odie441

Martin came across as a frantic man fighting a losing battle. When the discussion of defence came about, the man spouted so much BS! We had Canadian aircraft and Canadian aircrews flying cargo into coalition front line bases on a daily basis. We had survailence flying 24/7 providing data to the coalition commanders. It just wasn't Canadians on exchange with other militaries. The discussion about ships was laughable! Martin says we need hospital ships and troop ships. What the heck does he think a helo carrier is? Martin makes it sound like he would have to buy 6 new ships to cover his defence plan. The two helo carrier's are all in one, troop carrier, hospital ship and equipment carrier. Martin uses the phrase aircraft carrier so the uninformed instantly think the expensive supercarriers of the USN. Martin also said something that proves he has no concept of military operations that I laughed at rather hard. He told Harper that you don't move large amounts of troops by ship but by big aircraft. WRONG!!!! You get your recce and forward ops forces on the ground with their equipment by using the large transport aircraft if possible and than you send the main element there by ship. Remember the incident where the CF equipment was held hostage on a civilian ship? As for the issue of gay marriage, I believe in a live and let live policy. Having said that, it should be up to the people not government or the courts. On this issue I think a national referendum is required. I am pretty sure the majority of Canadians would vote and we would get a better result of how the nation really feels. The gay community would never allow this to happen because they would lose this one! Marriage is for procreation and is an institution of the church. I do believe that. Civil union is another story all together. I am all for that. Martin should by now be aware and know that the days of Liberal corruption, graft and pork barrel politics are gone! I have already voted and it was conservative!

Every election our politicians bend over backwards to court Quebec. Yesterday PM Martin admitted he was doing just that in the province. The question we have to ask ourselves is why? Why do we continually court the spoiled child? Let them vote Bloc and continue not having a strong voice in the House of Commons. The whole issue of Quebec separation is a fraud perpetrated by Quebec politicians and the power brokers in Ottawa. I work in the government sector, am bilingual and I see this every day. Quebecers are holding a majority of the management positions in the Federal government and those who do not speak French are penalized on a daily basis. Trudeau sure managed to screw English Canada when he brought in the Official Languages Act. An Act that 9 provinces and three territories are obligated to follow. Notice I said 9 provinces because only in Quebec is provincial law allowed to over ride federal law. Only in Quebec have I walked into a federal office and found absolutely no one who speaks English. When I asked about this lack of English service I was quite rudely told the Québec law says that it is not required. When I stated that the official languages act stated that I was entitled to service in English I was told that Québec law was more important than federal law and was what they followed. Upon my return home I called the federal government and also questioned it through my department and was told that Quebec is allowed to decide where bilingual service is offered depending on where English is concentrated. So while the rest of Canada must offer service in both languages in every federal office outside Quebec, inside Quebec the province gets to decide where bilingual service gets offered. So one does a little research of the Federal government archives and realizes that all theses little rules are changed and put in place by bureaucrats mostly Franco and from Quebec. This brings me back to my assumption that the whole Quebec language/culture/separation issue is nothing but a fraud being perpetrated on the rest of Canada so that Quebec can have its way and get what they want. I lived in the Saganay for five years. MY view is that Quebec is definitely a distinct culture but not a distinct society. They are not losing anything let alone their language and way of life. It is vibrant and very much alive. As for being a distinct culture, yes they are. Just like the Italians or the Greeks or the Chinese for that matter. I don't see us giving special rights and privileges to these groups. As a matter of fact, Martin just parachuted a Caucasian into one of the most Chinese orientated ridings in BC. Would he do that to Quebec and parachute an Anglo into a hardcore French riding. Of course not, just another example of the double standard that is practiced in this country everyday. Even our politicians are claiming they come from Québec to court these spoiled children. PM Martin is not from Quebec, he was born in southern Ontario. Why forsake where you were born? Is he ashamed to be from Ontario?

I have to agree with you Micheal. The provincial Tories are adrift right now and that does not inspire confidence. The Provincial LIberals came to power due to Tory arrogance but are fast sinking and will fall to the wayside in the next provincial election. That is unless Dalton can stop blaming the previous government for all his woes and actually start governing in a rational way that appeals to voters. That however is a reality that escapes him on a daily basis. In the world of Canadian politics, McGinty is a lightweight who barely registers on the personality scale. The people of Ontario didn't vote for him, they voted against the Tories. I have a feeling that the same will happen on the federal level. Ontario "could" backlash and vote against the federal LIberals on a grand scale as a protest against 10 years of mismanagement and graft. However considering the fact that they are sheep and extremely lazy voters, they will find the nearest poll numbers and vote according to those numbers. BAAAAAAAAAA!!!

Hamilton is is a bluecollar town. It is no wonder the NDP won. They still believe the union BS that only the NDP can build their utopian workers paradise. God bless them as they all climb on the short bus!

Hugo, I have to agree with you. I was in southern Europe a few years ago and when asked if I was American I responded with an indignent NO I am Canadian. I was very surprised by the response, which was, "American Canadian, you are all the same". I said to this individual that was not true and he asked if not true why do you all dress the same, talk the same and act the same? This was an eye opener for me because I always thought we were very different than our American cousins. Apparently in the real world (not the fantasy we have created in our haste to build a utopian society) we are seen exactly as the Americans.

The Liberals are definetly trying my patience. I am not committed to any political party, actually I usually vote for the person I think will do the best for my riding. I do follow what the various party leaders say and do. I also spend a lot of time investigating their policies and if they are doing what they say. On the provincial level, I have totally given up on believing anything out of Daltons mouth. You know he's lying because his lips are moving. On the federal level I am just sick and tired of the BS flowing from the Liberal mouth pieces. I know they're lying cause their lips are moving. Do I see a pattern here? Seriously, if the Liberals want to sling mud, I hope they can turn those big Bull Shite shovels of theirs around because they are going to need them when they get buried in the mud from the other parties. There is so much amunition to use against the Liberals that the other parties do not have to get dirty, just quote all of their broken promises and lies over the last 10 years.

excuse me>>>>typo>>Great for dogs to pee on>>

The best thing I have ever heard said about polls >>>>> >>>>>they are hreast for dogs to pee on. Polls are only as valid as the individuals asked and the structure of the question.

Canada Rocks.....I spent 5 years in the heart of Quebec where I was placed in a situation where I had to learn French. I chose to learn real French and than adapted it to Quebec speak. Actually I adapted it to Bluet, or the form of french spoken in the Saganay. Anyway, I am in total agreement with your view on official languages policy. I would like to see official bilingualism disappear totally. The money wasted on it could be a great addition to the health carte system. The only people official bilingualism services are Quebecers. Ya I said Quebecers instead of Quebecois because I really don't give a shit what they want to be called. Why so negative, because they lost the damn war and I am so tired of bending over backwards to placate them. I do believe they are a distinct society but no more distinct than say the Italian community, or the Ukrainaians, etc. Therefore they do not deserve any special privlidges. We have had it beaten into our heads that we have done the poor Quebecers wrong and we owe them something. Newsflash folks, we have been conned by no other than Quebec politicians. In our haste to placate quebec and preserve their distinct society, we have almost destroyed our own. Do you folks realize that almost every position of power in the Ottawa beaucratic machine is filled by a Quebecer. We continually court one province and sell our souls to placate them in a mistaken belief we owe them something for the sins of a few unscrupulous and shady businessmen. So Quebec plays on our guilt and we bow down to threats of separation and the spoiled kid gets what it wants. Bullshit on that! The time has come to stand up for the majority and stop bending over for 8 million crybabies. If they want to separate I say let them go! But why would they as long as they can perpetuate the great fraud on Les Anglais or as they refer to us square heads.

Martins ethics are out for display in this article from Canoe >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Prime Minister Paul Martin has three areas in which he has direct control over healthcare. In all three areas, his walk -- and not his talk -- proves he is a big supporter of privatization and not the publicly-funded and delivered system he claims to champion. Firstly, recent reports reveal that Martin's own family doctor operates and runs a business that bills itself as the "largest private, preventative health care company in Canada." His GP, Dr. Sheldon Elman, is president and CEO of Medisys Health Group Inc. -- a Montreal-based, for-profit company -- which allows patients with the cash to crash the queue and jump ahead of those who can't pay. Secondly, as finance minister, Martin was responsible for the largest cuts in health care transfers to the provinces in Canada's history. In the last 11 years of Liberal rule, the average waiting period between referral from a general practitioner and receiving treatment from a specialist has doubled. And where once the feds funded 50% of healthcare costs, that has now fallen to 16%. An understandable plunge when other essentials needed funding -- after all, Liberal advertising friends in Quebec need to eat too. And the third area that Martin could make his walk match his talk but doesn't, involves the delivery (and not just the funding) of health care to our troops. The funding and delivery of health care to our soldiers is a federal responsibility. So, what does the Chretien/Martin government do? It closes down what used to be called the Taj Mahal of Canadian hospitals -- the publicly run National Defence Medical Centre in Ottawa -- and sought bids for a new health care deliverer.

Correction------ there were only 103 seats in Ontario last election. The new boundries created 3 new ones.

I have to completely agree with you respect to the CBC, but have to disagree with your views on Quebec. I used to think that way until I spent 5 years living in the heart of separation country the Saganay. I discovered they are not anti-Canada, but very patriotic towards their own beliefs of what encompasses their culture. Their zeal to separate is not because they hate Canada but they want to be recognized for who they are. The generation that grew up under the thumb of Les Anglais are slowly falling to the wayside and the new generation of Quebecois realize the tremendous advantages of being a part of Canada. I honestly believe th elast referendum was the swan song of the sepratist movement in QC. Only the diehards will hang on as the general population moves towards the center. The era of Rene Levesque and the seratists died when he did. Think of QC as a fiercly proud ethnic community within the grand scale of canada.

We sold our country a long time ago and not to the Americans as most would believe. We sold out ourselves with our lax criminal laws, our non-existant foreign policy, our non ability to defend ourself, an immigration policy that has no meaning except to those who can pay. I our haste to prove how un-American we are we sold out who we were/are. many will disagree but this is after all a democracy and I can say what I like and to hell with the politically correct who are the most to blame for selling out Canada!

Sorry I did not post my numbers. Here they are: economic left/right: 0.25 Social Libertarian/Authoortarian: 1.28. Pretty much where I expected it.

It appears I am a right winger with a social conscience. But I always knew that.