Wild Bill

I guess Phil Lynott, the founding bass player for Thin Lizzy, doesn't count. He was black and Irish too! Once again, people are confusing race with culture. Perhaps deliberately, come to think of it! There are MANY visible minorities in Europe that have been there for generations! This is not 1938, after all! So the idea that only white folks will come from Europe is frankly, just nuts! However, it can't be denied that the mainstream cultures of Canada have been French in Quebec and British/European across the country. Only in the last few decades have we seen significant numbers of immigrants from other areas of the world. One could argue that the past few decades have been the major change and NOT the traditional status quo! That being said, there's no need to invoke some lib-left conspiracy to fill Canada up with minority cultures, although certainly official multi-culturalism and political pandering to new immigrants for votes have contributed to this idea. The real situation can be explained much simpler. Canada was founded by France and then Britain. It is therefore not surprising that the bulk of our immigration came from those areas of the world in the early parts of our history. People tend to immigrate to countries with cultures that are familiar, if given a choice. The World Wars changed all that. When Europe was devastated by artillery many people came to Canada for a new life. Europe accounted for much of our immigrants until the late 60's and early 70's. After that, fewer Europeans WANTED to come to Canada! Why would they? WWII was long over and most European countries were doing quite well economically, thank you very much! In fact, many provided a BETTER life for the typical worker than Canada! Anybody with Italian or French friends and relations can't help but envy the number of paid holidays given to European workers. So Canada had little choice but to take her immigrants from areas where people WANTED to come! East Asian and the Third World became our major source, simply because more people in those countries saw Canada as a better life than what they had. Race has nothing to do with it. Follow the money! Now Europe is having economic problems. Despite how some posters on this board would have us believe that Harper has dragged Canada into the deepest, blackest pits of despair, to an Irishman or a Portuguese our economy looks pretty good in comparision to their own! For the first time in decades we are seeing a rise in applicants from those areas. What are we supposed to do? Bar these people from the country because a lot of them are white? It's a simple fact that Europeans are much more likely to be educated on a par with ourselves, with very similar curricula. They are also much more likely to have relations over here for support. They assimilate faster and tend to do better economically. Again, race is a null factor. Hopefully, there isn't even a spot on the application for race!

There was some home care. A "newbie nurse" would stop by every couple of days to check my bandages. Unfortunately, that wasn't often enough with those kinds of bandages so my wife and I were forced to learn how to do it between times ourselves. Also, they worked for a contractor instead of the hospital. That meant they would make an appointment to make sure we were home and then likely not show up. Still, since I was careful, had my own bandages changed and didn't try any back flips or river dancing it was all "no big deal". Again, this was my own experience. For someone who might have been older, more infirm or less capable I have no idea if the service was adequate or not.

Well, I can only speak for myself. I had a quadruple bypass and also was sent home after 5 days. I had the pillow and listened to all the precautions. It's been 3 years and my sternum has still not properly knitted! when I twist my body or sleep on it wrong I can feel it pop and move out of alignment. It is not dangerous but rather aggravating. It certainly bars me from any heavy lifting jobs. At least I didn't catch any C. difficile...

Really Topaz? How many of these coffee shops have you checked out? Do you have a link to some survey? It always amazes me how many people prefer their personal preferences to reality. It doesn't matter if you like Harper or not. The polls overwhelmingly show that he's in the lead by a comfortable margin. It doesn't matter if you think a Harper majority is a fate worse than death. Polls also show that the majority of Canadians think Igatieff is a lameass 'Gomer'. Dream all you like but the Liberals have some ferocious challenges this election. Politics is the biggest game there is and you don't win a game by keeping your head in fantasy land. You have to clearly see your strengths and your weaknesses and deal with them! Yes, miracles can happen but they don't happen from wishing! They happen as a result of clear thinking and hard work. Spouting "rah rah" from your fantasies just makes one sound like an idiot. If many Liberals on this board are an example of how unfocused the party has become then they are doomed! Who would have thought it? To so quickly fall from the Von Bismark 'realpolitik' of Jean Chretien to the 'lala land' goofiness of Dion and now Ignatieff, in a mere decade. Perhaps it was inevitable. People are people in every party and people as a group seem to always have to learn things the hard way. The Liberals will eventually get their act together, after doing it in the longest and most inefficient way possible. After a couple of terms in majority power the Tories will start to think that they own their jobs and will be knocked down, totally surprised for having been too arrogant and blind to see it coming. Just human nature, I guess. Still, a little bit of common sense and perspective would go a long way towards avoiding some of the pain...

Here's the link: http://news.sympatico.cbc.ca/canada/woman_spends_36_hours_in_hallway_after_surgery/8341cb36 "The hospital made national headlines earlier this week when the facility's emergency room became so overcrowded that ER staff had to take over a Tim Hortons restaurant in the hospital for the extra room to treat patients. The middle-aged woman said she had pancreatic surgery Feb. 25 and had to begin her recovery behind privacy screens in a bed in a hospital hallway for a day and a half because no rooms were available. "I was promised that I would get equal care to those that were in the other rooms but that was not so," she said. Joanne said she was in excruciating pain, but there was no way to call a nurse. "I had to use my cellphone to call the main desk at Royal Columbian Hospital to be transferred to the nursing station to get my nurse to come and find me," she said." Now I know that stuff happens and that in some areas of the country the care is so good that you're cured before you even go to the hospital (at least, that's the way it sounds from some rabid defenders we've seen before on this board) but that's not the point. Every time we have this debate a number of defenders will rant and rave about how these reports are few in number, purely anecdotal and of course "Aren't you glad we're not Americans?" It's as if we are so defensive about our system that we are incapable of admitting it has some problems and if you can't recognize you have a problem then you can't fix it! Here in Hamilton a local hospital, like most others, has been gradually cutting back on the cleaning budget. Anyone who visits over years and has a memory can see it. Now they've had over 16 patients die with C. Difficile, over half acquired during their stay in the hospital. Isn't it about time we stop substituting American bashing for constructive criticism of our own system and keep it running correctly?

Why do I bother? Why would anyone bother? It's pretty obvious that until the next election is over you're going to seize and stretch anything you can to support the Libs and knock anybody who doesn't agree with you. You're rabidly seeking any and all parades and will make any disagreeing poster into your straw man. That attitude is part of what drove me away from the Liberals in the first place, all those years ago. I'll just put you back on 'ignore'. We'll see what happens after the election.

We've been over this before. I guess to you a "CON shill" is anyone who doesn't support the Liberals. Over my life I've voted Liberal, PC, Reform, Alliance and now CPC. Every time I switched I felt it was because my incumbent party changed and expected me to follow along like some kind of trusting little sheep. I guess I'm not one to drink the offered Kool-Aid without sniffing it first. The difference between us is that I freely admit that the CPC is only my first choice by default, for lack of anything better. Your posts, however, seem to express total support and agreement for the Liberal Party in virtually every situation. You seem to feel that we should all agree with your choice simply because YOU tell us it's the truth! The old "Jehovah Witness" school of argument, I guess. As I keep saying, if the Liberals ever start to act like Liberals you might very likely see me trade sides. Something tells me I will never see the same thing happen over on your side of the fence. To some folks it's the jerseys. Others look at the players.

I wouldn't contribute to feeding orphans if "rabble" had anything to do with it! Those foul-mouthed, profane, bigoted and biased sophomoric refugees from Commie Martyrs High School likely have a scheme to divert the funds into providing them with free beer, because they are so "IMPORTANT!" Uncouth louts, every bleedin' one of them! Their manners in their postings make pigs look like Emily Post.

Doesn't matter, Scrib. Because she was a Tory then she must be guilty of any heinous crime anyone can think up, period. No doubt she's a fascist!

Better than you! You obviously didn't even read all my post! "It's a yawner when it happens on the Tory side and it WAS a yawner when similar things happened on the Opposition side over the years!" That's what I said if it had been a LIBERAL that screwed up... Get it now, Whizzer? This sort of thing has happened to all parties many times over the years. Some of us seem to only pay attention when it strikes in their "Satan's Party" opponents. Using the wrong letterhead is hardly a capital crime and certainly not a sophisticated, subtle method of committing a crime.

I voted yes! I believe in populism. Members of a band living on a reserve have a right to know how the money allocated from the government is being handles. There is no good reason why their leaders should be able to keep things secret. From the sound of things, the money being paid to some leaders could easily provide more schools.

It's not likely that Kenney personally handles all the clerical work in his office. Why have a dog and bark, too? Obviously, some clerk type screwed up and sent things out on his MP's letterhead. Big whoop! A mistake like that is grounds for capital punishment! Has everybody lost all perspective? This sort of thing is a yawner. It's a yawner when it happens on the Tory side and it WAS a yawner when similar things happened on the Opposition side over the years! Petty clerical mistakes will always happen. We are dealing with human beings and no worker is perfect. The way some people are going on in this thread you'd think that Kenney deliberately used his letterhead, fully expecting that no one would ever notice and would stand to gain millions of both dollars and votes by doing so! Give me a break! This isn't a scandal. It's just another snorefest! I'm going back to sleep...

TB, most politicians are lawyers. What the hell does a lawyer care about 'intent'? It's all about technicalities and interpretations and if a lawyer's trick can get someone off the hook that's good enough. None of them even THINK about whether there were good intentions or if the perp was really MORALLY innocent! Tory lawyers are no different than Liberal lawyers. Or am I just too cynical?

Molly, it's been about 10 years since I've worked on a campaign but even with my first one I quickly learned that LIBERALS DO PAY MUCH OF THEIR HELP! In fact, one Liberal friend admitted to me after the first Reform campaign that the level of volunteerism within Reform scared the hell out of them! People in this thread are relating to their own experience with different parties. Those parties have always run much more on volunteerism, mainly because historically they weren't as rich as the liberals. Just because you worked for the NDP and saw every one volunteering out of dedication is no reason to assume that it was the same thing over in the Liberal camp! This is also one of the main reasons why the Liberals are having such troubles mounting effective campaigns today. They aren't nearly as rich! The rules were changed so that they can't count on big business and private patron donations and they still haven't learned how to raise money from the grass roots like the Tories. They are slowly getting in better shape but for generations people took it for granted that if you worked on a Liberal campaign, even as just a scrutineer, you got something for it. Now many Liberal riding teams just can't afford to do that. The Liberals really need a complete overhaul. They've done part of the job but they still have a ways to go. As I've said before, I'm beginning to resent that they are not offering me an alternative to the very BORING Tories! It's beginning to feel like having to listen to non-stop polka music, 24/7!

Yes, I'm afraid we do! You see GH, you keep giving evidence that Agent Orange is harmful to people. No one is disputing that - today! The premise here is whether or not the USA KNEW during the Viet Nam War that Agent Orange was that harmful to human beings! So far you haven't addressed that point. You're just arguing from the benefit of hindsight, years later.

Hydraboss has it right, GH. At the time in Viet Nam, who says that the health issues of Agent Orange were known? Just because it kills grass and leaves doesn't mean it would bother humans. Most toxins are specific. Most farmers back in the 60's routinely used weed killers without the slightest worry they might harm people. In most cases there was no collateral harm! The most publicized example was DDT, the 'bug' killer. It was used for decades before it was found to cause genetic damage to wildlife and even people. Hence my reference to 'mutants'. As a sad side note, DDT was also the best insecticide ever invented, before or since. Nothing we have since works as well. Many third world countries suffered terribly after the DDT ban, due to malaria from mosquitoes running almost unchecked. The eagles stopped having deformed chicks but more children died from malaria. Nothing is ever quite as simple as it seems, I guess.

Just as I keep saying - BOTH parties stink! Still, when all's said and done, Tory money comes in small amounts, from ordinary Canadians. Liberal money comes in big lumps, from "suits"!

You're only right with support lower than 40%. Once you get above that number things change. You see, first of all it is a given that even in a province like Alberta you are not going to win 100% of the votes! However, once polls are showing that you are going to take more than 40% of the entire country THEN you have to consider that actual population in a particular province! If polls show you strong in one region, like Alberta, then what's the total population of Alberta anyway. Even if you theoretically DID take 100% of the votes that's still not a huge portion of the total voter number of 40+% of the entire country. So strong support in that region is not going to represent the lion's share of your national support. You could make the claim that with polls showing 50+ support across the country but PEI shows 80% then you won't gain seats, since PEI would suck up most of your support. 80% of 140,000 people offering only a handful of seats just doesn't change much with 50% of the entire country. You'd be wrong, but you could make the claim! Pollsters and parties perfectly understand this. That's why they know that they have to enter into the 40+% national support area to have a practical chance at a majority government. They have already taken into account that the largest populations and number of seats are in Ontario and Quebec and that the Tories will take most of Alberta's seats. Less than 40% leaves things too "fuzzy".

When was the last time YOUR personal party won a seat? I'm too old to waste my time trying to start a party based around my own personal views. Also, I lack the arrogance! I'd like to see some real change NOW! That means I must work with the major two parties as they are today. I spent the better part of a decade supporting Reform. I did my share! Nobody lives forever and we don't continue to have the energy of the young. That being said, thank God we lose the naivete and the arrogance!

Well, the idea that it was only a few members ripping us off is just an opinion. I can't believe it, since I don't believe a scheme as grand as AdScam could have happened without tacit support from the highest levels of the party. I believe that Chretien HAD to know! There's absolutely no way that could be easily proven, of course. The party brass would never have been so stupid as " not to wipe the tapes", a la Richard Nixon. Let's face it, they're all lawyers! They perfectly understand the concept of "plausible deniability". Without high level support, things couldn't have been hidden as long as they were. So a few low level goons took a hit for the team. Sorry, but although that may satisfy the technicalities of the law it just isn't enough for me to accept as complete, true and accurate. And your faith in the justice system is just not enough to change MY opinion!

You are telling only selective bits of the story. As another poster has already said, there was still a better than 2/3 majority of the PC membership who agreed with the merger. That means that Mr. Orchard had nowhere near majority support within his party! You should also consider the reasons behind that situation. The biggest one was that the PCs were heading for extinction! They were fading away to a shadow, with absolutely no signs of being able to mount a comeback. Certainly NOT with David Orchard! He was only well-known within his own party. Most of the Canadian electorate had never heard of him! The PCs had only a handful of seats that was slowly eroding every election. They had almost no money and no supporters to give donations. They had a choice between merging with the Alliance or sinking beneath the waves while Captain David Orchard ranted and roared at the masthead. I am now convinced that you must be very young and naive. That's no crime, of course. Still, no one who was alive and old enough to consider what happened during those days could possibly have taken your viewpoint. It directly contradicts what was obvious to the entire country! It's like trying to say that Trudeau-mania was just a handful of kids waving some balloons.

Well, on one side we have cheaters and on the other we have thieves! I still can't consider challenging the EC rules with AdScam as morally equivalent. Once again, both smell but on smells a bit less than the other. What else is new?

Geez, Max! Has it been THAT long?

You're stretching things here. I really don't care how close modern Conservatives come to the classic definition of a Liberal. I support them because the modern Liberal Party is EVEN FARTHER from that definition! I judge that by a lifetime of watching the actions of the Liberal Party, not by listening to their words. Near as I can tell, they don't have any actual philosophical roots or values! They are purely and simply a brokerage party of convenience. They're just looking for a parade to get out in front. Any parade will do! I'm a Canadian! I don't get a perfect choice! If I understand your post you're telling me that because the modern Tory party is not a perfect example of laissez-fair classic liberalism I'm supposed to support the modern LIBERAL Party? That's just nuts!

How do we know if the percentage of highly religious people is as high as it appears? We have this HUGE demographic of young folks, raised on Facebook and Twitter! They live in countries where if they don't APPEAR to be highly religious they will likely be buried up to their necks and stoned! I submit you have a difficult to prove premise, Shady. Revolutions seem to happen from the young, not the old. That's my generalization, anyway!