mcqueen625

I still say Canada would be much better off by abolishing Parliament, the Senate, and the Governor General, and all of their Provincial & Territorial counterparts, and elect the judiciary in their place. It was Martin himself that stated: "The Supreme Court has the final say in this country," so why not make them accountable for their decisions. Electing the judiciary to specific terms would also make them conscious and sensitive to the wishes of the Canadian people. If the judiciary are going to have the power to rule this country, the very least that can happen is to make them accountable to the people who are expected to pay their salaries and pensions. We pay politicians who don't seem to want to do their jobs so they have come to rely on the judiciary to make their decisions for them. They then sit back and claim that the devil made them do it. It's time to either make our politician's do the jobs they are paid to do, or replace them.

Surpluses? Where does everybody think those surpluses came from? They came from the pockets of ordonary Canadians, much in the form of inflated EI premiums. THat and changing the rules to make it more difficult to not only qualify for benefits, but for far shorter periods. This has left many Canadian who were unable to secure meaningful employment to resort to begging for Income Assistance from the Provinces (Welfare). This money is hardly a surplus but money that should never have been collected in the first place if it was going to be spent on the unemployed.

Maybe not, but at the same time it shouldn't give our government the right to change the meaning of a term recognized the world over as having the meaning of a union between one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others. This is a term that was being used with this same meaning the world over long before Canada was even a nation. Martin hold same-sex marriage out as a human right and even our Charter does not state that, and neither does the United Nation's Human Right's Code hold that Same-sex marriage is a human right or a right at all. Martin would like Canadian's to move forward from this issue, but this issue is so hot, that it will become an election issue, and I would bet that Martin will pay dearly for this legislation during the nexzt trip to the ballot box. This boil has only begun to fester. As for Party standings in the polls that are being conducted, they really mean nothing, because it all depends on who gets asked, and more to the point, who is paying to have the poll conducted. Mostly these polls are coming out of the Ottawa Press Gallery, who have been bought and paid for by the Liberal Party of Canada.

And Martin is any different? Martin is a hypocrit. He put himself out there as the saviour of a one tier healthcare system and the champion of Medicare while demonizing Harper, and while he is acting so self-righteous, he and him family are attened to at a private, for-profit clinic in Montreal. Now that a man with convictions. My hero, NOT!

Well in the case of same-sex marriages we certainly don't need to worry about children, now do we, because that is not biologically possible. Thank you God for the natural order of things.

Name the many different cultures and religions that support same sex marriages. I can think of one religion in Canada that has endorsed same-sex marriage and that is the United Church. The United Church where I grew up, was one of the oldest United Churches in Canada, Centenary Queen Square United Church, in Saint John, NB. It virtually no longer exists since a gay wedding was performed there a few year's ago. Over 95% of the congregation walked away and joined St. Anne's & St. David United Church, a Parish that does not perform such services. The Parisioners of what is left of Centenary Queen Square now meets in a small room in what used to be a paper-bag factory. As for cultures that support same-sex marriages I believe there are only two others, Belgium, and the Netherlands, and most other cultures shun this lifestyle choice, as being exactly what it is unnatural.

You know the old saying; "Fiddling while Rome is burning." That's exactly what is happeing in this country. We have a government who are actually laughing at democracy, and rubbing our faces in it, while at the same time stripping this country of any resemblance of democracy. We have a country where rules and laws are being made up by an unelected and unaccountable judiciary. A judiciary by the way that was for the most part appointed by this very government to do their bidding. Independance my ass, these judges are simply former Liberal Party members, who are being rewarded for party loyalty, and they know who signs their pay-cheques, and who was responsible for insuring their appointment's. This is nothing to be proud of, instead Canada should be mournig the loss of our country to a Party who feels they have a devine right to govern. I'm just wondering when this regime will decide that they can get away with suspending elections altogether, and just declaring themselves the permanent government. Don't laugh the people of Canada have proven themselves to be anything but motivated to move this country ahead. We would rather concentrate on Gay Rights, and to hell with the loss of our freedoms, hell we are allowing a minority to set social policy in this country. We are way too apathetic, and with a populus like that I put nothing past this government if it meant hanging onto power.

We have a promise in place from about 15 year's ago to eliminate poverty inside Canada by year 2000. It is now 2005 and one of the growing industries in Canada is Food Banks and Soup Kitchens. Poverty has increased instead of decreased, and here we have Bob Gildof ordering Martin to do something for Africa that Martin has been unwilling to tackle right here inside Canada. Yes it is a shame that people are starving in many parts of the world, not just Africa, and they are not getting the help they need, but the fact is that in many of these countries the aid that is now flowing to them is being used up by the government's and military of those countries to suppress their own peoples. The United States just sent another 50,000 tons of food to North Korea, and the concern they have is that it get to the starving people instead of the dictator's and their military who control the country. Much of the world aid that has flowed to this country and many other third world countries has been used to prop up totalitarian government's and to develop weapons of Mass destruction. Allowing multinational corporations to outsource jobs to these third world countries has done little to eleviate the poverty, because these corporations pay little or no wages, and are then allowed to ship the finished goods backminto places like Canada to reap exhorbitant profits.

So what would you call what we have in Canada when we have an elected government that has allowed an appointed, and unaccountable judiciary to make law, and order the elected politician's to fix it in a certain amount of time. Myself I would call that anything but democratic. In fact it qualifies in many respects as a sictatorship.

A fetus is a living human being. I think we have gone way too far with individual right's. What's next, terminating a baby's right to live simply because Mom or Dad does not want to bother feeding the child and since it can't look after itself it's OK to terminate it's life. The technology is there for fetus' to survive much earlier than ever before, so I cannot buy your argument which seems to be if we kill it before it comes out of the womb it's not a real person? Ask the preemie who has started out with absolutely no chance to live, and is today a healthy adult, I think they will disagree with your argument. I happy to believe that life starts at conception, and thank GOd the US Couts in the Peterson case felt the same way.

While that may well be true, it is also a fact that the intent of Medicare is to provide "Medically Necessary Treatment" for Canadian's, and in most cases abortion is merely nothing but cosmetic surgery performed for the convenience of some women and their male partners who were too careless to use adequate protection, and I don't buy the argument that not every method of birth is foolproof. You play with the bull, you get the horn. You step out in front of moving traffic, you take a chance on getting hit. Don't want to chance the consequences the choice is simple, abstain!Admittedly there are circumstances where abortion should be funded by Medicare, and that is when it becomes medically necessary, and abortion on demand is not a compelling reason for taxpayer's money to be used. This is simply murdering an unborn child when the pregnant mother's life in not at risk. The case can be made for women who have suffered rape or incest, because then the woman's mental health could be compromised, but to simply pay for abortion through Medicare dollars because this isn't a convenient time, or she just does not want to have a child is not what Medicare was intended for.

Just what we need a buch more bureaucracies for support with our tax dollars. We need less government, not more, much less!Right on Stubblejumper. Everyone seems to satisfied with a government that lies and steals from the taxpayers, and wastes what money is left on initiatives that benefit's only small segments of the population instead of society in general. We need new ideas to fix our broken democracy, and the status quo won't cut it!

You know that's the same crap I heard from a young person I worked with regarding the company's participation into a Long Term Disability Insurance. It was at a meeting for the employees to vote ton participate or not, since it would involve everyone's to be involved in order for the insuranc ecompany to offer the policy. His comment went something like, "I am young and healthy and I don't see why I have to pay into something I will never use." That was the young invincible person talking. A few shot years later after I myself suffered a heart attack and was classed as permanently disabled, and started drawing the Long Term Disability, this person was involved in an accident and he too wound up on disability. He now thinks that his opinion back then was very short-sighted. A person can be in the best of health today, live a healthy lifestyle as you put it, but sometimes accident's happen or genetic predispositions kick in and you too might wind up in the same boat as your parent's. Don't forget one thing, once you have a pre-existing condition these insurance plans no longer want anything to do with you, because what they really want are only healthy people who are not going to put in a claim. Their hope is that instead of suffering a dibilitating ailment, you just drop dead, thus ending their obligation as far as paying disability benefits are concerned. Many company sponsored plans like Blue Cross inquire as to pre-existing health concerns on the initial application, if there are any, coverage is denied to that employee. Where does this leave those who for whatever reason are not considered insurable by the private health insurance providers, or do you really care? If you have such low regard for the poor choices your parent's made regarding lifestyle, I would question how much compassion you would have for anyone else.

Those higher taxes enables the Liberal's to defraud the Canadian public by handing money off to their friend's in the advertising businesses in both Quebec and Ontario. I believe that Martin and team are scared to death of Harper, thus the attempts to demonize Harper at every turn. Articles I have read on the issue of a mixed system show that personnel and resources are drained from a public system to support a private system, and in that scenario the only one's that benefit are those with the financial resources to pay for those services. Waiting lists have not been shown to shorten in the public system, the only improvements occur in the for-profit facilities. In the U.S.A. how many people without health care have suffered due to lack of healthcare coverage? The same thing could very well be on it's way to Canada. If Martin and the Liberal's are such defender's of the Canada Health Act, why is it that they are allowing the Supreme Court ruling regarding private care in Quebec to stand? Why is it that he and his family is attended to at a private clinic, while at the same time accuses Harper of attempting to destroy Medicare? My speculation is that this ruling will eventually spread right across this country through similar challenges, and since Martin himself has said that he could think of no situation where he would institute the not-withstanding-clause, and in his opinion; " the Supreme Court IS THE FINAL WORD IN THIS COUNTRY," that says it all. He will then be able to sit back in his ivory tower and claim that the devil (Supreme Court) made him do it, ( it being allowing private, for profit health care to take over our health care system in Canada). Martin, I have no doubt has many corporate friend's in the health care businesses that have been lobbying fast and hard to reap the profits of the Canadian healthcare system, and the only thing standing it their way up to this point is the Canada Health Act. With the help of Paul's and Jean's appointees in the the Supreme Court the dismantling of that Act is well on it's to being dismantled, and Martin and team cannot be held accountable because, the devil made it happen. Liberal's can't have it both ways, either the Party defends and supports a one tier health care system or a private one, you can't agrue from both sides of the fence as they seem to be trying to do. I believe that Martin is scared to death of Harper and is desperate to hold onto power by any means, so he goes out of his way to shoot down everything Harper says and stands for then goes ahead and copies Harper's agenda. The reality is that the Liberal's are nothing but a pack of liars and thieves, while the accusations against the Conservatives are only conjectures since they have not had a chance to prove those conjectures true or false.

Right on! We have far too many politicians in all areas of Canada, not just federally. THe Senate on the other hand serves no useful purpose as far as I'm concerned, It has simply become a political reward for Party loyalty. I thought of another aspect that nobody has mentioned yet. In the Province of New Brunswick the trend has been for government to hire many of our public servants to Term Positions, and not filling those jobs with full-time employees. These Term Employees are not entitled to benefits of any kind. This leaves those that work these positions unable to make neither long-term career plans, nor lifestyle plans. When I spoke to my local MLA about this situation and asked him why MLA's are entitled to not only a Gold Plated Pension Plan, but above average healthcare coverage, transportation allowances, etc, etc. His answer was rather predictable, "Because that's the system that has been put in place to compensate MLA's. I asked him if Term Employee's of the government are not entitled to benefits, then why are MLA's, since in my view politician's of all stripes are nothing but Term Employees as well. They are there only until the next election call, and they then have to reapply for those Term Position's by running in an election. There is no guarantee beyond the term of office for them to retain their jobs. If politicians want to use the option of Terming out public service jobs without benefits, then the same conditions should apply to MLA's, MP's, etc. Other than for to admit to me that I ws right and politician's are in fact only serving Term Positions, I did not get an adequate answer, in fact he really didn't have an answer for me at all. I think we need to demand more accounability from our politicians of all stripes, and demand that if they are going to treat one group of employees in a specifc manner, than all employees need to be treated equally, including themselves.

Those who suggest that ON and PQ have large numbers of Senators while the rest of the Canadian Provinces have far less representation are basically suggesting the status quo, and the status quo is not working, elected or appointed. The outcome is the same, with Canada being controlled totally by only 2 of the partners that makes up this country, and all decision are made based on what is best for ONtario and Quebec, the rest of us do not seem to matter. It almost seems that in the minds of the federal goverment, Canada stops at the Ontario/Manitoba border in the West, and the Quebec/New Brunswick border in the East. Since it has become obvious that neither the Parliament of Canada, nor the Senate seems to be running the show in this country, it may well be time to abolish both Houses, and the appointed position of Governor General, and instead have an Elected Judiciary. According to our own PM, the Supreme Court has the final say in this country anyway, and they are accountable to no one for their decisions. In order to make these appointed political cronnies accountable and sensitive to the wishes of the electorate in this country, maybe it is time that we elected them to specific terms of office, instead of appointing them to serve until age 75. Think of the $ billions we could save in salaries, pensions and other benefits if we eliminated all of MP's, Senators, the Governor General, along with all of their Provincial counterparts and instead just elect those who are making the decisions anyway. This would have the added bonus of making these political hacks conscious of the decisions they make and the impact some of these decisions have on our society, by the prospect of having to face the electorate.

I sure hope that you are not naive enough to believe that the passage of Bill C-38 is going to magically make the concept of SSM acceptable to it's opponents, especially those of us who oppose it for reasons of Faith teachings. I can assure you that it will not be any more palitable then it was before the passage of the Bill. Call that homophobic and hateful if you like, but that's called not having people's beliefs trampled on by an appointed, unaccountable judiciary, who were appointed by the very people who introduced the Bill, the Liberals.

I get it, you choose to believe instead that the Liberals are lily-white, would never tell a lie ,and are not the most corrupt government in the history of Canada. Which is why you'll rush right out and vote for them again. now that's pathetic!I can't stand Mulroney because he and his colleagues were definitely corrupt, but the Chretien/Martin Team have given new meaning to the term corruption and thievery. I link the two, Chretien and Martin simply because both were part of the same government at the same time as all of this scandal went down, and Martin has done nothing to distance himself from this mess. He has in fact kept many of the same peole around him as were around Chretien. Talk about perpetuating the problem.

Exactly!In New Brunswick, our Provincial PC Government classes many Irving owned companies as small businesses, and nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is that one Irving company complements the others and purchases almost exclusively from each other, making competition almost impossible to exist. The City of Saint John Common Council just gave away the keys to the city to Mr. Irving with a tax break for 25 years on their proposed LNG Terminal. Even the Provincial Tax Assessment bureaucrats conservatively estimate the Property Taxes for this Project at $5 - $6 million per year, yet a guarantee was given to the Irving's that they will only have to pay $500,000.00/yr. for the 25 year term of the concession, and this amount is not going to even be subject to inflation. No guarantee of course for us ordinary folks that the City and Province is not going to coming with their hand's out looking for additional tax revenue to pay for the infrastructure associated with this terminal, and to pay for future shortfalls in revenue. Just goes to prove the point that the most affluant in our country do not need to run for political office because they own whoever get's elected.

And who contros the media in this country. Over $1 billion a year is paid for with taxpayer's dollars through the CBC. Who are they going to support, except the party that guarantees their existance. Basically the only press releases that come out of Ottawa Press Gallery are anti-Conservate stories. Stories about the Liberal's are either pro-Liberal or they have a Liberal spin on them so that they never end up being critical of the Liberal decisions or scandals. Want some real news instead of the fictional crap coming out of the Ottawa Press Galley, try reading some of the editorials published on: Canada & World Free Press

The real moronic part is that Harper has not ever governed, but stupid people in Ontario would vote for a known bunch of thieves and liars, than take a chance on Harper and the Conservatives. Canada has become another Zimbabwe under Chretien and Martin, just another third world dictatorship. The next step is to suspend elections because of voter apathy, instead of making the system accountable to the people of this country. Canada Day, what's to celebrate? I see a country being turned into a dictatorship, and the sad part is Canadian's are allowing it to happen, many do not even bother to vote. When we wake up it will probably be too late to save this country. I'm not in favour of Quebec's continual threats to leave, but at least they are the only people in Canada that is holding our politician's to account. Ontario seems quite content to see this country go down the tubes under a dictatorial regime than elect the Conservatives who at least pretends to represent all Canadian's. Maybe when Canada falls, out of the ashes we will be able to salvage some sort of democracy, where laws are made by elected representatives, instead of an appointed and unaccountable judiciary. Maybe we can have a justice system where deterence is the order of the day, instead of a system that allows criminals like Karla Holmolka and Carl Toft to walk the streets to pray on more victims. Maybe we can have a system whereby the majority is listened to instead of just vocal minority groups. No wonder many Canadian's no longer care about this country.

What is even more disgusting to me is having an appointed, unaccountable judiciary telling our elected officials how our laws are to read, and then giving them deadlines to comply with those rulings. Then we have the PM of the most corrupt government in the history of Canada, stating that as far as he is concerned the Supreme Court has the final say. I'm sorry but I voted for a politician so that he/she would be accountable for their decision, I did not vote to allow that politician to transfer that responsibility onto an appointed, unaccountable judiciary. If this is going to contiue happening, maybe it's time we got rid of the Parliament of Canada, and The Senate, and our Provincial Legislatures, and simply elect the judiciary instead. At least we would have a system in place whereby those that are making the decisions can be held accountable for any decisions that they make. That's call democracy! I'm not sure what we should call the system we now have other than a dictatorship. I too could care less if they want to legalize same-sex civil union's I just don't believe that it should be called a marriage, because the term marriage is a religious terminolgy which predate modern society and even Canada. It is a universal term, meaning the union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others, a term that has this same meaning right around the world. How can Canada change a terminology referring to something that is universal and not Canadian, but religious? The passage of Bill C-38 is not going to magically make these types of union's any more acceptable by the people who oppose this Bill. So, what will it's passage have gained them? Certainly not respect, because in order to get respect one has to give respect, and proponents of this Bill seem to have a total disrepsect for the opinions of anyone who does not agree to give up what they have been taught religiously all of their lives, and turn to support for this Bill. I know that it certainly won't become more pallitable for me, or for any other's in my Faith Community who does not agree with this initiative. Like it or not my Faith teachings will not change, and neither will my acceptance of anyone involved in such a relationship. Call me homophobic, and hateful if that suits the proponents of same-sex marriage, but hateful I am not. Hateful is what the proponents of same-sex marriages are, that want to foist their opinions onto me, and anyone who does not agree with them. If they think that using derogatory terminolgy when I refuse to accept their lefestyles, will somehow make me more accepting of their lifestyle choices. Not happening people!

Why does crime go unpunished? Pure and simple we have allowed the appointment of an unaccountable, liberal minded, bleeding-heart judiciary, and given them far too much disgression in sentencing of individuals for some pretty horrendous crimes, IE; Karla Holmolka, Karl Toft, and the list goes on and on. We have people being sentenced to house arrest after killing someone. Case in point happened during the sentencing in Saint John, NB for a 19 year old who climbed behind the wheel of his vehicle drunk as a loot, after partying for hours. He sped out the highway, and hit a broken down taxi-driver who was standing behind his car waiting for assistance. The 19 year old immediately left the scene and didn't even bother to offer assistance to the injured driver who died a couple of days after the accident from the injuries he sustained in the hit and run. Who knows, this man life may have been saved if assistance was provided immediately. The bottom line is that after the bleeding-heart judge raked the 19 year old over the coals for a few minutes, he promounced a sentence of 2 years of House Arrest. What a travesty of justice! This young man made a choice to get drunk, and he also made a conscious choice to get behind the wheel of his car. That stupid choice resulted in the death of a husband and father, and it was completely peventable. For causing the death of another human being this guy get's house arrest. I don't call that justice!

I used to vote exclusively NDP, but that is when they actually represented ordinary Canadian's views and family values values. That all stopped when Alexa McDonough was chosen as their leader, and she decided to take the Party closer to the middle, that was not what the NDP was traditionally all about. Now they seem to more concerned with the rights of vocal minorities than they do about traditional religious values. As a result of this switch in policy ordinary working Canadian's no longer have the NDP to hang our political hats, and the Party has abandoned their traditional roots. With the choosing of Jack Layton as leader, that situation has gotten even worse. We now have another middle of the road party to represent the affluent and to hell with working Canadian's, yraditional family values, or anything else that matters to the working people of this country. This leaves me with the prospect of voting for the present bunch of thieves and liars, the NDP, or one of the other nut-case fringe parties like the Green Party, The Marijuana Party, Marxist-Leninist Party, none of which represents what I would call traditional family values, and ideals. This leaves me with the Concervatives who on surface at least portrays to represent many of my values, including the traditional definition of marriage. The federal legislation dealing with same-sex mariage does nothing to protect religious beliefs. It does not even protect clergy since that issue falls under Provincial jurisdiction. It does nothing to protect churches and other religious organizations from threats from the Canada Revenue Agency, and the Charitible status of these organizations if they speak out against same-sex unions. Any guarantees in this Bill can be trumped at any time, with another challenge citing discrimination, by a liberal minded judge who deems that to deny either recognition or the performance of such a ceremony by a clergy member is discriminatory. It does nothing to protect religious organizations who refuse to rent facilities for gay/lesbian wedding functions, such as the case presently before a Human RIght's Tribunal for refusing to rent a Knights of Columbus Hall for a lesbian wedding reception, when the fact is that many Knights of Columbus Hall's are inside Catholic Parish Halls, and it is the Knight's themselves who run the kitchens and bar facilities. Paul Martin himself has said that as far as he is concerned the Supreme Court IS the final say in this country, and that attitude is just not acceptable to me. I for one believe that we elect MP's and MLA's to make the laws in this country, and therefore accountable to the people for their decisions, but accountability is not part of the mandate of our Supreme Court judiciary. Somehow the Charter has changed to somehow allow the judiciary to upserp our elected officials, and has allowed these non-elected, unaccountable judges to make law, and allows them to instruct Parliament on how the law is to read. The Conservatives seem to be the only Party that wants to bring back to Canada a traditional role for the Supreme Court of enforcement of the laws that have been written by Parliament, perused by the Senate, and then decclared by the Governor General as law. If we are going to allow the Supreme Court to have this type of power what is the purpose of electing and paying (overpaying) MP's. the Senate, or the Governor General? We may just as well elected our judiciary, at least they would then be accountable. Thank you very much, I will vote Conservative in the next election.

Exerpt from a news article: I do know that in my little neck of the woods, Saint John, NB, the Health Region corporation has set about replacing medical personnel with people with business backgrounds, and they are not interested in patient care period. They are far too busy doing time studies, and producing reams of reports that nobody reads. The recommendation coming from these people is that they are over-worked and they need even more of administrative personnel to keep up, with all of the B.S. they are shovelling. The real problem is that they have the ear of government, and when cuts are suggested, those cuts are done from the ranks of those people who intteract directly with the patient's. I would suspect it is much the same in other jurisdictions. My doctor told me that he was written up by one admissions administrator for failing to discharge his patient's on a timely basis, so that beds could be turned over quicker. He told me it is the first time in his life that he has ever used the "F" word to a female at the hospital. He also told her that when she could claim the distinction of having "M.D." after her name then maybe she could give him advice as to when his patient's should or should not be discharged. That is a good part of the problem with health care as I see it. We are employing far too many administrative personnel, instead of medical, and theri support personnel. To me administrator is just a nice way to say, "beancounter," and I feel that we should demand that these people be removed from the equation altogether. Sure we need a few, but when their numbers outweigh those of medical personnel, it is time for a thorough house cleaning.