fellowtraveller

It's moved well beyond arguing about Quebec, the province is effectively lost to the rest of the country already. Thank you Trudeau, Mulroney, Chretien and Martin. Mr. Martin has demonstarted his complete willingness to do side deals with whomever will provide a political quid pro quo. This unfortunately is a genie that is very difficult indeed to get back in the bottle. Any province, any time , any deal side deal- except Alberta who have nothing to offer the Liberals except a neverending fountain of cash. I suggest our 'federation' is in a perilous state, and it is getting worse. The PMO -in the normal majority government - is effectively a dictatorship that controls every aspect of the country without significant input from MPs or anybody else. Many of the apologists here are quite content with that . I'm not. We are in dire need of leadership.

Here are the stats as they relate to homicides with guns: a slight dip, then right back up in recent years Homicides by method 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 homicides All methods 546 553 582 549 622 Shooting 184 171 152 161 172 Stabbing 149 171 182 142 205 Beating 128 122 126 121 136 Strangulation 39 47 66 64 63 Fire (burns/suffocation) 5 8 9 12 13 Other methods 32 26 24 27 20 Not known 9 8 23 22 13 Note: Includes murder, manslaughter and infanticide. Last modified: 2005-10-06. Looks like we need some knife control legislation.

This site is rife with apologists for the inexcusable. What about Tom Delay? Any examples of the Liberals holding anybody to account at that level? They stole my money. They stole your money. Coffin skims $1.6 million and walks. A few bureaucrats get their wrists slapped. The government skates away to your applause. Don't talk to me about accountability.

Is there anything that obliges the Liberals to wait until after Gomery?

Immigrants overwhelmingly vote Liberal. Is there more to it than that?

Rubbish. Teachers are paid adequately. A teacher with a normal 4 year ed degree and a few years experience in Alberta will earn around $60K per year. And most of them definitely do earn it, teaching is a difficult, demanding and stressful job if you are one of the many who work very hard at it. I don't belive the $60 per day figure for supply (substitute) teachers. They average about $200/day here, but have few benefits. Full time teachers have extraordinary benefit packages., among the best anywhere.

it is spelled c-h-i-r-a-c

Sure it will. It will let the teachers know in no uncertain terms that they are no longer above the law. The strike is illegal, and I hope the legislation charges them a billion dollars a day in fines. It's long overdue for the teachers union to learn whom is in charge of public education.

No, it would not be more accurate to say that. The problem with our system is that power is totally centralized in the office of the Prime Minister. There are very few checks and balances. The Senate is irrelevant. The Opposition is irrelevant. In large part, the Commons is irrelevant other than, through rigid Party discipline, to rubberstamp the PMO agenda. It may have worked well 200 years ago, but not today.

Shouldn't this be accompanied by a dark soundtrack featuring lots of cellos and bassoons?

I encourage the BC government in their efforts to take control of the provinces education system back from the trade unions. Go Emory!

Not quite correct, since the Liberals will get away with both adscam and the latest Dingwall scandal and the upcoming Industry Canada mess. This is an example of why they will get away with this and worse, the absurd moral relativism and rationalization of the numerous apologists in our country: If the author of that little gem refuses to see the differences between the two situations........... Worse, is the insult to all of us, the attempt to threadjack this into the old wheeze- 'yeah, we're bad but these guys are worse'. That schtick does not impress me anymore, not a bit.

Have we lost our democracy. Well no, but we are well on the way to making the federation irrelevant. Quebec has set a fine example of 'me-first', it is only natural that every region/province do the same. It appears to be the only way to get their share.

Then you'd support one of the two options, in fairness to your fellow Canadians, since none of the conservative outlets are publicly funded: - cut all public funding to the CBC - pour several billion in startup costs to a purely conservative national media outlet, plus a billion per year in operating costs in perpetuity I know you'd be happy to do either, you want to be fair to all Canadians, not just those who agree with your political viewpoint. Which one do you choose?

Not really shoop, hockey is kind of important, but far, far more games are carried on Sportsnet than on CBC. With an election coming soon, who is going to carry the Liberal propaganda to your home if the CBC is not available as usual?

The CBC has an unquestioanably left wing bias, coincidentally the very territory occupied by the Liberals. Note the cheerleading for the union by numerous Liberal MPs lately. Don't notice them getting involved in other, much larger strikes...... The largest newspaper chain is CanWest, unquestionably Liberal supporters. Try reading any of their rags for a month, then argue otherwise. They are careful to have a token rightie columnist or letter to the editor, but it is overwhelmingly left even in Alberta. The Sun chain is more right, but nobody actually reads these fishwrappers, they have no editorial content anyway.

The regionalism extends far beyond Quebec. Divide and conquer is a cornerstone of Liberal policy. Demonize Alberta, isolate the Maritimes through equalization, pander to Ontario... it all works to get them re-elected and ultimately tear us apart.

Do they really support electoral reform??? In the two provinces where the NDP continue to enjoy long tenure as the governing party - Saskatchewan and Manitoba- have no initiatives to implement proportional representation. Proprep is not part of their official party platforms. Curiously , in the seven New Democratic Party websites I checked- provincial and national alike- there was no reference to proprep in only two of the sevenIn the other five, proprep was prominently featured as part of NDP official policy. Guess which two? Sickening hypocrisy. They have an opportunity to make change, and choose not to because it will cost them seats. Some option.

What does the end to the strike mean, and the threat to the CBC Board? It means the Liberals were anxious to get their publicly funded propaganda tool back on the air, and they are going to make sure the Board understands their role in enabling this..

Yes, you do. How many Stanley Cups have they won, in total? One consolation, they haven't had 38 years of pathetic futility like the leafs.

This place is Orwellian at times. So, provinces are allowed to own the resource when the price is low, but not when it is profitable? I say nationalize all Maritime oil. Take away the right of First Nations to particpate in Arctic oil, and gas. Nationalize Quebec and Manitoba hydro. Nationalize Ontario industry, all of it. There is a chance they may do well.

Physically, Edmonton is a far more attractive place. Calgary is flat, brown year round and covered in suburbs and freeways. Edmonton has a gorgeous river valley and plenty of trees. The economy is rocking in both.

Didn't the 1930 Act simply provide to Alberta and Saskatchewan the same rights to resources enjoyed by the original signatories in Confederation? Those rights were specifically excluded in the Alberta Act of 1905. Note that the original signatories zealously and fiercely guard those rights without any criticism to this day.

What a ridiculous concept, that isn't in the Canadian plan at all. The Liberals know that their continual re-election is largely funded by petro-dollars from Alberta, and that to turn off the valves would cripple one of the few cash cows in the nation. Increasingly, a strong Canuckbuck and higher input costs are crippling the competetiveness of Ontario, the only other contributor to buying Canadian voters with their own money. Nope, the Liberal plan is to buy 'credits' from Russia at an estimated cost of $12 billion to meet the Kyoto targets. It won't reduce emissions anywhere, but it will let the morons who vote for them think the Libs are doing something noble.

No, it's a result of extra revenue from oil and gas. If Alberta (has so many like to remind us all) has the lowest taxes in Canada, how can we be overtaxed? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> The extra revenue is from royalties, a tax on corporataions. Extra royalties should result in lower taxes for individuals and lookee here - they have all dropped by $400 in 2005! The province does not need the revenue, so it is appropriate that they return it to individuals that are paying more than is required to fund govt operations. Is pretty simple really, has a century of Liberal rule totally confounded your ability to relate revenue with program spending?