seabee

Somebody told me an interesting theory about the Pentagon crash. On 9/11, he was waiting for his plane at the airport when the news came of the WT attacks. Some TV sets were on, broadcasting CNN apparently. Then he heard of the Pentagon attack, and a few minutes later they showed an helicopter view of the Pentagon. Immediately after, all air traffic was prohibited over the area. From what he saw, he believes the crash had not been from afar into the outside wall, but rather had hit the Pentagon from inside and hit the wall from inside, not outside. This would explain why there are no debris of the plane on the ground outside the wall. And of course, in the name of national security, the Pentagon would never make public that there had been much more damage inside the Pentagon than reported; you don't tell your ennemies you are wounced. Just thought you might lilke to hear that one.

I doubt any one will even talk about this two days hence, and practically no one will remember it in two weeks. Tomorrow, in France, the headlines will all be about the death of Abbé Pierre. In Canada, few people even know there will be a presidential election, and who the candidates to the candidacy in her party are. Even if she becomes candidate for her party, she will not make any milage about becoming president of France with a couple of sentences on foreign policy with Canada or Québec. In Québec, the words of a foreign politician will have no influence on any future referendum. And in the Roc, it will only add fuel to the rampant century-old francophobia.

My guess at this time, and that of many political observers, is that Charest might win a majority of votes, but Boisclair a majority of seats. But I would not bet any money on that, or on any other prediction.

If this were to happen, what would be the practical consequences? How many unilingual french signs would have to be changed? are there any today? Would French-speaking students have access to a complete education system, from kindergarden to post-doctoral level, in French, as the Anglophones have in Québec? Would Francophones have garanteed access to health care in French, as the Anglophones in Québec have? In fact, I don't think anyone in Québec, except a few politicians out to get votes, would even talk about it, as such a law in Manitoba would change nothing to its present situation.

I loved it.

For a time, Léon Dion was advisor to Robert Bourassa. He suggested to him the "knife at the throat " stategy.

Does the survey take into account donating time? In Québec, disposable income is lower than in the ROC. But volunteers seem to be (no, I don't have numbers to prove it) rather frequent, possiblly more than in the ROC. Also, there are many situations where people do make donation (to the homeless beggar, for example) for which there is no paper trail. The survey probably gives a very incomplete picture. But I agree that we all should be far more generous.

If the federal government were to give the properties back to their original owners or their estate, that would mean only about 125 families. That does not register at voting time. Besides, many of the town people at Mirabel are not particularly happy that the land was not given to the municipality.

Dion (nor Duceppe) will not topple the government before the next budget. Harper has promised Québec that he will sette the "fiscal imbalance" in the next budget, which should mean a few billions for Québec, and Charest is already spending the money, or at least counting on it. Nothing to do with Afghanistan.

Why? The federal Dominion is a 139 year old experiment, based upon premises that are ridiculously outdated, that has failed, or, at the very least, is seriously on the brink of failure. Why not look at replacement solutions, even if it means several independant countries? Do we still need a hereditary head of state? Does the "supremacy of God" clause make sense today?

Unlike Québec, Alberta cannot separate; it does not collect its own income tax, as does Québec. If Alberta ever voted to secede, the federal government could simply stop giving that money to the province. Just as Israel is now doing with Palestine. If it ever wants to secede, it will first have to start collecting its own income tax. Québec does!

I agree that neither side shoud dictate to the other. In case of provincial separation, the federal government wants to maintain the status quo. If the status quo must prevail, as you say, the federal simply have to negotiate in bad faith and bingo! its side has won and can and does dictate to the other side. There lies the contradiction. The only way to solve blocked negotiations woud be, as the SCC suggests, to bring the issue to an outside body, the United Nations.

What happens when nations within a country are at odds with each other? That definitely should raise doubts about the country becoming "sucesful" with its different nations fighting each other.

In Canada, the people who lived there before the Europeans came are called "First Nations". Should this not mean that the province of Québec should no longer be called a province but a "reservation"?

In Québec, nearly half of its citizens do not want to associate their "Canadian" identity or support to the "Canadians". That's about 10% of the population of Canada. They have over 50 MPs representing them in the Commons. Does that mean that Canada is not a nation?

I wonder if there is really separation of state in Canada, in the constitutional sense. 1. The hereditary head of state of Canada, the monarch of England, is also de facto head of a christian religion. 2. the 1982 Charter of Rights clearly states that Canada recognizes the "supremacy of God". Could somebody ask Stéphane Dion for me?

Why does the poll not include the Bloc Québécois?

Do they have data supporting those differentiated rates? What are the statistics? Do the they also have date for single and for "married" gays? Shoudn't married gays enjoy discount insurance rates compared to that of single gays? Could it simply not be that people in a stable marital situation have less accidents, regardless of their gender or sexual orientation. If so, SSM could lead to greater stability of the couple and hence greater road security. Then, everyone should be for SSM just for its value in increasing road security and making a few less casualties each year.

I also saw a documentary that showed the Chinese discovered America more than 70 years before Colombus, and that this presence is proven by DNA evidence found in today's Amerindians. Nice hypothesis, but like that of the "Europeans" being the first native, it is, at this stage, hypothetical, nothing more, maybe tentalising, to some for political rather than scientific motives, but it will take more than a few generations and many more significant archeological and anthropological finds to convince the scientific community as a whole that these hypotheses are well-founded. Just remember how not so very long ago the few scientist that predicted global warming were qualified as "quacks"; even now, as the phenomenon is starting to devastate us, there are still some who don't believe it. And one should always beware of scientific hypotheses that are quickly detoured for political puposes, especially when the purpose is to abolish existing and acquired rights of an identifiable group within sociely.

I was just listening on Radio-Canada to interviews with reporters who were on the convention floor yesterday, and they confirm that, contrary to popular belief in the ROC, the Québec delegates, far from supporting Dion, did everything up to the last minute to prevent him from winning, and that Dion's victory was mostly due to delegates from Ontario.

He is also disliked by francophone federalists in Québec, and opposed even by the PLQ. I was listening to the press review on Radio-Canada this morning and it stands out the opinions on this topic are diametrically opposits in the ROC than in Québec. You should read this blog on Cyberpresse this morning: by Michel Auger. In short, Dion was the last choice of PLC francophones from Québec: they think that Dion will make them loose seats, not win more. Very probably, but not because of Dion's election; Québécois oppose Harper strongly on this stands on Afghanistan, on Kyoto, on SSM, etc.. One can apprehend that come the next federal elections, federalists in Québec will simply abstain from voting, opening the door to a B.Q. floodgate. And considering that the Charest government lags far behind the P.Q., come the next provincial, combining these factors, the P.Q. are likely to win by a landslide, and another referendum on independance within a few months; this time, Harper and Dion will be the "winning conditions". But then, everybody knows that six months, a month, even a week, can be an eternity in politics. The only thing we can be sure of is that politics in Québec and in Canada will be very interesting in the next few years.

Québec is part of Can-eh-d'oh! Insults can be traded.

Anglo-Americans (both U.S. and English-Canada) decided to use military force to implant democracy in Afghanistan and then in Iraq. Some canadian soldiers died in the process, in the name of democracy. And the same people, living in a democratic country, upon hearing that there are lawful peaceful dissenters in that very democratic country, using a machine gun against those dissenters. If this is democracy, the Talibans and Sadam were already using it.

Very honestly, I don't know and don't care, nor do most Québécois. This is just a squabble within just one of many professions; should physicians or lawyers or whatever be allowed by their professional associations to run for political office is their internal business. I also heard, but have not verified, nor do I care to, that he may no longer celebrate mass or dispense the sacraments. What interests the public and the media is that he is openly pro-same-sex marriage, in spite of his boss. He definitely has a lot of support in Québec.

This is not a precedent in Québec. From memory, in 1976, a priest (un prêtre-ouvrier), father Couture, a defender of the rights of the non-unionized workers, ran for the Parti Québécois, won, and was a minister in the Lévesque Cabinet. Father Gravel is already a well-known personality in Québec for his pro-gay and pro-SSM position; he is well-liked, and probably a shoo-in in the Bloc stronghold of Repentigny. And he is not a "canadidate", just a candidate.