Posted on 01/09/2006 1:04:21 PM PST by RWR8189
Here's wishing you (and Canada) the best of luck in the upcoming election!
Thanks.. We appreciate the support and encouragement from
from our friends and neighbours to the south.
If we pull this off, I think it'll go a long way to re-establishing
the amicable relations we have historically had.
That would be great. But even more important -- for Canadians -- is to rid yourselves of socialism and its corruption.
It would be nice to know that our neighbors have a future...
I wish we could help you but we need our conservatives here. We are working on bringing you Canadian conservatives here and sending our stinky and depressed liberals there. : )
Latest poll: Conservatives leading by 14 percentage points (43-29). That equals a big change up here. Now if Mexico goes conservative, it will be icing on the cake.
So from the article and current events we conclude the trump card , anti americanism , is not a trump card . Not that important. Todays polls ,
Decima: Jan 5-8: CP 36% Lib 27% Ndp 20% Bq 11% , CPAC-SES Jan 6-8: CP 34% Lib 31% NDP 17% BQ 11% GP 6% , Ekos Jan 3-4: Con 36.2% Lib 30.4% Ndp 17.9% Bq 10.4% Gp 4.7%.
Jan 9 , Another question asked in the post debate poll: If an election was held tomorrow, who would you vote for?
The Conservatives were the choice of 40 per cent of respondents. The Liberals 32 per cent, NDP 24 per cent, and the Green Party 5 per cent (the Green Party didn't take part in the debate).
Shutting down trade with Canada would devestate Canada, and would also significantly harm the US. Not worth the cost to shut up some idiots.
Canada doesn't have a military because we've subsidized them by providing their national defense with our military. A note informing Canada (cc: Putin) that we would not protect them in the event Russia decided to expand its borders would do much to lay the cards on the table on that front too.
Better a pest on your border than a true enemy. I'd rather have Canada there as a buffer. While Russia was playing nice for a while, the old school went underground rather than completely out of power, and Russia still appears to be looking for a way to return to being a threat to the world.
There are approximately 40 families who have run Mexico as an oligarchy since the Mexican Revolution. Until they are deposed, the rise of a middle class will be virtually impossible.
Either deposed or their power diluted and weakened. That may happen by economic growth that they do not contain, by them deciding to share power, or by another revolution.
It will probably take both of the first two and a serious threat of the third.
There are some nice people there, but as a whole people are simply less friendly there.
Add to that a constant Anti-American message coming from your government, a message which seems to be helping them do well in the polls, and you make a lot of Americans resentful.
The liberals in your country are so proud of the fact that they have their great socialist benefits, but they simply couldn't pay for them if they did rely on the US for defense and economic support through trade.
I was wrong in my earlier comment that Canada is mostly self sufficient. They could be, but they would have to scrap much if not most of their socialist programs.
Your government is an ungrateful leach that American taxpayers a paying a burden to support. That breeds a lot of resentment.
They blame their policy failures on the US. They try and export bad policy to the US. They interfere in our efforts to protect ourselves as well as them.
Your government is democratically elected. Maybe only a minority are strongly anti-American, but the majority are still anti-American enough to keep electing such a government.
What do you think would happen to your country if the America haters in the US Democratic Party fell out of power here and we start sticking up for ourselves when Canada bashes us?
What do you think would happen if we started placing tariffs on Canadian goods to pay for the border security we have to have because you don't do your share?
If the American people go from mostly ignoring your government to actively opposing it and started boycott Canadian goods you'd be in serious trouble very quickly. Your social programs already have your economy strangled. Hard economic times make the costs of those programs skyrocket. It would not take a lot to put Canada into a serious economic depression.
The Canadian government needs to quit attacking their friends to the south. Our countries have been friends for a very long time to our mutual benefit, however your country's choices have made that friendship much less beneficial for us than it once was. If you keep telling us you don't want to be friends, we might eventually listen and force you to stand on your own. As things are now, on your own, your economy would collapse in a matter of months at most.
I am not against the Canadian people, but the Canadian people. There are definately some great people in Canada who are trying to do what is right for Canada and for the world. However, as a whole, your country needs to tart taking responsibility for your own actions and start being an equal partner in it's dealings with the US. Otherwise our generosity my some day come to an end.
You're right about Canada's self sufficiency. With their socialist policies draining their economy, and their reliance on the US for defense and trade, they are probably actually less self sufficient than Mexico.
I obviously didn't think that comment through.
I'm not clear on what it is the American taxpayers are paying for on our
behalf?
There are approximately 40 families who have run Mexico as an oligarchy since the Mexican Revolution. Until they are deposed, the rise of a middle class will be virtually impossible.....
40 families, you say...not bad, Canada is run by one family, read on....
Desmarais most powerful?
Peter Black, Press Republican
Few people on this planet and perhaps only one in Canada, could have a guest list for a party at their remote country home that includes the king of Spain, Bill Clinton, George Bush Sr., Leo DiCaprio and Sarah Ferguson.
That Canadian is Paul Desmarais, arguably the most powerful man in Canada. Desmarais is powerful not just because he is unimaginably rich thanks to the $100 billion Power Corp. empire he built from scratch; he’s a giant because he has used his power to gain unprecedented political influence, not for any demonstrable financial gain, mind you, but simply because he enjoys playing politics as much as he likes making money.
This past weekend, in a supreme display of the influence he has accumulated in his 52 years as an operator in the business world, Desmarais summoned dozens of notables from business, politics and entertainment to his newly completed $40-million (estimated) spread in Quebec’s spectacular Charlevoix region. The guest list was kept extremely hush-hush — another testament to Desmarais’s power. The above-mentioned names were only rumored, but no matter, any one of them would fit comfortably into Desmarais’ wide circle of friends from around the world.
That circle includes the three longest-serving prime ministers of the last 35 years, Pierre Trudeau, Brian Mulroney and Jean Chretien. Chretien’s daughter France married Andre, one of Desmarais’s two sons, making that circle a little tighter than others. Desmarais’s right-hand man at Power Corp. is John Rae, a long-time Chretien advisor and the man who ran two of the three election campaigns that brought Liberals majority governments since 1993.
Desmarais is also on pretty close terms with the prime minister-in-waiting, Paul Martin, who, after all, employed him at Power Corp. for many years. In 1981 he sold to Martin Power’s shipping line, Canada Steamship Lines, which Martin grew into the largest shipper of its kind in the world before entering politics. (Martin last month transferred ownership of CSL to his three sons to free himself for the Liberal leadership campaign which ends in November.)
A roomful of politicians have worked for Desmarais, either on their way up or down the political ladder. Daniel Johnson Jr., for example, Quebec Liberal leader and briefly premier, was Power’s corporate secretary for a time. Daniel’s dad, Daniel Sr., another Quebec premier, was a close crony of Desmarais’s.
The story is told of how Desmarais flew to Hawaii to convince the vacationing Johnson to drop a five-year plan for Quebec independence.
He was also tight with Robert Bourassa despite the premier’s efforts to block his attempt to buy a Quebec City newspaper, which he eventually acquired anyway, giving him control of most major newspapers in Quebec. He spoke to Bourassa days before he died of cancer in 1996. Bourassa, always considered a wavering federalist, told Desmarais Quebec needed to move on from the debate over sovereingty.
Desmarais’s wealth and power are enough to assure him superstar status among Canadian and global entrepreneurs. But what puts Desmarais in a category by himself is how he, a French-Canadian from the Northern Ontario mining town of Sudbury, has earned a place in a Canadian business establishment populated entirely by English-Canadians. For years he was the only French-Canadian on the boards of major Canadian companies, invited there not out of tokenism, but because of his ever-increasing financial clout.
Desmarais represents the triumph of French-Canadians within a country dominated by English-speakers, a role the 76-year-old tycoon takes seriously. While embraced by the new generations of francophone business leaders of Quebec Inc., he is no darling of Quebec nationalists. Desmarais, in fact, all but froze Montreal-based Power’s activities in Quebec after the separatist Parti Quebecois was elected in 1976.
It is only in recent years that Power has again become a major player in the domestic corporate world. Desmarais used the hiatus to put together a corporate colossus in Europe, one that includes the largest broadcasting network on the continent, one of the world’s largest oil companies, a Swiss salami company and a 12-percent share of the company that owns the Suez canal.
Paul Desmarais officially retired as president of Power Corp. in 1996, although he remains chairman of the executive committee and is majority owner. His sons, Paul Jr. and Andre, now manage the company day-to-day. Though slowed by several heart operations and normal aging, Desmarais is reported to still be the master of the empire he built.
In his semi-retirement he has overseen the construction of his estate near the Saguenay River. The project turned a hunting lodge, set on 10,000 acres of forest with five lakes, once owned by one of Desmarais’s paper companies, into a dream compound.
And that’s where Desmarais hosted his exclusive set of friends for a country-style barbecue few of them are likely to forget. Much like history is not likely to forget a giant like Desmarais.
Some of the facts and anecdotes about Desmarais in this column come from the Canadian Establishment series by author Peter C. Newman. Desmarais, Newman notes, is the only Canadian business leader to be featured in all three volumes, spanning more than 25 years.
Peter Black is a syndicated columnist writing about Quebec and the producer of a daily current-affairs program for Canada’s public radio broadcaster (CBC), based in Quebec City. His column appears every Friday. He can be reached by e-mail: pmblack@sympatico.ca
• • •
I am just waiting for this facist demogogeury to come out.
Thanks for the info. Interesting.
Trade and economic stability require a secure and stable environment. Do you really think that Canada is doing their shre to provide that? Do you think that Canada's military could keep their shipping channels safe?
We hep protect Canada's borders because it's in our best interests to do so, but instend of us lending a hand because it's in our mutual best interest, we're being taken advantage of.
Canada's economy relies greatly on trade with the US, yet Canada does not take border security seriously. You're border agents aren't even armed. Try taking a flight out Ottowa to the US. We trust Canadian airport security so little that we've gone to the expense of having US customs with US Government employees there. You go through US customs before you even get on the airplace for the US.
Security doesn't come for free. Canada isn't kept safe by keeping their heads down and not being a threat alone. Someone has to be willing to defend your freedom for you to have it. Keeping your heads down and not being a threat just allows you to get away with out doing your share.
Now Canada has strangled their economy with huge government programs. How many months out of the year do you work just to pay taxes? How can you curb entitlement programs once they've been created? How much more can you sacrifice if you had to pay the costs for your own security without your economy crashing?
Ahhh, you take the "ignorance is bliss" concept to a whole new level.
Yes, in the past you've had a military and used it well. I don't mean to detract from your nation's pride at such history. However, Canada isn't the same now as it was then, just as the US isn't the same now as it was then.
It's Canada's current course that is putting it at odds with the United States.
We're also aware that the U.S. had preWW2 invasion plans for Canada which included using poison gas on us and bombing our cities.
I bet we still do have plans on the books for invading Canada. Canada also had plans for fighting a war against the US if it ever became necessary. Such contingency plans are normal. I don't believe there was any evidence that there was any real intention to utilize those plans, so what's your point?
We're about to elect a majority Conservative Gov't who has pledged to significantly increase the Military and to work closely with the U.S. on many fronts, including Military.
I hope that happens. I believe that would be good for both our countries.
So if you want to rag on us (Canadian FReepers), go ahead, but expect some us to respond in kind.
I tried to keep my comments directed at your government and the large percentage of your population that supports them. I did not intend to infer that all Canadians are ungrateful louts. Though there is a does appear to a large percentage that are through many likely don't understand that they are.
But by all means feel free to correct me when I get things wrong. I also don't expect you to hang your head in shame for being a Canadian. I just wish more Canadians would use not only show some national pride, but use it in a constructive manner.
I think that in general "Canadian FReepers" do that. However, it seemed to me that you were lashing out a bit more than was justified, so I voiced my opinion on the topic.
Canada has been a valuable ally in the past, and definately could be one in the future. Currently, your government is more of an irritation and a drain on our resources than an ally. I doubt that pleases you much more than it does me. I hope for both our countries sake we can start working together productively again in the future.
O.K., your statement regarding U.S. involvement in airport security:
We trust Canadian airport security so little that we've gone
to the expense of having US customs with US Government employees
there. You go through US customs before you even get on the
airplace for the US.
The U.S. does not get involved in Canadian Airport security.
The U.S. INS set up shop in major Canadian Airport hubs which handled huge
volumes of people (almost all Americans and Canadians) entering the U.S.
to avoid the cost and inconvenience of having to clear returning Americans and
visiting Canadians at virtually every airport in the U.S.
It SAVES the U.S. big bucks. We let them do that as a courtesy
to you and now we get bash over the head and accused of costing
you money. Yah I get pissed more than a lot of other Canadian Freepers
who probably have been bashed into submission. Give me another year or 2
and I'll probably be the same..
A reasonable explaination. I was very likely wrong in my assumption in that regard. I don't know if it saves us big bucks or not, but it was definately convienent on my two recent trips to Ottawa.
We let them do that as a courtesy to you and now we get bash over the head and accused of costing you money.
Fair enough, my appologies on that one point. I still feel my overall point was valid, but I'm willing to discuss it with an open mind if you disagree.
Yah I get pissed more than a lot of other Canadian Freepers who probably have been bashed into submission. Give me another year or 2 and I'll probably be the same..
Bah, nothing wrong with a lively debate. Not meaning to "bash you into submission", but not willing to ignore things on which I disagree either.
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