fellowtraveller

very good point.since the reforms call for a single nine year term, make minimum pension eligibility at about ten years of service. It would change the nature of candidates dramatically.

Let's see how things are going in a few years when the salary cap is $80 million and rising, two tickets to watch a meaningless Nashville vs Jets snoozefest in February are $300, and a plastic cup of flat Molsons is $12. Winnipeg will struggle again to support an NHL team because their market is too small and the economy too weak. Again. Nothing has changed except the cost of operating a team.

I don't know which is funnier: the OP linking to The Onion and thinking anything on it is real news, or the Onion itself.

The federal civil service unions can do a lot of damage to Harper from within, and will. PSAC will not go down quietly.

Yeah, I'm the idiot who called a small majority for Harper. Guess I was wrong on that one! I'm also the clown who thinks that it doesn't matter who wins in Manitoba, the only requirement is to keep that federal gravy coming at all times. And mark me down for predicting the Wild Rose and Alberta Parties will win about 12 seats between them, Farmer Ed has ensured they are pooched.

Premier Wall would have to get caught in bed with an underaged goat to lose this election, he is or was the most popular politician in Canada.

Note that Canada Post feels the same way. That is why they have discontinued rural mail delivery to many farms, closed tons of small post offices and privatized many others. At the same time, they have invested tons of money in their major distribution and sorting centers.They would make even more $ if they obliged every Canadian to get their mail at a community box instead of some enjoying the privilege of service to their door.

Clever bastards those anarchists, especially when they act together. John Goodman in The Big Lebowski knew how to deal with anarchists. "We believe in NUSSINK!"

of course they were, at least half of them in the photos were wearing Canucks jerseys which cost $100 to $300 each. Canucks fans are the worst in the NHL by a wide margin and have had that distinction for a long time.

yes, yes, yes and no.The NDP has nothing to gain by helping the Libs off the mat.

Let us not forget that Canada Post was given a massive gift when it became a Crown Corp, receiving perhaps a couple billion dollars worth of real estate, buildings, equipment for the price of $1.

Stephen Harper

Agreed.One of the tragedies of our times is that OJ Simpson was jailed on trumped up charges just when his relentless search for the real killers was well underway. OJ did a detailed and comprehensive search of every golf course in Florida and proved the killer was not hiding there.

*I would suggest that voters do know how Parliament works. If you are one of the few who bothers to actually vote, you are also likely to understand that nearly all votes in the House are whipped and MPs vote the Party line. Free votes are not so common, and are usually commented upon in the media, which I think informed voters also follow. The rest just don't care about any of it, so they won't be involved in any kind of debate anyway.* *This post deciated to the memory of Bev Desjarlais.

That makes no sense. He can easily admit to consensual sex while claiming the charges of coerced sex are a setup.He'll have to take something like this route unless he finds a way to explain his semen on her dress. Too bad Johnny Cochran is dead, this could have been a great trial.

Mainstream media reports here stated that he paid for the jet at the chargeout rate of some $3800 /hour out of his pocket, and paid for the hockey tickets too. Harper goes to quite a few games, and reportedly almost always sits in seats, not private boxes.He does not fly commecial for obvious security reasons.

It varies quite a bit, the level of independence may depend on whether or not a treaty and/or reserve exists, on the status of land cliams settlemts, and whether or not the individual band/reserve is aggressive, organized and willing/able to take on DIAND. I have a close family member who works as an adminstrator for a non treaty band, they are business savvy and DIAND has little input into capital funding and even less into operational money. In general, DIAND wants little to do with any of the decision making- if and when the wheels come off they don't want to be around. THey can tolerate a culture of utter failure at DIAND since that is all they have had really, but for some bands/reserves the old paternal system and the same old shitty results are no longer acceptable. Of course, DIAND wants to control the money but blame the results on anybody else.

The game has changed completely in the last 20 years. Used to be that Indian and Northern Affairs employed a whole slug of engineers, accountants and executives whose jobs were to identify, build, manage, fund all the details of capital projects -like housing- on reserve or band lands. Now the money is just given to the newly mnted First Nations, who insist on identifying and managing their own money and own projects as any self governing entity would. Some do it better than others. If they choose not to build housing that meets my approval, so be it. One thing that has not changed is that the bureaucrats who used to have actual tasks at DIAND are still there, though it is unclear what if anything they do now except get paid.

I'm going to go waaaaay out on a limb and suggest that part of that strategy is going to be to send a whole pile of that work to Quebec. But I'll take your word that oh no none of it is political.

They could whack about 40% of the DIAND staff and nobody at all would notice except the families of those whacked. Same at Health Canada

Yet in your own post you ackowledge that the Tories have moved to the center And that is what Canadians have detected- not themselves changing in any way because we all tend to see the sun revolving around us, , but the Tories being perceived as having moderated their less popular positions. And the evidence is that they have: economically spending like drunken Liberals on one hand and drop anything resembling a controversy on the social policy side. The Liberals have nowhere to go at all. The NDP could profit by moving to the center too, but have so far in their history have refused.

$35 billion funding decision and politicians will have nothing to do with it? Put down the bong and back away.

Does that mean lobbying will not be effective because nobody would ever make a non political procurement choice in Canada, or because they have already chosen their supplier? It is hard to imagine a Minister of the Crown backtracking.......

Colour me politically astonished if Quebec does not get a disproportionate amount of work.

I don't object to 50% plus 1, as long as the province of Quebec acknowledges, respects and accomododates the creation of First Nations within their boundaries and respects their ambitions to join or not join the Quebec nation. On the part of Canada, our leaders will be required to negotiate terms that respect the needs and aspirations of Canadians, not the Republic du Quebec. In other words, a business deal.