Moonbox

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.

The problem with the whole science, as Bonam explained, is there are too many factors involved to make climate science reliable. I don't think there are a lot of people disputing the greenhouse effect or the effect of Co2 emissions, but rather scale upon which this is happening. There's too much evidence of previous and sweeping climate changes over the Earth's history to automatically assume the climate change we're experiencing now is man made. Read a little bit about the Khmer Empire in Cambodia and the city of Angkor if you want to know just how drastic and short-term climate change can be. Entire civilizations have risen and fallen with the weather. Anyone convinced that a a few years of warm weather means we're destroying the world is stupid beyond belief. I'm not saying we're not having an effect on our climate. I'm saying we have no proof either way and that there is a ton of exaggeration going on with a ton of stupid people believing everything they read. It has almost a religious undertone to it now.

I'm really at a loss for what this is all about. Being born somewhere else doesn't mean you can't be Canadian. I couldn't care less where my MP lived 40-60 years ago really.

That was actually an interesting read. Makes him sound like a giant blowhard.

The whole town is showing up!

I think those might be a helping factor yes but at the same time it might be a good measure in the long run. To some extent, I think, it might help prevent the cronyism so rampant in our politics. Politicians come from so many different professions that most of them are more than capable of finding work elsewhere.

He will burn out and fade away if he doesn't do something in the next year or so.

As I said before, nobody is going to want to join as a staffer when the CPC's defeat seems imminent. Why leave a good and secure job for one that's likely to dissapear shortly?

One of Ignatieff's head policy makers is NOT a political appointment? REALLY?????

Pretty much

The problem with your point is that a religion can be interpreted a million different ways. Religious law in parts of the Islamic world allow fathers and husbands to kill their wives for adultery. Obviously what we're talking about is very different, but clearly this is a case where practical law would trump religious law in Canada. We very clearly have already decided that immigrants aren't allowed to present their own religious laws as exempting them from Canadian law so where do we draw the line and, further to this point, how far are we going to allow the 'religions' of immigrant Canadians to affect our laws and customs?

The arguement stands. Look up how long good 'ol Jack and his wifey lived in subsidized housing before finally deciding their combined salaries of $100,000 was finally enough to pay fair rent after 2 years of mooching off the public purse. That's the type of man leading the NDP today.

That's fine smallc. Nobody is arguing that. What people are arguing is that we shouldn't have to make exceptions to practical election laws that deter fraud so as to appease a draconic relgious law spawned half a world away over a millenia ago. Voting is a right in Canada, but citizenship is a privilege.