Birdy

Now you're talking like a Libertarian and like the old Reform Party who used to characterize gov't encouraging growth in an industry through investment as "corporate welfare"...Harper used to be a believer, what do you think of his "$250-million, five-year automotive innovation fund" that on the eve of an election dolled out $80 million to fund "a financial aid package to help reopen Ford's mothballed Essex engine plant in Windsor, Ont"...just curious how you square that with your Libertarian beliefs. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/09/03/windsorfordmoney.html I can see why the hardcore rightys say Harper became "Liberal light", he stopped being a fiscal Conservative when he became PM. How do i explain? Mostly with the words 'minority government' and the need for popularity. It's for the most part the politics game. Make people like you, and the sure fire way of making Canadians like you is to spend money, thanks mostly to Liberal rule over the past, I don't know... 50 years. But other than that, an overall deafening of the economy, a climbing dollar, major repeated blows to the manufacturing sector, housing market crises, an increased awareness of environmental issues, a want to put Canada on the world stage, the list goes on. These are trying times. In an ideal world, I'd be 100% libertarian, but it's not ideal and Canada had and has one of the world's largest social structures in place to protect what it feels like it needs to protect. Erase all of it, and I could give you an up-right, out of the book answer as to what I feel about bumps to save industry. But we're far from that and right now industry needs the bump and I'm okay with that. Mulroney - recession Harris - recession Harper - whatever it is we're calling it now.

Is it raining money outside? "Financial realities should not come at the expense of our children"? If only life were that good! No more child poverty, no more hunger, no more homelesness. Financial realities are REALITY. If you care about the future, nothing should be more important than your financial reality of today. Seriously, i'm a little stunned. Kev, I understand your frustrations. I've been in a few public schools too lately. I live with a teacher. But the reality as I see it, is our kids get a pretty damn good education for free. Compared to probably near 75% of the world's child population, they're little Albert Einsteins. The resources made available to teachers, while it may not be exactly what is wanted, is pretty damn good. Our class sizes, while not as small as hoped, are still manageable. Our teacher's salaries, while not as high as some would hope, are still a decent wage. In comparison, our education system kicks some serious ass. So forgive me if I don't agree with the 'our system's going to shit' philosophy. I'd venture to say those who do don't exactly know what 'shit' is. I'm all for neighbourhood fundraising campaigns. I think that's a good thing.

Didn't see the edited post! I would suggest visiting www.conservative.ca and checking out the 'key issues' page which will give you an idea of what conservative policy is towards things like the environment, child benefits and taxes. You can also read where other parties have stood (or not stood) on the same issues. Mind you if you go into strict budget figures and compare how much money is going into an initiative from one party to the next, keep in mind the conservatives are the fiscal problem solvers and have always been a little tight on the wad. I think this to be a good thing, where others don't. I'm all about the long term though and prefer to focus on making sure we're able to continue to fund programs well down the road. And also to ensure those powers (business) that are able to spur economic growth on their own without government expenditure are given the opportunity to do just that. It's pretty important.

Advil Liquigels... i swear by those little miracles. But in reality, muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatory meds work differently... muscle relaxants go to the brain to ease things up with the muscles, anti-inflammatories go to the injury site. I think they both work. Mixing them up might cause problems to your kidney... i can't see that happening with occasional use, but if you're a hardcore pill-popper, beware.

No worries and understandable when going off what you hear. Just keep in mind that problems with health care weren't created two years ago. Problems with health care have existed in a system that perpetuated these problems over many years under (for the most part) Liberal governments. Conservatives have always seemed to me to be fixers of problems and take a more fiscal approach to finding solutions... and as such come across as the bad guy when all that really is trying to be accomplished is a little clean-up for the long term. Sure the timing of the clean-up attempts isn't always the best, but really, the Cons don't get a shot at these things except for once every ten years or so, so I guess you do what you can, when you can. As for dollars on death, and reading some of your posts before on here, we share a totally different opinion on what our troops are trying to accomplish overseas. I'm more of a libertarian in the respect that I believe we're all people of the earth and not you're Canadian, you're a Saudi, so helping out where help is needed is okay with me. Help is needed in Afghanistan. And as long as it continues to come in terms of building roads, digging ditches and erecting hydro poles, I'm all for our involvement. As for teachers, god love them as I think they have one of the noblest professions of them all, but they didn't start complaining come Mike Harris and/or Stephen Harper. They've always complained. I come from a family of three generation long teachers and they've always complained. While I agree that larger classes suck, there has to be a financial reality to correspond with it and sometimes, financial realities suck too. To each their own though. I understand (most of the time) where liberally thinking folks are coming from, I just wish more people put an effort into understanding the other side of the fence.

Thanks dude!

No offense, and definitely not trying to be argumentative here, but I find this remark almost outright insulting. This makes me think you really don't show too much understanding of what Conservative thought is regarding education and health care as if you did, you would know the CPC puts a damn good amount of it into policies on the two. Whether you agree with such policy or not isn't the point, but to play it off like Conservatives could care less is flat out wrong and pretty shitty.

My understanding of the fixed-election law was to ensure an election takes place over a certain time span if parliament remained in the House... meaning that if Harper wants to dissolve his own government and call an election he can do so and it wouldn't have anything to do with the law. I could be totally wrong, it's just what I thought the law implied.

I've always thought the majority of what happens in parliament, or better yet, out of parliament, to be truly undemocratic. Step one - return phone calls. Not so surprisingly, i'm voting for the CPC.

No election please.

I think Hamilton's right.

haha I think 'Woman denied citizenship in France due to not understanding what is required to be a citizen' would be more appropriate... or 'Woman denied citizenship in France due to not being able to fulfill what is required to be a citizen'... Anything else seems a little bit dramatic to me. Not that I'm drama free or anything.

I think the title of this thread is entirely misleading.

She didn't know of her right to vote. I know you're required by law in Canada to know the rights and responsibilities of a Canadian citizen in order to become one, i can only assume it's the same in France. Assimilation can be such an ugly word.

I had a world vision update in my email the other day and I guess they have established almost 60 'child-friendly' spaces where about 9000 kids have been moved to in order to bring back some sense of normalcy. So tragic. As for Afghanistan (and i apologize in advance for bringing it back up), two of my friends are being deployed there at the end of the month with the Canadian army on an infrastructure rebuild mission. Each year rogue elements and Taliban are building military training schools by the hundreds over there promising extremely poor, un-educated families protection, refuge and a chance of education for their children. Unbeknownst to these families who unfortunately have no alternative to keep their children safe, these kids are being bred to hate and kill by the thousands. It's fueled by anti-American, who's waging war on who propaganda and a large portion of the Afghani people are buying into it and who can blame them? The alternative is to wait for peace-keeping nations to do their work... the kind of work that most of these people have no idea of what it entails. I'm a big supporter of the Canadian army's peace-keeping efforts. War is messy and very tragic, but sometimes, very necessary. If our government can contribute whatever it can to build schools and provide clean drinking water and show these people that there is an alternative, i'm all for it. Unfortunately, it's gotta be about the long run.

yes, jesus loves us all!

hahaha aisle 666! americans love the god.

speaking of god is great, i was in target the other day walking along and passed by a little girl and her dad. Her dad, holding her hand asked her 'which man do you love the most in the entire world?' The girl replied "you, daddy". The dad said no, and asked her again. She replied, "i'm sorry dad, i mean God". Seriously. You're in Target.

Intent has nothing to do with it. To murder someone is to unlawfully kill them. He didn't unlawfully kill her. He unlawfully drove drunk, and then subsequently lost control of his truck and his truck killed her. That's what the courts saw and that's what is reflected in his sentence. Which I for the record think was way too light.

Plant for the Planet!!! Billion Tree Campaign I'm driving coast to coast in September as part of my 30th bday extravaganza and am going to plant twenty trees in each province along the way to mark my trail. I love this program.

I was in the airport yesterday after missing my flight, hanging out in a restaurant, watching a soldier all dressed up in uniform sitting with what i'm assuming was his wife or girlfriend and beside them, a tiny baby in a stroller. He had his head down and was quietly crying, wiping tears constantly off of his face. His girlfriend was holding his other hand, helping him, crying herself. Fuck me. I couldn't not stare at them. For a few minutes there I was tempted to take my camera out of my bag and snap a couple of photos under the radar but couldn't bring myself to do it. This moment was so spine chilling I can't even put it in words. Fuck Bush and fuck oil.

Steve Winwood - Higher Love - The Finer Things - Valerie - Spanish Dancer - While You See a Chance the list goes on. It's been awhile since I've really listened, but i'm back full force. I love this guy.

I'm so out of the loop!

I've run a lot of silent auctions in my day. I would suggest a minimum starting bid (something the lot you're offering is reasonably worth, maybe a little less) and then having a minimum bidding increment. Ie, if I bid $100, the next guy has to bid at least ten more dollars to get the next bid. That way you avoid having the 'one-uppers' trying to steal the lot for $101.

I know. I'll believe it when i see it though. She's the neverending story, literally!