Ontario Loyalist

Well, Harper used to go around with his ideological guns blazing on issues like abortion until he realized that as PM--especially in a minority situation--you really can't impose your ideology without fueling an opposition. That's why the Liberals tend to govern more than the Conservatives--federally, at least--because they have tended to be more populist in their approach to governance. Trudeau, of course, had his problems, and when Martin took over (being somewhat more of a neo-con) and tried pushing his agenda, the Liberals faltered. .

Actually, yes you can, in a way. Some people seem to think that teaching Canadian history equates to imposing dominant culture on (certain) minorities. The educational system is now bent on not trying to offend people from other cultures, recent immigrants, who have their own histories and cultures that apparently are more important to protect than our own. There are certainly some aspects of Canadian history that are not pleasant, but our forefathers recognized this and have made efforts to change this, and in many cases have been successful; Canada has a high standard of living and its citizens freedoms and rights denied to many others as a result. Ignoring our past, not understanding it, or allowing certain agendas to "revise" it, will only lead to further problems. An excellent book to read on this subject: Who Killed Canadian History?

Where's this? The only way to get this kind of work around here seems to be through a temp agency, and you get little more than minimum wage and no guarantee of work; if you're good, your employer may take you on, but most of the time they still do it through the agency.

Society just isn't what it used to be. People did take pride in their work and had integrity and a sense honesty that you just don't get anymore because our schools no longer instill these kinds of values, and because there has been a moral decline as well. Mass media and pop-culture has done much to undermine our society, but few people try to do anything about it or really can for that matter because it's too pervasive and powerful.

I'd like to point out that the usage of the term "Tories" is incorrect. The current Conservative party is simply a revamped Canadian Alliance party, in other words a hodge-podge of western seperatists, Alberta nationaists, republicans, and a few defectors from the PCs. The Tories still exist in the form of the Progressive Canadian party.

Skilled labour in this field is somewhat problematic, is it not, because employment is not steady and the work is too dangerous for men who have essentially be pussified by modern society. Our immigrants are coming from cultures that simply don't have the same work ethic when it comes to physical labour. When our people came to Canada in the 1950s, they were funnelled right into the steel industry and raised families on the income and have retired comfortably. That won't happen anymore. The closest that I've seen to these kinds of immigrants are the Mexicans--they know how to work. It's too bad that we can't instil those kinds of values in our own youth, rather than letting them get corrupted by popular culture.

That breed of immigrant is long gone, and even if they did exist, the kind of jobs that they would be filling are largely gone. Corporations have sent everything over to Asia, and the new jobs that are being created are in the service industry and technology field. McGuinty says that Ontario has 100,000 jobs that can't be filled because there aren't qualified people in this province to fill them. If that's the case, then our educational system and governments are failing us. Moreover, one can't expect a province's workforce to shift rapidly from industry to technology, and for the government to allow industry to be sacrificed while focusing on technology is a big mistake.

Harper wanted a fixed election date and he got it. I guess the part of the reason for it was to negate all of the intrigues that surrounded possible election calls, yet here we have it worse than before. I can't even remember how long this has been going on now--about as long as the farce south of the border, I believe. Only in Harper's Canada. Whatever the case: I'm all for an election--the sooner the better... I really don't think Harper realizes just how much support he's lost east of the Manitoba-Ontario border.

I just don't seen an election being called before at least the three Sept. 8 by-elections are held.

I stopped taking French in grade 9, and have had little to do with it ever since, but I could still understand what was contained in that excerpt. French his hardly a "dying language". Moreover, French and English are related, and English has borrowed much from the French language. We should really not be concerning ourselves with these sorts of petty differences when Canadian culture is facing more significant threats.

"government’s commitment to finding solutions to the manufacturing crisis" Haven't seen anything that proves this to be the case. Ontario has lost a significant number of manufacturing jobs in the last year alone, but what have they been replaced with? Part-time/temp service industry jobs? Whatever the case, looking at job loss/job gain in a purely numerical fashion is not valid. When we lose certain kinds of jobs, we also end up losing a measure of self-sufficiency, self-reliance, and an aspect of our social character.