Queenmandy85

You should watch the Danish TV series Borgen. It shows how governing depends on forming coalitions. It must drive Queen Margrethe crazy. As to your question about Monarchs and the electoral system, the manner of elections is a political question. The King of Canada, by convention, is fobidden to involve himself in politics. I don't like that, but it is not my call.

The prime directive of Conservatism is loyalty to the Crown. Thousands of American Conservatives fought for the King in the American revolution. Gangs of thugs called the "sons of liberty", the same kind of radical criminals as the "antifa" movement roamed the colonies, burning and robbing Conservative Americans homes and Churches. Tens of thousands of Americans were driven into exile for the crime of being a tory. I don't think there are very many conservatives here. We have some republicans. Republicans are the antithesis of Conservative. The last true conservative we had in Canada is Prime Minister Diefenbaker who fought hard to preserve our heritage. I do not oppose other traditions from non-British sources. I embrace them. Canada is blessed with a blended heritage. I just believe it would be unfair to exclude my heritage. What can I say I'm a 🦕. 😉

It improves the chances for majority government. I'll send you the address where to send the $10. A cheque is acceptable.

I am a Conservative. What can I say? 👍🦕

That is something to b proud of. Of course I didn't keep it a secret. Why do you think I'm not Prime Minister today? (apart from all the other obvious reasons. 😉 )

It did not seem that way after President Nixon asked Prime Minister Trudeau to begin opening up relations with China. The only time Canadians have ever fought China was as part of the United Nations Police Action in the Korean Peninsula. Not before or since. We basically had no relations with China after that until President Nixon changed American foriegn policy. He asked Prime Minister Trudeau to open the door because the Chinese people never forgot the contributions made by Dr. Bethune and had a relatively positive view of Canada. Foreign policy should be looking for allies, not making enemies. If you really want an enemy, look no further than Putin's Russia. He is our enemy. We don't need any more than that. If we become involved in a war, it will be with Russia or one of its vassal states. We have no reason to view China as an enemy. Another rule in foreign policy is there is no such thing as friends. We have allies. We do not have friends.

When I think of globalism, I think of the prosperity we enjoy. I am posting this on an iMac 27" computer made in China by an American corporation. It works like a swiss watch. Global trade gives us access to products and markets from all over the world. Global trade has made us wealthy. Why has China suddenly become viewed as an enemy? We had good relations with China until the US forced us to arrest Madam Meng Wenzhou.

I am not saying he will recover those assets. I am saying he will replace them by acquiring billions under the table. He will take a leaf out of his boss's (Putin) operating manual. That former Moscow taxi driver is probably the richest man in the world. Americans can't complain about it. They will elect him. They have been told what he will do and they will elect him anyway. All we (the rest of the free world) can do is hunker down and buckle up and look for ways to mitigate the damage he will do to us. I hope Mr. Poilievre understands what he is getting into. The carbon tax and the CBC are going to be the least of his worries.

I'm not holding my breath. He will get it all back after he is inaugurated next year. The kleptocracy David Frum talked about in the previous Trump administration is nothing compared to what he will rake in in his second term.

How is Michael's statement "out to lunch?" As always he has provided a correct analysis.

I did not imply anything that isn't FPTP is a dictatorship. I can not see how you would make that association. My comment on dictatorship was an aside. I'm sorry for causing confusion. There are other forms of government besides democracy and dictatorship. There are republics, military juntas, and monarchies, both absolute and constitutional. Most of the nations with the highest quality of life are constitutional monarchies. Denmark, the Netherlands, Japan, New Zealand, Sweden, Belgium, Norway, Australia and Canada are constitutional monarchies. It has nothing to do with the electoral system.

Be careful what you wish for. There was a time when I was destined to be your Prime Minister. The only thing that prevented me from achieving that goal was not enough votes. Canadians should bow down and give a prayer of thanks. We have a very good system now. The people who occupy the benches in Parliament across all parties, are mostly excellent people and they serve us well. They are a reflection of us, the voters, with all our virtues and our flaws. Life in Canada is far better than it was in my youth. One of my best friends in the mid-1950's had a grand mother who was an internationally renowned chemist. Her son, my friend's dad, did work on the Manhatten project. Yet, if they visited Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver or any number of places, there were restaurants, clubs and golf courses they were not allowed to enter because they were jewish and in the 1950's, many establishments in Canada were restricted. In the mid 1970's, the Faculty Association executive met to discuss expelling a student because he was gay. The only member of the executive who opposed expulsion was Professor Peter Millard, President of the Faculty association. Professor Millard said that if the student was forced to leave the University, so would he, "because I'm gay." Shocked silence ensued. The expulsion was dropped and Millard was recognized as a hero. We read many posts about how we are living in a dictatorship. The reason we can read so many of these posts is because we are not living in a dictatorship. Current interest rates and inflation are half of what was normal in the late 1970's. Yes, we have much more to do, but we need to pause for a moment and relfect on how wonderful life in Canada is. It doesn't matter what the party in power is, they do a pretty good job working towards making life even better. When Mr. Poilievre wins the 2025 election, he will say it is all the liberals fault, but he will continue to do what the liberals have done because that course of action has been proven over the decades to be the best practice. He may have a tenuous relationship with the truth but he is not stupid. Neither is Prime Minister Trudeau.

Not bad, but where does the "green" hydrogen come from? I agree about the batteries. What we need to do is electrify public transit and rail. Build nuclear power plants to supply the electricity. I can see people being reluctant to give up their personal vehicles (Me included), but if it saves the unborn future generations, it is something we have to do. It has something to do with the rights of the unborn.

Isn't that pretty much how we get our MP's. Only instead of drafting them, we vote for them. It is one thing to sit on a jury for a few days or weeks. It is another thing to have to up stakes and live in Ottawa for 3-5 years. The person must be willing to leave their families and their job during their prime earning years. While you will get some draftees with a degree of competence like CanFox and even a gifted MP like Michael Gardner, a lot of them are goning to be people like me. Are you sure you want that? 😎

Myata, on Christmas Eve, you pointed out that we have the choice not to play. Why do you torture yourself by critisizing a system you chose to know nothing about? Maybe you should chose not to play and take on a different sport if politics is not to your liking. The Blue Jays are going to be starting spring training in 8 weeks. You keep talking about democracy but we are not ,nor have we ever been, nor should we ever be a democracy. While we have democratic elements in our system such as the power of the voter to elect a Member of Parliament, we are not a democracy. Your MP has the right to advise the executive and the power to control spending and taxation. That latter power gives the citizen power over the executive branch, but we do not elect the executive. You have Members of Parliament to speak for you. If they don't, then that is entirely on you. You hired them. If you hired a dud, that is your fault for not supporting someone else who has your particular interests in mind. Don't blame others (the rest of us) for your lack of participation and due diligence. Don't blame the so-called elites, or politicians or CanFox because you lost the election. You connot win in any sport if you don't play. Politics is a participation sport. If you didn't campaign, you have no right to complain.

What does a majority mean? A Ministry has a majority when it has the confidence of the House. That is, a majority of Members of Parliament support the legislation presented by the ministry. The Ministry must also have the confidence of the executive. If the Cabinet as a whole, or an individual Cabinet Minister loses that confidence, they must resign. That is a pretty good check on the government. I'm not sure, but I presume you support the idea of stable government where there is some predictability but with the proviso that confidence can be withdrawn if the House or the executive are displeased by the government's actions. Unlike the American system, your MP is responsible to all citizens. (Lord North.) For example, during the flag debate, my local MP had a different view than mine, but there were many MP's including the Leader of the opposition, who represented my view with vigour. Have you never had an MP in Parliament who did not represent your views? If nobody did, it can only be because either, you did not ask, or your views are so without merit that they are not worth presenting. Since you are clearly an intelligent person, I would say it is because you did not ask any MP's that have similar views to you. If you do not ask, how can anyone know what you want?

We do not vote for "parties." We vote for a person to become our Member of Parliament. If we were voting for a party, we would never have independents sitting in Parliament. (Jodi Wilson-Reybould) Political parties are a handy vehicle for organizing caucuses but they carry a danger of imposing "ideology" on issues. Ideology is an anathema to good government and the enemy of pragmatism. You seem to want a return to the "rotten boroughs" where wealthy doners could buy a seat in parliament. We must do all we can to prevent our Members of Parliament from becoming more beholden to a party than the electorate. The PR system really lends itsself to giving power to the elites and the wealthy.

President Trump will win the Presidency in 2024. President Biden will lose because of the border issue. It is an insoluble problem. We hear the opposition saying "stop illegal immigration. Close the border." But nobody has come up with a practical method of doing so. Former President Trump talks about massive deportations, but doesn't explain how. There are millions of people residing in the US illegally. That is MILLIONS of people, scattered all over the USA. First, you have to identify the individuals, then hold hearings and investigate their status. Then you have to transport them out of the country. The United States does not have the human resources to carry that out. There are reports of thousands of people approaching the southern border. How do you stop them? Many of them will be claiming refugee status or be asylum claimants. How do you let them through for their hearings, along with the legal traffic, and yet identify illegal immigrants and stop them? They will simply walk over any border guards standing in their way. The Biden Administration is not stupid. They know this issue will lead to their defeat in November. But there is nothing they can do about it. If they could stop illegal immigration and deport all illegals, they would do it. They do not want to lose to the former President. Of course, former President Trump is laughing. He will promise to solve the problem, but he knows he doesn't have to because he doesn't have to worry about re-election in 2028. He can do nothing about the issue and there is nothing anyone can do about it.

Could you explain?

That is precisely how FPTP works. The candidate with the most votes in a riding wins.

" 23 hours ago, Queenmandy85 said: The status quo is set so firmly in the elites brains" I did not say this. Myata did. It was in a quote of his post that somehow got attributed to me.

That is a good plan for you. Stick with the plan. Happy New Year. All the best in 2024, Myata. 🎈🎉🤠

Would you be okay with thorium? It is compatable with the Candu reactor, but it is not as efficient or safe as a LFTR. The LFTR won't melt down, is far more efficient , produces much less waste and has no military applications. Before the war, thorium was the fuel of choice in nuclear research but the need to create the atom bomb diverted attention away from thorium to uranium and the Cold War arms race cemented uranium's position.

I cannot believe how fast Ambassador Haley has droppoed in my estimation. A few days ago, I was praising her intelligence. Now, first it was the stupid civil war clanger, now China? She over looks the fact we and the US have gone to war with China once, in response to a UN resolution over Korea. We are going to need closer ties with China in the coming years. They are leading the world in the development of thorium reactors. We certainly will need them as Russia becomes a greater menace if Putin crushes Ukraine and initiates a second, more brutal Holodomor. It is better to have China as an ally than an enemy. In foreign relations, you need to look for allies and avoid making enemies. Putin chose to become an enemy. Xi hasn't. As a former Ambassador, Ms. Haley should know this, but clearly doesn't. So many countries depend on what happens in the US election. Canada, the Ukraine and many others, don't get a vote but the result could have terrible consequences for us. For Ukraine, millions of lives are riding on this. And Ms. Haley is doing her best to push President Trump back into power by her own ineptitude.

You have admitted in the past that you refuse to participate in politics and likely have never met a politician, yet you pretend to know their personal motivations. As Ms. Hebert and Mr. Coyne agreed last night on at issue, most MP's are honest people motivated by public service. Ms. Raj did point out Mr. Poilievre's and Prime Minister Trudeau's strained familiarity with the truth but as an exception rather than the rule. They did talk about spin, which is a human response to any challenge. Before we cast disbusions on a politician, we must ask ourselves if we are any different. There is not a single human being who does not lie on occasion. If you ask a Prime Minister if there is going to be a recession, they have to say no. If they don't say no, it will cause a recession. It is not in the public interest for a member of the government to use the "R" word. The fact is, these people are a reflection of the electorate. The power of elites is not as evident as you seem to believe. Political donations are severely curtailed. None of our political leaders are elite. The wealthiest of them is the Prime Minister, but he lands well short of being an "elite." Even our Governor General is not a member of some elite. Our politicians are far more concerned with the power exerted by the voters than the whims of Lord Black. There are people who could be called an elite on whom, politicians will call for advice, but they are people who are knowledgable. If you were Prime Minister dealing with a complex issue, would you consult with a person who knows what they are talking about or someone like me?