Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : My House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Solon who wrote (6509)	3/29/2003 9:38:25 PM
From: Lazarus_Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 7689

One of Canada's huge produce companies (Peak of the Market) was talking the other day about a number of produce contracts being cancelled without overt reason By who? As I said, it would do the US well to remember who it can count on if push comes to shove. And Canada is the other member of NORAD. Not exactly something it would be wise for the US to throw away. The little bit of offensive military power we have in such a tiny population base is best saved for the time when it might truly matter. Hard to put together much military with a population of only 30 million. It keeps the bitterness and devisiveness down to a tolerable level between two cultures that are not truly merged. Hmmm. But that wasn't the point. The point was that the French sympathies of the French-Canadian PM may have led to the result. I've noticed support for the US action actually isn't particularly weak among Canadians on SI. Lots support it. Some would say that Canada makes too much of compromise. We have, after all, spent billions over the years to placate the Native and Metis and French populations. On the other hand, there can hardly be anything worse than a civil war where brother fights brother. So far we have manged to avoid such a tragedy. Hmmm. I thought any province had a right to secede from the Confederation. Why would there be civil war? There has been no mention of such a thing that I recall in the numerous independence elections in Quebec. It seemed already decided that if Quebec wanted out, it could leave. If such thing were to happen, I'd like to see the rest of Canada AND the US break diplomatic and trade relations with Quebec. Let's see how they like being REALLY independent. FREEREPUBLIC??? WAIT A MINUTE! I'm always told that is a discredited far right site that always lies! A member of parliament that votes against his PM runs the very real risk of losing all party privileges, being excluded from any chance of a position in the cabinet, and realistically finding the PM unwilling to sign their nomination papers for the next election. The PM has to sign the nomination papers????? WAIT A MINUTE! That's guaranteed to produce just the trouble you describe! How did this happen? I thought the Canadian system was pretty much like the British, and British PMs get the what-for on a regular basis. However, since Senators are appointed (by the PM!) they have little democratic legitimacy, so a determined block on a bill passed by a democratically elected House would create a constitutional crisis unwanted and unseen since the King/Byng affair of the early/mid 1900's. BAD. Real bad. I'm surprised they revolted even once. Further, we have no mechanism for recall. There is no recall at the federal level in the US either, just at the state level. And not all states. Recall should be added for US Representatives and Senators, but the very guys who would have to vote for it are the ones who would be hit by it. Tag on our riding configuration, where unlike in the U.S. with its electoral college that requires a President receive a broad range of support outside the major population centers and you see the recipe for a very unrepresentative government. The US electoral college has never worked the way it was intended, with the exception of Washington's first election. Now it seems to be an anachronism that produces crazy results, one example of which was the 2000 election, where the man who got the most popular votes lost in the electoral college. federal elections are effectively decided before the polls in Manitoba and all points west even close. Frankly I'm amazed westerners even bother to vote at all anymore. I've heard that complaint repeatedly from western Canadians. The founding of the U.S. was about liberty and rejection of an overbearing government acting out of concert with the needs and rights of the colonies. Yours was a clear rejection of overbearing centralized authority. That's where the US federal gov't started. As time has gone by, that principle has been increasingly eroded and states' rights are almost extinct now. With increasing amounts of funding coming from the feds, the states are at their mercy.