Why don't Canadians goose step to the Yanky Doodle tune?

[BigBlocky]

The Europeans early on recognized the cost of nuclear and fossil fuels. They understand they can’t just get more land. We in N. America never think about running out of room. Nuke waste, no problem, we have a few parcels of land 600KM by 600KM we can irradiate and never again use…. N. America doesn’t take into consideration the ecological cost of fuels so naturally fossil fuels rank the ‘cheapest’.

I’ve heard that nuclear creats no CO2 output, true if the maritans beamed down refined uranium. But since you have to mine tonnes and tonnes of rock with diesel powered equipment, truck it around and refine it… Lots of CO2 is created to get the uranium in a form that can be used.

F_alk, agreed on the multilateral talks on trade. This is were a strong UN would come in Handy. Canada has diddly influence here, it’s the big boys the US and the EU that dance and we must avoid getting stepped on. I hate to say it but Canada has alot in common with third world countries in that respect. Maybe Canada should join the EU? snickers

BB

[Guest]

You would be most welcome in the EU… as you said, lots of space were we could dump our nuclear waste :)… And whenever then French and British disagree… well, i guess you know best how to work around such things ;).

[BigBlocky]

French and English disagreeing is a part of life in Canada chuckles. It’s odd how some French complain all the time yet our Prime Minister has been either French AND from Quebec or from Quebec and French speaking for 32 of the last 33 years and 50% of the time prior to that.

In any event, Canada does have a plan for putting nuke waste in the Canadian shield (A hunk of rock 3 billion years old that forms most of Canada’s North). I’d rather put up lots of wind mills but….

Thanks for the invite to the EU, I’ll think about it once I’m running the show over here!

BB

[TG Moses VI]

I’m against tariffs against free trade (as long as those countries do the same), so I can admit that’s one beef I have with Dubya. :)

But if you notice, America is not really a “industrialist” nation. America’s strength is in white-collar jobs (communications, services, information, ect). People have to stop thinking that wealth can only be measured in “products”… However, I have a hard time agreeing with Technology belonging to Japan or Europe - especially around where I live (Silicon Valley, Irvine, ect). Japan does have high technology, but when you start comparing computers, America does have the advantage (ex. compare a home PC in Japan with one in US). Anyways I can agree that the Japanese don’t really invent anything, but more like, they perfect them (look at the Japanese auto industry)

[Guest]

@TG:

I’m against tariffs against free trade (as long as those countries do the same), so I can admit that’s one beef I have with Dubya. :)

Like steel tariffs :) cough

[Xi]

Yeah, dump tarriffs.
If an industry needs tarriffs to survive it needs to be restructured.

I just read that Canada’s Governor General(who’s that as all I here about is the PM and minor American-insulting ministers? :) ) Selects the Senat(or Senate) in Canada. I would think that this may help the PM get a lot of his policies passed into law.
Did I also read recently that the PM will withdraw a bill if it looks like it would not pass as this would trigger a no confidence call for election of a new PM?

[BigBlocky]

The Governer-General is the Queens representative. There is a great deal of pomp and circimstance (great for the tourists I suppose) and linkages to the Queen. In theory the position holds power but the position is really a formality. It’s too much a bother, to change anything in the Constitution requires all the provinces to agree and usually the problem getting the French in Quebec to agree to any changes. (the Quebec government is currently a seperatist government just waiting for the right conditions to hold a referendum to seperate).

There are 2 bodies, the house of commons and senate. The house comes up with the laws and the Senate passes them while milking the country dry the blood sucking leaches. There are about 300 chuncks of Canada the each elect a ‘Member’ to occupy that ‘seat’. The party with the most seats can form a government, the leader of the party must be elected to a seat and then becomes the ‘Prime Minister’. The party can choose a new PM whenever they want. They come up with the laws and the Senate passes it.

I’m not sure how many lazy bastards are in the Senate. They are appointed by the current PM. If the ruling party is Liberal for 16 years then the Senate will be Liberal for a long time to come. They are never elected, rarely do anything and often hang out at mexican beaches while getting paid. Again, can’t change anything without changing the consitution and that nearly breaks up Canada any time we try to Change it. Heck we only got it back from England in the 70s and that nearly killed Canada.

But I ramble. For a bill to be submitted to the Senate it must be voted on. If the PM deems the vote to be important he makes it a ‘Confidence’ vote, if it’s voted NO the government falls and an election must be called. If the ruling party has a majority the bill gets passed on to the Senate. In practive the vote goes along party lines, if a Liberal party member votes against the liberal party the party can kick the member out and run a new candidate as a Liberal against the encumbant (now an independant) in the next election. So, the PM never has to withdraw a bill unless he has a minority. This happened in the 80s, we had a government that lasted like 7 months and lost a confidence vote, it had a minority and had to call an election, they lost seats and lost power.

Yes, some freaking idiot Canadian Politians do bad mouth the US government. Trust me, the average Canadian citizen is outraged. I urge US citizens to read comments from average citizens on the conduct of these morons.

Canada has a problem. We have two parties on the right that splits the vote, this has only been the case for about 10 years since the creation of a new western based right wing party. A party can get 20% of the popular vote and only get 3% of the seats. If the vote on the right is split, then the left takes the seat easily. Since there are usually 4 parties contesting each seat it is often taken with only 30% of the vote. The party on the left is the ruling Liberal party, they have won 3 straight elections, the PM is retiring but they will probably be in power for ever.

They have been in power too long, are arrogant and need to be replaced, they’re killing us….

BB

[cystic crypt]

The governor general IMHO is a useless “head of state”. Appointed by the PM with very little actual power, i have to agree that electing a separate head of state (for example - having a parliament AND a president - such as in Portugal, and other countries) although might slow down democracy a little, would be an improvement to the system.
The senate has one good thing going for it. Or it used to. A Liberal senate could tie up Conservative bills not because of political entanglements, but rather because the bill was not an appropriate one.

[TG Moses VI]

Like steel tariffs cough

I think I know that. :-? :wink:

[yourbuttocks]

I actually listen to a Canadian News MAgazine on NPR occaisonally. A lot less happens in Canada, so U.S. stories are big (I didn’t realize it was Canadian at first because of this) and little stories like this thread are big deals.

[Xi]

Tanks, BB! Appreciate the explanation(ramble, too.)