Bryan

If CBC was the only source of Canadian programming, you might have a point. There are many other options. One could just as easily argue that sports are the very fabric of Canadian culture, therefor everyone should be forced to pay for TSN and/or Sportsnet. I disagree with that for the same reason: I want those channels, and I'm willing to pay for them, but no one who doesn't want them should have to put in a dime. Besides that, television isn't an essential public service. If culture has to be protected, then it's not real culture, it's fake. Real culture is what happens when things are left to be what they are, not dictated to the people through the use of tax dollars.

Nobody want to talk about it, that's why it still happens.

Or the BCTF

The minimum INCREASE over the other previous increases. No cuts whatsoever.

If people don't want it, they shouldn't have to pay for it either. CBC should be exclusively funded by those who choose to subscribe to it.

You are wrong. It's 3% in addition to previous 6. It's More, not less.

A 3% increase is still an increase. It's more money than they got before, just not as much as they wanted.

Translation: Waldo got caught lying as usual, but thinks that as long as he doesn't stop typing, nobody will notice.

Was the Health Council of Canada even doing much with respect to the delivery of health care in Canada? Not so much. Uproar over Health Council’s demise isn’t worth it http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/uproar-over-health-councils-demise-isnt-worth-it/article11361339/

It's job was tracking the progress and outcomes with respect to the the Health Accord. The accord has expired, the job is over. The job of tracking and reporting ALL data related to ALL aspects of Canadian Healthcare is already being done by the Canadian Institute for Health Information. Health Council's demise 'just made sense,' spokesman says As the 2004 federal-provincial health accord expires, so will the independent body monitoring it http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/health-council-s-demise-just-made-sense-spokesman-says-1.1309302 We have CIHI, and reducing redundancy is the right thing to do. Healthcare is tough enough to fully fund, the last thing we need to to be wasting money on things that are already being done elsewhere that don't even contribute directly to frontline care. What we really need now, are MORE of these duplicate services to be either shut down or amalgamated.

Thankfully we live in the real world where none of those things are true. Nice try though.

The more the west/US/NATO gets upset with Putin, the more popular he is with his own people. Present situation included. Remember, they aren't watching the same news you are.

Putin’s Popularity Soars to 87% in the Face of Adversity http://time.com/3088126/putins-popularity-hits-87-russia/

NATO is desperate to try to convince Russia that they can still tell anyone what to do. Russia is quite ready to show them they are mistaken.

The Canada Health Council's mandate was specifically tied to the old health accord that has expired. The job is over, accordingly so is their funding. Its functions have been merged with the Canadian Institute for Health Information which was already doing much of the same work anyway. That is a perfect example of the sorts of cuts that governments SHOULD be doing -- reducing redundancy. A government job should not be a lifelong make-work project. Cutting those types of expenditures allows for the continued increase in the provincial health transfers -- which continue to be increased year over year.

They aren't. Health care funding has increased, period.

No one is calling for less funding for public healthcare. The only thing they want is to get control over the rate of the increase in the costs.

None of that has anything to do with what I wrote.

More choices at home benefits everyone. The cost of choosing private delivery is lower because we don't have to factor in travel costs, and the quality of care for the public system improves because with less people using it, there is more to go around for those who do.

Each year they are paying more money than the last. It's an increase by any definition.

Harper did not gut provincial healthcare funding. You're thinking of the Liberals under Chretien and Martin. Harper has and continues to increase the funding. So, no, nothing even remotely unethical there. And yes, based on his past affiliations, many Conservatives DID expect that Harper would expand private healthcare. It's quite disappointing that he hasn't, and very disheartening to realize that he never will.

What's unethical, is thinking that just spending more money is any sort of solution. The focus is on the wrong thing. Yeah, the population is getting older, they always are. There are also more new younger tax payers. That's why the funding is linked to population.

I think you have the relationship backwards. Reducing the rate of increase needs to be done because the provinces just keep ramping up spending to match (or exceed) whatever they get. Like most things government run, the solution is not more funding -- it's less spending. I wish. My fear is that no matter how long Harper is in office, he'll never get around to doing it.

On traditional TV sure. No loss. There's a whole big internet out there full of all manner of news sources. It really does. Far too many channels are able to exist only because we are required to pay for them. Any and all channels should be able to sustain themselves. Can you imagine if you walked into a store to buy a special interest magazine (Sports Illustrated, Road and Track, Playboy, whatever), and were told you were required to buy a pile of Canadian magazines like Flair and Chatelaine before you'd be ALLOWED to buy that other one? How about being required to visit 5 designated websites before your ISP would allow you to navigate to the one you want? Try picturing if grocery shopping was done under such a model!!

No he hasn't. They've been increased substantially, year after year, and they continue to increase.