playfullfellow

Bush, Martin and the rest of the world leaders for that matter have no interest in pissing off the Chinese. The fall out could be absolutely devastating and could lead to another era of cold war status. Besides, Tibet really has nothing that would be of any use to the US so there is no way the US will get involved. And if Canada asks the Chinese to leave, then they will ask us to give Canada back to the Natives, which in all reality could be considered a very similar circumstance.

No matter what, I think the timing was right for a bit of scandal. This has knocked a bit of the arrogance of the Liberals out of their pants. It has shown the Canadian public that there is somewhat of a stink in Ottawa and now is their chance to get rid of some of the dead wood there. I still think the Liberals will win the next election, much to my dismay, but the numbers will be much more diversified which will bring increased debate on issues. This will also get people to look a lot closer at some of the policies from Ottawa and they realize that the cost of these policies are way out to lunch.

If you, I or any other regular Joe did the same thing and reacted the same way, we would go to jail or at least get the book thrown at us. Why should Mr. Robinson get treated any differently than any of us? He should be treated and punished just like the rest of us would. This little escapade has shown that Mr. Robinson can not hold it together when the times get tough. Is this a person any of us wants to be in a position of power? A person who decides what rules and laws the rest of us have to live with. I never really liked the guy before but this really solidifies my feelings.

The governments job is to look after its citizens lives as best as possible. What kind of message would it send to its citizens if the government said "tough luck buddy, you got yourself there so now get yourself out"? It is also our duty to help our fellow man when they are in need. I was also wondering where you are sitting when you looked over your newspaper and see this homeless person, where are you sitting? Some nice restaraunt? Did you offer to help this person on your own? Did you offer to share your meal with this person? Was this person living on the streets by their own choice? This is the case at times too. If we do not look after our citizens abroad, then we are no better than the people who kidnap and terrorize our citizens.

Well August, it cetainly looks like you have a severe dislike for people who live West of the Ontario border. Not all peope who live out West are simpletons. A lot of people make a living using their backs and muscles but that does not mean they are simpletons just because they do not sit behind a desk judging others. If it wasn't for the hard work and persistance of people in provinces like BC and Alberta, the whole standard of living in Canada would drop. We may be a bunch of rednecks who still go to church and believe in God but we still have a very strong belief in right and wrong. Most westerners believe that each province should be able to look after its own priorities and not have Ottawa tell us how to live our lives. What is wrong with that logic? The joke seems to make it rather clear that the guys out east make big bucks while screwing over the guy out west. But the again, that is just my simpleton way of seeing things.

August1991 Decentralized? Martin has killed the Federal Liberal party in Quebec. I don't know why he did it, but he did. The only Liberals to be elected in Quebec will come from ridings in English Montreal and west Quebec (Hull). About 20 or so. The other 50 or so seats will be BQ. Is this the death of Canada? Certainly not. I didn't imply that decentralizing the government of Canada is the death of Canada. Chages are happening all the time. Change is not necessarily bad. People seem to think that if Canada changes, then it will die. That is just old school talking, in my mind, Canada needs to change to stay alive.

The biggest change that could happen is that we see the government getting decentralized but I just do not see the writting on the wall of that. It appears that the opposite is happening where the feds are trying to take more power away from the provinces. Everyone is talking the talk about changing big government but no one is walking that way, running the other way maybe. I also do not feel there will be any significant changes until parliment can free votes on all bills. Now that would be a change that might actually affect the way see politics in this country. Also, with the voter turn out at election times being below 50%, there is little hope of change. The government knows that the majority of people are just armchair critics.

hmmmmmmmmmm, I wonder which wave of immigrants you are refering to? I have been an immigrant of this country for 27 years and I have been a proud citizen for 19 years. I know my Canadian history quite well, better than a lot of Canadians. PM PM may have made a slip up which is no reason to hang him in effigy. I am not a big fan of Mr. Martin but I accept the fact that people slip up when speaking in public. BTW, I also happen to be a European immigrant and do not feel any of the bias that was stipulated that I am painted as a racist, sexist etc.

No matter what, he stole for whatever reason that only he may be able to understand and should be punished as any other person would. I, like millions of other Canadians, work hard and deal with stress everyday and I do not steal a $50,000 ring. I know if I did, I would be sent off to jail and avoiding bending over to pick up the soap in the shower. You do the crime, you do the time, no matter who you are.

not the first time I have heard of this. Scariest part is that we have a lot of these militants already in our country.

If nothing else, I hope the next election will be a little more exciting than usual. I vote at every election but at times a person really wishes for a little more excitement. We all enjoy a good battle to become the top dog and a little more life in Canadian politics might actually bring more people out to vote. More contenders and choices will at least help diversify the options available to the voting public. As for the NDP being a major contender in the next election, time will tell. I think they are more apt to being more of a pain in the arse of the other parties which will keep the parties hopping to people on side.

I am not trying to paint all union members with the same brush. I understand that most members are my neighbours and friends. There are certainly examples of very militant members in the news all the time. As with most situations, the problems stem from the top and work their way down the pipe. I think most people are most tired of the strong arm tactics that the news people low to splatter on the evening news. They are also tired seeing people being harassed and pushed around at picket lines. I have no problem with unions as long as I am able to keep putting food on my table and a roof over my families heads. I do have a problem with not being able to do my job just because I am not a union member. I have no interest in taking jobs away from people if they are more qualified and efficient than I am. I have unionized people working around job sites all the time and there have been no issues. They make more money than I do but that is fine as long as they do a good job. I do take exception to not being able to my job though just because I do not belong to a union. I have paid my dues through hard work and taking risks. My employees enjoy the atmosphere we work in and they exactly how much is made on each job and what their share is. Most of the time, they make more than I do.

It will all boil down to how law enforcement and people are allowed to use the registry. l assume that the general public will not have access to this datbase or the human rights lawyers will have a hay day with it. A registry like this is not useful anyways with the meager punishment that is handed out in this country. Offenders already have to register with their probation officers for a set amount of time and this has done squat to alleviate the problem. A lot of offenders get lost in the system and disapppear. We would be better off with the money being spent on better and more enforcement in the way of more officers to handle the case loads.

BigGunner, I am not yanking your chain here, this happened to my father who is a trucker and it only happened 2 years ago at a mill in BC. There was no labour dispute going on at the time but all drivers had to show their union cards before they were allowed to enter the yard to unload. It also happened at a couple of other union yards in BC. It is not so bad now but he still has to produce his card every now and then just to avoid the hassle of being told he can not unload or load. This sort of stuff is not right in my mind.

BigGunner, you are right in the sense that no union members have busted down my door but there have been plenty other examples of strong arm tactics by unions. One example is truckers, who mostly are independant drivers, will not be allowed to deliver to a unionized work site unless they belong to a union. Why should an independant business owner who drives under contract for another business have to belong to a union? These drivers are no threat to the workers jobs at these sites but union rhetoric has taught them these indendant business people are. This makes no sense that a person has to belong to a union just so they can do their job. This totally infringes upon peoples right or privilige to make a living. Why, as an independant contractor can I not bid on jobs that are on unionized sites when I can offer a better price? Unions have their place in our work force but they have gained way too much power over the years.

People are going to keep picking on Harper because he is fighting for the west, the land of rednecks, hillbillies and illiterate farm boys in the minds of many people of the east. PM PM is trying to stack his government for the next election because he knows he is in trouble. PM PM does not have the full support of the Chretien backers, sort of like Day and the Manningites. PM PM is trying to sway a few more votes his way so he can call for an election as soon as possible, before the other parties a fully organized and ready for an election. If the conservatives and NDP hvae more time, then they can get their parties ready for the election which would be bad for the liberals. Lets hope this backfires in PM's face and that people see through his ploy.

The US will never be in complete control in 10 years. They will always be a major power and will probably always like to look at themselves as the moral big brother of the world. No matter what, the US will never be able to exert control over the EU, China or any other major nation. They can try and control countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan but they will never control the hearts of the people. As for Canada, well we are already being controlled to an extent through economic sanctions such as the beef ban, softwood lumber tariffs, wheat tariffs and so on. It seems like every time we piss off the US, then there is another economic penalty to pay. Look at Bush's "with us or against us" policy for the rebuilding contracts of countries the US has blown up. These policies will blow up in the US's face one day though when people around the world say enough is enough. Canada is no where near this point because of all the internal struggles we have at the moment and our reluctance to "take our business elsewhere".

Just playing a bit of catch up here people and saw the Air Canada portion of the thread. I am not a big fan of unions but I doubt that Unions are completely to blame for the state of Air Canada's problems. The majority of those probs stem from really poor choices made by management. The unions could have helped the situation by being more coorportive. But then again, maybe they saw the writting on the wall and figured they would milk the cow for all it was worth before everything fell apart. I guess they will have to rely on those huge pension packages that they negotiated for over the years, oh yeah, I guess they might be gone too from the looks of things. Westjet seems to have no problems with their employees and as I recall, Westjet is non-union. So what seems better, to be non-union and make a little less money with a company that is making more and staying in business or to be union, make more money but not know whether your job is still there next week? No work sure wont pay my bills.

Sorry bud, you probably won't see the Liberals give anything back to the average Joe out there. They have a few extra of our hard earned dollars. They have some extra bucks they can spend on inane things and they have to make it look to world as they are the leaders in this Kyoto crap and show the enviromentalists that they care. Plus Ottawa just doesn't trust the provinces to do the right thing for their own population. The provinces may actually give money back to people.

Might have something to with the fact that Canada has some of the lowest farm subsidies in the world. Other countries pay their farmers to keep prices lower to the consumer. Just wondering which country you would expect to import cheaper food from, Canada is a major exporter. The US is in no position to fill the plates of Canadians also.

Yes, barbers, video store clerks bus drivers and BC wine makers play a part of the economy but how of a big part would they play if grocery store shelves were empty? What if you had to pay 2-3 times more for a meal than you do now, would your paycheque help the national economy as it does now? In all reality, the crisis goes way beyond just helping a bunch of western farmers, this aid money will be distributed across Canada. I can't help it that the majority of farmers are west of the Ontario border. Also remember that if the farmers go, so will stock yard workers, processing plant workers, truck drivers, grocery store clerks and so on. Who do you think will have to make up for all the defaulted bank payments? It wont be the bank managers, it will be the average joe. In all reality, the money wont make much difference in farmers opinion on who they vote for.

Giving a 1 billion dollar subsidy to the farmers may be a minefield but is it wrong? I think people forget that agriculture still plays a very big part in our national economy. Canadians also enjoy some of the cheapest food in the world, even though a trip to Safeway doesn't feel like it. How many people across Canada have been affected by the outbreak of 1 single case of BSE? It has not just been the beef farmers but also pork, chicken, grain and so forth that have been affected. How many billions of dollars have been lost because that 1 sole case of BSE? 1 billion dollars will seem small in comparison. I am not a big fan of any sort of subsidy but I do believe that there should be help in emergencies such as this. If there is no help, then we will see thousands of farmers lose everything they have spent their whole lives building. Is this the answer?

we should not forget gun control, the military having helicopters that are officially antiques while our political elite get spitited around in nice shiny jets. I also seem to remember a solid choke hold Mr. Chretien had on some protestor (not necessarily a bad thing). I also wonder if Mr. Chretien still has walks where he regularily talks to homeless people. I do have to say he did keep the country together when the crunch was on and I guess people will always view him as a person who never seemed weak when the pressure was on. I also agree that he did not kow tow to the US unless he felt it was in Canada's interest.

10-20 years from now when we sit around and discuss the sad state of affairs our political system is in at that time, the name Chretien will come. Some people will say "who" and some people will, "oh yeah, isn't he the guy that did....................................? I for myself will probably only remember Chretien as the PM who kept us out of Iraq, managed to PO the US every other day, Shawinigate, gun control laws and pissing away billions of dollars placating Quebec. I was just wondering what other wondeful things people will remember Chretien for since the last few months of his political life were surrounded by the word legacy? Did he actually achieve a legacy he could be proud of?

It seems to me that I do pay for a lot of these welfare programs through EI, Canada Pension and my general taxes. I have never had to use them luckily but it is kind of nice to know they are there if need be. Since I do pay for them evey month, then I should be able to use them when need be. Being from Alberta, I also pay my fair share for Health Care every 3 months. I try to do my best to keep my family healthy and not be a burden on the system. Having a European back ground, I hear from my family in Denmark what it is like to live in a Welfare State and Canada is definately not considered so. But you do see a lot of these welfare states changing their ways because it was bankrupting their countries. I do not believe that people should be able to recieve welfare when they a prefectly able to work and there is work available. Welfare should be for people who are in genuine need of help. I think there could be a lot more programs out there for people to get them back into the work force through re-training and maybe even re-location help. If we figure the system is broken, let's come up with solutions that may help. We can talk until we a blue in the face but with no viable ideas, then what is the point.