madmax

As you are responding to the Harper comment. 1) Fixed Election date was set for Sept 2009 2) There was no "parlimentary majority" in Sept 2008, the year Harper shiite on his own lawn. 3) He saw political opportunism to seek a Majority. 4) The Electorate had no interest in an Election 5) That suited the Prime Minister Fine, he still wanted his majority. 6) Almost got a majority proving that Political Opportunism supersedes Principles. That pretty much set the tone for A Prime Minister who has become a dictator within a Minority government. Its likely the main reason why he will never see a Majority. It is clear he cannot be trusted and has proven to be runnning the Tyrannical Dictatorship rather then the "Happy Dictatorship" of CHretian. Yet he is proving to be far more damaged goods then Chretian. It may take more years to bear this out like it did Chretain.

I have always thought that PETA was Conservative like Fox News. They behave in a similar manner.

I hear what WB is saying. And its very true that CR has defended every action and I have yet to hear CR speak in any other light. Regardless, Following this thread, and knowing a fair bit about the DCE and what really did go down from 2005 onwards, its always better not to wade into the quagmire. However, in this particular thread, CR has done an admirable job of presenting the facts without going on any tangents or straying to far from the argument put forth. Personally, I have seen the photos of the Police dragging Six Nations residents onto the DCE in order to taser and arrest them. I have yet to read Christie Blatchfords book. But it would seem to me that in her television interviews she considers Gary McHale just another regular citizen. From that point forward, I realize I can only take her book with a grain of salt. At the end of the day, there are two groups of people let down by a land dispute and the People who have been MIA are the Federal Government. And, CR, I have heard Nothing to suggest that McGuinty is going to transfer the DCE. Considering there has been no progress on the Welland Canal.. Burtch, or basically anywheres else PERIOD, I have no idea where u came up with this mythical gift from the province. Good luck with that.

I was watching this and stopped at the 3 minute mark. It appears the Blockade on one side was coming down and then it appears that a counter protesting group decided to put up their own blockade, essentially doing the same thing. I will watch the rest later.

LOL, Good luck with that thought.

Why So Serious

For the record of this thread and entertainment value. Outlaws..

yes we do. That is an excellent followup to where I would have taken the discussion myself. You'd be a fun guy to have a beer with lol. I was going to bring up Iacocca myself as I was reading the thread, Glad that u did. You have pinpointed the differences in management styles and corporate structures.

It can be. Each situation is different, but there is a need for homecare. Very Interesting comment. It already exists. Each Municipality decides whether they will cover travel costs for someone on OW involved in work or training. 1)If there was a volunteer sheet. That would be good. 2) Can the Senior afford to pay half, and how many hours? 3) Can the gov afford transportation 4) You as anyone else should know that any monies earned while on Ontario Works is deducted and will continue to be deducted. You are suggesting that the government pays in an Xtra $5/hour on top of what the Current $585. 5)In effect You are encouraging an Ad Hoc Guaranteed Income for a select group. 6) Welfare pays $585 per month for a single individual living in Toronto. 7) The reason your idea is unlikely to fly is... Regardless of all the clawbacks and quicksand that keep people caught in the welfare quagmire, there are training programs available (AT TIMES) that allow a prospective client to take on a train for a position such as PSW. They then leave the Welfare system and work for Agencies for the minimum wage and roughly $10.25/per hour. Then there is the trips to the food bank if they are unable to locate a Full 40 hours of work as many psw employment in homecare is under 20hours and it is often the same 20 hours that the families require support for their elderly. THere is no more available funding for more hours of health care service. Bottom line Argus. If the money isn't there, any program is going to struggle. Being as your are a Bean Counter. 1) Do the math to generate the revenue. 2) Do the cost analysis of the program. Demonstrate the net benefit and the service provided. My guess is that your program, $10.00/hour and no clawback, will cost the government ALOT more money. However, I am only skimming the surface of this just as your post is blue skying. At the same time, I wouldn't want someone unqualified taking care of a member of my family. Something which your proposal doesn't address.

Well said..

I stopped following Ekos polls because they use prompting of party names. It has always skewered the results and have proven to be no where near accurate particularly with regards to the Green Party numbers. I am surprised that they would go down this path again as it becomes much ado about nothing. Another polster used to do the same kind of prompting (Don't consider this something nefarious, its just a different way of sampling the public) But then realized everytime they were saying numbers like 13% and 9% that the outcomes were between 2% and 6% and doing no one anygood. Put in perspective, at the height of the Vietnam Civil war, with the Baby Boomers then in their teens and 20s being a significant force and movement in the United States, were still looking at Nixon as President for 2 terms. 25 years later these people are voting for Bush...twice. So, perhaps Ekos has a poll with little to talk about. The numbers of the Libs and Cons remain in minority and within the margins of error. How does one report a poll that says... Hey look , its the same as last month...and the month before and same as the year before and before that too. Looks like Deadlock. Thats the story.

What I sense, and what I have even seen on this forum, when people like Guyser, Wild Bill, Argus and myself come to agree on something, it has more to do with a government that is not listening to the electorate or see things on the ground level that are not being addressed, and while each of us may address it differently or converge together on it, the fact remains, we see the problem, and it would appear the government of the day doesn't. Perhaps shocking to me was all of us sharing a similar feeling regarding Fantino, and yet the 4 of us come at issues from very different angles. And yet Fantino was elected. However when I look at the Municipal elections I see a pot pourri of outcomes vs a right or left shift. Cam Jackson (Right) was swept out of Burlington. Rob Ford gets in not because he is brilliant, or people think his way is the best, but because he was the only candidate resonating with a frustrated electorate while those who did good things were still on "Things are Ok here" when there was an underlying problem on the street. Any candidate could have captured that mood. But only Ford Choose did it. ANd yes I consider him a buffoon and he will make some terrible decisions for Toronto. But was there any reason why some other candidate couldn't have said, yeah, lets cut out the coffee and lunches on the taxpayers dime , and continue with the light rail project? Or offered an alternative to the $60 Tax on cars that was at best just a money grab and at worst stupid? Marie Trainer (I think she is PC) mayor of the county was defeated by Ken Hewitt who is to the left of her, but was more outspoken and active. He heard the people of Caledonia and was rewarded. And few know he dropped his hard edge on the caledonia issue over a year ago. The Right in Brant Stepped down and the Left Swept back in Municipally so it not right left. The Right was marching Forward, but they found themselves like Joe Pants. Marching alone. Meanwhile in the Sudbury the moved from the left to the right. It seems whereever the incumbents were and weren't in tune enough to the public, they were swept out. I think that is what politics is about. Each politician running had a chance to hear the voters and to address their concerns. On the election day the voter make there final say on who they think heard them best. Its interesting what (Evening Star) are saying about Windsor, I haven't lived there since the early 90s.

Back to the beginning. In the 1990s, Auto industry, but more importantly alot of other North American Industry relocated to Mexico to take advantage of the lower labour costs with the advent of "Free Trade". In the mid and late 90s, key industry returned and continued operations to compete with the lean mean Canadian operations that generated High Quality, Little Waste and decent profits in a JIT environment. There isn't much more stress involved then being in a zero waste environment and JIT processes with $100,000 fines per day hanging over your head. (one of the biggest problems with Asian Production has been Trade and Patent Violations and knock offs along with poor quality control, with the latter industry is turning a blind eye towards because of the volume of production often is in margins just above the costs of the Raw Materials.) which is why the assemblers regardless of origin must deal with the Garbage in Garbage of the Auto Industry. That said Autoproduction and controlls are still better today then they were 30 y years ago. Just as the quality was better in the 1980s then in the 1950s etc. But there is little doublt that the auto industry has taken a big step back, and seeing Toyota recalls hitting the highest levels in their history, only goes to show the China Experiment, has come with some quality issues and Toyotas specs are challenged too late in the design process when they are Inaccurate. Regardless, in the early 2000s, the Automotive industry, lead by the Mother of Auto, GM, make an executive choice to move operations to China and Mexico. Suppliers, profitable quality suppliers in Canada, received letters telling them to prepare to relocate because the Main Operations of ASSEMBLY would be done in these countries. In the meantime, GM, Ford, Chrysler were getting "TECHNOLOGY" grants that were huge in dollars while having little strings. GM laid off Hundreds of Engineers while the grant monies flowed in. Soon the announcements of the relocations followed. But as they were moving, they were caught in chopping off their knees which was making these moves more difficult. More monies were required to do so and the goal of ALL corporations is to get some other Sucker to pay for it. (Think of a Football team and Stadium). On top of this ... the wealthiest of the wealthy were not detered by the Kenneth Lays of the world and the Corporate Ponzi schemes of our financial Whizzes got exposed. CAPITALISM (like in 1929) had no clothes. Because little can contain the damage that Greedy Fraudulent People can do to the money markets. In Canada, with our Protected Banks (The ones Martin and Harper wanted to Deregulate , fools that they are, we would have no banks within 3 years) the damage was minimal. But in the US, the damage was Enormous. With American banks unable to process loans (They had NO money), And with companies unable to pay bills to their Northern Neighbours (The banks had no moneys to release) everything went on a holding period for 3 months to 9 months. Yes Capitalistic Bankers were at the trough Asking for the largets Government bailouts in the History of the United States. And they got it. How this all reflects on the little guy .... well, we just read the corporate owned media, say corporate slogans and find some obscure whipping boy to deflect attention. I read alot crazy stuff by talking heads in the Business community. I don't think, these people represent anyone I know in the business community that is honest and hard working and cares about the product and company they are building or part of. But there is a bigger dirtier element out there. And they are messaging a bunch of BS to keep people from turning their attention to their transgressions. As soon as Corporate propoganda is replaced by hard work ethic and honesty, instead of short term financial doublespeak and schemes, will this country and the rest of the global community get back to standing upright and with both feet planted. Post spin and you will be spinning your wheels. This is a political forum, expect alot of spinning. Yes our economy and structure of our economy is for more complicated and intertwined, then the simplist mudslinging within this thread. Some of the posters I know are better at their jobs then they are at this subject, be it mass production of public sector analysis. But if they took the time, they have the smarts, knowledge and brains to do an accurate appraisal of the situation.

Those who know the least about the automotive industry tend to spread the biggest myths. Just a form of corporate Welfare. Corporate Welfare has been with Canada since before Canada existed. Just as Banks and Insurance companies are protected industries, with protected markets and government handouts. Regardless, the NA Automotive industry has been joined at the hip with all the other Auto "Foreign" manufacturers for over 30years globally. Same goes for suppliers. Meanwhile, has our Federal Government run a record $50Billion deficit? Yes. Are they giving money away they don't have? Yes. Is the Ontario Provincial Government running a Record $20Billion deficit? Yes. Are they giving money away then don't have? Yes. In the meantime, the Phoney war is being fought. Elimination of Government services to the Private Sector. Essentially contracting out Public Sector work to Large American Firms who specialize in obtaining Pork Handouts and sweetheart deals from Governments. Reducing public sector payrolls while private sector contracting cost go through the roof. Now, I am not the one to defend Argus and his Public Sector job and all of his holidays and his bad attitude. But do you really want to toss him out of work.

Its still early. These are the polls of today. If an election were today based on the current polls, the outcome would likely mimick the poll. However, the Election is still 10 months away. And think what u like about the Ontario Liberals, they are masters at campaigning, dirty tricks and photo opp announcements. Pork will be flowing into ridings etc. On top of that Ontario is NOT BC. The OLPC should be at 18% or 22% but they are not. And the PCs are getting a dead cat bounce from people dissillusioned with the Ontario Liberals. But in a nutshell, people in Ontario are still tuned out. But when they tune in, it won't take long to undress the PCs, bump up the Liberals a few % and they are back on the margins of majority/minority gov. I Believe they will come 1 or 2 seats short of a majority. I believe the PCs will pick up many seats, (regardless of the fact they are useless) but not enough to get anywheres near a majority. I also believe the ONDP are going to remove Liberal Seats in the North. If I believed that the ONDP could take Duncan and Pupetellos ridings then I think the Liberals would be in trouble, but I think they will hold. Seats like Hamilton MOuntain should go NDP based on polling data, and I have already seen some of my PC friends actually take an NDP membership thinking it will help get rid of the Liberal. But even then, it would seem to me like it will be a dog fight. Liberals actually have to leave the ship for this riding to switch. And Liberals react to "FEAR" and using the fear tactic is always a better way to HOLD seats then it is to gain them. I wish that the Ontario Public was more in tune to grassroots politics that exists in BC. (Although BC politics has always puzzled me, I guess that is part of what comes with the turf) Its a long ways to an election. I want this band of Ontario Liberals reduced. We will see where the tea leaves land in the following months. We still have 3/4 of a cup left.

Be serious! Its a fixed election date. Bang the drum LOL. Care to go back to the thread on Hudaks Position on PCs taking Political donations from Public Utilities? I enjoy you posting flaws in the current McGuinty Government. Regardless the Official Opposition has no clothes.

I enjoy reading alot of bad ideas...

LOL Rob Ford LOL You poor suckers..

I am surprised there isn't more talk about Carole James Resignation, but then again Campbells didn't get alot of action here either. I want to thank BC. BC Politics adds a unique flavour to the political scene. I Like it!!! Its always difficult to follow or understand if you aren't from the region.. But there is still such a strong populist element alive and well, it makes things interesting and makes voting more appealing. To think Campbell shed to 9% and even then the NDP run their own Leader out of town. But in Ontario, we have McGuinty sitting quite comfortable in the polls where he should be in the Teens and our main opposition is a hypocritical PC party which supports and opposes the HST at the same time. Congrats BC... On top of that, I see the Recall being put to use. This has demonstrated what happens to a government and an opposition leader when they become out of touch/isolated from the people and respond only to advisers and lobbiests and big corporations and global trade lies/deals.

Bump

Why would they vote for the man (Hudak) who pushed us into this mess? Why would anyone vote for Hudak, who cannot stand up to the HST. Hudak is a pretender. The policies will be just as bad as the Liberals. So far the only difference between McGuinty and Hudak, is the public has yet to discover that Hudak is full of it and they know Mcguinty is. But this is not 1995. And many of those people who voted in Harris are now reaping the harvest of the legacy he left. McGuinty did not change the course of Harris. Infact, thats what makes him a Liar/Fibber/Pinochio... etc. We haven't had a good government in this Province for over 2 decades. I see there is potential for one, but I don't think they are ready. The other two are DEE and DUM... BULL and CRAP Full and IT I am thinking for our benefit, we get a Minority Government. No McGuinty is not winning another term.

Speedway and Motocross

My observation is similar to yours in this regard.

Harpers Senate Commitments. Triple U Senate Unelected Unaccountable Underhisthumb The only difference between the Conservatives and the Liberals is that Harper said the Liberals Could use the Senate to overturn the democratically elected house, where as with the Conservative Party, they actually did it. I believe this shows Harpers True Character. He is a pointificate of principles but has none of his own. Its time to get rid of the Senate, its time to get rid of the Conservatives too. I have no idea how the values of two different parties who merged could be thrown in the trashbin, for expendiency of power. Its proof that all those reform ideas will never go anywhere because it relied on people with principles and intenstinal fortitude to follow through. Everything about this Conservative Government is a sham. Shame on them, SHame on the Senate. I believe there will be more populists movements once again, and these band of CRAP will be reduced to the other side of the chamber within another minority parliment. And there lapdogs in the upper chamber... One day this gravy train will come to an end.

I have met many a Centre Right, Right Wing Urbanite who knows nothing about Rural issues or cares one bit about them. The people who tend to care about Rural Issues are RURAL Canadians, be they left or right. The dominance of Urban influence on rural issues is always a threat to rural communities. What is more important then slandering some left right divide on rural communities is to make sure rural communities still have the power to elect an MLA, MP, MPP who can represent their issues well against the larger Urban voice. Perhaps the NDP in your area has lost that ability, or the public no longer feel that they do. I can tell u in Ontario, the Conservatives have nothing short of contempt for Rural communities unless the issue is about their retirement home/cottage which is often in the $500,000 to MULTI MILLION $ paradise. I watch as some urbanites spend 500,000 on landscaping alone. But this hardly reflects the feelings and issues most traditional rural Canadians face. IIRC Ontario Northern Rural Area is virtually Orange, and on the Federal Scene, I believe the NDP has the biggest mix of Urban and Rural seats which makes for interesting times. However, I am not one to believe that a political party is better at representing the rural voice better then another. Only a local strong voice can do that. In the meantime, here, when I see Jerks like Ritz crap on our Rural community and farmers (glad that clown is gone now), I can tell u that the right has no strangle hold on the rural voice. If I had to take a guess on a federal MP from the right who likely held a strong voice for the rural pop, It could be Inky Mark. However that local community could answer that better then myself. When I think of someone on the left representing the Rural Voice, I can easily picture John Rafferty. Now, if you want to find a Rural voice within the Liberal Party... that is currently something difficult for them to achieve. Someone would have to step up to the plate. What is important is for rural communities to maintain balance within the electoral system. I always fear one day the ridings may be jerry rigged to silence their voices. The PCs did that in Ontario. Amalgamation was brutal on rural communitees and sucked the political process away from the people and took the rural resources to the cities. The Rural communities got the Cities Garbage. Fair Trade???