overthere

Gateway was also approved under Harper.

Actually, I have noticed more that prices don't rise much. Inflation has been pretty low for a very long time

Hate to break this to you, but CBC TV currently does very little that is entertaining or useful. And that is not my opinion, that is the reality of their dreadful TV ratings in every major CDN market. Nobody watches now and their funding increases. Welcome to 1958. As noted, the BBC has an entirely different funding model. And newsflash- all those people up North have broadband, satellite or both and they do not watch CBC either because their offerings are of no interest there either. Yep. It requires that people put their money where their mouth is, and drop the hypocrisy of having others pay for their news and "entertainment'. An example for the CBC is CKUA in Alberta , which is the oldest public broadcaster in Canada. They are directly supported by supporters now, are a huge voice for the arts in AB, and get $20/month from me.

I reckon we have to start that discussion with some premises: 1. none of us are going to live forever, even with publicly funded heroic intervention 2. the amount of our GDP that we can and will spend on health care via government must have a % limit. 3. If we choose to have govt pay for most of our health care, then we cede the power to limit or deny some procedures and practices.

Well, Tony did have some health problems! Including mental health.

Moonlight. It is one of those 'small' movies that is going to stick with me for a long time.... It is set in Miami, on the meanest of some very mean streets, heavy poverty and drug use and rampant hopelessness, It follows the life and times of a black kid who struggles in the worst of life circumstances. It has three actors playing him over about 30 years. It has no star actors, except perhaps one who is moderately known, Andre Holland. Despite all that, it is a powerful message, a glimpse of a life I hope never to live and an affirmation of humanity despite it all. It won't be in theaters for long, but you might see the name at the Oscars. Moonlight.

The walkin fee is not large to discourage sick people from visiting a doctor, but it is enough to discourage the many people in Canada that have hypochondria as a no-cost hobby. But this is all hypothtetical, millions of people just lose their sh** in a pique of mild insanity when any kind of reform or user-pay model is mentioned. We spend all our time arguing left and right wing irrelevancies while our system gets less and less sustainable. The culprit is not ideology, it is an aging and unhealthy population, much longer life spans, and enchaned drugs/technology. All of these conspire to vastly increase end-of-life costs. We are so far unable to have a grownup conversation about reality.

I tried for a few episodes in Season One and could not get past that. I'm not sure how you'd find Sopranos weird or hard to watch: I found it compelling and all too real! HBO is generally in another dimension with programming- they do have some duds but they also have some of the very, very best TV ever made.

Admissions and graduations from medical schools, and physician accreditation, are heavily influenced or controlled by doctors and medical associations.

We have had 2 tier forever already. It is simple enough to go to anywhere in the world to get medical care, nothing prevents this except the contents of your wallet. True two tier, like the UK, is a mess that is probably unfixable. What I would like to see is user fees, similar to France- they are not onerous for the vast majority, are applied to everybody, and kicked back to the truly needy. . I strongly believe it would free up resources overall.

I am embarrassed at the rank and utter stupidity of our leadership.

You could save the waste of many pixels by just repeating "I blame Harper" over and over.

Agreed. Their considerate, generous application of lube to all of us before the thorough rogering is much appreciated. though I don't like having to pay for both..

The federal carbon tax -and its timing- is the clearest signal yet that Trudeau intends to shut down the energy business in Canada. It reduces the competetiiveness of Canada vs a new strong competitor(the USA) in this sector, which surely is not an unintended consequence. His pronouncement that Keystone is somehow not needed-immediately after it abruptly came back on the table because Trump -is another. We can expect that the previously NEB approved (in 2010)Keystone XL project in Canada is now going to be due for several years of more review, at a minimum. Trudeau approved one of the numerous applications for LNG projects, but it took so long that the people who pay for it have almost certainly given up. Delays and a couple hundred condtions of the approval help make up minds. Gateway, Energy East and Kinder Morgan will all be delayed, or so heavily layered with conditions, long enough that everybody loses interest- which will allow Trudeau to toss up his hands and say 'not my fault'. After all, let's not forget that he sees himself as a 'referee' on this vital part of our economy. As we all know, referees have no interest in the outcome....which is a truly astonishing statement from the person most responsible for our economy.

lets start with the reality that they started from a decent, small surplus position and an economy not in recession. Soon their promise of $10 billion magically became $30 billion, with no pans clues or notions on how to ever return to balance, much less surplus. Compound that with much of supposed 'infrastrcuture' now being classified as 'social infrastructure', which is Liberal gobbledegook for good old fashioned Liberal program spending. That is the kind of spending that never ends, every year we need to borrow megabillions to keep the lights on. Our economy and particularly manufacturing should be booming, with the weak CDN dollar. It is not. Why would anybody invest in Canada, where electricity costs are high, where governments change the fiscal landscape overnight(AB and Ottawa, for example), where approvals take somewhere between forever and never, where productivity and labour costs are at opposite ends of the spectrum... Our energy resource export sector is floundering, by design. Now, right now, is the time that corps want to spend their (low interest, private sector) megabillions to invest in infrastructure that brings billions in export earnings and pays for our lovely, ever fatter social contract. Progress? None, We await consensus, consultation, appointments to boards that take decades to make simply technical decisions,.....and yes, every minute of that is on Trudeau. Your optimism on pipelines is sweet, but naive. It is very unlikely that the LNG plant approved will be built, missed the boat on that one via delays. Kinder Morgan might get done, but only if the governments at all levels are quite literally prepared for blood on the streets. They are not so prepared, so adding a few hundred conditions to that application will do the trick of snuffing it. Gateway is buried in conditions and litigation and federal closure of the area to tankers, Energy East is on the path of decades in consultation plus a few hundred conditions, Keystone XL the Trudeauistas are already waffling and saying it is not needed so that means more consensus study and a few hundred new conditions. Meanwhile, both major pipleine builders have invested gobs of capital outside Canada, in more business friendly jurisdictions, and may not now be interested in wasting more time and money on this cluster***k of a place to actually do business- not just talk about it. And so on.....

Mc David is never invisible.

Bingo. On the other hand, it does have the mighty mighty Tilda Swinton.

Likely scenarios: the deficit of $30B may be understated. It illustrates the perils of not having a f***ing clue about how to run an economy. I think both the Morneau and IMF forecasts for growth are very sunny. I see very little on the horizon that provides optimism for our economy in the next few years. But, Diversity.

Four middle infielders? They have one that is a lock - Tulo. Goins has proven conclusively that he cannot hit. Barney has proven that he is a useful utility guy, not an everyday starter anywhere. Travis is a major wild card for them, his history of serious serial injury is an obvious red flag. When did I forget Pillar? I said the Jays need two starting outfielders, because they do. Saunders and Bautista are gone. Or should be. That leaves Upton, Pompey, Carrerra- pick two out of those three and you have a substandard OF. Oh, and Pillar really needs to pick up his on base percentage. LOL on Stroman. He got hit very very hard many games last year. Last spring you were touting him as the Ace, the heir to Roger Clemens. His challenge now is to move up from #4, his ERA last year nosed Dickey by a hair. I don't think you trade him, but he is on the bubble. His career path right now looks a lot more like Ricky Romero than Roy Halliday. The Jays bullpen is not far from complete crap as presently constituted, and going to get worse if Biagini starts next year.

Both parties are in disarray. The US political apple cart has been turned upside down! It will be interesting to see if the Republican Old Guard is now ready to march to Herr Trumps tune!

You are in the wrong thread. More people must be going to jail or being penalized or be charged with crimes for weed related offences after 'legalization' of weed, and I just explained why.

And lets not forget the hefty, new enforcement costs of 'legalization'. The cops will have to redouble their efforts to catch the illegal growers. I don't think the cops try very hard now, since growing, selling and smoking weed has been very easy in Canada for a couple of decades. Ironically, they will have to spend far more time on this after 'legalization', which means more people going to jail- not less. The existing industry will easily be able to compete with govt weed. And that is a huge problem for all those levels of govt expecting to make money from this process. Thej there is the other end of enforcement, one that does not exist today. Every jurisdiction is going to have to have a new bureaucracy to check that every joint is 'official' weed, and a means to determine the difference between taxed weed and untaxed weed. Another politlcal problem cometh for Justin. How do you promote the use of govt weed only without two obvious nasty outcomes? First, how can you advertise govt weed as opposed to untaxed weed without officially promoting drug use overall? Second, how do you prevent shouts of hypocrisy when people still get sent to jail for growing, selling or smoking what you just 'legalized'? I think there are two reports on the process coming. The public one will blither on as these reports do. The short and sweet private one will be more to the point, and will have a summary of how Trudeau can get out of this nutcracker with the least political damage.

I went to Arrival last night. Wow. One of the best movies of 2016 for sure.*** Denis Villeneuve is a genius, with this movie surely the best Canadian moviemaker of his generation. . Amy Adams is a certainty to get an Oscar nomination. You have to pay attention. It is worth paying attention........ The premise is that aliens spacecraft arrive at 12 locations on the planet, nobody knows what they want or how to communicate, civilian linguists and scientists are called in......and, WOW. The plot is complex, subtle and brilliantly done. Highly recommended, but not for everybody.*** *** Note that this movie has none of the hallmarks of the blockbusters of today. It has one small explosion, no sex, no swearing, and the actors barely wear makeup, so no glamour. It is quiet and contemplative for long stretches. It looks inward, often and it has periods where the audience is left wondering what is really happening- though that all get clear by the end. If the Marvel franchise is your favorite genre, best to avoid it. On the other hand, it nails what Interstellar missed: compassion,heroic performance from ordinary people, and a wonderful sense of hope and deliverance.

The Jays must be wondering if Travis- a young man after all- is durable enough to be their second basemen. Goins cannot hit. Barney is an able utility guy for the infield but not an everyday hitter. So yes, they should be thinking about a middle infielder. They should devote huge effort to the giant sucking sound of their bullpen, in every possible way. The approach of 'we win only if we get 7 innings every day from our starter ' is equally as stupid and demonstrably failed as 'we win only if somebody hits a 3 run homer' In general, their bullpen sucks. Lets not get started on Cecil .......and please God let us not depend on two pensioners for so much in the pen this year. We need two outfielders by my count, unless you think Upton/Pompey/Carrerra are adequate replacements for Bautista and Saunders, and will carry the Jays to a Series. Money is not an issue in Boston, LA , NYY. Stromans trade value is severely diminished after this season. Not nothing at all like EE and Bats, but greatly diminished for sure.

Wow, Ontario justice system is flailing and failing badly in 2016. Duffy, Ghomeshi, the cop convicted of attempted murder/acquitted of murder on the streetcar. this case.....