Hmm, did anyone on this board live in Ontario when the NDP took over in the early nineties? Health care costs were cut by reducing the number of doctors graduating from medical school! they quadrupled the debt in four years and white males were banned from applying for government jobs in Ontario. This is just a sample of the fiasco that was heaped on the people of that province.
While there are issues with the liberals and the tories are far from perfect, I think a reality check is needed when it comes to even considering the NDP, they are an effective protest party with no idea how to govern!
Lets remember that if you make more then 50K, the NDP considers you rich, so in Calgary, be prepared for your taxes to go up!
Actually the NDP are the only federal party that maintain direct organizational and membership ties to their provincial counterparts. So in some sense, the absolute failure of NDP governments at the provincial level is a reasonably good insight into how they would function at the federal level.
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You really think domestic policy has nothing to do with the stagnant or declining purchasing power of the middle class?
If anything one of the solutions to the problem you describe is more investment in post-secondary. If we cannot compete with manufacturers overseas then we find a better advantage. Information economy services, the like, they all require educated people to perform those tasks. THe more educated from more university access could be very good economic policy.
Countries in Europe have done just that. Look at how small Norway and others are leaders in software. Why can't Canada be?
The only way you are going to see any serious increases in university access is if you lower the grade requirements. In other countries where post secondary education is paid for by the government, large increases in post secondary attendance were not experienced.
I'm generally all in favour of a competition, but bottom line is that no other 5th generation fighter is even on the market, except the F-22 which the Americans won't sell.
We are buying jets that we'll operate for the next 30 years, I don't see any sense in buying something that will be soon obsolete to save about three-fiddy.
The only way you are going to see any serious increases in university access is if you lower the grade requirements. In other countries where post secondary education is paid for by the government, large increases in post secondary attendance were not experienced.
And it goes without saying that when you lower grade requirements, you eliminate the purpose of elite learning altogether.
Education would probably be better suited for everyone if governments stopped lumping all education into the university. It's already crammed full with such a disparate collection of all the disciplines, that it really does no one any good.
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If i'm not mistaken countries that took part in the JSF knew that it was a competition between 3 companies; Boeing, Mcdonnell-Douglas, and Lockheed Martin. Correct me if I'm wrong, but participation in the project was because there were many countries looking to replace their aging fleets.
JSF is essentially what Ford did; common design to reduce costs and increase operating efficiency between allied countries using the same designed planes. Canada not committing to buy initially just means that they took the data from the competition and evaluated the eventual winner.
Someone I know suggested that we could open up a discussion to buy the next generation Sukhoi (SU) fighters from Russia or whatever China's whipping up (which are fifth generation)...but that would unleash a whole can of political worms that I'd personally not like to see.
Location: In a land without pants, or war, or want. But mostly we care about the pants.
Exp:
The NDP isn't taking over, but the main problem I have with the very idea is that they don't even have experience as the Opposition, never mind as the gov't. An NDP-Liberal coalition (which is the only even remotely tenable scenario) with the NDP having the lion's share of cabinet would be a giddy disaster.
As far as them gutting the oil industry, I doubt their rhetoric would match their actions. They might inhibit the oil patch far more than it would like, but they aren't going to kill it as they need someone to pay for all their programs.
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If i'm not mistaken countries that took part in the JSF knew that it was a competition between 3 companies; Boeing, Mcdonnell-Douglas, and Lockheed Martin. Correct me if I'm wrong, but participation in the project was because there were many countries looking to replace their aging fleets.
JSF is essentially what Ford did; common design to reduce costs and increase operating efficiency between allied countries using the same designed planes. Canada not committing to buy initially just means that they took the data from the competition and evaluated the eventual winner.
Someone I know suggested that we could open up a discussion to buy the next generation Sukhoi (SU) fighters from Russia or whatever China's whipping up (which are fifth generation)...but that would unleash a whole can of political worms that I'd personally not like to see.
God, can you imagine? We'd be the adolescent pariah of the Western World.
Hmm, did anyone on this board live in Ontario when the NDP took over in the early nineties? Health care costs were cut by reducing the number of doctors graduating from medical school! they quadrupled the debt in four years and white males were banned from applying for government jobs in Ontario. This is just a sample of the fiasco that was heaped on the people of that province.
While there are issues with the liberals and the tories are far from perfect, I think a reality check is needed when it comes to even considering the NDP, they are an effective protest party with no idea how to govern!
Lets remember that if you make more then 50K, the NDP considers you rich, so in Calgary, be prepared for your taxes to go up!
I mentioned this earlier in this thread but yeah, you're bang on with this post. I have no idea why the Conservatives aren't blitzing Ontario with ads reminding them about how bad things were when Bob Rae was premier. They would be able to take out both the Liberals (Rae's current party) and the NDP in a single shot. I mean, heck, if the people of Alberta still remember the NEP, then Ontario should still remember "Rae days" considering that this happened in the 90's.
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I mentioned this earlier in this thread but yeah, you're bang on with this post. I have no idea why the Conservatives aren't blitzing Ontario with ads reminding them about how bad things were when Bob Rae was premier. They would be able to take out both the Liberals (Rae's current party) and the NDP in a single shot. I mean, heck, if the people of Alberta still remember the NEP, then Ontario should still remember "Rae days" considering that this happened in the 90's.
I bet they're saving that bullet for post-Ignatief...
Its great to modernize the radar and avionics systems on the CF-18, and they've done a amazing job of doing it. But there's just no more capability to be pulled out of the jet.
Agree fully. The quote was from 2002, which means that a decade would bring it to 2012. Still short of the 2015 estimate for the new jet.
I think the attack ads the Conservatives have been airing since January against the Liberals have worked to drive people away from the Liberals, but the Conservative failed to reel those people in. A huge missed opportunity if they don't win a majority.
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"A pessimist thinks things can't get any worse. An optimist knows they can."
I think the attack ads the Conservatives have been airing since January against the Liberals have worked to drive people away from the Liberals, but the Conservative failed to reel those people in. A huge missed opportunity if they don't win a majority.
I have to think support for Harper has an upper limit in the mid-high 30s. He's occasionally flirted with but never breached the 40% plateau. His character assassination of Ignatieff has only served to drive soft Liberal supporters to the NDP, since they've already decided they won't vote for Harper.
On CBC last night the "At Issue" panel (which I find really interesting every week) was talking about this. Basically the pollster on there (can't remember his name) said that Harpers supporters love him and his approval rate is ridiculously high with them - around 90%. That kind of approval rating is basically unheard of.
On the other side of the coin though the detractors of his (trying to think of one off the top of my head, lol) really dislike him. That gives him a narrow band within which to operate. He might never drop much below that 36-37% level, but he'll not likely get more than the 40% either.
I also think that his strategy of trying to run a non-campaign (or rag the puck as I probably called it about 4 weeks ago) is going to be a problem now. The Royal Wedding will eat up all of the coverage this weekend now and the political messages are likely to be lost. All of the attention the last 3-5 days has been on Layton and that is going to convince some undecideds to take a look at their platform for sure. I don't know if I believe the 100 seat projections, but the CPC has not run a very good election campaign here IMO.
I don't know if I really believe in the 100 seat projection personally. That would be a 60 some odd seat improvement over the last election result.
I think people are getting too tied up in polls representing popular vote and trying to translate them into seat projections.
I also figure that when it comes to election day, some people will step back from the NDP and move back to their party line.
I'm completely with you on this. There's a lot of hype around the NDP, but when it comes to mark the X, people will go elsewhere.
If the NDP wins 100 seats, I'll eat...nah, better not go there.
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We may curse our bad luck that it's sounds like its; who's sounds like whose; they're sounds like their (and there); and you're sounds like your. But if we are grown-ups who have been through full-time education, we have no excuse for muddling them up.
If i'm not mistaken countries that took part in the JSF knew that it was a competition between 3 companies; Boeing, Mcdonnell-Douglas, and Lockheed Martin. Correct me if I'm wrong, but participation in the project was because there were many countries looking to replace their aging fleets.
JSF is essentially what Ford did; common design to reduce costs and increase operating efficiency between allied countries using the same designed planes. Canada not committing to buy initially just means that they took the data from the competition and evaluated the eventual winner.
Someone I know suggested that we could open up a discussion to buy the next generation Sukhoi (SU) fighters from Russia or whatever China's whipping up (which are fifth generation)...but that would unleash a whole can of political worms that I'd personally not like to see.
I just have bad feelings about adopting Russian Fighters as primary fighters in our airforce, it does go against one of the key concepts of interoperability with NATO and being able to keep to the NATO standards.
Now I know that the Russians being clever engineers designed their fighters to be able to use NATO Ordinance so that in wartime they could take a NATO field and use our weapons against us. I also like the philosophy of Russian engineering when it comes to durability.
But Russia has never had a good reputation in terms of building military hardware.
I looked at the Chinese 5th generation, tentatively dubbed the J-20 Black Silk (Awesome name).
The thing looks like a really huge variation of the F-22, but that size is going to have drawbacks in terms of maneuverability and thrust to weight unless they have massive engines in them.
I doubt that the Chinese would be willing to sell this aircraft to North America or Europe because they wouldn't want these planes to be ripped apart and figured out by NATO.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
