overthere

It will be when their balance sheet budgets is eroded even worse than now as they lose all revenue from hockey. If the CBC was a private sector company, they'd have been sold or chopped into bits long ago. Their management has failed in every way imaginable for a long time now, except for managing to keep the carcass from being buried entirely. That is not an economic triumph but entirely political. Their biggest failure by far over the last few decades was a consistent, relentless failure to produce-despite plenty of money- anything that anybody wanted to watch. Supporters of the CBC claim it is all the fault of Harper, but in reality it has been weak management for a very long time that has killed the CBC.

Ah, no. That was actually George Bush -in the good old days- who spoke of North American energy security. That included a strong role for Canada as a reliable and trusted supplier. Energy Independence for America is indeed an Obama initiative, and you will note does not include much at all about Canada. Increasingly they don't need or want our energy products. America is rapidly moving from being our only customer to being a competitor who is eating our lunch every day. A sensible nation would diversify and build the infrastructure to get our products to other markets. Developing nations do it, Australia does it, America does it, Russia does it..... but we are not up to the task. We cannot get moving on Energy East, Northern Gateway or Kinder-Morgan- all projects entirely within our control. . In the meantime, we blubber and moan about being blocked by Obama on Keystone XL. Pathetic really. ^^^ I think we can now add the entire Canadian LNG industry to that list of failures to act in our own interests..

Yes, that is the intention, to get rid of the effect of the Senate without the constitutional cluster**** that would doom any effort to do it via national federal/provincial consensus. There is zero chance that Quebec or the Maritime provinces would agree to any diminishment of the imbalance of power in the current Senate setup. Any govt- Harper or otherwise- is going to have to do an end run to end this fiasco at the heart of our governance. The 'sober second thought' idea supposedly behind the Senate has never been the reality. What we see now is what we get, and will get. An elected Senate means more of what we get in the Commons. An unelected Senate is more of what we have now in the Senate. Time to bury the stinking corpse, one way or another.

The recent arrests of FIFA came as a result of FIFA activities in America. Bribery is illegal there, and in many other countries including Switzerland who will cooperate with extraditing them to face trial. If any of them had been in Canada, we would also be cooperating with extradition. Being a part of FIFA does not render anybody bulletproof globally. That reality obviously comes a a great surprise to FIFA people. They are not the only game in town- FIFAs legs would be sawn off if groups like CONCACAF and particularly UEFA withdrew support from FIFA. The African and Asian blocs that formerly supported Blattler will follow the money, and the money is in UEFA.

I heard another idea today, a way to allow the PM to appoint Senators as he is required to do. He (or she) could appoint sitting MPs as Senators, for terms not to exceed their terms as MPs. Cost would be nothing extra, legislation would get passed, they could do no more harm or cost more than what the Commons costs now.

Sports talk radio is like one million monkeys typing non stop........

Both the semi finals and the final have been some great hockey.

No, I do not admit that. The control or lack of control over legislation is unchanged for over a century.The PM with the very least control of his caucus was surely Mulroney, who was obliged to fire and suspend so many of them for corruption and incompetence. Chretien also had a lot of Minsters depart, but he ruled his caucus with an iron fist until finally ousted by Martin. There is no quick effective check on legislative power in the Commons or Senate our system when any govt has a majority. The only options backbenchers have to defeat govt legislation is to cross the floor, quit, or attempt to oust the sitting PM as party leader. There is one check, but it takes a long time to reach or implement any decisions, and is thus cumbersome: the Supreme Court.

well, I see you have forgotten that $200 million the Libs stole for those friendly Montreal ad agencies- and themselves. I haven't. Satan lives. When will the Supreme Court justices be released from their dungeon?

Yep, it certainly helps. Mind you I'm also an Oilers fan and get uneasy when my team is still a contender 1/3 of the way through the season. What is going on here? Shouyd I be afraid?

NO PM is going to go the constitutional amendment route, because it is pretty much impossible to get all provinces on board to abolish the Senate, or even to do any meaningful change. Let's see if you can consider your happy world in which Harper and every one of his supporters is dead and not involved. Put whatever name you like in as PM. Would either of the suggestions I made(effectively having the Senate abolish itself) be possible?

a). no that was never the intent of the Senate absolutely nothing has changed in the powers of the PM. The power of the position is most affected by the exisetence or not of a majority govt, and has nothing to do with the individual in our Westminster style of governance.

They are back to where they started, and the task is the same: win 2 out of 3 for the next 100 games.

OGFT is obviously the desperate one, the trial is not going to result in Harpers resignation and will have very little impact on the election this fall. Spending $23M to track $1M is commensurate with much in governemt operations. Return-on-investment calculations are rarely part of any business analysis in the public sector. Except for one critical body- Canada Revenue Agency. They tend to invest their time and money where there will be a positive cash flow.

Abolishment by Commons action, provincial agreement, constitutional amendment or anything the PM does directly is pretty much impossible. But what happens if the PM, Harper or another, takes a different route? There are already 20 vacancies out of 105 seats. What if the PM just refuses to fill any of them and the vacancies grew and grew until the place was empty? in another scenario, the Liberals and Independents(the Criminal Wing of the Senate) total 35 seats and the Cons have 50 seats. What if Harper instructed 14 of his Senators to resign, leaving a thin majority of 36 Cons.... and they met once per year for 15 minutes to stamp legislation, then went home?

It is eternally entertaining to watch you pretend that the exercise of power in Ottawa under our Parliamentary system has changed in the last decade or the last century+. Who can forget the wonderful, magical Chretien era when the PMO faithfully consulted the public and the Opposition or his own party/caucus for input on the future of the country or a legislative agenda? Harper has no means to change the Constitution that describes his role as Prime Minister. His Secret Agenda remains a Secret.

Did the viewers expect objectivity from CBC? An alternate theory of their reticence to comment on Solomon is that they too have a few extracurricular activities that might threaten that CBC paycheque. That's the thing with a trade like journalism,:the nature of the work involves pulling on many threads in many lives and sometimes opportunities arise. Management at CBC has gone into hardcore headchopping mode with all the recent scandals, best to keep your head down for the foreseeable future.

Speaking of softballs,I am reminded of Michael Enrights interview of Mulcair a few months ago on Sunday morning. Halfway through I was hoping Mike was wearing some quality kneepads or he would hurt his aging joints as he serviced Mulcair..

as in our personal lives/finances, the net is more important than the gross. On that basis, Quebec has done very well indeed from our fiscal system.

If their player development was any good, they'd have made the playoffs at least once in the last quarter century. That is how success is gauged in pro sports. Results. I appreciate your optimism.

I don't see how Parizeau betrayed Canada or is a traitor. He never worked for Canada, he was purely representing his province and culture. He never accepted any kind of subordinate role for Quebec. And his 'vision' of the Quebec separatiste movement being somehow poisoned by immigrants was- in his perspective- entirely valid. To take Quebec out of Canada Parizeau had to distinguish and define the province as being different from rest of Canada. Different language, different culture, and eventually a different country..... Elsewhere in Canada multiculturalism is celebrated and promoted, we are all one big homogenous happy bunch coming from many different places. That would not begin to work for Parizeau and the PQ. If Quebec is the same big homogenous bunch of happy campers, why would they want to leave? No, he had to draw a line between Quebec and the rest of Canada- and demonstrate a difference. And being Francophone was the line in the sand. It came very, very close to working. It was a deliberate and effective strategy that very nearly achieved his goal. Smart guy. There is no doubt he would have unilaterally declared Quebec an independent nation the morning after a successful referendum. It must have been profoundly crushing to come that close and fail.

Yeah, whatever. It's a weak division. I've heard all this crap for over 2 decades now. Win or go home. They need to clean house with management. They could start tomorrow with Gibbons. Nobody would notice if he went back to early retirement in Texas. Their drafting and player development record is also brutal. Is it still too early to state who got fleeced in the big Marlins trade?

Their position would mean more if they weren't in such a weak division. I never got off the wagon, but like to think I can see them objectively. I don't know what you mean about them being better than they are. Their offense is strong, their defense is average, their pitching is bad. Unless their pitching improves dramatically, .500 is their destination, and that won't win their division or get them a wildcard spot. I'm not interested in improvement, that is not enough. I want to see them actually succeed and make the playoffs for the first time in 23 years. Call me crazy.

Credit the marketing wizards with the Jays, that they can manage our expectations every year into thinking that attaining .500 is an exciting goal.