Craig1

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, trying desperately to stop a late campaign swoon by the Conservatives, gives a speech in Toronto in which he promises there will never be a deficit under his watch, no matter how gross things get with the world economic slump."Were sure not going to run a deficit," Flaherty said. "We will maintain a surplus in Canada and we will continue to pay down the debt." http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/b...ewAllComments=y

What I did like about Iggy's speach is how he Talked about sending Alberta's bitumen east for refining instead of shipping "top soil" south of the border like we ( Alberta) do now. I think it is smart to create Canadian jobs and to have the ability to export finished products being gasoline, diesel , polyethaline etc. it could also help sustain a more advanced manufacturing sector as we won't need to rely so much on importing we can focus more on exporting.

Bad thing for Alberta is the economy is not always sustainable we are not as diversified as the rest of so called "have not" provinces. Expect in the near future equalization payment made to Alberta, as it runs record defecits of $6.6 billion, $3 billion lost to the Heritage trust, Albertas new pork barrel project $2 billion in carbon capture with low Natural gas and oil prices province is going in the hole. add in a provincial sales tax in the 5%+ range. For a province run By PC's for the last 35 years, that did well on $20/ barrel oil and $2 gas they now strugle to manage on $70/barrel oil and $4 gas, what gives? Then get us started on deregulation our Energy bills have doubled with more and more service charges, housing has trippled in the last few years and built to the cheapest standards country wide developers won't even throw plywood on the ouside they just put paneling on 2X4's, with how cold it gets , what gives? for a $450,000 home.

Bonan please tell how you get free service I been a stong advocate of those that stole Bell satalite service for FTA untill it got knocked out with N3. Same should go for phone and internet it should be free! These providers been ripping us off for way to long and if stealing needs to be the anwer to be that is the honorable thing to do. How can they justify Charging me $2600 for a few hours of internet service? when a modem cost all what $50. A strong message needs to be sent we as the consumer will not stand for it!

MythBuster uses Twitter to fight $11,000 phone bill http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Technology/...0546/story.html

My dad got me the Bell internet card for my laptop we asked the guy specificly if I played warcraft on it would it cost any extra money than the monthly fee and he told us no. WE questioned the fee per mb and he said it was only if you downloaded something and not for playing games. 1 hour later the card would not work so we called Bell, We were told that we had a $3600 bill already and we only had the card for a hour. We never did pay the bill and told them we would go to court. Keep getting the bill but its never been sent to collections or anything after about a year and half now

my dad also has a poster of the code of excellece posted on our living room wall. maybe you should read it sometime.

Jerry you seem to have a pretty negative view about union workers, why? I actually find it insulting most of my family works union and they are hard working and good at what they do. They are proud generous people who only want a fair days pay for a fair days work. But what you also need to understand like in the private sector if you get above the age of 50 they consider you no good anymore specially in labor intensive fields but. On the union side they look after there older boys/girls they ensure they still have jobs after all they also paid there debt to society, besides allot of older people hold allot of knoledge they may not be the fastest but they are good to learn from and often can show you the "tricks of the trade"as they say:

I am getting sleepy past my bedtime but....I found something interesting on the Canadian government website talking about a mobalized workforce wich is planned for 2012 headed by a long list of corperations. I remember Bell on the list but there are about 20 other corperations on the list. would not the corperations be the managment and the mobilized workers be the workers? this allows them full rain of its workers to move them freely between country's. Like a standard union they move travel cards between provinces to do these projects. now would this not be like a union?

correct me if I am wrong but is it not a trade agreement between Canada, the US and mexico? (It is kinda like a union). Some say it will lead to the Amero and even in Canada it has resulted in building the CAnamex highway to link all 3 together. I know allot of corperate interest is to reduce borders to make us like the Europian union.

I would hope that your not just thinking about destroying the working mans union as the WTO, NAFTA the UN allong with many corperate body's are all union. I think you would send us back to the cave man

Borg are you drunk? we live in a socialist society..... who is going to pay for healthcare? or any of the luxery's we as Canadians have. Harper was so dumb to cutt the GST what is more dumb is running the country into debt because nobody is going to be able to afford the inflation. They want to rid the middle class and we are doing a good job suporting the elite in doing so. You can't tell me for a second knowing how cheap and prudent people are we would drive the world economy into the ground unless there was pre motive. People catch onto these things when their money is involved unless they have something to gain. Think for a second they lend you money, now that they forced you into default by taking away your job they can walk in take your home for nothing turn around and sell it for more, banks love it its like a second mortgage.

equitable share? hundreds of Billions of moneys have flown throught the Heritage fund and what do we have? $14 billion left. I bet you did not know some of that money was used to build a hydro dam in Quebec so they could look green and we look like mother natures devil! Heritage fund given to a PRIVATE investment firm AIMCO to invest globally and hardly any in Alberta to scrape Albertans top soil!.... equitable share? I talked about this earlier and Albertas city's are hurting becuase everyone comes here to work but does not live here or pay taxes to us so our comunity's are forced to disband. You as a Torie need to listen to Peter Laugheed on managing growth this Alberta government is on a hell bent crusade to destroy us now they are moving over to Saskatewan to do the same. Take a hard look in the mirror and determine who you are. equitable share?

You obviously have never been a member of the RGC or are in complete denial. I was a member (a spoiled bratt) I was bread from a young age to be a Torie. Now are you going to give me your name? I am still a child and you want mine? I don't think so. What I can" tell" is what I have seen and if I want I can get any of my friends into that club, and there is a waiting list. It takes growing up and not listening to propoganda I have chosen to have a open mind and have no hesitent in speaking it. your in complete denial or are not in the iner circle to see the coruption and friends. If you think we live in a perfect world and these people are corupt you don't understand much about humanity, clicks or any of the pre motives of anything. I can tell for a 100% fact your Torie your arogance shows.

If my uncle sitting on the board of directors is a toaster then yes. Me and my sister skated there for years. If you ain't a Torie your second class.

We tried this in Alberta (still are) we offer bonuses to those who make cost cutts (to do their job like they should) and it's not working they hire more and cost the taqxpayer more richest province going into debt, our healthcare is on verge of privatization and taxes keep going up exceeding inflation.

I don't know what union that is but do know the "code of excellence" where the union will pull you off the job and place you infront of the executive board where on 1st offence they place you in schooling till you grasp the skills to do your job. 2nd infraction your kicked out of the union and a $10,000 fine is placed on your head.

First off you can put yourself on the waiting list put your $5000 deposit down, when time comes it will cost ya another $10,000 for a family membership, so $15,000 for your family. I suspect you could also start by donating to the conservitive party and get a membership with the too they may bump up on the list.

In a perfect world where politicians are honest then it couuuuld work. But see politicians are not the most honest people they would be lining pockets and awarding contracts to there buddys. Or you could allow the individual to worry about his/her own garbage like the bank and what you find people are cheap and will start dumping in ditches or the river, you'll wake up and your yard is full of trash. We have these checks and balances for a reason because it is human nature to be dishonest.

That would end up costing you double you can't have the government and the union both in managment. Besides unions only source of income is from dues from its members so to pay another tier of managment would entitle members say in managment decisions like shareholder. or you could just allow the Union to manage it all lol

What is so wrong about that? corperations make donations all the time in its best interest for itself and its employees wise words of business agent Tom Smyth "if you don't like it, you can always say goodbye"

So true! but I think it's to late by 2012 it is said corperates will be allowed to bring "Mobilized" workers into Canada when China or India pumps out 1000 times more qualified workers, who will work for allot cheaper what makes you think they won't walk in and take your jobs. You can find this on the Government of Canada's website signed by a long list of global corperations. People are going to pray to be a union member you only have strength in solidaridy.

You can. out west here in Alberta we have many anti union laws, in fact it is illegal for a union to strike in this province. Last summer or the summer before , i cant remember but trade unions were not entitled to negotiate a contract but was given to the Arbitrator of the province to make its own deal and all workers were forced back to work or face a $1 million/day fine and time in jail. If you think it is a problem you need to take it up with your politicians, your vote dictates. But I do suspect out east the majority of voters are in favor of siding withy the unions, but legally the province can do what they want.

I agree with you to some extent but to paint all unions all with the same brush is not fair. I can't say much with what is happening in Toronto or Montreal for that matter but I do know we have become a Nanny state self reliant on everyone else to do our dirty work for us, if you don't want to do the dirty work then your gonna pay through the nose for it. As example in Edmonton we pay a garbage fee of $30/ month, now me and my dad did this we took the utility trailer and loaded it to the rim with our garbage and all the neghbors garbage took it to the dump ourselves and it cost $6-$10 including the gas when if the city would have done it would have cost well over $100. City workers are making $30/hour to cutt grass when if everyone would chip in and took the extra 10 minutes to trim outside your yard cost you maybe .50 cents in gas. AT 16 i can rebuilt a engine in a car for $400 or take it to the mechanic and he will charge $2600 point is society has become lazzy, they don't want to contribute, so your going to be forced to pay through the nose for it. To blame unions or the workers to do your dirty work is not fair, pull your own weight and do something about it. But nobody will do that its way to easy to sit back and complain your not getting everything for free.

Depends what you mean by strip them of benefits. Most union members pay there own benefits by paying union dues like dental, health, education. If your talking holiday pay then for sure "honest days work, for honest days pay, right?" as for pensions we need them you can look at Alberta who is in crisis as only 20% of the workforce has a pension and a large percent of these old people don't have money saved so now we will be forced to subsidize them with a aging baby boomers and a projected $120 billion dollar debt when inflation kicks in you will see allot of them on the street.