playfullfellow

They get a special Trudeau salute from me.

HUH? This statement makes absolutely no sense at all. How would registering legal guns weed out illegal guns? Are any of these guns registered? Are they what we term as "legal" guns? Caesar, these idiots are not going to register their guns. Criminals can get a gun any given day of the week on the street. Mandatory registration of guns does NOT solve this problem. These criminals are already breaking the law, what the heck do they care if they break one more. Do you know what it takes to be able to buy a gun legally anyways, before registration laws? You have to take a course, you have to fill out a multi page questionaire that asks personal questions such as if you have recently been divorced, bankrupt etc. This has absolutely nothing to do with registration. I have no problems with people having permission to own a weapon. Criminals can not get permission to buy a weapon legally so they buy them on the street so what makes you think they will register these already illegal weapons. It won't happen hence 2 billion wasted. A larger police presence in the lower mainland would go further to help the violence there. This is absolutely the last thing that any gun owner wants to happen. Hence there was a sharp decline of such incidences long before gun registration. There were plenty of laws regulating gun storage before registration laws came into affect. No resistance actually. I just feel that it is a waste of time and money. It won't work. It hasn't worked in any other country that has tried it so far so how are we going to be different. If it was going to do as promised, not a problem as far as I am concerned. And I have nothing to hide, I just think we had adequate laws before and tougher enforcement would do more to alleviate the criminal problem. Think of it this way, if the criminal knew that every house on the street had a gun and people would start to shoot back, don't you think they would think twice about taking their battles into residential neighbourhoods?

Ummmmmmmm, the natives got the vote in 1960. It was Diefenbaker who enstated that and wow, he was a conservative. Go figure. Deifenbaker was also anti Apartheid. Quebec was indeed the last province to allow women to vote but the year was 1940. I dont think there are too many people on this forum that can say it is their legacy, not too many 104 year olds here given the age of 40 for a politician back then. BTW, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta were the first provinces to implement the female vote in 1916.

Caesar, it is not the legitimate gun owner that is the problem when it comes to gun deaths. The majority of all gun crimes involve guns that are already illegal, handguns, assult type weapons, automatic weapons and modified weapons. These weapons are not allowed or severely restricted already. I don't get how you come to the conclusion that people who oppose gun registry are causing the cost over run? The cost over run is caused by idiocy and lies. The Liberals deliberately projected a much lower cost so the damn thing would get passed. Do you really think that it would have passed if they knew it was going to cost 2 billion dollars? There has already been plenty of previous threads in other posts relating to how many police officers that 2 billion would pay for. Canada didn't and doesn't have a gun problem. And the people who use guns to commit crimes would not register their weapons anyways so what is the point of throwing away billions on it? All it does is make thousands of normal everyday Canadians (probably a few of your neighbours) into criminals. This law will just fall into obscurity over the next few years. Impossible to implement completely and even more impossible to enforce. Even now we have provinces that will not pay for enforcement of the law. It will go the way of "tho shalt not spit on the sidewalk" of the past.

I think Ontario would be the most against seeing Quebec get more autonomy. This is mainly because they know that other provinces, mainly Alberta, would want to follow suit. Then Ontario would lose their status quo of being in control. The maritimes would also be against this because they would feel separated from the ROC.

There are several other provinces that you could move to that might be more to your liking. So lets do things your way takeanumber. We let the market rule agriculture completely. No subsidies, no aid, nothing. Float or sink no matter what happens. We have the current BSE crisis hit. Bang, all of our borders close to all beef. Prices plummet across the board. Not just beef prices but also pork and poultyr because they have to compete with the now lower beef prices. So, now you have 2 more sectors thrown into the fray. Now we are looking at the feeds market, they panic because farmers won't have enough money to pay their feed bills so they stop credit on any feed purchases to all except the largest customers. Cash and carry. The grain market is affected because the demand for feed grains had just dropped, surplus on the market. The killing plants are now faced with a huge surplus of of boxed beef that they have to store at great cost hence their profit margin starts to drop. Now we have 5 major sectors affected by one sick cow. Lenders now start seizing herds and dumping them at the auction at pennies on the dollar. The price of beef drops even more and now we are seeing the breeding herd hit the killing plants too, even more beef to get rid of, the prices drop again. Now we have the Americans enter the picture. They have just enjoyed 1 year of huge profits and see many more to come if they can keep the borders closed, they keep lobbying to keep the border closed and succeed. The price of beef goes even lower again. Banks and lenders are now seizing land from farmers and selling it to the highest bidder which usually are the larger corporate farms. The crisis continues on for about another two years or so before the surplus beef is gone from the freezers and the whole Canadian beef herd size has dropped by almost 1/2. Now, we have laws in this country that say a bank can not own a seized farm for more than a year so these farms have been dumped on the market and have been taken over by the top 5% largest companies from before the crisis and also large American companies. So, in the end, 5% of the companies will own almost half of the market. You better enjoy your nice cheap cuts of beef now because it isn't going to get any better.

Just so you know, the BSE compensation went to the "owners" of the cattle. Not just any tom dick and harry. A lot of farmers opted for a buy out proposed by some of the larger companies. In all actuality, this was 2 groups of people working together to get through some tough times. So, in your opinion, any company over a certain size should be left for the vultures to pick clean? Buy outs of agricultural commodities from smaller operations by larger operations has been going on for years. It is a matter of survival of the smaller operations. A smaller operation will sell their commodities to a larger company if they have a tough year. Make their bank payments and keep their land and then try to start over again next year. But you know, even some of the larger farms, the ones quoted as getting most of the payouts are in big trouble. It is a regular occurance to see several large trucks enter a farm and take all the livestock to the auction to be sold at pennies on the dollar at the orders of the bank. Most farmers accept this fact, they don't scream for more handouts, they just wonder if they will be able to keep their homes through all of this. The amounts paid out to the farmers is paltry compared to the amounts paid to Air Canada and bombardier over the years.

Government corruption sucks and it affects everyone. You guys will have to harass every politician and official you can to get full charges laid against these scumbags. Keep it in the open and on the pages caesar, dont let up!

All interesting points you bring up takeanumber. You ever work on a farm? You ever study what the family farms bring into the local economy? How many jobs are directly affected by the family farm? Have you ever watched the sheriff remove items seized by the bank from farms gone under because of the idiot decisions of one dumbass in the Peace? I doubt it or you would have a little more compassion for these people. And you know, most of them are not standing around with their hands out. Not like a lot of pandering self righteous firms out east. Lets look at the numbers in Alberta alone. - There are over 31,000 farms with cattle on them in Alberta. Average family size is 4 (just a number for an example) we have over 120,000 people directly affected. - We have over 5.3 million cattle in Alberta - Alberta produces 2.4 million cattle per year. - Alberta beef adds 3.8 billion per year directly to the economy. Do you not think that we could expect a decent return on an investment on the cattle industry? As you have stated emphatically before, the oil will run out in Alberta, what then? Shouldn't we be investing in a viable industry that will help sustain Alberta in the future? Alberta has a huge agricultural industry and we need to safeguard it. reread my statement, I did say he has increased spending. Never denied that. Dont put words in my mouth!

Yep, in the past few years he has increased spending but you seem to forget the furor he caused when he first took office. The cutbacks, the cutting in spending and number of government jobs he cut. He gave the whole system a butt kicking and got rid of a lot of dead wood. Yeah, he has increased spending of late but the province can afford it better now.

Ummmmm, correction, Alberta already has pretty high standards against polution. We can do more of course but the ball has started rolling. You could also say that Alberta has already paid for it's share of the pollution problem through the NEP of the 80's. Consider it an advance payment. And you know caesar, the air in Alberta is a heck of a lot better than the air of the lower mainland, Okanagan or the Kootenays. You can't even see 1 mile anymore on a calm day on the lower mainland . What about all the crud that washes up on the beach at White Rock? Kids can't even go barefoot down there anymore. Clean your own outhouse before you start complaining about your neighbours please.

Yep, celebrated by getting up bright and early, went to work (have to pay for this past election you know ). Put in a full day. Went home, had a beer or two and watched a good movie. Overall, was glad to be a Canadian. The next day was a little different. Woke up early, not quite so bright (musta been the beer or 2) and went to work. When I arrived at work I got the nice surprise that some little freaked out, don't wanna work for a living little butt holes had cleaned us out of tools. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm how do I get my job done now without tools? Called the RCMP, he didn't really give me much hope of ever finding my tools and he said that even if they did find the guys that did this, then not much would happen to them. Probation, restitution, in other words a slap on the wrist. WOW, that really impressed me I assure you. This is not the constables fault, he was a frustrated as me, this was his third bne of the morning and it was only 9 AM. Yep, HAPPY CANADA to everyone, this was definitely a very expensive one. God love this country and it's criminal loving laws.

Caesar, obviously you have ignored the quotes and links that have appeared here showing that Trudeau also ran up huge national debt way before Mulroney, unfortunately which he continued on with. There are 2 definite people to blame our debt on, both Trudeau and Mulroney. Yes, Martin lowered our debt but exactly how did he do it? He cut transfer payments to the provinces during a time of huge productivity and income increases. An infinite number of monkeys could do the same. Do you really expect Martin to keep any promises he has made? He is in the position of power now and has to suck up to the people who didn't vote for him. How is he going to do this? Buy them off as always.

Good idea MS but it won't work. What do you think the ROC has been doing for the last 30 or so years? We have done nothing but coddle and suck up to Quebec and they have been taking it all with a big ass smile on their faces. How many billions of dollars has been sent to Quebec to keep them quiet? This is a two way street, Quebec will have to make the first move and get rid of some of their archaic rules concerning french and english. Why should I have to know french? I am already bilingual. English is my second language (as may be noticed once in while by some of my spelling mistakes ) and I take pride that I still speak a second language. Other countries are given a choice of which languages they want to learn. Canada is just too big a country to force to be bilinigual. Look at the differences in the english we speak. A newfie (this is not an insult, I have many newfie friends and family) speak a totally different english than someone from BC. Let's celebrate what makes us unique and not try to force everyone to be the same. And it is time to stop sucking up to Quebec, we have other problems in this nation that have to be addressed first and foremost.

I have to disagree with this statement. When the price of oil increased, Klein didn't do what others would have, increased spending. Klein kept spending in check until things turned around. Do you really think the provincial Libs or NDP would have this? Klein was also there the whole time. He helped make the decisions where and what the money was spent on. He didn't just sit in his office spewing out orders, he was at the job sites helping every step of the way. How do I know? I was there too. Don't all politicians try to bully the opposition? This statement I can't really argue with you about because it is pretty well true. However, I still feel he is trying to do the right thing.

Give me a break, Ralph has his problems but the guy brought Alberta out of the crapper. He has said some stupid things over the years but deep down inside, a lot of things he has said make sense. At least the guy is willing to take on the status quo and try to do something about all this beaurocratic bs we have seen to date. When he was mayor of Calgary, they could boast it was one of the first Olympics that made a huge profit. People liked Ralph because he came down to the street level and talked to the real working class people. I have known Shirley McClellan, our deputy premier for many years and she has nothing but respect for Ralph. Shirley is one tough cookie and you can't push her around very easily either. She is a farm wife who has seen many neighbours directly affected by the whole BSE crisis, she fights for the family farm. She still has to live in her small community of NewBrigden.

alberta separation issue this is the story in our local paper. Might be of interest to some might not to others.

As for Alberta separatism, I am against that. I am for more autonomy but I would like to see Canada stay as a country. As with many, I am disappointed by the election results but meh, life goes on and all we can do is see what happens. I dont consider the Cons losers over all of this, they did a decent job for the most part. For the most part, I think Albertans want to stay a part of Canada. One of the things that really scares the crap out of everyone is the Kyoto Protocal. If you listen to one camp, it will be a boon for Canada, if you listen to another camp, it will be devistation for the west in general and mostly Alberta. Alberta doas not want to revisit the 80's when we were all almost bankrupted because of the NEP and high interest rates. Gun control is another issue that sticks in peoples throats a lot in Alberta. 2 billion blown on something that won't work. If the Libs and NDP don't cause a lot of tax increases and actually do something about healthcare without throwing a lot of money at it, then there is not much we as Albertans can say. Gun control should be a provincial jurisdiction, if a province wants gun control, then they should enact the laws themselves. There are plenty of issues a person could "whine" about but are they really worth splitting the country up about? I dont think so but a lot of people do. We also need to start to take them seriously too because, like it or not, they are picking up momentum.

I like this idea too, as far as I can remember, BC used to do that and it was amazing the number of mistakes there could be found on your quaterly statement. I am sure there are a lot of extra tests added to bills as well as exagerated visit lengths. Right now there are no checks or balances to keep track of if doctors are over billing. Human nature as it is, I am sure some of them are doing so and now we need to figure out what this is costing the tax payer.

I am an ardent ralph supporter here in Alberta and also wondered a little of late what he is up to? He has done a good job for Alberta and is one tough cookie. He is not a speratist which I like but would like to see more autonomy for Alberta which is not necessarily bad. Healthcare is his pet peeve. He can see the whole system is rotten to the core but how do you fix it? He knows throwing more money at it is a bandaid fix and not long term. I think ralph is stressed and has no way to relieve that stress anymore. He had to give up drinking and smoking for the job. With the healthcare announcement during the elections, this is just a guess, I think he was testing the waters to see who might be a supporter and who is against him. No matter what, if an election is called and he wins, it will be his last term. I think the guy is tired and has had enough.

And as I can see from your posts, you are one tough cookie from these experiences. The new generation has not had your experience growing up and it shows when they hit the workforce. There is not much common sense left in the youth leaving schools now a days. In the past, nuturing stopped at the age of 18 or when you left home to go work, now a days it starts. Do you know how many kids I have apply for work (construction) and do not even know what a claw hammer is? They can tell me all about pacman but not the basics in using very simple tools. This sure adds a lot on nuturing time when we have to train them.

It will depend on whether they feel that if their beliefs will destroy the party or move it ahead. A lot of people (median voters) do believe in the basics of their beliefs, maybe not the whole package deal but the basics. It will also boil down to the conservative members, we have seen in the past that they will jump ship if they feel the party is going off course and they will do it again. I can agree with some of their views and I can also disagree with other views but we all have to be vigilant that the elite dont rule the party completely, ie Chretien and his cronies, it will lead to bad government.

I am from a bit older generation than you takeanumber but I did see some of the same teachings, the difference is that the teacher I had didn't teach it as us being victimized. He taught it as a country that was evolving and people (politicians) make mistakes, get on with life, look at a brighter future tomorrow. He very rarely picked sides in debates, he tried to show things from all angles and tried to teach us to do the same. We can all read the same version of history and each one of us will interpret it a little different. It may be the same curriculum but it means a lot on who is teaching it.

A few of your points I can agree with. The problem starts at home with kids parents like it or not. If it wasn't for the feel good generation hounding schools for not making kids "feel good", we would still have a system of achievement=honours. Parents can start with spending time talking to their kids and letting kids have view points on the things having to do with the world and our country. Things can be ugly and not always pretty but kids need to know that the real world sucks broken glass. I have plenty of youth apply for work but they give up after a few days because the work is too hard and they have never been taught how to work. The ones that want to work and learn, we need to nuture and respect them. Our youth, despite their faults should not be thrown away just because they are "dumb". We were all dumb at one time or another, we are still going and have hopefully expanded our views and experiences.

Tom Flanagans and Tspehen have similar views. This does not necessarily mean that they will become policy after the next policy convention. Then again I could be wrong, this is a time will tell issue. You raise a lot of interesting views takeanumber, can't say i agree with a lot of them but that's debate isn't it?