overthere

In what sense does the slaughter of innocents in the name of any God become a childish equivalency, or OK for any religion to carry out?

Yes, the Crusades and the rape of all the Americas(Sotuh, Central and North) in the name of Jesus made the Inqusition look like a garden party.

The main deterrent to Sikh separatism was the actions of the (Hindu) central govt was not their community cherishing anyhthing. It was the Indian govt sending in Special Forces to the Golden Temple and killing a buttload of Sikhs. Of course, there was also that wee bit of provocation when Sikh bodyguards murdered the Indian Prime Minister. Another religion of peace!

Do you mean like Christians have done on behalf of Jesus for a couple thousand years: kill anybody not of their faith just because.? You know, the Inquisiton, the Spanish in central and South America, the... you get the idea. I think ISIL may have based their 'kill em all except those like us' campaigns on Christian conduct. What do you think?

Of course they have to cater to them, the Godbotherers are a strong enough clique and never compromise , that the PCs were delighted to be rid of them, and they have been a boat anchor on Wildrose ever since. It is WHY Smith ripped the party apart with defections(of the less conservative) leaving, and why the most socially conservative MLAS remained in Wildrose and still insist on policies that insure that the Party will never form a govt. Smith knew it, and Jean does too. You don't think that the rump who didn't defect were not the hardcore social conservatives? LOL. You are not paying attention . They were not invited because they were not welcome by the PC govt of the time: the PCs had gone to much effort to eject these people, why invite them back? The writing for the Godbotherers was on the wall when Ed Who?Stelmach defeated the extreme right of the old PCs, represented by Ted Morton. The hard right read that writing and moved en masse to Wildrose, but you did not notice that then or now? And please, you are being disingenuous at very best by claiming never to have met a social conservative in Wildrose!! Were you unconscious in the Smith election campaign, when she had to repeatedly stuff a sock in the mouths of some very hardcore conservative candidates who kept beaking on about homos etc? It cost them seats and may have cost her the Premiership. Don't insult everybody here by pretending that they are not a serious faction within Wildrose, and a serious chronic deterrent to forming a government. "They have NOWHERE ELSE TO GO". The hard right crew will have to sort that out when the two parties merger, unless they can rally and block the merger- which is possible. They are not welcome in the new party no matter who leads it. Jean is going to lose some leverage in his campaign to lead the new party if the loons block the merger, but he will still press on because he wants to be Premier, and that just won't ever happen with Wildrose and their entrenched crazies. Obviously. That alone is the bulk the impetus and imperative for Jean to endorse the formation the new party. Is it insult each other time now? Trump wannabes? Wildrose mainstream, minus the loons, has some very serious challenges. The first is: how to retain the centrist, PC voters they attracted last election. They know full well that they did not come because of Wildrose policy, they came over because they were pissed at Redford et al. Jean knows that the Wildrose banner will not keep any or many of them going forward, Wildrose has peaked right now. The second is, how do they permanently ditch the perception that they are deeply socially conservative? Jean is working on that in a couple of ways- by ditching the Wildrose brand, and by ditching the human boat anchors on the far right that prevent moderate Wildrose symapathizers and the mighty center from voting for him. If he fails in either regard, Notley wins again. The stakes are big. And he has no choice but to go all in, now.

Not long ago, Canadian Sikhs -perhaps coming from your community-were heavily involved in the worst act of mass murder, by far, in Canadian history. Your Sikhs also hate Hinduism, for the most part. How does hate make them more or less cherished?

I can hardly wait. I also find it good news that the showrunners are wrapping it up next season. It must have been tempting to keep milking that cow.. Others should take the hint, Walking Dead first and foremost. It is getting boring and repetitive. Also cannot wait for S2 of Westworld.

Very obviously Jean is not holding all the cards or anything close to that, or he would never have agreed to even discuss a merger, a new party or the dissoltion of Wild Rose. Jean is a a pragmatist, and like Smith before him he knows with certainty that he has to dump the Godbotherers with certainty and finality. Smith tried hard to convince them what it would take to win, but that far right sliver just won't let anything go, there is no compromise. That is why Smith left Wildrose in the ditch: there was no chance, none, of winning with that far right, social conservatism- its an anchor that kills any hope fo forming a govt. Jean looks around and knows for sure that Wild Rose has peaked, and much of that success is due to disquiet with the PCs, not anything charming about Wild Rose.and their policies. I agree that the 'new party' will be mnpore fiscally conservative and psotion itself in the center otherwise. It is how you win elections in Alberta and in Canada. Nobody gives a shit about the social conservatives, they are a liability and a curse. Note that at the end of the Klein era, the PCs moved in this very direction socially- and in the process dumped all their weirdos on WildRose. Now WR has to flush them once and for all. And this is therir opportunity- which Jean is seizing with both hands. The OP title does indicate, as he admits, that the OP does noit get Alberta poltics. What is happening to not 'uniote the right', because there is not enough there to survive, much less untie. This is about seizing the center back from Notley.

You have the Shia/Sunni thing wrong for pretty much all the countries you named.

Isn't severely damaging themselves economically every generation or so, by electing the hapless NDP, a ritual flagellation in BC? Unfortunately for many people, this time they won't be able to flee to Alberta for a job.

A self proclaimed martyr is born every minute. Look, here is one home birthed right in front of us.

How do 'progressives' cope with people like me that are socially liberal(pro chocce, pro public health/education, pro SSM etc etc), yet feel strongly that we need to be able to pay for our social contract with something toher than our grandchildrens high interest VISA card?? Am I a fascist or a 'regressive'? Vote now. Vote often.

Scheer reminds me so much of guys like Paul Martin and Jean Chretien, both of whom voted a couple times in the Commons against same sex marriage.

$15 min wage was already announced and underway by Notley in Alberta-in 2015.

Agreed. Notley has stated she won't call an election before 2019. Danielle Smith recognized and acted to the same triggers that Brian Jean did. They both knew for certain that Wildose as it is now simply cannot win an election. Social conservatism won't win in AB, just as it will not win anywhere in Canada. Both she and Jean failed to convince the minority of Godbotherers to back off and shut up. Smith defected, Jean is about to dissolve the party formally.

It is not wild speculation to assume that there will be zero pipelines or LNG facilities built in BC. There is no scenario available now that would see political approval of anything in the province, and several that would see outright rejection of both approved and proposed projects. Even if Clark wins another seat, her majority is so thin that every government backbencher could blackmail her or be bribed to cross the floor. More likely or perhaps almost certainly big money in oil and LNG like Petronas and Kinder-Morgan will take the strong hint and just decide not to invest in Canada. They will join the already huge flight of capital by multinationals who recognize that Canada is just not a friendly place for them in the resource industry. We have only ourselves to blame. We are simultaneously unwillingly to recognize how our fat, comfortable social contract is funded(hint: it is not through deficits), and then constantly elect fools that reinforce our bad choices. And... here we go again.

There is no tolerable amount of hydrocarbons. BC should set an example by closing all airports, blockading all ports, tearing up rail tracks and removing all gasoline pumps in the province. People are just going to have to be cheerful when the climate police come to remove their furnaces and fireplaces too. Shivering in the dark will keep everybody warm enough. It is not clear how they will keep cows from farting copious amounts of methane.

LOL. Nobody in Alberta expects anything from anybody in BC. That is not how Canada has worked, for a long time. I also have to laugh at the notion that Trudeau has any real interest to 'show some leadership' on pipelines. He would be privately delighted to see the entire oil and gas industry in the country closed forever. At the first sign of dissent on Energy East, he shut down the hearings and the entire process remains paralyzed. He'd love to see the same thing with Kinder-Morgan/Trans Mountain, and now his wildest dream will be realized. The project will not move ahead, and he won't be blamed. I expect Kinder-Morgan the corporation will look at this result , review the roles and actions of the provincial and federal governments, and conclude: why bother with Canada at all?

And she lied substantially about her role to get that deal. Soon after, the Crown knew for certain that she had lied, because they found incontrovertible video/audio evidence of her role. She knew of this evidence since she had been the camera operator and hid the tapes in her home. I find it utterly disgusting that the prosecutors did not immediately void the deal, since telling all the truth is always a bedrock of the deal itself. She richly deserves the same sentence as Bernardo. which at very minimum is life without parole.

Obama had all the time required to change US mortgage regulations to prevent another round of economic holocaust. He did nearly nothing, and nobody went to jail. The CDN industry and specifically residential mortgages are federally regulated. The banks and all lenders are required to qualify every high ratio borrower under rules that are not of their making, so the risk here is far less than it is in America.

Speaking of Las Vegas, their GM George McPhee is wheeler dealer and open for business. One of the problems that expansion teams have is spending to the minimum cap figure, since they are often picking up prospects and third liners. I can seriously see Eberle being traded there, in return for prospects and draft picks. The OIlers are coming soon to some serious cap problems. McDavid is going to get 10 to $12 million, Draisatl perhaps $7 million, RNH already gets $6 million. Their defence as a group will cost them $20 to $25 million, without counting an upgrade which they need and will take them to $25 to $30 million as a group.. They also want to sign Kassian, Maroon, Caggiula, Benning, Slepyshev, probably Pakarinen and most urgently need another decent goalie as backup. If Pulujarvi is deemed ready.....either RNH or Eberle is gong to have to go, and I reckon it is Eberle.

The ALCB in 1993 offered about 2200 products to the public at about 205 government run liquor stores, Today, there are about 2000 private liquor stores offering about 20,000 products. Big win for consumers. By closing those government stores, the govt also dramatically reduced costs and risk to taxpayers. No more hefty wage, pension and benefit liabilities, and no capital costs from retailing booze. And of course, instead of employing overpaid govt clerks to sell this commodity, now the private sector(with ten times as many outlets) also employs more Albertans in retail liquor stores than before. I guess this poster did not notice that Alberta has the only NDP govt in Canada. So much for "demolition of a labour oriented left wing is just about as complete as it is total." Nope, the AB govt of 1993 made a sound, well considered business decision. They realized that there was no reason at all to pay cashiers and shelf stockers and warehouse workers wages and benefits that far exceeded anything dreamt of in the private sector for the exact same unskilled jobs. Unlike progressives like Eyeball, they acknowledged that there is not any reason at all for the govt to be involved in retailing booze. No govt has an obligation to grotesquely overpay their staff, which I know is a totally foreign notion for 'progressives'. Aside from the waste of money for taxpayers, they cleverly managed to retain much of the tax revenue from control over wholesale - which has pretty much none fo the risk and cost inherent in retail operations. Like I said, it is pretty much an unqualified success unless you work for the Alberta Union of Public Employees.

Alberta privatized long ago, and it has been an unqualified success. \ Well, for everybody except former Alberta Union of Public Employee members.

The beer ad in the store was not banned!

In the UK, the PM must have a 2/3 majority to call an election so early. May got 98%, which means nearly all the Opposition voted with her.