Moonbox

What's more asinine is that you completely missed the point. We don't care what the union's job is. Of course they're going to try to get the best salaries/benefits for their employees. Collective bargaining only exists, however, to support the desires of an easily replaced (ie poorly skilled) workforce, or in the public service monopolies and protected industries. The job of management/the government, however, is to ensure that their companies don't go under to the union's asinine demands and that the taxpayers don't get fleeced. I'm not sure what's not getting through to people here. Postal worker skills are almost worthless. If it was in the private sector, they'd be earning the same wages and benefits of other two-legged barely literate drones workers.

Well it depends on what you do for a living. If, for example, you're doing monkey work in the private sector, I don't think it's likely you'll be highly appreciated for your 'valuable' contributions. That would be because they're not valuable. The difference with the public sector, however, is that on average you'd get paid a fair bit more, have more job security, far better benefits, and a golden pension all at the taxpayer's expense for the exact same type of work. There's nothing ideological about that. It's pretty simple fact.

Or he could have been a young kid or student or something or it could have been thirty years ago. Oleg, get a life. Your declarations like this are almost as dumb as the majority of your posts. As usual your posts barely make any sense. There's always a price for your labour. It's up to you to make your labour valuable. You've made it pretty clear you don't know anything about that, however. and CPCFTW, don't believe Oleg's story about marrying a rich heiress. Rich heiresses, or at least their parents, generally don't attach themselves, and therefore their money, to just anybody off the streets. Oleg has a VERY long history of making crap up here. I've read fairly numerous conflicting versions of his life stories. I doubt he's even remembered half of what he's told us.

How is a post office clerk, or a postal worker, any more qualified than a Tim Horton's or McDonald's employee? They're not! So why is it that they're paid so much better? Literally anyone with two legs and basic literacy can do their job, so why are we, as taxpayers, paying more than we should for postal service for people who are trying to shake us down for even more? I know a lot of people who'd love to be paid $40-50k a year to do monkey work.

It's monkey work. Anyone with two legs and the ability to read can be a Canada Post worker. Some of them need to be able to drive a truck of course, but that's not exactly deeply technical stuff. Why should they earn an above average, or even average, salary, when there are more skilled workers earning less? The benefits and pensions of these workers are also FAR beyond that of a private sector worker with similar skills and abilities.

and those educated, technically skilled and valuable employees will be well paid because they'll go work elsewhere if the Crown Corporation does not pay them sufficiently. They don't rely on the farcical tool of collective bargaining to hold the taxpayers ransom for wages and benefits they'd never receive in the private sector. I have no problem paying, as an example, a CA or CFA or something at Canada Revenue the salaries/benefits they'd get in the private sector. I do, however, have a problem with overpaying a bunch of dummies with legs to walk around and drop our mail off.

Corporate tax rates are widely considered by economists to be one of the least efficient taxes there are. What's the wisdom in taxing the productive and wealth-generating ententies. Lowering tax rates for corporations actually DOES help generate jobs and it also increases corporate profit which, believe it or not, does not all go to greedy CEO's and rich shareholders. Huge amounts of that profit are reinvested in the form of retained earnings, which help the company expand, purchase assets and grow further (thus generating even more jobs). I'd rather see that money spent on corporate tax cuts, which will help create wealth in Canada, as well as lower prices, than on the pensions, benefits and salaries of people whose main job qualifications are the ability to read addresses and move their legs.

I think I got $100. The HST will NOT do what the Feds promise it will. It's going to cost people that pay taxes more money. All it's really done is add taxes to things that weren't taxed before. Enjoy your next home purchase btw.

Topaz I do agree with that. I was disgusted with the way the auto bailouts happened and it's one of the reasons I'm not really all that thrilled with Barack Obama. He and Harper sold out taxpayers to bail out (hold back your shock) the idiotic pension plans of the unions that ran their respective companies into bankruptcy in the first place. The shareholders and creditors of GM and Chrysler ended up with next to nothing. The Unions somehow got away clean. I found it rather fascinating how Barack Obama's biggest campaign contributor was the UAW and how he then proceeded to fleece the taxpayers who elected him to scratch the back of the union that funded his election bid.

Let me rephrase. Instead of "uneducated, unskilled", I'll say, "high-school educated, and skilled at walking around and dropping pieces of paper in boxes." Actually, I think my first statement was bang-on.

The government should stay out of the business of a Crown Corporation? News for you Topaz: We pay taxes to support Canada Post. The notion that Canada Post's largely unskilled and uneducated workforce should have free reign to disrupt a relatively vital Crown Corporation and try to force taxpayer to pay wages and benefits that are unavailable in the private sector for the same qualifications is a JOKE. Topaz I see your use of logic has not improved over the last several months. Whether or not you disagree with the Tories' spending up to this point does not in any way disprove the fact that they saved us money by not allowing a union of losers to shake us down for wages they don't deserve.

So none of the reserves in Southern Ontario have good soil? I find that strange, since I see so much profitable farmland surrounding them. How about we all just agree that we don't care how they live, whether they go back to killing each other in inter-tribal wars, starving through drought/famine and living shorter lives, or if they instead choose to continue mooching off the public purse. I think most of them can agree that they're not getting the vast majority of their land back.

Is that the same right that allows uneducated, unskilled employees of essential public services and crown corporations to shake tax payers down for salaries and benefits they'd never get in the private sector? I for one, am totally outraged.....

Yeah making them all instantly wealthy would certainly improve their conditions. While we're at it we should also ban the burning of fossil fuels to save the polar bears. Or we could just not do that and instead do something that isn't completely idiotic.

As predicted, a bunch of un-qualified, poorly educated nobodies who know next to nothing about the portfolios they're shadowing. Alexandre Boulerice for the treasury board? I dare anyone to find out what his educational and professional background is. Robert Chisholm for International Trade? He's done nothing but work for Unions. Given his background, has the NDP decided that international trade is bad?? We already know Tom Mulcair is a total wingnut given his Osama comments. My personal favourite, however, is Peter Julian, shadowing the Industry Minister. Last time I checked, his resumé included such profound experience as: General Labourer, Political Activist...period. Bravo NDP. This is going to get REALLY funny over the next 4 years.

You would like to think that I'm sure, but the rise of the NDP is the sole reason the Conservatives won a majority and will the reason the Conservatives win the next election too. The 'centre' of the Canadian political spectrum is FAR FAR FAR closer to Conservative ideals than to the NDP. You only need to look at how well the provincial NDP has done in Ontario for the last 20 years to see the support they get here. Anyone working outside of the public sector, outside of a menial labour union and making a decent living typically doesn't vote NDP. There's no reason to.

Layton just committed political suicide outside of Quebec. This is something the Liberals and the Conservatives will hang him on next election and he'll flop so hard in Ontario because of this it won't be funny. 51% for Quebec to secede? Right. Not going to happen. With the number of crybaby whiners boneheaded French Canadians there are in his party, the NDP is just going to end up the spiritual successor of the Bloc with the pretense of being a national party. Jack Layton the joke everyone. Stand back and watch the show.

You know what? I'm really not going to spend hours looking up every MP's resume. Instead I'll invite you to peruse their credentials, particularly Peter Julian's, and ask what qualifies him as (from his own website) as Critic on International Trade, Gateways and the Vancouver 2010 Olympics in 39th Parliament; Critic on Globalization, the Treasury Board, Natural Resources, Transportation You would THINK that anyone serving as Critic for such areas, PARTICULARLY the Treasury Board, would have some sort of educational background to support it. When you're in the NDP, however, that's not the case. His credentials are that he was previously a financial administrator, community activist and manual labourer. I think it's safe to say manual labour doesn't really provide any background knowledge for the Treasury Board, nor does being a community activist (that's just a pre-req for being in the NDP). Interestingly, one of his qualifications is he was a former financial administrator, which means sweet 'f' all unless given context. Financial administrator of WHAT??? His own household likely, but I'd truly hope to be proven otherwise. That's the sort of thing the NDP does to pad the resume, however, to make it look like their candidates actually know anything about the world and how it works.

Hey you can brainlessly vote to elect a bunch of non-achievers with no understanding of finance/economics, little education and zero experience if you want. That's completely your perogative. Whether or not that's a smart thing to do on the other hand, is an entirely different matter.

Nurses already have specialized education to put on their resumes and the certificate for IV in this case would just qualify her for extra work. In that case, it's actually worth something. I'd love to know what 'certificates' this clown has. Most of the other party MP's have these things called 'degrees' and 'credentials' that most NDP MP's seem to lack.

I'd sure like to know what a 'certificate' means. It's clearly not a degree, nor is it a diploma, so what the heck good is it? What sort of 'certificate' do you get from a university that was worth putting on a resume? Fact is that most of the NDP candidates are nobodies with no qualifications.

I know it's a rallying point for any anti-Harper people out there and a really sexy thing to protest, but we'll be flying 40 year old designs by the time Canada takes their first F-35 delivery and there really aren't any other jets out there that can compete with the F-35. I take exception to how much Harper has been lying about the cost of the program and whatnot, but we're going to need to replace our CF-18's sooner rather than later and we might as well do it with another plane that will last us 30-40 years. Nice forum name btw...

You mean wear Bob Rae ran Ontario's biggest deficit ever and left the NDP in Ontario a smoky ruin? Harper should be thanking Bob Rae for his majority. It was Ontario's fear of Bob Rae style NDP that had people abandoning the Liberals and flocking to the CPC in the GTA.

Why are people even humoring the OP by responding to these threads? You are pleasing comrade chairman.

I think it's kind of silly to say that election spending has little impact on the outcome. Regardless of whether or not you have a good message, if nobody hears it nobody will acknowledge it. For the other parties to compete they'll simply have to get their supporters to fork up some dough like the Tories do. Put your money where your mouth is or don't cry about the results. The contribution limit is $1000 so the bulk of fundraising dollars is NOT coming from wealthy health care haters. It's coming from everyone that supports the conservatives.