Dave_ON

I think too the OP's main point has been obfuscated by the minutia of whether or not vaccines are effective. I doubt anyone is truly calling into question the efficacy of vaccines. For my part I'm calling into question the necessity of one for the flu. I think the overblown nature of the swine flu pandemic has been downplayed. H1N1 is not nearly as virulent, nor as widespread as say Small Pox. We all agree that vaccines have done a lot to prevent many childhood ailments that would have in years passed caused many deaths. However, where we do not agree is on whether or not a universally distributed vaccine for the flu is worth the time and resources necessary to create it. What's the cost/benefit analysis break down? If we all agree it was not as bad as it "could" have been then why all the panic for something that "might" have happened? Was that warranted or was it a waste of emotional energy? Do we have stats on how many people were vaccinated vs. those who were not? In reality for a vaccination to be truly effective it needs to be nigh on universal. How realistic is it to vaccinate all 34 million citizens in this country? What is the time this would take and could it be completed in time? I'm also given cause to wonder why folks are so surprised that the pandemic wasn't so severe given the preliminary data we had from the southern hemisphere who's flu season happens in advance of our own. Those numbers were also significantly lower than anticipated. Many questions arise from the whole incident and it's no wonder people are somewhat sceptical when the next pandemic is announced.

So too is the name TrueMetis, by definition Metis is non specific term for the offspring of French and Natives. Metis is neither French nor Native. However, I digress. Suffice it to say I find your aspersions towards those of faith unwarranted. I personally am not a religious person by any means, but I respect those who hold those beliefs regardless of my own position. There is much that science cannot and will not be able to explain and I find it equally foolish to blindly believe that science has all the answers. If you honestly believe that there are not scientific zealots you are at best naive. In fact having read the dismissive, derisive and down right mean spirited posts of Segonsaur I find I can scarcely see the line between Religious zealotry and scientific zealotry. Both are utterly devoted to their belief, both are equally convinced they are right. Finally if you are going to consider yourself a "true skeptic" in the classical sense you have to call into question all assertions. I think it is important to remember that if you cannot disprove something outright that you must accept the possibility regardless of how unlikely it is that it may in fact be correct. By the same token you have to accept that because at the current time the facts lead you to one conclusion that, that is in fact the final and only conclusion. New facts may surface that completely contradict the prior theory. All science can give us is theory based on the facts that are available at the time. To assume we have all the facts in any given situation is arrogant, it's impossible for anyone to account for all factors and all possibilities. I think Vaclav Haval put it best as it says in my sig. "Follow the man who seeks the truth, run from the man who has found it"

The problem being that the entire nation does not directly vote for the PM ergo the PM doesn't technically speak for all Canadians, only his constituancy. Our current system was not designed with the assumption that the PM would have the current amount of power he does have. No checks exist on this power in its current incarnation, which is problematic IMNHO.

I don't think it is at all outside the realm of reality to say they could even make it full term to Oct 2012. That is if Mr. Harper remembers the fixed election date law and doesn't push for the full 5 years.

Than I'm assuming this is precisely where you will hold all future protests against gay pride events? Far be it from you to be hypocritical.

double

Ummm the provinces are not subserviant to the federal government and are not constrained to sign anything. This is a confederation not an empire. Provinces are guaranteed equal footing with the federal government and therefore all agreements are negotiable. End of story. A good idea on the surface I suppose if it's that important to you. Are you prepared to pay an significantly increased tax bill in order to cover the administration, enforcement, implementation of such an undertaking? I somehow doubt you are, as it would be the cost of the G20 security force many times over.

Where precisely is the largest concetration of seats? I'm not talking votes as given our system number of votes is relative to the region you're looking at. Now let's move east, the further east you go the fewer CPC seats you see. Clearly many in Ontario, especially those of us in Urban Ontario, do not feel he represents our interests. Hence he's stuck in rural Ontario ridings. The few Urban ridings the CPC holds are by thin hairs like KW by 70 or so votes, London West by around 2k. Check out Elections Canada, for percentatge of voter support. The further east you go the lower that support gets for the CPC. Exceptions being PEI where they have 30%, keeping in mind their are only 4 seats in PEI and the CPC won a seat as well as NB where they won 6 of the 10. This to me says it's not just me that's under the impression they represent western interests, but that most of the west is under the same impression that I am. Why do I care what Barrack Obama thinks? When did I even mention him? We're talking specifically about Harper what's with the non-sequitor? I guess I fail to see how this is at all relevant to the point I made.

From the article Nicky posted. I'm seriously in shock that'd they'd say this and oddly amused at the apparently lasting impact of Martin's smear campaign. Be that as it may I really never expected even the CPC to try an pin this one on LPC. Isn't that excuse getting tired? "The opposition made me do it" I can't say I'm terribly surprised at the number. Mr. Harper has always been heavy on security spending. He's spent more on his own personal security than any previous sitting PM. Gone are the days when Jean would wrestle/punch his assailant into submission. Maybe Mr. Chretien is free that weekend, I'm sure the old buriser wouldn't mind helping his country out for a fraction of the cost.

Indeed they do, it's just odd that it came from the poster boy of the West. One would think that he would be reluctant to repeat the same federal mistakes, based on when happened in the west. The Atlantic, gets screwed over by the feds as much as Alberta and the west does, they're just not big enough to be heard, let alone listened to. A decison was made to move major ship building operations to the St. Lawrence in favour of expanding it on the Bay of Fundy. The St. Lawrence requires ice breakers to keep it free and clear of ice year round. The Bay of Fundy doesn't, but to placate Quebec, it was moved there in spite of the fact that it could have been done much cheaper and more effieciently in Saint John NB.

This also sounds somewhat illegal. Anyone know if lying on a census form is actually a federal offense? Seems to me if it's not it should be, otherwise the information gathered is utterly useless for the very reasons August pointed out.

I am not, what I am in favour of is completely renewing the party. Turf the old guard and lets bring in new blood, new ideas and solid platforms. Honestly if there was a Liberal leader that could come up with a solid, galvenizing policy he'd be able to claim a majority over the CPC any day. The problem is, currently they're not offering an alternative to the status quo. Also a name change is in order, it worked for the Alliance party after all.

Only an outsider would see these side bars as off topic. They're indirectly related to Mr. Harper as he represents a great many of the issues facing our country. He was a member and still is of a party that largely represents western interests, is not particularly gay friendly. A great deal of what occurs in the country is blamed/credited to the sitting PM. It is how a PM handles himself with these issues, whether it be social, economic, or cultural, these define a PM and the countries general feel towards him. I don't think at the end of the day Mr. Harper will be looked upon favorably by anyone. The West feels he's not doing enough, the East feels he's pandering to the West. He screwed himself in Quebec. Yes I'd say to anyone who has their ear to the ground it's quite clear how all these posts point back to the rather broad topic of "Why the hate for Harper". Ask an open ended question you're bound to get a wide variety of responses.

I'm aware of the impact of the NEP but Albertan hatred of the East runs deeper than that. I think the NEP was simply the straw the broke the camel’s back. Don't you think this anti-Trudeau obsession is somewhat unhealthy? They'll vote for anyone that isn't a Liberal, no matter how dubious he might be, that's simply illogical. I understand those who are old enough to remember the NEP would have some residual resentment, but why are the Albertans my age and younger carrying the grudge? It seems to be rather deeply ingrained, and makes no sense. It would be like holding a grudge against Germany for WW2 and WW1. Where precisely would Alberta be today if not for Ontario? I'll tell you where, non-existent. It was generous transfer payments from Ontario's booming economy that allowed Alberta to get up and running. Now last year being the very first year in the entire history of the Country Ontario hits have not status Alberta begrudges us every single dime. Ontario has paid into transfer payments for longer than Alberta to more provinces and we don't bitch about it like they do. You're right the West doesn't sneer at the East, just Alberta; they have no love of Ontario, and certainly not Quebec. They also have no respect and open disdain for the Maritimes as well as NFL, as they're just sucking money from Alberta. I've heard it said on many occasions, and even a few times on these boards, that Maritimers and NFL are lazy, EI sucking leeches; Even though this couldn't be further from the truth.

Fair enough, I can't speak directly to this as I've only visited Saskatchewan never have I lived there. However, it is my experience that Alberta looks down its nose at the RoC; this includes SK, BC and MB to a lesser degree. They invoke the term "westerner" when it suits them and only when speaking to or of the East. We get it they're self sufficient and they don't need the RoC now that they're established. However, they seem to have forgotten that if it were not for the RoC they wouldn't be as well off as they are today. It was money and man power funnelled from the East that allowed them to establish themselves. They had raw resources but no means to exploit them, these means did not spring up out of the ground they came from the RoC. It's sad because I see history repeating itself. I'm a Maritimer, born and raised. There's a rich history of accomplishment in the Maritimes, sadly that's all there really is left there, history. New Brunswick was once rich in coal, lumber and was an ideal location for ship building due to the fact that the Bay of Fundy never freezes. Sadly all these industries disappeared, shipbuilding has gone down, coal isn’t in nearly as high a demand and is mostly depleted, and lumber employs fewer and fewer each year as harvesting/processing technology improves. There have been many factors, both economic and political that has led to the state in which NB and the other Maritime Provinces are currently in. This is a cautionary tale for Alberta, you may be wealthy now, but the well will run dry or the world may change in such a way that no one wants to buy what you have for sale. Then you too will be a have not province, and I somehow suspect that the RoC will not soon forget the disdain with which we were met.

Well swearing allegiance to the Queen depoliticizes the process and it also ensure continuity. Goverments come and go but the sovereign through direct lineage is eternal. You swear allegiance not just to the current monarch but to the crown in general. Whereas the GoC is rather transient and can change at any time.

Sask. does not currently have the manpower that Alberta does. They have the resources but lack the manpower/tax revenues to fully exploit it at this time. They're in much the same state that Alberta was when they were living off the good graces of Ontario, whom they now so deeply resent. Sask will get there, and they'll start pulling manpower from the rest of the country, even as Alberta still does today, to do it. If we're being frank, Alberta can't hold a fiscal candle to Sask. Alberta relies on its oil to bail it out when it's in trouble; Sask hasn't had that luxury and yet manages to balance its budget. I suppose what I don't understand why Alberta so desperately wants the ROC to fail. They hate Quebec because they're leeches; they hate the Atlantic because they're insignificant and lazy. They hate Ontario because they "screwed" them over and they resent Ontario's continued success in spite of the severe downturn in the manufacturing sector. They also covet the vast political power that Ontario wields and feel it should be theirs simply because they have oil. They don't particularly like Manitoba either, just another have not leech. Sask, is about the only province they don't bitch about, but they don't really want their energy programs to succeed, nor do they perceive that in 30 or so years they will likely exceed Alberta. Light sweet crude is a heck of a lot easier to manage and extract then the tar sands. BC, well that one I'm not sure of but they're not from Alberta so clearly there's something wrong with them. Fact is no one seems good enough for Alberta, they're the best and everyone picks on them and is after their manifold riches. Christ, it's likely the most narcissistic region in all of Canada.

Umm they already are and with no sign of letting up, considering it happened close to 20 years ago.

True enough though at that time trunk lines were quite pricey as they required additional equipment in the CO and often additional wiring be run to the location. T1's reduced the loop length issues that are inherent to DSL but not by much. You still had to be relatively close (in terms of length of copper wire between you and the office not geographical distance) to the CO to qualify for that service, if you ever achieved it is another matter entirely. Pardon me good sir, we do not gripe we express our displeasure vociferously, and refuse to enact change. There is a substantial difference. I honestly don't think we have an issue with service/price levels here with the exception of cellular communications. I don't mind that Bell owns the Ontario infrastructure as they maintain the network and keep it current with technology. We have two major companies competing to be our sole service provider for everything, Cable Company vs. Phone Company. I think they keep each other in check quite nicely. Choice makes us feel better but is it really producing better results at the end of the day? At the end of the day you're using the same network so your quality of service will be unchanged. Prices may go down but as go prices so goes profit. Companies are less inclined to reinvest money back into the network as a result. Canadians have plenty of choice in political parties and it's arguable that the competition has done little to improve matters. Truth is in business, politics and nature, the strong survive and generally the bigger eat up the smaller.

err what's this Jaffer post number 5? Anyway, even if Geurgis is found to be utterly blameless, save of having terrible taste in husbands, the CPC has out and out stated they wouldn't accept her back. http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/05/26/guergis-caucus.html

There are of course other factors and AIDS occurs in other cultures for other reasons. For instance, in sub saharan Africa the AIDS is so widespread it isn't broken down by sexual preference as it is in NA. Also there is a disparity in the transmission methods. Anal sex, wether gay or straight is the highest risk type of contact, vaginal is second and is considered a moderate risk, then oral is relatively low risk. AIDS is a low hanging fruit argument and doesn't even begin to address my original assertion. As for popular culture not being representative of modern culture I don't know what to say other than it's not the 60's anymore. My best guess is based on the fact that you remember the 60's with crystal clarity that would mean you're somewhere in your late 50's early 60's. Not precisely the best judge of current pop culture. Nor are those that are 50+ considered a target market for most current pop culture. Music, movies, TV shows, internet websites are all made by people that are part of the general culture at large. If gratutitous sex wasn't a successful marketing tool, wouldn't logic dictate it would cease immediately?

yet oddly enough 38% of all marriages end in divorce at an average of 14.3 years of marriage within the first 30 years. (source http://www.canada.com/life/Divorce+rate+Canada+lower+than+previously+thought/2245611/story.html) So I guess for roughtly 38% of Canadians kids are not a sufficient reason to remain together. Of those divorces the leading cause is extramarital affairs roughly 28% (ie. men are "sluts" as was my original assertion) 65% of marriages where extra-marital affairs occur end in divorce thus bumping the number of men sleeping around over all. 98% of Men have frequent fantasies involving a person other than there spouse (compared to 80% of women which I thought was surprisingly high). This serves to underscore what I've said all along, men by their nature are not monogomous creatures, pragmatism dictates that most men have to be monogomous. So while it is their nature to want to sleep around, they don't/can't always act on it. As Argus pointed out women are the reason straight men aren't as sluty as they apparently want to be. Take women out of the equation and of course all hell breaks loose.

The first recorded usage of the word pre-dates the war of 1812; it was used by the British General James Wolfe. "I can afford you two companies of Yankees, and the more because they are better for ranging and scouting than either work or vigilance." Wolfe was specifically referring to those Americans under his command who were from New England. The term today varies depending on who uses it. In New England it's more of an ancestral reference. In the south it's often has the adjective "damn" in front of it and is generally pejorative. Indeed many southerners may still be unaware that Damn Yankee is in fact two words. Infrastructure and level of service was, and still is to some degree, behind that of Canada, specifically I'm referring to DSL and POTS, as much of the American network was old copper and could barely support 768k in many areas. This was due for the most part to little to no investment in renewing the existing network, a side effect of government mandated competition.

True it does pre-date the civil war however it was still used in the earliest records to refer to those in the New England area. It was combination of Dutch last names common in the region if I recall. The British even applied it this way in the early days later certain prominent British generals began misusing it. I would agree with you in terms of cell phones. However in terms of POTS and DSL service Canada was well ahead of the US in terms of speed/line quality. In the 90's and most of early 2000 almost all of New England was on old copper wire, in some areas the copper wire was the original set out when the POTS network was first created. It wasn't until Bell Atlantic, acquired NYNEX and subsequently merged with GTE and became Verizon that things started to get better. The new larger, company was able to pool it resources and get their network up to date, by replacing old copper, and installing fibre. If the government hadn't broken up Ma Bell into 7 baby bells they likely wouldn't have fallen so far behind. But mandating competition certainly worked to lower prices, this I won't argue, but it did nothing for quality of service. The parent companies were forced to share their networks with other providers, but still were responsible for all the costs. As such nothing was upgraded because this would cut into profit. In such a competitive market you can't afford to raise your prices to recoup the money invested in infrastructure. Why pay 40 a month from Verizon will Joe Bob's DSL shack is selling the same service for 30? As such the highest available internet speed in most of the US was still 768K, where a large part of Canada was already at the 1.5 M. Much of the cost of health care in the US is administration. Hospitals have to hire office personal to collect bills that are due, and to chase insurance companies. Much of this cost is cut out of our system as if it's a covered service the health care provider doesn't have to "fight" for every penny they get. Having said that we definitely have improvements to make, I'm not convinced, nor shall I ever be convinced, that getting rid of universal health care and moving to a private pay system is the best solution. Better the devil you know than the devil you don't.

The term "Yankee" technically refers to those north of the Mason Dixon line during the civil war. AKA the war of Northern Agression if you south of the aforementioned line. As for BC, I'm not so convinced competition is the answer. We need look no further than the government forced breakup of Ma Bell in the US. It was supposed to improve service via healthy competition. What it did instead is set telecommunications back in the US, and they were even behind little ol' Canada. Now we see monopolies are slowly creeping back in through various mergers and consolidations. Competition in Canada's health care isn't the problem really, we need to look at new solutions that include more private clinics. A private pay system isn't the bereft of it's own myriad of flaws. It's why health care costs are increasing in the US, and why those costs are so very administration heavy.