fellowtraveller

Bilingualism is definitely an asset, but French would be well down the list as a preferred second language. The primary language of business on our planet is unquestionably English. The future of Canada in foreign tongues lies in Mandarin, then Hindi. If you want your children to be federal civil servants, a case can be made for French.

We'll still take you into our alliance because we feel sorry for you. I thik you meant to say that Quebec takes Alberta for granted, and got your punctuation all mixed up. If Alberta took Quebec for granted, we'd be sharing all that sweet hydro generation revenue.

Citation please.sorry, channelling waldo for a minute there

Faux-Irish in London and sore losers in Vancouver would dispute that analysis.

definitely. Saw them a few years ago at the Dawson City Music Festival. They burned the joint down. Huge energy.Saw Blackie and The Rodeo Kings a couple weeks back, they are like old friends now.

Not my experience at all. The first HTC was discarded because I had the phone half the time, and loaners half the time snce it was always broken. No way would it have lasted a few years. The second HTC was useless from the first minute, it dropped about 50% of calls and would take many attempts to make a call. Looked great though. I went through 5 in four weeks and they took them all back. I don't pay anything for phones, I'm a platinum level customer and they do what they need to do to keep my business. My wie has a Koodo Android, no contract. It cost $35. No contract.

do you mean provinces like Ontario where the Tories are strong?

I had two HTC Android phones. I really liked the Andorid system, but both phones were crap. The first one went through a touchscreen every couple of months. I gave up and through some phone company hijinks ended up with another HTC, a brand new model with dazzling graphics. Unfortunately, it could not make or receive phone calls, which was kind of inconvenient in a cell phone..I got an Iphone, and it has lasted a year without breaking- in itself a major upgrade My next phone will be simpler, I don;t need all this stuff. I'll look for a Mortorla on Android perhaps, I have had good luck with Motorola reiability in the past.

I don't understand how 'almost all of this care is delivered by not-for-profit providers'.Much is delivered by doctors and their staff. They are most certainly 'for profit' providers, they don't work as a charity.

Incorrect. The reason the territories need so much federal money is that they have so very little industry other than govt jobs. Many of the few people that work at places like Diavik are not even residents of the NWT, and Diavik scaled operations are few and far between both luiterally and economically. Nunavut is worse, and Yukon is in between in terms of having anything resembling a viable local economy outside government jobs.Yukon used to have large private sector employers like Faro, United Keno Hill and Whitehorse Copper but those all shut down long ago. Their large contribution to the economy in the form of capital works and real jobs have not been replaced, though in recent years a couple of small mines have started up. They don't come close to making the territory anything but a basket case . The largest project in the Yukon in the last decade was an expansion of the hydro power generation and grid, which was - wait for it- public money as always. It is a big gamble in the hope that future mining operations will buy from the grid, but it looks more likely that future projects will self-generate. No, it comes from Ottawa and the offset from corporate and income taxes does not come close to a zero sum. Are you being intentionally funding with inherently contradictory statements like this?

I think I know far more about the Northern economy than you. since I have spent most of my adult life there- and not in govt service. .Here is a stone cold hard fact: without federal govt money that funds the massive number of government jobs in all three territories at all four levels: federal, territorial, First Nations and local none of the three territories would exist for lobger than it wold take for the moving vans to haul every soul south. I am genuinely pleased to see the territories finally getting some sources of income ther than government subsidy, but to pretend that their 'growth' puts them into anything resembling financial health is nuts. Look at the economic base that the '7% growth' is actually constructed from and you will note that very little of it comes from anywhere but your pocket and mine. I am pleased to learn that Manitoba is doing so well. When can Ottawa stop sending that $2 billion per year in extra coin?

Hall will have 30 soon too. Nugent -Hopkins would have won the Calder as rookie of the year if he had not missed so many games with an injury. Even so, he is likely to win the rookie scoring title. His game is astonishing for an 18 year old(who looks like a 14 year old). It isn't the offence so much, which is sublime, but the maturity of his defensive game.

The air forces of the world have a anme for ground forces, it is the same all over the world: targets.

This must be part of Harpers Extremely Secret Agenda

Because the current fleet of F-18 is nearing the end of their life cycle.

Yep, and they are doing it with the worst defence group in the league.Nugent-Hopkins, Hall and Eberle are just sick when they get tossing the puck around, it gets dizzying.

I thought Iggy had gone back to Harvard long ago. What keeps him in Canada? Hasn't his pogey run out yet?

As noted, if they don't buy the F-35s, they'll buy something else equally costly. Glad you approve.

Then why do First Nations negotiate with the feds first and foremost? I was thinking more of the similarity of Quebec and Manitoba relying permanently on equalization money for their existence. Because BC, SK and AB would not have Manitoba as a partner to begin with, what would they bring to the party economically? I doubt anybody would want the Territories either, no return on investment there either.

Jesus won't help you here- the home of Satan. Yeah, they are pragmatic in the sense that they are intended to get them elected, with no intention of ever following through on anything. Like everybody else. If you were a working man you'd know this.

The fraud is that they give a shit about anything other than doing whatever they need to do to get elected. So far, they have not been very good at it.In fairness, they differ from the Libs and Cons only in their competence at getting elected. \ Their policies are the policies of convenience, expedience, pragmatism, and will be increasingly so with their next leader. Proprep is an example: NDP policy where it will benefit them, not on the agenda whenever they hold a majority.

Please, stop with the comparsions to the EU. Canada is s single sovereign state with 10 provinces, 3 territories and a large number of First Nations. All of them are pretty much wholly subordinate to Ottawa. The EU is a large number of soveriegn states who have surrendered a relatively small amount of functions to a central coordinating body. Until joint fiscal policy and joint defence are mandatory in EU members, they are still a collection of disparate countries with plenty of sutonomy.

Fiscally, Manitoba has more in common with Quebec.

OAS is not the same as the US Social Security, and required no provincial agreement. If you are talking about CPP, Quebec has opted out and the other provinces have no reason to be involved anyway in a realtively pure pension scheme. Same with EI, which is not a social benefit but an insurance shceme with an ever decreasing dose of social engineering. There is no national healthcare system, every province runs their own under the very brief guidleines of the Health Act. Oh, and there was huge dissent in the implementation of that until Ottawa imposed the deal. At least two provinces already had their own versions before Dief acted unilaterally in 1957. Provinces were dragged in kicking and screaming for the next several years. So tell me , are you arguing for the centralized federalism of pre-1960 Canada, or for the asymmetrical lets-make-side-deals-with-each-province federalism of the 2012 NDP?

Baloney. Poor people don't donate money to political parties, but they don't vote much either. Your constant referral to 'the working class' is a euphmeism for 'union members', and the NDP hates unions not being allowed to pound money into their party. They know that ordinary union members won't donate on their own, since union members recognize what the NDP can never publicly articulate what union members know: membership is not about social justice, it is much more concerned with gaining maximum $ and benefits for members. This is the opposite to what the NDP claims as the basis for their union support.There are plenty of 'working men ' in Canada who recognize the inherent fraud within the NDP and wouldn't vote for them on a dare. The NDP doesn't give a shit about 'the working man' except in terms of votes and money. If the unions cannot deliver plenty of money and blcoks of votes reliably, that relationship will sour in a big hurry. And that brings us to a change in startegy for the NDP and their new leader..... If the party does not move to the fertile middle as their union support fades.... they'll be in worse trouble than they are now with transitory support in Quebec and diminshing returns in their old stamping grounds of big labour.