Re: Spring general election?
 

I think Canada will end up having a Federal election by the end of 2007.... and the Liberals will be elected with a minority government with Bob Rae as its leader.

Re: Spring general election?
 

Exactly right on. :)

Re: Spring general election?
 

<clutches head>

At least that would do away with the immigrants' complaints that they don't get enough vacation in Canada.

Re: Spring general election?
 

I should have quit there, when I was ahead :D

Re: Spring general election?
 

Well, I agree with the first part....but, much as I personally respect Bob Rae, he carries a lot of baggage from the NDP government in Ontario in the mid nineties. I think the Grits won't take the risk of jeopardizing their Ontario base by selecting him as leader. Ignatieff seems to have buggered up by being on the wrong side of the foreign policy debate (pity) so my money's on Dion at the moment. Kaufmann could be the dark horse though (I like his policies a good deal).

Re: Spring general election?
 

Just remembered there was a poll reported on CBC yesterday that actually shows that hockey player chap to be most popular with the voters.

Re: Spring general election?
 

Ty Domi would certainly be a winning candidate in Toronto but I suppose you mean Ken Dryden.

Re: Spring general election?
 

Please explain to me why any private citizen should have a gun in their home, legally registered or not.

I will accept farmers (pest control).

People that belong to gun clubs? The guns should stay at the club, under lock and key.

Hunters? People that enjoy killing things are probably not the sort of people that should allowed anywhere near weapons.

Mid-20's urbanites have no legitimate reason to possess guns.

Re: Spring general election?
 

We shoot the raccoons. You don't need to be on a farm to have a pest control problem.

Re: Spring general election?
 

Yes that's the fellow. Incredibly memorable, isn't he?

Re: Spring general election?
 

I can't recall anything he's said so, for me, that makes him a good candidate. I don't want a government that has policies or plans and I don't want new laws. I like that senator who has his pay mailed to him in the south seas, he does as little harm as anyone in government.

Re: Spring general election?
 

Lots of hunters in Canada. Majority are well balanced individuals, or at least as well balanced as your average Canadian. Hunting rifles or shotguns tend not to be the weapon of choice of your goth-vampirefreak-assault weapon-wielding-psychopath. Most hunters round these parts at least kill to eat their prey. Still, agree with the surbanite thing though.

Re: Spring general election?
 

I agree that Rae f***ed up when he led Ontario.... however he is a known personality nationally (more or less depending on the province) and his left wing credentials are solid, hence he is a foil to Harper's conservatism.... Consequently Bob (Rae) can rob votes from the NDP, and perhaps some from the Bloc. Actually I don't like Rae because of his poor record leading Ontario, but in no way is Ignatieff qualified to be leader... he hasn't paid his dues in politics by serving as a cabinet minister or even being elected as an MP. Who the hell does he think he is? That is what Canadians will ask.

It's sad that the selection for the Liberal Party leadership is so poor. My hopes were on Frank McKenna.... but you know what happened to him. :mad:

Re: Spring general election?
 

He is an MP.

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Unlike Harper before he became CRAP leader.

Re: Spring general election?
 

You have the question reversed.... it should be: Why should any private citizen have his property rights denied when he hasn't done anything wrong.

Whether you like it or not, hunting is part of the history and culture of this country... and it is a perfectly legitimate activity.

Perhaps "football" in the UK should have been banned ... after all, people were killed in riots as a result of it.

Re: Spring general election?
 

Nonetheless, he just arrived, it'd be hard to sell him. I <gasp, splutter> find Ocean's analysis to be persuasive and depressing. Rae was a terrible leader here.

Re: Spring general election?
 

Good point.... neither Denis Lepene (sp?) nor the latest moron were hunters.

Re: Spring general election?
 

Sorry ocean, but just what is it that you think is the point? The political issue here is the long gun registry, not whether hunting is historically or culturally relevant. And property rights aren't the issue either.

Re: Spring general election?
 

... Yes, you are correct, but he hasn't served as a cabinet minister in the government.... that is to say, the public hasn't had a chance to evaluate his performance in a position of political responsibility.... so he's essentially an unknown entity to the average Canadian. Ergo, he's not electable as PM.

Re: Spring general election?
 

Why shouldn't they?

The vast majority of people are not crazed psychos, and crazed psychos don't give a crap about breaking the law to kill people: after all, murder is _already_ illegal.

I can't speak for Canada but, ignoring terrorism, I believe the largest mass murder in America was committed with a can of petrol and a match. Guns are really terribly inefficient ways to kill a lot of people, which is why even the military generally prefer explosives and incendiaries for those jobs.

Re: Spring general election?
 

Rae was a terrible leader... but with the selection being so piss poor... Rae may win the Liberal leadership notwithstanding his record.

Re: Spring general election?
 

And Harper?

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The gun registry was suppose to protect us against a repeat of the Marc Lepine (?) disaster.... it failed to stop the latest moron who followed all the rules and registered his guns... I am aware of no evidence that it has protected us but has only added more cost and paperwork to gun ownership... and property rights are an issue since the government has legislated which guns we may or may not own.

Re: Spring general election?
 

... Harper previously served as the MP for Calgary West from 1993 to 1997, and he was a founding member of the Reform Party.... he also served as Leader of the Opposition in Parliament.... the Canadian people were familiar with him before the last election.... but this Ignatieff fellow?

Re: Spring general election?
 

So, it needs strengthening, not repealing.

For evidence, compare US and Canadian gun homicides. Cost and paperwork? Big deal.

Re: Spring general election?
 

Don't you mean that guns should simply be banned across the country?


Sorry, but that is not evidence... long before Canada had gun registration - or any legislation regarding gun ownership - the US had far, far higher rates of violent crime involving guns ....

Re: Spring general election?
 

I stand corrected. I first came across him when he was a pundit on the CBC politics show and leader of the NCC.

Re: Spring general election?
 

For those interested in this gun registry debate, you may want to read this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89c...nique_Massacre

Re: Spring general election?
 

No.


What would you accept as evidence then? Evidence of the essential sanity of keeping a track on guns, just like we do on cars?

Re: Spring general election?
 

But the 3 weapons used were registered weapons, and the assault rifle was covered by the older, more repressive restricted weapons legislation. No one is considering repealing that.
Its not guns that kill people, its loonies with guns.

My boss is a recreational shooter (not a hunter) He has a few shotguns and handguns. When he registered he supplied references as required. Were they followed up on? What do you think! What about theother members of the gun club he knows. Nope, few if any of them either it seems!

Its not the laws that are the problem, its the application of them and the allocation of resources that are the problem.

The Federal Gun Registry is a different thing altogether. It was a complete waste of at least a billion dollars, it never did what it was supposed to, as proven by 4 dead cops in Alberta last year, and it was ten times or more over budget. Apart from anything else it would be breaking a direct election promise if they did not do away with it, and if there is an election brewing, that would just be too much ammo for the liberals for the conservatives to consider back tracking over.

Re: Spring general election?
 

Yawn.

Re: Spring general election?
 

I'm not convinced that there's a case for keeping track of cars. The number of cars and their ownership is only a matter of interest to the government in terms of tax revenue.

It seems to me that the gun registry is a waste of money but no more than that. Of the three guns I know about on our street none are registered and two are ineligible for registration anyway because they're hand guns. The bagel shop lady next door keeps a shotgun which I know isn't registered because yesterday the cops came after a shooting in the shop (customer on customer drug squabble nothing to do with her) and this morning she was all atwitter about how if she defends herself she'll get busted.

Overall, I know of four unregistered guns in the city and one registered gun in the country. I fail to see how the person in the country filling in forms helps anyone. However, I think the gun regulations are enforced as vigorously as the bicycle helmet regulations so I don't think they're a great intrusion on property rights. (All that said, my OH has left her handgun in the US for the moment).

Re: Spring general election?
 

One problem with registration is that the criminals will never bother to register their guns.... they will just smuggle them in from the porous US border. So all you are doing is creating additional cost/trouble for the average, law abiding citizen. In addition, if someone is willing to go through the hoops and register their guns, nothing is preventing them from going postal - as we have just seen.

With respect to issue of evidence: I would submit that this latest incident demonstrates the uselessness of the gun registry. The government has spent over $1 billion on this useless registry.... imagine how much shorter the wait lines would be for cataract, heart etc surgery if that money would have been spend on health care.

Re: Spring general election?
 

Right. So, I don't need to take the plates off before running people over then?

Re: Spring general election?
 

FWIW handguns are "restricted weapons" and registration has been the law since the 1930s!

You are right about enforcement though.

My boss was telling me about the guy who used to train the TO police in gunmanship. He winters in Florida. While he was away theives with jackhammers burrowed through reinforced concrete to get into his locked gun vault. It took them 2 days to do this. They stole a bunch of stuff.

Who did the TO police go after?... the owner (who they disliked cos he stepped on a few toes) for "impropper storage". He had a custom built concrete gun safe for ****s sake! Apparantly hes decided to stay in Florida indefinitly.

Re: Spring general election?
 

Well your prick is probably bigger than mine anyway. Let's just agree to differ.

Re: Spring general election?
 

If you intended running people over presumably you would do so. If you ran people over ununtentionally you'd likely stop. The plates aren't much of a factor in either case.

Re: Spring general election?
 

Jeeze Crist... temper.. temper. :rolleyes:

You get low marks for that paper.

Re: Spring general election?
 

^^^BANG! :)