madmax

Well then, I guess there aren't any....

Abolish the Senate. Regardless, this thread is about Banning Senators from Fundraising for Political Parties.

The Senate is not used for that. Whats on paper and whats in practice are mutually exclusive. To suggest that the Senate represents regional interests is a Charade. The Senate Represents political party patronage. That is the reality. Its sad but true. There never was an NDP Senator. If u held an NDP membership and were appointed to the Senate, ones membership would be terminated. If you wanted to be an NDP member in the Senate, the Caucus which is still based on Parties, would not accept that individual. I believe there was a member appointed by the Liberals whom sat as an independent and said she was a NewDemocrat. But the reality is that person does indeed sit as a Liberal. I don't even know who this person was or if she ever once ran or held office? Regardless, it is because of that Principle of Senate Abolition that there are no NDP Senators or CCF Senators. It is the party that determines membership and revokes membership. Good Points of discussion. We certainly can do without the Senate. Not a Single Person in this Country would miss it or even notice its absence once abolished.

hmm, i will locate your sense of humour again, or find one for myself... either way one of us will benefit.

Wishful thinking.. Just so I understand this... Olsen, would confess knowing there was a death penalty? Homolka would risk rising above the fear of the Death Penalty to approach the police that ultimately convicted Bernardo? IIRC people are not happy with the deal the crown cut with Homolka because the evidence suggests she was the killer. Infact there appears to be less on Bernado compared to Homolka yet she got off with another deal. I believe we would just end up with more "Backroom Deals" like happens in the states. TO understand what a backroom deal is... Think of being drunk and having cocaine in your car and getting off scott free

There was a country that did it this way until about 10 years ago. 1) Once the ruling of guilt is determined. The head of the family gets to decide or be the spokesperson for the family on the choice of Capital punishment or Prison. The Courts then ask the Clerics to intervene if Capital punishment is chosen. The Clerics ask the Head for forgiveness and offer compensation to spare a life. The Head of the family can choose forgiveness compensation and walk away or he can continue to press for Capital Punishment. All this is done in the open. Its not backroom deals. Then.... IF the head proceeds to Capital Punishment. The Convict remains before the public as justice will be open and transparent. Then, after the 3rd time of asking the family head for giveness the Cleric stands aside. The Head of the court enforcement takes over to deliver Capital Punishment. A rifle is produced. The Rifle is then Given to the Head of the Family and he is to perform the Execution. Moments later... The Convict is DEAD.

IF I could only find the thread. One of our Alberta Posters predicted something very close to this happening almost 1 year ago.

Sure do. Most are now RedLobsters here. But... u can go to Belleville and eat at a Ponderosa. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponderosa/Bonanza_Steakhouse

You have undermined your own position. Unfortuneately u don't live in a perfect world and the justice system isn't perfect, anymore then some consider it justice. My feelings and emotions will have to take a back seat to reality. Every election cycle this topic comes up for discussion. It goes nowhere. Lets open up an abortion thread next.

I would not want anyone to be naive enough to believe that.

All good points in this thread and the posts above. To be fair. The CCF and its successor the NDP have always viewed the Senate for what it is. A place for political patronage rather then of Representation of any sort for anyone. Since those early days likely some 70 odd years ago, the CCF/NDP have never swayed on that principle and that is why there are no CCF/NDP senators. Ironically, like most everything in the Reform platform, Harper has shelved all principles in favour of political opportunity. Thus, Party bagman get these plum positions. On top of this, the Harper Conservatives have used the Senate, in a way that no other party has done. To overturn the elected body. No sober 2nd thought here for our 3day week warriors. While the concept of the Triple E senate is noble. The fact is, its another layer of government and one we can do without. The idea of electing a government to do things and another elected government to undo things is rediculous. Government is slow enough now, we don't need to have another body to undermine the will of our elected lower chamber. Regardless of this... The fact is, the Chamber is currently nothing more then Political Party Welfare for insiders. These 3 day a week warriors, what is it a 72 day work year? Spend their time on the tax payers dime fundraising for their party masters. This abuse of the Senate and the taxpayers needs to end. Canada would be better served if all these Senators retired but in the meantime, we could either have them work for US and not use their time Repaying their political party for the plum job.

Sounds like a good start. Senators should be impartial to influencing the lower chamber. Considering many are party hacks, bagman, cronies and other typical party backroom activists, of which many can't get elected are Gifted positions in the Senate for their partisan work. The favour should stop there.

C

I love Fantino.

LMFAO!!!

BULLSHT!!! You obviously aren't living near a private pay road! 1) We payed for and built the damn highway. 2) We aquired/Expropriated all the lands required to build the highway. 3) We put the tolls on the road to pay for those costs of the above. Cost to build Highway. Then this retarded idea happened This is the Express Toll RipOFF. Most expensive highway in North America. We are simply fools and patsies. 407 etr is nothing to cheer about or praise.

Cheapest/Most affordable delivery of Health Care comes from the Public Sector. The Most Expensives Delivery of Health Care is the Private Model. The Most effective and fair system of health care is Universal single payer. THe Most ineffective and beaucratic and litigous is Private Sector/Private insurance driven system. Therefore, if you can't afford to pay for the most affordable healthcare available or it cannot sustain the current burden, you must either reduce the service to what can be delivered and payed for, or you must let those who have the ability to pay more into our health care pay for the benefit of those based on need not greed or line jumping. All other options are folly driven by private sector lobbiests trying to get at the taxpayers trough. At the end of the day we get less and pay more. Others who say they can pay "more" for health care, but then say, they can't pay more to Healthcare are hypocrits. As I see it now, people can't seem to handle payments to AutoInsurance premiums, Home Insurance, etc, and they bitch and complain especially when seeing that "Competition" in the insurance industry is a myth, these people will be in no position to pay for "private health" insurance. And companies have no interest in coughing up monies in benefit plans any longer either. Those days are long gone.

I have yet to find a Police Officer in my region who wants the registry scrapped. I recall the pro registery forces gathering some steam, then having to go silent after this incident when a Northern Reeve lost his faculties and started shooting an officer. ----------------------------------------- A Huron OPP officer has died after being shot during a routine stop in Huron County. Const. Vu Pham was 37-years-old. He was a 15 year veteran of the Ontario Provincial Police. He was shot when he attempted to stop a vehicle on Huron County Road 12 north of Winthrop between Sawmill Road and Canada Company Road Monday morning. At a news conference Monday afternoon, OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino said Pham "intercepted" an individual, who is the same person who shot him. Fantino said the suspect is around 70 years old. He is in hospital but Fantino could not elaborate on his condition. Earlier both Pham and the suspect are officially listed as "critical" by the hospital. "(Pham) was just doing his job," Fantino said of the routine stop. Fantino expects the suspect to face charges, but did not give more details. Pham previously served with the OPP at detachments in Cochrane and Perry Sound. Saigon-born Pham was married with three children. Stunned residents watched in horror this morning as the Huron OPP shooting shattered the rural calm here Monday. Bonnie Glanville, who lives on the North Line, near where the dramatics unfolded, said she was getting a glass of water and looked out the window to see a truck being pulled over by the OPP and thought she was watching someone get a speeding ticket. “I realized something wasn’t quite right when he quickly jumped out of the truck,” she said, adding that she then heard shots and saw the officer being shot a couple of hundred feet from her house. Unconfirmed reports suggested Pham was shot in the head. Faith Weber, of Brussels, who was driving home from work at the time, said she was flagged down by another motorist who told her not to drive any further along County Road 12 because of a shoot-out happening further down the road. “I got out of my car and I could see an officer on the left side of the road out in the open and a shooter lying in the ditch with a rifle on the right side and they were shooting at each other,” she said. “You could hardly see the guy in the ditch but the officer was in a clearing with no cover.” Weber said she thought she saw the officer being hit by a bullet when he recoiled back. “But, he kept shooting,” she said. Neil McGavin, of Walton, was tapping trees in a nearby sugar bush when he heard shots firing near the farm of Lorne Glanville. “There was a lot of shooting. There must have been 20 shots. Then, I heard sirens,” he said. OPP crime units, traffic units and a mobile command unit converged on the scene to conduct the criminal investigation. Media from throughout Southwestern Ontario also gathered in the area. Residents in the nearby hamlet of Walton were shocked. "People just can't believe it happening in a tiny place like this," said Ann, clerk at a country store and feed depot. Several residents gathered in groups to talk about the shooting. "We heard (the suspect) was pulled over and got out of his truck, grabbed a gun from the back seat and opened fire," said Darrell Dalton, 28, whose brother was cutting wood nearby at the time of the shooting. "My brother said he heard 10-15 shots." In Seaforth, the reaction was similar. "It's just terrible" said Ina McGrath. "They (police) are just doing their job, protecting us.. It's just not fair. This is a real shock to me. We live pretty quiet here." Ontario's Special Investigations Unit, the province’s police watchdog agency called in during cases of civilian injury or death involving the police, is “probing the circumstances,” surrounding the shooting. Nine SIU investigators are working on the case, said spokesperson Monica Hudon. Reading from a news release, Hudon said the SIU would only release the following information: "The OPP reported that at approximately 11 a.m., OPP officers became involved in a standoff with a man at 82352 North Line in Huron County. (The officer) was wounded and has been taken to Victoria Hospital (in London) for treatment." She declined to comment on the condition of the officer. "We are investigating what led to this man's injuries." Fantino was rushed by helicopter to the London Health Sciences Centre to be at the stricken officer's side, and is expected to also head to the shooting scene. Mary Cardinal, administrator of Seaforth Community Hospital, said a patient from the incident was brought in mid-morning, spent an hour being stabilized and was sent to a London hospital. Provincial police blocked off the road for most of the day during an investigation of the shooting. -------------------------------------------- The 70-year-old man identified as the suspect in the shooting death Monday of a Huron OPP constable is a retired logger whose marriage recently fell apart, a work colleague says. Police Tuesday identified the suspect as Fred Preston of Burk's Falls, a small community between Barrie and North Bay. John Kerr, owner of a wood-carving business in Gravenhurst, said Tuesday the white pickup truck in a Free Press aerial photograph of the shooting scene belongs to a man named Fred Preston who makes chainsaw carvings for him. He said Preston has family in the London area. He described Preston as a "mellow, quiet, nice guy." He said that despite his age, Preston was a moose hunter and "tough as nails." Preston is in critical condition in hospital with gunshot wounds after a close-range shootout took place between a man and police near Seaforth on Monday. Sources say Preston suffered "several" gunshot wounds. No charges have been laid. Kerr said he knows Preston as "a nice, quiet guy" who married his childhood sweetheart and who split with her months ago. "She decided she wanted to separate all of a sudden and he couldn't figure out why," Kerr said Tuesday. She moved to Gravenhurst and he moved into an apartment. "He was getting upset because he was losing stuff everywhere," Kerr said. Nevertheless, he said, Preston's wife was with him less than two weeks ago during a carving festival in Gravenhurst. He recalled Preston telling him about a week ago that he, Preston, needed to move a family member to London. Kerr said Preston had previously mentioned he had a daughter or daughter-in-law "down London way." That information could not be confirmed by The Free Press. On Tuesday, Kerr said, the wood carver's daughter-in-law phoned and asked that Kerr stop selling Preston's sculptures because Preston was in hospital in critical condition. Kerr said Preston carved large sculptures -- including bears and horse's heads - that were all less than three metres tall because that's the largest that could fit into the bed of his white Dodge pickup. Shown a Free Press image of the crime scene, Kerr said the truck in the image belongs to Preston. Fred Preston was also reeve of Joly Township in 2000, township chief administrative officer and clerk Gerry Whittington said Tuesday. But Whittington wouldn't confirm if that's the same Fred Preston identified Tuesday as being from nearby Burk's Falls, between Barrie and North Bay. Whittington said he hadn't seen Preston recently but that would not be unusual because the former reeve rarely stopped by the municipal office. He said he would only be spreading rumour if he speculated whether the former reeve would have reason to be in southern Ontario. He didn't know Preston well, except that he was a logger who was either retired or semi-retired. Elgin Schneider, mayor of nearby Sundridge when Preston served as reeve of Joly Township, was shocked by news of the shootout. "If it's the same Fred Preston I know, it's totally out of character," Schneider said.

Attack adds work. They drive down voter turnout and reduce the value of democracy to that of a partisan. People get turned off by the spin, give up that anything can be changed and become accepting of bad government, because the attack adds label the other choices as worse. This is what the Conservatives desire as they are the party in power. Remember this tactic worked for the Liberals for over a decade. They were able to get away with attack adds. It didn't work for Kim Campbell against Jean Chretian, but that is a different kettle of fish.

The Conservatives spend like Republicans and act like Republicans. The Conservatives Create the Budget, not the Opposition. The Conservatives created the Cuts that made it impossible to pay the bills. The Conservatives blew the previous surpluses within a few years of take power. By the time they had called an election in 2008 the cupboard was bare just like their principles. The Conservatives (seems everytime in power) Reset the Bar for RECORD DEFICITS!!! Conservatives supporters blame everyone but their party. They cannot find themselves in the mirror.

And Nutbars

THanks for the update. The Writings and Publishing of Political Education Materials, I have found invaluable. THese publishings were clear and concise. I always looked forward to reading the latest release. And don't let that yank JBG fool ya , For a Merican, he knows more about our country then many who live here. Been a great run, lets hope that there is other sources of funding in the near future.

Hmm, I am guessing.. Rhino Marxist Lenninists or Communist but really, how could u waste your vote. U don't repeal Gravity when you have The Natural Law Party http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Law_Party_of_Canada

407 is Private Highway... ENJOY

LOL