OddSox

In a way, that gave Harper an advantage. With only a few seconds to answer four different questions (at least) from the opposition, he had the luxury of picking which attack he wanted to address, allowing him to ignore the others.

I think May has a teleprompter in her glasses. Whenever she is off-script, she starts shouting and pointing. She even called Harper 'stupid' at one point - great debate tactic!

There was an original argument?

I sure hope they don't get any government funding or grants. Probably too much to hope for...

I'm not clear on what there is to debate here. The last two paragraphs of that "news" story say something about "NDP Leader Jack Layton has ...has promised to crack down on automatic bank machine fees" which I guess will pretty much fix poverty worldwide. Enuff said.

You're right, Information Technology has little to do with the arts. Now, what were you trying to say?

I'm not sure what policy you're referring to here. The Greens are very much against Bill C51, which is aimed at increasing information disclosure when it comes to the various "natural" herbs and supplements touted by the natural healing promoters and the health industry. Many of these products are sold with unproven claims of their potential benefits, without any disclosure of their ingredients or the strength of those ingredients, and without any oversight whatsoever. "This enactment amends the Food and Drugs Act to modernize the regulatory system for foods and therapeutic products, to strengthen the oversight of the benefits and risks of therapeutic products throughout their life cycle, to support effective compliance and enforcement actions and to enable a greater transparency and openness of the regulatory system." from http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/P...126&File=19 (p.s. you would do well to ignore the guy in the tin foil hat)

Union officials quoted in the Globe and Mail with a misleading headline - I guess you think that's responsible journalism. Just about the only fact in the story is "Dr. Brian Evans, the chief veterinary officer at the CFIA, has said the number of inspectors at the agency climbed from 2,820 in 2006 to 3,020 in 2008."

Hmm, $45 million in cut funding, and $150 million in increased funding = $105 million more than there was before. If a $45 million cut was going to irreparably damage Canada's arts culture, then a $105 million increase must be amazing!

I think orange is NDP, but who are the greys?

I've seen what the Bob Rae's of the world can do and I don't like it.

http://www.libertarian.ca/

Hear, Hear! I think it's very true that many conservatives realize the futility of prohibition laws of any sort, whether it be the 'war on drugs', prostitution or banning guns. On the other hand, they also realize the futility of trying to legalize drugs when there is so much money involved - both for the DEA types and the HA types. Decriminalization as proposed by the Liberals was a joke. Many felt that it would actually lead to an increase in marijuana busts for the average user because the cops could freely hit you with fines for possession of personal amounts, rather than worrying about prosecution of a criminal case. The current situation has, in many instances, resulted in a 'de facto' decriminalization of possession for small amounts as the police will usually look the other way - while being able to maintain their lucrative 'war on drugs' in terms of grow-ops and smuggling (an awful lot of union jobs involved) - and the organized crime groups are able to continue their own lucrative operations.

Umm, what's funny about any of this?

Hey, I'd have no problem paying $75 for a carton with 200 grams of pot!

To be honest, I didn't lie on the election call last time around. FWIW I told the truth. (not that anyone cares)

Heh, me too. I did get called once during the last election - I lied just for fun (but that's the only election call in 30+ years). It's when the caller has an obvious agenda (ie Export tobacco or Kraft Dinner or whatever) that it gets really fun...

Well, yes the American dollar. (who's cares about Canada anyway?) I'm pretty sure a lot of people worldwide take note of the American economy - or perhaps it doesn't matter any more?

Once again, if the American economy is in the toilet, why does the dollar seem to be holding it's own? I'm sure I'm missing something...

You think so?

Hmm, I thought it was a hidden agenda? But, "let's take money from the rich and give it to the poor"? I'm not rich by any means, but that still doesn't seem quite right to me... I may not have much, but I worked for it.

Are you saying that due to the American election, money traders worldwide are following a "no bad news" rule in regards to the value of the dollar? (again, I'm new at this) (edit - commas in the wrong place:()

Back in 1979, I moved to Alberta to take advantage of the 'boom'. Within a year the NEP pretty much put a tank on the boom (admittedly the tank in world oil prices didn't help, but the NEP was the nail that did it). Houses all over in northern Alberta were on the market for $1 - you couldn't walk away from the mortgage. By 1982 I was married, and bought a house. I paid $72000 for a three year old house which originally sold for $132,000. After a few years (1987) I moved back east and sold the house for about $80,000. I didn't get rich on it - but that same house is likely worth well over $500-$600k now (nice subdivision in St. Albert). The thing is, economic crap happens, but sooner or later that bad shit gets flushed. (and sometimes its a matter of timing)

I was wondering about that the other day. I haven't had much time to look into it, but my impression is that there hasn't been a major drop in the US dollar since this started. Were these issues already anticipated by the market, or maybe I have no idea what I'm talking about...

WHY! Why do people continually assume that passing a law banning something is automatically going to make the problem go away? It has never worked, and never will. Further, passing more laws makes the problems worse. Marijuana is lumped in with hard drugs under the law - kids smoke marijuana and don't die and don't get hooked. What does that do for their opinion of the rest of the laws? Stop signs - same thing. Four-way stops everywhere because it's 'safer'. But nobody stops!@#$. Ban cell phones in cars - yeah right. Of course, the drug laws will never be dropped - there is too much money involved, from the DEA to the HA. Same with stop signs and silly speed limits.