fellowtraveller

Of course, what you ignore is substantial and revelatory: -The main reason Germany is switching back to coal is financial, not environmental. Coal plants are much chaepr to build than replacing aging nuclear - No matter how efficient 'new coal' might be, the net carbon footprint of coal plants is much higher than net footprint of nuclear. Not just in the operation of the plant for decades, but in the acquisition of fuel for the plant which in itself is a carbon producing nightmare. - Germany easily meets and exceeds their Kyoto targets without lifting a finger or spending a penny. Why? Because their industrial carbon output was measured with the horrifically polluting East German heavy industry outputs included. Those industries ran for political reeasons, not economic, so they all shut down on reunification. Presto chango, all targets met for a long time! Same thing in Russia, which is why they had billions in carbon credits for sale, which Canada though of buying several years ago.

and this is where I point out that neither of us knows what reforms will actually be done by Harper. OAS is comparable to the long ago 'baby bonus', where everybody with children got the same, fixed amount regradless of income. It was replaced by the Child Tax Credit, where is not available to high income families. Simialr thing with the GST rebate program on consumer consumption items. I expect that the income limits for clawback on OAS will be lowered , as well as the speculated increase in age for eligibility, which will likely take a decade or two to take effect fully. Note that several countries in the developed world have already moved their age of retirement to 67. We are not immune to the double whammy of living longer and the giant needy mass of boomers, at the same time. Or we can take the path we have taken so far on health care, which is to pretend nothing is happening.

OAS is already affected by income, see below for the calculations. But I expect that the other penny will drop, that the limits for elegibility for OAS will also be altered to cut out high income retirees, and that very low income seniors will either get more OAS earlier, or that the rules around the OAS Supplement will be altered to get them more cash. . The govt did the something similar for the 'baby bonus' long ago, they addressed the inequity of 'one size fits all' for income supplements.

Skilled workers are the very best immigrants. They tend to be young, skilled, healthy, educated, willing and eager to work and best of all- trained entirely at the expense of somebody outside Canada. They are just the typoes to work long and hard and support all the doddering generation of boomers enjoy their retirement. It is a win win.

What do you mean? Resource companies in Alberta - for about a decade- have recruited skilled workers from everywhere in Canada. They have done a pretty thorough job of it, so much so that they have exhausted the labour pools of skilled workers in some cases. In others, they fly people from all over the country into Alberta and soemtimes directly into Ft MacMurray for shift changes, from Nfld and elsewhere. They have also recruited skilled workers from all over the world. If yoiu get hired and wish to move, there is plenty of financial assistance for that too. They'd much rather have people relocate with their families, because then they stay longterm. But it is exepnsive to buy a house in FM, and skilled workers often have settled lives elsewhere, but the choice is theirs. The corporations much prefer hiring Canadians, there is much less hassle and expense. Oh, and every province runs its own education, training and apprenticeship programs and fiercely defends that turf. if you wish to train more skilled workers to come West and work, there is nothing buy yourselves to stop it. The alternative is to develop your local industries that require those skilled workers, then you too can import foreign skilled labour to operate your factories.

Any comment on the actual action proposed by Harper, other than generalized whining about when and where he said it?

I don't buy much of that. 90% of the population of Canada is within 100 km of the border, and it is in urban centers in both countries. And what % of books are physically shipped en masse to retailers as opposed to being ordered online and shipped directly to consumers? The biggest booksellers in my part of Canada are Costco and Chapters. Costco stockpiles very little of anything including books while selling many, so there are minimal shipping or reshipping charges. Chapters is also unlikely to spend much time or money sending truckloads of books back and forth, they would just remainder them instore. The main drivers behind the disparity are greed, and the ability of the entire supply chain to leverage a smaller market because of a perceived lack of options for consumers. That reality was illustrated a few years ago when car manufacturers were forced into sometimes drtamatic drops in new car prices about two years after the $CDN leaped in value vs the $US. The Big Three (Chrysler in partiucualr) realizxed that the disparity was so large that people were easily able to travel to the US, pay for aftermarket warranties, pay for modifications to US vehicles- and still save thousands. The same needs to happen for many other things. Car parts are an example. I have bought a part(in 2011) priced at $410 at a CDN Nissan dealer for $210 online, all taxes and delivery included. The part was a genuine Nissan part in OEM box, and came from an Arizona Nissan dealer. There is no explanation other than greed and passivity.

The biggest piece and biggest future problem of all is health care which utterly dwarfs pensions in size, and that discussion has barely begun. Nobody has said we are broke, the PM is looking to the future and addressing a serious problem that we cannot pretend won't occur. Or do you think that planning for our future is irresponsible? The Liberals were responsible for changes to CPP that have helped make it sustainable for a couple of generations, did you want to dump on them too?

Those are some very sobering numbers. The current entitlements are unsustainable. Hats off to previous govts who took measures to make CPP the sustainable model that it is now. Canada is in an enviable position compared to Harpers audience in Europe. Most developed countries face the same issues of a rapidly aging population, but most countries also have the serious handicap of funding pensions entirely from revenues, whereas a good chunk of CPP will come from investment. Harper also used this forum for some marketing for the cream of Europes workforce, which would seriously piss off some of the audience. His suggestion that Canadas doors are open to skilled workers means that some of those skilled workers will be emigrating here. They are perfect: skilled, expereinced, younger, healthy and all their education paid for by somebody else. It is exactly what is needed for our future, those folks can help pay for the tidal wave of old geezers that is surely coming. Contrast that with the likes of Japan, which has really resisted immigration for a long time.... they have the worst problem with a rapidly aging population and few options.

I agree to a certain extent, but some things have a much wider differential and it is not taxes that are to blame. Books, music, cars, steel/metal products, and many manufactured things like paint are quite a bit higher here.

Get used to it, provincial govts everyhwere will be upping the bluster level and demonizing THE HARPER GOVERNMENT as federal/provicnial/health care discussions flounder. Folks, there just is not enough money to keep us all alive forever. Sorry to bring that bad news

Romantic rubbish that the planet was easy takings. Previious generations worked much harder for far less than what we enjoy today. Every generation for the last few has had it easier and easier to fill our faces. If your scenario were true, our liefspans would have dropped, not increased dramatically in a short period. Those persons that actually got to old age in the past relied on themselves first, their families second, their community last. The govt had no charity to give. Widespread corporate and govt involvment in pensions is a very new phenomenen and it looks like that fad is fading fast, because it just is not sustainable except as a true pension, as in you get out what you put in. Defined benefit pensions only work when everybody pays into them for 40 years, then drops dead at age 70 after 5 years of benefits- which was the norm not so long ago.. The only reason public sector pensions work at all is that there is an inexhaustible supply of money. Oh, maybe it isn't inexhaustible.

The one where he rejects Jesus, puts him at the top of an Enemy of Ze State list, and then crucifies The Bearded One at a One World Government buntoss in New York.. It might be more obvious to you, my fillings are now all replaced, without any silver amalgam in my head I don't get the messages anymore.

In schools? Any and all similar literature should be in the school library, where kids can get all the exposure they wish. If that is not enough exposure for parents, they can always take their kids to church or a bookstore or a public lbrary. They can even enroll their child in a school with a specific religious focus if they so choose.

Yes, that is really obvious to any thinking person. I guess that before the 'right-wing conservatives' nailed up Jesus on Fox News primetime, they would have to recant their belief in him and their literal interpretation of the Gospels. Makes for a busy week! Do you think that since Harpers Secret Agenda does not seem to be materializing, that his Even More Really Secret Agenda will include reviving capital punishment and that crucifiction will be the method? His first candidates for the nails-on-a cross will surely be gay abortion seeking visible minorities culled from the re-education camps on Baffin Island.

Oh, it is true all right. Third party management is evidence that management of resources by both government and First Nation has failed spectacularly. It doesn't happen overnight, it occurs only rarely and only after years of nobody doing anything to fix the problem. What are the consequnces to DIAND staff for their mismanagement? None, nobody gets fired for screwign up, the only way to get flushed is to be caught up in periodic federal downsizing games every 20 years of so. To the band? Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. The white guys in suits leave, scores are settled and the village returns to business as usual. The money still flows uninterrupted and there will likely be more of it now.

No of course not and I am saddened by your comment. Assuming you were educated in Canada, it is a depressing commentary on the quality of education in this country, it appears reading comprehension is ommitted somewhere.. Of course, the Bible, Koran and Dawkins should all sit in school libararies. But the parallel you make is moronic. I object to the publishers of the Bible (Gideons) having easy access to every students home via a marketing campaign that has gone on for 46 years on public premises. I would feel exactly the same way if Dawkins publishers had the same access to children via the classroom. Either everybody has the same access, or nobody does. I vote for nobody. If you vote for everybody, then you can supply the wheelbarrows the kids will need to haul all the special offers and coupons home every day.

Yes and no. Many if not most defined contribution plans are self directed RRSPs, and employees are free to invest in anything allowed within them. When I was employed by others, the company would match my contributions (if I chose to make any)once annually to a predefined maximum %.One caveat: they would only match if the company as profitable. The same(plus some other) criteria applied to salary increase and annual bonus. No profit, no gravy for anybody. If we did well, we were quite well rewarded with extra. The whiners here that complain about the loss of defined benefit plans better get used to it, they are increasinglt rare because nobody except govt can afford them, and it is obvious that even the bottomless pit of govt revenue cannot keep up. This introduces the shocking concept of taking personal repsonsibility for your financial security in retirement, as humans have done for 99.9999% of our existence.

If you can tell me your birthday, I'll ship you a sense of humour starter kit. Please specify a unionized shipper.

Every industry in Canada should be nationalized and every adult should be paid the same. They can start with buying my business. I'll give the govt reasonable terms, training and Air Miles.

Back to the OP: Gideon hand outs to be celebrated or scorned? Neither. They should be banned from any presence in schools unless the specific school has an overt and public religious focus.

I already explained my personal involvement, but I will not detail business interests here. Filing reports and acting are very far apart, or they are in DIAND. It is the natuire of bureaucrats and bureaucracies. I must amend my statement about quality of mgmt. In reality, management of bands is wildly divergent, from atrocious to excellent. IMO the nontreaty bands overall are better run than First Nations on reserves, though there are many exception in both.

No, I have already expalined that I reject any outside group gaining access to families via their children at schools with the school superintendents active connivance.It is not a mailing list, it is even worse as it does comes home clutched in Timmys pudgy little fist. It looks official, and in a way it is snce it has the support of the school. That is sick and despicable. If the Gideons wish to give away Bibles, a public school is the wrong place for it.I see everyhting wrong with handing out Bibles or Korans or Torahs via a public shcool. The Gideons are qwuite capable of narketing their dogma door to door, social media, Internet etc.

yes, I cover that very thing when I say that neither side has any business acumen. They jointly mismanagwe astonishing amounts of coin. No, they very rarely do that. When they do, they are racists and interfering in self govt initiatives. They are not welcome unless ebaring money. I don't blame the First Nations at all for this, the quality of DIAND mgmt is frightful for the reason I explained earlier in the thread. I know you audit bands, but auditors just make sure everything adds up to zero. Because I divide $7 billion spent by DIAND the number of people served by DIAND and come up with a big big number per capita. The results or lack of results speak for themselves in the health and social crises faced by many First Nations. Because I have lived in First Nations communities in three provinces and two territories for most of my adult life and have eyes in my head. Duh. Because there are more than thirty million fewer non First Nations people than there are First Nations people. None of them have acess to any DIAND money. On the other hand, all first Nations peoplehave access to those DIAND funds in one way or another by virtue of status. That's how.

No, I am saying that overtly religious groups should not be allowed to prostelytize through the classrooms. Not for Jesus, not for Allah, not for Satan. Not for NAMBLA either. But I am glad you agree that a line must be drawn for sending home material via gullible children, now all that is needed is where to draw it. In the spirit of fairness, lets draw it here: nobody is allowed to sell or give away crap including religious artifacts via kiddies in school. Agreed?