Newfie Canadian

Well kimmy, I call July 1 Canada Day, so I will say to everyone Happy Canada day! Like kimmy said, party, but party safe.

I have to confess, BBM, I know very little about US vice-presidents. AN interesting topic though.

Second case of mad cow disease confirmed It'll be interesting to see where this cow came from. If I recall correctly, when the first case was discovered in Washington State, they knew rather quickly that the cow came from Canada. (Again, if I recall correctly, Canada has a better ID system). IMHO, I think this will be bad for Canadian ranchers. If this is, for want of a better term, an American cow, countries like Japan will probably continue their ban on US beef, which means there will be a further need on the behalf of US ranchers to rely on their own domestic market. This will lead to more protectionism by groups like R-Calf. EDIT- FoxNews is reporting (so it must be true ) that:

Nice post JS. I confess, when I first skimmed your post, I wasn't sure what you were saying (my bad), but when I really looked, well, nice post. I'm sure Newfoundlanders and Labradorians will try not to take that personally Bakunin.

Depends on the game August. The only thing that surprised me about all this was the belly-aching by the CPC after the vote, accusing the Liberals of making a deal with separatists to get it done, while only a few short weeks ago they were pretty much trying to do the same thing. To me, this is a further indication that Harper needs to shake up his inner circle of advisors and his staff. In Harper's defence, it does appear that this time allocation motion is rarely used, but you would think that someone in Harper's staff would know about it. On a side note, the motion to extend parliament's sitting passed, meaning the SSM vote will come up soon (next week I believe), and the way it looks now, it will be another disaster for the CPC.

I found this forum by doing a google search for political forums. Found it. Liked it. Stayed. I first came to here to give my opinion and to see the opinions of others on issues of politics. I don't try to change anyone's mind, I'm not sure I really want to. I post because I have something to say. What that is depends on the topic.

Take care out there and keep your boots dry.

Well GostHacked, looks like you're at odds with the newest Liberal MP, who is from Labrador, Todd Russell. I'm not sold on the BMD thing, but it looks as though the US is going to ahead with it anyway, like Iraq, and if they are going to go ahead with no matter what, we might as well get what we can, even if we still don't sign on.

I think there should be a third answer in your poll Bakunin. Something like "Doesn't Matter" or "Makes No Difference" or "Who Cares". Either one of those would be my vote, as I wouldn't take their sexual orientation into account.

Hardly, and this is where you've got to give the Liberal party machine some credit. They've done a good job of portraying Harper in a negative way (whether they are right or wrong I'm not saying). They sensed that Canadians were dubious of Harper and yes, even a little afraid of what he may do as PM and they jumped on it, especially at the right times.

Alas kimmy, I don't think Canadian politics has a monopoly on that attitude. Multi-party cooperation appears to have gone the way of the Great Auk just about everywhere. I suspect the root cause is that which makes the world go around: money. To win you need money, to stay in power you need money, stay in power long enough, you'll have money, or the means outside of politics to get it. Witness Brian Tobin for example. With such a prize, is it any wonder politics has degenerated into the petty and sometimes juvenile circus that we see every night on the news? I digress.

You're right IMR, it's in the report. I stand corrected. As I said though, an intriguing article. I even took the opportunity to do a little research on Northrop Frye. Interesting guy.

Yep.

Yes, finally, after a missing cat and my daughter's kindergarten graduation. I found the report intriguing, especially the notion of the Garrison Mentality. I can agree with parts of it, like the difference in attitudes of Canadians in different parts of the country towards the US, but I believe that the numbers have to taken with a grain of salt, because the methodology used and materials used have to be subjective. There can't be a hard and solid line to differentiate between positive, negative and neutral. For example, how negative does it have to be to be negative?

Perception, perception, perception. All that this whole fiasco has shown, so far, is that the Liberals play politics (some would call it dirty politics, but really, is there such a thing as clean politics?), and the perception is there once again that the CPC has something to hide. And I'm not talking about Grewal the MP, the party. First they hold onto the tapes and release tidbits and parts of conversations. They finally release the tapes (some?) and they appear to be altered (whether or not they have been doctored may never be known, unless the Mounties get involved), all the while defending the MP who started this mess while quietly keeping him out of sight. What perception does this instill in the populace? Even if the tapes are technically damaging to the Liberals, realistically the damage will be worse to the CPC because of the way it was done and handled by the CPC. At least that's the way I see it so far.

Hmmmmmmmmm. Wouldn't this be more at home in Canada/US Relations? I digress. I like Frank, he's, well, frank about it. I think our preoccupation with and concentration on the US needs to be lessened considerably. Granted it's hard to do the amount of integration there is.

Perhaps he gains nothing, August, except getting out of a government that he feels is missing the mark on SSM. A CBC article says: Ontario Liberal MP to sit as Independent (CBC Article) Could just simply be a matter of O'Brien feeling Martin had given him the shaft, much like Kilgour thought Martin's Darfur pledge wasn't enough to get his vote for the budget.

Liberal MP leaves Grits over same-sex bill Another independent MP. Interesting. I'm not shocked by this, I'm more shocked that he stayed after the last time he went public with his dissatisfaction over SSM.

Not so much. Chretien to launch new challenge to Gomery I thought he gave up too easily.

It all comes down to the realities of the Canadian political system. People generally vote for the party that they would like to represent their riding, while at the same time and perhaps more importantly, put an MP into the HoC from the party that they would like to see form the government. That's the whole point. Using the Stronach example (only because it was the most recent) the majority of Newmarket-Aurora voted for the CPC candidate, no matter who she is. Now they are represented by a Liberal, and they didn't get to exercise their constitutional right to make that decision, the decision being what party is going to represent their riding. Having said that, I also vote primarily for the person, but I still look at his party affiliation too, after all, the party he's in says something about them too.

As usual, kimmy gets to the heart of the matter.In a free abnd democratic society why should it not be permissible? Just as they should be free to air it, we should be free to not watch. They are, and we are. I've got plenty of other channels to watch.

IMHO, how youth are treated at home and in school have a lot to do with their behaviour. These days, parents aren't allowed to discipline their children, for fear of being reported as an abusive parent. And it is worse in schools. My wife works in a school, Their was an incident a few days ago where a student had become physically abusive towards faculty and students. The principal asked my wife if another faculty member had their Crisis Intervention course. She did, but she isn't allowed to use it. That's a wonderful system. I agree with geoffrey. Deterrence for youth (and even adults) at this time, isn't really a deterrence at all. They do the crime. They're treated with velvet gloves. Their identities are protected. They get a slap on the wrist, and their records are sealed and eventually expunged. While I appreciate where you are going with your post cybercoma, you can train a puppy to do it's business outdoors by rubbing it nose in it when it pees indoors (I know this from experience). If you show a youth what jail is like (rub it's nose in it) don't you think they would wan't to avoid it in the future?

I'm not sure there was a deal for his vote, perhaps more like Sparhawk's goodwill scenario. Optics are a funny thing. On the surface, it looks like th Liberal's bought his vote. Later on, after the image of the budget vote fades away, the Liberals will look like they cooperated to get some very important work done. And, even if it was a deal, it's not like Cadman got something for himself, like an appointment to a plum post or anything. Some very important work for Canadians will have gotten done. It is just a little sad it takes so long to get something this imoprtant done.

In the words of the immortal Irwin M. Fletcher: "It takes a big man to admit when he's wrong. I am NOT a big man."

Saints preserve us.