Bryan

shortlived, you're living in the past. The people alive today were born into the situation we have now. No one alive on any reserve was an original inhabitant of anything. For them to claim ownership of the whole nation is childish at best. For them to claim a right to my tax money, or to land that I paid for is asinine. The so-called 'first-nations' were immigrants too, primarily nomadic people, and only occupied a small fraction of what is now Canada. They have already been given far more than what was ever promised to them, and it's time for the free ride to end.

I'm surprised that outsourcing call centres to India is still happening. I thought that by now, the trend would be reversing. Not because of any local backlash to lost jobs, but because of the poor value for the money the domestic companies get for doing it. Customer service drops off drastically, and companies that don't do it have huge competitive advantage over those that do.

From the same story: Bold Mine. RBC needs to be made an example of so that other companies won't even consider trying something like this again. Some people are talking about an RBC boycott. I am an RBC customer, and I'm torn. If I withdraw my accounts from RBC, how does that help the local employees that I have a relationship with? Less customers is a reason for the bank to lay-off/replace even more of them.

That is the sticky wicket. In many ways, they protesters brought this on themselves. Not only are too many of these "peaceful assemblies" anything but peaceful, but they are increasingly being carried out by the same group of professional protesters. The cries of curtailed liberties become a self-fullfilling prophesy: If we didn't have these "rent-a-riots", we wouldn't need to call in the riot squad.

Hooray, more extortion. "Nation to Nation"? Like what, as if Cross Lake were an international recognized sovereign country? Yeah, good luck with that. The Aboriginal Affairs Minister has already offered to meet with you, take him up on it.

3 or 4? The left has been saying the Conservative Movement is in decline for decades. Reform was just a passing fad, they were never going to get more than a handful of seats, and even then only in Alberta, don't you know.

double post...grrr

Public Insurance isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's worked out fairly well for us in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Our rates are low, the registration and the insurance are tied together, the system is simple, and making a claim is really easy.

Any time our government thumbs it's nose at a UN initiative, that should be a source of pride for Canadians. The more distance we put between us and that corrupt organization the better.

This doesn't bother me at all. The only credible opposition we have in this country is among other Conservatives. As long as the argument is over which Conservative policies we are going with, we're doing alright in my book. It would be a mistake to see any of this as a sign of waning for the Conservatives. The only criticisms of substance are among those who think that Harper isn't conservative enough -- it certainly doesn't follow that they'd make an even less conservative choice instead.

Nobody said GDP was a measure of wellbeing, it's a measure of the economy. Hard to believe that the guy being interviewed even passed middle school math, that he's supposedly an economist is astounding. His plan has nothing to do with economics, it's about pushing left-wing social engineering--cost be damned.

That's pretty much the point.

Bjorn Lomborg's take: Blinded by the Light Read the rest here, it's a very good argument, perhaps a little more mature than Ezra's position (SHOCK!!!!) http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/earth-hour-s-counterproductive-symbolism-by-bj-rn-lomborg

Americans' corporate taxes are still insanely high compared to ours. Ours are working out much better for us because they are much lower. And yes, our unemployment is much better now than it has been during times when other countries were experiencing economic troubles. Even minor recessions that were nothing compared to what's still happening around the world led to unemployment much higher than now. People do not understand just how bad it is out there. Our government is doing an amazing job compared to just about anyone else who has ever been tasked with the job in this country or anywhere else. That said, yes the bar has been set very low. They're better than anyone else, but still way short of my expectations.

Third world countries that are just starting to become industrialized are certainly increasing their pollution, but the industrialized nations have drastically reduced theirs. It's far less polluted in Canada and the US than it was just a few decades ago. It's affluence and technology that has allowed us to do that. We should be encouraging that and celebrating our achievements.

Don't forget everyone, Human Achievement Hour tonight (march 23) at 8:30pm! Celebrate all of mankind's tremendous achievements, and turn on all of them at the same time! http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/video/2245844694001 Toungue in cheek, sure, but it makes a very good point. It's our wealth and abundant energy that allows us to do things in a much cleaner way now. Never in the history of the world has there been less hunger, less disease and more prosperity, and we SHOULD be celebrating it!

Liberals will vote, but they are far less likely to put time or money into the process. If there's so much as a survey, the participation drops off a cliff. Losing the corporate donations is what really hurt them the most, because they didn't HAVE TO connect with grassroots politics before. They had the money and logistical support, all they needed was the actual votes. It's just not enough anymore.

The answer to the question is far more simple than you're trying to make it, Canuckistani. Rather than snapping fingers, or saying a magic word to make everything appear at once, the supreme entity created it in a layered fashion, like painting a picture -- a picture that probably also had several preliminary sketches.

Those faith based schools are protected by the charter, and the Supreme Court has already ruled that any form of coercion against their faith (financial or otherwise) is an infringement of their rights. They pay their school taxes, and they have the right to decide what school it goes to. Have you read the bill? http://web2.gov.mb.ca/bills/40-2/b018e.php It's ridiculously broad as to what bullying is. Hurting someone's feelings IS one of the definitions of bullying in the bill. It's so broad that it's either going to be completely unenforceable to the point of making real bullying far more trivialized than it already is, or it's going to turn into a circus where any kid voices an opinion on anything could be subject to discipline. The bill might as well have been written by George Orwell. Teachers don't have time for that crap. Remember the kid who got expelled for "having a gun at school" because he drew a picture of a gun? This is the kind of legislation that leads to that kind of insanity. The only place where the bill actually does get specific is with respect to the promotion of homosexuality. It's a deliberate attempt to push a gay agenda, the bullying title is just a smokescreen. You know what is protected by the Charter? Religious freedom. Besides, anyone who thinks that a religious environment doesn't feel "safe", has the freedom to attend a secular school instead. One surreal consequence of the bill is already playing out with respect to the comments being made by the supporters of the bill who are criticizing the religious objection. Look at the comment sections for articles about the bill in the Winnipeg papers. They're loaded with vitriol against religion, using all manner of insults, exposing people of faith to "behaviour that is intended to cause, or should be known to cause, fear, intimidation, humiliation, distress or other forms of harm to another person's body, feelings, self-esteem, reputation or property or is intended to create, or should be known to create, a negative environment for another person". The bill itself is exposing one specific group to the very behaviours it claims to be protecting people from.

It's not evident at all. He was democratically elected by a majority multiple times in a multi-party system. There's nothing dictatorial about it. The people have had plenty of opportunities to replace him if they wanted to, and each time the resoundingly chose to have him continue governing the way he was doing. It's far more democratic than what we have here in Canada.

I'm on the left now, am I? I guess the CPC should return all my donations then. ...and Human Rights Watch as a source of valid info? LMFAO!!! These are the same liars who say Cuba is just a big prison. For the record, I never said I advocate the left-wing policies that are becoming increasingly popular in latin America. I'd fight against most of what they stand for. My point is, those policies are very popular there, it absolutely is what most people want. Comparing Chavez to a dictator is idiotic.

If you read it in the Miami Herald, that means it's false. The ridiculous crap they print about Cuba (and Venezuela) is astonishing.

Is it a fact? The only people I've seen making such claims are the Miami Gusanos.

Right, and it was in everyone but the Liberals interest before. The winners are the ones who work within the reality of the system we have instead of demanding that the rules be changed just for them.

Independents already run (and win) under the current system. They actually have a better chance, because the representation is local.