Machjo

Hmmm... 1867.... Still not resolved. Should the First Nations start charging interest? Interesting. So who are the 'Indian givers' now?

The problem though is that, whether they consider themselves Canadian or not, we're on their land, according to treaties we signed with them in good (sic!) faith.

Band councils? I don't know enough abut them to comment. The Indian Act, absolutely. It's just a paternalistic extension of the colonialist mindset and even the natives themselves want to scrap it. it's the feds that want to keep it. I was talking to one lady at the Assembly of First Nations a few weeks ago, and she was telling me how the Conservatives are trying to force the First Nations to 'becomes Canadian citizens' (whatever she meant by that, I understand somewhat, but not the details fo what exactly she meant), but that the First Nations were standing fast. It really is a tough position because as far as the First Nations are concerned, they've never given their land up, their treaties are international treaties between the Natives and the British, now inherited by the Canadian government, often scrutinized by the international community, and upheld as still legal documents by the Canadian courts. It really does put us all in a tight pickle jar, doesn't it.

And as for Canada's Aboriginal languages already being developed, that's blatantly false for most of them. All but three of them are struggling to wurvive right now. If they die on their own, that's one thing. But for government to put obstacles in their way that have no bearing on government spending whatsoever is another matter. Personally, I might even be for cutting spending to the Aboriginals. But what would be so wrong with simply letting the free market have at her rather than trying block their languages at every step, as if eliminating them were the goal?

What effort would be involved in giving out school vouchers, letting schools compete on the free market, removing legislative obstales (i.e. government granting the freedom to schools to teach in the local Aboriginal language if they wish), and rescinding the Official Languages Act? It would involve no effort on our part at all. What it would do, though, is not stand in the way of other people's efforts in the private sector. So again, this removes any tax objection.

Good point. Though option 2 makes no reference to giving or not giving any money to the Aboriginals, but rather removing legislative obstacles, which would essentially be nothing more than an administrative restructuring. For example, if I give you a school voucher for your child at a certain value, whether you cash it in at a French-medium school, English-medium school or Algonquin-medium school (assuming you live in the Ottawa area), the cost would be the same. If the school needs more money owing to the higher cost of books in one language, then the parents would need to pay themselves, or the employer pays, of they go on a collection drive, etc. Tax-wise, it would be totally neutral. The only difference their would be whether the government will at least step out of the way so that those who are willing to pay the extra money out of their pockets can, or whether it will even take away the free choice with our own money. Essentially, option 2 removes any legitimate tax objection.

I voted 2 in the OP. Personally, I see no point in giving Canada's First Nations any money than we are now if we're then to turn around and systematically marginalize their languages and cultures through our legal mechanisms such as the Official Languages Act. That's like my giving you money to develop your culture and then turn around and place constitutional and legislative obstacles for you to jump at every step of the way, and then wonder why the money is achieving so little.

What do you think would be the best way to develop (or at least defend) Canada's Aboriginal languages and cultures: 1. Increase federal funding for Aboriginal language and culture education and other programmes. (maybe we could call this the statist approach). 2. Adopt an education voucher system at the provincial level that would allow parents to cash the voucher in at any school, grant schools the freedom to choose among English, French, or the local Aboriginal language as the medium of instruction, or the local Aboriginal language as the second language to fulfil graduation requirements, and scrap the Official Languages Act at the federal level so that bilingual English-French requirements do not punish those who may have chosen to become bilingual in an Aboriginal language instead. (maybe we could call this a somewhat more libertarian approach). 3. Other method.

And I wouldn't be surprised if a few progressive conservatives have switched to the Green Party. No, the Green Party is indeed different from the old Progressive Conservative Party, but it still comes closest among the big 5 parties.

The Progressive Conservative Party never left, except in name. Legally, since the Progressive Conservative Party had amalgamated with another party, the dissenters who refused such amalgamation had no choice but to abandon the name and form a new party, the Progressive Canadian Party. I'm sure they took the acronym into consideration in the naming of their party. Their website is here: http://progressivecanadian.ca/

Hmmm... couldn't they spend that money on education instead so as to prepare the unemployed to fight the upcoming inflation? The way they're going now with their total lack of planning, they might as well just make the counterfeit printing of money legal for a month, and we'd have the same effect. Expect inflation and interest rates to go through the roof once we're out of this recession if this is how they intend to just randomly spend their way out of recession. How about developing the workforce so that it's prepared when the recession is over?

He not = need learn hospitality. You = learn C++. 2009-17-15 C scale hot. I = need CO2. Good bye.

I just got it from here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Harper Anyway, whichever constituency it is, they should count themselves extremely lucky. It's not often that a riding gets so many representatives.

It's necessary. Why do you think the Japanese Emperor had sent emissaries to study German, French, English? He saw they were industrialized and had knowledge Japan needed. Now look at Japan. Even the most homogeneous countries require their students to learn second languages. Why do you think? Immigrants likewise can provide additional sources of knowledge, experiences, etc. to solve various problems, just as Canadians abroad can often offer their expertise to otehr nations too. It's reciprocal exchange of knowledge.

This is why I'm a libertarian for the most part. The problem with the welfare state? It risks attracting the wrong kind, and so we are then forced to stereotype and discriminate against entire ethnic groups in our visa policies. If we should downsize the welfare state considerably, then we could be sure that those who want to come here are coming for the right reasons,a nd so would not longer need to be so severe in our immigration policies. I say let them in, but no government money. Let the charities care for them, and likely make them work too at the same time.

Good question. Look what happened after Jacque Cartier led all those furriners over to the Americas. Do we want the same to happen to us?

Whose fertile imagination? Who brought up immirants? I wasn't even thinking immigrants here. You do realise, don't you, that Canada is not unique in having many languages in its borders? Look at China. Russian and Korean are Chinese languages too, along with Kazakh, Kirgiz, etc. Japan has a minority Korean populaiton going back a couple generations too during the time of the Japanese occupation of Korea (when Koreans were considered Japanese citizens) Russia likewise has various groups within its borders. But when we look at more homogeneous cultures like Japan, notice how much more emphasis they place on learning a foreign language. Nothing to do with immigraiton. The idea had not even cross my mind in my last post.

I speak a few languages, and am fairly well-read in the field of linguistics. The following are just some of the documents available on-line that are simply not available in English, yet have been of considerable interest to me none-the-less: Find the English translation for these if you will (in fact, both of these documents are translated, but not into English!): http://cisad.adc.education.fr/hcee/documen...apport_Grin.pdf http://wwwcs.uni-paderborn.de/extern/fb/2/.../loi/enhavo.htm Also, we have: http://ling.cuc.edu.cn/htliu/festlibro.htm To take a few examples. If we leave the field of science and enter politics, popular culture, etc., the information becomes even less available.

But I thought balancing the debt was supposed to be a conservatvie trait? Oh well, the military always provides a good excuse to spend like a drunken sailor.

Do yo know other languages? I myself have accessed much valuable knowledge in languages other than English that is simply not available in English. Do you honestly think other countries will waste valuable taxpayers' money to translate all of their scientific and other documents into English? They translate only if they think translation could pay dividends somehow. And we translate only that which we are interested in translating. Had you known another language and were well read in it, you'd be well aware of just how insulated from foreign knowledge monolingual English-speakers really are. The idea that all foreign knowledge worthy of our attention is available in English is a common myth among monolingual English-speakers.

And its world wars.

Are you sure you're not confusing homogeneity with unity? They are two different things. In fact, a pre- and co-requisite of unity is diversity. A homogeneous culture soon divides itself. If a nation's memnbers are bilingual and bicultural, with at least one common language and culture among them, then the one common language and culture serves as the glue to bind the nation together, while the additional languages and cultures serve to access information from abroad so as to develop the nation. If a nation is just plain homogeneous, it may be that it has the advantage of a common language and culture, but how can it develop. Sooner or later it would stagnate, with its members turning to neighbouring cultures to access new knowledge.

And the First nations were just a quaint discovery, right?

And let's face it, as far as nations are concerned, Caanda is still a baby in diapers with lots of development to go through before it could truly have a fully coherent culture, perhaps even another few generations at least, if it survives that far.

Actually, if we keep minorities in long enough, they might eventually get sick of the partisanship themselves and start to learn to work together. Personally, I'm so sick of the partisanship I can only hope to have an independent in my riding come next election. I can't guarantee he'd get my vote, but his independent status will certainly be a plus in my considerations.