Visionseeker

It already has. Major government projects in China hit their peak in April and are now starting to decline. In addition, China is set to begin relaxing its domestic consumption subsidy program in September. The Chinese have known for 3 years that they cannot maintain their incredible growth streak indefinitely. But they've refused to take any action before the Olympic Games are over in order to avoid having economic protests and demonstrations mar their international image during the games. What many here don’t realize is that the recent Tibetan uprising was primarily fuelled by a consistent rise in the region’s unemployment levels following the completion and/or scaling back of massive infrastructure projects in the region. Tibet was, in a sense, an experiment in what to expect in China when the austerity belt gets pulled.

I’m opposed to “corporate welfare”, but do accept (and to some degree expect) government involvement in facilitating R&D, refitting or expansion that carries with it a return on investment in the combined form of repayments and creation of sustainable employment. This doesn’t mean that the repayment portion needs to be 100% plus interest (because one presumes that a company capable of satisfying those terms could simply raise the needed capital on the open market). Rather, the loans might be interest free until the plant opens, the product reaches the market or (in the case of PPPs) other investors have received a certain return threshold. Now some would say that these are all examples of corporate welfare, but I disagree. To me, corporate welfare is any state intervention that is growth neutral or negative. Basically, any “loan” that is solely motivated to keep a plant open and protect the jobs it contains is bad business and pork politics. In other words, the government can loan GM, Ford or others money to convert SUV manufacturing facilities into hybrid or other types of fuel efficient vehicles, but it cannot loan them money to keep the operation in the business of manufacturing SUVs.

Like carbon?

All parties suffer from a credibility problem, but the Liberals certainly suffer for all that went unfulfilled during their 13 years in power. But there were successes among those failures, most notably: slaying the deficit. This was a major undertaking and, the Liberals have a history for pulling-off major undertakings (WWII, post-war economic reformation, the Seaway, social programs, repatriating the Constitution…). The carbon tax sales job hasn’t even begun. Tax me when I spend, not when I earn may just have found a socially acceptable launching point. Dobbin seems to know his party rather well and is even prone to criticize it from time-to-time. He’s a refreshing contrast to the echo chamber of Conservative talking points that frequently flood these forums. I still give May an extremely outside chance of beating Peter "where's my dog" Mackay.

You’re right! I’m simply terrified by the prospect. I must bow to your prescience. BTW, can you give me a line on next week’s lotto numbers?[/sarcasm]

Let me see if I understand this. Your issue is that the images associated with the raid are allegedly misleading; maybe they were, maybe they weren’t. But how does any of this de-legitimizes the purpose behind the raid?

Indeed. If you gave me control over a campaign's advertisements, I'd turn them all into public education spots.

Campaigning on implementing taxes is rarely a wise move. Dion is certainly taking a risk here. But sometimes risk nets rewards. Dion might be on to something here that Canadians are warm to.

Well, I guess we'll be on different sides of the argument here. I tend to hold that Canada doesn't have a serious anti-American problem, just an anti-Republican problem. With the demise of the Bush administration, a new sense of optimism regarding US relations will emerge from Canada's left. That optimism will not benefit the Conservatives, but rather the Liberals and maybe even the NDP (though I wouldn't bet on the latter).

Economic Left/Right: -5.25 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.05 That puts me in the ranks of Ghandi, Mandela and the Dalai Lama. Good company and the makings of an interesting dinner party I’d say. But while this compass measures my personal preferences, it doesn’t measure my willingness to impose them on others. While I might strongly agree or disagree with certain statements, there are some that I could still live with if the nation went the other way. But there are others that are simply not negotiable. This compass measures some of my general beliefs, but it is my core beliefs that define my politics.

The Green Party is nothing more than a parking lot for voters who will eventually opt for the Bloc (in Quebec), the CPC, Liberals or NDP. The CPC is the least likely to benefit. The Liberals play with Green Shift gives them a strong leg up over the NDP in pulling Greens from that lot. The Greens will not get more than 4 to 5% at the next poll

Bilingualism is a merit criterion, just as knowledge of logistics, tactics, or other specialized skills that could come into play. Members of a fighting unit need to be able to communicate with each other. If you want French speakers in the ranks, their superiors have to be able to speak with them. It goes both ways, French speakers must learn English if they hope to advance.

The premise to your post was bleeding spite, so you can forget trying to claim the high road. This muddled mix of logic serves only to reinforce the perception of your bigotry. You could’ve made it more succinct and explicit by simply calling the French a bunch of draft-dogging surrender monkeys be they on the right or left side of the Atlantic. Many French Canadians served with distinction in both of the contests you cite. The 22nd and 60th battalions earned many honours in WWI at Mount Sorrel, Vimy… That these French battalions even existed is remarkable considering that the Minister of Militia and Defence (Sam Hughes) was a devoted senior member of the Orangemen. Having a minister of minister of war who was openly anti-Catholic served only to further alienate French-Canadians who tended to see WWI much like American isolationist did: a matter for Europe to resolve. As for WWII, again, French Canadians contributed substantially. Militarily, the clearing of the Scheldt stands as one of the most under-appreciated military victories of any army. Slogging through near-freezing water often waist or neck high, French Canadian troops faced off against some of the best trained and equipped SS divisions in the German army. The Germans had blown dikes to slow their opponents down and created battlefield conditions that made it “like WWI without the safety of a trench”. Every downed allied airman who evaded capture and returned to fly another sortie over Western Europe has a French Canadian to thank. For they dropped behind enemy lines and established the links, networks and communications with the French underground that ultimately made the coordination of the airman’s escape possible. The morbity rate of these intelligence operatives was terrible: 90% were killed (many experiencing extensive tortured, followed by execution) inside of 3 months in the field. I’ll close-off this part of my reply by disabusing you of the notion that your “Anglosphere” won WWII. The west certainly made valuable efforts in the campaign, but the USSR actually won the war. The Germen General Staff had concluded as early as the winter of 1942-43 that the war was lost because the Red Army had attained materiel parity with the Germans. This meant that the contest had come down to numbers (in men) and the Soviets had an unquestioned advantage there. Do you not see the irony here? I mean you write of your ancestors’ flight from Russian pogroms and proudly extort their surrender of their language as some kind of virtue. Hell, why couldn’t they just stop being Jewish and free themselves from being targeted by pogroms? I mean after all, they were willing to shed the linguistic arm of their culture in coming to America, why didn’t they save themselves the trip by dropping both the religious and linguistic arms back in Russia? No one surrenders their linguistic identity voluntarily. It takes coercion (be it aggressive or passive) for them to do so. Your ancestors dropped promulgation of Yiddish for their decedents because of passive coercion (i.e. it’s just isn’t what the cool people do here). Learning English was a functional necessity, dropping Yiddish was a cultural surrender. In Canada, both English and French stand as legitimate, functional languages. As the federal government answers to both linguistic communities, it stands to reason that it must do so in their language of choice. This necessarily means that the government is obliged to infuse all governing institutions with the linguistic resources needed fulfil this responsibility. Not just for francophones in Quebec, but also substantial French speaking communities in New Brunswick, north eastern and southern Ontario, Cape Breton island, St. Boniface Manitoba, North central Saskatchewan, and other communities clustered in and around most major cities. You ask “why should the rest of the country be forced to be "officially bi-lingual" when English is persecuted in Quebec?” Put another way, this question reads if Quebec persecutes linguistic minorities, the federal government should too. Even my 5 year old can recognize the empty-headedness of this argument.

IMO No. That swing would still be there regardless. Swingers identify themselves only at the polls. Also, counting out Dion is a mistake made by too many people in both academia and the Liberal party. The Conservatives have maligned Dion from day one. The act has proven old. They need something else to go on and I really have a hard time trying to figure out what that might be. They (the Conservatives) needed to raise their numbers by appealing to the centre at the outset of their rule. They didn’t do that and have thus labelled themselves in a niche. Harper could still win another minority, but he will have failed to deliver the ultimate prize of a majority and will be pushed to leave. Of all the leaders, the one with the best odd to survive the next election has to be Dion.

Right, crime is on the decline b/c people are too pissed with the police to report it. Irvin is the director of which institute exactly? Sounds to me like he’s more interested in his own continued research budgets than actual crime prevention. Crime and age demographics are correlated. We are getting older in Canada and therefore less likely to do B&Es, it’s as simple as that.

I don’t believe that the Conservatives’ “tough on crime” agenda won them any converts at the last poll. The latest crime figures tell me that the issue is unlikely to win them any converts at the next. I’d hate to be a conservative strategist right now. So much of the ideologically driven agenda is becoming more out of step with the times. They have their base (26-28%) and some swing (6-10%) to play with. But that won’t give them a majority at the next contest unless something earth-shattering happens in their favour. An Obama win in November would only serve to make matters worse.

Sure, I'll take the bait. Ron B. deserves our thanks for his service to his country, and his survivors have my sympathies. I know the man not beyond the caricature you have offered, and I am all but certain that he exhibited and possessed qualities and virtues worthy of remembrance. Yet you choose to inform us of his passing by stressing your shared antipathy. Why is that? Is this truly what Ron B. is to be remembered for? If Ron B. actually existed and held the views you profess, he dishonoured the very uniform he wore; by holding to a set of beliefs that denigrated one in five of his fellow service men and women, Ron B. raised his personal preferences above the need of the corps and the Crown. There are few unpatriotic acts more deserving of contempt than insulting the men and women who serve this country. The manifest belief that those who speak French should simply start speaking “White” is such an insult. That you should choose to levy it through a pseudo-obituary for a Canadian serviceman makes it all the more contemptible.

Raising the ante in a lawsuit is usually an act of desperation. Litigants who raise the bar are almost always bluffing. But then almost isn’t always. All the same, I have seen nothing to date to suggest anything other than the Conservatives will lose this case (with prejudice).

When the PM starts using language like “this will actually screw everybody across the country” and stands alone in that assessment, well, it looks like Dion reclaims the mantle of environmental steward. I have to look into this much further, but it would seem on the surface that the Liberals have a potential winner policy – one that has even recessionary appeal.

Hummm, is that what's pushing so many Americans to go to India for theirs?

Dion's numbers are no worse than Harper's were before the 2004 election. An election has a way of raising impressions of the contender, that's why the Conservatives have tried so hard to depict him as a weak leader. I think the Dion detractors on this board make the same mistake as his leadership rivals: to underestimate him, is to lose to him. The next trip to the polls will be quite interesting. I personally am looking forward to Dion trumping a good measure of Bloc support. He impressed many watching his appearance on Tout le monde en parle, and Harper is simply ill-equipped to be competitive with him in Quebec. Dion may be unseasoned as a leader, but as someone who has watched his improbable political career since the beginning, it is folly to call him weak.

It's over for Clinton. Losing in Wisconsin sends serious signals through the DNC. MI and FL cannot be brought into the equation w/o a redo, and Obama would likely perform too well for it to matter. Clinton not only needs to win both Texas and Ohio, but by a compelling margin (63-37). However both states are in play for Obama and I suspect he'll win one of them (and maybe both). Watch for more "superdelegate" defections (to Obama) as the week plays out.

How many people died in the securing and exercising of the women’s’ vote in the US compared to those who advanced the suffrage of blacks? Your measure of oppression is severely wanting.

I think you have hit on the argument that many in Dion’s caucus are advancing. And I also think there’s so truth to it. But at the same time, an election that reinforces the current stalemate gives Dion campaign experience and weakens Harper. If we go to the polls this spring, we will likely get an outcome that is similar to what we have in terms of seat numbers, but the riding by riding results could yield some interesting results in terms of Liberal momentum. If I were advising the Liberals, I’d say pull the trigger this spring with the understanding that the “real” battle will be fought in the spring of 2009 (assuming Dion doesn’t fall on his face).

Good post. But I will say that Harper "does" come across as a little "scary, scary" with the Keen matter and other HR moves.