Technocrat

CTVWho is Michael Chong and does it matter whether he resigns from the Cabinet? The caucus? Pierre Trudeau used to say that he got involved in politics to make sure Quebec didn't leave Canada and to make sure English Canada didn't kick it out. If you're a federalist, the only sensible position is Harper's. If you're a separatist, then you can side with Kinsella because there'll be almost no one in Quebec except those astute political analysts Serge Joyal and Trudeau Jnr to support you. Lolz I was listening to his press conference live on the radio... He stated that Harper did not even consult his intergovernmental affairs minister(Chong) before cooking up this half baked nation within Canada BS... nice Harper nice... well thought out. Can we have another election now before more damage is done? I know Harper is inexperience but come on, your not even consulting your freakin ministers?... wow BTW Michael Chong was quite eloquent about why he is resigning... I would have no hesitation voting for him in an election.

The spanking they received on the Plains of Abraham and the benevolence of the British Empire. j/k j/k but it's true. our society is so self-loathing, we go out and kick the snot out of societies in battle, then feel sorry for them and start making reparations. Listen up Quebec and aboriginals: you got conquered. That doesn't give you the right to endless government payoffs. Deal with it. omfg i can't beleive it but im in total agreement with Jerry for once.

Your going to need us to support your economy very shortly. We're already preventing widespread social assistance demand in your province by providing jobs to those fleeing your failing economy. Not per capita. When you have 3x the population, you expect to have at least as many guns as the much smaller Alberta. Martin wasn't from Quebec.... he was born in Windsor, raised between there and Ottawa and went to university at St. Michael's and the U of T. At least get your facts right. Your kidding right? Do you know how many jobs Ontario lost last month... and the month before. Exporting oil is where the money and jobs are. Ontario is a fading star. It's industry was artifically sustained for too long, and now it's in collapse. You actually have a very weak economy right now. That's why head office migration is moving to the much more economically competitive Alberta. Correct. Let's cut them off and help ourselves out. Alberta and Ontario could be a good team, if they accepted their difference and lost their selfish pride. Wrong. Per capita Albertans pay so much more than Ontarians it's not even funny. 4 times as much. Exactly what difference are you talking about geoffery?... set aside what exactly? What the hell does alberta really want anyways...? a freakin cookie? U bitch like alberta is the only province shelling out more then its getting back... ohh yeah the manufacturing sectore is really not all that bad. Toyota is opening up a new car plant in the K.W Alot of the manufacturing jobs that are being lost are from the Big 3 North American Automakers... not really much of a suprise but thats hardly the fault of the workers or the Ontario Gov't. One thing that is affecting the ontario manufacturing sector has been the noticable lack of investment in the overall capacity to generate electricity. We have hit the point where electricity prices are increasing which is a major cost in the manufacturing of goods. THe last few premiers here Harris, Eves and the King Wanker McGuinty have just let the system go. Lets face it a my cat could run Albertas economy right now... not to much skill in just doling out the cash.

Im reminded of the South Park Movie where they sing Blame Canada exept in the post above you can pretty much sub-in blame Ontario. Wow Blueblood... you truly are genius. You have ontario all figured out don't you. Ontario Conspires to kill western farmers with big pointy sticks... ohh yeah we also collectively fart into the wind to gas out the pesky quebecers. Ohh yeah and we are responsible for the putting the Newfies on a big isolated island without hopes of any real meaningful economic development. It was us who gave PEI the potato... One day we will reintroduce the potatoe famine in that province too. We send all our stoners to BC to flood that province with incoherant hippy ramblings. well you get the idea. I am JoeONTARIO and I... AM.... AN ....OPRESSOR! /sarcasm Yes blame ontario... blueblood your a real winner.

I'm often amazed at how often people call Ontarians arrogant in a post where they also go off on how other provinces, ie. Nfld is all unemployed people. Ontario isn't arrogant, they just don't care about places at the other end of the country that they don't ever hear about. They don't even care about Caledonia, and that's like two hours away. [Edited to add: You're probably no different. Do you think about Burkina Faso a lot ?] You're projecting your own ideas of region and identity on people who live in a completely different culture. Southern Ontario is just work and family and that's it. The province is just a place to live. Lol... geography lesson time... Caledonia is IN Ontario not two hours away.. WTF does Caledonia have to do with anything anyways... in fact Caledonia has nothing to do with ontario and has everything to do with the Federal Gov't who is sitting on their thumbs(and rotating i might add). The Onario Gov't has been asking the feds to get involved for quite some time... Would people stop bashing areas of the country and making sweeping generalizations... its not accurate nor is it constructive. Im opposed to this whole 'nation withing a nation' business because it is just too Newspeak. Remember we are all equal but some are more equal then others...

I would likely pay less in a purely private system because I currently am in a low risk group. However, I know that status would only last as long as a $500 fender bender on icy roads where I don't even make a claim. I would rather pay more now if that means I will not be subjected to extortion because of some random event in the future. if you don't make a claim, youre insirance does not go up. period. That is pure BS. I used to live in London Ontario, I moved to Guelph Ontario for work. My rates went up for no other reason that Guelph is considered to be part of Toronto. So i have to pay Toronto insurance rates dispite living almost an hour away. It works out to nearly a $200 difference/year in my insurance rates. Explain to me the logic in that... The CFO at my company had to pay insurance rates in the order of $7K per year... because he was immigrating from overseas. He had been driving since he was 16 but again was considered a 'new high risk driver' despite passing all the MOT drivers exams including a road test... thats just plain stupid.

Conservatives were calling it a dumb idea last week. What's changed? The motion from the Bloc changed it, this is an attempt to circumvent the bloc motion and defuse a bad situation - to siece the initiative as it where. "Do the Québécois form a nation within Canada? The answer is yes. Do the Québécois form an independent nation? The answer is no, and the answer will alway" We should be focussing on strengthening a harmonious, co-operative and peaceful relationship with Quebec, keeping in mind the parallels with the relationship of Britain and Ireland. Personally I'm tired of pandering to Quebec, but if this puts the issue to rest, so be it, I can live with it. The problem is i don't think it will ever be put to rest. An industry has built up in quebec selling the notion that they are somehow special and above the rest of us...

what a completely pointless and stupid gesture imho... what exactly makes quebec so freakin special? What they have a distinct culture?... what a load of claptrap. Every province has a distinct culture and i have been to them all. Pandering to one province does nothing to unify the country... i have many more thoughts on this subject but i have to make dinner so i shall return.

ohmy thats hawt

ummm how about because im a male driver 25 years old and pay basically 2 grand a year... im sorry but those rates are just freakin rediculous. My beef is that when your young you have to pay a rediculously high premium. I shoped around and the best rate i could get with a clean driving record is $168/month. The other rediculous thing is that i live 45 minutes out of the GTA yet some genious in the insurance industry decided that Guelph = Toronto... and you can't do a damn thing about it. I would welcome a public insurance system in ontario... these prices are just getting silly.

What a freakin waste of time, money and resources...

mmm watermelon... i hope they are the watermelons that you inject with vodka!!!

Argus Argus Argus... you seem to miss the point. The conservatives ran as the 'were the squeaky clean party'... 'well be honest to canadians'... 'we will be accountable for our actions'. well well well... if they broke the law... they broke the law. Its a black mark on the CPC... they can no longer play the squeaky clean party card. You can't really deny that. Someone in the CPC F'd up... the sooner they come out and admit that the better off they will be. Retroactively trying to CYA by changing the law after the fact is well... not very ethical. BTW Geoffery my respect level for you has been going up and up lately... just thought i would mention that. (i wish i had more time to fully participate in these boards... unfortunately... I just don't have the time.)

well said... If your teen is having consensual sex with a person much older then they are that is their choice(as long as the person is not in a professional position of trust ie Doctor, teacher ect.). Probably not a good choice, but a choice none the less. If it is non consensual then there it is clearly a criminal issue. The right always bitches about the 'nanny state' when it comes to social services... so why the overreaching into personal lives? Im not advocating for pedophiles here... but exactly what is the problem with having the age of consent at 14? Hell when i was in school kids were sexually active at 10 or 11, many more were by the age of 14, by 16 if you were not sexually(not nessarily having sex... but other things... u can fill that in yourself) active you were definitely in the minority(cripes don't even get me started on the catholic school kids). I just don't see what problem changing the age of consent from 14 to 16 is supposed to solve. When i was in highschool i was 17, dating a 15 year old, for a brief 2 weeks i turned 18 while she was still 15, her birthday was 2 weeks after mine so she turned 16 shortly thereafter. That would have made me a criminal for those 2 weeks... thats a little silly don't you think? Arbitrary numbers applied to complicated issues and situations are not the solution in they actually created a criminal where none existed. To be perfectly honest this seems like another thinly veiled attempt to get the government back into the bedrooms of the nation. Don't get me wrong... sexual assault is sexual assault... raising the age of consent 2 years is really not going to have a real impact.

CTVAm I the only one who thinks that many Canadians are going to scratch their heads at this and wonder if there are other priorities? nope... monies well wasted. Any new 'security' measures will just amount to cameras on the transit system. Not much help when youve already been blown to smitherines.

He's what you call a 'grass-rooter'. Volunteers who are suckered in to spending their time circulating talking points issued by the party in order to try and start 'grassroot' movements with propaganda. It's a new thing but you better get used to it because it's only going to increase. Eventually it will ruin all forums. Fake or contrived 'grassroots campaigns actually have a name. They are called "Astroturf" campaigns... Just an FYI

Just so everyone knows... the liberals have little to do with coming up with a plan... they go to the public servants for that. They did do that by the way... and were finishing up the details of it. Of course... to come up with a implementation plan is not exactly easy... you have to consult with many parts of the government, industries, scientists, economists... you name it. I saw part of the plan (a family member was on the implementation team), yes there actually was for the most part a written down plan. Unfortunately the government fell and the Harper government threw out years of work. Now we have this hap hazzard BS that they are talking about now... Im all for cleaning up air polution... but it just seems that it was a big waste to scrap what was a nearly finished plan. Not to mention the new legislation just seems to be doddling to waste time before the next election ... Now im not a firm beleiver in Humans causing global warming... nothing is easy to prove... especially when something is as complex as long term atmospheric projections (ask your local weather man). But there is an overwhelming scientific concensus that climate change is occuring and that there is a likely hood that we have some part in that. Below is a great graph... of the decline of pirates and the increase in global temperature. My climate change economist family member sent it too... enjoy!

Thank you for shedding some light on the issue. Let us see what other people have to say: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor...4/20060214?hub= http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2005/09/09/...s-20050909.html I agree. Surely, you can understand that your outlook for the future with respect to population dynamics might suggest the reverse sequence of events? In fact, your writing style has a robotic and unemotional meter, too. Forgive me. I missed your entrance and first post of the forum. Uh.... you want me to come up with a better silly joke related to your name?? Well, speaking of reverse sequences, Borg spelled backwards is Grob. For the non-polyglottophobes out there, "grob" is the Slavic word for "tomb" -- if interested, I suggest checking out Polish since it is the root of all Slavic languages. So, I find it a funny co-incidence. Your writing style has the rhythm of a tomb stone inscription and with respect to the topic of this thread, your writing provides equal amounts of hope and inspiration. lolz Borg = Pwnd Best forum burn I've seen in a long time... Nice One Charles Anthony

Actually im part of the public... i didn't "punish" the liberals for adscam... i just plain didn't like Martin so he didn't get my vote. I didn't vote for Harper either... he's not the kind of Conservative that I would vote for. Layton is just plain out a wanker... he comes across as a creepy used car salesman. Green party is just wacko. To be honest... if there was a "Progressive Conservative" party still I would have voted for them... too bad there were those shenanigans a few years ago with the 'unite the right' movement and that sketchy party merger. I would have given Joe Clark another go @ being PM... maybe he would have been in for more then 3 months

There's been a flurry of really good Canadian TV recently. Now considering the production budgets of Canadian TV is a tenth of what an average US show is.....they accomplish much with little. This season I've been watching Billable Hours, Naked Josh and Slings and Arrows. I haven't watched but I have heard they are good......Corner Gas and Alice, I think. And finally, I always made time to catch one of the funniest shows on TV last fall, The Tournement. Slings & Arrows is a great series... I don't understand why this show does not get more press. Trailor Park Boyz is just filling a complete void in television. Its the modern day lowbrow Monty Python... something completely different from everything else on TV. Its boy humour, mocumentary style and just plain funny. The great thing is that dispite the cheap production... some of the ideas for the episodes are actually quite original. Not too mention when you actully read about the cast, it adds a little more to the show. Give me trailor park boys over Will & Grace anyday... BTW thnx for the TPB quotes those were great.

Since when is gay bashing a freedom of speech issue? I don't want any hate mongers and homophobia legitimized especially by our national government. Im not very happy about the 'others who critisize homosexual behaviour' idea, who exactly are the others and what are legitimate grounds for refusing to do business with gays? Isn't there a court case going on now in Montreal because a bar refused to serve a black guy because he was black? I guess were back to 'separate but equal' Tread lightly Mr. Harper... I do support legislation regarding people not having to marry gay couples if they think its against their religion... sure fine... but discriminatory business practices based on sexual preference... just sounds... well... wrong. Of course we have yet to see the actual legislation so, we will know soon enough i suppose... sigh... 1 step forward 3 steps back

Chomsky advocates for individual power and responsible and representative democracy... he merely points out that these things are lacking in many of the worlds powerful 'democracies'. Missing from this list... Pinochet, Noriega, Torrijos, Velasco - this list of American backed dictators could go on and on. I don't understand why more Americans do not question the schizophrenic nature of American foreign policy. The United States has doen its fair share of bolstering and creating its own dictator regimes... which is all the more reason to be concerned. The United States made it official policy to be THE dominant world power under Bill Clinton.

So the world is warming up. That's a good thing - we live in CANADA! Besides, it's not like there's anything we can do about it. lol sure there is... buy less winter clothes and bust out your thongs its beach time

Australia too huh... hey they have a pretty high standard of living as well... hmmmm.... maybe these 'socialist' policies are actually working. My my my... Great lets spend 10 billion on tanks and bombs... ohhh joy. Of course we could spend it to put a roof over peoples heads, feed the hungry, educate our children... shit we could even update, upgrade and restructure the countries health care system.

Not being able to afford never mind find a place to live doesn't sound like a 'party' to me. "Hey guys anyone want to go sofa surfing " Get a grip. Enjoy economic prosperity don't throw it in peoples faces. Doing so only breeds divisiveness and resentment. Grow up and stop acting like a child. Go have fun live life.