Visionseeker

And here's another rule of economics - when your labour is too expensive, investors look elsewhere. Nice oversimplification. The return of troops from WWII and re-conversion of industrial output to peacetime products limited the potential for serious growth in employment. The jobs that did exist had to belong to repatriated troops, women HAD to step aside. As for single incomes, these were largely made possible by protectionism (i.e. modern mercantilism) and the monopolization of industrial processes. The world (particularly a reconstructing Europe) was left to buy our radios, fridges, cars, can-openers, etc... or do without. But once Europe and Japan regained their footing, things started to change and when someone realized that the can-opener could be made at one-tenth the cost in the developing world, well, the house of cards began to collapse and the value of labour was to undergo a significant readjustment. You can't. Because the global economy is no longer beholden to North American monopolies. Now we have to compete. If wages aren't competitive, investment moves elsewhere. More importantly, if your tax base isn't replenished, social programs (like pensions and health care) become unsupportable.

If the Tories send him, they come across as sweeping the matter under a rug and protecting Mulroney's "ill-gotten" $2.1 million settlement. No, as unpalatable as it will be to them, they'll have to keep Karl around for the inquiry. Otherwise, they'll have to wear the scandal and can forget Ontario in any election. IMO, they're better off with Schreiber here to testify. For it opens the door to the government sueing Mulroney to get its $2.1 million back. And that would be an action that could win votes.

Once the Mounties radioed "code blue" (not red as narrated), I cannot understand why he didn't initiate first-aid CPR. I can accept everything that comes before this, by why the #$%& didn't he start CPR? It might not have saved him, but at least he should make an effort. That is, unless his training tells him that the TASER has already killed the "suspect". The victim clearly demonstrates respiratory anomalies in the beginning of the film. His breathing patterns would be consistent if he'd just vaulted 20 flights of stairs. Clearly, this was not a pulmonary (and probably cardiovascular) healthy man. That being said, without a defib, the guy was done once he was TASED IMO. Sad really. If what I read in the media is right, then this guy died because he wanted to see his Mommy. So much so that he took a fatal tantrum. I don't blame the Mounties for subduing him, but I do question their attempts to protect him.

You #$%&ing a-hole, I got beer coming out of my nose because of you. I feel awful getting a laugh out of this situation.

I would not trade spots with Rob Nicholson for anything at the moment. He really is in an unenviable position. While the law tells him that extraditing Schreiber is the proper thing to do, politics tells him it would be foolish to do so. As stated in an earlier story... However, slightly more than half of respondents believe Harper may have covered up what he knew about the Schreiber's claims: Total believe: 51 per cent Strongly believe: 17 per cent Somewhat believe: 34 per cent Somewhat disbelieve: 19 per cent Strongly disbelieve: 14 per cent Total disbelieve: 34 per cent Donolo said the results show Harper has not fully succeeded in distancing himself from the affair, despite repeated statements he has never personally dealt with Schreiber. The prime minister has also said he never received a copy of a letter addressed to Mulroney that Schreiber sent him. Schreiber Poll ...deporting Schreiber now would inflame talk of a cover-up. No matter how clean Harper's hands are, the optics are terrible. Now Nicholson has given Schreiber 15 days. Which is really intended to give the Conservatives 15 days to gauge where this issue is going. But you can't take a time-out on issues that belong to the opposition. Nicholson has given all opposition parties a time defined gift that will let them embarrass the government into keeping Schreiber here.

21/21. Perhaps we will attend the same ceremony.

For starters, Canada is not Australia. Nor is it the USA for that matter.

Not true. The Conservatives showed little true interest in senate reform until its most recent incarnation. The Reform Party was ultimately born from the intransigence of the Conservatives on the issue of the Senate. The Senate has generally been a benign institution which in modern times has only exerted its power in the face of strong public opposition to Parliamentary endeavours (eg the GST); which is rather ironic as it was intended to be an institution that would insulate government from the inflamed public whim. Canadians largely accept the benign nature of the Senate or would be pleased to see it abolished. The number that would have it empowered and legitimized is a minority that continuously fails to make an effective case for an effective senate.

You're absolutely right on that score geoffrey, the Constitution Act, 1965 placed a mandatory retirement age of 75 on senators and it required no provincial approval. Eight year term limits would be in keeping with the concept of limiting terms of service.

Enough with the silly accusations about polls already. You and Capricorn have tried to make the point (and failed IMO). Besides, someone like you accusing another of bias is a meaningless pot-kettle thing. Moving on... How many of the polls showing the Conservatives leading by significant margins are from Ipsos? It is fair to say that the Conservatives have at times shown leads (as confirmed by more than one firm), but the trend of returning to statistical ties seems equally unassailable.

Junior civil servants don't decide on their own to write briefs to avoid blame. Rather, senior civil servants order such briefs for that purpose. It may be that the highest ranks of the CS are doing the shielding from the political class, or ranks just below are shielding from the higher ups, either way, we have a Justice Department that is preoccupied with fear. Sounds like our neighbours to the south, doesn’t it?

Indeed. One is called willful negligence while the other is simple, negligence. Seems to me like a classic case of avoiding the problem in the hopes that it goes away.

The verdict is in... M.Dancer leaves Leafless unclothed and battered. It was actually quite stunning to see Leafless keep coming back to be slapped down again and again. Leafless’ contention of Quebec’s artificiality because they benefit from federal transfers must be heartening to the Maritimes and other equalization beneficiaries. But the real “steeping in it” moment came when Leafless associates Trudeau’s opposition to Meech and Charlottetown as somehow the source of the notion of Quebec as a distinct society. Durham belongs in history books, but is entirely unworthy of sterile panel coverage. His historically defining moment was to advance contemporary common wisdom with an ample supply of (as Leafless and others demonstrate) enduring intolerance.

Well, with the PM's announcement yesterday, it would seem that an investigation is in order. By order of a Conservative, not Liberal, PM.

Uh, no. The Church has always stood in opposition to the pursuit of knowledge and truth. Whether it be, Copernicus, Galileo or Scopes (to name but a few), the Church has actively suppressed scientific inquiry and, more importantly, dissemination from almost the beginnings of Christianity. Much of what we tout as western knowledge and innovation born from the "enlightenment" were actually old ideas. Rediscoveries of practices and creations of ancient cultures (Greeks, Romans, etc...) and more recent ones from the Muslim reaches of the world. Western civilization collected and studied such knowledge in spite of the Church and continues to do so to this day (embryonic research). Cough! Europe was a constant staging ground or recipient of invasion and war through much of recorded history. In fact, I defy you to demonstrate one century of that history that could be characterized as "peaceful". From the wars of ancient Greece and Rome, to the Hun invasion, Nordic invasions, Holy Roman Empire, Norman Conquest, the crusades and the Muslim invasions, to the 100 years war and the myriad of conflicts between principalities, Napoleon, WWI, WWII, and most recently in the Balkans, that continent has clearly had some issues. Drop the past tense and substitute "most" for "nearly all" and you'll have me onboard. I'm going to assume you meant "read and write". If such literacy did indeed exist, it is a pity that it wasn't exported to subsequent generations. But the fact is that the vast majority of European countries' inhabitants were illiterate until the 20th century. Huh? The Bible is the truth!? Really!? Is all of it the truth, or is it just some of it that is? If it's only some of it, who determines the truth-to-fiction split? What qualifications do they have for doing so? Do they confer via e-mail with the original publisher? Or do they just nit-pick the parts that suit their aims? The “RC” is on decline because education and reason is the anti-thesis to its dogma; as it tends to be to all religion. The Christianity you’ve known and experienced won’t be pushed underground, it will simply adapt or die.

Majority eh? Conservatives find slim support for death penalty "Support for the death penalty was highest in Alberta, where almost one-third supported the idea of capital punishment, and lowest in Newfoundland with 17 per cent support. In Ontario, 21 per cent thought some convicted prisoners should be put to death, according to the poll of 4,005 people." Care to revise your claim?

You make me sick for immediately using the death of a law enforcement professional to immediately advance your own desire to see the death penalty re-introduced. Have you no shame? Let the family grieve. Let us all grieve. Then let us all take stalk of your anger.

No, he's quite stupid. Walking right into a trap he is.

Ein, Zwei, Drei, Fier! Where's the beer hall?

Unless the Liberals welcome the initiative.

The Senate issue will kill the Conservatives in Quebec, hence, no majority. I'm stunned the Conservatives would even play this card. When Segal mouthed-off, I figured it was just another MMP thing. Seems like someone's drinking the kool-aid.

Indeed. You'll find another issue that divides us irrevocably. Maybe Harper isn’t happy with a fire-wall; he’s bent on destroying the country.

The days of civil servants as punch-card counters, light-bulb changers and typing pools are well behind us. Technology has largely made unskilled or lesser-skilled employment obsolete in government. Cafeteria workers, typists, messengers, janitors and other facilities related positions have been privatized or gone the way of the doo-doo. What largely remains in the civil service is skill-requisite, knowledge demanding positions. Even government call-centres demand a broad measure of knowledge and capabilities in order to fulfill their mandates. The Treasury Board study might easily be seen as reinforcing public stereotypes of civil servants, but even if one is tempted to see it that way; its results speak to the alleged problem of “lazy civil servants” getting remarkably worse. That would be the “easy” explanation, but as with most facile solutions, it is wrong. The stress leave behaviours of federal public servants (which I would put money on their repetition at provincial and municipal levels) are born from the employer’s penchant for integrating administrative and technological efficiencies without addressing public expectations of product delivery. This penchant stemmed from too many people rising above their level of competence because Conservative cuts of middle managers and subsequent Liberal buy-outs based on age gave us a public service with non-coms trying to speak to the general staff with the inevitable and expected results. Rather than listen to the non-coms, the solution to this disconnect was to higher private and unaccountable actors to mediate and interpret public needs with marvelous models and techno-savvy twits who would have us all believe that people love telemessages and that seniors would embrace the Internet if we told them that that’s where the can get info on their pension benefits. The problem with the civil service is that too many people in the ranks just can’t take this stupidity. They are educated, capable and driven. Yet the upper-crust that “survived” the “decade of darkness” are filled with inept careerists who never managed to understand that there is a forest, and that it is comprised of trees.

Canada IS a great country! I feel neither dishonest nor awkward in saying this.

No, but the 2.1 million he settled for with the government was. As for the 300k, I suspect it was payment for Airbus. Here’s why: a) The money was exchanged clandestinely (in CASH) as if one or both parties wanted to hide the transaction b_) Schreiber alleges that Mulroney later tried to get Schreiber to attest that no money changed hands, Schreiber refused c) Having failed to claim the sums on his taxes, Mulroney now resorts to the Fairness program to back claim the income as Schreiber’s refusal means that his secret could come out d) The Airbus investigation hits and Mulroney plays the victim claiming that he barely knew Schreiber and thus could not have conspired with him e) Mulroney gets an out-of-court settlement of 2 plus million dollars f) Meanwhile, Schreiber is facing numerous legal difficulties in Canada and his native Germany, his finances are crumbling and he’s now somewhat resentful that his supposed co-conspirator is living large, so he calls in the 300k marker g) Schreiber contends that the monies were for help in establishing an arms factory and pasta business, yet no such enterprises ever took-off and Schreiber is now claiming that Mulroney did nothing for the money and wants it back h) Mulroney’s explanations for the funds have been evasive and stand as poor counter-arguments to Schreiber’s claims, yet in spite of the fact that Mulroney can show no evidence of work for the funds, Schreiber has lost the first battles in court ostensibly because the court expects him to produce proof that no work was done Circles, circles, circles. Now instead consider this possibility. a) the 300k was an award for Airbus b ) the cash transaction was intended (by Mulroney) to keep the funds hidden because their was no legitimate explanation for them c) Mulroney’s failed “hush” with Schreiber was intended to put any notion of a kick-back to rest by having Schreiber deny that any money changed hands d) Schreiber, seeing that the house of cards was coming down, refused because his best bet of avoiding charges was to keep Mulroney in equal jeopardy e) To deflect attention and protect his alleged co-conspirator, Schreiber concocts a questionably believable line that the 300k was for work on other business ventures f) Yet facing more daunting troubles with the law, Schreiber, being the ultimate scam artist, seeks to reclaim his bribe by arguing that Mulroney did nothing to advance his fictitious cover story business ventures g) Thus, Schreiber and Mulroney are in court and we the public are beginning to ask questions about 300k If the 300k was an Airbus bribe, Schreiber will never say so because it would criminally implicate him. But the circumstances of the payment make it convenient for him to pursue Mulroney for failing to earn payments for services on fictitious business endeavours. I want, no, I demand an inquiry.