fellowtraveller

Interesting that the feds spend nearly $200 billion on two programs- health and education- that are largely the responsibilities of the provinces. Yes, I know much of that is kicked back to the provinces, but it does raise the question of why the feds are involved so deeply. A one-word working theory would be: 'control'. Yes. they do sent it back to the provinces. And this top down style gov't doesn't work. They want full control and don't trust how the provinces spend their money. They give more money to the welfare provinces than to the proserous. The feds need much less power and need to stop playing 'daddy' to everyone. Let the provinces run their own things and learn from their mistakes. They send some of the money back, and make the taxpayers beg for their own money back. "please sir, may I have more?" The Liberals would never dream of giving up control of tax money related to health and education. It is hiow they control provinces, one of their few levers. It is how they created the 'surplus' through the nineties and early 2000s. Simply keep the money intended for health and education, and force the provinces to raise the money themselves for these critical programs. Between this and the luck they ran into with low interest rates, they are hailed as economic geniuses. Note that Paul Martin, in over a decade at the center of spending, never initiated a comprehensive review of govt spending. They took the easy route, on the vbacks of taxpayers and leveraged their status at the top of the tax pyramid. Would you like to know Harpers secret agenda with a majority? He is going to make sure that the Constitution is respected and that each level of govt knows its roles and responsibilites, is funded accordingly, and delivers . What a novel and terrifying concept.

This looks like a list of fringe parties, with two obvious omissions - the New Democratic Party and the Rhinos.

Interesting that the feds spend nearly $200 billion on two programs- health and education- that are largely the responsibilities of the provinces. Yes, I know much of that is kicked back to the provinces, but it does raise the question of why the feds are involved so deeply. A one-word working theory would be: 'control'.

I don't live there, but pass through a couple times a year. The entire stretch from Grande Prarie to Fort Nelson, including Foreskin John, is booming. Housing of any sort, including hotel rooms, is very hard to find. Try to be sure you have something lined up beforehand or you could be sleeping in your vehicle. Jobs are abundant.

I dream of those kind of prices. My out of downtown (wayyy out of downtown) small little one bedroom runs me a K a month. Buying a condo once the market bubble is reduced a bit, don't want to be too ripped off. I expect to be looking around $250-300k for one. Pretty ridiculous... When my family first moved here way back, my parents bought a 5 bedroom house in nice neighbourhood for $250k... now I can't even buy my first place, a little condo for that price. Boooo to housing. Rents have yet to catch up to much higher purchase costs for real estate inEdmonton. Inevitably they will, and soon. Which is one reason that Calgary real estate investors are very interested in Edmonton just now.

I don't agree with the notion that every day in government as PM brings Harper closer to a majority. He is quite limited to what he can accomplish with a minority, and the very last image he wants to present to the electorate is as an ineffectual PM. That is the day that draws ever closer, it is inevitable. I think that overall he is doing just fine, and needs to find an exit/election strategy of his own choosing, and in his control for timing. I think the timing will be influenced by the level of desperation of the NDP and the Bloc. Both are steadily and slowly losing ground, and the Bloc has even more to lose if Harper presents fiscal imbalance help in the next budget. The schedule in the OP sounds about right, forcing an election in April or May.

Harper keeps his promises? What about the healthcare wait times? That was one of the top five promises he made. What about the income trust promises in the election? He had five priorities, and has acted on four so far. He will make some effort on the fifth. Compare this to what Martin accomplished, which was very little. You can be sure Harper will be pointing this out. He can rightfully point to each and with four out of five place a check mark beside them. How often does a Liberal govt run on that sort of platform of accomplishement, all done withing one year and with a minority?? I can undertsand how it stuns you, but there it is. Vision for the country, promises for everything blah blah blah...... I want action. When I see it, it gets my attention. I suspect there are others who feel the same way, others that did not vote Tory before, and might now.

I haven't seen any ads for $14/hour at fast food joints in Edmonton, $10-$11 is common. Same for cashiers in stores. Warehouse work is $13-$19/hour. A tenant is a truck driver, he is making about $22 hour and works about as much as he wants, any time. Edmonton is a bit different in real estate from Calgary, the average home price is $70k less than Calgary and rents are cheaper too. A very nice, renovated, two bedroom two bath apartment downtown - $1300. Two bed basement suite- $750, utilites included. Four bedroom house in the suburbs, single garage - $1300 plus utilities. Three bed townhouse- $1000 plus utilities.

The 'perception hurdle' that the Libs will face in the next election will be a unique challenge for them. None of us - outside Alberta- are used to politicians that actually state what they intend, then do what they said they would do after the election. Harpers greatest achievement is yet to be seen, and he will fight an election on his record of promises that have been fulfilled. He'll also lambaste Dion for his record in government, which is not good. The Libs are seen as do-nothing, which I will freely admit is the best option in some circumstances. But Chretien was proud of doing nothing, it was his style and he often boasted about it. Martin continued that tradition- promise everything, deliver very little. Harper has promised little, and is delivering all of it plus more. Like it or not, Klein was elected at least twice in Alberta because he did what he said. We'll see if Harper is emulating Klein in the hopes that people will recognize it, and can capitalize on it with a majority..

Some of the questions raised about noise, killing birds and connecting to the grid are here. http://www.nypirg.org/fbg/wind/#how They don't really get into the severe limitations, or costs of wind though......that source is disengenuous, with this: "Electric generators put power into the grid at hundreds of locations and consumers take power from the grid at their homes and businesses. Generators operate to keep the grid in balance (not overflowing) at all times. That means that when one generator is added, another needs to turn off." It doesn't mention that you still must build virtually 100% of the maximum demand on the system using more reliable sources So, in that sense, wind power is purely a redundant, and therefore very expensive source. You can't spend billions on coal, nuclear, hydro and natural gas plants and then expect to turn their production off and on like a light bulb fifty times a day. We're not talking about a Honda generator stopping and starting, these are huge plants that take days to get running, or take offline. You do have to build those reliable sources to provide power to the maximum amount foreseen to be required on the coldest or hottest day of the year.

Dion won't support Duceppe for a simple reason: he knows it would be very risky to be seen as an appeaser, as a quitter, as a coward, in the rest of Canada. By way of comparison, Layotn has made a bad miscalculation on the mood of Canadians on this IMO. He forgets that many Canadians believe in this mission. He forgets that Canadians want to be seen as making a difference in the world, an active difference if that is what is required. He forgets that at least some Canadians are aware that Canadas military has been a laughingstock and a joke internationally and especially within NATO for some time. Aside from the arguable drama over the mission itself, the Canuck presence in Afghanistan has really helped the Canadian image in the eyes of our allies. For once, we can do more than talk, in a situation where talk is obviously cheap. It has undoubtedly gotten the country some respect for standing up for something. Dion has avoided this failing of Layton so far. He knows better.

Because the system is huge and interconnected, and can accomdodate some instability, some variance. But that amount is limited. A certain amount of overproduction must be built in to accomodate scheduled and unscheduled down time at conventional plants, and wind can fill in the gaps some of the time. If there is overproduction, sometimes it can be sold to other grids. But to have a system in a modern, industrialized nation that relies too much on intermittent electricity will be a disaster, which is why grid managers say : so much, and no more. Same thing with solar. The alternative sources that are environmentally friendly, sustainable and relatively constant that bear looking at are wave power (generated by ocean wave action) and geothermal. Given the line losses explained here, that doesn't help much if you're living far from the ocean or far from geothermal sources.

Kudos to Dion for fighting off the urge to surrender completely and immediately to the Taliban. As a French citizen it must be hard to suppress this compulsion.

family, integrity, personal freedoms

I was disappointed to see Gary Mar not in the new cabinet. I don't know him personally, but I do know a couple of people who have worked for him. They are normally pretty critical of Ministers, but both had plenty of nice things to say about his competence and work ethic.

I don't understand what you're saying. Are you saying that we can't add any more wind turbines? What do you mean "full capacity of wind?" How would it make the system unstable to add more? Don't get me wrong, I'm not being facetious, I just don't understand how we can have too much wind generated power. Utility systems must be and are designed to provide for a certain, fixed level of both production and consumption. The power lines from power stations have a diameter of wire designed to carry a specific load. Conventional generating stations produce a certain, fixed amount of juice. Imagine all of the electricity comes from coal powered stations........Planning for system capacity, so that the requirements every home on the grid is factored in, is a matter of adding up all the demand, subtracting scheduled downtime of the generating plants, and adding back a bit as a safety factor. Enter windpower. Windpower cannot be part of that supply calculation, since there is no guarantee that they will contribute anything to the minimum that must be availble 24/7. Therefore, any capital cost for wind power is redundant capacity, which means the output from a wind turbine must be fully duplicated elsewhere in a reliable installation. Expensive. It also requires that you have a ready market for excess electricity, since you just cannot shut down and start up conventional plants on a moments notice when the wind gusts..... So that is what is meant, IMO, about making the grid unstable with wind power. If you don't have that very expensive, very reliable redundancy built in- you can't add a huge amount of windpower. Way too risky.

It does make one wonder if Belinda Beleader has been working for the Tories all along..... Maybe her dramatic floorcrossing scene was staged, after all the Tories dodged an election they could not win at that time. Maybe now her role is to be the worm in the Liberal apple.......

I agree with what you say Argus, and would add that IMO our international reputation has been enhanced by the heavy lifting we are doing in Afghanistan. Certainly our allies in NATO think better of us lately. Of course, they didn't have a very good opinion to begin with after the gutting of the military by Chretien.

Isn't Dion calling for an 'honourable withdrawal'? I'm not sure exactly what that means, it sounds like a surrender. Perhaps his French citizenship is emerging if he is calling for surrender.

I'm assuming you mean that Alberta has some objectin to the concept of equalization payments, and their funding of same? If so, I'm not aware that Stelmach will make any change from Kleins complete support of equalization. I can honestly say I have never heard the Premier that they had any plans to change the program, which sees Alberta and Ontario funding the whole thing.

Just Normies 'style', FTA. Willing to forgive and forget anything done by the Libs, spinning fulltime on the Tories. His presence may mean an election soon.

the Liberals win a majority in the next election? It is quite possible that the Libs could sweep Ontario, pick up a few more seats in Quebec and the Maritimes. I wonder if our country is already so polarized that the regions will be driven even further apart by a Liberal win? By 'uniting' the country, could a wedge be driven so deeply that the separatists in Quebec and Alberta gain some serious ground?

Where are my choices as #1 and #2 issue, Liberal corruption and the endless failure of the Leafs?

The focus on sex determination using PGD is missing the actual point of this technology. Simple ultrasounds, a dead common and inexpensive procedure, will determine the sex of a fetus in plenty of time for an abortion if a parent chooses that route. Where is the outcry to ban ultrasounds? I know a family that has a history of Huntingtons disease, a devastating genetic condition that does not automatically appear in every fetus. I know a second family that where all three adult children have been voluntarily sterilized because they don't want to risk passing it on. They don't even know if they are carriers and thus personally going to develop the disease, they have chosen not to live knowing an early death is certain. PGD makes it possible for people with Huntingtons to both have healthy non carrying children, and to stop the spread of the disease in a single generation. It is conceivable that this horrible disease could be entirely eliminated in fairly short order using PGD. It applies to other genetic diseases too.

I'll bet it wasn't much of a boon either because Brandon and Manitoba gave away the farm (sic) to get the plant there. Poor socialists, tough to play a game when you don't understand the rules.