Moonbox

and how does accepting Quebec Nationalism affect you specifically? Is this maybe kind of like Liberal pandering to urban ethnic voters and immigrants? Yeah I thought so.

Walkerton happened because the water inspector in the area forged and cheated his inspections. It had nothing to do with a lack of funding. Next? You've failed to provide the link where you actually explain how it was the result of Conservative management that the public food inspections were inadequate. For all we know the problem might have happened under Liberal government as well. You need cause and effect to lay blame, not just effect. Otherwise you're just ranting partisanship. It is good management. On the one hand, you CERTAINLY endanger tens of thousands of lives worldwide and in Canada, condemning many to unnecessary death, and on the other, you run the almost impossible risk of a big earthquake which would endanger a few thousand working in and around the plant in the time it takes to complete the retrofits. You either default on an international responsibility that tens of thousands depend on for their lives or you run the 0.00000000000001% chance of an earthquake devastating Chalk River. The earthquakes in the area are barely felt and even if they're like 2.0 3.0 richters. You'd need a 6.0 or 7.0 for any damage to occur and even then it would be light. Linda Keen's assessment of risk was also WAY off according to most nuclear experts and completely out of touch with reality. Here's a former senior safety commissioner and current advisor of R&D for the CANDU: Linda Keen's Balogna Read that and tell me she made a wise and objective decision to close the plant down. Haha.

Oh I remember Chalk River I think. Was that the fiasco where an appointed Liberal, acting as a nuclear regulator, ordered the closure of the plant that produces most of the world's medical isotopes and thus would have been directly responsible for almost assuredly tens of thousands of lost and endangered lives worldwide? What was her reasoning again? Oh yeah. This plant, almost 200 kilometers north west of Ottawa, wasn't earthquake proof. Now, let's think this through. Should you: A ) Close the plant and most assuredly leave tens of thousands worldwide without medical material needed to diagnose cancer (which will lead to deaths) or B ) Keep the plant running, make the necessary repairs and improvements while it's running and run the 'danger' of a freak Northern Ontario earthquake (haha) large enough to endanger the plant and the town's tiny population. Gee I dunno...

I know that Mike Harris balanced the budget of Ontario after a $9 BILLION deficit (the biggest ever) under Bob Rae and then Flaherty balanced the budget EVERY YEAR he was finance minister until Mike Harris resigned. You can say what you want about Ernie Eves and what he did because even PC supporters feel betrayed by his legacy, but when you talk about Flaherty's record in Ontario why don't you ask Dalton McGuinty why he's whining about budget problems after something like $24 Billion worth of spending increases along with higher taxes since 2003. Hmmmmmmmmmm..............

When I think Bob Rae, I think, "Worst Premier of Ontario EVER" and so does most of the rest of Ontario. Rae recorded Ontario's biggest deficit of its history and he did this before the federal liberals cut transfer payments to the provinces. I'm pretty sure that Ontario will remember how he and his NDP screwed the province over and killed the NDP provincially ever since.

FPTP is not archaic in a federation. It's used for a reason. Just because you don't understand or refuse to doesn't make it the wrong system to use.

No it's not. It's not a fact either. If the Queen commanded anything of us the Commonwealth in its entirety would laugh at her.

I've actually met Bob Rae and he's a very smart and charismatic guy but I doubt he'd do any better than Dion for the Liberals. Why? Because he was one of Ontario's worst premier and what he did to our province is still fresh in everyone's mind. Bob Rae as PM would alienate the one and only province the Liberals have a strong presence in.

Oh? From what I've seen in the polls and previous elections the conservatives and the liberals (who of recent have both been right of centre for the last 25 years) have decimated the left alternatives (who've never controlled 50% of parliament) in every election. The NDP and Green Party, like I said, are irrelevant to all but the far left and the vast majority of Canadians and the rest of the vote is split between the red and the blue. Current polls show that between the cons and the libs that accounts for almost 70% of the popular vote. Now the Liberals certainly weren't a left leaning government under Chretien/Martin but Dion has them leaning further that way than they've ever been since Trudeau. What does that tell you?

What are you trying to say? I totally don't understand what you're getting at....

I think the left wing parties in canada are completely out of touch with what Canadians actually care about. The Green Party campaigns for primarily the environment but as we can see that's not really something Canadians are putting much priority in during a quasi-recession. The NDP and it's leader are the biggest joke in Canadian politics right now. They'll fall flat on their faces again this year and never be an official opposition let alone a government. Their policies are so directly focused on pandering to have-nots, unions or government funded workers that anyone anyone outside these groups would never even dream of voting for them. The Liberals killed themselves by following Dion down the road back to the Trudeau-era way of thinking.

I'm not ignoring that he sold off assets. Yes, I know that helped. Personally I think the 407 sale was a bad move. With that said, he DID make the most drastic expenditure cuts the province has really ever seen. Budget balancing takes time and in this case they set Ontario back on track after Peterson and Rae. The Ontario Liberals are wildly exaggerating their claims that Harris mismanaged finances. The finances just didn't work into the Ontario Liberal's plan and that's just too bad for them. Go play with the Green Shift calculator on the Liberal website. The savings are directed almost entirely towards the VERY BOTTOM income earners. It's crap for anyone with anything better than a job at Mcdonald's or without two kids. Seriously. Try it out.

Jdobbin I've already discussed this with you i'm pretty sure. I don't think Stephen Harper has any intentions of implementing ANY plan while he's in office. He made one up but I think it was just something to say. Personally I'm not going get upset about it.

I was just playing around on the Liberal website and I came across a calculator where they told you to 'calculate' your savings under the Green Shift. The Green Shift I fiddled a bit and found that if you are a family with 2 kids and a combined income of $20,000, you end up saving over $2000 under the Green Shift. If you do not have children, however, or if your income is above what a high school student makes at McDonald's those savings erode VERY quickly. Someone with 2 kids with a family income of $60,000 saves only about $1000 a year under the Green Shift and someone with no kids saves almost NOTHING. Considering now that it's widely accepted that carbon taxes WILL pass on costs to consumers, how much do prices really need to increase before your non-minimum wage Green Shift savings erode into the negative? People, this is from the Liberal's own website. Nobody can argue after playing with the calculator that this isn't just another social income equilization tax. Even if you're poor yourself this isn't going to save you a lot of money. You have to be at the very bottom of the barrell as far as income is concerned (as in pitifully low combined FAMILY incomes of $20-30,000) and have multiple children for this plan to look good to you. Nobody is exaggerating how bad this plan looks to the AVERAGE or WEALTHY Canadian. Now the question should be: Are hardworking Canadians excited about the idea of subsidizing Canadians that can't manage (for numerous reasons likely) to find a job that pays more than minimum wage?

Go to the Libera's Green Shift website. It has a calculator right there telling you how much you'll save in taxes. For a family with a combined income of $20,000 and two children it would save you $2148 in tax rebates. Pretty impressive huh? On the other hand, if you make $60,000 and have two children, you save less than half of that. With no children, you save practically NOTHING. Those with middle or higher incomes and those with no children will NOT save enough money to offset the carbon tax. I'm all about progressive tax brackets, but what I'm seeing here is just another Liberal tax and spend plan looking to take from the 'haves' and give to the 'have nots'. Personally, I have no interest whatsoever in supporting a 25 year old single mother with 4 kids. None at all.

This is true. In fact, Canada's military budget is 1/3 the size of CHINA's. With that said, we've seen a 27% increase in spending since 2001, and a LOT of that money has been spent refitting a military that has been crippled by spending cuts and military sell offs. In years to come our military IS on the road to modernization and full independant capability, but we fell so far behind for about 25 years that right now the spending increases aren't buying a lot of new equipment. Rather, it's repairing and making serviceable what we didn't maintain from before.

I didn't mind the rolling dice at the casino table, but the ones with the slots machines were retarded and I could have come up with something better myself in like 30 seconds. It made the conservatives look like a cheap gimmic party out of good ideas.

but this is where the difference in political and economic philosophies becomes apparent. Despite whatever any party 'thinks' needs to be done, the average human being is at least intelligent enough to understand that fuel is quickly becoming too expensive to use it the way it was once used. Corporations and businesses are also beginning to see it cut into their bottom line. Business and consumers will by NECESSITY make adjustments to their production and consumption habits because to not do so will ruin them. Gas prices are already hurting people. This is already forcing people to change. Canadians have the choice now to choose a government that is either going to ram the transition down our throats via carbon taxes or they can be allowed to naturally make the transition when it is beneficial to them (that would be the conservative choice by the way.) As fuel prices rise, people will be forced to cut back energy use at home. They will be forced to buy smaller cars. Companies will be forced to become energy efficient lest their competitors gain a competitive price advantage because of better fuel savings. All the things Dion and the Liberals are looking to FORCE will happen naturally without the immediate shock and costs of a carbon tax. The carbon tax, when you get right down to it, is nothing but a centralized money-grab to fund social services.

Well now that the thread is derailed by Joe again...

While I agree with most Harper's policies and will likely be voting for him in the next election, I'm surprised nobody has commented on how pathetic his new attack ads are. The casino-esque adds witht the slots and the dice etc are so lame they made me cringe. That's the sort of garbage dumb kids in my first year of undergrad BBA years ago would have come up with and got a D for. "Dion is a risk...what else is a risk?....ummm....GAMBLING! YEah! Brilliant! Slots! Awesome...let's keep this going! Dice! yeah great! Cheesy narrator! GooD!" Wait...no...I think maybe most Canadians are astute enough to smell the cheese on this one. Personally I'm dissapointed. These ads are ALMOST as bad as the Liberal clapping ad they used to introduce the Green Shaft.

While I can't agree that immigrants are all losers etc, I can agree that 'multi-culturalism' in Canada is road apples and immigrants have no business sitting around mooching off our social systems.

CORRECTION! It was Trudeau that screwed up well before Mulroney became PM. Before him Canada had no debt. He sent us down the road of deficit spending and Mulroney inherited the mess during a recession and admittedly made it worse.

100% Correct. This is why the economy sucks right now. Americans were too stupid to not buy houses they couldn't afford, American banks were too greedy to not provide them mortgages and banks internationally were too stupid/greedy to see how stupid and greedy the American banks and consumers were.

Not true and you have no way of proving that. Coke addicts would still want coke and heroin addicts would still want heroin because chewing a cocoa leaf wouldn't give anything near the experience.

Personally I like the restrictions. I don't want large interest groups ruling politics.