Saturn

http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/020919/d020919a.htm

Right on! We ought to bring more people in and harvest their organs so you can have one. They can send a finger with their application, so we can ensure they make good donors for those on the waiting lists before they come. I say we deport you to Syria!

Yes, Canada's biggest polluters, which just happen to be energy, oil and gas companies, will take the Albertan oil sands and their coal burning electricity generating facilities and will move to China. Over there, they will extract the oil from the oil sands and generate the electricity we need and will ship it over here by boat. What a plan!

It's also ridiculous that you would measure pollution by area or by artificial political boundaries. The Chinese eat 40 times as much food as we do, so they must be horrible gluttons. Yes, you should be allowed to pollute as much as 20 Chinese people because it makes sense that the 20 of them together will eat as much as you do, will all share one car the same as yours and will use as much power as you do. It is your God given right to use as much resources and produce as much garbage as 20 Chinese because they are Chinese and you are Canadian, right? Wrong!

Ok, Liberal voters can foot the bill. Then Conservative voters can pay the $5 billion for the Afghan war, and the $15 B for military equipment and all the rest.

The issue here is that we are not talking about net debt at all here. It is the "Total Government Net Debt" (which I call Flaherty's net debt) that Flaherty is talking about eliminating by 2021. So we have: -current federal government debt: $480 B, projected in 2021: $403 B -current federal government net debt: $353 B, projected in 2021: $275 B -current provincial government net debt: $154 B, projected in 2021: $135 B -current local government net debt: $17 B, projected in 2021: $17 B -current Total Government Net Debt: $524 B, projected in 2021 $427 B. So how will the net debt be eliminated by 2021 when it will still be sitting at $427 B (even if the feds decrease theirs by $78 B and the provinces decrease theirs by $19 B )? Well, the assets fo the Canada Pension Plan and the Quebec Pension Plan are projected to grow from $110 B to $427 B in 2021. Ain't that nice? We'll just offset the net debt by those assets and get $0. The fact that these assets are not available to reduce the debt in any way shape or form (unless the government passes a bill in 2021 to say that it will not pay CPP/QPP to pensioners anymore and that it will be keeping the money instead), is our little secret and nobody will get it. In short: Mr. Flaherty looks great "eliminating" the debt by 2021. In reality, in 2021 the federal debt will be $400 B, the federal net debt will be $275 B, provincial debt will be around $150 B and the Total blah blah will be $0. And that's provided that economy keeps going as it is for the next 15 years and that the provinces experience some improvement in their fiscal situation, both of which seem rather optimistic to me.

China will NOT clean up if Canada, which is far richer and far dirtier than China, doesn't. The Chinese will point to us and say that we pollute 7+ times as much as they do and we don't want to take any action, so why should they? If we take action and responsibility for our mess, China will have to get on board. But right now we give them the perfect excuse not to.

You have no evidence that he was planning to blow up anything. In fact, a long inquiry determined that the RCMP had no evidence to claim that either. The RCMP got punished? I haven't seen anyone get punished for anything yet. Anyone who was involved in sending Arar overseas and anyone who was involved in the cover-up, the lying and the false leaks, etc. deserves not only a big slap on the head but also a discharge, a fine and a 100 days community service.

You should also send your bill to Mulroney for your portion of the $2 M he got for defamation even though 10 years later it still turned out that he took money from Schreiber. With interest, he should owe you 20 cents by now. And how about billions of tax dollars going to the tainted blood HIV, HEP C victims? You didn't give them tainted blood, did you? Or how about billions going to vets? I wasn't even born when they fought in WWII. Or the current soldiers and the families of those killed in Afghanistan. I didn't force them to join the army. Did you? Let's leave them without compensation because the Taliban is killing them, we aren't. They should get their compensation from the Taliban. You aren't complaining about the hundreds of dollars this kind of compensation is costing you but this is the 10th topic maniac MD has started about Arar this week and everyone is going on and on and on about their 1$ and Arar hasn't got a penny yet!

Last time I checked, Canada IS STILL a democracy. We ELECT our leaders, they run our government and our security services. In a democracy, it is ultimately the voter (citizen) who is responsible for what the government does. The RCMP may be at fault (which is run by Canadians coincidentally) but we also have collective responsibility for allowing such abuse to happen. I don't "stereotype" people as racist because I well know that if Arar were white Prairie farmer Smith, who ended up being detained by the US and sent overseas for torture because the Americans were falsely told by the RCMP that Smith was planning to blow up something in the US as he was pissed off at them for screwing the Canadian cattle industry, you would be thoroughly outraged and it would have never occurred to you to complain about your dollar! PS. You should also send your bill to Mulroney for your portion of the $2 M he got for defamation even though 10 years later it still turned out that he took money from Schreiber. With interest, he should owe you 20 cents by now. And how about billions of tax dollars going to the tainted blood HIV, HEP C victims? You didn't give them tainted blood, did you? Or how about billions going to vets? I wasn't even born when they fought in WWII. Or the current soldiers and the families of those killed in Afghanistan. I didn't force them to join the army. Did you? Let's leave them without compensation because the Taliban is killing them, we aren't. They should get their compensation from the Taliban. You aren't complaining about the hundreds of dollars this kind of compensation is costing you but this is the 10th topic maniac MD has started about Arar this week and everyone is going on and on and on about their 1$ and Arar hasn't got a penny yet!

Just as easy to say when your not the one paying the entire bill, your only contributing a dollar, as am I. Personally I'd rather look like a hero and not a treasure hunter but thats me, to each his own. Did the Jews that suffered a lot worse (in my opinion) during the holocaust get 37 million apiece from the German government, by your logic they're entitled to it. If he believes he should sue someone, he should sue the Syrian gov't for 37 million dollars, they are the ones that did it after all, and the government of Canada for it's part in it be his attorney and use whatever means necessary to pull it off. The people of Canada had no part in this. Fine, let the Canadian government abuse its citizens because otherwise it may cost you a dollar. Jews didn't get $37 M each (that kind of money doesn't exist on this planet) but the German government has paid out $7 billion since 2000 in compensation. If Lieback got $2.7 M for a coffee burn, I figure that $37 M for almost a year of torture in prison isn't all that much.

The whole country isn't paying for it. What's petty or much worse than petty is when our own security agencies, to whom we give billions of our hard earned tax dollars and who are supposed to protect us, conspire against Canadians, send Canadians off to be tortured thus breaking Canadian law, and engage in fraud and defamation. I haven't seen any of you say anything about that. I haven't seen you saying anything about Zaccardelli lying in the House and then walking away with nice fat severance pay for it. Instead, you are after the victims of this appalling abuse of authority and criminal behaviour. And you know what? I have far more respect for Arar for having the guts to expose it and for going through a very difficult and unnerving process than for any of your racist (that's what it really comes down to) mumbling. In his place, you most likely would have crawled into a hole and you would have let the abuse continue.

No. He was a 'computer technician' in Ottawa and lived in an arpatment building with his wife. His wife got a PHD yet never worked a real job until the NDP gave her a job in ottawa. Now she's teaching in Vancouver. Arar? lol.. he's not working. You piece of ..... I'm really fed up with your lying and your racist junk! You really think that there is no limit on how much you can abuse people's patience, do you?

That underlines what I've been saying. We shouldn't concern ourselves with this. I think 2050 is a perfect target for greenhouse gasses since we aren't even a major player and I'm not even fully sold on the theory anyhow. Use logic. US 24.09 Canada 23.45 China 3.05 EU 10.74 Mexico 7.04 Well, the fact we are not concerned with it should sure give the Chinese a big push to concern themselves with it. Especially seeing that a Canadian contributes 7 times as much GHGs as a Chinese person does, the Chinese will be right on it.

Good choice, indeed. Now you can afford the taxes so that they can get people's lunch choices on record I'd be very unlikely to ever consider police work unless I had a major problem professionally and found it difficult to find work (unlikely in my area). I get to do all the investigation, make twice the cash and not have to worry about picking up drunks and hookers for my first few years. Why be a cop? Maybe I'll start sending them my organizer week by week so they can save the money they spend on watching me. Douglas should have done that. It took them 40 years and nine volumes of records to not be even satisfied in the end that he wasn't planning a coup. They closed his file 4 years after he died, just in case he made it back.

No it's actually amongst the worst systems in the world (all of Europe generally does way better than we do)... it prevents freedom of choice and runs with every inefficency that a government program could possibly do. We don't have to look south to find how to change our system, it's best to look at Sweden, Norway or France and how well their systems work with a mix of free market and government enforced equality. Canada, Cuba and North Korea are among the only systems left with just government health care. Canada's health system is 30% private. Cuba and North Korea cannot be compared to what we have at all - health-care there is entirely managed by the government. One of the main problems with our health-care is that it is neither the feds, nor the provinces that manage it. It is the medical profession themselves. Hospitals are en large managed by doctors. I thought that doctors' specialty is medicine, not management but apparently they don't like the government interfering much with the actual delivery of health-care. Of course we could look at Europe for some solutions but over there there is a lot more government involvement in the system. Here the government provides funding and then bargains with the medical profession to get some services delivered for it. The last time the Ontario government sat down with the medical association it went like "We want more doctors." "Ok, you give us a 5% raise and we'll give you 200 more doctors". With this type of system and half as many doctors per capita, we can't have what the Europeans do. The only thing we can have is what we currently have or what the Americans do.

It's not Saturn, what do we do with the waste? Nuclear is the ultimate passing of the buck to future generations. I didn't say I agree. But it's not easy selling nuclear, the public is not to keen on it. You have to try some other options, show that they don't work (you make sure of it) and then you say "Well, nuclear sucks, but it's the best option available." And we pass the buck to future generations in many other aspects, so why not this?

Good choice, indeed. Now you can afford the taxes so that they can get people's lunch choices on record

CBCI think Schreiber is an example of German (European) politics and he translates badly into the Canadian political scene. If I'm right, Schreiber certainly walked on both sides of the street. Incidentally, there's a long thread here about Mulroney and Schreiber. Appears that with the foreign minister's help he will be around for quite some time...

Of course they did, but 800,000 plus thousands of organizations? That adds up to 1+% of the population over the last 50-60 years.

Who would have thought that the RCMP had enough resources to monitor 800,000 people + thousands of organizations? No wonder that they routinely screw up and the information they hand out is not all that accurate or just plain false. Which is nothing new btw. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2006/12/17/douglas-rcmp.html

Good thinking, C.A. If fewer people started voting, I may end up electing the government myself But seriously, any single person's vote is of very little significance, but the fewer people vote the more likely politicians are to abuse their powers (because nobody is watching) and you are going to pay for it whether you vote or not. It doesn't matter so much who you vote for as long as they know that you are watching. But for me optimization is a habit and I just do it whether it makes much difference or not - I'm just wired that way.

I've read articles about lots of people complaining that wind turbines are ugly and would take away from the view of the lake. Imagine that, ugly! Smog and asthma are much more aesthetically pleasing. Overall, this is BS in my opinion. Wind turbines work quite well elsewhere but not in Canada. They work just fine in very densely populated countries but there's no place to put them in Canada. And they are noisy. Coal is dirty and makes you sick! The real problem is that someone wants to sell us nuclear plants but first they have to show us that no other energy source is available. When we are convinced that nuclear is the only feasible way to go, they will make a good sale.

Your Canada sounds like some weird mix of the Soviet Union and 18th century US. You want people imported from overseas who work for food and a bed and have zero rights. Hmm, that sounds familiar - oh, I know, it's slavery. You want every village to elect to run its own affairs. Set up 13 education administrations, 13 health administrations and 13 administrations of this and that, so that the 4 Atlantic administrations have to argue over how to divide up the one brain surgeon among them and how to get him licensed in all 4 villages. Last time I checked 1 administration is sufficient for 32 million people, 13 non-competing parallel administrations are a huge waste. You want the 2% of special interests on every issue to make all decisions (hijack the outcome) or do you seriously expect all Canadians to vote on every issue and to be capable of making an even remotely informed decision on every issue? What's your informed decision on solving the PEI beat industry's problems? You want Canadians to drop out of school and compete with the developing world in the unskilled jobs market. Are you under the impression that Canada is very competitive in that market or are you planning for a closed economy here? You are going to ban unions in the public sector? I take it you really want the most incompetent people to run government (in other words those the private sector won't take). It's not enough that the politicians are incompetent. There is quite a bit of that happening already but you want even more incompetent losers in the public service. Overall, you want some mix of tall barriers interlaced with anarchism. Not in this world.

That group gave me nothing but at least it put its house in order fiscally (from which I benefit indirectly). It is that group that provided Harper with a vastly improved fiscal situation and a fat surplus, so that he can squander it on BS. Minority or majority, he would have done the same.