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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007 Location: retired
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Posted: Sun Oct 04, 2009 7:55 pm Post subject: |
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I'm still pissed off at Harper about the income trust fiasco.
Canada is running a deficit under the Cons. That sucks. Would it be different with Iggy? Nah. The Cons are Liberals. The Liberals are everything to everybody.
I'll bit my lip and vote green. Unless there is another choice on the ballot (libertarian etc). |
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freethought
Joined: 13 Mar 2005
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Posted: Sun Oct 04, 2009 8:02 pm Post subject: |
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re: debt, I meant deficit. simple typo.
re: pot, it's a 10 billion dollar a year industry. Legalize it and bring roughly 80% of that 10 billion above board, meaning 8 billion. At an average income tax rate of 30% for growers and suppliers, might get 2.5 billion. Then GST and any other special taxes would mean potentially a billion dollars, if not a great deal more if 'health' taxes similar to tobacco are put in place. You then count savings in police work, crown work, incarceration. When all of these are taken into account it would likely be at least 4 billion in generated revenues.
I will contest your use of the word 'need' re: criminal penalties. Why do we 'need' harsher penalties? You can say we want harsher penalties, but we don't need them. Youth crime might be the best example. The US has some of the harshest youth crime penalties in the world. Their crime rate is much higher than ours. I haven't looked at this in years, but from way back when most studies seemed to suggest that man-mins and harsher sentences don't reduce crime rates. I'm not saying lower crime rates across the board, just think that the word need doesn't apply.
I don't know anyone who wants to 'nurture' pedophiles. Harsher sentences for sex crimes across the board would be a good thing. The number of Gang crimes are not impacted by harsher penalties, but locking people up for much longer would reduce recidivism rates. I think drunk drivers should be on the hook for all medical and police expenses if they are found guilty. So if an accident is caused and they are someone else is injured the provincial health plan still pays, but if they have to sell off everything the driver owns to pay for treatment etc, so be it.
But harsher penalties across the board do not work as a deterrent.
As for climate change, one posting on their website, in which a lot is dedicated to blaming the Liberals (they opposed Kyoto, they opposed higher fuel standards etc), doesn't hold much water. Nor does it mean much when public comments are factored in from some of their MPs.
As for the deficit, saying it would be even higher misses my point entirely. I was not questioning the issue of having one; it's a major economic downturn. It's the fact that during the election they didn't think we would have one, and then underestimated it by 105 billion dollars, if not more. The deficit is not the conservative's fault, but the inability to predict or judge the size speaks to gross incompetence in financial management. |
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No_hite_pls
Joined: 05 Mar 2007 Location: Don't hate me because I'm right
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Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 2:22 am Post subject: |
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Freethought your posts make a lot of sense especially about crime. I hate when conservatives drum up fear about crime to get elected. It happens in the states too.
Building of more prisons is a waste of tax payer dollars IMO.
When I can vote in Canada, I will vote Liberal. |
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Captain Corea

Joined: 28 Feb 2005 Location: Seoul
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Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 3:09 am Post subject: |
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| No_hite_pls wrote: |
| fiveeagles wrote: |
| Thank God for Harper! |
Why? What has Harper done that has been good? |
I thought this was decent : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOt2Qp0H9G8 |
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freethought
Joined: 13 Mar 2005
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Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 6:10 am Post subject: |
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That was better than good. In terms of Canadian politics, the setting/scene and act are going to be written about in history books as a defining personal anecdote, and it will mean a whole lot more if they win a majority. It humanized a man who is renowned for being something far less than pleasant.
The event itself is minor, the impact could be major. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007 Location: retired
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Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 6:26 am Post subject: |
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| freethought wrote: |
It humanized a man who is renowned for being something far less than pleasant.
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By your team. Where I'm from, he's extremely popular. |
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freethought
Joined: 13 Mar 2005
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Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 6:30 am Post subject: |
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| mises wrote: |
| freethought wrote: |
It humanized a man who is renowned for being something far less than pleasant.
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By your team. Where I'm from, he's extremely popular. |
Not by my team... he generally polls right were his party has been 33% support (which also happens to be the highest of any leader), meaning 7 of 10 canadians don't support/view him positively. But this little sing a long might shift that up by a chunk. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007 Location: retired
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Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 6:40 am Post subject: |
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That's Canada. He's from Alberta (well, he's seen as being from Alberta). This means urban voters in BC and Ont won't like him. He's an Anglo, a conservative and doesn't get wet between the legs about "the arts" so byebye Quebec. Iggy would find support in Vancouver, Toronto and similar. Given everything, I don't think he could do much better than his numbers now.
The Cons, should they win a majority, will have the Liberal's Dion/Iggy picks to thank. Anyways, if the Liberals are smart (big IF) then they'll shut the hell up about an election now and patiently wait for the next leg down in this global depression. Unemployment will rise, the Canadian housing bubble (which has managed to reflate) will pop etc. Then he can be defeated. Not until then. He might win a majority if they take the gov down now. But that might be best anyways. When the next leg down comes, and it will come, a strong government will be needed to push through some structural reforms without having to kneel in front of Taliban Jack and the Bloc. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007 Location: retired
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Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 7:10 am Post subject: |
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| Just watched the video. He did well. |
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Kimbop

Joined: 31 Mar 2008
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Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 2:33 pm Post subject: |
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Ignatieff's "Obama" factor is imploding in the face of reality:
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She said she'd lived in Toronto for 10 years but couldn't name Lake Ontario, couldn't explain the acronym for the Toronto Transit Commission, TTC, even though she said she took it to work; didn't know what ATS meant, though she said she worked at a company of that name; couldn't name the prime minister or the previous prime minister and couldn't say how she obtained her driver's licence...
The CBC reported the documents also allege she gave a wrong date for her son's birthday; couldn't give details of his birth; gave the wrong date for her marriage (missing it by 10 years); was six or seven centimetres shorter than her drivers licence indicated; had a noticeably thinner face than her passport photo indicated; and her signature didn't match. |
Perhaps Harper is not racist or stingy? And perhaps the reasons for her delay in Africa are now perfectly obvious?
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| RESERVE, NOT MINISTRY, ORDERED 100 BODY BAGS |
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2081144
Oh, so it wasn't Stephen Harper's fault? No need to fire Aglukkark?
Even CBCCCP is in on the deal:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2009/10/07/ekos-poll-federal-conservative-liberal-ndp-green-bloc.html?ref=rss
but the CBC won't tell you the entire story, of course:
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| Only one in five Canadians now approves of the way Mr. Ignatieff is doing his job, compared with about half of Canadians who disapprove. �This dramatic fall from grace has dragged Liberal support down to the levels it endured under Ignatieff�s predecessor, St�phane Dion,� said Graves. |
Is it possible to be a more unpopular liberal than Stephane Doin?
The G&M have their say:
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| In a historic shift, the Tories have seized the centre and are set to become the natural governing party |
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/has-harper-found-his-tipping-point/article1308821/
Moving on to real news, and further to what we discussed earlier in this thread; crime:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/10/08/justice-rob-nicholson-time-served-credit-jail.html
I'm not going to cheap-shot the fact that Iggy has no control over his own senate. (or caucus. Or local Lib associations) And I won't cheap-shot that the Liberals can't afford real democracy by inviting national delegates to elect a party leader. But we must all agree that 2-1 time served on remand is unfair: criminals know how to play the system and delay their bail hearings. I also won't bring up recidivism rates, high-risk pedophiles released free, healing lodge sentences, or youth sentences (or lack thereof), but most Canadians like being tough on crime. |
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Captain Corea

Joined: 28 Feb 2005 Location: Seoul
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Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 5:40 pm Post subject: |
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| mises wrote: |
| freethought wrote: |
It humanized a man who is renowned for being something far less than pleasant.
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By your team. Where I'm from, he's extremely popular. |
I second this. As an Albertan, he's popular with my 'team' |
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Kimbop

Joined: 31 Mar 2008
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No_hite_pls
Joined: 05 Mar 2007 Location: Don't hate me because I'm right
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Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 11:53 pm Post subject: |
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But couldn't you say that was from great liberal governments mangement of Canada for twelve years
before 2006, their strong banking regulations, and the fact that Canada has universal heath care
(no bankruptancys from medical bills like in the states). Your recession has been far less severe
than in America because you didn't have the de-regulating conservatives that America did and universal health care.
IMO if Harper would have had a majority, Canada would have fallin into the same depression
as the states because he would have pressed for de-regulation just like the Republicans did. |
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TheUrbanMyth
Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Location: Retired
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Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 4:40 pm Post subject: |
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| No_hite_pls wrote: |
[q.
IMO if Harper would have had a majority, Canada would have fallin into the same depression
as the states because he would have pressed for de-regulation just like the Republicans did. |
Except that Harper has called for GREATER regulation of financial markets and not less. Not as far as European ministers have, but better than what's currently there. |
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BoholDiver
Joined: 03 Oct 2009 Location: Canada
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Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 5:53 pm Post subject: |
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I would vote Harper for sure.
He's far from perfect, but I don't trust Iggy as far as I can throw him. |
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