Bryan

The difference between Liberals and Conservatives with respect to the environment is the Conservatives are just more honest. Liberals know all they have to do is keep repeating the same lines over and over again, and they'll get away with not actually DOING anything. By telling the truth that they are not going to do a lot of these expensive things, the Conservatives make themselves easier targets for criticism.

Cubans have Coppelia, way better than Dairy Queen.

That same peer review that keeps telling us the earth is warming, that dietary fat causes heart disease, that vioxx was safe, etc, etc??? Right, you close your eyes like a lemming and go with that.

You're right, they had more to do with the complete lack of ethics of the left that they would try to use such an issue to get rid of someone they didn't like.

Exactly. He didn't seem to understand that his job was to collect and verify the data, not to act as a de-facto opposition looking for "gotchas". The biggest problem was he would constantly twist the data to make it look like the govt was doing something it wasn't. The most egregious example was the F-35 situation. He tried to make it look like the govt wasn't telling the truth, when his own per numbers were the same as theirs. Well, he couldn't have that, so he just extended the timeline and reported that total. I'm surprised they didn't just fire him earlier -- they should have.

Americans can do whatever they want, it's their system. It is, however, one of the most corrupt, least democratic systems around. Even Cuba has straight up democracy in comparison.

No they're not. They are wasting huge amounts of money chasing unicorns. If PR or the like would land us in the same soup as most European countries, that alone is good enough reason to stay away!

The job is not vacant. Parliamentary librarian Sonia L'Heureux has been appointed the interim PBO until a permanent replacement is found. The jab about accountability is ridiculous. Prior to 2008 there was no such job. The only reason we know about a lot of the spending issue that have been in the news in past few years is specifically because the Conservatives created that job. Yes, the PBO has been a thorn in the government's side, that's part of the job.

Cuba also has a much more civilized society than most western democracies.

That's ridiculous. In that example, "Party A" won every one of the votes, they absolutely should get all ten of the seats.

Whenever people start to argue in favour of these alternative electoral methods, I think of the mess Italy has with their system. No thank you.

That's exactly what it is. "You wouldn't vote for us normally, but we're going to force you to do it".

Nobody here is defending child porn. You should be ashamed of yourself for making such an inflammatory accusation.

It quite literally is a new party that has only existed since December 2003.

Viewing the picture doesn't harm the victim in any tangible way though. We're talking about photos and videos, not time machines.

Works for me too. They never seem to be able to decide what kind of site they want to be. Be a gossip rag, be a political blog, be a hard news site, or be an Art Bell/Alex Jones type conspiracy site. Any of those is fine, but trying to be all of them at once makes it hard to read

More often than not, when people go on the offensive right away, it's because they don't believe the Original Poster was debating real issues, but rather just stirring the pot.

I'm surprised by the outrage against Flanagan in this case. It's nothing he hasn't said before, and he's definitely said far more controversial things. It seems to me in this case, that people are equating something to his statements that he didn't actually say, while ignoring that he all he did was express the opinion that the commission of a crime is far more serious than having seen the evidence of it.

The senate should be like jury duty. You get randomly drafted into it. That way the house of sober second thought truly is a random sample from across Canada with no specific political, business, or populist agenda.

No doubt. It's the best government this country has had in almost half a century. They've taken trenemdous strides to undo the damage that Liberals have done over the past several decades. Canada is now one of the best places in the world on a whole whole host of markers (health, happiness, affluence). We've got some of the lowest taxes in the world, and one of the best business environments. Interest rates are low, real estate is strong, unemployment is low. We're not following the enviro-sheep like the rest of the planet, instead doing what's right for us. I've never been more proud to be a Canadian. That said, the notion of "perpetual domination" is silly. Even the largest of majorities have fallen away, and what was once the 'natural ruling party' has fallen further and further away with each election. If there's one thing you can always count on in politics it's change. While I firmly believe that the CPC will easily win at least one more majority, that's mostly based on what I see in the opposition. They have nothing of substance to offer that could change the present situation. But that's NOW. Anything can happen. A merger, a split, a new party, a new face that steals the hearts of Canadians, (all things that have happened before). Plus, you never know what Quebec is going to do. They've been king makers before for both the left and the right, and their allegiances can and do turn on a dime.

Found them. The transcript of the SCOC decision is found here: http://scc.lexum.org/decisia-scc-csc/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/12876/index.do Scroll to the bottom to see the "flyers". Pretty tame compared to the furor they've caused. The SC's opinion on this one is Orwellian.

I agree. Context is everything.

No, but left-wingers in this country sure are.

It on occasion appears to distorts the losers, but accurately reflects the winners. The government we have now got the most votes in the most number of ridings. It doesn't get any more egalitarian than that. Lets try to get away from the anti-conservative vitriol and look at a fairly recent election that predates their formation like the 1993 election: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_federal_election,_1993 The Liberals winning that election is without controversy. Most votes, Most seats. Simple. The only party with reason to bitch about their position is the PCs because they got more votes than both the second and fourth place parties. Even that still doesn't change the fact that they didn't get enough SPECIFIC votes on a riding by riding basis to have any right to say that they represent any more than the two ridings that they did win - those were the only two places where more people liked them than the other choices. Again, it doesn't get any more fair than that.

I think the "dream" is "Americans have so many offshore tropical places that are still the U.S., wouldn't it be cool if there was a place like that for Canada?" In that respect, I can understand it. T&C gets picked specifically because they themselves have expressed interest in such an arrangement on several occasions, not because it represents the best logistical or financial choice. There are many small island 'nations' that are British territories. One could just as easily dream even bigger: offer to the UK to accept ALL of them in one chunk as a new province. T&C, Bahamas, Virgin Islands, Anguilla, the Caymans, etc. In the abstract at least, I like the idea of a piece of Canada in Caribbean. I take the family to Cuba for a couple of weeks every year, and we absolutely love the place. The advantages of being on a caribbean island far outweigh the disadvantages of its political system, so much so that I like to think that would retire there if Cuba were to allow it (they don't). As already mentioned, the cold water of reality for exchanging a place like Cuba for any of the British overseas territories is the cost. Our last trip cost less than $700/wk per person for direct flight, a beachfront five-star resort, all food and drinks (including premium alcohol), all sports amenities, concierge and butler service, and all transfers, including taxes. How is any place that's even quasi-Canada ever going to be able to compete with that?