Technocrat

The full episode is found here. I was just searching through some recent episodes of Real Time and found that former prime minister Kim Campbell was on the guest panel. As I watched it and listened to her responses, I thought to myself 'If she was running as the head of the PC party in a potential upcoming spring election I would certainly cast my vote for her party. Watching this also made me realize that I really wish the old Progressive Conservative Party still existed. Anyhow I thought a few of you may be interested in watching. You can skip the opening monologue, and interview, the 'panel discussion' segment is about 40% in(I think), though there are some funny bits throughout the show so its not a total waste of time.

correct me if im wrong but I don't exactly understand where the feds are coming up with 50B$. That is alot of cash, for banks, who if I am not mistaken are still very profitable. Perhaps their profits should go towards maintaining their liquidity rather then their shareholders until the 'credit crunch' is over with. For being financial management institutions, they are doing a piss poor job of managing their own finances. I know the governement 'should' be able to make money of this in the long run, it just seem that for the amount that they are proposing to pony up, that money could be used to upgrade some of out crumbling infrastructure. I would like to see the numbers on exactly how this proposed bail out is supposed to generate a return. Interesting change from the tory election line though.

I think the worst part of this whole plagiarism speech is that Stephen Harper is presenting this as why canada should go to war in Iraq. Am I the only one concerned that he wouldn't have sat down and thought out what he wanted to say regarding Iraq on his own? OK I can see with maybe a few advisors but letting a backroom staffer essentially lay out your whole speech(and copying it for that matter) for going to war is less then I would expect from a leader. Not only that but it just adds to the whole notion of Harper being a pawn of the US republicans, more ammo for the tin foil hat bregade. In all seriousness though, I would expect something a little more original if your trying to make the case for your country to invade another soverign nation, wouldn't you. I don't think this speech is easily excused. I do however beleive that this speech may have been made too far in the past to have any real effect or really resonate with most voters. IMHO the Liberals have waited to long to finally come out swinging. They fail to bring the debate back to actual policies where they could actually make some headway. Instead the Lib strategists insist on trying to dig up something for that magical 'gotcha' moment. I do wonder why on earth it took so long to actually come to light, are the media in this country asleep or something? Lastly this story made the BBC World Front Page! Way to go Harper, now you look like a douche on the world stage.

Drugs and drug addicttion are a public health problems and should be dealt with in that regards. The Unites States has pushed for a stricter drug policy and what has happened? The highest incarceration rate in the developed world, mostly for simple possesion issues is simply stupid. Conservative dogma regarding drug laws is hardly a substitute for real hard science on how to deal with drug problems. Safe injection sites not only save taxpayers long term medical costs, but provide a point of contact and treatment support for addicts where they can begin to resolve their long term drug problems. No one is going to be rehabilitated in prison, certainly not for drug problems or addictions.

Bollocks. I don't love Dion, but I like Harper even less. The NDP are a bloody joke. Liberals will not collapse, but I don't think they will be gaining any seats. I might for the Liberals not becaue I like Dion... but because they have good people in their party who know what the hell they are doing at the helm of our country. They screw it up every once in awhile but in reality so do all the parties weilding the power of government. I honestly just don't see what the Cons really have going for them... other then the fact that the other parties really cant get their shit togeather. I think the best way forward for Canada is another Minority with the conservatives at the helm. Dion needs to get the boot... Rae... even with all of his baggage from his NDP days in Ontario is a much more articulate leader. Frankly my worst fear... I am not trying to fear monger hear, is that if given a majority government Harper turns out to be another Mike Harris. That all said... i really am looking forward to the national debates. Especially with the greens. If May does well. I just might vote green as a protest vote.

"The only people who oppose this legislation are young kids who don't vote. The issue at stake (intellectual property rights in general) is far more important than a few script kiddies downloading music and movies on bittorrent or limewire. This legislation will pass, the ISPs will put an end to this free-for-all that we've had in Canada for the past few years and the Conservatives or Liberals will get re-elected." Now your showing your age August. Don't choke on your mammoth.

i am one of them... feds owe me big.

mmmm meadow muffins and road apples... sounds delicious You should publish a political cookbook you may find a ready market in the conservative party *note the above comment was for a few silly chuckles no need to get your panties in a knot* got to love google images for added fun

Hell hath officially frozen over. I fully agree with Mikedavid00... I never thought the day would come Baffling.

mike Please correct me if im wrong but don't you have to be a Canadian citizen to vote? Thus a Canadian? Your xenophobia is showing

Ohhh no... lets not deprive people of their guns... (sarcasm) yeesh... I have zero sympathy for gun collectors. Perhaps its time for a new hobby... stamps, baseball cards? That being said... in all fairness collections that include hanguns should be handed over and the guns should be destroyed(unless they are of some historical significance). The collectors should be compensated for their collections at a fair market value. Im pretty sure that the T.O. police cheif stated that many of the guns that are used in gun crimes in the GTA are stolen from gun collectors. You have to admit that even though gun collectors themselves could be law abiding citizens, their collections are like mini armories and are targeted by criminals to traffic their stolen firearms.

Yep... im one of em... I work in the private sector... get a full car allowance, my insurance is paid for and all of my gas. I doubt there are any civil servants at my level (I have only been in the workforce for a few years) that get benifits like me.

I got that stat from a crfb news segment... I stand corrected. No im not out to 'steal from the rich'... Im just trying to comment on the fact that Torontonians pay very little in property taxes when compared to other Ontario municipalities. As their budget is in serious trouble, I think that this would be one way to fill the Toronto budget gap. I would also favour the city really really doing some decent analysis on what are the core services that need to be provided to make the city work properly. The province needs to get involved and recognize that the whole 'downloading' fad in the '90s didn't really work... it just shifted the deficit burden from one level of government to another.

Its good to see that someone else noticed that the Toronto property tax rates are realatively quite low. As I am still renting (saving up for a decent downpayment on a first home) I do not pay property tax. However as this is a brand new tax that I will have to start paying soon enough I started educating myself about tax rates, and how they differ from municipality to municipality. I think Toronto needs to re-evaluate the way it taxes properties. As the majority of the Toronto population rent, I do not see the problem of raising the property tax rates on rental properties and residential houses. If you have enough to purchase a property in Toronto proper... you should have to pay a reasonable level of property tax. Not the freakin lowest property tax rate... I don't know but it just doens't make sense for Toronto City hall to be all like... 'hey look were all cool and green we want to be all lovey dovey hippies and give lip service to how everyone needs to take public transit to save the planet.' Then when your in a budget crunch... and are too stupid to figure out how to balance the books you go and threaten to cut public transit first...wtf? Bollocks. Ok the last bit may have been a bit silly but something is seriously wrong with Toronto's city council. That being said... the province does need to look at how the downloading and underfunding of services to toronto has seriously F'd everything up... McDumbassGuinty has had long enough to sort this mess out... and he hasn't either. I think we are witnessing the complete and utter failure of Governments and politicians to do their jobs.

Not good enough... we need someone who will really make Ontario a better place for people to live. Mike Harris & Eves really buggered this province up. I don't think Dalton has done a good job helping Ontario recover from the previous cons & their botch attempt to 'deregulate' everything... Ontario's infrastructure needs to be reinvested in... the schools need to be fixed... the universities need to be fixed... Hell UofG has over 250 million dollars worth of building maintinance that it needs to get done however there is just no money for it. Sure the Universities can get money for their buildings.... however money is only being given out for NEW buildings while the older ones fall into disrepair. Urban sprawl needs to be brought under control... its getting rediculous. I must say good for the Libs today... the new recycling fee for large electronic items... LCD TV's, computers ect was actually an excellent idea and showed real initiative. (high tech electronic gizmos contain mainy toxic materials that should and can be recovered and prevented from leeching into landfills, however it costs cash...) I can think of no fairer way to cover these recycling costs then to charge a person the fee up front when the item is paid for. Some asshats may have been calling it a tax... which in someways it is but lets be honest... if you have the cash to buy the expensive toys... you have the cash to make sure that they are treated properly once your done playing with them.

I would much rather the RC system be merged with the public system then see more religion in schools. I have a real problem when education and religion are brought under the same roof. I don't think it is in the students nor societies best interests. If people want to learn about religion go to your local churh/mosque ect. They usually have these guys that know all about whatever diety you choose to beleive in and are more then willing to teach you about them. Personally I think that the status quo with a public system & a RC system to be well... just plain wasteful. Think how much cash could be saved on the streamlining of the administration by merging the systems togeather alone. Im not trying to hijack this topic... however i just think that there should be one public school system. Everyone pays into it. If you choose to send your kid to a private school fine... but you will still pay into the public system, no matter what. Seems the most fair to me... besides most of the kids I knew that went to private schools left them being closed minded asshats.

Personally I think Dalton is a complete and utter failure as the provinces Premier. The really unfortunate thing is I was leaning toward voting for John Tory until he released plans that he wanted to start using public funds for private religious schools. I was like WTF? Public funding for religious scools? Tory lost my vote right then and there. Now im left scratching my head... wondering who on earth to vote for. The Ontario Libs are liars and ineffective. The Ontario Cons are coming up with come pretty wacky and frankly unwise policies. The Ontario NDP are well... lets just say their the NDP and leave it at that. Democracy is in a pretty shit state of affairs if this is the best we can come up with in a province with 10 million people. Im not sure if im even going to bother voting this time... there is no-one that I can really support. sigh...

Lets be very very very clear. The PM is the 'Leader of the Government', which is different from the 'Leader of the people'. An important distinction that should not be confused.

Here is an idea... its not particularly amazing but here it is. Start saving when your young and just set it up so you contribute to your retirement automatically. It takes all of 10 min to walk into your bank and presto you don't even have to think about it. Hell I even set mine up with my bank online. I have only been working full time for just under 2 years(Im 25). Amount saved for retirement already.. just under 5 grand. (My portfolio grew by 14% as well... thanks to some smart investing). I know I could have probably saved a bit on tax by not contributing so much so early (I still have a tonne of deductions from university to use up) but I figured if i set everything up early I won't find myself in such a rediculous bind that many people are in when they realize HOLY CRAP IM 40 and havn't saved a penny. I Portion off a small part of my income (frankly i never see it except when i get my rrsp info quarterly) so its not like I really feel it.

Why don't you cut this personal attack BS, unless, as I suspect, you're carrying over unfinished business from another board. Should the US share it with CSIS, or on www.mapleleafweb.com/forums? JBG i just read through this whole thread and you seem to be diliberately misconstruing (sp? forgive me its past midnight and im typing in bed) Fortuna's words and posts. Fortuna has a valid point. If Arar is a terrorist and the pertinent information is not shared with the Canadian authorities, then the US inteligence services are endangering my life and the lives of my loved ones. Yeah its a little extreme however it is the logical conclusioin if Arar is who the US intel says he is.

It all started with the attack on Marjorie Lebreton and only *Tory hacks* could have respect for her. then when Isaid she was the chair of the board of MADD the attacks on MADD started... So you raised the point that she is a member of a board of directors who is responsible for an organisation with clear mismanagement issues. Not exactly a shining example of management and leadership is it?

"The Beachcombers" are still on TV!!! I was channel surfing one day and stumbled upon the show on TV Tropolis or what ever the heck 'Prime' used to be called. BTW if im not mistaken that would be a CanWest Global company airing re-runs of old CBC content... funny how that works.

'Who's Doing What' is referring to: One of the 4 Laws of Ecology. Specifically the second law stated below. Melting Ice will become water, additional water volume in the ocean will lead to an increase in sea levels.

This is a flase statement. Ontario farmers are NOT paid to dump their milk. Supply is regulated in the form of Milk Quota. You must own quota in order to transport the milk that your farm produces. If a farner produces too little there is a financial penalty levied against the quota holder. If a farmer produces too much milk a fine is leveid against the farmer. If a farmer is producing too much milk they could dump milk if they wanted to however they are NOT paid to do so. They are only paid for volume of milk quota that they hold and are allowed to ship. To summarize the supply management practices that the DFO has adopted does NOT reward farmers for over production. Farmers are in fact penalized for overproduction. Read the Ontario Milk Act if you like. I have.

This is going to come back and bite them in the ass. Just like GMO products. I have no real problem with the practice nor the technology. However I can certainly understand why some people would opt not to consume cloned or GMO products. It should therefore carry a lable stating that it is a cloned animal product. Either way this approval is going to help push more people into the organic camp so ... more sales for me