Moonbox

I get what they were trying to do, but I think the costs outweigh the benefits. I don't think the tiny number of veiled fraudsters is really worth the headache and the money needed to prevent them.

No I know the difference I just question the purpose of the role. Either way it does't matter. Jdobbin is right. Leblanc did some good things for the maritimes, debating the position is probably best left for another thread. I don't think the recreational arguing on my part is necessary given his death, regardless of my views.

Way to nitpick. Alchohol has to be consumed in large quantities for it to cause cancer and generally for it to harm someone else.

You guys tell me what in here is considered really important decision making responsibility. Please. I beg you. Even the office's own website can't make it sound like much: Governor General of Canada Ceremonial. Pretty much all of it. What's your point? What France does for show makes absolutely no difference to us at all. I couldn't care less. It's ceremony for the sake of ceremony. As I said earlier, the governor general died. Sad for his family, but why is this big news? I was really just asking. I don't care overmuch. You apparently do, for whatever reason, though I don't see why. Effectively, he was never the head of state because it was purely symbolic and he did not have the power to ACT as head of state. I guess we can have a state funeral for him and televise it, if only for symbolism's sake. If that makes you feel somehow better and more patriotic then go for it. Whatever floats your boat smallc.

Yes I'm well aware of this but once again, it's all symbolic. The Queen's power in Canada is literally none-existent and thus so is the power of her representative here. I'm not saying it needs replacing. I'm saying it's a largely unimportant and ceremonial position. You could replace it with anything. For all the REAL responsibilities the job entails, such as ensuring we have a government and overseeing/observing ceremony and procedures, we could make up any number of positions. The question is why bother?

They're not 'truth' ads Borg come on man. If anything, they're akin to the anti-Harper ads run by Martin's campaign. They'll basically say anything bad they can about Ignatieff that they either have some snippit of support for or that at least the Liberals can't disprove.

The Queen of England is Canada's head of state. The GG is her representative and acts on her behalf in Canada. That's her job. Way to reach man. The GG is a ceremonial role that has to make a decision that matters maybe once every 10-20 years. I already said that here. It's a symbolic position and totally unnecessary. Tell me how and why we need that and what part of the job would be difficult to replace.

I agree with you but it doesn't change the fact that people are getting suckered into rip-off contracts. I dont' spend much more than you per month but when you boil down to it we have an oligopolist market and the people who DO think they need the service are getting gouged.

You're right to an extent, but then you also have to look at how businesses are operated and expanded. When you have a large corporation, or even just a leveraged company, sometimes it costs too much NOT to give into a union's demands. What the market can bear works both ways. It's a matter of what the companies can accept and what workers will accept in the overall market. Clearly the labour market could support the wages and pay offered by Honda and Toyota. That should be the starting point for any wage negotiations. It's not like they aren't well paid there. $75/hour including benefits at GM was not something the market supported, and thus GM and Chrysler went bankrupt. People weren't willing to pay for $30/hour UAW labour premiums. Unfortunately for us, however, the government stepped in and supported the UAW/CAW's over-generous pensions and consequently it's now the STATE supporting their labor contracts. Public sector unions are the exact same thing. They should have comparable wages and benefits to the private sector. The private sector is the market benchmark. When Unions hold cities and governments hostage for wage increases over and beyond what the MARKET determines, that's where I feel the need to throw rocks at the striking workers. It's not a case of what the MARKET will bear, but rather what the unions think they can screw the taxpayer's out of.

THAT would go over well I'm sure. Two snap elections within a year. Ouch.

Get ur tinfoil hats out! Conservatives WANT you to be poor! Huge difference. On one hand you have professional societies that set out to ensure their members follow a standard of conduct, diligence and competence so that people feel they can trust and depend on their services. These societies aren't there to collectively nickel and dime companies, but rather to GOVERN the conduct of their members. You're right to an extent, but unions are not the solution. If anything, the unions artificially inflate the wages people should be paid in Canada which forces even further production to be moved overseas.

In Britain they literally give away the phones for free and beg you to stay with them. In Canada our politicians let the cell phone companies hold our credit ratings hostage for cancellation fees that in no way can be justified and at the same time they jealously protect the wavelengths and prevent competition.

Oh please. I didn't misunderstand anything about the position. Officially, the Queen is still our head of state and the GG's role in almost every respect is purely ceremonial. Practically nobody will be watching it. Pretend otherwise all you want. I don't care, but people generally don't watch funerals for people they don't know.

volume doesn't replace quality when it comes to standard of living.

I understand the position every bit as well as you. I just don't exaggerate its importance or the amount of respect that people have for it. The governor general does very little other than show up at parties and meetings and maybe once in awhile has to make an actual decision. The role is largely ceremonial, and far from necessary. Who cares? Really? Nothing in that article whatsoever shows the job is in any way important and irreplaceable. The GG's is somewhat akin to Paris Hilton's. Show up at parties/events, get paid, sign a few pieces of paper etc... What I had for breakfast could also be considered news. We can all read the news on our own. I'm simply commenting on the inanity of the thread. The former governor general died. Okay. Thanks. Anything else to add to that we all didn't read on the actual news sites? Were we expecting a good discussion here? No? Don't bother posting it then. Sorry. I don't mean to be rude Smallc but if everyone posted every little tidbit they see online we'd be drowning in bore.

Managers are helpless before union demands because of politicians. Scab employees are discouraged through threats and intimidation from the unions and the government and authorities do nothing about it. Non union people are thus unable to do anything about it and even if they do retaliate with similar threats and violence, THEY get punished. Unions, at least big ones like the UAW and the public sector unions, are rife with corruption and the corruption extends to the politicians who pander to them. We are getting screwed as taxpayers right now with the GM bailout because Obama wanted to help out the guys who paid for him to win the election. Look up how much the UAW contributed to his election campaign. I dare ya.

I'd say we're doing pretty good. If a country of 30 million across 2 oceans can trade with India 10% as much as a country of 1.2 Billion directly next door, that's not that bad.

Pretty much yes to all of the above. The government won't crack down on unions for fear of losing their votes. When we find a politician who doesn't give a **** what they think then we'll be laughing.

Care to back up those figures? You don't have any clue what you're talking about. As of about a year ago Honda and Toyota had something like a $35/hour labor advantage in North America. That's why GM and Chrysler were never able to compete. In 2006, health care and holiday pay alone cost GM about $2300 extra per vehicle over Toyota. That's a fraction of the overall benefits. When you look at pension and other benefits, the UAW single-handedly sunk the auto-makers. You can say all you want about debt and poor product offerings, but when your competitors can offer thousands in savings for comparable cars because your unions are gouging you on uneducated and unskilled labor, even if you were offering the right vehicles you STILL wouldn't have been competitive. I'm not saying management at GM was good. I'm saying that regardless of management, the unions screwed everyone over. I'm paying for their greed.

Interpreting a technicality every 20 years is hardly justification for the position. There's little to no importance in it. We're hardly going to be remembering Michelle 10 years from now on her groundbreaking contributions. The same respect we give anyone who dies. Read the obituary, move on. We're all capable of reading the news, and given that this topic is unlikely to elicit any real discussion beyond my sarcasm, what were you expecting in posting it? I'm from the same generation as you. Practically nobody respects and admires the position. Look up some polls. Most Canadians don't even know who our head of state is. Out of the minority that do, how many do you think admire and respect a symbolic appointed position that has little or no power to directly influence Canada?

He's a symbolic leader of the country and at that, only a representative of the symbolic of another country. The Governor General is an almost useless part of our government and at that, is an appointee. Put a suit on a monkey and it could serve as our GG. Maybe then Canadians would pay the position more notice.

Not to sound insensitive, but I really don't see why this is front page news.

Yeah I don't know of any big ones. Maybe this thread can be moved to the business and eco sub forum?

After it was too late. It should have been apparent by the early 2000's that Honda and Toyota had a 33% cost advantage in North American labour and that this was reflected in the cost, and overall value, of the cars they were selling as compared to American. It was quite clear then that the Big Three were doomed unless they could get big concessions and the unions were too greedy to care. Fast forward to 2009 and the inevitable happened, and the concessions the unions are giving I imagine (don't have the numbers on me) still don't leave them competitive with Honda and Toyota. The Canadian taxpayers have had to shore up the difference and bail out their pensions. Freaking awesome. I'd have been happy seeing them screwed in retirement, because they deserved it collectively.

On their own? Without government regulation? That would be 100% totally completely and catastrophically a disaster. We need regulation, despite what some nuts think, when it comes to securities trading. It's always been and always will be the smart and informed investors making money off the stupid and uninformed (in general). Government regulation doesn't necessarily prevent this, but it at least helps prevent outright fraud.