of the day. Only during a general election are the citizens able to voice their approval or disapproval for governments with the results being returned as the will of the people. However in todays well split vote those results return minority governments that do not reflect a majority opinion but instead a fractional partisan position. So in many ways the will of the people is falsely expressed in the composition of Parliament. These are the times when visionary politicians are able to once again enter the landscape and provide new concepts and ideologies to the public seeking a leadership based on the public need. The partisan leader that portrays this nation in a positive light and is able to inspire the citizens with a pathway to prosperity has a very good chance of motivating the public and acquiring political support that transcends partisan labels. I maintain that the way to develop this nation in a manner that can provide both peace and prosperity is through a process of modern day nation building in our northern portion of this country. The military can and must be the spearhead of the effort. Only they can provide the opportunity to lay sovereign claim to those lands. Only they can defend them, and only they can provide the means of both employment and education in a world where the cost of labour determines potential investment capital. We must frame our efforts around that which will provide a return on internal investment, that means a military industrial complex. Within that framework much beneficial research and development yields civilian employment and production. Our productive capacity, once enhanced is able to finance all the social infrastructure we desire. We need a road map and a navigator, and that means we need a visionary leader.

I have to agree with this theory.

Nasty or nice, makes no difference when a complete lack of vision is the reality of those administrations. No national political will, no positive achievable goals leave citizens cold and apathetic. Warm and fuzzy, just ain't politics with a purpose. To have a purpose requires some advance planning to formulate a functional means of attaining a desired goal. We are not there yet.............

Martin understood fiscal responsibility. He took funds sitting around not allocated and utilized them. Please keep in mind these were surplus funds realized through excess contributions from EI. He cut the deficit, payed down the debt and balanced the books. Harper walked in the door with a hefty surplus. The man spent his way into deficit and is adding debt. Granted the economy and revenues impacted the bottom line, but the reality must be accepted anyway. With all due respect folks, military spending has no relationship to partisan government. It is what it is, and with the citizens screaming for the nanny state to spend on social programs it is a foregone conclusion where the money goes. In addition, we need to define roles and mission capabilities before we go off spending big bucks on our military. Besides the knee jerk reaction is to simple procure equipment from foreign suppliers, and that costs more in the long run than simply doing things in house.

Or increase revenues, either way balancing the books ain't gonna be easy. The guy ain't gettin' it done dude. Pretty tough with a minority show. The guy has no clue how to play well with others, you COULD get a lot done that way, but not with Stevie the Wonder PM calling the ball.

Just a bit of hair splitting don't you think? Besides that what two outcomes do each have when they form a government?

Wait for it, it may not start here. The reality is that the little folks are getting a little upset. You can look back into history and see what has happened when this kind of economic downturn plays out. It isn't pretty.

I really don't think you have thought about this very much.

That would be me! Its the only smart way to go, and its the only way to increase disposable family income available to the government . Once that is done, we could do something else smart. Get rid of fractional reserve banking, force the banks to actually fully fund their deposits and actually have the central bank in Canada control monetary policy. If the Bank of Canada were to actually lend the private banks the money they create out of thin air and charge them interest for it, we would be out of debt inside a decade and the central bank would become a money making revenue stream for the feds.

Harper will not survive his next leadership contest, let alone retain a government.