overthere

And even if no evidence comes forward, you had already made up your mind anyway.

No they don't. They get a punishment that is not possible for others. It is entirely common in our justice system already. Juveniles get different punishments. First Nations get different punishments. Genders, ages, recidivism, circumstances , mental competence, aggravating factors, etc etc etc are all factors in differing punishments for the same crime....... and on and on. Now explain your metrics for deciding that imprisonment is better or worse than deportation for conviction of a crime such as say -treason.

The timing of this deal was not in the control of the Canadian government.

How are they punished more severely for the same crime? Is deportation more severe than prison? What metrics did you employ to arrive at that conclusion? If a person with dual citizenship feels at risk of being deported from Canada(by committing treasonous acts, for example), they do have a couple of viable options. The first is not to commit the acts. The second is to first renounce your citizenship in another country, then commit the treasonous acts. Oh, and we can stop talking about Canada or Australia stripping people of their sole citizenship, then sending them somewhere else without documentation. Both Oz and Canuckistan are long time signatories to UN conventions that prohibit states from deliberately creating stateless persons.

Trudeau would have been elected if he went on live television and read the phone book. Promises vs performance...... the former always wins. Shame on us. So many people have this need to like their leaders. What I need to see is a person who makes hard decisions that may be unpopular. I don't need to like the leader or even like the decision, but I acknowledge that is has to be made. It is the essence of the job. I want that leader to face the nation and state why he or she did it. Will Trudeau acknoweledge that he cannot get 25K refugess here is the next 6 weeks, as promised. I expect nothing like this from Trudeau for two reasons. First, he has no history of achievement in his life, has had no documented hardship beyond the usual death in the family we all experience .... He is about to experience some major, prolonged stress because he cannot deliver on everything he has promised. Second, he clearly likes being loved. Does he have the stones to accept being unloved by the same people, which will happen when he does not deliver a wonderful life to everybody who voted for him? Trudeau has raised the expectations of so many people.... much like Obama did in his first campaign. YES WE CAN vs Real Change. It is impossible to fulfill all or many of them. So we'll see if he can manage the disappointment for 4+ years as well as he manipulated the hope for 11 weeks.

That won't matter at all.

He said: last election using FPTP, and within 18 months. Is that a casual remark, or is there a plan ? I think there definitely is a plan, and it is ranked ballots. Proportional representation is suicide, all it ensures is endless minorities and fringe lunacy. He knows a shift in popular vote of 7 or 8% means he is back on the other side of the House. Ranked ballots guarantee Liberal dynasty, which is what all decent Canadians want and deserve. Sure, there will be a couple of years of noble talk, speechifying and citizens input - but the deal is done.

Yet these animals left the country with a balanced budget, reasonable unemployment. low inflation, low interest rates, the lowest taxes on the middle class in 50 years, and calm in Quebec. They should all be summarily executed.

There have been oil and gas pipelines between US and Canada for many decades. What is kind of odd here is that Keystone XL did not just carry Canadian oil, it also was intended to carry oil from the Bakken in the northern US to the Gulf. And the prime beneficiaries of the decison to cancel KXL are countries like Iran, Mexico and espcically that haven of democracy -Venezuela- who also have the same heavy oil that was meant for KXL, going to the very same Gulf refineries. So much for US energy security.

Incendies is brilliant.

Like father, like son. Oh, and refineries are almost always built globally to serve local markets and needs. Crude is shipped to refinieries to be processed into whatever tis needed locally: diesel. aviation fuels, consumer products, etc. What would be useful perhaps is to refine bitumen into crude domestically, before it is exported. But of course this is all fantasy now. Our own governments- federal and provincial- are now intent on shutting down our energy industry. It ios not yet clear if they are unwitting in this undertaking, or just witless. Perhaps our new Finance Minsiter will have a whisper in Trudeaus ear about how to fund grandiose social programs.

They don't have to afford it. You're being deliberately obtuse.

That wouldn't make any difference at all to the Russians. Don't get all hung up on facts and the truth here. Scapegoats are required and the Ukrainiians are perfect in that role, it would play well in The Motherland. Trudeau could challenge Putin to a fistfight over it.

It doesn't mean they are serious about keeping him, they are just trying to get something anything back if he leaves, which he almost certainly will. They'll get a draft pick back. Why would Estrada- at his age and with his record- take a one year contract when he knows he will get certainly get multi year offers for more total money? and Term is big for players his age.......and so is total bucks because this could well be his last contract.

I cannot imagine why the Russians have not yet blamed the Ukrainians yet.

Harper is not on trial And in some fevered little brains, the illusion continues that Harper is on trial or that there is any hint of criminal conduct. Oh wait thats right. He bought off the RCMP and Crown prosecutors in the best kept conspiracy of the century.

I hope, you hope.... but none of it is happening. XL is dead, Gateway is dead, Kinder Morgan is nearly dead and Energy East is all but buried too. The Alberta Government just curiously announced a big new tax specifically on locomotive fuel, so that is the first round to be fired at shipping oil by rail. There is a concerted attack on the eenrgy industry in Canada with the clear objective of shutting it down. And it is working, and working very well indeed. What is dismaying is that our national and provincial 'leaders' are collectively sitting around with their thumbs up their assess and letting it happen, or in many cases actively abetting the blow to an economy that cannot take too many more blows. Are we this stupid, to screw ourselves and crow about it? . The answer unfortunately is : yes, we are.

Could you do me a favour and pay attention? Thanks. Of course the private sector will do it, they do it right now for a profit in thousands of places in Canada. I'm sure you've noticed how Canada Psot retails their services everywhere. Give Valupharm in Iqaluit $10 per letter to do what thousands of privatized postal operations already do in gas stations, grocery stores and drugstores do in rural and urban Canada: sell a stamp and put a letter in a square hole. It's peanuts, but it gets Canada Post and taxpayers off the hook for all those fat salaries, pensions, benefits, huge operating costs and capital replacement costs in remote places. Unless you have a different agenda, why would you resent operational efficiencies in this vital national service? Universal delivery for everybody at a reasonable price? Done.

Why can't we just borrow money to top up CPP whenever it looks al ittle shaky?

Have you read Flash Boys by Michael Lewis? You should. It is an entertaining and terrifying account of the US stock market.

Many many times major mailers have tried to deliver their own bills, all nailed to the legal cross by Canada Post lawyers protecting the legislated monopoly. Why would they bother if the service is unprofitable? Answer: it makes them shitloads of money nationally, though less as time goes by. It is also more profitable if they eliminate the unneccesary letter carriers and switching the whole country to community boxes. But the argument that the private sector cannot deliver to remote places is rubbish. How do you think Canada Post gets a letter to auntie in Iqaluit? First a bag goes on a private sector aircraft, then on a private sector truck to drop it at the corporate post office where soembody in a Canad Post uniform making fat salary plus benefits puts the letters in a rented mail box at the post office. The building is operated at a big loss by Canada Post because the volume of mail is tiny. What changes if privatized? The same bag goes on the same private plane and same private truck and is dropped off at the ValuPharm drug store to be sorted by somebody making $20 hour, who puts it in the same rented mail box that is now in their store, where they also sell all the same goods and services that used to be in the post office. You could subisdize every remote cmmunity letter to $10 each and it would barely be noticed on the bottom line, because many of the overhead costs are the same or less under privatization, but most of all the relative volume is TINY in remote communities..

There is a specific reason for that, and it is not to influence the bottom line- that is a fortunate sideshow. Many CDN cities have traditionally had large downtown buildings c/w coporate office space, traditional post office services. letter carrier depots and most of all processing plants downtown for many decades. They are a logistical nightmare, occupy valuable space and today serve no purpsowe for the corporations strategy. Many people including most here do not undertsand that strategfy, although it is not new. for politcial interference by both Tories and Liberals in the 80s, 90s and 00s. Canada Post wants out of the stamp selling business. They would be totally out of it long ago if they had not been interfered with polticially and stopped. They wanted to close their very costly buildings and privatize operations in all smaller communites because they are all major money losers, and there was no problem at all finding local businesses willing to take on that role. They were halted in that, although there would be no effective change in how things were done, just a change i who did them. Because this is the longterm role that CP management sees for their business: LOGISTICS. They have a huge and modern distribution system in all major cities. They can a nd do make money on it. They know lettermail is a dying duck because THE INTERNET.

well, then that makes it very easy to do.

I have to admit that the environmentalists have done a great job of a) shutting down the energy sector in Canada by choking off all markets except the one that pays the worst(the US) and convincing our people and own governments that this is somehow in our interest, to not build any infrastructure at all,to get this crucial part of our economy to markets. This will become more apparent every day. The budget will balance itself.

It is more specific than that. Ranked ballots do not help the NDP- not as long as they cling to the fringes as hard as they have for.... well... forever. Ranked ballots benefit one party far more than any other. The Liberals. A dynasty looms. It is significant that Trudeau kept the Intergovernmental affairs portfolio for himself. He knows that the next room he has to work hard is one full or premiers where constitutional change happens. He is going to have to buy the support of Wynne and Couillard to change the FPTP to anything resembling ranked ballots. Well, Couillard really, Wynne is already there. It won't be cheap, these things never are, as we have all seen for generations.