CdnRepublican

Well the WTO rulings on lumber and agro are mixed. In the case of lumber they state that the duty applied by the US contravenes NAFTA - not that the duty concept in general is incorrect. Unilateral agro subsidy reduction would be much preferable but politically no one will do it. Subsidizing farmers through marketing boards, quota's, price supports and tariffs is insane. It would stimulate 3rd world trade as well, and set a good example for all to follow. I would never argue that the US is a capitalist market - far from it. Big Government, over taxation, over regulation and general interference is rife. However, Canada, without a strong military, real security at our borders and without working with the US at an adult-partnership level, will never create the environment needed to ensure that trade is soundly protected. Trade and alliance patterns are very much intertwined. Canada has been free riding off the US military for far too long.

No you are utterly wrong. Bush is perceived as a LEADER. Not a guy who brings his video camera to Vietnam to take pictures flexing his muscles. Bush has policies, plans and commitments - he keeps them. Kerry does not and never did. He changed positions on every issue - when asked whether he was for or against Gay Marriage he said 'yes'. He refused to release his med records from Vietnam showing as his Doctors have testified that his wounds came from scrapnel from his own gun treated by bandaids. He refused to discuss his Senate record. He refused to give details on his plan for Iraq. He voted for tax increases; a decreased military budget; against the $87 billion for Iraq. The American people who apparently are a lot smarter than most Cdns, saw all this and said no thanks. Bush captured 51 % of the popular vote - the most ever. Clinton never got above 40 %. The West is in a War - pity that Cdns don't have enough common sense to see that.

NC, Bush and his Agricultural Secretary both wanted to repeal the Beef ban - but Daschle who is now gone and some Democrats opposed it. I bet it will now pass. On the other trade issues some ideas; -Lumber is illegally subsidised in Canada - about $4 billion per annum. The lumber systems are quite different, one could argue that the US system is not really market price driven as well. -Agriculture - Canada after Japan and Switzerland has the higher per farmer subsidies in the world. The US is a subsidy pig as well. Canada should unilaterally abolish its agro subsidies. The Americans would then have no reason to punish Cdn exports. -Military and Security - no military, no real commitment to North American security, a bad immigration system and porous borders means that the Americans will unilaterally decide to manage the border. Canada is no longer an ally and does not pull its weight. Therefore trade and alliance patterns are intertwined. Canada could do much better. With the current political system; current set of parties and politicians and current media bias , nothing will change.

Yes there is no doubt about media bias - the exit polls on Nov 2 were nothing more than Media manipulation of the worst variety. It was akin to CNN stating at 7:40 pm in the 2000 election that Gore had won Florida - thereby ensuring that Reps in the Panhandle did not vote. This broke the law btw. The US is moving to the right - thankfully for the future of mankind. If the Reps are diligent enough they can build the ground forces to win in 2008. They must stick to the Bush Doctrine, implement the social and tax policies that Bush outlined Nov 3, and ignore the Internationalists and Liberals. If they do this, they will in 2008 regardless if Hillary and CNN start their campaign tomorrow.

Canada has a lower standard of living and lower wages than the US and most nettlesome - a far higher structural unemployment rate that deeply burdens the country. If you want pay for your social programs and increase pay and living standards - you need to grow the economy faster and have higher productivity. The US is growing @ circa 4 % per year and its productivity is exploding at about the same level. Canada's economy was stagnant last year and will grow at a little less than 3 % this year. Not bad, but not high enough to close the gap with the US. Now the latest US job reports are better then expected and their unemployment rate is the lowest in 20 yrs - lower than when CNN and ABC assured everyone in the late 90s that Clinton's economy was so great. In fact household surveys indicate since 9-11 a 1.1 million job increase, not the 1.1mn job loss that Kerry purposefully and mistakenly cited in the debates. Canada has many economic rigidities that need to be destroyed or is status quo good enough for everyone ?

Russia will never win this war in Chechnya. It has been fighting there since the days of Catherine the Great - nothing has changed. Now it is a magnet for terror. This gives Putin the perfect excuse to prolong the war - but Russia is doing a poor job of it - apparently even 1000s of Russian civilisans in Grozny and elsewhere have been killed. Chechnya is Islamic not Orthodox. It has never acceded to Russian overlordship. In return for a cessation of terror, the Russians should grant Chechnya autonomy, pull out, secure the border regions and work with a legitimate Chechnyan government to eradicate terror inside the autonomous Chechnyan state. This is the only viable option. Russia is spilling, blood, money and political capital in hopeless enterprise, conducted by young untrained Russians and a decrepit military. Thousands of young men are dead in Chechnya. But you hear not a word about this in the Western Liberal media - why ???

I miss - get use to it - the Cdn media, British Media and US media are in a terrific funk over the election result - the most one-sided since 1900. You will be abused as well. The entire country with the exception of the Leftist Coast and NE and NY, Chicago and Pittsburgh and Philly are Red. Even lying Exit Polls pointing to a Kerry landslide did not sway the outcome. I can't believe that the media reported these fraudalent exist polls - was it a mistake or was it on purpose ? Gee i wonder. On Bush's IQ the analysis done by Sailor and the NY Times [hardly a Bush supporter], suggest that Bush is smarter than Kerry with higher SAT scores [around 1300 in today's dumb downed SAT version]; higher military scores; and a higher IQ [125 vs. 120]. There is no evidence that Kerry is smarter. If you listen to Kerry talk he offers contradictions, bad data and poor sentence construction. A man of supreme intellect is direct, clear, concise and knows facts. In the last debate for instance Bush clearly won on those criteria, though the Liberal media of course gave the debate to Kerry because he did not vomit on his tie. A Bush win by the way is good news for Canada or Canuckistan.