Derek L

I fully acknowledge that the above exchange is in jest between NDP member Pat Martin and Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, and in the great scheme of things, was less then several minutes long, but I’m forced to ask why the NDP, as the official Opposition is wasting a question on Zombies when there are countless other real issues effecting Canadians on a daily basis…………….Like most Canadians, one of my largest annual expenditures is taxes, and here are two Members of Parliament, both making well over 100k a year, cracking jokes well “on the clock”………..

I enjoy “The Walking Dead” and my family is financially comfortable, but to me (and perhaps I’m being petty), this seems inappropriate behaviour (like the name calling and partisan taunting that goes on daily) on the largess of taxpaying Canadians………..




And if both parties can agree on combating zombies, I fully expect bipartisan agreement on removing portions of Bill C-68 pertaining to magazine limits and classifications/prohibitions based solely on name, action and visual appearance.

No polls or debate, just put your predictions down so we can reference them come the 7th........or later due to a court challenge..........


Here are mine form another thread:

I’ll double down on my earlier predictions from a month or two ago and say:

The Congress will stay much the same +/- a few GOP seats.

The Senate will shake out in the Democrats favour something like 51/52 versus 49/48

Romney will win the popular vote by one or two percentage points

And Romney will win the electoral collage somewhere between 270-300 points.

FWSAR

Though the subject of FWSAR has been brought up before in various other threads, I thought it appt to start one specifically on the fixed wing SAR replacement program……………And put it here, and not Federal Politics, since I think this isn’t that politically contentious of programs (All parties support SAR)

That’s not to say there couldn’t be a debate on if DND should be in the SAR business, and such duties pasted to either the Coast Guard and/or privatized (Which I support) and ultimately what region will be granted pork with the final selection……….


Here are the most likely contenders:

HC-130J Coast Guard

C-27J Spartan

C-295M

DHC-5NG Buffalo made by Viking Air

Boeing V-22


In my opinion, the V-22 would be the best choice of the lot for it’s obvious unconventional attributes, realistically though it’s too expensive for the limited FWSAR budget………The C-295 is too small……..The Buffalo redux, though an interesting proposal, it would be made in Victoria and would likely be the cheapest option, lacks a pressurised cabin and the range associated with the current Hercules portion of our current SAR fleet……….The C-27J shares the same engines (Two instead of four) as our current C-130J fleet and much the same avionics, but is made in Italy (Though the USAF will be cutting their fairly new fleet of aircraft, perhaps used?) and is, in terms of size (and operating costs) is right in the middle between our current SAR Buffaloes and Hercules aircraft, thusly being a fair compromise……..The Lockheed HC-130J is a variant of the C-130J (What we already have) and is already in service with the US Coast Guard, but as a like for like replacement for FWSAR, would increase the operational costs of the fleet, but we’d also save on training and maintenance costs since we already operate it and would be reducing the RCAF’s number of aircraft types down by two……….


What I’d like to see is a split buy, with 2/3rds of the fleet replaced with the Lockheed HC-130 and the remainder with the revamped Buffalo, coupled with an additional buy of (4) Buffalos to replace our current Twin Otters used in the Arctic…………What I think will happen, the HC-130 or used USAF C-27J.

To continue from a sidebar in this thread:


http://www.mapleleaf...pic=21138&st=75



Readers Digest, why does the NDP ask potential members to identify with a given category:


https://secure.ndp.ca/membership_e.php





And what are the NDP really about, Democratic Socialism (As it's states from their own constitution from last year) or as Cybercoma suggests, social democracy? What’s the difference? Are the NDP just mincing words in deference to their (Democratic) Socialist, hidden agenda………..


http://xfer.ndp.ca/2...ITUTION-ENG.pdf