playfullfellow

Yeah, youth are important, not always well informed but then again, a lot of old timers aren't either. We all have to remember that we used to change their diapers, one day they will be changing ours. I think that whenever we meet any youth that show any interest in politics, we need to encourage them to follow through and respect their ideas. Not call them stupid and discourage them. We could actually expand on this and teach them better in school about politics and Canadian History. Let's teach our youth some respect for our past and future.

Politicians in general have strayed away from proving to the voters that their policies are workable and in the countries best interest. Because of so much crap from the past, if one party brings up a good thing that they did, then the other parties will list 5 things they have supposedly done wrong. Elections have become tabloid front pagers in the fact that most politicians strive to find garbage about their opponents. Ok, so if your opponent is a total liar and thief, well that should be mentioned. We have gone too far away from wanting evidence on how a party's position will benefit us as citizens and taxpayers. Most parties write down a number in the billions that they intend to spend on us but there usually is no evidence of where this money will come from. We also are expected to believe blindly that each party will spend our money wisely after we elect them with no definative proof of how the money is to spent or where it comes from. We dwelve on one or two issues each election, vote in a party and then bitch for 4-5 years on how they don't do as they promise. Maybe if we, as the voters, start demanding proof before we elect a government. We could do this with a "none of the above" area on each ballot.

I agree with august, flanagan is the man.

Must be nice caesar, I miss that tremndously about BC. I envy you.

thanks for the correction August, way too many damn zeros by anyones opinion though. Thanks again and Happy Canada Day to one and all.

It has been a difficult job because the party also wants to let their MP's vote for what their constituents want. Some areas will want different things than other areas. If there were free votes, I think that you would see that there are people in each party that also hold these "extreme right" views just as there are people in the Cons that have some extreme left views. Once they develope a platform, then we can see where they want to head as a party. It may be good, it may be bad. At least then this hidden agenda crap can be thrown out the window. As with any party, they will have their good points and their bad points, dependant on each persons ideology and beliefs. Harper does not need to resign, he did a decent job. Now he and the Cons need to shake the mud off and get on with business. They need to make all issues national views and not east west views. They also need to keep a really close eye on the books and make sure that nothing weird is going on in the budgets. They need to put forth definative numbers each time the Liberals come forth with their budgets and show Canadians that they also do their homework. They also need to be sure that any in fighting is nipped in the bud right away. They need to come forth as a unified party that does not squack about getting a new leader everytime things dont go their way.

MS, everyones criminal record is checked if you get stopped at the border. This is nothing new, it has been going on for years and part of the reason why Canadian citizens can enter the US without a visa or passport. Can you imagine the mess if this was to stop?

Caesar, you seem to forget about what Mr. Trudeau managed to do before Mulroney. In 1968, Canada had a debt of 16.7 billion dollars. Fast forward 16 years of Trudeau management and we have 200 billion dollars debt in 1984. I do agree with you that Mulroney spent way too much money. Mulroney was also faced with high teens interest rates. At 15% interest on 200 billion is 3 billion a year alone. But, you also have to take into consideration what Trudeau did to the national debt too when you make assumptions about the financial state of Canada. It is not all Molruneys fault as some would have everyone believe, besides, the guy aint never getting into power again or have any influence in Ottawa.

Caesar, I was just stating that the NEP is one of the reasons the West, yes the West, does not trust the Liberals. The NEP took money from the West and gave it to central Canada. Yeah, it hurt Alberta more than anyone and that is evident in how Alberta voted but Alberta survived. If by REAL WEST, you mean the furthest western province, yep you are correct, you pass geography. Just for your info, I lived in BC for almost 16 years, I think it is a great province. I have been in every province Quebec west, I love this country. I chose to live in Alberta because I have the greatest oppertunity for myself and my family here. I do know a lot of people in BC and they do not seem to have your view of the whole scene. We do not see eye to eye on a lot of things, that is part of debate. The NEP sucked between 50-100 billion out of Alberta in a very short amount of time. Most of this money went to central canada and Quebec. 1.7 billion went to buy Perto Canada. Are Canadians going to get a share from the sale of PetroCan this year? We all paid for it. Thats a lot of freaking money and why wouldn't Albertans still be sore? It took almost 11 years to recover from what the NEP did to Alberta. But being a bunch of persistent red necks, Alberta survived in stars. I for one am not a seperatist, I looked into to it but it made no sense to me, I am a Canadian. This is strictly provincial territory. Why should someone in Toronto cash in because natural resource prices in BC are high? That money should stay in the province. If they want ownership, buy shares. We already pay taxes on these resources, why should we bankrupt provinces that have plenty of resources? Anyways, I didn't look at this election as an east west fight, that is a waste of time. I looked at this election as a potential for having better things for my family without getting taxed out the ying yang.

Sort of like the West not forgiving the Liberals for the NEP?

Thats a risk a person takes and it should be their own responsibility if they get into trouble. From what I have read, Arar was railroaded by some over zealous desk jockey in the US so his fight should not be with Canada. But then again, some whacked out judge somewhere might just agree with him. Stanger things have happened.

As with most inquiries, a bunch of people will yell, accuse and then nothing will come of it. In all actuality, what does this have anything at all to do with the Candian government? From what I remember, didn't Canada go through all the proper channels to try and gain his freedom? If there is to be an inquiry, it should be towards some bonehead south of the border and that wouldn't mean spit to the US. As for dual-citizenship, why shouldn't people be allowed to do so? We are Canadian citizens first and Canada is our home. All dual citizenship papers allow us to do is keep a little part of our heritage and allows us to travel a little more freely in our previous country. Dual-citizenship people know very well that carrying your country of origin papers is a risk. Heck, some countries (some countries with mandatory military enrollment) will throw you into the army for a year if you are caught doing something wrong in your country of origin. This also means if you are caught in a criminal act in your country of origin, then you will be tried as a citizen, not a foreign national.

Didn't Randy White give his opponents a trouncing in his riding? Shows that his constituents have no problem with his views. It might not be a Toronto view but it was definitely an Abbotsford view.

Looking at a lot of the reults, this wasn't really so much an East West thing, this was a Urban Rural issue. Rural Canada made it very clear that they supported the Conservatives, while the Urbanites supported the Liberals and NDP. If we had more Rural representation, we would all be saying a lot of different things today. And takeanumber, didn't Calgary go all Conservative this time? That must really get your goat.

Holy dina, I think I finally figured it out takeanumber, by your statement, you are basically anti-religion. No matter what the religion we are talking about.

We do not always get the short end of the stick in trade disputes. The only dispute that the US has not immidiately backed off on is the softwood lumber issue. Right now the US could not care less if their decision hurts us. We made them mad as hell when we didn't at least morally back them. And in all honesty, why should they? Would Canada back off automatically if we lost a dispute in a similar situation? Probably would depend on who got paid the most.

Yep, you will probably get it. Joe Clark is a has been. He is just a sore loser and would never be able to get a majority government if he lead the Conservatives. The Cons picked Harper as they should have.

No matter how look at it, the West has made it very clear that they are tired of the way the Liberals have run this country and butt kissed Ontario-East regions. The butt kissing did not help them in Quebec. Aside from Ontario, the Liberals got trounced. I think the Conservatives could have done a little better job in the Maritimes but the Liberals have bought that area years ago. Ontario could not have a new idea if it bit them in the butt, they continued to listen to the Liberal rhetoric about everyone else being rather scary. Lest the NDP the Liberals considered the NDP a non-issue all election and heaped as much crap that way as they shoveled towards the Conservatives.

In all reality, Martins plan failed. He thought he could catch the Conservatives with their pants down. Call an election and get a vast majority again before the Conservatives could get organized. We are looking at a party that is really only 6 months old. Layton did well and kudos to him. Harper, though not as well as he thought things would go, did pretty well. Harper will probably stay on as leader, he trounced anyone else in his riding. Martin will stay on unless he gets the boot before the next election. Unless there is a major set back, Layton will die of old age at the helm of the NDP. He brought the NDP back.

Layton has to make sure he does not get sucked in by Martin with empty promises. As we all know, Martin is not the most honest person around.

definately an interesting election. Just watched Laytons speech and it was a good one. I must commend him. Lets just hope he doesn't get sucked into the Liberal cesspool. Was glad to see all parties take seats away from the Liberals. I am sure it will lead to some interesting politics in the next few months. And takeanumber: Harper, Day and White kicked butt in their own ridings so I figure you are stuck with them for a few more years.

Maybe because Kyoto is a joke. Kyoto is almost impossible to make the agreed to levels of CO2. As for global warming, yeah. it is happening but is it really caused by CO2 levels? I used to think so, was sort of in favour of Kyoto, didn't understand the implications enough to firmly make up my mind. Then I saw a presentation by Dr. Timothy Ball a couple of years ago and saw his research. Made me go hmmmmmmmmmm, looks like Chretien was kissing UN butt again to get his legacy, no matter what the implications are. Just so you understand, Dr. Ball is very pro-enviroment, he just has evidence that blows the whole Kyoto farce out of the water and feels we could better spend our money on other areas to protect the enviroment. Check the following link and read for yourself. Dr. Tim Ball

As you stated, they are appointed and they are appointed by the PM. I am certain they have to have certain qualifications but what is stopping the PM appointing judges that only support his/her point of view? Nothing! Have you ever read a law book? I am not being sarcastic here, have you ever tried to read through a law book and tried to understand what is being said and exactly what the law means? A lot of laws are so confusing and so full of legalize that they can have 2 or more meanings. As for human rights laws, the supreme court make up their own version as they go. Case law? The supreme court does not have to and can over turn any previous decisions by any court of this country, no matter how many times these courts have made the same decisions. How many amnendments to the charter have been instituted by Supreme Court decisions? We have 9 people making decisions that affect over 30 million people. Wow, scary thought if you ask me.

This is true for the softwood industry and can also be said for the beef industry in the US. The consumers and killing plants down there are taking a butt kicking but the producers are raking in the big money. The US Agricultural lobby groups are huge and have tremendous power. They are not really interested in opening the borders yet. And in all reality, the US is only doing what Canada does to other countries that have been BSE positive. A total import ban for 7 years as long as that country stays BSE free. So in all reality, why should we expect any different treatment ourselves?

The Liberal party has got to go no doubt. They have just become way too complacent in their way of doing things. When the Liberal party is in power, the average Canadian has no say, you just have a party that looks after itself and it's supporters. Digby is correct when he says the current quota system is corrupt. The Liberals turned it into to more patronage money for party supporters. As with all quota systems, the rich can afford them, the startups with little money can not. Quotas are nothing but a fat handling fee that allow a few to sit on their butts while others struggle to pay for it. The fisherires quotas should be handed out in a lottery style system and then only a percentage of the haul should be paid, this way we would not see millions of pounds of dead fish being thrown overboard because the quota price is worth more than what the fish would bring in.