[Rosco]

Rev_Blair Rev_Blair:

That's been claimed, but the actual numbers don't bear it out. Check out this story...Hurtig is pretty meticulous about his numbers. http://www.vivelecanada.ca/article.php? ... 8140702824

Good article, a bit biased but it really has some valid things to say. I've personally watched as the American buyout of CN has resulted in the export of much of that company's best equipment and best positions to the south, which is already starting to hurt them despite what their bottom line says.

On the other hand I would lay most of the blame for our poor economy on ourselves, compared to other countries Canadians just don't like to work or innovate and yet still expect everything to just be handed to them. This attitude predates the FTA by a long shot. This is simply what happens when you play a game that you're not good at.

This part gets me though:

$1:

Next, let’s get rid of, for all intents and purposes, the border. Welcome guns, the N.R.A., snipers, the nutcases like Timothy McVeigh and the anthrax planters. Welcome the KKK and the Kansas group that wants to burn the Canadian flag on Parliament Hill because Canada is a “Goddamn whorehouse fag country”. Welcome organized crime and illegal, minimum-wage labour.

Someone should tell these guys that not only do we have these things in abundance already, but that some problems like organized crime and the KKK are actually more serious in the Canada of 2003 than they are in the U.S.

[Rev_Blair]

I highly doubt that organised crime and the KKK are more of a problem here than in the US, Rosco. There's a fair bit of fear-mongering going on here right now, especially by the Reform/Alliance/Conservative Party. They like to present the Liberals as being soft on crime. Meanwhile the actual crime statistics show that crime is declining on a per capita basis.

That's not to say there isn't still a problem...a serious one...just that it is not as bad as some would have you believe.

Our economy also isn't that poor...it's been outperforming most G-8 countries on a pretty regular basis. We are also poised to grow rather quickly in the near future if Martin doesn't screw it up. That's because of innovation and hard work.

[Rosco]

Rev_Blair Rev_Blair:

I highly doubt that organised crime and the KKK are more of a problem here than in the US, Rosco. There's a fair bit of fear-mongering going on here right now, especially by the Reform/Alliance/Conservative Party. They like to present the Liberals as being soft on crime. Meanwhile the actual crime statistics show that crime is declining on a per capita basis.

That's not to say there isn't still a problem...a serious one...just that it is not as bad as some would have you believe.

Our economy also isn't that poor...it's been outperforming most G-8 countries on a pretty regular basis. We are also poised to grow rather quickly in the near future if Martin doesn't screw it up. That's because of innovation and hard work.

Indeed they are, no organized criminal group in the U.S. holds the kind of power the Hells Angels, West coast Triads and the Easterm mafia do here, where the HA especially are like an unofficial second government in many areas. Crime stats are declining in the U.S. as well and have been for some time.

The KKK is dying in the U.S. and only in Australia and Canada is it actually seeing a large increase in membership, this is according to some articles I no longer have the links to, not to mention personal experience.

Anyway I don't buy any of these positive economic forecasts released by Ottawa, to hear them we're another economic "Tiger" like Singapore or Ireland while my experience tells me we're headed the other way.

[feeko]

wait till china strts cuttin down their trees....or worse the bamboo

[Rev_Blair]

I dunno...the Angels here in Winnipeg are mostly in jail or trying not to pay for lawyers. They've actually cleaned things up a fair bit too. I'm not cheering for these guys or anything, but before they came to town a lot of innocent bystanders were getting hurt/killed by gang members. That pretty much stopped when the Angels started running things. Funny thing...the crime was there before and the names are still the same, only the jackets have changed.

What happened, is still happening, in Quebec with the Angels/Rock Machine war is another matter. They are truly in a war with each other. Again though, the drugs and hookers were there before.

As for the KKK...yeah, they are growing in some areas. They have been for a long time. Those areas tend to coincide with Reform/Alliance/Conservative Party ridings. The racism really started to rise in the 1980s. The thing is that while Canadian racists are going with the tried and true KKK, American groups are tending more towards other white supremacist groups. Those groups are often tied to militias, the neo-nazi movement, and some really goofy religious zealots.