The day I have waited for 10 years.

[GGG]

I generally agree with you that the influence corporations have is greater than that of unions and
The Molson example is why a private sector union works

Without the downside risk public unions become to powerful.

[PsYcNeT]

As a white man, my life sure was great under Harper.

What do you mean your life wasn't? You need a better life skin color/set of genitals.

[Ducay]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

As a white man, my life sure was great under Harper.

What do you mean your life wasn't? You need a better life skin color/set of genitals.

As a white christian male who works in the oil patch in Alberta; you're right, our Golden Age has ended. Harper era was our "jumping the shark". 'Tis all down hill from now.

[VladtheImpaler]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

As a white man, my life sure was great under Harper.

What do you mean your life wasn't? You need a better life skin color/set of genitals.

I am really not pleased about the fact that women and coloureds can now eat in the same restaurants as I.

[WhiteTiger]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

Huh. That seems odd to me. Didn't you at least have to take a political science or history or sociology or philosophy course or something? Nobody at your university was even remotely interested in current events? No protests or petitions or political griping of any sort?

Petitions and/or political griping require feelings, which are now hidden behind "trigger warnings". Folks won't attend, they are too scary.

[John Doe]

Originally Posted by Regorium

That's my exact point though. He was fired because he represented himself as a CT employee and CT brand.

I'm saying that someone could do the same thing could happen with scientists. By allowing free access to media, it's very easy for a Canadian scientist, representing the Government of Canada, to release a report denying that climate change exists, which would be exceptionally damaging to our brand worldwide.

Should this be in green text? Or are you really arguing that the reason the Harper Government reduced access of scientists to the media because they were worried that a scientist would deny the existence of climate change? Are you talking about the Harper Government that fought against any significant climate change targets or treaties? The Harper Government that argued that Canada has to be in "lock-step" with the United States as to the environment only to change their mind when the U.S. actually looks like they will meet their targets?
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/step...ange-1.3054629
Do you mean that Harper Government?

I would like to know what a scientist could say that would possibly damage our brand worldwide with respect to climate change more than the Harper Government did.

[Regorium]

Originally Posted by John Doe

Should this be in green text? Or are you really arguing that the reason the Harper Government reduced access of scientists to the media because they were worried that a scientist would deny the existence of climate change? Are you talking about the Harper Government that fought against any significant climate change targets or treaties? The Harper Government that argued that Canada has to be in "lock-step" with the United States as to the environment only to change their mind when the U.S. actually looks like they will meet their targets?
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/step...ange-1.3054629
Do you mean that Harper Government?

I would like to know what a scientist could say that would possibly damage our brand worldwide with respect to climate change more than the Harper Government did.

You got me. Harper is literally Hitler.

Let's move on.

[Drak]

Originally Posted by Regorium

You got me. Harper is literally Hitler.

Let's move on.

In other words



And I didn't see where John Doe made the claim that Harper was literally Hitler.

[John Doe]

Originally Posted by Regorium

You got me. Harper is literally Hitler.

Let's move on.

Fine, lets move on to this one:

Pushing my personal ideology - which is "Every single person, including Steven Harper, is a good person at heart and works with the best intentions in mind."

Now knowing your personal ideology, I wonder what you thought of the Harper Government's "war on crime"?

[Regorium]

I'm listening to this. I'm not plugging my ears. I just understand that I'm not a good enough communicator to get my point across so I'm going to drop it. I've heard your point, and conceded many points. I haven't seen a concession from your end that maybe Harper isn't the worst Canadian to exist (maybe not your view, but clearly the OP and multiple other posters' sentiments).

I know that Harper overstepped multiple times in multiple areas. That led me to not vote for him. Shocking. I know. I just don't think it was so bad as to have to create a thread to celebrate his stepping down as PM.

The war on crime? Absolutely stupid. I get what he's going for, trying to use longer sentences as a deterrence, and providing the tools to be able to do so (ie. costs), but prison sentences likely do not deter crime.

My entire point is: I'm not on board with "I've waited 10 years for this", "This is the worst decade in Canadian history", "a decade long attack on the intellectual class." There were reasons behind his decisions regarding science or crime that aren't conspiratorial. There are very valid reasons for things like removing the long form census (I'm happy about its restoration btw), or the "muzzling" of government workers. I may not agree with them, but at least I see the point behind it.

[stampsx2]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

Huh. That seems odd to me. Didn't you at least have to take a political science or history or sociology or philosophy course or something? Nobody at your university was even remotely interested in current events? No protests or petitions or political griping of any sort?

No political sciences or anything like that. Didn't have to take it. Maybe if you were in arts or something you had to, and yes i went to a major canadian university. The closest was some sort of environmental ethics.

We definetely didn't protest and i can say i don't even think i remember one protest anywhere on the grounds. Sometimes when the ctv news camera's showed up people would gossip about what the news story was but that's it. Nobody talked politics but talked about drinking last weekend or this weekend was very common. Sports talk also common but never heard any politics talk.

Even joining the university students union or club or whatever it was, was weird. There was two or three people in that room but that was just the room you walked by.

There was the occasional petition but pretty rare. Political griping - only if you mean complaining about profs, but no conservative or liberal or ndp type griping, no. I actually forgot about the polling station at the university but the only people in there were professors and some artsy students. It was the exam auditorium but mostly really empty.

Stop and think, when's the last time you heard about a major protest at a canadian university other than quebec about a tuition reduction? Think about that.

Everyone knew where to pay for parking tickets though.

Politics in university, not really.

[darklord700]

I can't wait to post "the day I've waited for 4 years" in 3 1/2 years time. And I'm sure it'll be 4 years I need to wait for this day to come.

[Drak]

Originally Posted by darklord700

I can't wait to post "the day I've waited for 4 years" in 3 1/2 years time. And I'm sure it'll be 4 years I need to wait for this day to come.

Nah. By then you'll have changed your mind.

[stampsx2]

Originally Posted by Drak

Nah. By then you'll have changed your mind.

Based on what he's promised and said up to now, probably not.

[polak]

Originally Posted by Regorium

You got me. Harper is literally Hitler.

Let's move on.

I don't know about that, Hitler did a miracle on the German economy.... well until the whole losing the war thing.

[Cappy]

Originally Posted by Thor

Said they are part, there is a lot more to the story. I agree some unions became bloated, abusive and harmful to business and the people they purported to represent.

But the stagnation of the middle class for decades now has gone with the largest transfer of wealth from the rest of us to very very few.

I just hate when people blow out of proportion the influence of what few unions are left vs the immensity of corporate influence on politics and legislation. My conservative friends are losing their collective minds over the Ontario teachers union, while conveniently not at all bothered by the corruption brought on our society by special interest.

But I will agree private unions vs public have a much better track record. I also now live in the one extreme in Iceland where most people in Iceland are a part of a union, and I also worked in the summers as a student Molsons brewery in Calgary which closed for one reason, the union was a bunch of idiots who thought they could refuse an offer that would have kept them open and would have close the Edmonton brewery instead.

But having no unions and relying on business to keep up wages with cost of living is a pipe dream, tying ourselves to a world wide casino in the wall street stockholder world means labor suffers wage cuts as an easy way of improving profit margins, while globalization sees more and more jobs move away from the west.

I agree with your assessment, Thor, but we can't underestimate the massive global integration the world has experienced over the past 40 years as well. We now live in a world where products can be manufactured anywhere in the world using assembly line techniques most unskilled workers can learn.

this reveals the loss of many jobs in the auto industry to many in the third world who offer cheaper labour costs. Supply and demand.

Now, with the rise of large skilled workforces in the PIIGS and China, even those in skilled positions are competing with those from poorer nations. I'm sure there are a lot of people on this forum with great jobs and great credentials who could conceivably lose their position to someone in another country for less cost to the corporation.

We can view this as wrong and that corporations are evil, but another way to view this is that globalization is the ultimate equalizer. Touted so often by liberals and conservatives alike in the early process, globalization provides a leg up for the third world to reduce their poverty. We are now learning that this is a somewhat zero sum game. Many middle class jobs must now compete with cheaper sources.

I think this is a bigger reason for the stagnation of wages. We couldn't have always thought western society could live the way we did at the expense of the rest of the world forever?

[EldrickOnIce]

Originally Posted by VladtheImpaler

I am really not pleased about the fact that women and coloureds can now eat in the same restaurants as I.

#thanksjustin

[blueski]

As much as I can't stand the liberals, this right here is what makes me able to be happy that they are in. How on earth were most of us not marching in the streets over this move by Harper? Still shocking to me that this happened in Canada.

"We [are now] free to speak to the press without contacting media relations," she said. "And in fact we are encouraged to get back to them quickly."

"It's a far cry from 2011, when Miller was shocked to find herself prevented from discussing her research into the 2009 Fraser River sockeye salmon collapse following its publication in Science magazine.

"I was told at the time that the problem with the study was that it was talking about dying salmon, and that wasn't a positive news story," Miller said.

She eventually discovered that the decision to stop her talking came from the top — directly from the prime minister's office. She was only allowed to talk publicly about her work in response to questions while testifying at the Cohen Commission Inquiry."
http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/b...zled-1.3308549

[savemedrzaius]

Originally Posted by blueski

As much as I can't stand the liberals, this right here is what makes me able to be happy that they are in. How on earth were most of us not marching in the streets over this move by Harper? Still shocking to me that this happened in Canada.

"We [are now] free to speak to the press without contacting media relations," she said. "And in fact we are encouraged to get back to them quickly."

"It's a far cry from 2011, when Miller was shocked to find herself prevented from discussing her research into the 2009 Fraser River sockeye salmon collapse following its publication in Science magazine.

"I was told at the time that the problem with the study was that it was talking about dying salmon, and that wasn't a positive news story," Miller said.

She eventually discovered that the decision to stop her talking came from the top — directly from the prime minister's office. She was only allowed to talk publicly about her work in response to questions while testifying at the Cohen Commission Inquiry."
http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/b...zled-1.3308549

Canada the most free country in the world under Harper my butt...Freaking scientists had to get permission from the government before they could talk to the media. What a joke!
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada...cid=spartandhp

[Thor]

Originally Posted by Cappy

I think this is a bigger reason for the stagnation of wages. We couldn't have always thought western society could live the way we did at the expense of the rest of the world forever?

'

I think we ultimately agree, but tax policies, tax avoidance has created a big part of the wage stagnation of the middle class, while the highest earners have seen massive gains in the last 2-3 decades. Its a transfer of wealth, not so much because of globalization but because governments all over the western world cow tow to powerful financial interests that push legislation to help them pay less taxes, avoid taxes, etc..

Globalization and off shore banking, incorporation, is a massive problem that has a huge part to play as well.