White Doors

CBCThat's how the CBC would choose to present this decision. I would say rather that my vote for the Conservatives has been vindicated and only a Conservative minister from Quebec could do this. Dion Liberals couldn't. Whatever Harper's government does in its short mandate, this decision implies the greatest long term effects for Canada. Hats off to Bernier. Well, time will bear out whether this benefits the customer or not. But when such policy choices are made, they should also be accompanied by removal of artificial barriers to entry as well. Do you know what the current competitive status is? Can any Canadian company work anywhere? Can US phone companies serve us? If these restraints remain in place, then Bernier's policy will not really be fair to consumers. In what way will more competition not be 'fair' to consumers?

Not true. The point is that they lay a lot on the line to say this. It is not as easy for them to say this as it is for to be the government apologist that you are. You have to respect them for putting their carreers on the line to say something they believe even if you think they are wrong. Its called "patriotism", "character", "integrity". So lets hear your best arguement for Osama doing 911, why do you think that ? (take your best shot - I know before you were just fooling around) Kind of like the respect that Jane Fonda gets for sitting on the North Vietnamese AA gun that was likely killing her fellow Americans? If that's what you mean - then I agree 100%!

I have over 400 channels on my satellite. Not sure where you are getting the idea that there is no competition in TV?

They are already obsolete - they keep reaffirming that everytime they rule on the opposite of various competition committees rulings. This decision will help productivity in Canada. Landmark and the correct choice. Hopefully the CRTC is gone the way of the dodo bird soon.

That is true. But the United States of America has the greatest level of democracy that is not matched anywhere else in the world. I feel we should move their system. We can't keep letting elites run our country from the back office. Are you being facetious or are you just ignorant?! The winner take all style of US government is nowhere near the greatest level of democracy in the world. Luckily they only have two major parties otherwise the level of distortion and wasted votes would be the same as ours. Are you being ignorant? The US voter has much more say democratically than a Canadian voter. That is just a fact.

Are you for real? That's precisely the people who would benefit from daycare. are you fro real? That's precisely the people who would benefit the most from lower taxes.

The premise was that Europeans were in fact here first and then interbred with the Asians that came later. DNA evidence backs it up as does archeological evidence. When will we put this 'natives' red herring to rest? Equal rights for all!

Really? How does this prove it? Rae is a conservative now?

Yea - I know the idea of listening to something other than the elitist drivel spouted by a "royal commission" or a "special envoy" is unfathomable to most lefties. More to the point, you could stick your head in the sand (as you obviously have) and pretend that the ongoing news stories involving self-detonating, beheading, sniper, beslan school shooting Muslims have absolutely nothing in common No. It's that - in the words of a Muslim mother of martyrs - "they blow up so fast" Riiiiight....go with the company line DOGGY So when the Toronto bombers were arrested and the Police chief proudly announced that the arrests were from a "broad strata of society" and the Mayor of Toronto blamed the plot on bad social programs...THAT wasn't being superficial - but the global jihad WAS? BWAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ahhahahhahaha!!!!

Actually, it appeared Day said a lot. He's just not talking now. He had the opportunity to remove the Commissioner months ago. The head of the RCMP must have the confidence of the minister. It was Harper who wanted him to remain. Perhaps the Commissioner reminded him of how he announced an RCMP investigation during the election. That same investigation that evaporated as soon as the election was over. Doesn't it get tiring being so partisan all the time?

Was it a mistake for the liberals to appoint him in the first place?

You work for the embassy or are you just being a tit?

That is unbelieveable. Shades of 1930's

http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayst...y_id=E1_RPVPTSJ Read the same article (my mommy buys me a subscription to The Economist every year... not kiddin for damn near a decade now (b-day present)... couldn't ask for anything better ) very very very interesting. It does not look good for Canada though.... with are economy being so closely tied to theirs. Ahh well America is really all that special... it has just been really good at marketing itself... unfortunately the marketers got complacent and the government got more incompetent Remember when the world sort of loved the USA?! Hell i do... so much for the big global USA love in. Not sure what you are erading into this, btu to me it says that America is doing better than Europe just not to the degree as previously thought. If you see the collapse of America in there it is because you want to.

There are many dimensions to everything and in the real world people do whatever they believe is best for them and whatever they think they can get away with. In this case, the medical associations have positioned themselves well to get away with quite a bit. I just find it rediculous when people are so inconsistent on similar issues and will argue on different sides simply for ideological reasons. haha unreal. If you have a grad degree in Economics then it's high time you got out of school and experienced some reality. It is obvious you are up to your eyeballs in theory! Those damn medical associations running a conspiracy! I mean if only the Dr's WANTED to help us then the system would work! Holy cow! That's freaking awesome! The internet is awesome! You are awesome!

This is a good example. The government has been saying we need more high tech workers, yet the market has been saturated with them. Does a GP have to be that much smarter than a computer programmer ? GPs get $300-400K/year, which is 3-4 times more than a programmer with a Ph.D. in computer science. Somehow, I don't think that GPs are that much smarter and I don't think that they need to make even more. First, GP's get paid to a business. Out of whioch comes all of their business expenses to pay their staff. Yes, that's right their receptionists, rent etc etc. Our GP's are grossly underpaid. After all expenses, GPs still take $200K home. Most people with Ph.D.s make far less than that and average Canadians make about a quarter of that. This is not "grossly underpaid". This is paid "far too much". People who are grossly underpaid don't work 5 months a year like my former GP. Really? How much do you get paid and how long did you have to go to school for? And are you working in your studied field? I doubt it. And your pissed. That is what is driving this dribble.

Sorry, I agree with your premise - but this is not a good theory. There will always be people who are 'poor'. One only needs to look at the ANY stalinist state to see this. You cannot help those who refuse to help themselves EVEN if you force them. That is human nature and is the epitomy of 'freedom'.

Most economists say when employment levels fall to 1%, you start getting inflation. You already see it in Alberta. Wages continue to go up, then costs start going up. Most economists say that the "natural" rate of unemployment is 3-4%, some even say 5%. 1% unemployment is something that doesn't happen anywhere (unless you use some very, very restrictive definition of unemployment). As soon as you get to 3-4% you usually see quickly rising inflation. The reason we are not seeing double digit inflation in Alberta is because the rest of the country helps keep inflation down. If Alberta was an independent country, they would be looking at hyperinflation right now. That doesn't even make economic sense! clearly you are out of your element here. The term is 'structural' unemployment, not 'natural'. my goodness. The better measurement of REAL employment statistics is the 'participation rate'. Of which you have demonstrated here you have clearly no idea about. I pity you - as opposed to debate you.

To put it midly - Your argument is flawed. At present we have ONE supplier. Two tiered increases the supply - we all win. You only need economic 101 to know this. We share a health care system in common only with stalinist countries. This is a needless waste of longetivity to only satisfy union needs. It is ridiculous and it is causing lives. And yet you still argue for the status quo. You want to handcuff medical practitioners with needless ideology. accesible medicare for those that need. Private for those that can pay. Both win. Competition breeds efficiency and yet you insist in 2006 that this is not the case.. why? And please stop comparing two-tiered medical care to the USA. They have one-tiered as well - only it is on the other side. There are many many models that we can take best practises from without going to the US model which will have liberals in the streets. Medical care is beyond ideology or midless, knee-jerk anti-americanism. Dr's are not the issue - it is the system and your typical far left ideology that is causing lives. think about it. PS: there is not a monopoly in the auto industry. Your example is absurd.

This is a good example. The government has been saying we need more high tech workers, yet the market has been saturated with them. Does a GP have to be that much smarter than a computer programmer ? GPs get $300-400K/year, which is 3-4 times more than a programmer with a Ph.D. in computer science. Somehow, I don't think that GPs are that much smarter and I don't think that they need to make even more. First, GP's get paid to a business. Out of whioch comes all of their business expenses to pay their staff. Yes, that's right their receptionists, rent etc etc. Our GP's are grossly underpaid.

This is just wrong. Don't you ever get tired of being wrong?

The number of tax loop holes have no connection to the number of tax brackets that exist. I am saying that a system with 2 tax brackets is just as arbitrary as a system with 6 tax brackets. I feel it is a mistake to get hung up on number of tax brackets and if you want to reform the system you are better off focusing on the what really matters: the total tax bill paid.Personally, I think marginal rates that exceed 50% are excessive and reduce the incentive to work and are bad for the economy. However, I also think that any tax scheme that increase taxes on middle income earners in order to reduce the marginal rates for high income earners hurts the economy as well. I realize that you probably will argue that cuts in government spending could ensure that the taxes on the middle class do not go up but I feel that is a totally unrealistic point of view. Almost all government spending today is either mandatory (i.e. interest on public debt) or pays for services that have to paid for one way or another (i.e. health care, education, police and the military). So any significant cuts to gov't spending will increase the cost of living for the middle class which, in turn, will hurt the middle class in order to give the wealthy a break. That is why pure flat tax systems are a political non-starter in almost every country. That said, some countries like the UK have kept the tiered tax brackets but eliminated most deducations and created something that has many of the benefits of a flat tax system but does not screw the middle class. Exactly. The rich in Canada have been getting huge tax cuts over the last 15 years in order to offload more "user fees" onto the middle class. A flat tax will just further increase the burden the middle class for the benefit of a select few. Then those select few are allowed to take their multi-billion tax cuts out of our economy and invest it overseas. In the meantime our infrastructure is decaying, our investment in education and what makes an economy tick is falling further and further behind other developed countries. Pure unequivacle BS. This proves two things. You are not rich as you claim to be and 2) that you have no idea about the tax system. Tell me how many low income people were directly affected by getting rid of the capital gains tax?

Why was the country rich enough in the past and not now ? i don't think there was nearly as much programs back then, maybe they were better with money... I don't know. If canadian health care won't follow that idealism for a two-tiered set up then some guy who can't afford health care is in trouble as the better more skilled doctors/professionals gravitate towards the better paying private sector, no there needs to be regulations in this so that the doctors get paid a set wage (which is already a nice chunk of change) health gets delivered, and wait times reduced. It all comes down to the medical associations who do everything in their power (and they have a lot of power) to keep the number of health practitioners down to a minimum. Like everything else it's a question of supply and demand and since they cannot affect demand (demand is going up as it is with our aging population) the key to charging rediculous prices for their services is to keep the supply of health care professionals at the lowest level possible. In the meantime we have several thousand doctors washing dishes and driving cabs but they cannot be allowed to practise because that would lower the current doctors's wages and we all know that they can't possibly make ends meet with less than $400K/year. It is an artificially created crisis for the benefit of doctors (who expect a good raise when the system is privatised) and private investors and insurance companies (who expect to make $50 billion or so a year from a private system). My goodness. you are the most obvious socialist on this site. EVERYONE of the people who took medicine that I knew when I was in school has went to the US and stayed there. That was nurses and Dr's. Perhaps we could try to keep our own Dr's here before we try to have a guy trained in medicine who trained at the U of Mozambique qualified to do surgery here? But you're right - it's all the greedy Dr's fault. It is. In Canada we have fewer residency spots (you need to go through a 3-year residency program at a hospital to become a doctor) than the number of medical students graduating in the country. So, 1,500 students graduate and only 1,200 can train to become doctors. The rest can wash dishes or go to the US and practice medicine. The same goes for foreign doctors. They pass their medical exams (which puts them at par with a canadian graduate) but they can't get into the residency programs. So they go to the US. The proportion of immigrant health care professionals who leave Canada within 5 years of arrival is 3 times higher than the proportion of computer programmers who leave Canada, which is 3 times higher than immigrants in any other field of work. So we let them come here, pass the medical exams and then we ship them directly to the US to take care of american patients. And we wait 8 months to see a dermatologist. Aren't we bright! Good - get some private hospitals set up and increase the amount of residency spots available. Glad we agree.

You are mixing up small l liberals and capital L Liberals. I think he was referring to Liberals. therefore your dictionary definition is meaningless.

Why was the country rich enough in the past and not now ? i don't think there was nearly as much programs back then, maybe they were better with money... I don't know. If canadian health care won't follow that idealism for a two-tiered set up then some guy who can't afford health care is in trouble as the better more skilled doctors/professionals gravitate towards the better paying private sector, no there needs to be regulations in this so that the doctors get paid a set wage (which is already a nice chunk of change) health gets delivered, and wait times reduced. It all comes down to the medical associations who do everything in their power (and they have a lot of power) to keep the number of health practitioners down to a minimum. Like everything else it's a question of supply and demand and since they cannot affect demand (demand is going up as it is with our aging population) the key to charging rediculous prices for their services is to keep the supply of health care professionals at the lowest level possible. In the meantime we have several thousand doctors washing dishes and driving cabs but they cannot be allowed to practise because that would lower the current doctors's wages and we all know that they can't possibly make ends meet with less than $400K/year. It is an artificially created crisis for the benefit of doctors (who expect a good raise when the system is privatised) and private investors and insurance companies (who expect to make $50 billion or so a year from a private system). My goodness. you are the most obvious socialist on this site. EVERYONE of the people who took medicine that I knew when I was in school has went to the US and stayed there. That was nurses and Dr's. Perhaps we could try to keep our own Dr's here before we try to have a guy trained in medicine who trained at the U of Mozambique qualified to do surgery here? But you're right - it's all the greedy Dr's fault.