Moonbox

Treason.

Hey I don't disagree with anything you really said here. He's doing what the Liberals did and he criticized them for. I just think he's being pragmatic about it. As far as POLITICS go, if I was Stephen Harper I'd also be avoiding spending large sums of money in areas that were political wastelands for me. Why bother? It's not like he has to worry about the gay Montreal vote. Montreal and Toronto have been on Liberal lockdown for 20 years now and that's not likely to change. Harper may have previously hoped it would and spent money there in order to foster the impression that we was a fair spender, but fair spending (and he did spend a ton of money in Quebec) clearly makes no difference to a Quebec voter because arts funding is clearly a lot more important. There's no point in throwing money down the toilet. Once again, however, you've avoided my question as to why would the Tories spend money there? Other than the 'criteria'....

Well years ago he was convinced to go to Afghanistan and work with the Taliban. Perhaps he wasn't LEGALLY an adult in Canada yet, but he was old enough to work to fight against us. How stupid do you have to be to assume that when we repatriate him he'll want to be a productive part of Canadian society? Omar Khadr and his family are the best example we have of terrible immigration and citizenship laws. I really, completely and honestly could not care less what happens to him. If he gets out of Gitmo, however, I don't want him back in Canada.

Pretty much the stupidest thing ever said on this forum. I laugh at you, and your family if they are anything like you. I'm not afraid of rabid idiots on welfare. Yep hate is a lot easier to spread for sure. It's also a lot easier to propogate hate in a majority against a minority than it is the other way around. It's a pretty counter-productive initiative for the minority.

You can be offended all you like. You find a way to get offended about pretty much everything the Tories do. The Tories have to ask themselves, "Why would we spend this money? What good does it do us as a party, and for that matter the average voter/taxpayer?" I'd love to see you try and come up with an intelligent answer to that, other than that the festival met the ''criteria''.

It's easier to justify funding some events over others. Canada Day celebrations are something everyone can enjoy. A celebration flaunting homosexuality, often distastefully, is something that's going to be VERY hard for a lot of Canadians to want to support with dollars from their pockets. Of course there's politics involved with this sort of thing. There always is. What's your point? The Tories aren't out there actively attacking gays, they've just made it clear there's better things to do with money in a recession than throw it away at stupid 'parties' that the vast majority of the residents wants absolutely NOTHING to do with. I have nothing wrong with homosexuality or anything of the like, but I do find it offensive that I'm paying taxes to subsidize their partying.

The Tories funded it in the past...so probably not.

I hope I wasn't misunderstood. I don't mean they shouldn't have funded it because they are anti-gay or anything like that. I don't think ANY funding should be provided for this crap. If the event is worthwhile it will proceed without it. Subsidizing special interest groups/cultures is never worthwhile IMO. When you combine this with the fact that the Tories have NOTHING to gain by supporting it you really have your answer for why it was cancelled.

Why waste taxpayers money for an event in Montreal? Some events are more worthy of others and I'm not saying a Gay festival is less worthy, but why on earth would the Tories waste money on: A) A province that's a political wasteland for them A demographic that's also lost to them It would be like the Liberals throwing millions towards funding Baptist Church events in Alberta.

I agree with this completely. We shouldn't be accepting ANY refugee applications whatsoever from the EU or even North America for that matter. There's no point in penalizing our tourism industries because our refugee system is totally broken. Fix the problem, not the effect.

Mexico has nothing to gain by this and thus they won't do it. More Canadian dollars are spent down there than the other way around by a LONG shot. As far as the EU retaliating, just like I said before: Watch and see. The EU won't be forcing France or GB to make Canadians require Visas anytime soon. I would also suggest that Canadians probably spend more money in Europe than Europeans spend here. I don't have any numbers but I would be surprised if it was the other way around.

Fixed it for you.

Jdobbin watch and wait to see how many EU countries slap visa restrictions on Canadians. Other than the Czech Republic I see very few if any that will and even then, like I said, it won't be from any countries that matter. As for your idea that the immigration and refugee system should be fixed, I agree with that entirely. Fix the source of the problem and you have a solution. At a certain point you're better off just buying a new ship than having to spend all your time and money filling holes in the leaky one. On the other hand, how easy do you think this is to fix? It would take a change in immigration law would it not?

I agree with where you're going with this but I also don't think fixing the refugee system will prevent the costs of people coming to the country totally broke without a plane ticket back. You have to have a system to refuse them entry in the first place otherwise we'll end up paying for them anyways.

Europe will not retaliate. The EU is not one country. They all operate unilaterally and the countries that matter (Western and South Western Europe) have nothing to gain by forcing Canadians to have Visas. There will be no solidarity move here in the EU.

Look up the average cost of a refugee claim. I bet you it's a way greater drain to deal with that than it would be to lose a percentage of the tourism dollars.

You have to indicate your intentions for coming to Canada and prove that you have the cash available to pay for everything while here and make it home. Basically they deny the visa if it doesn't appear you'll be certain to go home.

I think there are not many mexicans that come to canada for vacation regardless and I think the ones that don't come because of this will have a minimal impact on us. Eliminating 3000 bogus refugee claims, which would cost us many thousands of dollars each, I bet is more than worth whatever percentage of the 266,000 tourists from Mexico we get each year. When it comes to the Czech Republic, the amount of tourism we get from there is pretty much a non-factor.

Anyone with Economics 101 can see that inflation will be high moving forward. Schiff didn't figure that out by himself. As for Hyperinflation and US currency going to zero, that's a pretty bold claim and I really don't see it happening. I could maybe see EVENTUALLY that the USD gets replaced by another currency as the international standard after a long devaluation, but I can't see it going to zero. As for the world decoupling from the US economy, clearly that hasn't happened

You're right, but this is trivial and unexciting. I'm not defending Harper, I'm just fairly certain this won't really be talked about much and it will be hard for the Liberals to make a big deal out of it. A smart LPC would say something along the lines of, "Do you want a Prime Minister who uses foreign functions to spread lies and try to score points rather than score points for Canada as a whole?" I really don't see it happening.

The problem is that nobody but us will take notice, because not enough people pay attention to politics to care.

As punked said (and he's far from a Harper lover as I recall) most Catholics couldn't give a crap about this. I'd accept communion at a Catholic Church and I'm not Catholic. Why? I dunno for fun why not? Who the hell cares? The only people who would actually get upset about this are backwards and uptight fools. Nobody cares except the morons trying to score political points against Harper.

Aww I was hoping you were going to get into the theoretical about FTL travel and all the mass/speed/time things that make my brain get screwy.

Well said and I totally agree. I shouldn't be subsidizing municipal events in other cities.

Probably the 'right' corner if you want to be more accurate. It's a little sick sometimes. I went to a beer promotion once that was going on during the Pride Parade (friends of mine work at a certain brewery downtown Toronto) and some of the dudes there were wearing buttless/frontless chaps etc. They get away with a lot that weekend.