mcqueen625

LinkWhat is Klein's great claim to fame? I have argued repeatedly on this forum that a balanced government budget or the absence of government debt are no indication of a government's fiscal competence. Instead, one should look at government spending. By all accounts, Klein's PC government has been utterly incompetent because it is spending money like a drunken sailor. But Albertans, with their homespun understanding of government, believe Klein was good because he balanced the budget. So what did Albertans get with all these extra civil servants and extra government spending? That makes it look too good. Alberta would have been just as good to burn the oil and natural gas in a large bonfire. The effect would have been the same. They must have been doing something right, they are out of debt, which is more than I can say for any other province in Canada, and the people of Alberta pay no provincial sales tax. Aside from Ontario, all the rest of the provinces, especially Quebec whines with their hands out like Oliver Twist; "Please sir, I want more."

You're right and that's one of the causes of the problem. UN pretty much ran its course as the pocket vehicle of the West to legitimize its projects in the world. And the West is highly unlikely to agree to any kind of reform that'll make it appear more democratic (and diminish its powers). So, a stalemate? Will it eventually end up as just a talking club (i.e. -SC) plus cultural, humanitarian and medical organizations? I read a report just yesterday concerning foreign aid payments made through both the World Bank, and the United Nations. Canadian politicians attempting to find out exactly how that money is being spent by the countries receiving it have been stone-walled. They are not told who that money is going to exactly nor how it is being spent. On top of that, by allowing the World Bank and the U.N. to handle this money and dole it out Canada is not getting any credit on the ground for the $billions that are being paid out bythe taxpayers each and every year. Maybe it is time that we stop sending money to these two organizations and instead dole it out ourselves through our own monitored agencies, at least we will know where the money is going and how it is being spent. The U.N. is an organization that sees itself as above the law, and it is time to abolish what it there and start over with an organization who's members are functionng democracies.

I would suggest that instead of being controlled by Western powers it is controlled by countries that are anti-Western. This is definitely a disfunctional organization and one that is biased in favour of Extremist groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and dictatorships and totalitarian regimes such as Venezuela, Cuba, China, North Korea, and Iran. Let's not forget it was the U.N. who sponsored a bumper-sticker campaign aimed at Palestinian youth just as Israel was pulling out of the Gaza Strip. Those stickers bore the phrase: TODAY-GAZA-TOMORROW-THE-WEST-BANK-AND-JERUSALEM. These stickers and banners were paid for with U.N. funds, and that campaign did nothing but stoke the fires of violence. For the U.N. to fulfill it's andate it needs to be unbiased, and it needs to be transparent, something it is not at this point. It is a failed organization and should be disbanded, and reformed with members from democratic countries ONLY. Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, China, North korea, are but some examples of countries that have no business being made member states, until such time as they have freely democratically elected governments, and they adhere to the Human Right's Charter. These particular countries have been made members although they have very poor records in the area of human rights. While we're at it we might want to look at Koffi himself and that of his son's involvement in the Oil for Food scandal regarding Iraq. While we're at it what about the Mercedes which was purchased by Koffi's son with U.N. funding. Neither Koffi, his son nor anyone else has been willing to even talk about that.

I think a lot of Albertan's would disagree with you if the circumstance were right, especially if Ottawa attempts another cash grab like Trudeau pulled with the National Energy Program. I truly believe if the Liberal's had gotten re-elected with a majority that would have been their next initiative. Thank God the Liberal's never got re-elected. The real sad part is the Liberal stole the people blind and not one politician is going to go to jail. Sure maybe a few scapegoat bureaucrats night do some time in that country club where Karla Holmolka did her time, but the actual politicians who were pulling the strings behind the scenes will never be brought to justice.

I'm already thinking that I could care less whether Quebec leave or stays. In fact maybe it is time for them to pay their share of the national debt and just leave with only the land mass they had on the formation of Canada, which I believe is simply a strip of land across the southern part of the province, since the norther part of the province belongs to First Nations, and I'm sure they do not want a separate Quebec government using their Gestapo the QPP's to enforce rulings from Quebec City onto the aborigianl communities. The other upside to them leaving is that Canada will no longer have a need for a bilingual policy and all of the taxpayer's dollars that are thrown away on this failed social experiment devised by Trudeau. I believe to date less that 17% of Canadians profess French as their mother-tongue, and that is not a great success story in anyone's books, especially after all of these years.

Considering how many people went to Fahrenheit 9/11 and read his books, that's a multi-million person circle of friends. Messing with people's minds through words? Do you even know what linguistics is? Okay, let me guess. You're still a student. Because no grwon-up in the real world would consider somebody's "major" to be a primary qualification for discussion of an issue. Bush portrays himself to be as dumb as can be. He doesn't need any help. He's even made it part of his schtick. Didn't you see him discuss foreign policy over dinner with Blair? What's wrong with being partisan and ideological in a documentary? People are still allowed to express opinions, aren't they? You just can't handle it when you disagree with someone? Because we live in a democracy where different ideas are openly discussed. Everything is biased. How heavily it is biased or whether it is propaganda is totally subjective. Because we get mad when people start wars to make themselves wealthy. As someone else has already said, if the CBC were not funded by the taxpayer's of this country they they could say whatever they like about Bush or anyone else, but they are funded by the taxpayers of this country and sooner or later they are going to make some slanderous statements and guess who is going to be footing the bill for the lawyers and any eventual cash settlement? We the taxpayers of Canada are the one's going to be on the hook, and I already pay more than my share of taxes while the rich in this country pay very little, therefore before one of these morons working for the CBC makes us all pay a dear price for their biased reporting, I think the Government of Canada needs to pull all funding and cut this over-rated bureaucracy loose. Even though we have changed governments to a more U.S. friendly one, we still have running the CBC, liberal appointed bureaucrats running this tax vaccuum.

The key features are the carbon tax, world-carbon markets and developing a standard for carbon sequestration. These features make perfect sense. Geoffrey, I don't know why you are on this "air pollution in Toronto" gig. If people in Toronto are upset about smog, let them solve the problem. You raise a valid point about a tax grab. What's Ignatieff going to with all the carbon tax revenues? He'll do the same as every other Liberal PM, give it to Quebec to stop them from crying poor-mouth. After all this time, it still hasen't worked because they are still crying an moaning.

To be fair, there is competition by courier services. There is also the competing force of email and fax. I understand that you mean "basic" delivery to include small envelopes and postcards and such. Nevertheless, privatizing a corporation can still be done leave it as a monopoly. Two of the courier services you refer to would be Priority Post, and Purolator Courier. In teh case of Priority Post it is 100% owned by Canada Post, and in the case of Purolator Courier, it is 51% owned by Canada Post. IN fact in many cases now if you send a parcel or letter by Purolator Courier to a remote location it is often being delivered by Canaada Post to it's destination. Beside mail is one thing and courier service is something else again. To use a courier service you pay a very high price for extremely expidited service, while mail is much slower. For instance I can send a package Purolator Air from Saint John, NB to Vancouver, BC, and have it delivered by noon the next day business day, but the same letter by Canada Post will take a minimum of 3 - 4 business days to arrive. Coming West to East is another story because of the 4 hour time differential between the West and the East. Coming West to East takes and additional day, due to that time difference.

It would also turn good paying jobs that people can support a family on into jobs at the local phramacy where the employees are paid minimum wage and cannot afford to leave home and support themselves. I am no fan of allowing multinational chain stores to handle my mail. I would rather pay to have someone who is scrutenized and checked out by government to ensure they are not the local five-finger discount king or queen. Don't tell me that people with criminal backgrounds would or could not wind up handling our valuable mail, because I would in the Justice System for a number of years with young offenders and I have seen former clients handling cash at the local stores. There is no means that allows potential employers to check personnel for criminal records for theft related offences while the person was under the age of 18. I just think that there is much less chance that someone with a criminal background is going to be working for Canada Post, as opposed to the local pharmacy mail counter.

This is a case for making CBC purely an educational channel, for Shakespeare plays and the like. It is clearly time to completely turn off the financial tap that the CBC has become so accustomed to receiving from taxpayer dollars. It is time to turn this nightmare into a PBS where the people who want it pay a subscription to join, similar to what they do south of the border. We should never have a publically funded broadcaster like the CBC in competition with other commercial networks, who must raise their own money to operate. I was going to say that maybe it is time for the taxpayer's to fund the only real unbiased news source in Canada, which is the Canadian Free Press, but then it would no longer be free to print the truth. That said I do not agree with the CRTC allowing the further concentration of media ownership, such as the recently announce takeover of CHUM (City TV) by CTV. In fac teh CRTC and the government itself needs to take a look at the concentration of media ownership, including the print media, right across Canada. In New Brunswick for instance we now have the ownership of just about all English language daily, weekly, by-weekly newspapers owned by the Irving Empire, including a free alternative community newpaper call "HERE." My guess is the Irving Empire wanted no competition for advertising dollars. It is becoming increasingly difficult to read anything, or see anything that is not politically biased. I guess the former Liberal government paid them well to sprout Liberal dribble.

I would think you should be looking at the same thing happening on the Canadian side of the border. Under first Chretian and then Martin our freedoms were quickly deteriorating, even though both of these leaders were definitely anti-American. Under a Liberal government they were willing to allow the appointed, unaccountable Supreme Court looneytoon judges to have the last word on everything in this country, and both Chretien and Martin said so publically. I don't know about you, but if these clowns are going to be making decisions that affects the way we live our lives as Canadians, then I want those people to be elected to office so that they can not only be held responsible for their decisions, but we the people can fire their asses. Canada a democracy? What fairytale have you been reading?

I would much sooner have them error on the side of caution than to let anything go, and possibly have people die because of lax security. Sorry if it offends those of teh Muslim faith, but when you have people right here in Canada claiming that a terrorist organization like Hezbollah is the saviour of the Lebanese, then we definitely have a problem. I wonder how much money is being sent to these recognized terrorist organizations by people of Middle Eastern decent who claim to love Canada. I'm sorry, but they cannot play on both sides of the fence. Either they are Canadian period, or they are some kind of hypenated Canadian, which to me if they want to hypenate their citizenship, I feel compelled to ask why they came here in the first place.

Here's another view: In one view, we are prostitutes who can negotiate a better deal. In another view, we are prostitutes who must get out of the business. In either case, we are prostitutes. Maybe this is what bothers me so much about English-Canadian discussions about the US. In either case, the perception is that the US is big and strong and Canada is weak and irrelevant. So, Canada either accepts its status or quixotically yells "No!" Trudeau's elephant/mouse metaphor worked well in English-Canada and that's why I suspect he used it. So unfortunate. ---- I can understand why Argus, a civil servant, views his employer as all powerful. And Kindred, who sees life in geopolitical terms, views the US government as all powerful. But I don't see US-Canadian relations this way. The Big US does not deal with Little Canada. Rather, ordinary Americans deal with ordinary Canadians. Yesterday in Old Montreal, I gave map directions to tourists. They were from San Francisco. Our countries are such that anonymous relationships are personal but easy. Unlike the Soviet Union, Mao's China or North Korea, we don't deal with delegations. A Canadian deals with an American. Small Canada Inc doesn't fight Giant USA Inc for continental market share. 'Canada' doesn't seek a market niche, or go abroad to diversify. North America is not a duopoly with a dominant firm and a follower firm. Rather, millions of individuals deal with one another in a large continental market. John Lennon could only imagine. Northern North America is an open market with 330 million people making various deals every day. Ordinary Canadians and Americans have choices. If you don't like one American, there's another American who's different. Surely Canadians know this. All three "progressive" Canadian forums have "progressive" American posters. North Americans are free to choose. Argus, imagine a town where you had ten potential employers. And Kindred, imagine a country where the government leader will not be leader in two years and everyone knows that. August, is this just another one of your anti-US rants. Please give us all a break, most people have more to do than cry and moan about something we can do noting about. THe reality is that we are tied to the US because of trade, and yes it was a P.C. Prime Minister who origially signed the FTA, but I believe it was successive Liberal governments who chose to stay the course. Why is that? Because even they knew that we are reliant on the US for trade and protection. Let's face it Canada's Armed Forces are a joke, a mere shadow of what they once were, and I for one am only too glad to know that they are there for us, because short-sighted Liberal politicians have destroyed any defense forces we had. If you are naive enough to believe that we are safe from terrorist attacks, please remember that Bin Ladin specifically mentioned Canada in his rants, partly because of our involvement in the Middle East, but mostly because these terrorist organizations consider all Westerners to be infidels, and need to be destroted.

Hezbollah as well as Hamas are recognized around the world as terrorist organizations, and they should be treated as such. Any government who either harbours them or supports them should also be treate as terrorist organizations themselves. That would include Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Syria. I include in that collection France, Germany, Russia, North Korea and China since they blatently supply arms and technology to these extremist states.

The Lebanese aren't at war. I respectively disagree, since their are members of Hezbollah who are part and parcel of the Lebanese government, jsut as Hamas are part and parcel of the Palestinian government. Lebanon had the opportunity to disarm Hezbollah and in fact under the terms of the U.N. Agreement for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon on I believe 2000, Lebanon was supposed to disarm Hezbollah, but they chose not to do that. I would take that as the Lebanese government sanctioning whatever Hezbollah does. I remember a Canadian family member of those killed in Lebanon as publically stating that Hezbollah was their protector. If that is the case then the blame for the deaths of his family member's should be placed where it belongs, on the shoulders of Hezbollah who invaded Israel, killed and kidnapped Israeli citizens from their own land, and lets not forget the thousands of rockets that have been fired specifically at civilian targets inside Israel by Hezbollah. His family members received some pay-back for Hezbollah's actions, and that is unfortunate, but they chose to put themselves in harms way.

Yes they have, BUT the military wing of Hezbollah wants to remain in the southern part of Lebanon, and they refuse to be disarmed. In other words they are foolish enough to think that Israel will stop their retaliation while Hezbollah remains armed and firing rockets at civilian targets inside Israel. This shows just where Hezbollah stands on the issue of peace, they simply don't want it. Their goal remains the same as that of Hamas, Iran and Syria, the total inialation of the Statre of Israel. Israel cannot afford to let down their guard for one second, because these groups of nutcases are just waiting for some sign of weakness to exploit the situation. God Bless Israel, they deserve our support much more than does any country or group of terrorists who's sole mission in life is to destroy a whole race of people. Hitler tried it and failed, now we have a bunch of radical Islamics trying to accomplish the same thing. The real problem is that these radicals see anyone who does now bow down to Mohammad as an infidel and should be destroyed. Right now Israel is fighting the fight we may all have to fight at some point in the future.

The latest new on HNN states that although the Lebanese government including the 2 Hezbollah members have unanimously agreed to the UN Plan to bring peace to the area, the military wing of Hezbollah has decided that they will not disarm. The want to still be capable militarily to fire rockets into Israel. This shows graphically that Hezbollah does in fact not want peace. What they want is for Israel to be incapable of defending themselves so that Hezbollah and Hamas can attack Israel at will without fear of reprisals. I think the international community should stay out of it, and allow nature to take it's course. That course I'm sure will be the total defeat of Lebanon, Syria, Iran, and Palestine. My take is that the only people the hypocrit Koffi Annan, and the U.N. seems concerned about are the arab states. If the U.N. can't be at least fair in their comdemnation of violence they should pack up their biases and go back to Geneva and the U.N. Headquarters in New York. In fact maybe it is time Canada stops contributing to this wanabe world government considering their biases and corruption.

Agreed, but I would take it a step further, because you cannot fight this type of terrorist with our present system of placing great emphasis on the rights of the criminals or in this case the terrorists. We need to become as ruthless as they are, by forgeting about lawyers and their penchant of tying things up in court procedings forever, and by skipping right to the punishment phase. If these people are found to be involved in any plot to kill innocent civilians, they should immediately be executed. These clowns are using our justice system against us by demanding their rights, and maybe it is time that those rights are taken away. Time in jail for these people means another chance to get out and carry through with their terror plots. For those Canadian's in Montreal who think they are immune from a terror attack, I hope they wake up before it is too late. These plots are not being threatened and carried out by Jews, they are being carried out by radical extremist's of the Muslim Faith, yet the bleeding-hearts of Montreal carry out demonstrations in support of terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah. Wake up Montreal!

First off it doesn't specifically mention Newfoundland/ Labrador, but it does mention Quebec, and the Southern part of Ontario, as well as the New England States. Other than the New England States how is that any different than what we have right now under the FTA? The really suspicious and scary part of theis initiative is the fact that Irving was the major sponsor of the confernece held in Saint John, New Brunswick not all that long ago. The admission fee was I believe $600.00 to hear how the Irving's and other corporations wer planning to screww the people all in the name of profit. The Irving'sd jhave never done one thing unles there was someting in it for them. I speak specifically about the demanded LNG Property Tax concession from the City of Saint John, and it had to be approved by midnight or else. Bernard Lord jumped right on the band-wagon to pass legislation to allow it to happen. While everywhere in North America where and LNG Terminal is being proposed or has already been built the owners have paid $Millions per year to the host community. Mr. Irving in his generosity has coericed city council and the province to allow him to pay $500,000.00 per year for 25 years, when the estimated property tax for this terminal would have been in the vacinity of $6 Million per year. Wow, what a gererous man, and now the Irving's want us to believe that Atlantica will be good for Atlantic Canada. The truth is probably more like it will be good profit-wise for the Irving's and other multinational corporations. Atlantic Canada is the last thing they are thinking about, instead they are thinking about how much extra profit can be put into the bank account off-shore where the Canadian taxman cannot touch it. By the way right after the LNG Tax Deal was approved this same city council is talking about raising the taxes on ordinary property owners because they cannot afford to fix either the streets or the other infrastructure. And this same Mayor was a proponent of Atlantica as well.

There are a number of reasons. As has already been suggested, I believe many people have given up on our democracy because they feel their wants and desires are not going to be taken into consideration. Which is unfortunately often true, but who is to blame but those very same people? If you vote for politicians who lie to you, then go out and vote for them again, who is to blame but you? The internet is still, in large measure, the province of the relatively young. This is a group which has distanced itself even more from politics. Most of the people I know in their twenties have little or no interest in politics. Those who do spend little effort familiarizing themselves with complexities. They want simple answers to all their problems, and are earnestly sure those answers will work perfectly. This is also a group which reads less than any generation we've had. They haven't got any patience either. Writing out a complicated statement (which many are incapable of doing), then waiting a day or two to read someone elses response is just too dull for them. They'd rather be playing video games or doing something else with constant and immediate feedback. It's just as well, frankly, that most of them don't vote. For older folk, I believe many are on the internet, but, though there are certainly exeptions, are too timid to insert themselves in the somewhat robust discussions over politics. At the heart, though, of Canadians' distancing themselves from politics is continuing disappointment over the parties and leadership. Not since Trudeau have we had a politician who could inspire (not that I liked him either). Instead we have bland, crooked, dishonest self important men and women of no substance throughout the parties. What's to get excited about? The last time any party raised the excitment level of Canadians it ws the Reform Party, which had the shocking habit of speaking plainly! They spoke out on issues which angered millions of Canadians, but which all the other parties were united behind. They dared to criticise Bilingualism. They dared to criticse Immigration. They stood for traditional values. They were a breath of fresh air to many millions of Canadians. But they slowly mutated, under the constant barrage of the Central Canada media, and began to use their own spin doctors, and to hide their opinions behind doubletalk. Now they're the "conservatives" and they don't talk about immigration any more, unless it's to call for more. They don't talk about crime and law and order much. They don't dare talk about bilingualism except to say they support it. They've become just another of the political elite, joined at the hip, despite the party, agreeing on all major issues despite what the electorate thinks or wants. More than half of Canadians oppose the current concept of Official Bilingualism. But all parties fully support it. Huh? Probably half of Canadians want a drastic slowdown in immigration but all parties fully support the current level or more. Huh? Very close to half of Canadians are opposed to same sex marriage. Some politicians oppose it too, but all party leaders are in support except Stephen Harper, who won't even give his opinion. Huh? Our Health Care system is falling apart. Does anyone have any real ideas how to fix it? Is anyone willing to try something new? Not publicly. Is there anyone who has enthusiasm for the Liberals? I doubt it. But they won anyway. Why? Because no one has enthusiasm for the Tories either. Why would they have? And no one who pays taxes can have any enthusiasm for the NDP. I'm not sure who would be left to vote for if we voted for people who didn't lie to us. Unfortunately they all tell us what they think we want to hear until the elcetion is over and they are in charge, if that's what we want to call it. The reality is that the people we elect to office are not the one's running government, the bureaucrats are. It is very difficult if not impossible for a government to change that unless they want to fire every senior bureaucrat when they take power, and maybe that what should happen in order to affect change. Maybe it's time to elect the Supreme Court and the Senate, because Jean Chretian and Paul Martin have publically stated that the Supreme Court is the final word in this country. If they are then how is Canada a democracy by any stretch of the term?

I feel bad for the families of those two RCMP officers, but at the same time maybe it is timew for each province to have their own provincial forces instead of using the RCMP. They parachute these officers into communities from other parts of the country, and they know nothing about the people they are supposed to be policing. At least with local forces they tend to know the people, and who they are likely to have trouble with. Maybe some would still be killed in the line of duty, but maybe there will be fewer incidents. I know in the Town where I live the local police were replaced by the RCMP, and the officers just start to get known in the community and they are transferred out. We used to have 24/7 police patrols, and now because of the expense of the RCMP vs. our our police force, we have fewer officers patrolling the streets and after 2:00 am the officers are home sleeping, on-call. Don't think for one minute that those who commit the many acts of vandelism don't know what time to start destroying properties. When you parachute officers in from another province not only do they not know the trouble-makers, but also do not know the people. Quite often their first language is French, not English so right off they have a problem communicating with the people, and I live in a province our Premier would have other province believe is "Officially Bilingual, but the truth is that less than 20% speaks French.

A government represents the country and in our case it's the federal government. The government should lead in a way that creates in each and every one of us a common national identity that relates to the creation of this country and it's traditions and one that we should be proud of from the main distinguishing factor which is freedom and democracy which was given to us in the form of the BNA Act. This country has never recognized this factor fully and preferred to dwell on factors that cause and PROMOTE disunity. The failure of the federal government to correct this in the early stages resulted IMO a series of major constitutional errors that has resulted in a dysfunctional federal government as well as produced a severe lack of loyality and nationalism to the country of Canada, which will be hard if not impossible to reverse. Canada IS NOT a democracy! Sure we have periodic elections during which we get to pick our new dictators for the next few years. Most are dishonest and they tell us exactly what we want to hear to get elected, and then basically ignore us until it is time to go to the polls again to seek another term in office. Our federal government is dysfunctional in that being Canadian as someone I read once wrote means having no morals or values at all. What other country in the world would change the vary character of the country and it's institutions to appease certain ethnic or other special interest groups. One thing I refer to is allowing people to change the traditional dress of the RCMP to include the wearing of a turban instead of the traditional uniform. I'm sure that if we went to live in India and wanted to join their institutions they would not be quite as accommodating. THings like this have really taken something that says Canadian and made it into something un-Canadian. The pandering to Quebec has made Canadian's feel as if our federal government exists only for Quebec. Many of us feel like the federal government believes that Canada starts at the Ontario/Manitoba border, and ends at the Quebec/New Brunswick border. Those of us who live outside that exclusive part of the country feel like we are really not part of Canada at all. Canada Day to me is just a day off work, and it represents nothing patriotic to me.

I agree that more women should access the parliament and in high numbers, women out number men:women ratio at 45:55 and yet women barely exist as voices in politics. We cannot continue to allow men to make all decisions for woman, something is not right we are the majority of the population. Who cares?? If the bimbo Belinda Stronach and loud-mouth Carolyn Parrish are examples of the kinds of women the separist Stephene Dion wants to have in Parliament then thanks, but no thanks. Between those two they have exactly two clues, the first is lost and the other went looking for it. I vote for the person who best represents my own thoughts on what I want my Canada to be, I do not look at gender. Then again I think we have far too many lawyers entering politics, that to me is what is wrong with this country, too many lawyers screwing things up for the rest of us, and dictating what is best for us.

They deserve a seat just as much or more than Germany, Russia or France. At least they aren't selling arms to every rogue state in the world with a leader who has delusions of world domination.

I hope you can back that up with some evidence, this is the first time I hear of it. The largest supplier of arms to Israel is the U.S.A. A good deal of weapons and craft for the Army, airforce and navy have come from the US or been designed by US corps. The more Israel uses, the more they will get. For the companies in the US are making money from it. Not like they are going to stop that anytime soon. Isreal is the only major power in the middle east. That was no accident. You really should read up on military journals. The US is the major military supplier not just for Israel but Egypt, Saudia Arabia, Kuwait, The United Arab Emirates, Pakistan. The United States, Russia, France, Britain, Belgium, Germany, China, North Korea, all sell weapons in the Middle East. France supplies military, chemical, nuclear and industrial technology to Iran and every Middle East country. Britain seems to be doing quite well with Libya and Jordan. The French have always been the military suppliers to all French speaking Arab countries, i.e., Morrocco, Algeria and Tunisia. Look and you will find that it is a misnomer to simply state Israel is supplied by the U.S. 90% of the U.S. economy is related to its military industrial complex and the same can be said of France. In fact Israel has an internal ability to build its own weapons. While it uses US military for patriot missiles and its air fighter fleet it also manufactures its own fighter jets (Kfirs) that are right now the best in the world, and it pretty much rebuilds all its navy vessels. In fact Israel has military alliances with India, Turkey and Russia as well which are not broadcast and it still maintains a military development relationship with certain African nations. There is a popular misconception that Israel is completely dependent on the U.S. Understand how internal military suppliers work. If the US for any reason could not supply Israel within seconds, military salesman from many nations would be lining up to sell. The biggest whores when it comes to military sales are the Chinese, North Koreans, Belgians, French, Germans, Russians and Americans. The US simply does what other countries do. They play the feuding parties against each other, and sell both sides weapons. Don't kid yourself when it comes to military supplies, the US and these other nations will sell to anyone. As for Canada we have no problems selling nuclear reactors to ANYONE. We have no problems with China and at the peak of Cucescu's bloody facistic rule of Romania we had no problem selling him Candu reactors. France and Russia are the worst hypocrits because they feign outrage over Israel's response to both Hamas and Hezbollah's attacks on Israel, yet they sell weapins to these terrorist groups, and their sponsor countries like Syria, and Iran. Let not forget North Korea either because both France, Germany, Russia and Begium all sell to this dictatorship. It seems if France, Russia and Germany had their way Israel would not have the right to defend themselves. Thank God that Israel has the might to defend themselves from Hamas, Hezbollah and rogue states like Syria, Lebanon, and Iran.