Moonbox
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Posts posted by Moonbox
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Moonbox, most of the whiners already knew and understood all that you wrote. It's just simple partisanship!
Yes I know...I likely just waste time explaining it.
Ever since the last election Liberal boosters have been waging a ferocious battle against the tide, trying to tear the Tories down because it's so hard to build the Liberals up, considering the weight of all the albatrosses around their necks!The Liberal name has been badly tarnished and they are broke. Their riding machine is in tatters, especially in Quebec.
Dion knows this, that's for sure. Too bad most of his supporters don't.
So they're just doing what they can! Anything that can be held against the Tories will be used, no matter how trivial. If they can convince a few folks here and a few folks there that the Tories have done some bad things then maybe they might forget that the Liberals had done far worse. It might win a seat here or there. The Liberals will take whatever they can get!This is so true it hurts. My favorite was the outcry when Harper said he wasn't going to proceed with the naval vessel contract. The liberals for years neglected to spend an extra dime on Canada's military, but when the CPC doesn't go ahead with an over-budget contract, Liberal supporters cry bloody murder. Hilarious.
Trust me! These guys aren't ALL that dumb!I'll take your word for it, but it's hard to really see it sometimes.
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As much as I don't like the idea of not sticking to the fixed date in principle, for a minority government to do so just gives the opposition total control over whether a government survives to that date or not. If both will not commit to a fixed date, there is no fixed date.
Exactly
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So what if the meat falls on the floor. The kill floor and processing lines are cleaned daily, the place is kept almost refrigerator cool, thus virtually nothing can grow. Besides, that meat is to be cooked. Id worry more about your friend dropping meat on his floor, than a meat packing floor.
Cooking really is the key isn't it? Too bad you can't count on everyone at home and at restaurants to follow safe food practises.
Raw and bloody ok, rotten meat? Oh please. If true, shame on you for not reporting it. You had a duty to report that and didnt, again if true.Then the line does not get started up. No meat gets processed.
Rotten meat, yes. Your boots don't get stored in a refrigerator nor is there really a good way to make sure your boots get perfectly clean every time you leave the floor. What are you going to do, have people supervising 300 employees at the end of every shift watching each and every one of them clean their boots? Not possible.
As for me and my shame, spare me. The student workers there got fired for things as small as stretching out their backs too much. With a university education riding on my and my friends' continued employment there, I wasn't about to kick up a stink. The fact is even if you do report it it's not like you have any proof. The meat inspectors would show up again, everyone would behave, and there would be nothing to note.
Bottom line is you have to cook your meat. The people who don't either aren't handling their food properly or the restaurants they eat at aren't.
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No, because this is a minority parliament. The government has no mandate to govern if the opposition votes no confidence. That hasn't happened. The simple fact is that Stephen Harper is bending the rules to fit his mood. So much for Canada's new government.
You're really failing to see the point here. The fixed election date is pretty much useless in a minority government. It makes total sense for a majority government, as Chretien and others abused the ability to call an election whenever the winds looked favorable, but it's a completely different story for a minority.
I'll repeat, once again, that Dion has been threatening an election all year. Everyone against Harper has been saying, "Bring it ON! It's time to end Harper's tyranny and put an end to the EVIL CONSERVATIVE EMPIRE." Now that he's finally agreed it might be time, the same people who have been hoping for an election have turned around and started saying it was wrong what he did.
Basically, according to these people, Stephen Harper should make sure that he gives every advantage possible to the Liberal government in regards to when the next election should be called. Harper should make sure that the next election either happens at the fixed date, or at a time the Liberals choose, almost certainly a time when they feel they have the upper hand. Now ask yourself, why would he do that? Would the Liberals do that if the position were reversed? I think we can all safely assume no, given that Chretien dissolved a popular MAJORITY government to do pretty much the same thing Harper is thinking of doing.
The difference here, of course, is that Chretien had a functioning majority government whereas Harper has a minority government bungled down in committees. This is a government whose opposition leader has been fussing the entire year that he will bring the government down, yet fails to show up for all the confidence votes. When this threat is constant and ever present, you have to take it at face value. The fixed election date becomes irrelevant when the opposition has made it perfectly clear it intends to bring down the government. How can you have a functioning government when over half of Parliament votes against legislation or abstains from voting altogether?
I can only shake my head and wonder at those of you who actually think that it's reasonable for a fragile and unstable government to carry on and wait for its opposition, which has already threatened to bring down the government, to gather support and funding in order to do so at the best time possible for them.
What you're really doing here is just whining like little kids. You know you'd support it if it was the Liberals doing the same thing, but reverse the position and you wet your beds.
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3000 meat inspectors isn't enough to do the job quite frankly. I can speak from experience here as well. I spent 4 summers working at a meat packaging plant to help fund my education, and quite frankly the workers there took no pride in the product they were producing.
At this plant, when a piece of meat fell on the ground, guess what happened? Someone, sometimes even a supervisor, would pick the piece of meat up, spray it with a bit of water and clean it off, and put it right back on the production line. When you have hundreds of people walking around with raw, rotten and bloody meat on their boots, even the dimmest of people would know that the right thing to do would be to throw that piece of meat out after it hits the floor. Sadly this doesn't always happen.
The meat inspectors can't be there every day. Sure, when they WERE there, everyone would behave properly, but as soon as they were gone, it was back to normal.
The companies themselves need to ensure quality and to some extent be held responsible for tainted meat problems like this. On the other hand, there's no way they could afford the steps necessary to make the meat 100% safe 100% of the time. There's too many variables to account for, the worst of which are the people working with meat.
Moral of the story is: Cook your meat. That should be a no-brainer by now but apparently it isn't
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This is all about being Harpertunistic even though it was his "fixed election date" bill. He knows that if he doesn't go now, once Parliament reconvenes his numbers go lower as Canadians pay more attention to the CPC's antics.
Or he knows that for the last year parliament has been focused on pretty much nothing but a possible election. The threat of an election looming ever overhead is enough to make parliament disfunctional. If Harper feels that he cannot advance his voter-given mandate because he has to adjust every bill to meet the needs of the bleating sheep in parliament, that IS disfunctional, despite what wussy Dion has been saying. Dion said he may be ready for an election, Harper said, "Fine let's get it over with," and now Dion is looking like a chump for getting called on his bluff.
How about his bullying? His mean? His changing stance on pandering to Quebec, abortion, health care and other social programs from what he preached from the NCC pulpit? And we know damned well his mind isn't changed, he's suspended his beliefs and ethics for votes. He's a whore. He'd sell his ethics, sell his principles and sell out his own mother for another seat.See this is rhetoric again. His bullying? Give us a solid example that would be any different than Chretien or Layton or whoever else there's been in recent history. His stance changing and pandering? Are you kidding me??? Pandering is how the Liberals have become the dominant force in politics for the last 20 years. Where does almost ALL of the Liberal's support come from I'll ask? Large urban centres. What's different about these places? Dominant ethnic populations. Why are these predominantly liberal? Because you'd be hard-pressed to find a more lenient immigration policy ANYWHERE in the western world than Liberal immigration policy. Large concentrations of ethnic people vote almost EXCLUSIVELY liberal, and that's because the Liberals make it easy for their aunts and uncles and parents and grandparents to move here under 'family-reunification' and so mooch off of our social welfare system.
When we go over ethics, I think we can basically rule out any advantage the Liberals may have in that department, so even if the Liberals WERE able to nail him on any issue of poor ethics, they'd not have a leg to stand on.
As for beliefs, THANK THE GODS that we have a politician who's more concerned with governing the country well than he is with his own personal beliefs. If he had any intention of changing abortion laws, or gay marriage laws, or anything else like that, I'd likely cast my vote with the sheep herd and go Liberal. I'm smart enough, however, to know that Harper has no intention to even touch these, because he's smart enough to know that Canadians want nothing to do with that....kind of like Dion's LOLGREENSHIFTLOL.
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There is zero need to have it if it isn't used.
This will in one move reinforce our nothern claim and provide needed job for the people of the north and incentive for investment in the north.
If the North is to be a park, then give it to Denmark.
Couldn't have said it better myself. Why are we claiming the North if we're not going to develop it? Nobody lives there, and it WILL be developed, whether the eco-pandas like it or not. It had better be us instead of the Russians, Americans or Danes.
Use it or lose it
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Harper cancelled this for one reason and one reason only. This turns a billion dollar deficit into a billion dollar surplus. He knows that going into an election with the books in the red is going to look really bad for the cons and they will get punished at the ballot box. Harper only cares about holding onto power.
I think it's hilarious that you would fault Harper for not approving over-budget military contracts when the opposition wouldn't have spent the money in the first place. You support the party (liberal I'm assuming) that happily allowed the Canadian military to deteriorate for 13 years and then find fault in the CPC when they won't go over-budget on their plans to at least try and patch together what's left.
I'm literally amazed at how blind and hypocritical some of you are.
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This has nothing to do with Harper being worried. If he calls and election it's because he thinks he can win.
If he wins, he extends his term. Chretien did it too. He called an election halfway through his term and won it just because the environment looked right for it. This is what Harper is doing.
Nothing has happened to make him even remotely afraid. The hypocrisy of the average liberal supporter (i like to call them sheep) knows no end.
The liberals allowed our military to deteriorate to the sorry state its in today yet the sheep are bleating and carrying on when Harper announces he's not approving any over-budget contracts for new ships in the face of a much slower economy.
The federal liberals were by FAR the biggest social service cutters in Canadian history, and have a pretty pathetic record of standing up to big business, yet they have the gall to proclaim the conservatives as big business flunkies. I think it's hilarious that the average bleating sheep out there somehow thinks that the liberals are the party most likely to look after the common person when their record over the last 15 years shows the exact opposite.
If you ask the average liberal supporter, almost nobody is able to come up with any real reason why they support them. The only thing they can really agree on is that they're united in their common blind and stupid dislike for the CPC. Again, though, they can't really come up with any good arguments about why they hate Harper, other than the typical liberal rhetoric. Things like, "Harper is mini-bush" or "Harper is all about big-business" or "Harper is a crook" are what usually come to mind, but the average person can't really actually come up with any specific policies or doings they find offensive.
Dion is a joke. He'll flounder in an election. Canada is not going to elect anyone who can't even really speak proper english.
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Bull. You had massive surpluses, so massive that you played accounting games which would have had Martin in prison if he were in the private sector.
This is so true it hurts. If you could pretend Canada was a large corporation with subsidiary companies (provinces) what the federal liberals basically did was they milked their subsidiaries for revenue and dumped their expenses on them. They made the parent company look good (Canada) with budget surpluses, while the subsidiaries (provinces) bled and were forced to cut services drastically. This is why class sizes and hospital wait times have increased to the sad state they're in, and the cuts have been funneled downhill to the municipalities as well. This is why Toronto infrastructure is crumbling.
In the private sector, these would be considered accounting irregularities. They painted a rosey picture of their books to impress their investors (voters for the federal liberals), while completely hiding the fact that they were screwing their subsidiaries and that eventually, things would get really ugly for them.
Fortunately for the federal liberals, however, the federal government is not held accountable to a standard of transparent accounting. Also, the average Canadian voter is far too stupid to see through even well documented and well known accounting schemes. Even if the evidence is right in front of your faces, you still bleat like sheep and like the good little Liberal voters you are proclaim how fiscally prudent the Liberals are.
How can you possibly say the Liberals did a good job managing money when their most recent term was a period of unbelievable prosperity throughout the whole world? Not only did they benefit from a pretty much non-stop booming economy, they ALSO dumped the rest of the budget difference on the provinces.
Yes, they balanced the budget. That was necessary. I approve of this to be honest. With that being said, they had the easiest period possible in which to do so (the complete opposite of today) and they did so at the expense of all the social services that Canadians seem to think the Liberals are champions for.
Here's the reality: They are the opposite. They are responsible for more social service cuts than any government in pretty much all of Canadian history. The federal liberals under Chretien and Martin were about as right-wing as they come. We needed that after the idiots we had before them (Trudeau/Mulroney), but I prefer Harper's brand of financial management better. When the economy is doing bad, it's good practise to run a deficit anyways. It encourages the economy and helps us stay out of recession.
I like that Harper is trying to adjust immigration law to encourage useful immigrants to come to Canada ahead of useless ones (they are a drain on social services), and I like that he is spending where we need improvement (crumbling military and social infrastructure) and I like that they aren't trying just pad the books like the Liberals did.
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All I can say is if the the Canadian Bar Association has to ask Jean Chretien to speak at their luncheon, they are really scarping the bottom of the barrel. Chretien with his anti-US stance has done more harm to Canada that China could ever do. Remember it is China that need Canada and the U.S to peddle their inferior products, we don't need them. In fact every multinational corporation who ahs moved their factories to China and other third world countries to exploit the captive slave market sweatshops in these countries, should have huge tariffs imposed on their good just to be able to export them to the West.
I completely agree with this. There's a completely unfair playing field here and China should not have the advantage they do.
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That means you took a risk in marrying a non-citizen. She used you because she was able to. *shrug*. Good for her for prostituting herself to you just to get here... I don't have a strong enough stomach for that, but obviously she does.
IMO You should have made darn sure she was madly in love with you... or perhaps you should've just married a good 'ol Canadian woman and saved yourself all that grief and expense! LOL
Where did she come from by the way?
While it's probably your fault you got suckered, I don't think that means in any way shape or form that the woman should be allowed to say.
Honestly it should be a quick investigation and then deportation. She has no real right to be here. Why are we allowing criminals to land here permanently as immigrants?
Failing deportation, she should be at least forced to move to Nunavut or something.
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Exaggeration? I think of it as hyperbole, myself!
And no one has forced me to live in Toronto, thank heavens! Force is what it would take before I'd make that choice. I would find David Miller and his council far too frustrating.
Toronto is totally different than any other part of Ontario. Or maybe even Canada. Or maybe even Earth! At the very least they should be given provincial status to prevent them from getting all the political attention and leaving the rest of the province dangling.
"You can do this today still. You're just not going to be eating out much, your kids will be wearing hand-me-downs with patches, you'll be driving a jalopy and you'll never go anywhere for vacation...just like families from the 1950's. "
Geez, with two incomes we're doing that now!
My apologies then for not seeing hyperbole for hyperbole. Some of the forum posts here have me seeing the worst in people :S
I for one am glad for you that you're not in Toronto. They'd have to triple my wages to get me to even consider living there.
As for two incomes, that's really the key nowadays. The Single Income family is largely a thing of the past for most people.
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Better check that MLS again. Yes, you are correct that you can find such houses. The problem is that they all will involve a 1500 km. commute to work every day.
First off way to exaggerate wildly, and second of all nobody is forcing you to live in Toronto. That's a lifestyle you pay for with your wallet. If you choose to live in Toronto instead of commuting from outskirts you're going to end up paying more for a smaller house and you'll be able to afford less of everything.
Again, this goes back to the lifestyle choices of the Baby Boomers and their offspring. We need immigration in this country because our current population isn't having enough babies (this is for Whowhere). We're not having enough babies because we don't want to live the meagre lifestyle of our parents and grandparents. My father had nothing growing up and my grandmother supported 3 kids on a librarians salary and a pension from my dead grandfather. You can do this today still. You're just not going to be eating out much, your kids will be wearing hand-me-downs with patches, you'll be driving a jalopy and you'll never go anywhere for vacation...just like families from the 1950's.
Families today want to live differently.
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http://www.mls.ca/PropertyDetails.aspx?vd=...pertyID=7167787
http://www.mls.ca/PropertyDetails.aspx?vd=...pertyID=7389927
http://www.mls.ca/PropertyDetails.aspx?vd=...pertyID=6967774
http://www.mls.ca/PropertyDetails.aspx?vd=...pertyID=7390031
http://www.mls.ca/PropertyDetails.aspx?vd=...pertyID=6900472
http://www.mls.ca/PropertyResults.aspx?Mod...p;ps=10&o=A
http://www.mls.ca/PropertyDetails.aspx?vd=...pertyID=7201823
http://www.mls.ca/PropertyDetails.aspx?vd=...pertyID=7072004
http://www.mls.ca/PropertyDetails.aspx?vd=...pertyID=7184139
and dozens more...all within 1 hours drive from Metro Toronto
and if you look for a few minutes you can find actually fairly nice houses in the <100k price range.
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It's so obvious how clueless you are. Obviously, you haven't been paying attention to the sub prime mess in the US. Sub Prime is also here in Canada but it is being covered up. Hmmm easy financing for mortagages plus mass immigration = artificial demand. Artificial demand equals ever increasing housing prices. I know its rocket science to you but think about it.
While we're pointing out the obvious, how about we mention that you've not supportted a single point you've made with any sort of relevant facts. Period. Also, I'm well aware of the sub-prime crisis in the US and certainly understand it better than you do. Canadian banks are regulated much more heavily. In the US people were getting mortgages without having to even provide confirmation of income. The banks deserve what they got there, and the people did too for being dumb enough to buy a house they can't afford. That's common sense. When your mortgage payment by itself is 40% of your gross monthly income, it doesn't take a genius to figure out it's probably not a good idea.
As for your assertion you can find a house for 80,000 in Ontario, BS!Check the MLS listings (if you even know what that is) and you could find more than you could count. If that's beyond you, I could link some to you. It took me literally 30 seconds to find 10 houses in Ontario under $80,000.00. Sure, they're not exactly 2000 sqft in Toronto or anything, but that's pretty affordable.
In case you haven't noticed, housing is big business. Mortgages interest is big business. Real Estate Commission is Big Business. Housing Taxes fuels employment for the Civil useless. Alot of players involve in going after dead money. Given the fact these areas were the net economic beneficiaries over the years will ultimately explain the bottom falling out of the US and Canada economies. These areas do nothing to nuture and grow the GDP of a Country. These areas are as beneficial as the money thrown away everytime you fill up your car. Gone forever no reciprocating benefits whatsoever.Banks Do not provide jobs they take them away. Housing Developers are fly by night job creators. Taxes are mismanaged and there never is enough.
Again you show you're really having trouble grasping simple logic. People are paying what they can AFFORD for housing and building the houses they can AFFORD to live in with the lifestyle THEY WANT. It's simple supply and demand here. You can whine and carry on all you want about artificial demand, and about the vampire lawyers, ghoulish bankers and leeching real estate agents, but they provide a service that most people can't do on their own. All you've really done in this thread is cry that you don't like things the way they are and you've failed at every chance to link the effect to the cause.
Half of Canada's TSX is made up of Resources. Canada is nothing more than a banana Republic steered to immolation by the Conservatives. The sooner the Conservatives are bounced out of office the sooner Canada can heal towards a Canada that values its people, nurtures innovation, grows its skill base, and understands business.Yes, our economy relies on resources to a great extent and more so than it recently has. That being said, this has helped ensure that our unemployment rates haven't skyrocketed over the last year and ensured that our economy hasn't gone into recession. With oil, food and mineral prices at record highs, I think you're putting too much stock in the TSX too. How does that relate back to immigration again??
The conservatives immigration policy makes it obvious they are pandering to a small group of Employers. The Conservatives are so stooopid they don't see that by pandering to these employers they are keeping Canada a resouce based economy.You're not even making sense. If you're going to make ridiculous claims like this you have to elaborate and provide proof of some sort. What you've told us has no more substance to it than a fart in the wind.
The fact is NAFTA is North America wide. I guarantee whatever is required to be done for a Company there is company who is able to provide the service, solution, or product to help this employer get whatever it is they are doing done!!That doesn't even make sense. Well done.
My observation of job postings is there are companies who fish postings similar to email spam. These employers are fishing for skills because they are an upstart company with no knowledge of what they are trying to get done or they are trying to save money by not contracting a business which specializes in that area.I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your observations mean squat. My observation is that employers fish for skills because they believe that skilled employees would be better for their company. It's stupid not to do so. Once again, however, you're not making a lot of sense.
What does Canada do better than anyone else in the World?? What does Canada do to justifies the cultural immolation inflicted upon it by the Boomer generation?Immolation. Maybe if you keep repeating yourself people will start to think you're even making sense. I suppose you are the one to tell us what Canadian culture 'should' be right?
I see how Canada has added up since the signing of the 1982 constitution. The politicians have made a farce at Canada's step into democracy. Canada's democracy has been fragmented and watered downed to meaningless. The only way out is for an appeal to the Queen to repeal the Statue of Westminister and put Canada back under the supervision of the British Parliament. Regardless of the timeline, given what Canada is doingm It's not a question if this will happen, it is a matter of when this will happen.HEY! GUESS WHAT? BRITAIN HASN'T REALLY HAD ANY HAND IN THE GOVERNING OF OUR COUNTRY SINCE AFTER WW1. WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?????
This is the most ignorant collection of postings I've seen on a forum like this in forever. You make me sad that Canada even has people like you in it.
TINFOIL HAT!!!!!!
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Dion has been threatening an election all year, but as soon as Harper announces he thinks it might be a good idea, everyone just pounces on him.
Ha....Ha....Ha...
All it seems to me is that he's just throwing it right back in Dion's face. Dion doesn't want an election. He can't win right now. Canada holds him in contempt, the Liberal Party is broke, and the Left is divided.
Dion says, "We're going to call an election soon and bring your government down," but he's just thumping his weasely chest.
Harper replies, "Alright bring it. We don't like how parliament is going either right now."
Lots of Liberal sheep bleating ensues, but Dion shuts his mouth and hides his head in the dirt like the weenie he is, and allows the CPC to govern as if a majority for yet another year.
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Whowhere I'll try to keep this a little more diplomatic and just call you completely mis/uninformed.
So the run up in Real Estate prices over the last 20 years is something of my imagination? The average cost of home in a Canada is over 300k. What kind of monthly payment does that require? What about the taxes and utilities on that? What makes a home bought today different from those bought back in the sixties or seventies? You have a home, you pay to keep it, etc, etc. Instead what you have is the gready who have exploited this area and driven up the price.This is supply and demand. It's not the greedy corporations driving housing prices up in Toronto. It's single families buying homes, building homes and selling homes based on what they're prepared to pay to live in certain neighborhoods. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that generally the closer you get to the important areas of business, the lower housing prices will be. The further away you get from Toronto the cheaper your housing will often be. You can find decent houses in Ontario for around $80,000. They're just not going to be exactly where you want to live. Whining about housing prices is about as useful as whining about the weather. Prices go up because people can and will pay for them. Really.
What we have are those who are keen on driving up all living costs while at the same time driving down incomes. This is accomplished by Controlling the supply. Whether this is Oil, Housing, etc, etc. To drive up demand for this Controlled supply, the gready support lax immigration policies because the gready are about themselves and their money.It's really hard to take you seriously when you talk like this. You're not really connecting any of the dots. Nobody is arguing the oil companies are screwing us. What does that have to do with immigration??? Oil supply is based on world demand and thus would have nothing to do with immigration at all. I can't argue that housing prices would be influenced by a rising population, but that's all there is to it. The fact is we NEED a rising population and a growing economy because of the economic policy of the esteemed (I'm laughing when I say that) Pierre Trudeau and his Keynsian economic theories. Our current level of debt is in large part thanks to him and if not for that we wouldn't need a constantly growing population to support A) The debt and
Baby Boomer Pensions. Canada, apart from Quebec (they have a daycare program) is not family friendly. To get a sense of how family unfriendly Canada is, listen to your local media on the level of families looking for food and clothing from the various organizations. This situation is progressively getting worse. I wonder who's economy you are trying to sustain? The average Canadian who wants just enjoy life by doing what their parents and grandparents did?Once again you have failed to make the connection that links our 'apparent' family-unfriendliness to immigration. I'll repeat once again: We are not having large familes any more because:
a) Women have a choice now and aren't expected to just stay at home and pop babies out
Families are choosing to live extravagant (relatively) lifestyles and they can't afford to do so with large families.Here's another thing you'll find interesting. Low income, uneducated families, on average have MORE children than higher income and educated families. Why? It's hard to say, but it's certainly not because the lower income family somehow has more money to raise a child with. It's likely just a phenomenon of the educated western world. It probably has a lot to do with the focus on individual achievement in Canada/US/Europe as opposed to the focus on family and social achievements in Asia and elsewhere in the World.
I'm probably wasting my breath trying to convince you, because all you've been able to offer is doom-mongering CPC conspiracy theories and you haven't backed it up with anything aside from "The Conservatives hate Canada".
The CPC are not looking to increase the number of immigrants we get in Canada. By making it easier for people with work permits and Canadian university educations to become landed immigrants, we ensure that we don't have to bring in as many non english speaking welfare seekers from outside.
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I think the Canadians would welcome some help in Afghanistan. We're taking the brunt of the fighting there right now.
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I don't think we need to worry too much about the Arctic North.
While we may be slow out the gates, North American Capitalism will have us catching up in no time.
The Americans will support any claims we make against Russia, and Russia wouldn't dare move in on recognized Canadian territory for the same reason the US won't support Georgia meaningfully. They both respect each other's boundaries.
Canada, as far as the Russians are concerned, is an independant protectorate of the US. Moving in on Canadian territory would have the Americans in arms almost immediately.
We don't need enormous military investment. Talking about upgrading our airforce to F-22's is ludicrous considering they cost 250 million each and the prospect of full-fledged military action between Russia and Canada is about as remote as Switzerland vs Thailand.
I agree we need to upgrade our military to the point where we're even capable of independant action, but not to go toe-to-toe with the Russians in the Arctic.
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All of the above. And if I take a hammer to my head, I can use a noun as a verb and speak passable american.
I'm not really sure what this post is supposed to be all about, but I'm a strong supporter of immigration. Economically, I know we need it.
With that being said, I'm abhored by our current immigration policies. We need productive immigrants in Canada. We do not need unskilled non-english speaking immigrants who are more likely than not just going to mooch off our social welfare system.
I'm completely against our current refugee system, because basically anyone can claim that status and end up here forever, and they seem to be the worst offenders in the afore-mentioned problems.
The absolute most positive thing I've read about so far with the Harper government is that they are amending immigration policies so that skilled applicants will get to skip ahead of the rest of the pile and get here first.
The Liberals are complaining that it's 'unfair' and 'contrary to human rights' but personally I could care less. I would be more than happy to have an unskilled immigrant wait for infinity to get in if it meant the ones we were taking were likely to become a boon to our country rather than a liability.
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But it's not just about you and your savings....fact is, WalMart is a very important retailer for poor and lower income families for essential consumer items, just like the milk you purchased. I sent my niece a gift card from a high end retailer last year for her newborn, and though grateful, she asked that next year it be from WalMart, where she can get a lot more.
That's not being disputed. Obviously low-end retailers are going to provide service for lower-income families. My dispute with Wal-Mart is thus:
Every corporation has obligations to its three main stakeholders: It's employees, communities and shareholders.
With $13B in profit last year I think they've covered the shareholders pretty well. Now, as far as giving back to the community and looking after its employees, I think Wal-Mart fails on almost every level. It provides pitiful incomes to its employees and has been widely criticized the world over for its bullying tactics against any employees looking for a fairer deal. It drives smaller or more specialized business into bankruptcy (where employees often earn better wages) and contrary to popular opinion, its prices are NOT substantially better on most of the items it sells.
I remember doing case studies at university specifically on Wal-Mart and its pricing strategies. What it DOES do is make sure it has the absolute lowest prices anywhere on weekly-type staple goods and then little to no price advantage on the rest of its goods in comparison to similar bargain competitors. When people see that the milk they buy every week is always cheaper at walmart they naturally just assume that it's the same for everything else. Take a more careful look at the price comparisons and you'll see that a lot of the non-staple household items are often MORE expensive than at other stores.
It's REALLY intelligent marketing on their part, and 95% of people don't know any better.
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While I'm not a huge Wal-Mart hater bought my milk there yesterday, what they did was absolutely illegal and against the best interest of everyone. If you think Wal-Mart is actually doing your community any good, you're sadly mistaken. You're never REALLY saving that much money shopping there. They undercut their competitors barely so as to keep their margins high enough to be one of the most profitable corps in the world.
Wal-Marts don't create wealth for communities. It's a veritable siphon of wealth sending money down south and overseas to shareholders while employees working there don't even make enough money to live on. These low-wage employees are burdens on our social welfare and healthcare systems which, in the end, cost the average Canadian taxpayers more than they would if they were being paid fairly.
Wal-Mart is a HUGE polarizer of wealth wherever it goes, and while I applaud their successes in supply-chain management and material cost-control, I'm disgusted by such blatent bullying.
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Americans are even more ignorant than they are capitalist. It's completely laughable to even think that Canada is a SOCIALIST country.
Americans like to frame and label things that are different to what they understand and declare them evil. There's a reason my family calls down south Jesus Land instead of the USA, because their political beliefs are about as well-founded as Catholic dogma.
Sure, Canada may lean more towards socialism than the USA, but it's still one of the most capitalistic countries out there.
Listeria & Tainted Meat
in Federal Politics in Canada
Posted
I'm talking about the pieces of meat that go flying when the cutters are chopping up the meat, or opening up bags of meat, or scraping them clean etc etc etc.
A lot of meat goes flying around. A lot of shavings and marrow etc ends up on the floor and on you as you work. You end up with crap all over your boots and in your tread, and then when you walk outside the production floor that's no longer refrigerated and is allowed to rot. You clean most of it off, but not all, and there's no way those floors are clean halfway through a shift.