willy

It did and is likely to be renewed in the next budget. The prorogue of parliament was used four times under Chretien. Not a big deal. This is a card the government gets to play. A new speech from the throne and a new budget with the majority in the senate. The prize for being government for the past four years. The EI plan can be brought back in with the new budget so no need to get the nickers in a knot just yet. Been a while, Willy

Last number of posts are arguments of theology and not fact. How you view new and old testament, who Jesus was and who God is, as a result can differ dramatically. One consistent theme - Jesus does change many things. Good time of year to think about that. As for the start of this thread - not very well thought through. The Conservatives have had a clear message and they have reached out to faith based communities. I would argue that the other three parties in the house have not done a good job of this as of late. They have been offering secularism not pluralism. That is why the traditional

It is easy to say just about anything when you have no power to make it come true. For Layton to say abolish is fine, he is not in a position to make it happen. For Harper to do the same thing it would mean entering into constitutional talks with all the provinces etc. Protest party = pie in the sky. Governing should and is tempered by practicality. For all those who said Harper was an ideologue you should be happy he has shown to be very pragmatic. I.e. auto loans, deficits in recession, appointing without consultation etc. All good Liberal policies. Can the opposition say they would have d

This is not unique to the party in government. They are sent out by all MPs. Four times a year an MP can send out a house holder which every household in the riding will receive one. These tend to be a few pages long and cover more information. The other mail outs you may receive are 10%ers. Everyday of the year, every MP is able to send out a short mail out postcard that to approx 10% of a riding. It does not have to be their riding. The rules state that 50% of the content has to change on each 10%er. Thus the short very political surveys mixed in with single message points. All MPs hav

crocodile tears! The government pays attention to the oppositions speeches is not a new story. All parties and MPs have staffers and I would bet they have all been to speeches by other parties. The fact this was on utube does not make it news or scandalous. If the Liberals make more noise about this they better not send any spys out to other parties functions. For example the Liberal Party president attended the last Conservative convention. Was he spying on the Conservatives. Of course, you need to know what the competition is up to and if they have good ideas, steal them. This is so stupi

I totally agree God does not need our gratitude. God is Omnipotent, Omnipresent and complete. But consider this.... Maybe God has communicated with us. Given some advise about how we are made and what our internal struggles may entail. Being open minded to this reality is a great expedition. There is nothing to lose to exploring an alternate view when you start from a place of non belief. Hope, faith, love and grace are all topics worth exploring. The alternative is very boring. Altruism for its own sake is not that great of a motivation and without altruism we would have an even more desp

Stephen Harper addressed party faithful tonight. He laid out who they want to attract to the party. Does this group represent the majority of Canadians? Highlights: I like this quote but it has nothing to do with this topic. It just made me giggle. Happy St. Patrick's day. Time to go drink a green beer and watch the Canucks kick some Detroit butt.

Baird comment is true but also clever. He said we will do more over then next five years than any other country. Most countries started a number of years ago. We didn't. Baird carefully was referring to progress based on todays numbers not based on the benchmark of 1990. Our benchmark is probably going to be 2003. This is how he can be aggressive but yet responsible. It is not responsible to suggest we will meet the 1990 target in four years.

John Ivison, National Post points out a few key things: These costs will be passed through to the consumer. Higher power bills. The short term nature of the cost may cause nothing more than a cash drain from energy companies. CEOs will be less likely to invest in Canadian operations because their will be a tax on growth.

According to the opposition the Conservatives have been cutting everything. Yes, in some areas it has.

"Dion did not announce a carbon tax. " Yes he did. When the government takes your money and decides how it will be spent, it is a tax. Who are "these people" Don't be a hater. I

Smaller government, justice and populism. Vote Conservative.

“It is probably because intensity based caps resulted in increased emissions.” Intensity based is an efficiency cap. For instance if they improve the emissions from cars the result would be better intensity. A target then would be to reduce each cars emissions by how much. If next year you sold more cars your absolute emissions may go up but each car would have lower emissions. Industry prefers this method because while they improve they can still grow. Most public businesses are founded on the principle of sustained growth. If you can not provide growth markets react badly. If they move

The economy will slow with the American economy. Nothing the government can do about that. Dale Orr, is not an external economist. He in my opinion is not a very good economist. He focuses on a very narrow and short term indicators of performance. Transfer payments to the provinces don't go into a hole. The provinces will spend the money. In BC we need many infrastructure improvements. New roads build an economy. In the Quebec debates this week crumbling bridges were used as a political wedge. Liberal cuts have resulted in an infrastructure deficit. It is philosophical but the Conservatives

So which part will they vote down? The extra spending on the environment The extra money for Quebec - fiscal imbalance More transfers for education The tax cuts - which will be aimed at families He will make it very hard for anyone to vote against this budget. If they do vote against it, wow time for a majority.