PoliticalCitizen

Recent polls show more than half of Canadians want the troops back now but it doesn't appear to be on any major party's agenda. Are they going to promise that before elections or are they all afraid?

I have never quite understood how is Bloq Quebequois allowed to become a Federal party - is that in the Constitution someplace? I think we should fix that... Green party has half of their popular support, except it's truly National and not Provincial.

That would be true had Georgia not had the UNCONDITIONAL support it enjoys from the country that used to be the world's only superpower until recently. You should also know that this same country has also instructed all of NATO and EU on how to react and how to show things in the media. And about Armenia - I forgot to mention Nagorno-Karabakh which I guess made them enemies with Azerbaijan... Poor Armenia.... Iran on the other side... Oh brother...

You haven't travelled much, have you? And why would you? The rest of the world is a sh*thole anyway, right? LOL Anohter fine example of signature American pride of being ignorant. Anyway, I got to Canada as a result of the Moldovan conflict, which was about language, not ancestral values. Speaking of sh*tholes - I had the misfortune of visiting Niagara Falls, USA not so long ago and - oh, boy...

Kaisa, I'm going to give you a link to an OFFICIAL RUSSIAN NEWS SOURCE (oh, no! ). If you are genuine in your feelings and at least a bit open-minded check out the movie describing the "trophies" captured by Russian troops in Georgia and listen to the descriptions: http://www.vesti.ru/videos?vid=149225 It is really FAR, FAR more than any little country THAT DOESN'T PLAN TO ATTACK ITS NEIGHBORS would ever need. You can ignore most comments as "Russian propaganda" BS, but just look at the hardware and plans. US spy satellites provided Georgian military with maps pinpointing the exact location of the peacekeepers - I'm sure that was to send them flowers or chocolates as a reward for their effort. That's exactly what Georgia did - entered South Ossetia after bombing Tshinval via air, artillery and GRAD. No, they were not trying to FIGHT RUSSIA. Georgian government was given the euphoric feeling by the US that they can do whatever they want to and get support from NATO - they hoped to execute a "blitzkrieg" and re-capture the lost provinces with no regard to human life, then declare the war won and over BEFORE the slow Russian army with an outdated command system would have gotten a chance to respond. They either grossly underestimated the level of preparedness of Russian forces specifically for this operation OR were purposely misled by the American friends, who are always happy to create chaos on Russia's turf to serve their "National" interests. I will say this again - you may consider Russia as an enemy of Georgia (at this point they're clearly not friends); but to USA Georgia is just a tool. Your motherland is on is way to become America's military instrument in Caucasus.

Sorry to have gotten you upset, Bill. If you would have read all my previous posts you would have seen that I suggested a "working" version of the Senate or similar political mechanism to protect the interests of sparsely populated areas. Another approach is what they tried to introduce in Ontario - Mixed member proportional representation - where in addition to ridings there would be some seats filled by the proportions of the votes. I thought it's a good start to get to a fair (or at least fairer) representation.

It's not what I don't have. It's just that I feel my right to have rights is insulted by the mere existence of even a token Monarch. I'd much rather swear allegiance to the Country and People of Canada then to some old lady from a foreign country that happened to be born in a "royal" family. I'm sorry if I offended some royalists here but the Queen of England and all references to the "crown" feel meaningless to most and insulting to some immigrants. We came here to join millions of immigrants that live in a free country, not to become UK's royal subjects. I apologize if your ability to comprehend does not allow you to grasp the concept.

Let's say "my candidate" (or more whoever the party leader appointed to this particular "riding" and forced me to vote for, hoever obscure that person may be) lost. Does my vote mean nothing to my country? And if yes, then WHY? Hahaha Sports, eh? Well, in sports it is YOU who wins or loses. In a truly "Democratic" election every vote should count, not just the winning ones. The SYSTEM has to serve the PEOPLE, othewise everyone loses and you end up with a crappy minority Conservative government that behaved like a majority most of the time because they knew they won't be called on it because of the elections and the crappy "ridings"... That's hardly the result voters deposited their efforts for... USSR. Try to find it on the map

http://news.ino.com/headlines/?newsid=90820080685 White House Revokes Determination On Nuclear Deal With Russia re-copied article deleted by moderator

How did my vote influence the political landscape in a riding where another party won? How did I contribute to the "Democratic process"? The common result: a citizen wasted their time just to feel a loser...

Thank you, I may explore these venues after understanding better what can be done and what we're up against as a result the discussion in this thread.

That's a valid concern, but should not be used to stiffle evolution of the archaic voting system. There should be a functional mechanism (kind of like the Senate, but working) to defend the interests of the remote and less populated areas. At the same time today there's a clear discrimination against the urban voters as 1,000 urban votes may count as 1 Prarie vote. What are we, a dime a dozen?

Have you thought your answer over (besides the denigrating comment about immigrants)? And no, there are no classes. They sent me a booklet with information as basic as to be understood by Grade 1 students. How can my vote for, let's say, Liberal Party in a "riding" where the Conservatives got the majority of votes be the same with a Liberal vote in a "riding" where Liberal got the most? My vote for any other party than the one that got the majority in my riding is GARBAGE, conts for nothing and a HUGE turn-off for would-be voters. Why should I bother voting when the majority in my "riding" are Conservative (or Liberal)?

Thank you. I had a feeling it's something archaic.. But we're in the 21st Century! Third Millenium! Shouldn't we all vote electronically and all votes to be considered equal (regardless of the "riding")?

That was for Provincial election system. Do we get a vote on the Federal one?

Vote for what? We had an attempt to introduce a representative / proportional system in Ontario and I voted for it. I'm sure most people who came to the polls looked at the paper and with the thought "What the f*ck is that?" crossed "No"...

Again I need your help, my knowledgeable friends. My impression was that in a Democracy the will of the majority of the people is represented in the Government. However in Canada I witness quite the opposite. First of all - what's up with these "Riding" things? Who uses a horse to collect ballots today? Why am I given the choice of voting for some obscure "riding" candidates instead of voting for the PM directly? And second - how is this fair that the Bloq Quebequois (which shouldn't even be allowed to be a Federal Party as it only represents the interests of one "have-not" Province while using up the Federal tax money taken from 2-3 "have" provinces) gets many seats and the Green Party (which is a true Federal party) gets nothing? Just think about this: BQ with a 10.58% of popular vote gets 54 seats; GP with 4.48% of popular vote gets 0 seats... And if we take it one step further - how can BQ claim to have ANY popular Canadian vote? They can only have Quebequois popular vote... What ways are there to change this old crappy system and get a government that better represents us?

Your government had to be smarter than trying to take on a big local bully by force hoping to get help from a superbully across the ocean... That's exactly how you get the crap beat out of you... You were training and building a stronger army for 17 years, while continuing military provocations in the 2 authonomous regions. That's a very strange interpretation of "Tolerance"... Well, USA has proven that not only they wouldn't give a flying f*ck about all South Ossetians being exterminated but the actually instructed all of their allies to do the same while your "Democratically Elected Government" butchered peacekeepers and civilians... As for USSR - do you remember this kind of sh*t ever going on during the good old days? Chechen fighting Russians? Georgians fighting Ossetians and Abkhazians? Armenians fighting Azeris? Moldovans fighting other Moldovans? All this mess was made possible not without interference from USA...

That exactly is the problem: NATO or a so-called "Coalition of the Willing" (Georgia was there too, I'm sure because of humanitarian reasons) led by US defies UN time after time, thus not only showing to the whole world UN's powerlessness and uselessness but also brazenly proclaiming itself the only real power in the world that nobody can challenge and that doesn't care about the opinions of the countries that can't challenge it. Yes, Russia knows the strength of NATO. But it also knows that without showing its own military might (at least in the region) it will not be heard or respected, but dismissed like so many (if not all) other countries. I would expect China to be the next one to act... They have their own "Chechnya" - Tibet, they have their ambitions in the region - Taiwan, maybe more... I'm sure they're as sick of having a single center of gravity in the world as Russia is and would also like to become one... And they have a lot more economical leverage over US than Russia can hope to have.

One historical fact and political reality that I'm sure of - Armenia is as far from being friends with Turkey as could be... an internationally recognized fact of genocide happened about 100 years ago... 1 Million Armenians got butchered by the Turks... But you cannot deny that neither Turkey nor Azerbaijan condemned Russia's actions. You also cannot deny that all Azeri oil is being pumped via Russian pipeline right now. Honestly, I am sorry that this happened to your motherland... It's yet another humiliation that the peoples of former Soviet Union have been made to endure by the West...

Well I have to let you know I didn't vote for the Conservatives...

You insist on equaling Communsm with Authocracy. I cannot change your point of view but I cannot accept it and for the purpose of future discussion will adhere to separate notions where Authocracy is power of one ruler and Communism is a society with a ruling mechanism that is superior to today's Democracy. I could also insist that today "Democracy" means power of Corporations and the Rich (but not smart) Every state of human society is evolutionary - time goes, things change... you know. I believe Communism - the highest form of organisation of human society (which is the opposite of any dictature, monarchy, etc.) - can be achieved through natural evolution of whatever political system exists today, including Capitalism (or semi-Capitalism). Thank you. These exact traits of human behaviour are supposed to be the foundations of both Socialism and Communism. I'd like to hear your thoughts on that. You could start a thread about government so we could stay on that topic. Health and intellect can be diagnozed / established by tests. Beauty can be basically summarized as "lack of physical defects", beyond that it's in the eye of the beholder... We can live happily on Earth. Our current education system and education within biological families is doing more disservice than good to the spirits of the young.

OK, why don't we put the pictures of fallen soldiers on the money? At least they have done something to earn respect... What has the Queen done besides being born? And the question that bothers me the most: "WHERE IS OUR KING ???"

I agree. A "Constitutional Monarchy" is insulting the freedom of the citizens who don't want to be "subjects" to anyone. A "Constitutional Monarchy" where the "Monarch" is a token ruler of a different country is twice as insulting - it denigrates both the citizen and their country.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL272497420080908 Russia ready for Georgia buffer pullout: Medvedev re-copied article deleted by moderator