[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[Josephus]

Just want to mention that CTV news is saying Toronto were already investigating the existence of the Ford crack video before The Star made the whole thing up.

http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2013/06/13/massive_police_raid_launched_in_toronto.html

[Malthus]

Is someone claiming that the Star "made the whole thing up"?

[crazy canuck]

Just want to mention that CTV news is saying Toronto were already investigating the existence of the Ford crack video before The Star made the whole thing up.

Why do you think the Star made the whole thing up?

[viper37]

I am not sure how embarrassing this is.  In my experience it is normally considered good practice  to schedule events so that they do not fall on significant religious days.

The fact that a religious group has come forward to say that the will accomodate the slight doesnt mean selecting the date wasnt wrong in the first place.   

It is ridiculous, because they are a minority group, wich happens to vote Liberal in a few key riding, and the PLQ was afraid to lose their vote, so they took an idiot position: accomodating everyone for everything.

You can vote 2 weeks and one week prior to election day, no justification asked.  What happens if the year we fall on a Jewish holy day the 2 previous sundays hapen to be sacred for another group?  Afaik, as Christians, we shouldn't work on Sunday.  Do you propose that we shut down hospitals on Sunday?  Orthodox Jews don't work on Saturday and some need ropes amont their houses so they can reach the corner store.  So, we put ropes everywhere to artificially extend one's backyard?  We don't employ Jews in situation where they might work on Saturday (hospitals, police, firemen, etc) ?

That's just silly.  If we put all cultures as equals for everything, there will never be a single day of work in this country and we might as well go back to have a king nominated for life with heriditary position.

[Neil]

Why are stupid people so in favour of fixed-date elections?

[crazy canuck]

It is ridiculous, because they are a minority group,

I had no idea you were a Grallon sock puppet.

Why are stupid people so in favour of fixed-date elections?

Agreed.  An adoptation from the American model which doesn't fit well in our system.

[viper37]

I had no idea you were a Grallon sock puppet.

Asking 95% of the population to move their Christmas plan for elections is complicated.
Asking 0,3% of the population to vote in anticipation is not complicated.

It's a matter of practicality.

[viper37]

Why are stupid people so in favour of fixed-date elections?

there are pros, there are cons. It doesn't fit well our system, true.  But it avoids the government shifting the date according to polls and spending public funds accordingly for various frivolous projects akin to those "pork barrels" of the US Congress.  They could still spend money, but it's far less effective when it's not properly timed.  And they are easy to recognize for what they are.

[crazy canuck]

I had no idea you were a Grallon sock puppet.

Asking 95% of the population to move their Christmas plan for elections is complicated.
Asking 0,3% of the population to vote in anticipation is not complicated.

It's a matter of practicality.

Picking a date on which 0% of the population has no religious implication creates even less complication for the voters.

[Jacob]

Toxic spill in Alberta, apparently quite big: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/apache-pipeline-leaks-60000-barrels-of-salty-water-in-northwest-alberta/article12494371/

Is this the kind of thing that's the price of doing pipeline business and not really a big deal - and thus what we can expect with Northern Gateway should it come to pass? Or is this a big deal, but likely avoidable?

I didn't see this earlier, but apparently the BC Libs came out against the project: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/05/31/bc-northern-gateway-rejected.html

So where does that leave things with the project?

[Neil]

Isn't the project under federal jurisdiction?

[Jacob]

Isn't the project under federal jurisdiction?

I think so.

[viper37]

I had no idea you were a Grallon sock puppet.

Asking 95% of the population to move their Christmas plan for elections is complicated.
Asking 0,3% of the population to vote in anticipation is not complicated.

It's a matter of practicality.

Picking a date on which 0% of the population has no religious implication creates even less complication for the voters.

When, there's one chance in 7 we'll hit something religious this particular day. 

[crazy canuck]

I think you meant week.  And there is more than  1 in 7 chance.

[Barrister]

Toxic spill in Alberta, apparently quite big: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/apache-pipeline-leaks-60000-barrels-of-salty-water-in-northwest-alberta/article12494371/

Is this the kind of thing that's the price of doing pipeline business and not really a big deal - and thus what we can expect with Northern Gateway should it come to pass? Or is this a big deal, but likely avoidable?

I didn't see this earlier, but apparently the BC Libs came out against the project: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/05/31/bc-northern-gateway-rejected.html

So where does that leave things with the project?

I don't think it's right to call this a "toxic spill".  The substance is salt water that's produced as part of oil production.  It's certainly quite harmful to the environment and killed the trees and plant life in the affected area.  But "toxic"?