Posted on 12/01/2004 12:14:29 PM PST by Clive
An Alberta Tory MP whose son served with the U.S. Army in Iraq delivered a personal message yesterday to the U.S. president: Not all Canadians are anti-Bush.
Dennis Thompson, son of MP Myron Thompson, is a dual citizen who signed up for service south of the border in 1996 because the Canadian Forces were "downsizing." The 31-year-old army engineer served for a year in Iraq and could be dispatched to Afghanistan in the new year.
Thompson, who joined Tory Leader Stephen Harper in a 30-minute private meeting with Bush, said the crowds of protesters in Ottawa don't represent all Canadians.
"I know the president understands democracy often comes at a cost and it is paid for by the members of our military," he said.
Thompson said the president seemed to be surprised to learn there were Canadians fighting with the U.S. in Iraq and extended his gratitude for their efforts.
"I really admire the man. He knows where he's going and what he's doing," Thompson said. "I'm behind him all the way."
The younger Thompson called Bush "a good guy" and agreed it's important to offset the negative tone of protesters.
"I'm pretty sure the president knows, but it's kind of nice to hear that not everyone is against you," he said in an interview.
Myron Thompson first approached Prime Minister Paul Martin and told him he hoped to send Bush a "positive message" during his visit. The PM was warm to the idea, and also extended an invitation to last night's official dinner.
$2000 ! Yikes ! Any chance you might move down this way ?
CBC has already been creamed in the ratings. CTV has outdrawn them for news since the late 1970s, today CBC news is in third place behind CTV and Global. CBC is not a major player except for sportscasts (hockey, football and Olympics).
Where did you here that figure? My understanding is that for digital on cable it's ~$30 per month for the box plus a fee for each channel. With the satellite services you just pay a small fee for the channel (the service is already digital).
Great story, great family, too.
You got that right. It's what happens when a business is regulated- instead of trying to please the customer, all effort is focused on pleasing the regulator.
I gave Rogers the finger years ago- used rabbit ears until Look TV came along.
You probably aren't going to need an upgrade on the TV. Every digital cable box that I've seen also has standard A/V outputs for regular sets. If it's on ExpressVU, then you definitely won't need a new set. All of those receivers have standard video outputs as well.
Are CTV and Global more conservative than the CBC ?
Any television set can receive it and the picture will look the same except that it will be clearer.
I subscribe to Rogers Cable tv service and Rogers Cable internet.
I have just today ordered digital service. The converter box will be installed next wednesday. The monthly fee for the box is $10.30 including tax. The cost for the service worked out the same as I am now paying except that as I am subscribing to two of Rogers' there services (tv and internet, the other one is cell phone) and I have just put them on the same bill, the actual monthly bill came in less. (I had previously paid the internet service from a separate bank account).
The only down side is that I would need a converter box for each additional television set at $10.30/month, but without it the bedroom sets still get all the analog channels. If someone wants digital in his or her bedroom, he or she can pay the extra or buy a converter box for $199.00 plus tax (or wait until one is on sale).
Aggregate cost for the service, tv and internet, come to $91.67 per month in Canadian funds.of which $40.88 is for my cable internet service. This includes the digital converter and the cable modem.
As to $2,000.00 television sets, I can wait for the price of solid state sets to come down as they inevitably will once the industry standardizes fully on digital screens and stops making CRT sets and the cost benefit of scale kicks in.
Not really, but they are more balanced and their news judgment is more in line with the views of ordinary Canadians. The main reason the CBC has fallen out of favour is that their producers suffer from a severe case of recto-cranial insertion; if the story doesn't involve a black lesbian single mother who's trying to save the whale from globalization they'll ignore it. They seem to think that the world doesn't exist outside of Ottawa, so nobody outside of Ottawa pays much attention to them.
Yes, but not by as much as Fox.
Cable providers also provide local channels.
They also provice CPAC which is the Canadian equivalent of CSPAN. That service broadcasts public events in full and without editing. Currently, CPAC is broadcasting the unedited taped Royal Commission hearing into the adscam scandal, which is a huge embarrassment to the Liberal government.
Rogers in my area also provides the feed from the Federal House of Commons and the Ontario so that I have lately been able to enjoy watching the opposition work over the Minister of Immigration in Question Period for the past several days about her jumping a stripper to the head of the queu and letting one of her sherpas attend at the strip club to help fill in the documents.
Apparently there is a grievous shortage of strippers in Canada such that we have to import them. More so, it would seem than a shortage of doctors.
Re: the strippers.
Quite the country you have up there.
Do you think any Canadians' minds will be changed about Bush after this visit ? He seemed quite witty to me.
I do think that we have to rachet down the rhetoric on both sides of the border.
We are each other's best customers and since the War of 1812 we have been each other's best friends. It is a pity to see the idiotic behaviour of 'ti Jean and his sherpas and ministers so poison the atmosphere that we have stopped listening to each other.
I once got into a discussion with a couple of people from New Zealand (several years ago). They could not understand why Canadians would bitch about the US on just about any topic but would vigorously defend the US against similar criticism from anyone else on the same topics, including anyone else in the Commonwealth. I said "brothers may fight" and they seemed to understand.
Freedom isn't free-- there's a hefty Effin fee...
Thanks for the kind words ... we do what we can to promote a Conservative Canada.
Bump ty
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