BigGunner

Tommy Douglas was a fine gentlemen and a great Canadian. I had the pleasure of knowing him as a family friend for over 30 years. He attend family dinners, picnics , I also had the pleasure of attending a Burns night dinner where he was guest speaker . I sat beside him as he recited Burns poetry with a passion I have never seen before, by memory, as he also did with his speeches. If Tommy Douglas was here today he would not be supporting Jack Layton nor the NDP party. Tommy and I sat one night and talked about his CCF days and the NDP party. His dreams for our country and the NDP are not what the party has become today. He would leave the NDP and join the Conservative Party because he was a responsible person and a clear visionary. Well that wasn't my quote, but I'll respond anyway... Tommy Douglas is not here to answer your idiotic comment though. He is most certainly rolling in his grave at the way successive Liberal and Conservatives have destroyed the healthcare dream that he had....but he is smiling down on his former party at the way they have championed the cause of peace, stood up for minority rights, and put people ahead of profit. This is a concept that is lost on the politics of greed and hate by Liberals and Conservatives.

...not at 29% they won't. At 29%, Conservatives are STILL 7.5 points back of thier combined 2000 tally. And here is the glitch... In the west, where the Alliance gained its seats from, they are now well behind in support levels. Conservatives are certainly more competitive in Ontario, but are well off a massive breakthrough. In Quebec, the other large province with a lot of seats, the Conservatives are BEHIND the NDP in 4th place. In BC, where the Alliance got 27 seats and 50% of the vote, they are now in third place behind the NDP.

Are labour unions not a monopoly? Is there any difference between a cartel and a monopoly? UNIONS DO NOT HAVE A MONOPOLY OVER THE WORKFORCE!!! Repeat that 1000 times and you might have a clue. Yes, union influence is falling in Canada today...that might explain to a large degree why the gap between rich and poor is at its largest point ever right now.. But Oil producers who control almost 90% of the worlds supply of oil are a cartel...illegal in North America, but obviously legitimate in the global economy.

Gordon Campbell's "balanced" budget was done so using tax increases on the poor; and BC's economy is not the fastest growing in Canada - that is Liberal propaganda...like the BC Rail deal that 'is not privitization' but is supposed to last a thousand years. And the laws passed to enforce GAAP budgeting rules were in fact passed by the NDP - not the liberals. Bush is in a war with a country that had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11...but he conspired to invade Iraq as soon as he was in the white house. Bush and his war-lovers ignored crutial evidence that might have prevented 9/11, and then promptly didn't send enough troops to get the job done. It wasn't as if they were liberating a country in Europe in 1944, Iraqis hate Americans. Bush also handed out massive tax cuts to the rich, and took money from everyone else...he gave tax breaks to corporations to outsource jobs to foreign companies. I am no Liberal supporter, but the Mulroney conservatives created their own problems. Trying to ram Meech Lake down everyones throat, the GST, ballooning decifits and debt, and a government senior management loaded with patronage appointees. I'm no fan of the Liberals, but they cleaned up Mulroney's mess. That free trade agreement you refer to is why today, BC exports raw logs. Some deal eh? My arguments are based in fact, and just because you don't like them or don't believe them, does not make them false. Conservatives have no understanding of hard work and sacrifice. They grow up in a life of privalege and are taught greed and selfishness...this is why today they attempt to justify tax cuts for the rich, while imposing new taxes, user fees on the rest of us Real Canadians.

Gordon Campbell and the BC Liberals increased BC's debt by over $10 billion in less than 4 years.. George W. Bush turned a trillion dollar surplus into a $500 billion deficit...he for the 1st time ever in American history has increased their debt to $7 trillion, and lost almost 3 million jobs while at the helm. Brian Mulroney and the last conservative government passed some of the country's largest deficits, increased taxes, had big, bloated, and patronage filled government. Reality is that conservatives are fiscally incompetent and corrupt.

As an employer I can tell you that this is just not the case. It cost more to train an employee than the wage increase saving would be to fire and hire new. It does happen that these young workers traditionally have high turn over. This is their choice as they have changing life circumstances. These are mostly high school students. This is a good program. The program gets new employees their first bit of experience. I hire people when I need them; I keep them when they provide me more value than I have to expend to keep them. Businesses are not a welfare office but I am always excited to find an energetic young learning employee that would like to learn and grow within my company. They will make me money and the $6/hour helps me get them experience until they provide full value. I can then afford extra training and limited time requirements that young employees have. There has been a precident in years past that a lower wage be paid to young people, or students in college etc. But this pay gap was 25 cents or 50 cents per hour. Not a large gap, but a minor incentive to hire a few students for weekend relief work, etc. If you go back even further, there was even a legal pay gap between men and women too. But a $2.00 per hour gap? There is no precident for that, and its just unfair. How is a young person or new employee supposed to save some cash for university - especially after the gov't has allowed for 200% + tuition fee increases? I found out afterwards that my own cousin was working for a year after completing her own 500 hours min. and she was still getting $6 per hour. This joke is nothing more than a political gift to the fast food industry who donated heavily to the BC Liberals. Each youth that starts a job and completes 500 hours, has saved $1000 for her boss. A real nice gift from the government. At the end, there is no guarantee that she will have a job at 500 hours, and in reality, most get laid off or fired for some picky reason. And Gordon Campbell promised an end to business subsidies. Another LIE told by a LIAR, in a party full of thieves, vandals, and liars. Its that simple...Liberals are Liars. Vote them out of office.

This is how you defeat the union movement... You treat employees with dignity and respect, pay them a decent wage with benefits, and you will never have to worry about them voting in a union...ever. If only every business took care of its workers the way that westjet has taken care of theirs, then there would be no unions. Sadly, this is not the case. Young people getting laid off from their jobs in BC because they hit the 500 hour maximum and must be moved from the $6 min. wage to the $8/h min. wage.....'get rid of them, and find a new kid that can work for $6 per hour'... Taking away the rights of workers that are exploited and abused is the very reason that unions are brought in...to fight for their rights.

I'm curious about that opinion poll...can you provide us with a link?

Martin has invested too much time and energy overthrowing the Chretien regime and installing his own hand picked people. It is unlikely he is going anywhere...unless the liberals lose. Then he will be one of the shortest serving PM's in Canada's history.

Unlike a century ago, your household does not produce them. You have "outsourced" these activities. Now, you do other things with your time and trade. You gain. How about when a firm outsources to... a computer? That is, when a company replaces a person by a robot or a computer? Is that bad too? (If you think it is bad, then you are against the introduction of new technology.) If the person's job is replaced by a computer, but the person can be re-trained into a job that pays about the same in wages and benifits, then I don't have a problem with it. After all, robots and computers do not pay taxes. But this outsourcing joke is not a technological issue. Imagine one call-centre in North America paying its workers an average of $10-12/h for canvassing, etc...next week they sign a contract to outsource those very jobs to a foreign call centre that pays about 50 cents per hour...same job, same phones, same technology. That has nothing to do with technology, but a greedy desire to make more money. George Bush rewarded them. I think they should be fine with punitive damages.

US real GDP per person went from $22,666 in 1980 to $28,434 in 1990 (measured in constant 2000 dollars).US GDP US private sector trade union membership reached a peak of 39% in 1958 and has declined since to 9% in 2000 (about what it was in 1900). US Trade Union membership No one has yet explained to me why "outsourcing" is bad? We let foreigners do certain jobs so that we can do something else. Then we trade with the foreigners. Indians, Chinese, Vietnamese do not send us goods or services for free. We have to send something to them in return. Do you make your own clothes? Do you bake your own bread? Do you have your own chickens for eggs? Why has almost everyone "outsourced" these tasks from their households? Were you alive during the 80's recession? That GDP per person stat that you quote, did that source also provide a number for the mean-average? What had happened is that more of the wealth was concentrated in the hands of the wealthy, and they increased their wealth...so while the average went up, more people earned less. Lets talk of outsourcing... We got a dose of that thanks to our free trade agreements that allowed large employers to leave Canada and set up in Mexico. All of their decent paid (union or non-union) staff were laid off. Where did they go? Some found work elsewhere at lower wages, some went into business for themselves, and some moved away from the town or city altogether. Do you realise what happens when you take a large, well paid workforce and end their employment? Look at the ghost towns of Northern BC and Vancouver Island thanks to outsourcing and raw log exports. And its not just the union workers that pay the price. Small town merchants are forced into bankruptcy since they do not qualify for EI. All of this increases the pressure on the taxpayer because of a dramatic expansion of the unemployed. When a company oursources jobs to foreign countries, the only 'benifit' that is returned is the increased profit margin of the domestic company that exported the jobs in the first place. In America, George Bush has rewarded these companies with a tax cut. How many jobs should North America kill off that used to pay decent wages and supported thousands of other service jobs before we realise that it is consumers spending power that drives the economy? When all of the good paying jobs are gone and no one has a penny left at the end of the day? These are the policitics of a government and politicians that hate the people they govern.

Its a generic question. But it applies to some politicians view that perhaps that gays be outlawed again, or a legislative ban on gay marriage, to name a few.

Just because you believe something, does not make it a fact. Many conservatives believed in the trickle-down economic program by Ronald Reagan...it triggered the western worlds largest economic meltdown since the great deprepression. But you are free to believe anything you want. I hear there is a vibrant non-profit society that proclaims that the world is indeed flat...perhaps you could join them too? Right-to-work laws are a stupid misnomer. They drive wages and working conditions down in every jurisdiction that they are in place...and it does little to 'protect the rights of the non union worker' (which are the same rights of a union worker, by the way). If right-to-work laws are so great, then why has President George W. Bush allowed for tax cuts and incentives to outsource these jobs to foreign countries at pennies per hour? - from the very jurisdictions that have the right-to-work laws? And its not just rank and file, blue collar jobs, but more highly skilled white-collar jobs too. Right to work laws do not protect anyone but the big corporations that lobbied for their creation in the first place. The laws are designed to break communities and create a WalMart economy.

Right on.. This was a rare and lone act by a confused person that obviously wasn't thinking on all cylanders. Whatever the crime, whatever the reason, he has done the right thing now and is prepared for whatever consequences there are...and, no - there should not be any special treatment for him because he is a politician..

Of course not. But no one can deny that labour unions aren't connected to organized crime and the mafia. All you have to do is notice some of their antics. Many unions that are connected to organized crime have been mentioned.. The Teamsters, The CAW, and The Longshoremens Union come to mind. That's not to say that they all are but unfortunately they all get painted with the same brush and this is how people view them today. I'm glad that you've identified that the actions of a very few have unfairly tainted the entire labour movement. The criminal acts of some union bosses and corporate bosses must be hammered down on by the police and the court system and the criminals pay their debt to society. That said, I do reject your assertion that all unions are linked to organized crime....just as you'd be equally upset if I went and labelled all corporate bosses as embezzlers and criminals too... 99% of all union members are decent people who are not interested in busting the company they work for, just as 99% of the managers of companies are not interested in slavery-exploitation of the workforce they rely on to make them successful. Stop the politics of hate and greed. Promotion of hatred towards unions or any organization will facilitate even more polarization than already exists.

And union bosses and workers blame management for their own failures. My union 'boss' is a single mother who worked the first 12 years of her career as an on-call casual. Hardly 'organized crime'..

Again: Wouldn't you confess and be prepared to face the consequences if your wife had a videotape of you focking some other bitch? I wrote "theiving bastards" before my editor changed it to "thieving buggers". There is something eerie about this place. You are crossing a the line here.. You compare cheating on a spouse to committing a criminal offense. If you cheated on your wife, you might expect to get yelled at, divorced, etc...but not thrown in jail...except in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Libya, Syria, etc where cheating spouses can also be shot. And, what if you had been caught on tape shagging some other chick? Does that make you a serial cheater? Luckily, in this country, we have the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, and the right to a fair trial. You keep trying to tie a moral argument into criminal law. Theft is illegal, being gay, or cheating on a spouse are not. This is the very essence of keeping the state out of the bedrooms of consenting adults. Government does not have the right to legislate morality. This tactic is what happens when a nation has failed to separate church and state.

Who the hell cares? If it was his first or fifteenth time, it's irrelevant. he committed a crime, he confessed, the victim is not pursuing the matter. Case closed. If evidence coems to light that he committed other criminal acts, they should be dealt with accordingly. However, given there is no evidence of such crimes, speculation on their existence is just that: speculation. Indeed, such talk in this context amounts to little more than character assasination. Adolf Hitler reacted to a Jewish assassin's attack on a German diplomat by firing Jews from the public service, seizing their assets, and organizing anti-Jew riots that destroyed Synagogues...otherwise known as "Krystalnacht" or 'the night of broken glass'. All Jews wore the blame of one criminal act and all were guilty. Blaming all of one 'kind' for the acts of one or a select few is typical of conservates. That is why today you find a large concentration camp of Islamic people at Guantanamo Bay that have no rights whatsoever...and how many have been charged with criminal acts relating to terrorist activities? Svend admitted theft, returned the ring, and is prepared for whatever criminal proceedings come his way. Svend the person did a stupid thing. But to some on this forum, his act is a damning indictment of all gays and politically moderates...they're all thieves, paedophiles (according to one infamous poster on here), and corrupt. What a great way to offend the thousands of gays and lesbians. 99.998% of them are good citizens that have jobs and pay taxes....and vote. This is why this issue should have been left alone. Conservate social engineers will pay a huge price if they try to push this any further.

So, we should assume that he has more skeletons therefore proclaim him guilty of things that he hasn't even been accused of? Wow! This kind of thinking would get you a good job in Robert Mugabe's government in a heartbeat. Ok, I give up. If we are to believe that Jesus' mum was a virgin, why the hell not that this was Svend's first time too. Oh, I get it...you want him in jail for being gay. Homosexuality has been legal in Canada for some time now. I guess if it was outlawed, then Svend would be in jail for gay sex. While we are at it, lets outlaw left handed people...or scrap womens right to vote...and birth control pills... Theft is illegal. Svend knows that. Svend is prepared to pay the price for it...even after returning the ring and apologising for it. Being gay is not a crime...except in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Yemen and Egypt...where being gay can get you executed. If Alliance MP Larry Spencer had his way, it might be outlawed here too. Whether or not you think being gay is ok or not is not the point though...although your slant is becoming clear. You suggested that because he stole one item, then he MUST be guilty of stealing others. Prove it.

If France does not have a constitutional guarantee of a fair trial and the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, then yes.

So, we should assume that he has more skeletons therefore proclaim him guilty of things that he hasn't even been accused of? Wow! This kind of thinking would get you a good job in Robert Mugabe's government in a heartbeat.

Confessing for what? He just embarrassed himself in front of the whole country and returned the stolen ring. Perhaps you have evidence of something else? Please share? No evidence. What I'm reasonably sure of though is that if 52 year old Svend went to confession and said ......."Forgive me father for I have sinned" ..... on this occasion no Father in the land would believe that that was the first time Svend has stolen. Nor the second. Nor the third. Would you? Not good enough.. This 'guilty until proven innocent' approach is wrong and contrary to the bill of rights. If I am not mistaken, the 'innocent until proven guilty' notion has been with civilized nations since the magna carta, several centuries ago. Guilty until proven innocent is popular with other famous dictators like Hussein and Hitler, but not acceptable in a free democratic society.

The Bloc's core of MP's are not compatible with the NDP. Their leader is a former Marxist, and many of their MP's are former PCers that left the party when Meech Lake failed. The Bloc is as xenophobic and racist as the Reform/Alliance/whatever party. One hates English Canada, the other hates French Canada. The sooner that voters put them in their place the better. They both can thank the charter of rights and freedoms for the ability to yak their wrong headed platforms, but then a free country like Canada allows you to believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Great Pumpkin too if you wish.

Organized crime in Canada is specific to biker gangs and the flow and control of drugs. The union bosses in America that got themselves into trouble were in the bid-rigging scandals of decades ago. Today's unions are nothing like the good ol' days of the Hoffa Teamsters union. You will find most of the organised crime today in Ottawa, and at the head offices of the biggest corporations. Typical though...union haters blame the workers for the failures of the management.

Confessing for what? He just embarrassed himself in front of the whole country and returned the stolen ring. Perhaps you have evidence of something else? Please share?