fellowtraveller

I hope nothing changes. It is a rite of spring to watch the Leafs fail, and one I enjoy thoruoghly as do millions of fellow Canadians. Why? Because as a kid in the ROC I had to endure watching that boring dump it in crap every Saturday night. Yep, that's every Saturday night. The only reason anybody watched at all was to get some sense of what the other teams looked like. The best thing ever was when our city got the French CBC channel and you could watch some decent hockey, albeit in French. It's a wonder it didn't turn me off the game entirely.

Shush now, or the Liberal faithful will finally clue into why their hubris and arrogance are contributing to their slide into oblivion. They are still completely unaware of why they are widely reviled, to their disadvantage. Let's hope Sheila Copps or Joe Volpe succeeds Dion.

But Harper is under no obligation to wait for Dion to quit or the Libs to oust him. Why would he wait for his opponent to get stronger, that makes no sense? Of course Harper could quit anytime, bt if he does for no apparent reason other than bloodlust, it will go badly especially since he has supported the fixed election date legislation. he needs either the opposition to toss him out, which won't happen soon, or force the issue by finding or inventing an issue. It seems to me Senate dithering and obstruction is a nice, safe one. But of course he will have to wait until they resume doing that, but I'm confident they will.

Your theory fails because it would take all three Opposition parties to form a majority coalition, which is impossible.

Government to Fall, and fairly soon. He is unloading all the big guns at once on the Liberals - crime bill, major tax changes, and more to come. Dion is at least aware enough to know that the very best he can expect with an election anytime soon is a Tory minority, with a Tory majoprity a good possibility. Worse than that, his Party is broke and in disarray. These factors explain why he is willing or more accurately obliged to accept one humiliation after another in Parliament . He cannot afford an election in all the ways that count....... Harper is hobbled by a commitment to the fixed date election, which would delay a general election for two years. he knows that in two years the situation may be very different, and he needs to go to the polls no later than spring. His Christmas present of a GST cut, and spring cookie of an interest tax refund give him some period of grace too. But.... he needs to move soon. I have the feeling that his leverage is about to be delivered soon: the Senate. Last session, the Senate demonstrated their eagerness to suddenly get involved in the legislative arena after decades of slumber. They delayed govt legislation, litlle was passed. If this continues.... Harper has already warned that he won't sit by idly if the Senate continues to delay passage of Tory bills.....and he means it. If they do it again, and they will, Harper will declare a 'constitutional emergency', dissolve Parliament and call an election. It is he perfect issue in some ways The Senate has few friends in the electorate, and little respect outside Ottawa. Harper has the somewhat legitimate explanation that it is pointless to waste time working bills through Parliament only to have them stumped by a partisan Senate. In short, he cannot govern as he has been elected to govern. This would have resonance but little risk. He know he cannot actually reform the Senate, but he can accomplsh a few things: force an election, win an election, and cow the Senate.

I don't see payroll taxes/EI premiums making much difference to many businesses, unless they employ low wage earners. What does it matter if the rate is up or down ten cents, if your employee has already maxed out contributions by mid-year? The govt could make an immediate difference by both cutting the rate and dropping the employer contribution to say, $1500 per year.

"most countries " have much more centralized economies and do not have regional sales taxes. The US is an exception, as most states have sales taxes. I'm taking it up with you, since you posted this misleading information. Again.

Yet another misleading package. First, corporate taxes and GST should not be bundled or mentioned together. Corp taxes are income taxes, and since different countries have different tax dodges available, all that really matters is taxable income to the corporation. The rate is secondary to that, as different countries allow wirteoff of different things- and that is very significant. GST is a consumer tax, not a business tax. The vast majority of Canadian businesses could care less about the GST rate. It means othing to them other than an accounting nuisance. The vast majority pay GST on purchase of their goods, collect it on the sale of the good, and give what is left to the government. Obviously, it is important to end users, but they aren't businesses, they are ordianry people. Finally, the chart in your link is misleading when it discusses rates of GST and VAT in various countries. How can the Canadian rate be quoted as 6%, soon to be 5%, when 90% of the country actually charges in the neighbourhood of 14% when PST is factored in, as it surely must?

No, I'd be calling him a man who stood by principle, instead of pretending to stand on principle.. Really, the longer Dion waits the loner he will have to eat Tory crap daily. Death by a hundred humiliations will not serve the Liberals at the polls. He'd be better to cut his losses, take his lumps and step down gracefully after losing an election.

"open" and "honest" are two adjectives that have never been used in the context of "Blair Wilson". Never.

So, are you claiming that Parliament wanted to disenfranchise voters?

I support the safe injection sites for a simple reason: junkies are humans, not garbage and as worthy of help as anybody else. They cannot be helped when they are dead from diseases contracted from dirty needles. So, let's help them help themselves. Not only is it cheap, it is the right thing to do.

Of course, that ignores the obvious benefit of large scale, household recycling schemes: creating an awareness in every household. Edmonton, on the other hand, has an impressive waste management plan and an equally impressive facility at Clover Bar. They get visitors from all over the world, except Calgary apparently.

Has Calgary gotten out of the 70s yet with recycling and waste management in general?

As an Albertan, I'd support separation but only if we could leave Calgary behind too. Welcome to Canada, the New Balkans.

How does that apply to oil and gasoline? I live in central Alberta, where the raw material is extracted and refined almost within sight. There is no packaging. Freight costs are as close to nil as possible. And I pay 20-25% more than the USA.

Here is an opinion from an Albertan: I think your Mum is going to be really, really mad when she gets home and finds you on the computer again.

Maybe The purpose of the meeting is to offer the DL as big, fat pension for life. That is how we treat secessionists like Duceppe.

Dude , you have to pay attention. It would take a lifetime to change the guard there, and Harper is going to be very careful on appointments. His preference under the current, crappy, system would be to appoint Senators elected by the province, and he won't make the very basic and very stupid mistake of only picking Cons. If you believe otherwise, you have not been watching Harper very carefully.

Baloney. Senate reform has been on Harpers plate, and the Reform plate, for at least 15 years. Keep in mind he is looking for a way to an election. If he can sucker Dion into one over the Senate, it is a beauty issue for Harper. And Senate reform is part of electoral reform. Oh, you are probably wetdreaming about PropRep.

I can easily see Harper going to war in a very public way with the Senate. Not coincidentally, the Senate is Liberal controlled and will be for a generation. He'll be trying to leverage an election out of the gore. If he does, Dion may be forced into either eating a turd sandwich and pretending he enjoys it by supporting the dismantling of a tool that serves him, or defying Harper and bringing him down. In any case, it is a relatively safe issue for Harper, he can point and laugh at an institution that few Candians respect. He could even attempt to dismember it, and most folks would be cheering him on.......

I hope Alberta has an annual Ralph Klein Day in honour of the old trout. It could be on the anniversary fo the day he announced he was giving each and every one of us the $400, a first in Canadian politics. We could all have too many drinks and play bad golf on the big day, as Ralph likes to do.

Nope, won't happen, unless you belive that Iggy will not run again as leader.. Think of the optics. Any interim leader is going to have to regularly eat a full diet of crap sandwiches from Harper, supporting him on all of the numerous confidence votes, until the Liberal Party slects a leader. This applies as well to any contenders for the leadership that are presently MPs. That image would hobble the Liberal Party forever, and cripple the new leader. You cannot be both an effective leader in the House, and a serious candidate for Party leader, while you are doing a prolonged imitation of Harpers puppet. And what makes you think that conditions will be any better for the Liberals in some mystical wonderful future in a few months? They are in a bad position that may well get much worse. Dion will opt to go out in a blaze of defiance, which oddly enough may garner him a bit of the respect from Liberals and Canadians that has eluded him for a year.

It is patently obvious that Dion will never be Prime Minister. That in itself is enough to guarantee that he will be gone , the only question is when. Today? Very unlikely, this is totally ignominous personally for Dion and will not serve the Liberal Party in any way. They will then be faced both with an election -which the'll lose anyway- and their new leader defeated. Second option s for Dion to vote against the throne speech, trigger an election that he must lose, and quit before he is fired. Third option is for Dion to hang on, support the government time after time until some magical mystical future when he is personally popular, then force an election on his terms. An election he would likely still lose, get fired after, etc etc. The least humilaiting route for Dion and the Liberals is to bite the bullet and force an election now, allow Dion to resign gracefully, pcik another leader and try to rebuild. Option Two is likely.

Yes, every power pole has sensors that control your mind. I wear a fine mesh of bobby pins under my tinfoil hats, which intercepts all their commands except the odd naughty one. The mesh hairnet is, of course , powered by static electricty that I generate by rubbing balloons on my hair. I pray that I can continue to fight off baldness.