Bryan

What they plan for is guaranteed delivery of service from the closest available centre. It's utilization of capacity outside of the province, regardless of where that might be. There could be spots available all over the country, but if one in the US is closer, they'll take that. Could be lots of capacity in Winnipeg or Halifax, but if there's a spot in Seattle, Vancouver is going to use that one because it's closer.

It was the Liberals that stole form EI. I agree that the unemployment stats are misleading though. They make the situation look much worse than it really is.

When that claim that it was "needed" is framed in that way, how often is it true though? How many of them just turn out to be the professional liars like Shona Holmes?

I don't like the idea of mandatory voting at all. I think it's anti-democratic. Freedom to participate in the process also includes the freedom not to. I most definitely expect my candidates to speak to me personally, face to face or on the phone. I had a 45 minute phone conversation with one candidate last election. She won by a huge margin in a riding that has been held by the incumbent's party seemingly forever. Most people I talked to said the same thing: she either came by or called, the other guy was nowhere to be found.

I highly doubt it. More likely, it's tough to find a civilian who has the stomach to continue putting up with the overtly left-wing bias in our media.

It's not ALL bogus though, any rational Canadian would still agree that there are things that some of the other universal systems do that we should look at. We'd never consider the US system under any circumstances, but France, Sweden, Norway, etc might be able to teach us a thing or two (just as we could show them a thing or two as well). IMO, what Canadians need to do is disengage from the urge to argue with Americans over which system is better. We most certainly should set the record straight when they come up with some of the goofy made up stuff that are nowhere to be found here, but only in the vein of correcting mistakes/lies.

That's what I thought.

OK, I just wanted to check on what doctors are taking new patients in your area specifically. There are a lot of doctors in Alberta (city and rural) who have openings right now.

What city?

Same thing happens in remote areas in the US. If you live a small town with only one doctor, it's geography and population that limits your choice, not the government or the medical system. No system provides big city service to every square kilometre. The difference is, here you are guaranteed the care. If that community can't see to your needs, the system will pay for you to go to the closest place where that care is available, regardless of the province or even the country that care is available in. In the US, if the treatment you need is not available, too bad for you.

Who has no choice? I pick my own doctor. No matter what my employment circumstances, my health status, or what secondary insurance I may or may not have, no one ever has any say in where and how I get my medical attention other than me. I pick my doctor, I pick my specialists, I pick my hospital, I even have direct input to my course of treatment. Not only that, but when I and my doctor agree on the best course of action, no one ever comes around and tells me what is covered or not. If my doctor says I need it, I get it, full stop. Full choice, full portability, and the phrase "pre-existing condition" has no meaning.

She was diagnosed. With a benign cyst. She never had brain cancer, she was never refused treatment. She's a liar.

When I dislocated my hip, I got an MRI in less than an hour (in Manitoba). When my son got cross-checked head-first in the boards, he got one in about three hours (in Ontario).

Sure, except for the small detail that she's lying. She never had brain cancer, her life was never in danger, and she was never refused treatment.

The average over the last couple of weeks give you LPC 33.7/CPC 32.4. It's nice spin from the CBC to make the recent LPC drop look less pronounced. Look at the numbers for this week only (June 15+). http://www.ekos.com/admin/articles/cbc-2009-06-18.pdf (bottom of page 3) Looks more like CPC 35/LPC 28/NDP20 are the "latest".

Actually, it looks like that is probably exactly what was going on. Just look at who her father is.

Give him time, he'll find something at least that stupid to hang himself with.

At least get the name of the "scandal" right. It's Fife-Gate.

Harper is to the left of most Democrats. Comparing him to Bush is asinine.

Leafless, I don't understand what the problem is. Ignatieff is in opposition, with his party having recently been handed it's biggest defeat ever, and he is not even getting the polling numbers that his predecessor was able to get.. Did you think he would not try to drum up support from wherever he could get it? His best glimmer of hope so far is in Quebec, of course he's going to try to secure that vote before the Bloc pulls it out from under him.

Brampton—Springdale, Vancouver South, New Westminster—Coquitlam, Cumberland—Colchester, Edmonton—Strathcona are all easily up for grabs. Ignatieff is counting on Quebec to improve his party's standings. It's been a pretty foolish game to count on Quebec in recent years. Duceppe scramble those numbers whenever he wants to with one press conference. The incumbent government always gets hammered in the polls during a recession, yet Ignatieff can't even beat Dion's honeymoon numbers, let alone Harper's current ones. The man is WEAKER than Dion. I honestly am hoping that Ignatieff really does think he has enough support to go to an election over EI this summer. His implosion is going to be glorious.

So, if a woman left her purse behind in the green room, would CTV be justified in making copies of any personal documents found inside, and presenting those on the news? I'd think they'd be brought up on charges if they did so. How is this different, especially when they were acutely aware that the documents were classified as "secret". If anything, it's worse on CTV's part. It's not as if there was bombshell news to report in that binder anyway, All CTV has really proven is that they can't be trusted.

A 2% lead in a poll with a margin of error of 3% is no lead at all. Ignatieff's honeymoon is over.

The Conservative Party has no debt, they have a lot more money than the other parties.

German engineered cars, built in Canada by someone other than the big three? Put me on the waiting list, I'll even leave a deposit. Magna has experience building entire cars. Besides the extensive work they do with the big 3, they also build complete vehicles for Mercedes, BMW, and Jeep.