I miss Reagan

I think Klein's a dope for opening his fat trap. I think Ontario voters are dumb to believe that there was some secret agenda. They wanted to believe it though. They just wanted any excuse to vote against the cons. Klein does spend a lot. Contrary to popular belief Alberta spends more per capita than any other province. There are a lot of red tories in the PC party of Alberta. But as everywhere people will run for the party which will win. This is why I'm voting for the Alberta Alliance next election.

Al Jazeera broadcasts the beheadings of Americans. That bothers me. It bothers me that they deny that the holocost happened. It bothers me that they call Jews Apes. To say that Al Jazeera is the "CNN" of the Arab world is not only extremely ignorant, it's an outrage. Al Jazeera is the voice of Islamic Fundamentalists. They are a hate propeganda machine. While it is inevitable that all news sources will have some bias it does not excuse the ethical bankruptcy that some news agencies have with their obvious agenda's. There are other news agencies out of Arab states which give more acurate news.

Maybe you should work for the CRTC MS. Why would we want to push a dying language on the population. The sooner the French language peters out, the fewer problems we'll have with Quebec.

I have no problem with that. Let's just be consistent. Let's hold everyone to the same standards. I say get rid of the CRTC altogether. Let's get rid of government funding for the CBC.

Check it Price of Freedom

I don't believe for a second that Health Canada would try to muzzle anyone. I trust the government completely, they take care of all our needs and know what's best for us don't they Maplesyrup?

I'm sure if Rick Mercer was walking around in pakistan interviewing the most moronic people he could find in order to make pakistanis looks stupid, you'd have a different opinion. But I understand, most canadians are brainwashed into thinking it's ok to hate Americans right. After all "I AM CANADIAN"

I know we need to put that fence up around Alberta!

Ah yes typical canadian attitude. Put all your trust in government! They know what's best for us. They'll take care of us.

Al Jazeera is very anti-semetic there is no question. And the answer is yes, the CRTC would and does allow this kind of hate into Canada, selectively. Broadcasting standards dictate that you cannot disseminate hate towards people of any nationality or religion. Yet CBC is allowed to broadcast it's hate towards americans with it's shows like "this hour has 22 minutes". You may agree that Americans are arogant and stupid but let's be consistant here. Canadians are very hypocritical. I'm not sure if you've ever seen Fox News but they offer opinions from both sides.

As if the CBC wasn't bad enough with it's promotion of anti-Americanism. The CRTC is ready to announce that Al-Jazeera is welcome in Canada. This a day after they yank the broadcasting license of a Quebec radio station for a couple off colour jokes? Not only that but the CRTC continues to bar cable providers from bringing in Fox News among other relatively benign international stations. When will Canada's inconsistency of intolerance end?

I think there are some here who would appreciate this analogy of a likely scenario in Canada: "Lets put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand. Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner. The bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this: The first four men - the poorest - would pay nothing; the fifth would pay $1; the sixth would pay $3; the seventh $7; the eighth $12; the ninth $18; the tenth man -- the richest -- would pay $59. That's what they decided to do. The ten men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement -- until one day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all such good customers, "he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20." So now dinner for the ten only cost $80. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free. But what about the other six -- the paying customers? How could they divvy up the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his "fair share?" The six men realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would end up being *paid* to eat their meal. So the restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so the fifth man paid nothing, the sixth pitched in $2, the seventh paid $5, the eighth paid $9, the ninth paid $12, leaving the tenth man with a bill of $52 instead of his earlier $59! Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to eat for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. "I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth. "But he got $7!" "Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that they got seven times more than me!" "That's true!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $7 back when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!" "Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!" The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night he didn't show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and ate without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They were $52 short! And that, boys and girls, journalists, and college instructors, is how the tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up at the table anymore. There are other good restaurants in Europe and the Caribbean."

Yikes What was that all about. I don't know what you owe me a coke for but if you feel Chretien (actually it was Martin as finance minister) paying down a debt created by Trudeau makes him right wing have at her. Toss me that coke. That's funny...

Sure there's corruption everywhere yes I'm sure even in the CPC. I guess it just depends on how much corruption you can stomach. Most of Canada felt like the sponsorship scandal wasn't enough to pass on the liberals. Quebec did, and I respect them for that. On a sidenote I was also quite impressed with Duceppe.

I suppose that is why Harper failed and was defeated, eh. Yeah, because certain media outlets and Liberal propoganda out East have painted an untrue and blatantly regionalized picture of Alberta. "Lets all ignore that Alberta under the PCs has prospered GREATLY, is now debt-free, and is STILL the richest province in this country. Who on EARTH would want all the provinces to be this good eh?" Hey Hawk I hear there are lynch mobs ruling the streets in Alberta chasing out immigrants, people are left bleeding in the street if they don't have a credit card, everyone has a gun, homosexuals aren't allowed to vote, and homeless rates are at 40% because there's no social safety net there!

Individually I think Quebeckers are great. I haven't met one I didn't like. The more I listen to them, the more I empathize with the plight of the Quebeckers. They're smart. They realized early that the squeeky wheel gets the grease. Collectively they are a real pain in the a$$. I respect them though. At least they stand up for what they believe in. They stand up against corruption, even when their own province benefitted from it. But ya I think they should separate. When they depart they leave the door open for us. Let the Balkinization begin!

I know, crazy yahoos! Diversity is our strength!

1. To safeguard Alberta culture. 2. To become a majority instead of a minority. 3. To overcome Canada's collective inferiority complex towards the USA. 4. To control our own destiny. 5. To get away from Ottawa and all its sins. Is that good enough?

No thought it was that Harper and Klein were in together on a hidden agenda. My impression was that Harper was going turn the rest of Canada into some sort of Alberta.

I guess Klein announced today that Alberta's debt has been payed off. I wonder what those crazy right wing nutcases out in Alberta will do next. They might put the extra money now into health care or something like that. Who knows what their "hidden agenda" is. Lucky Harper didn't get into office, we might get the national debt payed off. But at the expense of cherished programs like billingualism. Damn what would I do with out french on my cheerio box.

Good point Kimmy. BD's arguments usually discuss production rather than actual reserves under the ground. Sask actually has plenty of petroleum to make it a have province. Interestingly in 1972 they created an act where they actually stole the lands owned by corporations and put them in the name of the crown in saskatchewan. As you can imagine this created a huge disincentive for companies to explore or invest in Saskatchewan after that. Many corporations pulled out and said we're not coming back. This and other disincentives have made NDP Saskatchewan what it is today.

Easy, I think he likes our money.

Oh jeez, not more psudo-intellectualism. Before we get into some philosophical diatribe here's a fair definition for those of us who just want to discuss politics. Conservative= Right Liberal=left NDP=far left

No you are mistaken, Quebec wanted distinct society status, more rights than everyone else. We just want everyone else to have the same rights as everyone else. But ya I know that's selfish whining to want equality. Ah more clues as to your thought process, you're anti-religion too. How is it that you are not supercilious? I guess that would imply that the United States is our enemy. (Although I'm sure you consider Americans and especially Republican Americans our enemy) Besides I never knew that appreciating a foreign leader would be considered treason. I'm sure you appreciate the likes of say Che or Mandela. As much as you try to play with numbers, somehow trying to make yourself feel better, creating this false reality that the west is liberal it's not. I think you are the one who should leave this "island of stupidity" as you put it. If you're so much more enlightened than the rest of us here, you leave. Go east to be with like minded folks and enjoy your taxes and pat yourself on the back for bettering humanity. I like Alberta. I think it is a great medium between socialist canada and the problems the US faces. I like our gun laws as they are, I like two tiered health care, I like our beliefs in the free market system, I like our compassionate conservatism. We'll leave we'll just take what is ours with us.

Tell me, if we're such whiners and such a redneck and racist drag on 'progressive' Canada, why not let us go. Why would you want a province like us in Canada. What benefit do give to this country? Obviously we are on a different track. Is it our money that Canada loves?