mcqueen625

This is so much BS, of course. Those "mandatory minimums" get negotiated away about 98% of the time. The Crown lowers or ignores the gun charges in order to get a plea and avoid clogging the court rooms. Besides which they know that judges loath those minimum sentences and are quite likely to find a felon not guilty in order to avoid them. I have no documentation, but in the years I've been a regular reader of crime pages on a variety of newspapers I have never heard of ANYONE being sent to jail simply for posession of restricted weapons, or buying or selling them, or smuggling them. And usually when I hear of people going to jail it's for actually shooting someone. Even then they're given a couple of years, but with 2 or 3 days credit for every day they spent in pre-trial custody, and then given parole after 1/6th their sentence is served. The fact is there will never be strong punishment for crimes of violence until there is a small "c" conservative government in power in Ottawa. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> YOu are right on Argus! What needs to happen is for discretionary sentencing to be taken off the table for judges. These bleeding hearts should not have the discretion of using a minimum sentence. I say bleeding hearts because one of the last judges appointed to the bench in New Brunswick is a former President of the local Chapter of The John Howard Society, in fact the YOA Group Home owned by the Society is named after him. The fact is that lately, judicial appointments seem to go to bleeding heart liberal minded Liberals.

The reality is that no amount of money wasted on a gun registry is going to take the guns out of the hands of the criminal element, in fact all our latest attempt has accomplished is the wasting of close to $2 Billion of our hard earned dollars and the only people who have complied are some law abiding Canadian's. Even there many have just refused to register theri weapons knowing that it a complete waste of financial resources, and it has not accomplished the stated goal of cutting down of criminal acts while using rifles and shotguns. Why is that? It is because first of all criminals do not register their weapons. Most robberies and gun violence is taking place, not with rifles and shotguns, but with handguns. Handgun restrictive legislation was introduced and passed in Canada back in 1934, and the latest article I read estimated that only 20% of the the handguns in this country were ever registered. In essence the registry was a total failure, and the same fate is in store for Chretien's long-gun legislation. Our government talks a good crime fight, but the reality is something quite different. We have a justice system that is a laughing-stock and today it seems nobody is responsible for their own decisions, from Young Offenders up to adults. Jail-time doesn't mean jail anymore, and in many cases it means that the convicted criminal get's to go back home to serve his sentence, with few real restrictions. In my Province electronic monitoring was deemed too expensive so those on house arrest get called periodically by a person who does not even know this individual they are charged with checking on. I read a news article quoting one of the U.S. State Governor's, and in this article the Governor was referring to an individual I had supervised while he served time in Open-Custody as a Young Offender. THis individual was now an adult and he had committed numerous acts of theft and fraud of substantial sums of money. He was sentenced to 7 years in prison, but upon sentencing immediately applied for a transfer to a Canadian Prison, nkowing that the likelihood of serving anywhere close to 7 years in a Canadian facility was slim at best. The Governor stated that the Canadian judicial system was far too lenient, and if he granted this transfer the ;okelihood was that this person would be immediately released from custody under the Canadian system. Therefore he decided that there would be no transfer. The Governor stated that upon release after serving his full sentence in a State Prison, this individual would be immediately deported back to Canada. Knowing the individual this governor was talking about I thought, Right On Gov.!

Blind Liberal supporters here are forgetting that many people are still pissed about Bill C-38 and although they have voted Liberal in the past they will support them again due to the SSM legislation, and let's not forget the Sponsorship Scandal, HRDC, etc. This government has simply not changed the way they do business and they have no intentions of changing. Many of the same individuals who sat in Jean Chretien's corrupt Cabinet also sit in Martin's. Martin himself was the Finance Minister when these misappropriations of taxpayer's money were being perpetrated, and if he didn't know it was going on, he should have. If he did know, shame on him, he is a disgrace and should not be PM. This is a Prime Minister who himself publically stated that he is willing to allow an appointed, unaccountable judiciary to be "The final word in this country." I was always led to believe that the buck stops with our elected officials and that it up to them to make decisions for Canadian's, not some political hacks who were appointed to judgeships because of Party loyalty, and as a reward for services rendered. It is our elected officials who are supposed to make decisions of social policy not these unaccountable individuals. The reason elected officials are supposed to be the one's making those types of decisions is so they can then be held accountable by the people for those decisions at election time. In a democracy you cannot have virtual dictator's (Supreme Court judges) telling our elected officials what laws they are to make and how they are to be worded. To have a scenario such as we now have in Canada is hardly a democracy.

And the CBC is not saturated with commercials even though they compete for those advertising contracts, while at the same time holding out their hands for $ billions in taxpayer's dollars? I do miss being able to access local news on CBC.ca, since all of our newspapers are owned and controlled by the Irving Empire.

THe reality is that Free Trade period is simply a multinational corporate agenda designed to allow these corporate bums to shift products across international border withour paying tariffs of any kind. It is all about maximizing profits, and has nthing whatsoever to do with free trade, and anyone who believes otherwise is very naive. Immediately following the signing of the first deal, the FTAgeement, manufacturing stated to shut down operations in Canada, and with the advent of the NAFTA, it just excellerated the process. In fact, factories who had moved their operations stateside, now were given the opportunity to also close U.S. manufacturing plants, and that is when the U. S. realized that these deals are of benefit to only multinational corporations who have no respect for borders or the people of North America. THis is all about increasing profits, and to hell with workers and theri families in either Canada or the United States. What needs to happen is for these trade deals to be totally scrapped and for these multinational corporations to be told, either shift your manufacturing base back to North America, or face tariffs that will syphon off any profits being made by out-sourcing to third world countries. Loss of markets is the only thing these corporate bums seem to understand, and they need to have it stuck to them so they will never again forget that they either play ball Noth American style or take your ball and go home. As long as they can contiue to have their manufacturing performed for sweat-shop level wages they will continue to do just that.

And the banks don't lend out money that they do not have in reserve? THey don't lend out money that exists only on paper? In a book I read written by former Finance Minister Paul Helyer, he states that is exactly what the Charter Banks have been allowed to do by governments. At one time the banks used to have a reserve, but the amount of that reserve has been allowed to go down to the point that it either doesn't exist at all anymore, or it is only a pittance of what would be needed if there was a run on the banks. The banks have virtually moved us to a virtually cashless society where paycheques often consist of nothing more that a piece of paper with virtual numbers on it. If everyone decided to withdrawn their supposed on-deposit funds from their banking institutions at the same time the whole system would come crashing down. Banks would have to close their doors or risk riots when the peole actually realized that these banks do not have most of this money to pay-out. This virtual money when deposited is virtually lent out numerous times in the form of mortgages, bank loans, lines of credit, and credit card debt. The reality is that these banks are making obscene profits on money that they do not actually possess, and our governments have allowed this to happen.

Bottom line here is that Canadian guns laws are unenforceable. I believe the handgun law was brought in around 1934 or thereabouts and in an article I read roughly only 20% of all hand guns were ever registered. Our government couldn't get that right either, so what does the Cretin do/ He brings in long-gum legislation to make criminals out of otherwise law-abiding citizens. There are virtually untold numbers of long-guns in Canada that have never been register and never will be, and why is that? I believe it is because people do not trust big government to do exactly what they did in Australia when the same type of legislation was brought into being, eventual confiscation without compensation. Crimes committed with guns has gone up in Australia since this legislation was enacted, because now the only people with guns are the criminals and the police. People cannot protect themselves, and crimes like B&E.'s have gone up drastically. I believe our government knows full well that many people in Canada just refused to register their weapons, and they have no idea just how many actual guns there are out there. Of course there is also the point that our government does not want to admit that their precious gun registery is an utter failure, but the bill to maintain it is approaching $2 billion if it has not alrady surpassed that amount. There is talk of them farming it out to a private corporation to maintain, likely a Liberal friendly owner, and as a private arms-length contract like that is not accountable to the taxpayer's of Canada. When that happens it will be virtually impossibel to assertain what trhe cost are, because the bill for those services will be buried inside some department's budget, under the Justice portfolio.

We manage the United States, get real! the truth is that they manage us, and because of their size and their capacity as an importing country, we need them far more than they need us. Sabre rattling Liberal politicians are just doing more damage to Canada/US relations. Myself I was never in favor of either the FTA, or NAFTA and neither were those who saw these deals for what they really were, politicians with business and law background's simply following a corporate agenda. The only ones that actually benefit from these treaties are the corporations because they can move their operations offshore where they can use virtual slave labour to manufature products that were once made here by workers who were paid good wages. These profit greedy corporations can now ship the finished product back into Canada and the U.S. duty free, and that allows these greedy corporations and their shareholders to maximize porfits. These treaties have turned Canada from a manufacturing nation into a service sector nation where wages are traditionally low. Just look around at Ontario and Quebec and remember back when factories abounded, and are now closed. Many former employees work in the call centre industry, and even those jobs are now being outsourced to places like India. IBM and Air Canada are prime examples of this happening. If the corporations have their way the whole world will be living at third world levels, all except themselves, and their shareholders. Canada should never have signed on the dotted line in the first place, now it is too late because the corporations now control governments and government policy. Paul Helyer, former Finance Minister under Pierre Trudeau wrote a book entitled, "The Evil Empire," in which he outlines the corporate takeover of the world. This book is a worthwhile read, and a scary scenario.

Get a life! What right does Emery have to export illegal drugs into another country? Under recipricll agreements with not just the U.S, but with other countries, Canada is obliged to enforce the law regarding extridition. If we don't act, what about the next time some American commits a crime against the laws of Canada like conspiring to export Cocaine or Heroine into Canada, I'm sure Canada is going to want that person arrested and extridited to Canada to face charges, albiet the American criminal would probalby think that was great because the likelihood of doing time in an actual jail for such a crime is less likely in Canada. The criminal might get probation or 6 months of house arrest in Canada while state-side it would be years behind bars. There was a case of Canadian from the Rothersay area of NB that committed numerous acts of fraud involving $thousands of dollars and the first thing that he did was apply to be transferred back to Canada to serve his time, knowing that if he got the transfer our joke of a criminal justice system would have probably just released him. The State Governor refused on the grounds that knowing how lenient the Canadian stytem was, he ruled that he can come back to Canada just as soon as he can gain release from the State prison, at the end of his sentence. The Governor went on to state that he would not take the chance that Canadian authorities would just set him free. He wanted to make sure that he did every day of his sentence.

For once, I agree with you mirror. The basic exemption should be raised to nsomething like $15,000 or even $20,000 and the GST should be extended to all items, including food.Many, many people wouldn't have to pay any income tax at all. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> While I agree with some of your assertion I have to totally disagree that the GST should be extended to everything, since we are already apying tax on tax with this GST/HST. I believe that there should be no GST/HST on any necessities of life such as clothing, footwear, heating oil, electricity bills, FOOD, and yes even the telephone bill since the implementation of the 911 system it is basically essential for everyone to have access to telephone service. You suggest that many would not have to pay income tax at all, well many already don't have to income tax, but many of those same individuals are forced through necessity to eat at soup kitchens and visit food banks on a regular basis. I am involved as a Board Member with one of the provincial Associations of Food Banks, and one of the fastest growing industries in Canada is both food banks and soup kitchen usage. Our federal government made a committment over 15 years ago to eliminate child poverty by year 2000, and here it is 2005, and the porblem has gotten much worse instead of better. Imposing GST on everything is just going to give our government more money to piss away on useless initiatives that will do nothing to solve the problem of our children having to go to bed hungry. This is a national disgrace, and needs to addressed positively, not by piling more of a tax burden onto those who already pay no income tax. I have never seen a government initiative that is actually meant to help ordinary Canadians, because our government's (federal, provincial & municipal) are more concerned with following a corporate agenda, which allows these greedy corporation to not pay their fair share of the costs associated with running this country. At one time those costs wer split roughly 50/50 between individuals and corporations now it is more like 90/10 in favour of the corporate sector. I certainly don't call that a fair split of responsibilities. If we lambaste the people with even more GST/HST it will just make matters worse. In the Maritimes for instance we were stupid enough to combine our PST with the GST, and we now have the HST. New Brunswick for instance cannot arbitrarily decide to take the HST off certain commodities like gasoline, heating oil, clothing, or electricity bills without concensus of the other Atlantic province participants.

So what's the answer, make it offense to talk while in a car, as if the police don't already have enough reasons to stop a vehicle? Using a hands-free is no more dangerous than talking to another passenger while traversing down the road, or listening to the car stereo, because all these things are distracting to some degree. Anyone with common sense should relaize that if your phone rings while you are driving and it is not hooked to a hands-free, it should be either left to ring, or the drivers should safely pull off to the shoulder of the road before answering the call. The same should apply for making a call, it should be done while pulled safely to the side of the road. I employ a hands-free on longer drives, but for inner-city driving I simply let the phone ring until it goes to voice-mail or I allow someone else in the car to take the call. I do believe that when police observe a person driving with a cell phone stuck to their ear that they should immediately stop them, and cite them for driving without due care and attention, because they definitely are not in total control of the vehicle if they have one hand holding a cellphone to their ear.

There's already laws on the books for such things as careless driving and driving without due care and attention. Surely those would suffice if enforced. Perhaps the problem is one of resources. Maybe we'd have more cops on the street enforcing the current laws if they weren't busy enforcing marijuana prohibition. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> While I agree there are already laws on the books regarding due care and attention, I disagree with respect to drug enforcement, since I have work with addicted youth for a number of years, and most if not all began their path of drug use with Marijuana. In many cases teens will tell you that the high wasn't intense enough so they tried something stronger. Legalize Marijuana and what drug will be next that people will be saying, we can't stop it so we may as well legalize it. I read an article which quoted the former Mayor of Vancouver as wanting the Methadone Clinic to provide clean crack pipes to Crack-Cocaine addicts to cut down on the spead of disease, and it went so far as to suggest that they be allowed to smoke theri Crack at this clinic, so they would be in a safe environment. What's next? Why not just legalize all drugs and the problem of enforcement will just go away. I contend that the line must be drawn somewhere and the line cannot be subject to change just because it costs money for enforcement. We could all live in fantasyland where maybe the corporation's will voluntarily agree to again pay 50% of the tax burden instead of getting 90% from individual Canadians. I don't think that is likely to occur at least not willingly, but fantacy is nice once in awhile. Where I live in Eastern Canada, my province gives corporations tax holidays, in one recent case $4.5 to $5.5 million per year, and just before that they cried poor-mouth and slashed police and fire department budgets, resulting in the layoff of both police and fire personnel.

Is anyone really naive enough to believe that both the FTA, and NAFTA were really about trade? This whole deal is all about multinational corporate interests being able to export raw material to third world countries and shipping back the finished products duty-free into North America. This is all about corporate profits, and has really nothing to do with bing of benefit to you and I as individuals. Free trade agreements have not brought down the prices on maunfactured goods that have been produced in some impoverished country in sweat-shops, by people, including children in slave-like conditions. This whole thing is about allowing corporations to maximize profits for shareholders. Prices for such things as Nike, Addidas, etc., has not come down, even though the manufacturing is being done for a fraction of previous costs, but instead the costs continue to escalate. This is all about corporate greed, and nothing more. If people truly want to keep manufacturing jobs here in North America, we need only do one thing, stop purchasing goods made by manufacturers who have closed their North American factories, and moved off-shore. If we all did that these manufactures would have two choices, reinstate manufacturing plants in North America or go bankrupt. The only reason they continue to get away with this is because we let them. So wake up and start supporting our own manufacturing companies instead of lining the pocket's of corporate CEO's, other executives, their owners and shareholders.

Never seen the new ads, but I will vote Conservative anyway, because they are the only one's who represent my vision for Canada. The Liberal's represent more corruption, and the NDP represent a party that believes that Canadian's need more government instead of less. The fastest growing industry in Canada ia government bureaucracy, and that certainly wouldn't get better under the NDP, because they want government to be all things to all people. I on the other hand think that we need an elected government to set goals, and not have that being done by an appointed and unaccountable judiciary. We need a Charter that is designed by the people, for the people, and voted on by the people, unlike the present one that was dreamed up by some people with their heads up their ass, and foisted on the Canadian public as if we really had any say in it's development or implementation. This flawed document has more to restrict freedoms for ordinary Canadian's than it has in giving most of us freedoms. It is a document that allows criminals to have more rights than victims of crime, cases in point Karla Holmolka, and Karl Toft.

I totally agree with your take on the Liberal's, and I don't believe that the NDP's grandstanding have done anything but to help this corrupt government to stay in power. I believe that the NDP supported the Liberals because they were frightened to death that they will lose what little support they do have. Myself I used to vote exclusively NDP, but ever since Alexia decided to make the NDP a Liberal clone, I have stopped supporting them. As an aside, I will also not vote for any Party that voted to change the traditional definition of marriage.

That may be what's happening in your neck of the woods but in my province, New Brunswick, the government has set up I believe 7 healthcare corporations around the province, each with it's own Board of Directors, and an Executive team to run the everyday operations. Our provincial government has actually made it law that medical doctor's cannot sit on any of these Board's. When decisions are made concerning the delivery of medical services there is no actual input from the medical community even though it is the medical community that will be expected to live with any decisions that are made. In essence decisions are being made by people who have expertise in either business or law. That scenario certainly doesn't make me fell all warm and fuzzy. My own Family doctor has told me that he has been written up by administration for keeping patients in hospital beds longer than "THEY" deem should be necessary, even though these people have no medical backgrounds. The CEO herself apparently treats doctors as if they are so much dirt under her feet and she has absolutely no time to listen to medical rationale, and peoples' health is secondary, and her concern is the budget constraints, and finding ways to cut costs. I once attended an annual meeting and the guest speaker was a professor of criminology. His contention of what is wrong with many organizations today such as prisons, hospitals, and other institution is that Board's are hiring people to run their facilities whos' claim to fame is an MBA. They have absolutely no clue as to what the entity they are operating is supposed to accomplish of the reason for it's existance, they simply concern themselves with staying within budget, and attempting to find efficiencies. If that means the laying off of guards in the case of prison's, or doctors and nurses in the case of a healthcare facility that is okay, because to them they just represent an unnecessary expense that they would rather do without. They don't care that the purpose of a prison is to house violent people, and to protect society from these violent people, and they don't care in the case of healthcare, that it requires adequate medical personnel to treat ill people, because these people just represent to them an impediment between them and cost effectness. Bonuses are earned by shaving costs from the operation. The CMA stated that there is a direct corralation between the spread of antibiotic-resistant staph infections and inadequate cleaning of healthcare facilities, brought on by the reductions in staffing levels of housekeeping personnel. These are decision being made by MBA types or beancounters. Common-sense is not a prerequisite for holding either a BBA, or an MBA.

Has anyone read the article in Canada Free Press regarding the United Nations funding a bumper-sticker campaign in the Middle East. http://www.canadafreepress.com/2005/cover081905.htm I read yesterday where the United nations apparently funded the manufacture and distribution of bumper stickers, mugs, banners,and T-Shirts bearing the slogan "Today-Gaza-Tomorrow-The-West-Bank and Jerusalem. These were widely distributed by the U.N. to Palentinian Arabs in the Gaza strip. All this at the exact time that Israel was in the process of evacuating Israeli citizens from the settlements. If this is not meant to incite more violence against Israeli's, what is it's purpose? My understanding of the United Nations was theat they were supposed to politically impartial, but obviously they are anything but impartial. The Canadian government rings the praises of the U.N. and now we find out that this organization is simply a puppet of the Palistinian Authority's propaganda machine. I question why the Canadian government would send one more cent to this organization until whoever made the decision to fund this project is removed from office. In fact it seems to me that one of Palistine's biggest fans is Koffi himself. No wonder the United States is accusing the U.N. of being irrelevant, and total waste of taxpayer's money, and after this I tend to agree with that statement. This is an organization that would have us believe that they should be in control of world affairs, and in effect to be some sort of world governing body. I don't believe that our government should be funding this organization, and in fact any representation we have attached to this organization should be withdrawn.

If things ever get to that point, I vow that I will take up arms and oppose it with kim-like fury that will make the Iraq insurgents look like the Ladies Temperance Society. However, our constitution won't permit things to reach that point... not unless our entire society goes through some sort of upheaval. -k <{POST_SNAPBACK}> What a crock, you'll do as the government tells you to do and meekly nod your little head's yes, just like a good apathetic Canadian, and just like the government knows you will. Why do you think our government has gotten away with virtually stealing from the public purse? Because politicians know that Canadian's will just verbally complain , and then turn around and vote the same pack of thieves back into office. Martin and team is a prime example of this happening, and if he called an election tomorrow, Ontario voters would vote him and the rest of the Liberal thieves right back into office for another round of pilferring.

it wont. canada is a modern democracy which has intrinsic protections against rolling back into the middle ages. read the charter or rights and freedoms to see what canada stands for. sirriff <{POST_SNAPBACK}> The reality is that the Charter is whatever some liberal minded judge decides in his/her pea brain it will mean at a given point in time, and that opinion can change with the changing of the makeup of the court. People must remember that our judiciary is nothing but a reward for party loyalty, in othr words it is just another in a long list of patronage appointments, but the danger of having an appointed judiciary like we have is that these people are beholden only to those that appointed them to office, virtualy for life. These people, once appointed are not accountable to anybody. In fact our own PM stated uncatagorically that; "As far as I'm concerned the Supreme Court IS the final word in this country." In other words he is even willing to allow the Parliament of Canada, The Senate, and all citizen to be subjected to the whims of these political hacks, with no recourse. That is not what Canada was supposed to be all about! If the Charter has somehow bestowed this authority onto the Supreme Court, then it is time to scrap this useless piece of trash and develop a Charter that is written and voted on by the People of Canada, not something that is foisted upon us as this Charter was by a bunch of lawyers, who's goal was to advance their own agendas as to what they and social engineers think OUR COUNTRY should look like..

We are already into that spiral you are taling about, and Quebec still keeps looking for things to be done theri way or no way, just like a spoiled child. How do you stop it when the more Quebec get's the more they ask for? It has become an never ending request for money, special provileges, provincial control over federal jursidiction, it's gimme, gimme, gimme, or esle we'll leave. The feds cannot seem to say the word "NO" when it comes to Quebec. THat probably has more to do with the fact that the last few PM's have been Quebecois, and they know that if Quebec separates, there goes their hold on power. My perception is that what needs to happen is for Canada to get real with the Province of Quebec and start by giving them a taste of what to expect if separation ever becomes a reality. The feds could start with the closure of military bases and federal government offices. I'm sure if the people of Quebec was treated to such reality they would quickly see the writing on the wall for the Country called Quebec, with massive unemployment, and few prospects for new ivestments. I'm not so sure even France would want to invest in Quebec without federal government involvement because of financial risks alone.

Excuse me but in my neck of the woods it's the corporation's not the farmers who stand in line with theri hands out looking for taxpayer's money. Case in point is the recently announced Irving Oil LNG Terminal to be built at Mispec in Saint John, NB. While anywhere else an LNG Terminal is proposed, the company doing the proposal was handing out concessions to the host communities in order to gain acceptance for this dangerous facility. In NB, the Irving's (one of the richest family's in the World), look the Mayor of Saint John in the eyenad demanded that they be allowed to pay only 10% of the Property Tax Levy on this property for a period of 25 years. When the Mayor brought it before the City Council he told Council that this concession must be passed by midnight that night or the project would go elsewhere, and the majority voted to cave. Since this was not within jurisdiction of Council to approve, they immediately made a request to the Province to pass legislation allowing them to grant this tax holiday. This is a city that has had to lay off police and fire personnel because of budget constraints, and now our Council and the Provincial Government has just given a tax break, according to the Chief Assessor for the Province of between $4.5 and $5.5 million per year in uncollected Property Taxes for the next 25 years. The Irving Empire are only going to be required to pay $500,000.00 per year for the next 25 years, not subject to inflation. That uncollected Property Tax represents a loss to both the City of Saint John, and the Province of New Brunswick, yet you can be sure that Bernard Lord will go crying poor-mouth to Ottawa, looking for more of Ontario's and Alberta's transfer money to help subsidize Mr. Kenneth Irving, and his brother's. Let's not forget one thing here, family farms are few and far between nowadays, because corporations like the Irving's and the McCain's (both from NB) have succeeded in bankrupting many small family farms or forced them to sell out to agricorps. These corporations have set up a situation that farmers either sold their crops to them or let them rot in the fields, because corporations such as the above bought out all of their competition. In the case of the Irving's, they own Cavendish Farms of PEI., and everyone knows about the McCain's and the fact that they have even branched out into meat , and now own Maple Leaf and most of their competing brands on the market. Don't talk to me about farmer's being beggers when we have corporate welfare bums with theri hands out for evey cents from government. Farmers at least put actual sweat and tears into their land in order to meak out a living for themselves and their families, corporate bums don't even get their hands dirty.

Both of my son's have moved to Alberta and they have no intentions of returning to their province of birth, except to visit occasionally. I enjoy visiting Alberta, it is a great Province, and should think seriously about your place in Canada, think about getting out., before the feds attempt another raid on your pantry, to fund provinces like Quebec and NB. In the case of New Brunswick, our government has one agenda it seems, to collect as much money from Ottawa (Alberta, and Ontario) and piss it away on Bernard Lord's personal agenda which seems to be to turn NB into a mini-Quebec. Why Bernie even gave us our own language policeman, similar to Quebec's, who's sole mandate it seems is the promotion of the French language. This is not about bilingualism anymore, this is all about duality throughout the whole province. This is just one of the reasons English speaking NBer's are packing up and moving West, with no ntentions of returning, along with the fact that succesiveprovincial governments have succeeded in turning NB into a giant call-centre, and not much else. Expect to receive many more English speaking NBer's in Alberta because at least in Alberta these well educated individuals can find meaningful employment without being forced to learn a dying language (French). In NB most government jobs and many in the private sector are now demanding fluency in French as a prerequisite for employment. French Immersion Programs are not the answer since our present Health Minister, and former Education Minister, Elvy Robichaud, an Acadian himself, stated publically; "The French Immersion Program in NB was not designed, nor expected to produce fluently bilingual graduates." At best most are classed as functionally bilingual and that is not sufficient to be considered as bilingual for most jobs. Maybe if Alberta packed up and left Canada, provinces like NB and Quebec would have to quit pissing away money, and spend what we already have on priorities instead of frivilous programs that benefit only a few. The sad part is for both Western Canada, and the East, is that in Ottawa's eyes Canada's borders start and end at Manatoba / Ontario and Quebec / New Brunswick borders. A wake up call in Ottawa is definitely needed to bring these pompous asses back to reality.

You forgot a couple: Heritage Canada, and the Office of the Governor General, along with their Provincial counterparts.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}> Wake up Mirror! The reality is that the Canadian economy is totally controlled by the U.S. since most of our major industries are either owned outright or are controlled by the U.S. Layton acts as if we can operate independent of the United States and he is totally out of touch with the real world. He would quickl;y find that out if he was ever to be elected to govern, and that is not likely to happen. We are socialist enough already with successive Liberal governments. The only thing this has gained Canada is dependence on government for just about everything, and as a result of that mindset we continue to lose freedom of choice, and our government bureaucracy continues to be one of the fastest growing segments of our society. The more control government has the more it will cost to operate the bureaucracy to support it, and the less disposable income that will be available for the citizens to purchase the necessities of life. If we keep on we will be just handed a pay-stub on payday, and government will give us whatever they feel we need to survive. We will end up like Russia and the other communist countries where everyone works for the State. The Liberal's are that different than the NDP in that respect.

Nobody needs to learn French because it is a dying language everywhere including in Quebec. Their own advisors have told them they need to put more emphesis on the English language since it is English that is the language of commerce worldwide, including in France.