Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

Quite a rant from Flipper,

Must have got a bad batch of BC Bud.

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

Generally speaking and varying with different polls, anything 65 to 75% of the general population are against joining with the US in any way....however (and not surprisingly) almost the same % of executives of Canadian corporations (i.e. Canadian owned and managed and those companies bought out and run/controlled through Canadian subsidiaries of US companies) are for
further integration in any way with the US. However on the numbers front the latter group consists only a small amount, I think less than 3% IIRC, of the Canadian electorate.

So as much as some people on the outside think that Albertans are US wannabees, they seem happy to flog their goodies to the US, align their politics and religious worldview closer to a Republican axis, bask in the wealth of tax surpluses and build their taxation policy closer to a US structure, welcome US investment and job creation, but draw a distinct line against anything further relating to relations with the US.

Rich.

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

You make it sound like all will be well as long as we allow to kill the unborn and promote men to marry men. If any of you went to any primary school classroom and asked the 10 year olds: "What future is there for a Country where parents kill their own unborn babies and encourage "families" which may not, naturally bear offsprings " ...You would hear the truth! The truth
we - adults have weaned ourseleves not to heed!

Gezza

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

I'll try that at Church St Primary one day next week. I anticipate two problems :

- I expect few ten year olds have a good grasp of the mechanics of how people "naturally bear offsprings "

- those children who have two daddies or two mommies are not likely to give the answers you want.

In the event that a ten year old does offer a lucid argument as to the likely outcome for such a country should I ask him or her to manage my RRSP ?

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

Mother Teresa said: "Nothing threatens the World Peace more then Abortion."
I admit this is a suprising statemenet. Do you think she was simply ill-read and talking rubbish? I hope not.
It reminds me of the Orwellian pigs from the "Animal Farm" rewriting the law: "Thou Shalt Not Kill without a reason" Meaning: Unless your victim can not defnd themselves i.e. too old and frail(Euthanasia) or not yet born.

Noticably proabortionists have one thing in common: They have all been born!

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

No one is a proabortionist but then you know that. Mother Teresa was certainly talking rubbish. George Bush is more of a threat to world peace, even old Preston Manning is still more of a threat to world peace than abortion. AIDS is a bigger threat. Lack of water in deserts is a bigger threat. The booming Chinese economy is a bigger threat. All in all, abortion is a threat to world peace on a par with failing to abide by the poop and scoop bylaw.

I don't know whether or not Mother Teresa could read but I assume that, given her vocation, she was poorly informed.

Are you perchance one of those abortion protestors I swerve to splash at Gerrard and Jarvis ? If so I have a genuine question. Why do you only stand out there when the weather's bad ? Is it about self-flaggelation ? Don't young women still need bullying when the sun shines ?

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

No I am not into self-flaggelation!
George Bush is no worse than any other previous American President, many of whom presided over very similar wars and world events. And.. they were not criticised for them if not congratulated for what they did in. e.g. Panama, Granada,Vietnam,Bosnia etc. So what makes the big difference with this one? Do you know? Or shall I tell you: It is called a big push for Antiamerican sentiment in all world Media.Well I for one have continued to think for myself..thank you!

Oh yeah, feel free to tell me what Y O U think is different about this time and this war.
:)

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

In the case of this war the motivation of the US President was, I believe, personal profit and a hubristic craving to avenge his daddy. In the case of the Bosnian war the motivation was misguided idealism. In the case of this war the immediate objective was to topple a government, in the case of the Bosnian one it was to protect an ethnic minority. This war is venal, that one was merely stupid.

Bush is a worse President than Clinton because he has entered into a war which is wholely bad for the US, whereas Clinton could at least say that the standing of the US with its allies was improved by the military effort. Bush is also worse President than Clinton because, in his tenure the economy has fallen apart.

Furthermore, Clinton speaks coherently and is an object of desire. Bush blathers, he should have continued drinking so he'd have an excuse.

Panama and Grenada were vanity wars but Vietnam was pursued, misguidedly of course, for pure ideological reasons, the US administration did believe in the domino theory so, again, involving the country in that police action was not criminal in the war the Iraq war was.

Oh, and I don't think there's any evidence of previous Presidents lying in order to start a war. If you want a state leader as harmful as G.W.Bush I think you have to look back as far as Mrs. Thatcher.

Finally, I think you will find that Nixon, Kissinger (not a President I know) and LBJ have been the subject of some criticism over the years. Why, I believe I even once heard a scathing remark about President Clinton.

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

btw, it's a bit of a leap from Mother Teresa to George Bush. Were they an item ?

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

The fall of the Canadian government was 2nd headline on BBC World last night woo-hoo!

The reporter from T.O. basically said it was up to opposition parties to porve why they should be elected as opposed to the Liberals.

His words "the economy is booming, people are generally happy apart from a few local issues"

By the look of the markets it's not adversly affected the CAD either.

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

Darn it! Is it the end of being "Under the Radar"?

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

I think the worst part about elections is that they give the religious right the excuse to talk..

Bring back the Romans and a few hungry lions

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

Look on the bright side you can always move back to the Soviet Union of Europe. They won't bore you with Religion.

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

Religion has no place in government. Fortunately neither of the local contendors makes religion a platform :

http://tinyurl.com/ex2x5

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

Absolutely! But it would be nice if we could at least preserve the Constitutional Freedom of Speech and Worship. Cause you know the States (countries) that have become famous for fighting those are not the ones you would normally want to emigrate to! :o

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

Federal politics over here suffers from the same weakness as in the UK: a lack of strong personalities and 'fame sparkle' in the opposition leaders. Having said that I was amazed at how Tony Blair developed after he became prime minister. What a great Tory PM he has made and leader of the Labour Party at the same time! When it comes to a choice of the devils we know (the Liberals) and the ones we don't know I think I prefer the latter. I know for sure the Liberals make a mess of things, time to give others a chance. Canada will definitely suffer under yet another term of corrupt Liberal rule. So I will use my recently acquired right to vote against them.

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

er, but you chose the country the Liberals created. If you wanted the sort of country Harper does wouldn't it have been simpler to go to Texas ?

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

Your knowledge of history fails you! This country was created by much greater forces than the present Liberal government or the one directly before it.

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

They were carrying guns, weren't they?

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

Quite. I shall be using my own newly acquired right to vote. The Grits may be infected but, quite frankly, if I give my vote to anyone else, I'm voting for the Bloc. It's hardly in my best interests to do that.

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

I think the current Canada is directly a result of the Trudeau Liberals' immigration policies. If not for them we'd still be buying liquor in paper bags and staying home on Sundays.

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

Incidentally there is a politician in Canada with "fame sparkle", she's called Belinda Stronach.

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Eh? I don't quite follow the logic in that. Unless it was a reflection of the fact that Brits wouldn't move here if they couldn't get lagered-up seven days a week.

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

When I arrived Toronto, Hogtown, was as conservative a place as I could imagine, much more conservative than, say, Salt Lake City is now. I suppose the rest of anglo Canada was even more conservative. Things changed because large numbers of people came from around the world, people who did things differently, curry became available (note that even now the BBQ Hut has that name because they didn't want to frighten off potential customers by using an India sounding name), shops opened on Sundays and people were allowed to see bottles of booze before buying them. I would say that Toronto is still one of the most legislated societies in the world but it's a lot more relaxed than it used to be. Trudeau opened the door for civilisation to enter Canada.

Harper would like to take the country back to the fifties. Not the fifties of Harold MacMillan but the fifties of Eugene McCarthy. I can't get past his creepy hair but, were I to take him more seriously, I'd find his homophobia, his antipathy to healthcare and his desire to keep suppress women's rights really rather frightening.

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

Ta for the explanation. Makes sense. It's akin to Idi Amin revolutionising life in the UK.

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

Ha!

Amin's refugees didn't have to overcome the UEL. In Canada in the eighties, Mrs Thatcher would have been thought a libertine.

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

UEL? Pardon my ignorance.

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

Tony's strength is his style and presentation which is hollywood class and that's why he makes such a strong impression with the Mercans. Whether there's any substance is another question.

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

United Empire Loyalists. http://www.uelac.org/

Sort of a facist fan club for the Queen Mum (yes, I know she's dead).

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

Well, he is a barrister.......

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

I went to her 100th birthday bash at Horseguards. I was seated behind the contingent from the Australian military liaison staff. At one point the MC (John Mills, I think) uttered something along the lines of: "..loved around the world..".

"Not in f*****g Australia, she isn't" muttered the colonel in front of me. Not too quietly, I would add.

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

Um, no, not quite. The Loyalists formed the basis of what would become Canada (outside Quebec). They arrived in huge numbers to sparsely populated settlements spread from modern-day NS to ON, inflating the numbers enough to form viable, self-sustaining cities instead of colonies dependent on the "homeland." They brought a standard of education and living that was not accessible to the settlements before their arrival. And I would venture to say, though it is not really measureable or prove-able, that they brought the will and initiative to improve things and move up in the world that belonged more to the "American" psyche than the "Canadian" one (quotes because the terms American and Canadian didn't really exist at the time).

For some reason, it is now not popular to discuss the Loyalists and/or pioneers who originally settled the land. If you haven't arrived within the last 10 years it seems no one wants to hear about it - in Toronto at any rate.

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

Yes great, I can't wait to get the Liberals come knocking..........to challenge them on my 15 month no hear.........Citizenship application !!!!

Had I been a stripper I'm sure I would be Canadian now.............but with my my body ........noooooooooooo that would not be an option !!

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

My comments were in reference the Empire Loyalist Clubs of today, not the role of the loyalists in the distant past. People who identify themselves as loyalists now are, in my view, the Afrikaaners of Ontario; an increasingly irrelevant group of reactionaries.

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

Harper et all hate the poor and disenfranchised too. Hate is inclusive too ;)

NB Canada's child poverty rates are second only to the US in terms of the developed nations. :mad: and have been rising for 20 years. Aboriginals who happen to be poor (a lot I would guess) aren't included in 'official' Statistics Canada poverty disclosures.

The things one learns eh ?

Rich.

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

Got a link for that ? I'd guess it depends on a tight definition of "developed nation".

I have no trouble believing that.

Nor that.

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

2000 - UNICEF research / 14 developed countries.
2000 - UN Report on Human Development / 24 developed countries...Canada 19th (US bottom)

etc etc

Rich.

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

I didn't find the one from 2000 but here's a more recent one :

http://www.unicef.org/brazil/repcard6e.pdf

Canada 19th, UK 20th, USA 25th.

They don't list "developed" but "rich" countries, presumably so as to avoid having to include India, Korea and the like as that would make the US, and incidentally Canada and the UK, look relatively good. No UN statistics can ever be allowed to hint that there are some healthy and educated people in America. Figure 2 seems to me to show child poverty rates falling through the 90s in all three countries mentioned.

I suppose I should specify that I don't advocate starving children in Canada. I do unchain mine from time to time. I think another reason to fear Harper is that were he in power he would likely look for ways to reduce spending on education (directly by the feds or indirectly by the provinces). Tuition fees are already brutal.

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

Here comes an important Statement. Not my own: "Prosperity and Wellbeing of citizens depend on the way the State authority treats the Christian Churches" ...You are free to subject it to your own tests.

Here is what Alexander Tocqueville - a French Philosopher in early 19th Century, thought was the primary reason for American prowess in the world.
Myself I hope it holds good for the future!

Check link

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DE...ion/ch1_17.htm

Re: Election's 'a comin'
 

Doesn't seem even vaguely relevant to Canada. The Christian church enjoys an unreasonable bias in its favour here.