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jdobbin

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Posts posted by jdobbin

  1. Many public opinion polls showed Canadians wanted unfettered access to American signals. A lot of people asked said they wouldn't mind if there were no Canadian stations because they never watched them.
    Sounds like a poll commissioned by US television companies. I think people would have a different opinion if you asked them specifically about news programming.

    That might be. A lot of people are more concerned about getting HBO than that anything about Canada. I don't think there is any accurate numbers out there on pirating U.S. signals.

    Walk around your neighborhood and look at how many people have Direct TV satellites. The company doesn't operate in Canada and yet I could walk in any neighborhood in any city in Canada and see Direct TV satellites.

    Those satellites do not have *any* Canadian stations on them.

  2. I think many Canadians though would accept no Canadian stations in favour of being affiliates of American stations.
    You got to be kidding. Most Canadians would not be happy to have their news outlets owned by Americans.

    Many public opinion polls showed Canadians wanted unfettered access to American signals. A lot of people asked said they wouldn't mind if there were no Canadian stations because they never watched them.

  3. Though I am concerned about the further merging of our media.
    A good reason to keep at least one alternative around that is not subject to the pressures of stock market valuation.

    Is this some sort of sly defence of the CBC? Fess up.

    After Global gets sold, it might be the only alternative to CTV.

    I think many Canadians though would accept no Canadian stations in favour of being affiliates of American stations.

  4. Indeed WTFF is going on over there. This operation must have had some big planning. Lebanon?? I thought it was .. Gaza... ummm :unsure::o:blink: :angry: :huh:

    I think what the Israelis need to do is go in there with tanks to clear out all the Arabs within several miles of its borders, then bulldozers to wipe out every building, every house, every shed, then drop agent orange to kill every bit of vegetation, plant mines, and make it clear that anyone seen in the area will be shot on sight.

    See how long the southern Lebanese villagers will be dancing and setting off firecrackers in celebration of THAT.

    I see much of Lebanon as a victim of decades of big powers tossing them about. Syria and Israel have contributed to the instability. I think many Lebanese just want to be Labanese but factions supported by big powers make things miserable.

  5. Did we learn anything from the Hollocaust, Hilter got his idea for concentration camps from CANADA with the implementation of the reservation system and the mistreatment of the First Nation!

    Canada did not deliberately exterminate anyone. That is not fair.

    Smallpox took the laboring oar.

    My God this is the reason educating the mainstream is critical, You want to talk about fairness! come on. Canada inforced manditory sterilization for First Nations women, not only canada but all of the Americas, and imposed starvation tactics on First Nations by the Empire to control the Native populations, and the mass slaughter of First Nations peoples so that their scholars can determin the physical characteristics of an indian, they were trying to determin and decide if the First Nations were an equal race, what is fair? the canadian legistaltion of First Nations Identity, take a look at the Indian Act, all the many vairations it comes in Pierre Trudeau and Jean Creatien were there to support the white paper, back in the late 60's and early 70's, and what about the residential schools, you take the children away from thier roots and culture so that they can become civilized...how civilized were those priest when they were taking children as thier own muse. Dirty I say. take a look at the Hudson's Bay Company aboloshing the traditional trade routes so that they can become the founding enterprise! small pox on those lovely blankets - ever wonder why Native people needed those blankets, why their food was rationed, and why soo many First Nations people were dying, It wasn't because we didn't know how to survive in our own territories.

    Canada may not have been as obvious as the slave trade, because they don't want to recognize their dirty deeds, they want you to believe in the illusion of Multiculturalism, and equal prosperity, but how was this nation built, who determined and decided the manifest destiny of this Nation.

    Chi Meegwetch

    Anishnawbe Kwe- The UrbaNish

    This all may be true. How can the problems be solved today?

  6. I'd like for land claims to settled in a more timely fashion. I'd also like to see more urban reserves because it is the one area where I think there could be some real economic success.
    Reserves of any type simply perpetuate the racist policies that created the mess that exists today. I see no problem providing aboriginal groups with some land (with fee simple title) and cash to compensate them for historical wrongs, however, the entire concept of 'aboriginal title' is racist and has no place in a democratic egalitarian society. I would like to see the education system spend more time explaining what 'aboriginal title' really means and how granting 'aboriginal title' to a minority ethnic group will create endless social conflicts in the future.

    The elimination of the reserves probably has to come from aboriginal people themselves, I believe. I certainly am open-minded to a discussion of how to remedy the problems of First Nations. I just don't think it can be done unilaterally.

  7. From BD's link above:
    But most would not substitute the teaching of creationism for the teaching of evolution in public schools.
    So, on perhaps the most important question of all, Americans have an open mind, and want their children to be exposed to ideas they, as parents, don't necessarily hold.

    It's a pity the rest of the world is not the same.

    The federal court has ruled that this is a question of church and state, a constitutional matter. Is creationism a science or a religious view? The court has said it is a religious view and as such can't be taught in public schools.

  8. Six Nations Crisis- “Canada’s Pandora’s Box?”

    With today’s increasing and aggressive actions by Native people to obtain concrete resolutions to land claims, will we see an increase of racism and hostility or an increased awareness of our Native people and Canada’s misinformed history?

    The Caledonia carnival of controversy has been stirring up debates all over the country. While some discussions are heated with hostile racism, others have steered to a new road of informative education that many Canadian citizens were completely unaware of. See example of other thread click here

    I felt it was necessary to start this thread in a national header as the issues underlying the Caledonia situation and the Six Nations crisis stem from the lack of knowledge in the following areas, treaties, taxation and the constitutional rights of Aboriginal people. Hopefully this thread will shed some much needed insight and knowledge of these issues from a variety of Canadian perspectives.

    While I encourage all opinions, it will be beneficial to all to have comments that provide informative links, educational facts or practical solutions for consideration.

    I don't think I know enough about the situation to comment.

    I'd like for land claims to settled in a more timely fashion. I'd also like to see more urban reserves because it is the one area where I think there could be some real economic success.

    There is a lot of fear out there and only education will help eradicate that fear.

  9. Its sort of Bush League Economics isn't it?
    Not exactly sure what you mean.
    They cut taxes which didn't reduce their expenditures but did reduce their bottom line in revenue stream
    Nonsense. Check revenues. They're up.
    For all the criticism of Clinton, he did have the deficit under control
    Yes, during his second term, deficits were under control. When you pursuit a strategy of pseudo-peace and pseudo-prosperity, leaving all the difficult desicions to future Administrations (terrorism, Iraq, social security, immigration, education, dependency on oil) it's amazing how well things can go, short term. :rolleyes:

    Revenues are up. But the deficit is still ringing in $300 billion a year.

    And Clinton wasn't the only one to share in defeating the deficit. He did so with a Repubican-controlled Congress.

    Most studies have shown that despite all of the spending on Iraq and Katrina, the majority of the deficit has come from tax cuts accompanied by not enough service cuts.

  10. In Canada, there isn't a political party that advocates deficit spending and thankfully, nearly every province is deficit free or moving far quicker than the U.S. in that direction.

    It is by far the worst form of legacy you can leave to the next generation.

    That is utter and complete nonsense. Or perhaps I should say that balanced government budgets should not be a fetish.

    Read this:

    Who will do you more good: the guy who wants to cut taxes or the guy who wants to pay down the national debt?

    Well, why pay the debt at all? The answer—the one and only answer—is that it has to be paid eventually, and if we don't pay it now, we'll be taxed to pay it later. The more we pay up front, the lower our future taxes. In that sense, a payment on the national debt is a tax cut—it's a cut in tomorrow's taxes instead of today's.

    Slate

    That article is 6 years old. And since then, the deficit has climbed to record levels.

    Some new conservative thinking is that deficits are not bad if they involve tax cuts. Phooey. The piper will still have to be paid. And given that U.S. spending is still $300 billion more a year than it should be, I don't see how any Bush's tax cuts will be permanent unless he is planning to slash spending like no other President before him.

  11. In Canada, there isn't a political party that advocates deficit spending and thankfully, nearly every province is deficit free or moving far quicker than the U.S. in that direction.
    To play the devil's advocate, the Canadian federal governments have been off-loading to the provinces and the provinces off-loading to the cities.

    In turn, the cities amalgamate (sucking up rural residents to increase the tax-base) which is effectively an off-loading from the big cities to the small towns.

    The little guys pay more and still get less. Thank you federalism.

    Everyone had to tighten their belts starting with the federal government in Canada. Subsequently, deficits are are under control in a majority of jurisdictions.

    As far as off-loading, people can't have it both ways. They can't ask governments to cut the deficit without a major cut in service. Now that the deficit has been cut and revenues are strong, it has allowed the government to cut tax and to increase some spending.

    I disagree on rural residents being caught up in metropolitan mergers. There is simply no data to make that claim. Most of the mergers have been of major urban centers.

    You can argue the worthiness about those mergers but it isn't a case of rural farms communities being swept into a big area like Toronto or Montreal.

  12. Its sort of Bush League Economics isn't it? I mean they are talking about cutting their deficit in half, not even contemplating the debt at this point. Beyond that their solutions have so far been non-existent by their own admission. They cut taxes which didn't reduce their expenditures but did reduce their bottom line in revenue stream calculation. In his own words, I watch the speech, the government used growth to reduce the deficit. Then he dropped the other shoe.....heathcare, medicine, pensions all bad things that the government can't afford anymore.

    So I guess I am not in favor of this form of economics.

    For all the criticism of Clinton, he did have the deficit under control.

    In Canada, there isn't a political party that advocates deficit spending and thankfully, nearly every province is deficit free or moving far quicker than the U.S. in that direction.

    It is by far the worst form of legacy you can leave to the next generation.

  13. So what? I live in the Bible Belt in Alberta, there are lts of folks out here believe the same thing. I agree that there are far better things to beat on Yankees for, but why beat them at all?

    Canadians need to look around and find out who their friends really are. We OWE the Americans a hell of a lot and we don't want to recognize this fact. Guess what, its time to wake up and smell the coffee. In my books I would rather trust an American than a central Canadian ! At least I know what the American agenda is, and they aren't going to try and tax me to death. Oh they might build a few factories and hire thousands of people, but they will stay the hell out of my pocket.

    It is just a viewpoint that many Americans have. Nothing wrong with that except that some scientists in small numbers now but maybe in greater numbers later, are leaving the United States because of the anti-science stance that is being taken some American quarters.

  14. Americans do not believe that humans evolved, and the vast majority says that even if they evolved, God guided the process.

    55 per cent of Americans believe God created humans in their present form. 65 per cent want creationism taught in schools. And we're supposed to trust these people with nuclear weapons? :blink:

    It is not surprising given the evangelical rise in the last few years. The interpretation of the Bible in a literal sense drives the argument.

    The science backlash has already resulted in some scientists coming to Canada.

  15. And the Governor-General can only disslove Parliament if there is a confidence vote or if the Prime Minister requests it. If the Prime Minister requests it, clearly it violates his own legislation of waiting for a fixed election date.

    I know that is the history but are you absolutely sure of that?

    Obstructing Parliament may be a good short term tactic for an opposition in a system where a government can call an election but I think handcuffing a government for months or years in system where it cannot would end up backfiring badly. It would take some huge balls to risk the publics wrath by willingly denying them a government for an extended length of time.

    The Governor General can act unilaterally in dissolving Parliament but it would probably cause a constitutional crisis. There is nothing written in the Constitution about that type of action but is in theory a possibility.

    But no Governor or Lieutenant-Governor has *ever* dissolved Parliament for bell ringing.

    Historically, bell ringing has lasted months but not a full term of office.

    Parliament is filled with rules that most people don't know. Parliament can only function if it retains confidence. This is why the prime minister can now call the Opposition's bluff, dissolve Parliament and go to the people.

    This issue isn't quite so black and white as set term...no problem. Yes, there can be problems.

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