fellowtraveller

I also think Dion is easily the most likely winner, because he is the safest and most palatable choice of the Liberal national executive. 'English Canada' is far less important than Greater Toronto, which the Libs will win as always even with Dion. But the Libs somehow expect Dion to conquer Quebec, he is seen as Chretiens toady there and the province will remain electorally fractured - as it is now. I would guess that the unwillingness of the old Liberal guard- as represented by Dion- is what made Frank McKenna (who would have been a formidable foe for Harper) decide not to run for the leadership. It would be too much to fight on two fronts - the CPC and his own national executive would jointly be too much. McKenna must have been paying attention to what happened to Paul Martin, who also fought a two -front war and lost on both.

I'm just guessing here, but I think it was that the amazing murder rate in Glasgow 0f 60-70 per year would be higher if everybody had guns, so gun control is a success there. I dunno, ask him.

Share price and dividends are both the result of earnings. Nothing has changed. The board will still decide based on earnings what the distribution will be and the market, based on earnings, will decide on the share value. I have had professional dealings with Bell. They are a megacap despite themselves. If it wasn't for thier long history as a monopoly they would be a shadow of themselves. They are huge, monolithic. slow to act, slow to react. Marketing decisions can take months. The simple rebranding of Darome teleconferenceing and merging into their own moribund teleconferencing brand took almost a year. They exist for the most part due to inertia...... Nothing has changed? In the past, if I wanted to take advantage of good performance by the company as evidenced by an increase in share prices, I had to sell the stock, cutting off a smaller dividend flow. Then I had to find another stock. I also had to pay strict attention to the stock market. The income trust model is much more shareholder friendly, as evidenced by the billions invested in the last few years. Don't underestimate the attraction of cash in fist for investors, particularly seniors.

Huh? I believe Edmonton is the murder capital of Canada on a per capita basis, there are plenty of guns available there - and around 30 murders per year. Glasgow and Edmonton are roughly the same size. So much for your theory.....

Hockey is an absolutely critical provincial issue in Canada, displaying the vicious regional divides between the Stanley Cup contenders in the West (Calgary, Edmonton) and the crapshoot teams of the East (Toronto). Just a couple of housekeeping comments about this post..... It should be correctly stated: "Stanley Cup contenders in the West (Edmonton) and the crap team of the East (Toronto)."

If you like TPB the series, you'll like TPB the Movie. It is much more of the same hijinks we've come to expect.

When Income Trusts took off, they were seen as valuable instruments for smalled companies to raise capital. Retail investors were attracted to them for their dividends and institutionals loved the cash flow. The pressure to meet the dividend expectations has caused a number (as been said above) to limit operations investment and in some cases, to borrow against earnings to pay the dividend. There are two good reasons to go public. To raise capital to expand and to cash out (sell the company) As far as Bell is concerned, when mega cap companies turn to Income Trusts, I will bet there is no good reason involved. It is merely a legal tax loop hole that in the end will benifit the board and the top 100 shareholders. The rest of you will be screwed. I think there is a very good reason involved. Note that Bell immediately followed the lead of Telus, a major competitor who has hurt Bell in some key markets. Like any corp, the sworn duty of Bells directors is to maximize return to investors/shareholders. If that involves establsihing a legal structure that diminishes the tax burden, it is not their problem. It is hard to argue that they haven't benefited shareholders, given that they are now returning about 7% directly to them. In the previous regime, both dividends and an increase in share price were both shaky at best.

I don't think you are going to like the results at all.......I predict that Vancouver will finish dead last in their divsion. They just hyaven't improved their team enough from last year, and the Sedins -playing first line now- will be exposed as the limp aliens that they are..... The Oilers are much better up front, and I don't understand the comment that they are too small and not physical enough... Didn't you watch their winning run to the Cuop final last year, playing high speed, violent hockey? Hwo could you miss that ? Since then, they have dumped the uber-weenies Samsonov and Dvorak and replaced them with better - Sykora and tougher/better -Lupul - forwards. Also in the meantime, their core of great young players are just that much better - Greene, Horcoff, Stoll, Hemsky, Torres, Pisani,Lupul etc. Time will tell, should be an entertaining season.

The Libs will ultimately pick Dion for one very important reason: he is the safe candidate. They know they'll get the same bland rhetoric, the same rehash of vague 'ideas' that Chretien and Martin championed in their time. And of course - he is from Quebec. And I think many posters overemphasize the impact of Raes shameful record in governing Ontario, both in a Leadership campaign and in a general election. Too few people care enough to change their party in a place that was and is an absolute Liberal bastion. Millions voted for Chretien , those same GTA millions voted for Liberals after the sponsorship scandal, millions will continue to vote for whatever Lib leader is on the ballot, any ballot. Rae is the most dangerous candidate for the Conservatives, but it will be Dion who will eventually be flayed by Harper in the next election.

I'm more concerned with the policy on shipping raw bitumen out of the province to be upgraded and refined elsewhere, as per the Encana announcement today. Hewers of wood indeed

I was at the game last night, and Calgary looked half a step behind much of the time. They won't win it all playing their normal plug it up and slow it down style. The failings of that were exposed in their surrender to Anaheim last year. They need to change their style. Or better yet, don't change a thing...... Go Oilers, what a treat to watch high speed, entertaining hockey again.

If this poll is reliable..... what an absolute nightmare year for Boisclair and Duceppe. Not so long ago, all the ducks were nicely lined up for a run at sovereignty - and everything since has worked against them......

Sorry OP, but your premises are so flawed there s simply no starting point for comment.

The Liberals have learned nothing from their ongoing and brief sojourn in the wilderness, they will ultimately pick Dion. Why? Because he is the safe choice, and the Party is adrift. He is the only candidate who can give enough of the national executive a warm and fuzzy feeling that they themselves are not threatened. Rae still has time to don sufficient camouflage to get the Lib braintrust to believe that he is safe and malleable enough, but none of the others has much chance . The Conservatives must be feeling comfy about the whole thing, really none of this cast of lightweights is fearsome or likely to become fearsome. They should be cheering for the cuddly but ineffective Dion. Rae has the best prognosis for the Libs in an election, but should finish second to Dion in December.

I understand this, but can you think of any reason why they need to know my name and that of the other residents of my household? They supposedly sell every bit of data (except names, purportedly) to anybody with sufficient money. It is a major income earner for Statistics Canada. They need to know your name to verify that your info is correct. No, that can't be right - because the only way they could verify that all the info is correct is to laboriously crosscheck the specific data against another federal database - like tax records. That would definitely violate Privacy laws regarding both the census (StatsCan) and tax (Revenue Canada CCRA) databases. I would sue CCRAs flabby asses if they divulge financial info about me to anybody, including StatsCan. Also, there is simply no way to crosscheck much of the other info found on the census form. I have an expectation of privacy and a legal right to same. I understand the demographic requirement for the government to link my postal code with the income range for my household to my gender to my age to my marital status to my ethnic origin to how many acres I have in oats, but they have absolutely no reason to have my name or the names of my family attached.

I'm voting Bob Rae in support of Ontarians.

I understand this, but can you think of any reason why they need to know my name and that of the other residents of my household? They supposedly sell every bit of data (except names, purportedly) to anybody with sufficient money. It is a major income earner for Statistics Canada.

I would guess that I may be the only poster here who has seen the Bamiyan Buddhas firsthand.

Aren't there 37 countries participating in the military mission in Afghanistan?

I got the short form, and filled out everything except the part where you're supposed to provide names of residents. I could not see any possible reason they needed to know names of residents. They apparently already knew my name anyway, since a couple of weeks later they phoned, addressed me by name, and asked when I'd have time to tell them the names of the residents of my household. My answer was 'never', and I hung up. They never called back or sent me a summons to appear in court, so I guess I got away with it.

Here's hoping that Leanne gets a lawyer that performs better with divorces than Domi performed as a hockey player.

A wise lawyer once said: Never do a pre-nup for the first marriage, always do a pre-nup for subsequent marriages. Makes sense to me, and simply addresses the realtiy that marriage is both a romantic and economic union. We all , over time, outline the parameters of our romantic union. Why would we do less for the economic union? It is particularly important when - as so often happens - each person brings children to the new union. Those children must be protected from the consequences of divorce and financially cared for whatever happens to the emotional life of a parent.

I also think that the position of Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development should be an appointed position, and that the First Nations leadership should have plenty of input in the choice. Want natives to have a real place at the table? Governor General/Head of State plus a seat in Cabinet is a great start.

With one big difference: only a minority of Canadians will pay any attention now to the questions, much less the answers. Your comment implies an interest in the gory details by the Canadian electorate that does not exist for the most part. Even the theft of our money by the Liberals has little interest for too many of us. Heard anything about the sponsorship scandal recently? Has the Liberal Party actually paid back any of the money they determined that they owed? Any sign of an accurate, forensic reckoning of what actually happened, what were the final destinations of the $250 million or so that was spent? Any criminal charges laid on other than the few bagmen and flunkies? See what I mean? Nope, the past has already been whitewashed from our collective memory, an unpleasant interlude that many politicians, and just as many voters are quite willing to forget. The sponsorship scandal will get as much attention in the next election as it does now in the Liberal leadership campaign - almost none. So, it doesn't matter what, if any, Dions involvement was in the scandals. All is forgiven and especially within the Liberal Party itself. But... he still cannot carry a general election. That doesn't mean he won't win the leadership, because he will. But he won't win the next election. I suspect the Tories are quietly cheering for him.

The Popes apology to Muslims would have just a tad more credibility if it had been preceded, or even succeded, by an apology to all the children whose lives have been brutally destroyed by his staff.