Bryan

I just checked to see if perhaps it was intended to be posted on the CPC website, but it's not there either. That part is strange, because I actually would expect a letter like that to be posted on the CPC front page, it's what they do. Makes me think that Smallc is correct that it was not intended to be posted at all, and some lower level worker picked the wrong time to show initiative.

Yes. This is the one serious problem we do have with our system; geography. With such a huge land mass, separated in chaotic ways by so much water (yet so sparsely populated), the logistics of delivering that care is very difficult. That's the huge advantage the US has. A much higher population density on a smaller contiguous land mass makes for much more efficient delivery of services. They could easily implement our system in a way that would work even better. It would probably cost less too. They just need to get their heads out of their asses, stop fear mongering, and decide to do the right thing.

Several people have already corrected you misconception regarding the cost of healthcare, but it bears pointing out that we also don't pay anywhere near as much in taxes anymore as is generally thought. Taxes have come down a lot in Canada in the last few years. The average Canadian's total tax load is within a percentage point of the average American's. Then they have to pay health insurance ON TOP of that.

A few thousand Canadians a year do engage in medical tourism. Compare that to the millions of Americans who do. California is roughly the same pop. as Canada. Over a million Californians a year seek health care in Mexico.

To be fair, on many markers, Cuba has better care than we do to. They have the lowest infant mortality rate in the western hemisphere, the second most doctors per capita in the world too. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/health/2013-01/04/c_132079776.htm http://www.socialmedicine.org/2012/07/30/about/cuba-leads-the-world-in-lowest-patient-per-doctor-ratio-how-do-they-do-it/ http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_phy_per_1000_peo-physicians-per-1-000-people I've also been to Cuba several times, and I've got freinds who live there. I'm familiar with how their system works, and it's essentially similar to Canada's, except that it costs a lot less, and they have more doctors than we do.

Not even close. You showed me the transcript of the political pontification by the judge.

That's true, we are not the best, and we freely admit it. We are, however, better than you. Then again, so is Cuba.

The judgement is the proof.

I stopped reading there. That is ridiculous. The National Post is stridently ANTI-Harper. Most of the faux-scandals that have been levied against the Conservatives have been orchestrated witch-hunts led by the Post.

It's not confusing, it's just annoying to use. Android doesn't have a tablet specific environment, it's just a blown up phone OS. When you use an iOS app on an iPad, it's not just bigger than on the iPhone, there are more features, and more information. ATM's? Coffee machines? Some of those machines have a fairly well designed interface, some others are pretty bad. Apple has had widgets for about 8 years now. They work really well in a desktop environment, but there really has not been much interest from iPhone users. It's seen as needless duplication, since what Notification Centre does very similar. You can set it up so that almost any app can display whatever info you need on the main screen with one swipe. Besides that, apps themselves are essentially widgets anyway.

I recently replaced my Android 7" tablet with an iPad mini. I always like the form factor of the smaller device, but using Android is painful. It's not bad as an eReader, but for anything else, I'd rather gouge my eyes out. For as long as I've had the Android tablet, I've said I'd gladly pay several times the price if I could get an iPad that was just as small. I did, and I'm happy for it. It's a superior experience. I don't mind at all that there are Apple haters out there. The stuff is so popular that newer models are very hard to get ahold of because they simply can't make enough of them to meet the demand. If more people bought in to the anti-Apple silliness, that would make things much easier for me.

What they receive is exponentially more than what is actually obligated.

No, because there's no real news in the D&T audit. These things have been well documented for years. The audit is just more of what we already knew.

It had nothing to do with proving anything. The judgement was politics, not law.

That's not necessarily as bad as it sounds. The feds could still transfer the funding to the letter of the treaties (which is a lot less than what they actually get), and just attach conditions for the extra money. They do that all the time for other communities. "Here's money for that project, just prove you're actually doing it (show us the tenders, and how much you're putting in)."

THIS. The time for politics is over. What we need now is tough love. WhoGAS if it has support. Clean the mess up, and let history absolve you down the line.

I don't believe for a second that the case wasn't made. It's far more likely the judges decision was political in nature.

You couldn't be more wrong. We weren't the only riding that did it. These little movements happened grassroots all over the country, and it DID change the government. That's a different issue, and a much larger discussion that depends largely on what changes you were looking for. In my case, I got most of what I was fighting for, so it definitely worked for me.

Those are not mutually exclusive camps.

Our "extras" paid their own way. The term 'grass-roots' doesn't get any truer than what we did. A lot of people don't know why the vote one way or the other. They just pick a team without thinking. We made it about thinking, and a LOT of people changed 'teams'. We went from 21% to 50% of the vote in four elections. It's not impossible, anywhere. Problem is, most people have a "can't someone else do it" attitude about the work that goes into a campaign. It's the same with any community activity (sports, schools, community clubs, etc) If enough people just do a little bit, an awful lot can get done. That's crazy talk. It would be very hard to find an 18 yr old who doesn't just know who the current PM is, but is also ready to spout off a rant about why they hate him.

The biggest problem I see is INM's stance on Bill C-45. Considering the passages they are opposed to were included specifically because of longstanding requests by aboriginal leaders, you'd think they'd at least get it straight WHO they are upset with.

Who is "bashing natives"? A majority? Come on.

From a chatroom with a middle-schooler whose identity is not fully known? Seriously, replies like that only reinforce Merlin's schtick. If he ever did go to the media, it would be used as evidence of his claim.

I live in what used to be one of those ridings. Basically it had gone to one party nearly every time since it has existed. A bunch of us decided to change it. We worked hard at each election, gathering more supporters each time, bringing in stronger candidates, and raising more money for campaigns. It took four elections, but we eventually 'took' what was one of the safest ridings in the country, and then increased our lead in the next election after that. Now the other party is already falling into that culture of defeat. I've actually heard their supporters say similar things to your post; that it doesn't matter what 'they' do anymore, 'we' are going to win anyway. Voting is a bare minimum. Getting involved is what changes things.

Which one are you? That's the part I think many of the protesters don't understand. Most Canadians do have a lot of experience with aboriginal people, and very little of it has anything to do with them being stewards of anything. Precious little of the experience is positive either. It honestly seems like most of the aboriginals you see in the city go out of their way to try to reinforce as many negative stereotypes as possible. There are a lot of aboriginals on my wife's side of the family, and family gatherings are little more than catching up on which one is in jail, which one is in a gang, which one is an addict, which teen is pregnant, etc. It pisses me off, because they can't even see how much of the negativity they experience is self-inflicted.