cybercoma

Has everyone lost their mind? Every working person should be charged for government funded babysitters? Are you kidding me? What a great place Canada would be if we gave our entire checks to the government, so they could give us everything we need....universally. Everyone would have equal access to (unequal) goods and services. Heck, we could even ration out food--no one would starve. They could even dictate what we eat so no one is unhealthy. This would relieve the burden on healthcare, which the government will also continue to provide. The government could confiscate all of our property and make sure everyone has a place to live--no one would be homeless. Post-secondary education would be free for everyone, we'd have the smartest country in the world. What a great place to live.

Because you clearly need someplace to drop the kids off while you go get your fix. Most Canadians are employed by small businesses (y'know, the ones that get squat from corporate tax cuts). Corporate cuts don't encourage investment: demand does. If there's no demand (because, say, people are spending more of their income on hings like housing and child care), there's no investment. Instead, thet money simply heads offshore, never to be seen again. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> So let me get this straight, when people spend their money on housing and child care, that money heads offshore?

Conservative priorities: environment, social housing, foreign aid and student tuition=waste. Tax cuts for corporations (which, in Canada, are mostly foreign owned)=A Good Thing Yeah, those Cons have their ear to the street alright: Bay Street. I'v enever met an easterner of any political afiliation who's held thos eopinions. There's an abundance of misconceptions and animosity concerning our Canadian bretheren, the existence of which fails to undermine my point. In fact, it seems like, rather than making a meaningful contribution to the flow of the discussion, you just opted to slur easterners. May I make a sugestion? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Why should I pay for babysitters and crackhouses? And the majority of those foreign owned businesses probably employ the majority of Canadian citizens. They could invest in other countries that aren't so busy threatening the apocalypse should the Liberals loose power. This kind of instability is not one of the "assets" corporations look for when investing. Not to mention the on again, off again nature of these tax cuts. But sure, if you don't mind a bunch of unemployed people living off the hard earned money of the employed because you want to make Canada look instable and you want to tax corporations more, that's just fine. At least there'll be more housing, babysitters and a bunch of people standing around a lake talking about how clean it COULD be. Your tax dollars hard at work.

I guess finally putting through a Constitution isn't enough?

This is fantastic news! It confirms that I'm smarter than over 50% of Canada. I feel great!

I guess those goes to show that about 40% of eligible Canadians don't really care either way. If they don't vote, I can't see it making a difference to them when the vote occurs. I'm just wondering what the opinion is of those who actually pay attention to what's going on. Paul Martin could potentially WIN an election should one be called right now, that's the other thing people aren't talking about. If you'll recall, during the last election they forcasted the Conservatives to win more seats than they actually did. So, just because the Conservatives get their election, they won't necessarily win. If the conservatives do win and it's a minority government, we could potentially have another election by the end of the year/beginning of 2006. Joy.

I've seen varying opinions on going to the polls and it would seem that most Liberal supporters are saying the people don't want to go to the polls yet. What's your opinion? When do you want to go to the polls and why?

Thanks for speaking for the entire electorate. Come to think about it, let's make a poll based solely on this forum's opinion.

Trudeau, in the words of Will Ferguson, is an archetypal bastard. I think that's precisely what this country could use right now.

OH damn! Did you just compare Paul Martin to Joe Clark?

CTV The CTV article has other good quotes too but I started this "forum vote" because, given the new look, I feel like I just arrived in a Ritz-Carlton suite (on Sherbrooke, government tab) and I want to try the phone in the washroom. ---- For example: The Liberals rely on patronage while Harper relies on finger paint. IOW, she's afraid she won't be re-elected. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Someone should start a poll about Carolyn Parrish: "Do you give a crap about her opinion anymore?" No being the only eligible response.

Actually, job loss is the leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States and the general heading of medical bills is the second leading cause. http://www.andrewslaw.net/bankruptcy/your_...your_life.shtml Specific medical emergencies aren't necessarily what's bankrupting american people, it's much more likely that it's prolonged medical costs for chronic illnesses and a huge disparity in the cost of prescription drugs. Americans are subsidizing prescriptions that are being sold in Canada and government regulated prices. If you really want to split hairs, I can draw the conclusion that it's OUR government that's actually bankrupting American citizens. Corporations or the people, it's not a mutually exclusive concept, err. Tax benefits to corporations in turn benefit the people, for all the reasons you've heard a million times but refuse to acknowledge.

fuddle-duddle. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

I don't see it that way. Autoworkers in Canada are not in too bad a shape. GM has just announced a Billion dollar investment in Ontario. This can be attributed to the fact that quality of work in Ontario plants is much higher than in their US counterparts (well documented fact), the fact that corporate taxes in Ontario are lower than in any bordering US state (another well established fact), and that they don't have to pay for expensive medical care in Ontario, as they do in the US. What's more, they have good jobs that pay them well enough to lead good lives. This is an incentive for them to meet quotas, and do quality work, because they value their good jobs. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> GM? hahaha, you're kidding right? GM's bonds were downgraded to junk status this week. :edit: sorry, maybe they weren't officially downgraded....but they're on the verge.

Come on now Argus, don't you think all that money they take from you is best spent on babysitting and streetsweeping?

I highly doubt we would've even found out about any of this had Martin just kept his mouth shut instead of working feverishly to overthrow and discredit Chretien.

We could argue all day about the religion thing, although I'm agnostic, I really hate to see people say religion itself is the source of the world's problems. I don't know of a single religion that advocates murder, in fact all of them advocate loving one another etc. The point being, corrupt people ruin religion and use it as a tool for corrupt purposes. I find it awfully difficult to blame the religions.

You see err, the money has to come from somewhere and this is why the autoworkers are in such a bad place. I assume you're familiar with their situation, being an NDP supporter and all. They've demanded so much from the companies that they have to get the money from somewhere. There is a very specific budget these corporations have to follow (...because afterall, they're there to make money) and if they cave to union demands for higher wages and more benefits, the corporation in turn must lay-off so many employees so they can meet their margins. The unions have f***ed over the employees and they're in a downward spiral. The same can be said for minimum wage. If I own a small business and I have 10 people on staff to watch my shop, chances are I can't afford to pay all of them an addition $3/hr because the government says so. The money has to come from somewhere and if it's not there either a) I close shop and everyone is unemployed or I fire enough people until I can continue making money. As they say, "money doesn't grow on trees".

NOT POSSIBLE! Our healthcare is universal and FREE to everyone, why go to the United States and pay for it? Just a general inquisitive thought to everyone: I'd like to know how our healthcare system is even fair, considering it's based on need. Whose opinion of need? The specific doctor that assesses you? How does his opinion compare to the specific doctor that assesses me? What if there isn't enough of the particular product or service to go around? How then do we determine which doctor's assessment is more correct? How too, is our healthcare system fair to the poor who can't afford prescription drugs anyway? What about those who have no fixed address and therefore cannot get a health card? How is our healthcare system fair to those who work in it? They're forced to work for what the government determines the value of their work is, not what the societal demand is for their skills and services. How is that fair to someone who goes to school for years to become a doctor and spends thousands upon thousands of dollars? How is our healthcare system fair to anyone who has to wait in an ER for 8-12 horus? How is it fair to someone who has to wait 12 months to see a specialist? How is it fair to the thousands of people who can't find a family doctor because there are none left (I don't know if that's a problem anywhere else...)? And we're each paying hundreds if not thousands of dollars a year for this garbage? Give me a break.

I mean let's face it here folks, he's taking the fall for Jean Chretien's dirty pool. Not to mention the fact that he's being outplayed by Jack Layton. Now that's a sad day in anyone's political career. ...I'm just sayin.

Thank goodness! Its comforting to know that the whole same sex marriage debacle has just been a nightmare, and the conservatives are going to stop their religious moralising as soon as I wake up. Phew! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> The same-sex marriage issue is more than just a religious issue. Not everyone who disagrees with same-sex marriages is a religious extremist, contrary to popular belief.

I don't know it first hand, then you go on to tell me how they leave Canada to go and make more money. Do you remember which point you were arguing? Why can they charge that amount of money in the United States? Because that's the value of their skills and service, that's why. Otherwise they're forced to work for the Canadian government making what the government deems to be an adequate wage for them. In the United States doctors wages are controlled by what the public is willing to pay, not by what a government dictates to them. If one doctor is charging $10,000 for a procedure and the rest of the doctors are charging $2,000 for the same thing, common sense would tell you the one charging $10,000 isn't going to make much money. Regardless, we're not advocating an American style healthcare system where there is absolutely nothing as far as publicly funded healthcare goes. What's being advocated is a system whereby people have the choice of spending the money for advanced care and absolutely necessary lifesaving services are still free and universal to our citizens. This is all going on today, but you're turning a blind eye to it. Not only are doctors going over the border but so are patients. Clinics across Canada are referring us to places in the United States to get the proper healthcare we need as quickly as possible. This is a hell of a lot better than the system you're in bed with that forces very sick people to wait months and months for care. Robbery is taking away the option from hard working and productive people who have third party benefits or are willing to pay money for extended care. Robbery is forcing the sick and suffering to wait for care, when all of this could be solved by simply allowing the option. Outlawing private enterprise...I can't believe in a free country we actually do this and people support it. Amazing.

I think that electricity was government business, providing the infrastructure that helps citizens and businesses alike. Also, I don't begrudge a janitor making $18/hour. In fact, that's not, in my opinion, a super-high wage... $36,000 per year. You couldn't buy a very big house with that wage. You wouldn't be able to take your kids to Disneyland with those wages. So why do you begrudge the poor guy ??? Do you think that because the guy may not have gone to University to be a Lawyer, he should be stuck with WalMart wages.... I'd amost think you had a chip on your shoulder, begrudging a guy who, if he had a couple of children, would be living close to what our government calls the "poverty line". I suppose you think we should make minimum wage $18/hour since it's on the poverty line.

Let's face it. Not much is going to help English/French relations in this country. We've been at war with each other since day 1.

The poor, more specifically the homeless, don't have access to healthcare as it is. Without an address you can't get a healthcard and without money how do you pay for prescription drugs with no third party plan? Regardless, we shouldn't carry on about this in this thread. It's not the place for this.