Queenmandy85

Those backbenchers hold the power of confidence, without which, the cabinet cannot govern. If the MP's are not up to scratch, it is the fault of the voters. It is a thankless job. How many jobs require you to exhaust your savings in the application process, cost more money to serve than it pays and your boss, the voters, all presume you are a liar and a thief, that you are the lowest form of life, all without even knowing anything about you. You work 70 - 100 hours a week, spend a horrendous amount of time away from your family, and every voter has their hand out. These are very special people who serve in spite of the abuse they are subjected to by the voters.

True, but Singh won't be around very long. Each MP represents all Canadians, not just those in her riding.

Yes. Prime Minister Harper brought that legislation in and then promptly broke it by calling a snap election. The real disadvantage is it greatly extends the unofficial election campaign.

A classmate of mine at UVic had a theory claiming every hair on a national party leader's head was worth 10,000 votes.

1. What Argus said. 2. The Prime Minister exists by convention. Officially, like all ministers, the PM is appointed by the Queen, but by convention, this is carried out by the GG who, by convention, appoints the leader of the party with the most seats in the House of Commons. 3. The Feds have the most power, but the power balance is somewhat fluid. We have a traditional problem with national unity and the Feds have to get the provinces on board for things.(Pipelines, for instance). 4. Each Province is different. Some have counties, some have regional districts.

Trudeau seems to get the blame for issues over which he has no control. The NAFTA talks were complicated by a US government without a coherent policy. His attempt at electoral reform was blocked by the NDP. His attempt to expand the pipeline carrying Alberta's bitumen to the coast has been blocked by the government of BC. The on going tensions with China over the extradition of a powerful Chinese business woman is an issue over which he is not allowed to intervene. He was the only leader in the last election who promised a deficit. That it is much larger than anticipated is due to the contradiction that people wanted to have more services but refuse to pay taxes to pay for them. (Just like President Trump?) He is also faced with a lot of push-back from climate change deniers. He has created some of his own problems. He had a disastrous trade mission to India. He occasionally makes flippant remarks that don't come across as humorous as he expected. So far, most of the people he has offended are people who never liked him in the first place and look for any reason to confirm it. Most hated his father as well. I don't dislike Trudeau, but there are people who could do better. I'm still on the fence with Sheer. I think Lisa Raitt would do better, but she did poorly in the leadership race.

In political terms, so was Mr. O'Leary. Andrew Sheer has surprised me. He seems to have the discipline to avoid the kind of off-the-cuff remarks that hurt the Prime Minister. He also has the sense to realize a leader should facilitate the will of the voters over his own. My only worry is that he will not be any better at dealing with climate change than the Prime Minister is. The longer we ignore it, the more draconian the measures will be required in the near future. We have already lost 40 years. (In global terms) We should have begun taking action in the 1970's when solving the crisis would have been easier.

BC voters just rejected PR for the third and Hopefully final time.

It was the Chinese government even then. The probes were in the thousands.

For a couple of years 15 years ago, I was tasked with logging cyber probes against the University where I worked. The volume even then was incredible.

Of our last 42 Heads of State, we have had about four who were sub-par. Our current leader was trained for the job as a teenager. We should remove the constraints put in place in the last 50 years and let the Head of State select people of merit just as we used to do.

Further to your point, I cannot fathom why any Canadian would still be in China or why would someone would go to Iran.

I have heard that is you stand on the street and watch the entire Chinese army march past 10 abreast, they would keep passing you forever. Probably urban folklore but the only way to defeat them is with nuclear weapons. As President Kennedy once said, after a nuclear war, "the fruits of victory would be ashes in our mouth." We can't do too much about the thugs without a war. I am sure there are some smart people out there who know how to deal with them without killing innocent people but I'm not one of them.

Okay, back on topic. The Conservatives are silent on homosexuality because there is nothing to say. The same percentage of people have been born gay throughout human history. Like red hair or left handedness, it is neither right nor wrong, it just is. What should a political party say about it?

How many months did Germany go before Chancellor Merkle was able to form a government? PR leads to minority government where small splinter parties hold the larger parties hostage. The Italian PR system gave rise to the expression, "revolving door government." Call me Conservative, but I prefer our traditional British model of government. PR smacks of creeping republicanism and the reason the NDP loves it is it benefits them more than the real political parties.

He is a climate change denier.

I'm told that Prime Minister Harper was all about Storm clouds, dragons and endless deficits. Any government is going to have deficits as long as voters refuse to pay more taxes. Any business owner knows, if revenue does not meet or exceed expenses, you are going to be operating at a law. They will also tell you that to succeed, you have to know the customer (citizen) is always right and you have to give them what they want.

Mr. Sheer is the only possible candidate to defeat Prime Minister Trudeau. As long as he holds close to the centre and continues to avoid any gaffs, he could pull it off. Basically, Prime Minister Trudeau has to defeat himself. If Ms. Ambrose was still leader, it would have been a slam dunk.

Not President Trump. It is China that is cavalier with the law. Kenny, Notley and Moe are also acting like the stereotypical liberals sense of entitlement. When there is a glut of potash on the world market, we don't have demonstrations in Saskatchewan. When the price of copper falls, we don't hear demands that the Federal Government magically raise the world market price. No, we shut down and do something else. Why does Alberta's desire for money trump BC's desire to protect their environment? Why do the proponent's of TM pipeline believe the Federal Government should violate the order of the Supreme Court and the policies of the BC Government? What make's Alberta's desire to enrich the foreign owned oil companies more important than our environment?

The Federal Government is caught between a rock ( the US) and a hard place (Weaver in BC). They have a choice between taking the hits or breaking the law. This is a gift to Mr. Sheer if he doesn't over play it and President Trump loses the 2020 election.

Are you sure you are from Vancouver? Tommy Douglas was leader of the New Democratic Party and Premier of Saskatchewan. Social Credit was lead by W.A.C. (Cece) Bennett in BC. Bennett expropriated a profitable B.C. Electric Corporation that provided good service at low cost and he paid the share holders pennies on the dollar. He called the new corporation BC Hydro, a government owned utility that was and is drowning in debt, providing poor service at high cost to the consumer. How can you live in Vancouver and never have heard of the Bennetts. They even sang a song about their corruption. Remember Rolf Harris..."There were two wild Kelowna boys and Bennett was their name..." It is probably on You tube.

Poverty, famine and wars have been going on for 100's of thousands of years. They are an integral part of the human condition. We have famine due to climatic conditions, poverty due to population constanly outstripping resources, and war because young men are stupid and old men are greedy. I did not praise them. I praise the banks in Canada because without them, you could not own a home, or a car and you would not have a job. Where would you keep your money? How would you have a pension fund or insurance? Some posters whine about paying interest to the banks but for tha last decade, interest rates have been very low. If you don't want to pay interest, don't borrow other people's money. I don't know what your issue with globalism is. It makes international trade easier. It increases wealth around the world. It is the main source of income for the people of Vancouver...you know where that is.

My issue with Bernier is his lack of scientific literacy more than is lack of political acumen.

That is what I meant. PR is the worst form of electoral process ever introduced. The situation in BC is an anomaly but if they had PR, you would have a permanent situation where 3 jokers from the Green Party at calling all the shots for BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Feds. PR hands control over to a few people. Instead of having a local person as your MP, (s)he will be some bagman from the party backroom who's never heard of your riding. That is the kind of " electoral reform" the NDP tried to foist on us. JT's promise was stupid but he tried to make it work. The best way to make FPTP work is to ignore the splinter parties and vote either for the Conservative party and the Liberals. They pretty much cover everything that is reasonable.

Sorry for the spelling error. Nice catch. I was asking if you would include the communist front Social(ist) Credit Party in that weeding out process of "liberals/socialists/communists."