Handsome Rob

What about the Jodrell Bank Observatory? And people following the craft part of the way en route using personal telescopes. The Apollo 13 explosion was witnessed live.

Adding to that. The hull loss rate for single & multi engine military craft due to engine failure is nearly identical. Flying home on one engine is not the reason for adding a second engine. Complete straw-man, the F-35 appears to have plenty of problems like every other defence program. If the anti-F35 crowd wants any semblance of legitimacy, they ought to stick to real world issues rather than just making a massive list of every possible negative scenario.

The Orenda Iroquois appeared to be far ahead of it's time, but I'm by no means a student of history.

Doesn't this speak for itself? CBC - Office of the Ombudsman But there is another significant aspect to our policy. As mentioned, it calls on CBC outlets to touch on the widest range of views possible. On CBCNews.ca, there does not appear to be a wide range of “pointy” views. For instance, many of those who complained claimed that there is no one of an opposite ideological viewpoint readily apparent on the service. Unfortunately, this appears to be true. As I observed in an earlier review concerning CBC Newsworld programming, the CBC should not necessarily avoid having people of strong views on the air, but we must ensure that people of differing views are given a fair opportunity. CBC - Tell us what you think of the CBC The comments are devastating I don't want them to become Sun News Network, but they really ought to carry a few more of Rex's brethren. More than that, the editing staff need better direction.

I quite agree many have crossed, although a merger is not quite the same. What does it speak of principles though?

2nd OD at Occupy Vancouver, this one's not coming back. Sad day for all.

I never understood how they could place trust in somebody that has turned his back and walked away from another group of very similar stripe. Don't they ever wonder when he's going to about face and walk back, especially with the NDP's recent success? Just one opinion, but the Liberals give the appearance of 'do whatever is necessary to get elected, regardless.' I may not care for what the Conservatives or NDP are doing/want to do, but at least they mostly stick to their principals. And if that interpretation is flawed, the Liberals need to find out who the marketing guy is for both the other parties, and hire him, because I don't think I'm alone.

They're not strikingly disproportionate in Canada. http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/070924/dq070924a-eng.htm

Have a source for that?

I can tell you that provincially, we have 6 separate health authorities. 6 complete bureaucracies all set on the same task, complete with public sector wages & benefits, capital expenses and everything else. If we managed to turf 5 of them, and that led to more radiologists, anaesthesiologists, etc, which the province seems unwilling to pay for, I'd jump for joy. Every organization that has ever existed has inefficiencies.

But surely by that age consumption slows down? You don't see soon-to-be retiree's lining up for Iphones or replacing the car every 4 years. Less consumption, less money circulation, retirement investments turn to security rather than increased gains, house sold for a condo... Frivolous thoughts? Or not?

I'm interested to know what effect baby boomer retirement will have on lost tax revenue, and increased expenditures across the board from health care to OAS, etc. Surely it's a much larger picture than this?

I don't agree at all. Whether it succeeds or fails will depend on how the public perceives it. And right now, in Canada, the public appears to be looking down at them with the 'get a job hippies' attitude. When the public supports them, we get Oakland & Manhattan. Big difference. In my eyes, as an observation and not a position, they've already failed.

Occupy Canada cannot be compared to Occupy Wall Street. They're after completely different issues, OWS has large numbers of unyielding support, OC has little. I can't speak for Toronto/Ottawa/etc, but around Vancouver the consensus seems to be; They're sneered at, most want them out, few are prepared to make it a reality. Most of the faces at the Vancouver art gallery have been seen there before many times.

It could be seen as brilliant. It forces the NDP to stand up for Quebec, which in turn alienates them to much of the rest of Canada. Harper has to know he will never find smashing success anywhere in Quebec, regardless of what he does or does not do.

If they wanted public support rather than disdain, they would be accommodating and make suitable arrangements. Accommodation is the Canadian way isn't it? Not that difficult to move for a day. They certainly aren't helping themselves. Between that, asking for donations of clothing, food and blankets that the genuine homeless have legitimate need for, and the heroin overdose today, Occupy Vancouver has probably lost whatever last shred of public credibility they ever had.

Isn't this entire argument a moot point? The registry wasn't useful as a federal database, it will be even less useful to Quebec. Possession of a record that shows I owned firearms in winter of 2011/12, what value does that have? I sell one of my firearms, and 2 years later they come knocking on my door because they have nothing current or of value? Say I live in Quebec, and am not comfortable with the notion of the Quebec government having control of such information. I call up the Quebec government, 'I'm selling my Norinco M305 to my friend in Alberta, which doesn't have a registry, therefore it's certificate is no longer valid. The firearms need not ever even be removed from my safe. I live in Quebec and want to acquire a firearm, I'll be damned if I'm going to buy it from a local store and register it. I'm going to buy it from MarStar and ship it to a PO box in Ontario, or from a Yank retailer and ship it to a PO Box stateside. What is the point in trying to create an even bigger failure out of the ashes of a failure? If they want to throw money away, they can have my bank account number, I'd be happy to entertain and make them feel good. I supposed their could be a minor use if they amended the law so that cops would have to register their sidearms. It would allow usage in investigations in to the summary executions of rogue (possibly Al Queda) cattle.

I'm a little fuzzy on the specifics of the law, only totally certain on the rules that apply to me, but the circumstances I can see are: You are immigrating/applying for permanent residence/etc - You need to take the PAL to bring your guns here. You own guns that were in your grandfathers will, you've never shot them, never cared, they've never been registered. - You need to take the PAL or give up the guns. There is some degree of amnesty on this, to what extent I'm not sure. Related to the registry, how far it applys to the PAL.....moral of the story, if you go voluntarily turn in your unregistered guns that you aren't licensed to own, odds are you won't be arrested. Inheritance and Import are the only two methods I can see outside of the regular rules as far as obtaining a firearm goes. PAL means Possession Acquisition License so there is nothing legal about owning a firearm without one. Not cold facts, just my understanding, don't quote me to a cop.

I've never voted in a municipal election. Past communities I've lived in, the mayor would run unopposed or without realistic competition. They've managed this by quietly running council/city-town hall without perceived scandal, mega-projects, etc. I would not suggest that such things never occurred, but if they did they were seldom reported. When they do occur to such a damaging extent, somebody steps up and runs, and wins easily. This will be my first civic election in Vancouver, and I'm left trying to fathom a choice between bile and vomit of mainstream. I could never vote for Gregor Robertson's wheat fields, chicken coops & bike lanes, while watching things like parks & rec budgets falter to the point of cancelling kids summer camps. On top of this mismanagement he comes up with nonsense like 'greenest city in the world initiative' spending more money they don't have, just like the city engineers that moved out of a perfectly good office into a complete brand new building they didn't need at a meagre $50 million. On the other hand we have Susan Anton, who seems to be Carole James reincarnated. The only thing I ever hear out of her, "Gregor Robertson bad, Vision Vancouver evil." While I'm minded to agree with her, I can't vote for somebody based wholly on attack ads. When she does get around to talking about things she actually wants to do, it sales pitches beyond far fetched, like building dozens of new schools with provincial money she believes will magically appear out of thin air. With both of them out, the most likely candidate appears to be Randy Helton. Very tentative of course, one could always vote for 'DubGee.' http://dubgeeformayor.blogspot.com/

That doesn't explain specifically what validates religion as an excuse while discarding other ideas.

I'm a conservative? Project much? You don't need a political affiliation to realize that the gun registry sucks, and so does mandatory minimums. Debates go better when you don't make up positions for the person you're talking to.

The crime omnibus should go to the crematorium with the registry. There is some good stuff in there, but definitely not worth the cost.

-Massive sums of money burning. $2 billion dollars, even if the bulk of it is already spent, why through bad money after bad? Why spend money on something that accomplishes nothing. -Error rate? Here's some good quotes: http://rkba.org/comment/brown/canada.html Compliance with the new law has been poor. A large portion of gun owners say they have no intention of registering their guns and predictably, criminals are not registering their guns at all. Officials say that black market gun trafficking is thriving. Since the total number of guns in Canada is unknown, it will be impossible to determine how effective the system is. Any registration system must be accurate if it is going to be useful to law enforcement officers, but various reports coming from within the Justice Dept. indicate an error rate between 20 and 100 percent in the current database. http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/westview/long-gun-registry-still-useless-64900952.html The RCMP testified that it has too many errors to rely upon it in court. Criminals don't register their guns, hunters do. http://dev.armspolicyresearch.net/featured-articles/53/ The Auditor General reported that the RCMP could not rely upon the registry in court on account of the large number of errors and omissions. New Zealand abandoned their long-gun registry in 1983 due to the high error rates. That's not even getting into registered glue guns, cap guns, nail guns, hair dryers.....too many of those registrations exist. Even if the rules are followed, it still isn't reliable. Their is nothing that says non-restricted firearms registered at address A have to be stored there. What of your summer cabin you use for hunting? What if you don't own a safe and store them at a friends house? -Registration, time and time again, is the pre-cursor to confiscation. History repeats itself over and over again, and even if it is beyond a ridiculous idea here, it is still enough to make many weary of registration. -Police use. Story's like this don't exactly inspire confidence. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2010/09/18/to-guns-seized.html?ref=rss "I don't like the whole way the thing was handled," said Peter Alexander Por, who owns a 12-gauge shotgun and a .22-calibre rifle. He said Toronto police recently phoned him to remind him his gun licence had expired. Fifteen minutes later, he said, they were at the door demanding that he hand over the guns. "I thought it was intimidating. Am I going to say no? I am a law abiding citizen," he said. Few months ago my car insurance expired without my noticing, they didn't show up at my door with a tow truck and no checkbook for compensation. Of course the crack dealers that have already done 8 three month sentences and community service, who cares about them. The registry plain sucks, the only thing it has every accomplished is to manufacture criminals where none exist.

It's so chock full of errors and glue guns they'd probably have to spend another billion to clean it up and give it a semblance of usability. Besides the fact that firearms owners would just make purchases in registry-less provinces, facilitated by sites like canadiangunnutz. Enough of them are registration weary that they would certainly go through these extents. Let the bloody thing die.

I miss the old warden at PCDHFC that sold reloads out of his trailer. Great price, never had problem worse than a misfire. I wonder what happened to him, he seemed old enough that any thoughts of retirement ought to have been long past him.