Wild Bill

Perhaps you could enlighten us how in what if any ways Steven Harper's Conservatives bear any relation to Reform? Could you name ANY important planks in their platform that are shared? That being said, you might also try to point out any significant differences between Steven's party and the old Progressive Conservatives under Brian Mulroney. I apologize for asking. I realize it might be easier to make a soup sandwich!

That's AMAZING for an independent! It's ironic that his votes of nearly 5,000 would have enabled the Liberal rival to beat Finley. In effect, he helped her win! Still, his success is a powerful message to the "powers that be". All the crap talk that he was a wingnut who wouldn't get more than a handful or two of votes has been proven quite wrong. There's an old political rule of thumb that one committed vote really represents a lot more who felt the same way but for some reason didn't bother. One "Letter to the Editor" represents far more people who held the same view but didn't write a letter themselves. McHale proved that a LOT of Caledonia citizens are VERY upset! Look for Diane Finley to work even harder at hiding over the next term!

Oh geez, now you've done it! If any female posters see what you wrote then we are going to get flamed, flamed and flamed! You sure know how to poke sticks at 'em!

No one seems to have considered how electronic voting from home could lose the freedom that comes from anonymity! Consider, some control freak male from a culture or temperment that debases women forces all the women in his house to vote through his computer for his choice. How do you prevent this? How do you even know it happened?

Exactly! And it would be FAR more democratic to have a Triple E Senate! That's what virtually every other parliamentary democracy in the world has done. Only Canada uses their upper House as a retirement home for party bagmen.

If ANY MP is elected from a list and NOT directly by the citizens in a particular riding then I want no part of it! Judging by the result of the question put in Ontario few others want any part of it either. It's not that they didn't understand it, they just didn't like it! What's so difficult to understand about that?

Well, first you'd have to convince enough of your fellow citizens to care about making any change in the first place! From what I've seen, PR is only being pushed by an extremely small percentage of the total electorate. What's more, if that percentage were to grow large enough it is inevitable that the more popular new parties would have enough support to start winning ridings anyway! So why bother? I say again, the only parties crying for PR are parties that just aren't popular enough to get any seats yet. If they do their job they will eventually win seats. We shouldn't hand them some just because they whine. All that would achieve is a "pizza Parliament" where little fringe parties could have some clout for propping up various minority governments. The parties with the least amount of votes would end up calling the shots. That's democracy?

The problem with your argument is that it ignores regional representation. Our riding system (supposedy) elects Members who can represent each riding in Parliament. Simply going by national popular vote numbers could mean that a whole lot of folks at one end of the country could make it happen that other folks thousands of miles away would get stuck with some Members of parties that perhaps they never, ever would vote for! Also, the beauty of our present system is that it sets a threshold to keep fringe parties of less universal appeal out! The Rhinos would have a field day in a PR system! Hell, I'd vote for 'em! If a party can't muster enough support to win just ONE riding then in my opinion it doesn't deserve to have a seat handed to them.

Actually, I'm surprised the West has stuck around this long! From what I've read of history they'd have a good case. Who wants to belong to a club where your job is to always pay the dues while someone else gets to eat all the doughnuts? Manning understood this from the beginning. With things like party solidarity on ALL House votes you inevitably get a political brokerage system, where those in power can bleed one region to buy support in another. That's why Reform pushed for a Triple E Senate that was Elected, Equal and Effective. If PEI had the same number of senators as Ontario then it would have a check on Central Canada having unlimited power over them. Along with that was the idea of free votes, like every other parliamentary democracy in the world. Only in Canada does losing a vote on where to buy the doughnuts for a Session mean toppling the government and calling an election. Manning wanted a Parliament opened with a statement that only "Bills of Substance" like financial matters would be considered a loss of confidence and would trigger a new election. Free votes and a Triple E Senate would have gone a LONG way to make Canada more democratic and allay regional inequities! More ideas that died when the Progressive Conservatives took over the Reform/Alliance movement and killed it off.

Maybe you only read liberal friendly media sources...

For Pete's Sake, it's the Toronto Star! They're not a newspaper! They are the official media outlet for the Liberal Party of Canada! They always have been and unless there is a drastic change of ownership they always will. The Star would defend Charles Manson if he was running as a Liberal! They are so over the top partisan towards Liberals that any objective reader wrote them off years ago as an unbiased source. Even TASS from Moscow is more objective than the Star when it comes to Liberals! Sorry, they have about as much credibility in this area as Watchtower magazine.

Treaties for health care and education? Can you provide any concrete, written references to such? If you intend to make some claim to "oral history" perhaps you could also cite some reference to the Crown providing free health care and education to NON-NATIVES in those pioneer days of treaties! Having taxes pay for health care and education is a very, very recent thing.

We need a lawyer! That would settle this once and for all. As for "locking up violent young offenders in adult prisons for (up to) LIFE." - we don't keep ADULTS in adult prisons for up to life!

The loss of the Goose wasn't the cause of the total erasure of a leading edge aerospace manufacturing industry, with all those thousands of jobs. Perhaps the NEP was just retributive justice to the West for what they had done to Ontario. Dief actually hurt Ontario harder and deeper than the NEP ever did to Alberta.

Tear at the CPC all you want. The numbers don't show a huge love for the other parties either! Looks like Canadians are really saying " a pox on all their houses!" Just because Harper is smelling a bit more hasn't made Stephane or Jack into any rose...

I just can't understand how this bushwa keeps getting spread around! No one has said anything about locking up violent young offenders with adult criminals. I'm not even sure if that would be legal! Separate facilities SUCH AS ARE ALREADY IN USE are obvious! It's just an unfair debating trick. Those using it simply want to attack the Conservatives and are attaching an unproven assumption onto the main issue of getting tougher on youth crime. I realize that politics is a blood sport but to me, the use of such tactics by any side goes to character...

Your posts make me curious. Do you not consider the tattered state of Liberal finances to be important? In other words, do you not believe that they could go bankrupt?

You sound like someone who has never actually read any books about the Arrow. You're making your arguments from generalized assumptions about a situation from so long ago, based on your confidence or faith in Dief's government and not the actual deeds. For the record, both the Americans and the British offered money, big money. Dief's gov't flatly refused to allow any sale of anything to do with the aircraft. The Arrow's design was hardly as limited as you describe. You're dead wrong on that one. It would have made a magnificent fighter/interceptor which would have been useful well into the 70's and early 80's. Of course, this being Canada we'd likely still be flying them today, like our Sea King helicopters. It was an unusual situation with some very unusual actions taken. You might want to read a few books on the subject. There are a lot of them out there and I do think you'd find them interesting. Most definitely NOT tin foil hat conspiracy theories! Just the usual political burying of dumb moves.

Mandatory in 2005? I dunno. My problem dates back for 10 years and this is the first year this has happened. Given the high number of account screwups, this may prove to be an election issue. I certainly hope so and fully intend to help it along. It looks like I'm forced to pay an extra $220 to get my plates. I've started the dispute but although the ruling says that there is an independent tribunal to make a decision and my money will eventually be returned I have little to no confidence that the system will actually work. Certainly it will not be quick. My biggest worry is that given my past experience with these bozos they will still keep my old account open and I will have to poney up EVERY year until I die!

You may prove right. A lot can happen in a week, during a campaign. Still, I'm just not sure. It's understandable that many voters might start to waver about their choices. The kicker is that it's one thing to lose confidence in Harper. It's quite another to actually vote for one of the alternatives! Just because Harper gets taken down a notch or two doesn't automatically put the others up. Harper did make a mistake in trying to appear unconcerned about an economic downturn. His opponents pounced on him for appearing to be oblivious to a real problem that's developing. This earned them a bounce in the polls. However, when it comes time to vote they have to then decide if Dion or Layton appear more capable of handling an economic downturn. Dion wants to add another tax with a complicated deduction formula. Jack seems unaware that an NDP government in Ottawa would scare the bejesus out of any business investment. After all, whenever the NDP even mentions business it's to accuse them of being evil global empires that bleed us for the sheer joy of it! He would turn Canada into a Zimbabwe. Business could go anywhere in today's world. What's so attractive about Canada that business would put up with Jack? So who knows? Let's see what the last week brings. Harper's speech about his party's platform being released today may pick up his fortunes. Polls still show that more folks feel he's the more capable leader than Jack or Stephane. For that matter, the Liberals might do something drastic like put the Green Shift on the shelf for the next term! They would lose some ground for backtracking on the idea but if they sell it by saying it's not gone but that the next few years are going to have so many economic challenges that it is best to wait for a bit they might instantly pick up a huge bunch of folks lukewarm on Harper and looking for a GOOD reason to vote Liberal! I'm not ready to put any betting money down on this election.

This is the first time the Ministry of Transport has acted as the collection agency for the 407ETR. It has been mentioned for years but never actually implemented. The huge amount of billing disputes is common knowledge. I always assumed that it would never actually happen, since politically any party that allowed this would conceivably have all those denied plates because of their inept billing methods blaming the incumbent government for allowing it. I was wrong. Either McGuinty's crew are dumb or asleep at the switch. The lady at my MPP's office was professional enough not to say anything partisan but she did admit that she has been handling a LOT of complaints like mine! Since her boss is in opposition it's obvious that she takes some delight in the situation.

Our domestic costs were not higher at the time. It was the 1950's, remember? We didn't have Asian competition. Your argument fails to answer some of the questions. Who says we had to only build for domestic orders? Why couldn't we have sold to the US and the UK? Both countries expressed interest. Moreover, if we had to cancel the program why didn't we sell the research and prototypes to our allies under royalty, again both of whom had expressed interest? No, Occam's Razor has a simpler explanation. Dief and his crew had no idea what they were killing! There is a famous quote from one of Dief's aides who had phoned A V Roe. He and the rest of the Tory cabinet were in horror of the huge layoff going on. They obviously had no idea that was a consequence of their cancelling the contract. The aide is purported to have asked "Couldn't you just retool and have them make tractors instead?" At that point Dief and his boys took a closer look and realized that cancelling the Arrow could become politically embarrassing. That was when the decision was made to scrap and bury EVERYTHING! The last thing Dief wanted was for another country to buy the plane, finish the development and fly it for all the world to see how advanced it was for the times.

Just got stung! 10 years ago I got a 407 transponder. I used it a few times and then due to job changes I didn't drive the 407 any more. So I tried to cancel my account. At that time if you went to their website there was no link or mention at all as to how to cancel your account. I tried a few times to phone. It was a total joke. An automated receptionist that sent you round and round and eventually dumped the line. So I wrote out a letter, bundled it up with their transponder and sent it back to them by Puro. I have not driven the 407 since, which is about 10 years. Every so often they would send me bills! No tolls, of course. I never drove their highway. It was for the transponder. Once in a while I tried to phone and reach someone to clear it up but just got frustrated. Eventually, I got put to a collection agency who kept phoning and phoning. By this time I was angry! The collection agency still didn't use a human being, just a recording. Finally a human being called and I explained the whole matter. He cheerfully promised that if I just paid the ~$30 bill he would make sure the account was closed and things would go away. So like a fool, I paid him. Of course, he just wanted the bill paid. Nothing changed as far as closing the account down. Eventually the phone calls stopped. Once in a while I'd get a statement showing no tolls but more transponder charges. I just tossed them aside. Finally I got another call at the start of the summer from a human being. I told the whole story yet again. She told me to fax it in writing to a specific number. I told them what 407ETR could do with their fax! My first mistake. I assumed that the worst that could happen was I'd get called to court. I would have LOVED to tell my story to a judge! Then one of the statements came registered mail. I ignored it. My second mistake. Today I went down to renew my car plates. I was told that I have to pay $220 in 407ETR fees or no plates! It seems that now MCGuinty's government has allowed 407ETR to do this, in effect punishing us BEFORE it is established that 407ETR is correct about a dispute! I promptly drove over to my MPP's office, not a Liberal BTW. A very helpful lady called the 407ETR. SHE got to speak to a real person! There is a dispute process and it has been started. Meanwhile, if I want my plates I have to pay the money and trust that someday they will return it. I heard a year or two ago that the 407ETR has over 800,000 billing disputes! I couldn't begin to count all the folks I know who have had a problem with them. I never believed a provincial government would allow them to use the plate renewal ministry as their collection agent. With all these disputes I thought it would be extremely dumb, politically! I guess I was wrong. Anyhow, just a word to the wise. I'm sure there are others out there in a similar situation. Even though 407ETR is a private company, like any government department it's your problem and your time and effort required to correct their mistake, even if they won't respond to you anyway. This highway collects the highest tolls in North America. It is a licence to print money. Now it has the provincial government as their enforcement agent. Here is a link: http://www.407etr.com/Products/platedenial.htm This explains the legal decision to grant them this power. The reasoning appears to be to give them the power to force payment from delinquent accounts. There is a dispute mechanism but even if 407ETR is in the wrong it puts the onus of proof solely on the subscriber. I'm not confident that if someone else has a dispute they can get it resolved. I'm just warning of what to expect when you go to renew your plates. Needless to say, this is one more reason why I could never vote Liberal again!

Bad! Cancelling the Arrow was enough! It was a bonehead, poorly thought out move that immediately wiped out a world class aerospace industry and gave virtually all our rocket scientists to the Americans, where they helped to put a man on the moon. That was when we became a third class country, starting the slide to where we are a branch plant economy that is strongest in natural resources, competing with every other third world country with little or no advanced manufacturing. Thanks to Dief, Canada lost much of its brains. We became a developmentally challenged nation that perpetually asks to be coddled. The Americans have to defend us and the Chinese own our economy. Thanks for nothing, Dief! You may have had a big heart but we would be a far richer nation if you had of had a bit more intelligence and vision.

Well, wouldn't it be fair to consider the relative success of the Liberal approach in today's classroom? It might be a good idea for you to poke around a bit to get some perspective. From what I hear from the media and some teachers in the family there are some severe problems that weren't there back in the days of stronger discipline. It might be worth a thread. Certainly, there's no way you are entitled to having your premise accepted as gospel with no challenge.