fellowtraveller

In a province where the unemployment rate is basically zero, and people seem to want to diversify, it seems odd to me create more demand for workers by building an oil refinery.If private business can make a profit, then let them. But the provincial government shouldn't get involved. ---- Dunno what you're on about here. I never said the Alberta Government should develop anything. But they should very much get involved in making certain that the maximum value for this resource accrues to Alberta and Canada. Of course Alberta wants to diversify, so what exactly is your objection to diversifying into upgrading, refining into oil, developing petrochemical feedstocks, building associtaed plastic industries...? The private sector is welcome to a reasonable return on investment., but they have no entitlement to anything else. But we can and should insist that anybody extracting bitumen should also be processing much of it here. I'd much rather offer high quality jobs to unemployed in Chicoutomi or Fredericton than to workers in Dallas or Chicago which is exactly what is happening right now, the Encana sellout being a recent example.

How one letter changes meaning. What I meant is that my vehicle, not vehicles, stayed the same except for a slight drop for age. My wifes dropped because of a change in coverage, and an increase in age. This was in response to the people who claimed that all private insurers are predators just looking for opportunities to jack up prices. Well, mine just had the opportunity, and did not.

Have you even read the stories on this thread? Private insurance companies use whatever excuse they can to call someone ' high risk'. Safe drivers who have not caused any accidents are constantly screwed by private insurance companies. You may benefit from the 'system' as it is this month but that could change next month. You are very naive if you think 'driving safe' will protect you from being gouged by private insurance companies. It did indeed change today, I got renewal notices from my private insurer(Canadian Direct) and the costs have dropped again, now I am, way below what the public insurers in BC and Manitoba would charge. My vehicles stayed about the same, dropped a few dollars because of being one year older. My wifes dropped about $200 because they are no longer going for full replacement of the vehicle with an identical new one in a writeoff, it is 3 years old now. Sounds like you're one of those that need to learn to drive better. Over-generalizations? If you have many tickets or accidents, are you a high or low risk? If you are convicted of drinking and driving, are you a high or low risk? If you are an inexperienced driver, are you a high or low risk? If you drive alot of kilometers in an urban area, are you a high or low risk as compared to a low-miler on a farm? If you drive a vehicle designed to go very fast, like a motorcycle or sports car - are you a high or low risk? If you are an experienced driver with a good claims and driving record, are you a high or low risk? I fit part of these profiles, the ones that make me a generally low risk. I see absolutely no reason why I should subsidize higher risk groups, they can and should pay more.

Dinning is really, really unlikely to do anything substantial that changes royalties. Morton is finished IMO,every fundie Christian and socon has already voted for him. he won't be second on many ballots. Stelmach has a very real chance of being Premier, I expect him to get enough votes to finish second, Morton will get enough to deny Dinning a straight up win - and Stelmach will be everybodys second choice - giving him the prize. And almost less important than royalty review is the urgent need to have bitumen upgrading and oil refining remain in Alberta. Stelmach supports this.....

After seeing the OP paying $1000/year for an old SUV in Manitoba, I'm glad to live in Alberta. My costs for two newer vehicles used to be about $3000 for comprehnsive coverage when I dealt with the usual brokers, ING being the last one. Until then, I had no idea how much money the independent brokers marked up the policy. It must be an exceptionally profitable small business, they were getting over $1000 per year as a finders fee, every year, every policy. I switched to Canadian Direct, and my cost is now under $1900 for the same vehicles. I have yet to make a claim, but my mother is also now insured with them and had no problems at all from Candian Direct with an accident. They defineitely do cherry pick, but I really don't care about high risk drivers having to pay more. Tough luck, drive better.

Besides Saskatchewan, which has a lot more oil (and an NDP common denominator), who are the many others who switched from have-not to have? In recent years: BC, Saskatchewan,Alberta, Ontario . New Brunswick and I believe Nova Scotia are close. And I wonder about Manitobas 'deficit free' budgets. How realistic is that when 20% of govt revenue is from transfer/equaliztion?

To an outsider, Manitoba seems to have many of the things required for prosperity: cheap energy, arable land, mineral and timber resources, an educated workforce and more. Yet it still derives 20% of its annual budget from federal (actually provincial) handouts. They remain a 'havenot' province, while many others have turned their economies around. Is the NDP govt a common denominator in a history of economic failure?

Gun control won't make much difference in Edmonton. Most homicides are stabbings, two more young guys were killed this weekend. In many cases, alcohol is involved.

I really don't know how being handicapped to this extent as anything to do with this topic. What we are talking about is a cultural issue. This cultural issue reflects a smaller cultural group trying to manipulate the standards a cultural majority is supposed to enjoy by forcing disguised discriminatory 'federal official standards' to accommodate their minority position language which is outside of discriminatory federal control. What did you expect? It's Ottawa after all.

Because the peace advocacy group has chosen virtually the same symbol -the poppy- to represent their cause. I very much doubt the vets/Legion have anything against the casue of the peaceniks, and I know for a fact that plenty of vets would count themselves as peaceniks after their experiences - but using the poppy is insensitive at best.

Relative to consumer oriented, full service banks in the US - Canadas few national banks are already large - as was intended by the Bank Act. Canada has had only a few, large banks for decades by design - doing so has provide considerable stability in our banking system- few of the national banks have ever come close to the shattering defaults seen in the USA. Consumers have paid a price for decades though -in lack of competition and high service charges. Another advantage of a few. large banks is the ability to have big pools of capital in one place. So help me out here - how is the average consumer - not bank shareholders- served by allowing banks to consiolidate? Seems to me that if they want to merge, they also won't mind wide open competition domestically?

As far as I know, there is no reliable and timely test to check for marijuana impairment. The intention is good, but how will they enforce the law?

Another feeble strawman. Please note the following: Canada has a 100% volunteer armed forces. There is no draft. They accept only those persons - adults only- that are willing to sign a contract of employment that notes that it is an inherently risky profession. There is no conscription. There is no duress. You must be sober at the time of signing the contract. You will not be accepted if your mental capacity is limited. It is impossible for you, Stephen Harper, your government of the day or the Taliban to force your children to join the Army, go to Afghanistan, and be killed. However, it is possible for your kids to be murdered at home in a terrorist incident.

It's blah blah to you but some of us don't want our sons and daughters sacrificing their lives to protect a corrupt, fundamentalist Islamic theocracy. Some of us want to more than just bitch and whine too. And you can shut your cakehole about my son and daughter. Both have been raised to think, and to judge for themselves, and to recognize a big stinking pile of empty rhetoric when they see one. Your response merely reinforces the fact that the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a corrupt, fundamentalist Islamic theocracy. Thanks for that, there are far too few moments in life when we have laugh out loud moments. Unfortunately for me, I was drinking juice when I read that and passed much of it through my nose en route to the keyboard. Ah well, it is a small price to pay for a good giggle.

It's blah blah to you but some of us don't want our sons and daughters sacrificing their lives to protect a corrupt, fundamentalist Islamic theocracy. Some of us want to more than just bitch and whine too. And you can shut your cakehole about my son and daughter. Both have been raised to think, and to judge for themselves, and to recognize a big stinking pile of empty rhetoric when they see one.

Third party insults in such a manner don't contribute to the forum. Howard Dean just helped lead Democrats to a full fledged rout of the Conservative Repubs. Not too many "certifiable nutcase" types can accomplish such a feat. Now he's coming up here to tell the Liberals how to get rid of their rightwing opposition too! I'm not sure what you're objecting to.....do you think Dean is not a certifiable nutcase for some reason? Would you like links to his infamous 'primal scream' exit from the last Democratic Party primaries? Or his recent assertions/revisionism that US foreign policy would have been totally different under Democratic rule the last six years, despite his own platform and that of all the other major Democratic contenders in the last primaries/election?

I doubt that the Legion is aginst any peace movement, but they are rightfully and righteously pissed at the use of the poppy symbol.

Sorry, I did not address your concern about the Taliban being growers as well as middlemen. Fine, let them be growers. Growers don't have the money, or need the money, to hire an army to prtect the trade. That is the job of the gang in the middle - the Taliban. The Taliban take the big profits in the middle and hire fighters, it is by and large a mercenary army, a provider of jobs in an incredibly impoverished place. I think the ideologues are few and far between. Cut off the economic head - the snake will die. Try to kill the poppy trade - that is a no hope and counterproductive startegy, one that plays right into the Talibans hands. Become part the poppy trade - the controlling part - bye bye Taliban.

The Taliban make their gravy by being in the middle, between the growers and iternational distributors. The opium trade is not like the cocaine business, which is far more vertically integrated with Colombians for example involved in every phase from growing in the hills to mid level distribution in Boston. The Taliban don't have people in Manchester selling ounces. And that makes them vulnerab;le, very vulnerable. Expensive? A few billion perhaps, a trifle. The farmers in Afghanistan don't care who they sell too, they know only that by far the highest value crop available to them is the poppy. It will be grown no matter who is in the middle. Taliban or NATO. And consider that once the Taliban have been supplanted as brokers- which they quickly will - the new bosses will enjoy many of the same control that they enjoyed. Can NATO execute this unusual mission? Why not? It takes money, armed men and the will to stay the course. Oh, and a little imagination and just a little smidgen of backbone. Reading these threads, it is obvious which of these is lacking..

Howard Dean is a certifiable nutcase. How appropriate.

Nothing in the links or quotes you've provided disputes the reality that two million plus Afghans have returned and remain. Those millions were driven from their homes by the savagery of their Taliban government. It is not perfect , it is not paradise, it is not a haven of democracy, it is not a preferred place to buy a timeshare. But it is better than it was, a lot better, and that did not happen by accident. Explain that away.

Koran, democracy, theocracy, Karzai, blah blah blah. Here is the fact that matters: over two million ordinary Afghans have returned to their homes since the invasion by NATO deposed the Taliban. Until those same people choose to return to the camps, it is an inescapable conclusion that the invasion was the right thing to do, and that the occupation is maintaining that correct decision. Somebody above wants a solution that will turn the country into Switzerland? There isn't one, Afghaisntan will forever be dependent on foreign aid. That is reality. There is however a way to get rid of the Taliban without killing everybody in the country. Cut off thier economic head by simply buying all the poppy crop. Outbid them. Note that it is impossible to stop the growing of poppies - also note that it is this trade that supports the Taliban. They take the profits earned and hire fighters at $12 per day. Why can't we do the same, and cut off their economic heads? Really, in a country without any industry and without any jobs, and with no likelihood of either anytime in the foreseeable future - it is past time for conventional thinking.

Are they an insult, or a legitimate expression the peace movement? story here

There will be the usual ceremonies, attended by all the same dignitaries. The Nov 9th ceremony was well attended.

Fact: Over two million Afghan refugees returned from camps in Pakistan and Iran after the invasion and subsequent removal of the Taliban government. All of those people remain in Afghanistan. I respect that reality far more than the bleating here by some. When they start heading back to the refugee camps, I'll start paying attention to those who now want to abandon to an unpleasant future..