mcqueen625

My take, although you didn't ask that question of me, is that you don't need to buy guns in a foreign country because they are readily available right her in Canada on our street corners. Many of these weapons have been here for some time, unregistered, and classed as "restricted weapons." Committing a crime with a "Restricted weapon" is supposed to add time to a jail sentence, but since many judges tend to call House arrest as incarceration, I don't know how that is sending any kind of message to the criminal element other than "keep up what you are doing, and maybe someday, we'll really get tough on you and put you behind bars for a month." Sorry, how stupid of me I forgot about remission time for good behaviour, how about 1/6th of that month. No wonder our criminals who committ crimes south of the border request immediate transfers back to a Canadian jail where they may just end up being released onto all of us. What a great system we have here in Canada.

What a crock! As in Canada, the same applies in the United States, it is not law abiding citizens that are carrying guns and using then, it it the criminal element. Restrictive guns laws on this side of the border has done absolutely nothing tho take guns out of the hands of our criminals and it never will, simply because these people don't apply for carry permits here of south of the border. The fact is that illegal guns on both sides of the border are bought the same place I could buy one if I was so inclined, on the streets from the same types of people who are peddling crack and other drugs. I spent a number of years working as a Youth Worker with Young Offenders and I know that if I wanted to buy a hand gun I could talk to numerous former client's who have graduated to the adult criminal lifestyle. By the way, let's not forget that in Canada 'Hand-gun restrictive" legislation was brought in way back in 1934, and to date I have read estimates that approximately only 20% of hand-guns were ever registered. Most crime in Canada involving firearms, it was hand-guns that were involved, not rifles and shotguns, the very target's of the infamous "Gun Registry" that has cost us approximately $2 Billion and counting, and has not prevented one criminal act perpetrated by a criminal using one of these targeted weapons. Every time I read where a robbery has taken place using a weapon, it is never a rifle or shotgun, because they are not very easily hidden, whereas a hand-gun fits right into a pocket. Canada's infamous "Gun Registry" was nothing but a tax grab by Chretien's Liberals, and for Martin to continue with this program it just continues to convince me that fighting crime is not a high priority for this government. THey would rather pass legislation legalizing drug use, because enforcing laws costs money. Judging by some of the sentences handed out by our Liberal appointed judges for some very serious crimes it convinces me that our government would like to close even more prisons and put more criminals onto the streets.

If you are going to move to Vancouver I suggest you take a big check-book since it is one of the most expensive places in Canada to live. If you have children the school teacher have just walked off the job andit looks as if in the next little while the whole civil service might follow suit. The only benefit I can see is that they usually get rain in winter instead of snow. Their Premier is a person who abides by a credo, do as I say not as I do. He was arrested stateside not all that long ago for a DUI.

The cure for that would be to simply invoke the will of Canadian's and that is to abolish The Senate period, along with the Office of the Governor General. Think of the tax money that could be saved on salaries and expenses from such a move. Why we might even be able to have lower taxes without losing any services, think about that, what a boon for Canadian's. Next we could get rid of Parlaiment and their provincial counterparts since PM Paul Martin stated; "The Supreme Court IS the final word in this country," and elect the judiciary instead to specific terms in office. It would get rid of corrupt politicians, and at the same time make the judiciary accountable to the people they are supposed to serve. I don't see that they have been doing anything recently except attempting to grab more and more power to control our lives, while being accountable to no one.

Good idea and then we can stop the icebreaking in the St. Lawrence River during the freeze over that all Canadian's are paying for whether we require it ourselves or not. In Europe, icebreaking service is paid for by the shipper and the steamship company, not by the distination port or the country where the port resides, and that is the way it should be here in Canada. At one time there was what was called a winter-port in Eastern canada where all cargo destined for central Canada was unloaded due to ice in the St. Lawrence River. The ports in both Saint John, NB and Halifax, NS are ice-free and do not ever require the services of icebreaking ship to clear a path, but that all changed when the federal government decided to favour the ports in Quebec by provinding ice-breaking service to those ports. Not too many years ago I remember Ottawa attempting to make all ports in Canada to split equally the costs of icebreaking and it was only when the ports on both the East and West coasts balked and refused to pay for a service they do not use that the feds backtracked. The result is that all Canadian's are paying the costs to keep the ports in Quebec open year round at the expense of the ports on both coasts of Canada. Maybe it is time to demand that the Quebec government pay those icebreaking costs tehmselves if they want the year round port, or simply remove the icebreaking from the St. Lawrence period, and allow nature to determine which ports are viable as it was in times past.

Bloc MP Francine LaLonde has introduced a private member's Bill to legalize euthanasia, similar to the law passed in the Netherlands which allows the eithanization of anyone who requests it. The only criteria is that the person be at lerast 18 years of age, and must appear to be lucid. The assessment need not be made by a doctor, and the person must request it at least twice within 10 days, and that request need not be in writing. Justice Minister Irwin Colter apparently has signalled a desire to change Canada's law on the issue to refelct his perception of what he calls "changing attitudes,' the same way he pushed through the same-sex marriage legislation which also reflects legislation from the Netherlands, where prosittution is legal, marijuana can be bought and smoked in bars and taverns, and same-sex marriage is also legal. I as a Canadian do not trhe laws of Canada changed to parallel the laws in the Netherlands, they are far too liberal for my liking.

A girlfriend my son once had came from just such a home, mother lesbian, father bi, and both parent's bringing home their boyfriend's and girlfriend. You won't find a more screwed-up kid. After my son had had enough of her weird behaviour she wound up sleepig with anyone who would tell her they loved her. last time I heard of her she was hanging out with the roadies from the fair circuit, and wound up pregnant by she knows not who. I also spent a number of years working with male young offenders in an open custody type setting and several of my formenr clients came from that background and none had a healthy respect for members of the opposite sex. They viewed them solely as something to use and throw away. One client actually told me that both mom and dad brought home strangers of the same sex, and engaged in sexual activity in front of him. He had been removed several times by child-protection workers, but when he became 16 he simply moved back in with his parents. He said they were his parents and he loved them. This kid wound up molesting young children, and saw nothing wrong with what he did.

I have to take issue with the damage caused by cars on our roads and highways. My contention is that far more damage is done by one transport truck that there is with 100 cars. Now we have B-Trains on highways that were not built for that kind of concentrated weight. Maybe it is time to rebuild our rail system from coast to coast, and take many of these trucks off the roads and the roads will last much longer. Both CN Rail and CP Rail have abandoned much of their infrastructure in Altantic Canada, and are thriving south of the border. Most of the freight is now being trucked in and out of Atlantic Canada, causing massive damage to our highways right across Canada. The only railway presence we have are small regional railways. For instance in NB, Irving has taken over much of the rail traffic for his own industries using a company owned railway that they have named NB Southern, a subsiduary of Sunbury Transport. He also owns Midland Transport, RST Transport, all subsiduaries of Sunbury Transport, and Kent Lines provides him with ships to haul oil to further destinations. What we need is to put national railways back together in order to preserve our roads and highways, as well as cut pollution.

What do you mean "OUR OIL? Quebec only seems to want to be part of Canada when they can get somethjing or claim it as theirs, otherwise they want to separate. As far as I'm concerned they can leave anytime, and the sooner the better, because when they leave we won't ever be stuck with another Quebecois as PM, and that can only be a good thing.

I also am Catholic and I look at a government that is not pro-life, a government that has rammed through same-sex whatever, but I will never refer to it as a marriage regardless of how many laws that get passed, a goverment rife with corruption, a government that will say or do anything to hang onto power, a government that is led by a leader who has abandoned his responsibilties in favour of allowing an appointed, unaccountable judiciary to make law in this country, Paul Martin said; As far as I'm concerned the Supreme Court IS the final word in this country," and their latest fiasco, continuing to allow 14 year old's to consent to having sex. So much for the Liberal's wanting to represent what the majority of people in this country want, because their only goal is to pander to vocal minorities, and stay in power just as long as they can. In fact the now have a whole segment of society, mainly in Quebec and Ontario with their hands out for taxpayer's money, they are called corporate Liberal supporters. The LIberal's refused to allow a free vote on Bill C-38, because Martin demanded that Cabinet Members, Deputies and Secretaries had to vote in favour of this legislation, and many of these individuals pressured other mambers to support the Bill, The NDP definite does not believe in democracy because they too ordered thier member's to vote Layton's line. The Bloc did the same, not that it matters much since outside the Province of Quebec they are simply immaterial. My choice is quite clear, I will vote Conservative. I don't find Harper scary, I find that his ideas correspond with mine in more areas than does any other alternative. The Conservatives stated that they want to do something about the power of the appointed judiciary, by redefining what they can and cannot do. Right now they answer to nobody. The Conservative just introduced a Bill to up the age of consenual sex from 14 to 16 years of age. Right now Canada has one of the lowest ages of consent of any Western country. This leaves 14 year old vulnerable to pedophiles, and other sexual predators, on the internet and otherwise. I certainly would not want my 14 year being able to freely consent to having sex with someone much older then themselves, and the present law does nothing to stop it. Colter stated that he was worried about one adolescent being charged with having sex with another adolescent, but that is simply a cop out. The reality is as the Conservatives stated, that could have been dealt with in Committee, but the LIberal's with the help of other parties defeated this Bill, saying the existing Bill is sufficient. I'm sorry but it is not sufficient if adults are allowed to predate on 14 year olds, and the present Bill allows that to happen.

Of course there is a Liberal bias. Just look at how much coverage the resignations of Conservative Party staff received compared to Liberal Party resignations, the Liberal resignations hardly received any coverage while the media tried to make a big deal out of the few who left the Conservatives. There were far greater changes within the Liberal Party staff over the same period. The media seems to cling to anything to do with the opposition parties while the many instances of corruption within the Liberal Party gets only minor coverage. Every poll that is conucted by the media always tries to put a positive spin on whatevfer the outcome is for the Liberal side. Which is why I do not pay any attention anymore to polls, because the only one that matters is the one on election day. I remember a poll conducted in New Brunswick showing the P.C. as the overwhleming favorites, and predicted another large majority. On election day the PC's did win, but not by a majority. Infact they have a minority government and barely hung onto power. I predict that the next trip will be devastating for them.

The fact is the NDP lost whatever credibility they had when they supported the most corrupt government in the history of Canada to stay in office, the Liberals. I for one stopped supporting them when Alexia decided that she was going to take the NDP closer to the middle of the political spectrum in order to placate corporate fears that the NDP was too socialist. Now they seem to want the best of both of those worlds. They want tax levels left where they are, and much more of that tax money spent on social programs. The reality is that most Canadian's are receiving less real income than they were even 10 years ago due to governments of all sorts raising every tax and fee that they could lay their hands on, and even inventing many new ones, and what has this gotten us? It has created a situation where record numbers of Canadian's are relying on food banks and soup kitchens to stave of hunger pangs. With the rising cost of gasoline and heating oil, that usage is about to go through the roof, because those rising costs will quickly affect everything we buy in order to just exist, including food, and clothing, and let's not forget the rising costs of heating your homes, whether one heats by oil, natural gas, heating oil or electricity. Last year alone in New Brunswick, NB Power was some how allowed to apply for, and was granted 3 raises totalling approximately 12% in rates in under 1 1/2 years even though the regualations say that they are only allowed to raise rates once per year. Much of their additional expenses came for the fact that the provincial government under Bernard Lord, took one corporation, NB Power, and split it into five separate corporations, each with it's own management team, and it own employees. THe Oposition Leader, Shawn Graham under the Right To Information Act, discovered that by doing so it cost an extra $2 Million each per year in additional costs. They are now before the Public Utilities Board looking for a 16% increase to take effect on April 1, 2006, in order to fund an expected $126 Million revenue shortfall. Meanwhile many NBer's are still struggling to pay off last winter's heating bills, and the government awarded executive bonuses to their management teams. Go figure? The truth is that we are headed for a major recession according to some economists, and if that in fact does take place, Canadian's are not going to be able to afford all of the social niceties that our tax money is presently funding, let alone add new expenditures that the NDP is promoting, such as National Child Care. My take is if these career parents want to continue working and allow some strager to bring up their kids, then they should be paying that cost themselves, not looking to to government to pay for this expense. When my wife and I had our children my wife stayed home and brought up our children until they went to school, then and only then did she return to the workforce. Even them we paid the cost of childcare until one or the other of us got off work. we never expected government to pay. Today it seems that people want everything paid for by government. Smart people realize that government never does anything cheap, because for every initiative they institute they create a whole new bureaucracy to oversee it. WE NEED LESS GOVERNMENT, NOT MORE! Under the NDP's mentality, the largest employer in Canada will still be government, and we wonder why taxes are so high?

That's fine but why would you want to elect an admitted thief to the Parliament of this country, especially running for a Party that has never and will never form the Government? People of this country want lower taxes while the NDP's platform is against lowing taxes, and instead what to create even larger government to run all of the socail programs that they promote. I used to vote exclusively NDP, both federally and provincially, but all that stopped when the NDP chose Alexia McDonough and she decided to take the Party more to the Centre of the political spectrum in order to gain some favour from the corporate sector. That move was a complete betrayal of the people whom the NDP traditionally represented, which was the ordinary working person in this country. Corporations represent only themselves and their profits for their shareholders, not the people of this country. What do you think free-trade is all about? It certainly isn't about people, it is instead about allowing the multinational corporations maximize profits by outsourcing their manufacturing to third world countries, and shipping it back into Canada, duty-free. The NDP has become under Alexia and Jack just another Liberal Party, and that showed by their support of a Liberal Government so corrupt that they will agree with anything and anyone to stay in power. My biggest fear is that the people will elect another majority Liberal Government to power, because if they get the majority that Martin wants, I wouldn't give two cents for the promises Martin made to the NDP & the Bloc to gain their support. I believe those promises will be indefinitely postponed.

You sound like an ignorant gay-bashing low-life thug, and it takes away any credibility that you might ever have earned (from gullible people) with your arguments. Your attempt to paint the NDP party and its policies based on one MP who has embarrased himself is pathetic.... If that's the kind of argument you have to resort to in your quest to promote the Conservative party, then I would have to say... if you've got nothing intelligent to say... say nothing... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Okay let's forget the fact that he is gay, let's just deal with the fact that he is an admitted thief, irregardless of whether he wound up with a criminal record or not. Most people would have wound up with a criminal record for sure, just ask any poor folks who have been convicted of shoplifting whether they have a criminal record or not. Most will tell you that they received not only a fine or jail-time, but a criminal record to go with it. They do have the option of applying for a Pardon after five years if they do not commit another criminal act during that 5 years. Of course Svend does not even have to worry about applying for a pardon since the judge treated him with kid-gloves, a slap on the wrist, and no criminal record. He is an admitted thief, and as such shouldn't be allowed to runs for Parliament, since we already have plenty of politicain who have not been caught with their hands in the cookie, and some who have been caught, yet still sit as members, appointees or bureaucrats.

His schnoz is kind of huge. From all the lies to David Orchard et al., I suppose. I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> And you're willing to trust Martin and the Liberal after they have either stolen or misappripriated literally $millions and counting of our tax-dollars? Considering Dingwall's exploits, it appears to matter little whether the taxpayers of his riding kicked him to the curb or not, because Martin gave to constituants a slap in the face and basically told those voters that they are going to continue paying this useless person whether they like it or not, so he was appointed to his post at the Canadian Mint where he continued to spend as if he was still sitting in Cabinet. Martin does not appear at all contrite about the inappropriate expenditure of taxpayer's money, because he defended Dingwall in the House. They say we get the government we deserve, so I guess what deserve and want is a bunch of thieves and liars.

An review by a Board which was also appointed by the Liberal Machine does not make me feel all warm and fuzzy, since they are not likely to implicate another Liberal in wrong doings. What we need is for the Auditor General to do this investigation and then the truth might actually get told. I have no faith that this government regardless of who is running it will ever be truly honest with the taxpayer's of this country. Just as I have no faith that Gomery is going to produce anything except a white-wash report on the Sponsorship Program. When has anyone ever seen a politician take ownership for inappropriate practices, and that is especially true for this Liberal Federal Government ? Little wonder people have absolutely no faith in politicians in general. We desperately need to change the way our government is structured and elected. We also need insert personal accountability from our elected representatives instead of them putting the blame on some petty bureaucratic scapegoat, who the gets rewarded by the court's wih a slap on the wrist resulting in house arrest after stealing $millions from the taxpayer's coffers. what a farce this country has become. Someone recently referred to Canada as nothing but a Banana Republic when discussing the misappropriation, and outright theft of taxpayer's money by both politician's and their appointees.

That is a good idea. Some people tend to forget, just because the Government of Canada is lax on justice, and because it seems cheaper to not enforce our existing drug laws, it doesn't make it right. This asshole not only broke the laws of Canada, but he exported an illegal drug into another country, therefore he should face the laws of tha country, and if I were the Governor of that State when this idiot get's convicted, I would not allow any transfer to a Canadian prison until that sentence is complete, because once in Canada are justice system might just send him home on house-arrest so he can resume his illegal activities. Canadian law is getting so lax that the former Mayor of Vancouver suggested that the city's Methadone clinic be also used to hand out fresh mouthpieces for crack-pipes at this facility, and to allow these poor crack addicts to smoke their Crack at the clinic. what an idiot. HIs rationale seems to be that if a law costs money to enforce, then lets just not enforce it, and then we don't need as many police personnel. Tell you what, why don't we just legalize all illegal drugs, and allow those who are addicted to consume at will. In a very short while we won't have to fund long-term medical services for these addicts, because maybe they will overdose, and kill themselves. THat way we can not only save the money it cost to enforce the laws of this land, but we can also save the healthcare budget all kinds of money. Do I feel sorry for addicts? Not in this lifetime, because nobody forced these assholes to get high in the first place, nobody forced them to continue down that path, so I could care less about these useless human beings. Maybe we should send Emery to Saudi Arabia and see how they deal with his penchant for dealing in drugs. Tell you what the trial will be real quick, and the punishment will be meted out real quick as well. There will be languishing in a cell for years before he is put to death, because the appeal process is real quick as well, and of very short duration.

Jail, what jail? In Canada drug dealers don't go to jail, they get house arrest, unless of course one is naive enough to believe that house arrest is really being actually incarcerated. Our justice system is the laughing stock of the world. No wonder criminals and terrorits want to come here. We have a sex-offender registry and people like Karla Holmolka (Teale), and Karl Toft are not on it, because that would conflict with the flawed document our Court's, and government refer to a our Charter. What a joke, a real sick joke!

Democracy is a lot like self-esteem, you can't give what you don't possess yourself, and Canada is not a democracy, we are in fact nothing but an elected dictatorship. We don't get to pick our leaders as they do in the United States, those leader in Canada are picked by the Party at a convention, and once picked we do not get to vote for them. All the leader then has to do is get elected in their particular riding and they remain as leader. If their Party forms the government we are stuck not only with them as leader but we are also subject to their particular agenda. This happens in Canada both federally and provincially. For us to have a true democracy we need to have our leaders run at-large. If that were to have happened, we never would have had that embarrassment Chretien as a PM. We have no checks and balances in our system since the people who are supposed to be the overseers, The Senate are appointed by the PM from the ranks of the Party faithful and they simply rubber-stamp and legislation that comes throgh that House. We have national elections in this country being decided by one Province, Ontario, so it makes the votes of the rest of Canadians useless. In order to fix this we need to have a system whereby we have equal representation form each province and territory regardless of population just as they do in the U.S. to eliminate the possibility of one province asserting their will over the rest of the country. We need to have a equal and elected Senate so as to have real sober second thought, which under the present system the Senate has become simply a reward for Party loyalty. There is simply nothing democratic about the Canadian political system as it now stands.

Give it up! The reality is that our pathetic armed forces altogether couldn't defend PEI from invasion by New Brunswick. Our government for years tries to act all independant but the reality is that because of neglect of our own miliyary we are forced to rely on the U.S. for our protection if their ever was an invasion. For us to act as if we are independent of the U.S is noting if not asinine. Most of our major corporations are simply subsiduaries of U.S. corporations, so stop feeling so high and mighty. Critism of Canada by the U.S. is justified in my opinion, I don't feel I have anything to feel patriotic about being Canadian born, in fact I admire how patriotic Americans are of their country meanwhile whole provinces in Canada are promoting that this country break up, and they elect MP's specifically for that purpose. Why would any Canadian be proud? Proud of what? Having a federal government so corrupt that they think nothing of stealing moeny and passing it to their business friends in the form of grants, yet we re-elect them to office knowing that they are a bunch of thieves and liars. That's not something I can be proud of. More than 15 years ago our federal government made a committment to eliminate child poverty by 2000, and here it is 2005 and child poverty is just as bad or worse than it was 15 years ago. In fact the numbers of homeless has grown significantly, and the usage of soup kitchens and food banks continues to grow as I write this. I am involved as Treasurer of a small local food bank and I can tell you that not a week goes by without a new family coming through our doors needing help with groceries. I perdict with the gouging allowed to go on by the insurance and oil industries because our governments continue to nothing, this winter is going to cause our numbers to break even more records of usage., not that we haven't continually exceeded the previous years numbers every year already. Our politicians tell us that everything is rosy, the economy is in great shape, and I have to wonder who they are talking about, because it certainly isn't anyone I have been in contact with. The people I talk to are worried about such things as being able to pay their heating oil or hydro bills in order to heat their homes. They worry about wether thay are going to be able to afford the medications their doctors have prescribed, or are they going to have enough food to eat. Of course our politician's don't think about things like that because they have never had to deal with living in poverty, They think only of their own comforts and that of their corporate buddy's who concern themselves with things like which cruise they are going to go on when the cold weather hits, or how long they should stay in Florida. Things people living in poverty can only dream about, but what do our politicians care about them, exactly nothing!

I'm not quite sure what AECL's involvement is with Pt. Lepreau Nuclear Station in New Brunswick but I understand they have some involvement in a refit scheduled to cost in the vacinity of $1.2 Billion which was just approved by NB's government, and NB Pewer. Maybe some of this money can be accounted for in whatever involvement AECL has in this project. It would not surprise me if they aren't footing part of the bill for this project since the MP represently Saint John is none other than Paul Zed, son-in-law to one of the Irving brother's and husband to Judy Irving. The federal cabinet refused to get involved themselves in this project because they said it would set a precedent and they would wind up footing the bill for reactors in Ontario that are also at the end of their designed for lifespans of 25 years.

And why would he. That money was earned by Alberta not the rest of Canada, so why should they share. Martin just signed onto deals with Newfoundland and Nova Scotia whereby they do not have to share their oil wealth, and they even get to keep their share of equalization grants, which is not fair to provinces like NB and PEI, and the other so-called have-not provinces. I never believed that Quebec was a have-not province, especailly since they keep talking as if they could survive on their own. If they can survive on their own, why are they continually asking for more and more from Ottawa, and getting it, along with equalization payments. If I were an Albertan I would be encouraging Ralph to have a referendum to separate from Canada before Ottawa attempts another raid on their treasury, like happened in the 70's under Trudeau. I would put nothing past Martin and his Cabinet, and I'm sure that Layton would go along with anything Martin proposes.

It was a faulty accord in the first place simply by the fact that it allowed China to be exempt from the protocols. That did not even make remote sense since they have one of the largest economies in the world and they are the most polluting country on the globe. At least the U.S. seen the accord for what it was, an accord that put them at an even greater disadvantage in the world economy, while Canada just wnet marrily along with it. For Canada to continue down this path will only put us at an even greater disadvantage. The U.S. is following their own agenda and their advances in pollution reduction are far ahead of our own. The provinces of this country were not in favour of Canada signing this accord but our federal government went ahead and signed anyway, that's how much they pay attention to Canadians. We would be foolhardy to leave our signature on this accord since it is all but dead anyway, and it will leave us at an economic disadvantage compared to country's like China who never was compelled to sign in the first place.

I do not live in Alberta but I have two sons who do live in Calgary. I have visited on numerous occasions both Calgary and Edmonton, and I have to say I much prefer Calgary because it is a modern city while Edmonton I found to be old and dirty in comparison. To each his own, I think it depends on what you get used to, and Edmonton is the Capital City of Alberta.

I disagree that there is nothing wrong with our healthcare system in Canada. One of the glowing things wrong is that while the money spent on healthcare continues to climb, I contend that much of that increase is due to a vast increase in the numbers of adminstrative personnel throughout the system, while the number of people who actually work with the patients, and their support personnel has decreased drastically. While we do need some administration in the system it has become top heavy with accounting types who's only goal it seems is to insure that they still have a job when a decision is made to cut personnel costs. An example of this is in my city of Saint John, NB where the provincial government just finished bragging about the expansion they just completed on St. Joseph's Hospital in the downtown. The problem is that this is not even an active care hospital anymore since the ER has been closed and has been replaced with basically a daytime walk-in clinic. For after-hours requirements people must spend in the order of $12.00 by taxi to get to the Regional Hospital quite a distance from the downtown, certainly not within walking distance. The other aspect of this expansion at St. Joseph's is the fact that virtually all of the expanded space is set aside for administration office space. Just what we need more beancounter's who's only qualifications are to study budget figures. In the meantime medical personnel have had their jobs eliminated or cut back to part-time and term positions. If we are going to have healthcare facilities we need to have medical professionals making the decisions which affect patients care, not a person with BBA, MBA, CA, CPA, CGA or some other such professional initials after their names,. We need to have people with MD, RN, BN, LPN, etc. following their names, because they are the people who actually are responsible for taking care of patient needs. Accounting types we can do without, but they seems to have inserted themselves into many operations where they are not qualified to gives an opinion on how the operation is to function unless our only concern is the almighty budget. At a workshop I once attended the guest speaker spoke about the way government and industry are employing people with BBA, MBA to runs operations in various fields when they have no expertise as to what the organization's function really is. He contends that their only concern is to operate the entity in a way that stays within budget or trims costs from the entity. In his field, which is Criminology, he contended that these types could care less that prisons are no longer safe facilities because the people who have been hired are concerned with dollars only and people are just a hinderence to their plans. If a few less guards represents a significant saving, then they slash the jobs of those gueards. Never mind the fact that those guards who are left are in not safe and neither are the prisoners they are supposed to be guarding, the fact is that these people have managed to trim some costs and that is all government concernes themselves with, until someone get's injured, and then they will somehow find a way to blame the guards, never the beancounter who suggested those cuts in the first place. The same thing is happening in our healthcare system, we have allowed beancounters to make decisions that are affecting patient care and nobody in government wants to admit that we do not need the amount of administration which is presently in our healthcare system.