August1991

Has anyone posting here ever been to Finland? Does anyone here know what kind of city Helsinki is? Ever heard of Stockmann's First, you might as well say that Gimli is a great place and so, let's apply the municipal policies of Gimli to New York City. (That'll solve all of New York City's problems.) Second, if Finland is the NDP's solution, then we might as well all commit suicide now. I mean no harm to Finns and their way of life (putting saunas in Tim Horton's sounds interesting), but I frankly prefer the chaos of downtown Montreal. IMV, true life depends on it. Thirdly, Estonians know that they understand life better than any Finn. Tallinn is a Quebec City to a Helsinki Winnipeg. No contest.

Easy. In Scenarios A and B, the Imam gets one of his followers, Muhammed Buhammed, a reputable businessman in Donnybrook, to start an Anyone But Chucky movement. Or, Mr. Buhamed volunteers to help Dingle Dingbat, one of the opposing candidates. In Scenario C, the Imam does nothing. It's his opinion, he's entitled to it, but he shouldn't use his position to sway voters.

This may be a dumb question but why doesn't some create a new party/change an old party to create an alternative to the Conservatives? When was there not a Conservative government in Alberta? (Presto's dad?) I take this as evidence that Albertans are apolitical.

There you go. CTV Story

Maple Syrup, is that our major environmental concern right now? Asteroids? Of course, this is the main problem in the world now. Rich and poor. I feel your frustration, MS. I'm with you, man. ----- The NDP needs to RE-BRAND. Naomi Klein is available for consulting (and style issues). Michael Moore will shoot the video. Issue Statement: Our clientele has shifted and we need to get ahead. Counter-culture, anti-establishment, fronde, take-pride-in-being-different-for no-reason-at-all, underdogs now vote Green, not NDP. Issue Problematic: How to recapture our clientele? Solution: GREEN LITE.

He'll get DC for sure. I'll even give him Mass. I learned long ago to ignore my personal preferences in elections.I'm reading Life and Death in Shanghai right now and she notes that in democracy, leaders can see the truth - or at least, what people think of them. In this case, I don't know. But we'll see. [i too thought that Harper had a chance in the past election but then, apparently, many Ontarians changed their minds in the last few days. About 25 seats shifted. I don't think this will happen in the US.] The Democrats learned their lesson in 2000 and Kerry is one competitive bastard. He needs Ohio (Bush won it in 2000) or Florida (Bush "won" it in 2000). But my election predictions are usually wrong. Two things bother me about the US now. First, I think they should dispense with the Electoral College and go to a straight popular vote. If Bush wins again without a plurality, the US presidency will be weakened. Second, expect more cliffhanger elections in the future (and a series of Atlantic Monthly/Harper's analytical pieces about how US politics have become fundamentally divided). Both parties want to win. So of course, they will propose good candidates. And the media will help them choose good candidates in the primaries. It makes the election almost as exciting as the World Series. My prediction? Kerry 267, Bush 265. Bush calls a recount in Ohio, Kerry in Florida.

Anybody want to make a bet? Electoral Votes predictor now has Bush at 285 and Kerry at 247. This includes Florida (27 votes) in the Bush camp. If Florida goes for Kerry, then it would be 274 Kerry and 258 Bush. This prediction is also giving Wisconsin (10) and Ohio (20) to Bush. If these two states switched, it would be Kerry's too. BTW, the above site has an Animated Map at the bottom of the screen which is interesting to watch.

There are about 800 million "rich" people in the world. (US, Europe, Japan and so on. Family income is above 40,000$/year.) If we take about $100 from each person in this group (about the cost of a day at Disney World) we would have about $80 billion. I have seen this amount as an estimated cost of a trip to Mars. I think these people would be willing to sacrifice a day at Disney World to watch a guy/woman walk on Mars. [incidentally, the Left has bandied about the number $200 billion for Bush's adventure in Iraq. It is greatly exaggerated because wherever the troops are, they still cost money.]

Isn't that like Air Canada changing the colours of its airplanes? In fact, to carry the analogy further, if the NDP adopts Green policies, isn't that kind of like Air Canada setting up Tango?I mean, if people don't like your product, the obvious solution is to package it in a different bottle and claim it's new and improved. The Left, once again, confuses symbol and reality.

OMG!eureka, you say the damndest things sometimes. Thanks for my morning smile.

How do you know what Canadians want, MS?I suspect rather that since the NDP can't get elected federally, you want them to get into power through the backdoor.

IOW, make it so complicated that voter turn out will fall even further. Maybe that's the point: exclude the people who can't be bothered to figure out who to vote for.I would like to be able to prove mathematically that it makes no difference what voting system is chosen. The basic logic is that voters will adjust their voting behaviour according to the rules in place. These proposals always assume that voters will not vote strategically or that voters won't take into account the new rules. They also assume that politicians won't change their behaviour either.

Eureka, maybe we don't inhabit the same universe or something. I see a big difference between "Yost" and "Murphy". Fina Canada's True Nature shows a satellite photograph of North America at night. Did you ever study geography, eureka? Can you see the true nature of Canada? Eureka, do you have an imagination? You are making the claims. I am doubting them. I am not going to look for something that I don't believe exists. I am very, very sorry to learn that your view of Canada is limited to the activities of a relatively small group of people in Ottawa. Canada is the history of this place, the lives of people who live and have lived here, it is the languages they speak, the novels they have written, songs sang. It is the rock and trees. Canada did not begin in 1867 and it is surely much greater than Ottawa.No Chinese would ever say that China amounted to the government in Beijing. I'll change my "Hunh?" to a "WTF?". A case can be made that life is about exchanges, but many of the most important exchanges do not involve money. Are you suggesting that Harper is an ATM?

Be careful, caesar. I'm sure Hugo is just as bothered by the Canadian government having access to such information as the US government. If it's yours, why should any government look at it?As an institution, do you really trust the Canadian government more than the American government? (Or should I say the BC government?)

By creating a corporation, Thelonious didn't do that. Political processes? By incorporating, Thelonious has passed the risk on to any creditors because they now risk losing any claim on assets in the event of a bankrupting judgment in a civil suit.The creditors are perfectly aware of this situation. They probably charge a higher interest on any loans and may insist that Thelonious have liability insurance. A good lawyer would probably advise him to do this anyway. While the chance of a liability suit is small, the consequences can be drastic. [bTW, I don't know what business is in but I suspect incorporation may have been motivated for tax reasons. An entirely different subject.] The liability issue rears its truly ugly head in the case of involuntary victims. This brings me back to the innocent passerby killed by the corporation's car with faulty brakes. Taking the corporation to court, the family of the victim is surprised to learn that the car's owner, while very wealthy, is not liable beyond the value of the car. The creditors who provided the bank loan to purchase the car get nothing - but they knew the situation when they loaned the money. Now, is this situation any different from any impoverished driver who causes a tort? There are two major issues here: what incentives are skewed by shareholders' limited liability and would the world be a poorer place if shareholders' limited liability didn't exist?

That implies the Airbus accusations were true. They weren't.It reminds me of the story of two old friends meeting in the street after not seeing each for a long time. One says, "I heard you were mixed up in some watch theft." The other replies, "Yes, somebody stole my watch."

Here is the Dar Al-Madina site. The retraction makes for an interesting read. I take this one example: We in the West know this as the mumbo-jumbo of the whacky fringe of Christian fundamentalists. Anyone got a stuffed dinosaur avaliable?

eureka, Sylvia Ostry is a smart woman. I'd like to see what she really said. (Do you have a link?) Simon Reisman represented the Canadian government and Peter Murphy represented the US government in the initial negotiations. (It would help your credibility if you had basic facts right.)As to the quote about being "integrated" into the US, take a look at Canada's True Nature. Do you believe this happened because of an agreement between governments signed in 1988? When you use the word "Canada", what do you mean exactly? Do you mean the "Canadian federal government"? Canada is one thing; the federal government something else again. Hunh?

It only applied to goods (not services) produced in Canada (imports were exempt). In addition, it only covered the wholesale value, not the retail.The effect was to create many distortions in prices. There was a need to reform the federal sales tax but no Liberal government would go near the problem. Mulroney, to his credit, did. I agree with you. (This is how it is done in Europe where typically a 15% VAT is included in the price.)Michael Wilson, Mulroney's Finance Minister, opted for visibility. I think two reasons were given: 1. It would be more difficult to raise GST in the future if it were visible. 2. Every receipt must clearly indicate the tax paid. This was to reduce tax fraud. It is a value-added tax. That means each seller receives a refund on previous taxes paid and in effect is taxed only on the value added to the good or service.Everyone pays the GST, including drug dealers, prostitutes, bank robbers, illegal immigrants, and foreign tourists. (None of these people pay Canadian income tax yet they benefit from public services in Canada.)

I just found this funny because I saw in another forum that some Americans are arguing the opposite. That's a good point, Newf.

I am not sure which job is more secure: ministerial staff or journalist.I suspect that these people just got tired of working all the time and decided to come in out of the cold and work more normal hours. At a more boring job. As to the charge of bias, I figure it's true but then wonder, "so what?" Vic Toews and John Reynolds should know that shooting the messenger will get them absolutely nowhere. Stephen Harper, for example, has several zillion variables to consider before he makes a public pronouncement. One of them is the press who will report it. There's nothing new there. Good politicians know how to get their message out. And if they can't, or the message isn't popular, maybe they shouldn't be politicians.

The article states that he received a Russian visa because he was flying from Dubai to Baku through Moscow. (That's like flying from Toronto to Edmonton through Los Angeles. In addition, there is a direct flight between Dubai and Baku on Azerbaijani Airlines.) He would have required only a Russian transit visa for such a trip. The Russians would have his visa application information as well as details of his arrival in Moscow. (I suppose this evidence could be manufactured. But if the passport was stolen, then where is the real Khalil?) BTW, to enter Chechnya, it would probably be easier from Russia than from Azerbaijan and Georgia. I have a suspicion that this story will disappear from the news. The family and the Canadian government will likely prefer not to say anything.

Charges for what? A journalist wrote a book that was filled with incorrect facts and then it turns out that she was an informer for the RCMP.Mulroney won his libel suit against the Liberal government and the RCMP dropped all charges. This partisan Liberal investigation resembled the politics of a Third World tinpot dictator. It tarnished the RCMP and wasted $10 million of taxpayer's money. One way to view the Free Trade agreement is that it made it much more difficult for the US Congress to do stupid things like erect artificial trade barriers. The US Congress still does this, but it's more difficult.Trade is not a zero-sum game. The agreement was about reducing barriers and making them difficult to resurrect. Ordinary Canadians benefit when there are few barriers. The GST replaced the Manufacturer's Sales Tax which dated from the 1920s and was an incredibly stupid tax. The GST is one of the most sophisticated taxes in the world. My only criticsm is that it should have been combined with provincial taxes (now the HST) and then combined into an item's selling price (as VAT is in Europe).The provinces didn't want anything to do with the GST and Wilson opted for visibility, fearful that the Liberals would raise an invisible tax. The GST and Free Trade are great accomplishments for Canada. If Mulroney had got Meech Lake through (and he came very close), he would have been one of Canada's most effective Prime Ministers. What did Chretien leave for us? The Clarity Act, billion dollar boondoggles and a sponsorship scandal that is profoundly insulting: Canada can be held together through public relations. I'll admit that Chretien was far better in a crowd than Mulroney. Chretien loved to glad-hand.

Lawyer's web siteI think the key point here is that in a boxing match, the two boxers have agreed to get into the fight (according to established rules). In a hockey game, it is not obvious at all that both players have agreed to fight. Hence, if one player swings his stick at another, it could be assault. That's a legal definition. As to the sport itself, I'm not certain that it is any more violent now than before. Players have more equipment now and I think this creates an incentive to rough it up more. The best games are fast, with few or no penalties. Fighting slows the game down. ---- On the issue of drugs and driving, it seems to me the issue is impairment and an easy way to verify it. Alcohol in the blood is easy to measure and provides a simple way to set a criteria for impairment. I don't know if there is such an easy test for THC or other substances.

I remember the debate, as you probably do. These two guys were debating their country. They were both honest (at the time, people thought they were angling for votes) but in fact Mulroney was certainly honest and Turner, well, he suddenly discovered a truth. Kimmy, it ain't so simple. People afraid? Yes.I admire Mulroney because he had the courage to tell the truth as he saw it. He wanted to change things. First, he wanted to solve Canada's problems (US trade, taxes, French/English). Second, he wanted to make the Conservatives a Canadian "doable" and Canada a democracy. He almost achieved it all. Then, Chretien almost lost everything and purely by chance (vote tallies), Chretien is a winner and Parizeau a frustrated loser. The CBC believes all is fine in the world. In 1995, by 20,000 votes, Canada avoided ugly negotiations. Has this problem gone away? (It was a freak occurrence, like an earthquake.) In 2001, two large buildings collapsed in NYC. Can we pretend this never happened? (It was a freak occurrence, like an earthquake.) The CBC is clueless. In August 1991, Gorbachov flew from the Crimea to Moscow and everything appeared normal. It wasn't. The Soviet Union disapeared in December 1991. Still, people were clueless. So, what is my sobriquet? August1991?