Canada

[Nonc Hilaire]

Wrong forum. "Elecy Grammaw" is a 2016 US Democratic party slogan.

[Typhoon]

.


“There hasn’t been a single major value-added project approved.
They are all extraction only,”
“It’s rip it and ship it.
That’s become the standard approach to developing resources.”


.. Harper f*cked .. and .. he deserved it .. he ruined Canada

Tuesday is election .. voting for Trudeau

.

The Grauniad? That alone is probably reason enough to vote for Harper, if one could vote.

As a Canadian friend of mine noted, Trudeau Jr. inherited his mummy's good looks . . .

. . . and her common sense*.

*her claim to fame is having blown the Stones at the El Mocambo.

[Heracleum Persicum]

.


“There hasn’t been a single major value-added project approved.
They are all extraction only,”
“It’s rip it and ship it.
That’s become the standard approach to developing resources.”


.. Harper f*cked .. and .. he deserved it .. he ruined Canada

Tuesday is election .. voting for Trudeau

.

The Grauniad ? That alone is probably reason enough to vote for Harper, if one could vote.

As a Canadian friend of mine noted, Trudeau Jr. inherited his mummy's good looks . . .

. . . and her common sense*.

*her claim to fame is having blown the Stones at the El Mocambo.

.

Imagine, Alberta, the epitome of "RED NECK", Texas of Canada, has now a "Socialist" NDP majority government

Question not whether Harper finito, question whether Liberals can rule by themselves or need NDP.

Harper gang, "Rupture" people, inflicted enough damage, Liberals must start building up Canada again.

.

[Typhoon]

.


“There hasn’t been a single major value-added project approved.
They are all extraction only,”
“It’s rip it and ship it.
That’s become the standard approach to developing resources.”


.. Harper f*cked .. and .. he deserved it .. he ruined Canada

Tuesday is election .. voting for Trudeau

.

The Grauniad ? That alone is probably reason enough to vote for Harper, if one could vote.

As a Canadian friend of mine noted, Trudeau Jr. inherited his mummy's good looks . . .

. . . and her common sense*.

*her claim to fame is having blown the Stones at the El Mocambo.

.

Imagine, Alberta, the epitome of "RED NECK", Texas of Canada, has now a "Socialist" NDP majority government

Question not whether Harper finito, question whether Liberals can rule by themselves or need NDP.

Harper gang, "Rupture" people, inflicted enough damage, Liberals must start building up Canada again.

.

From what I recall it was the spendthrift Trudeau Sr. and the Liberal Party who nearly drove the country into financial ruin.

[Heracleum Persicum]

.


“There hasn’t been a single major value-added project approved.
They are all extraction only,”
“It’s rip it and ship it.
That’s become the standard approach to developing resources.”


.. Harper f*cked .. and .. he deserved it .. he ruined Canada

Tuesday is election .. voting for Trudeau

.

The Grauniad ? That alone is probably reason enough to vote for Harper, if one could vote.

As a Canadian friend of mine noted, Trudeau Jr. inherited his mummy's good looks . . .

. . . and her common sense*.

*her claim to fame is having blown the Stones at the El Mocambo.

.

Imagine, Alberta, the epitome of "RED NECK", Texas of Canada, has now a "Socialist" NDP majority government

Question not whether Harper finito, question whether Liberals can rule by themselves or need NDP.

Harper gang, "Rupture" people, inflicted enough damage, Liberals must start building up Canada again.

.

From what I recall it was the spendthrift Trudeau Sr. and the Liberal Party who nearly drove the country into financial ruin.

.

Liberals .. Pierre Trudeau, Jean Chrétien AND Paul Martin (Minister of Finance from 1993 to 2002 - Prime Minister of Canada from 2003 to 2006) .. pretty much saved Canada

They "BLOCKED" US take over of Canadian financial institutions, preventing a devastating wiping out American style of Canadian economy when "SH*T" hit the fan on Wall Street .. otherwise the crooks of Wall Street would have "fleeced" Canada like they did America.

That's why Canadian financial institutions are the healthiest in the western world.

Canada owes a lot to Liberals, Chrétien and Martin.

.

[Apollonius]

On most issues I feel I cannot trust the three major parties to be much different from one another. I have always despised Stephen Harper, someone I suspect of being under the heavy influence of organized crime. His campaign stops have all been by invitation only. The general public is not allowed to hear him speak. Under Mulcair the NDP could well preside over the dissolution of the country.

That leaves the Liberals, who have promised to legalize marijuana. Now this is something really tangible.



Decriminalization versus legalization: marijuana advocates scrutinize competing plans for reform - Travis Lupick, Georgia Straight, 10 September 2015
http://www.straight.com/news/524881/dec ... ting-plans

There are few people in Canada who have suffered a blow from prohibition like the one that hit Marc and Jodie Emery. On September 10, 2010, after deportation from Vancouver, Marc was sentenced to five years in a U.S. prison for trafficking marijuana seeds.
Canada doesn’t actually send many people to prison for cannabis offences. And if a person is incarcerated for such a crime, it is seldom for as long as five years. But Marc’s transgression was trafficking. On top of his political activities (or because of them, many argue), that was reason enough for authorities to throw the book at him.

Marc has held a grudge.

“Canadian politicians are the most gutless group of people I have ever seen,” he said just hours after his release on August 12, 2014. “They don’t want to bring up marijuana. They are afraid of it. After 45 years, really, they’re still afraid of it?”

Ahead of Canada’s federal election scheduled for October 19, candidates for prime minister are talking about cannabis reform. All three leading parties have staked out clear positions that differ significantly from one another.

In 2012, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government implemented mandatory-minimum sentences for marijuana production and trafficking. Since then, the Conservative party has doubled down on its tough-on-crime stance. “We will not introduce misguided and reckless policies that would downplay, condone, or normalize the use of illegal drugs,” Harper said at an August 11 campaign stop in Ontario.

That was a shot at the federal Liberals and party leader Justin Trudeau’s promise to legalize and regulate recreational cannabis.

Speaking in Vancouver on August 19, Trudeau shot back: “Mr. Harper has failed in his drug policy,” he told the Georgia Straight. “It is time that Canada regulated and controlled marijuana to protect our kids, to protect our communities, and to prevent the funds from flowing into the coffers of drug runners and street gangs.”

A more detailed version of the Liberals’ plan for legalization appears in a 38-page draft policy document published in 2013. It states that recreational marijuana should come under a regulatory framework that covers not only the sale of cannabis but also its production, distribution, and taxation. (The end result would be a system like the one that governs cigarettes, Hedy Fry, the Liberals’ candidate for Vancouver Centre, recently told the Straight.)

That document also addresses Canadians stuck with a criminal record of the sort that can turn up in a background check or in the databases of U.S. customs officials. A Liberal government would “extend amnesty to all Canadians previously convicted of simple and minimal marijuana possession, and ensure the elimination of all criminal records related thereto,” it states.

At an August 20 stop in Vancouver, NDP leader Thomas Mulcair said amnesty for past offences was an “important question” and one an NDP government would “look at”.

While the Liberals have promised legalization, the NDP has said it will decriminalize marijuana. “It is something that we can do immediately,” Mulcair told the Straight. “I am categorical that no person should ever face criminal charges or a criminal record for personal use of marijuana.”

The NDP has emphasized that repealing criminal penalties for personal-use possession is only a first step in its plan to reform marijuana laws. Communications director Jen Holmwood readily admitted the party is still working out what would come next. She told the Straight another early move would be to “create an independent commission” that consults with provincial governments and studies the issue.

At Cannabis Culture headquarters on West Hastings Street, Jodie Emery emphasized the Liberal and NDP positions sound similar but are actually very different.

For starters, she said, under Mulcair’s reformed system that only abolishes penalties for small amounts of marijuana, her husband still could have gone to jail for trafficking.

The NDP’s plan only addresses demand, Emery explained. Under decriminalization, the supply side of B.C.’s billion-dollar marijuana industry would largely remain as it exists today: illegal, with grow-ops and distribution networks kept in the shadows under the control of organized-crime syndicates and outside the reach of consumer safeguards such as health regulations.

“Mulcair’s current position would maintain prohibition,” Emery concluded.

The differences between decriminalization and legalization are relevant to more British Columbians than one might think.

According to the B.C. Ministry of Justice, during the first six months of 2015, only 327 people were held in B.C. Corrections facilities for drug crimes.

However, according to a Statistics Canada report, B.C. authorities recorded 15,773 cannabis offences during 2014. (An offence is defined as any criminal infraction regardless of its outcome. From there, police officers and prosecutors have discretion for how to proceed. An officer can record an individual’s name and transgression and let them go, for example, or they can recommend the Crown pursue charges that can land a person in prison.) That document suggests this issue is of greater concern to B.C. than any other province. It states that in 2014, B.C. recorded 341 cannabis-related offences per 100,000 people while neighbouring Alberta recorded 181 and Ontario just 145.

John Conroy, a Vancouver-based lawyer and expert in marijuana law, told the Straight that those two groups—those charged and convicted for marijuana crimes versus people caught with cannabis but then let go—serve as one example of the tangible differences between decriminalization and legalization.

He explained that the NDP’s plan to decriminalize would likely lower the penalty for any of those 327 convicted drug offenders who were imprisoned for marijuana crimes. At the same time, Conroy continued, decriminalization could escalate the punishment inflicted on those more than 15,000 people who were registered for a cannabis offence but let go without police recommending a charge.

“If it is decriminalized, than it is simply not a criminal offence,” Conroy said. “So it would not form part of a criminal record and you would not be subject to arrest for a crime. But you would still be subject to potential police interference from whatever civil scheme that the politicians come up with.”

That would most likely take the form of a legal framework for ticketing, Conroy guessed, similar to the treatment of traffic violations or fare evasions on public transit.

“My expectation would be that with a ticketing system, the charges will go up, not down, and it will maybe become a cash grab,” he said. “So we will still see interference with people’s civil liberties, even more with a ticketing system than with the current approach under the current law.”

Conroy also emphasized that under decriminalization, all of those more than 15,000 people would still see their names entered into police databases alongside the word marijuana. So if a prospective employer or U.S. customs agent runs a check on anyone ticketed for possessing cannabis, they could still lose that job or be barred from entering the United States.

On the other hand, Conroy said, the Liberals’ plan to legalize would truly end prohibition of marijuana in Canada. “Just simple possession, if it is legalized, than it becomes like buying alcohol or tobacco,” he said.

Conroy emphasized that an over-the-counter system would mean no tickets, no names recorded by police, and no problems with prospective employers or international travel.

Emery noted all of that only concerns the demand side of the marijuana trade. On the supply side, the differences between decriminalization and legalization are even more pronounced. (Exactly how will be explored in depth in subsequent articles in this series.) “Some people say that marijuana is not an election issue,” she said. “Well, we’re seeing the NDP, the Liberals, and even the Conservatives speaking about it, which means that people are asking.”

[Heracleum Persicum]

On most issues I feel I cannot trust the three major parties to be much different from one another. I have always despised Stephen Harper, someone I suspect of being under the heavy influence of organized crime. His campaign stops have all been by invitation only. The general public is not allowed to hear him speak. Under Mulcair the NDP could well preside over the dissolution of the country.

That leaves the Liberals, who have promised to legalize marijuana. Now this is something really tangible.



Decriminalization versus legalization: marijuana advocates scrutinize competing plans for reform - Travis Lupick, Georgia Straight, 10 September 2015
http://www.straight.com/news/524881/dec ... ting-plans

There are few people in Canada who have suffered a blow from prohibition like the one that hit Marc and Jodie Emery. On September 10, 2010, after deportation from Vancouver, Marc was sentenced to five years in a U.S. prison for trafficking marijuana seeds.
Canada doesn’t actually send many people to prison for cannabis offences. And if a person is incarcerated for such a crime, it is seldom for as long as five years. But Marc’s transgression was trafficking. On top of his political activities (or because of them, many argue), that was reason enough for authorities to throw the book at him.

Marc has held a grudge.

“Canadian politicians are the most gutless group of people I have ever seen,” he said just hours after his release on August 12, 2014. “They don’t want to bring up marijuana. They are afraid of it. After 45 years, really, they’re still afraid of it?”

Ahead of Canada’s federal election scheduled for October 19, candidates for prime minister are talking about cannabis reform. All three leading parties have staked out clear positions that differ significantly from one another.

In 2012, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government implemented mandatory-minimum sentences for marijuana production and trafficking. Since then, the Conservative party has doubled down on its tough-on-crime stance. “We will not introduce misguided and reckless policies that would downplay, condone, or normalize the use of illegal drugs,” Harper said at an August 11 campaign stop in Ontario.

That was a shot at the federal Liberals and party leader Justin Trudeau’s promise to legalize and regulate recreational cannabis.

Speaking in Vancouver on August 19, Trudeau shot back: “Mr. Harper has failed in his drug policy,” he told the Georgia Straight. “It is time that Canada regulated and controlled marijuana to protect our kids, to protect our communities, and to prevent the funds from flowing into the coffers of drug runners and street gangs.”

A more detailed version of the Liberals’ plan for legalization appears in a 38-page draft policy document published in 2013. It states that recreational marijuana should come under a regulatory framework that covers not only the sale of cannabis but also its production, distribution, and taxation. (The end result would be a system like the one that governs cigarettes, Hedy Fry, the Liberals’ candidate for Vancouver Centre, recently told the Straight.)

That document also addresses Canadians stuck with a criminal record of the sort that can turn up in a background check or in the databases of U.S. customs officials. A Liberal government would “extend amnesty to all Canadians previously convicted of simple and minimal marijuana possession, and ensure the elimination of all criminal records related thereto,” it states.

At an August 20 stop in Vancouver, NDP leader Thomas Mulcair said amnesty for past offences was an “important question” and one an NDP government would “look at”.

While the Liberals have promised legalization, the NDP has said it will decriminalize marijuana. “It is something that we can do immediately,” Mulcair told the Straight. “I am categorical that no person should ever face criminal charges or a criminal record for personal use of marijuana.”

The NDP has emphasized that repealing criminal penalties for personal-use possession is only a first step in its plan to reform marijuana laws. Communications director Jen Holmwood readily admitted the party is still working out what would come next. She told the Straight another early move would be to “create an independent commission” that consults with provincial governments and studies the issue.

At Cannabis Culture headquarters on West Hastings Street, Jodie Emery emphasized the Liberal and NDP positions sound similar but are actually very different.

For starters, she said, under Mulcair’s reformed system that only abolishes penalties for small amounts of marijuana, her husband still could have gone to jail for trafficking.

The NDP’s plan only addresses demand, Emery explained. Under decriminalization, the supply side of B.C.’s billion-dollar marijuana industry would largely remain as it exists today: illegal, with grow-ops and distribution networks kept in the shadows under the control of organized-crime syndicates and outside the reach of consumer safeguards such as health regulations.

“Mulcair’s current position would maintain prohibition,” Emery concluded.

The differences between decriminalization and legalization are relevant to more British Columbians than one might think.

According to the B.C. Ministry of Justice, during the first six months of 2015, only 327 people were held in B.C. Corrections facilities for drug crimes.

However, according to a Statistics Canada report, B.C. authorities recorded 15,773 cannabis offences during 2014. (An offence is defined as any criminal infraction regardless of its outcome. From there, police officers and prosecutors have discretion for how to proceed. An officer can record an individual’s name and transgression and let them go, for example, or they can recommend the Crown pursue charges that can land a person in prison.) That document suggests this issue is of greater concern to B.C. than any other province. It states that in 2014, B.C. recorded 341 cannabis-related offences per 100,000 people while neighbouring Alberta recorded 181 and Ontario just 145.

John Conroy, a Vancouver-based lawyer and expert in marijuana law, told the Straight that those two groups—those charged and convicted for marijuana crimes versus people caught with cannabis but then let go—serve as one example of the tangible differences between decriminalization and legalization.

He explained that the NDP’s plan to decriminalize would likely lower the penalty for any of those 327 convicted drug offenders who were imprisoned for marijuana crimes. At the same time, Conroy continued, decriminalization could escalate the punishment inflicted on those more than 15,000 people who were registered for a cannabis offence but let go without police recommending a charge.

“If it is decriminalized, than it is simply not a criminal offence,” Conroy said. “So it would not form part of a criminal record and you would not be subject to arrest for a crime. But you would still be subject to potential police interference from whatever civil scheme that the politicians come up with.”

That would most likely take the form of a legal framework for ticketing, Conroy guessed, similar to the treatment of traffic violations or fare evasions on public transit.

“My expectation would be that with a ticketing system, the charges will go up, not down, and it will maybe become a cash grab,” he said. “So we will still see interference with people’s civil liberties, even more with a ticketing system than with the current approach under the current law.”

Conroy also emphasized that under decriminalization, all of those more than 15,000 people would still see their names entered into police databases alongside the word marijuana. So if a prospective employer or U.S. customs agent runs a check on anyone ticketed for possessing cannabis, they could still lose that job or be barred from entering the United States.

On the other hand, Conroy said, the Liberals’ plan to legalize would truly end prohibition of marijuana in Canada. “Just simple possession, if it is legalized, than it becomes like buying alcohol or tobacco,” he said.

Conroy emphasized that an over-the-counter system would mean no tickets, no names recorded by police, and no problems with prospective employers or international travel.

Emery noted all of that only concerns the demand side of the marijuana trade. On the supply side, the differences between decriminalization and legalization are even more pronounced. (Exactly how will be explored in depth in subsequent articles in this series.) “Some people say that marijuana is not an election issue,” she said. “Well, we’re seeing the NDP, the Liberals, and even the Conservatives speaking about it, which means that people are asking.”

.

Weird post

Harper is everything except being "under the heavy influence of organized crime".

And, now, Marijuana legalized pretty much everywhere .. why not ? in the land of homosexual marriage and being proud of it, Marijuana seems "vanillas" stuff.

But, all this water under the bridge, lets look forwards for the next 10 yrs of Trudeau rule .. he really represents Canada of today, the diversity, new generation.

Voting tomorrow for Liberals :

Pamela Goldsmith-Jones :
Liberal Candidate in West Vancouver – Sunshine Coast – Sea to Sky Country


.

[noddy]

Liberals .. Pierre Trudeau, Jean Chrétien AND Paul Martin (Minister of Finance from 1993 to 2002 - Prime Minister of Canada from 2003 to 2006) .. pretty much saved Canada

They "BLOCKED" US take over of Canadian financial institutions, preventing a devastating wiping out American style of Canadian economy when "SH*T" hit the fan on Wall Street .. otherwise the crooks of Wall Street would have "fleeced" Canada like they did America.

That's why Canadian financial institutions are the healthiest in the western world.

Canada owes a lot to Liberals, Chrétien and Martin.

.

this is the same lies the australian politicians of that era say, blah blah blah its our sensible policies and wise rule

american and chinese stimulus carried the world, this was the peak debt time that caused the global financial crisis, and you have been reading too much lefty nonsense azari that tries to blame juice.

when the lavender hit the fan on wall st, the chinese stepped in with a monster stimulus and rebuilding program, australia, canada and other raw materials countries got a massive boost.

you should thank the chinese, not the canadian politicians.

[Heracleum Persicum]

.

you should thank the chinese, not the canadian politicians.

.

True


The "Baken" came from Chinese, true

but

If Liberals had paid no attention, that "Baken" would have ended up with Wall Street crooks

Liberals look into, that "Bakon" stays in Canada

.

[Heracleum Persicum]

.

Well, voted for "Liberals", Pamela Goldsmith-Jones , for MP of West Vancouver.

Preliminary report have it that Liberals could have a landslide.

We will know soon

.

[Heracleum Persicum]

.


Liberals surging to victory
live federal election coverage


.

[Heracleum Persicum]

.


Dramatic landslide for Liberals


Justin Trudeau is the Prime minister of Canada


Yahoooooooooooooo



.

[Typhoon]

Now, let's see if Appollonius gets his wish to have marijuana not only decriminalized, but legalized.

[Heracleum Persicum]

.

Now, let's see if Appollonius gets his wish to have marijuana not only decriminalized, but legalized.

.

In West Vancouver, always conservative candidate was elected MP

Today, Pamela Goldsmith-Jones, Liberal Candidate, had a landslide win .. she won with 80% of the cast votes

That should say something

Canada entering the new ERA .. Trudeau ERA, phase-II


_tA4X1eyYvM


.

[Simple Minded]

On most issues I feel I cannot trust the three major parties to be much different from one another. I have always despised Stephen Harper, someone I suspect of being under the heavy influence of organized crime. His campaign stops have all been by invitation only. The general public is not allowed to hear him speak. Under Mulcair the NDP could well preside over the dissolution of the country.

That leaves the Liberals, who have promised to legalize marijuana. Now this is something really tangible.



Decriminalization versus legalization: marijuana advocates scrutinize competing plans for reform - Travis Lupick, Georgia Straight, 10 September 2015
http://www.straight.com/news/524881/dec ... ting-plans

legalization makes perfect sense. Allowing a popular activity to become a taxable industry seems to be a common sense form of finding a parade, then running to the front of it and claiming leadership. A natural inclination for politicians, or entrepreneurs, one would think.

When social mood turns down, people demand change. When time are good, people demand heroes to cheer, when times get tough, they demand villains to prosecute.

I would expect that most parties in power will lose elections to their opponents in the near future.

Good to see that it is not only the US that buys into political family dynasties.

[noddy]

massive housing boom thats fracturing the haves from the havenots and favours rich immigrants over poor locals and a collapsing export economy that overly dependant on china.

good election to lose, canadia will need free dope and a bit of chillin time.

[Simple Minded]

massive housing boom thats fracturing the haves from the havenots and favours rich immigrants over poor locals and a collapsing export economy that overly dependant on china.

good election to lose, canadia will need free dope and a bit of chillin time.

IIRC, the Canadian real estate bubble has yet to deflate. Will pols prevent this, or will the deflation influence perception of pols?

[noddy]

massive housing boom thats fracturing the haves from the havenots and favours rich immigrants over poor locals and a collapsing export economy that overly dependant on china.

good election to lose, canadia will need free dope and a bit of chillin time.

IIRC, the Canadian real estate bubble has yet to deflate. Will pols prevent this, or will the deflation influence perception of pols?

more rich asian immigrantss, genuflect joe lumberjack is the general agenda if australia is anything to go by.

some token ghetto style apartments for the poor to rot away in maybe - deflating the housing boom would kill much of the middle class investment and all of the banks, its a no go area.

perish the thought, wash your mouth out.

the spaniards and the irish are just silly, canada and australia are *different*, they dont follow the american way. chuckle.

[Simple Minded]

more rich asian immigrantss, genuflect joe lumberjack is the general agenda if australia is anything to go by.

some token ghetto style apartments for the poor to rot away in maybe - deflating the housing boom would kill much of the middle class investment and all of the banks, its a no go area.

perish the thought, wash your mouth out.

the spaniards and the irish are just silly, canada and australia are *different*, they dont follow the american way. chuckle.

I suspect Canada to be every bit as diverse as the US. Lots of local pockets of wealth and blame.

Generally, speaking, foreigners buy real estate at peak prices just before the bubble pops. It will not be surprising to see the Canadian-China, Australia-China phenomena resemble the past Japan-US phenomena.

[noddy]

It will not be surprising to see the Canadian-China, Australia-China phenomena resemble the past Japan-US phenomena.

maybe, but i think not.

japan will never crack down on its corruption money, i doubt its even seen as that, business and government are more comfortable together, same as south korea.

china is chasing em down to hang em high, the central government is enforcing itself - most of this money is hot hot hot and the folks buying the houses are looking for potential safe havens.

[Typhoon]

Well, I think one can conclude three things about elections in Canada:

1/ Their elections are short, if not sweet. This federal election campaign, at 78 days, is the longest in Canadian history:

http://www.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Compilat ... aigns.aspx

The previous campaign was 37 days.

By comparison, the current US POTUS campaign is 652 days.

2/ Tired of the inevitable rising political scandals, every once in a while, a "throw the incumbent bums out" mood seems to sweep the country as the voters decide that is time for a fresh new set of grifters to take their turn at the trough.

3/ Canadians do get off their asses and vote. Voter turnout was an impressive 68.5%

[Typhoon]

.

Now, let's see if Appollonius gets his wish to have marijuana not only decriminalized, but legalized.

.

In West Vancouver, always conservative candidate was elected MP

Today, Pamela Goldsmith-Jones, Liberal Candidate, had a landslide win .. she won with 80% of the cast votes

That should say something

Canada entering the new ERA .. Trudeau ERA, phase-II

_tA4X1eyYvM

.

Tip of the hat to a friend:

37z6eAp3D4A

[Typhoon]

more rich asian immigrantss, genuflect joe lumberjack is the general agenda if australia is anything to go by.

some token ghetto style apartments for the poor to rot away in maybe - deflating the housing boom would kill much of the middle class investment and all of the banks, its a no go area.

perish the thought, wash your mouth out.

the spaniards and the irish are just silly, canada and australia are *different*, they dont follow the american way. chuckle.

I suspect Canada to be every bit as diverse as the US. Lots of local pockets of wealth and blame.

Generally, speaking, foreigners buy real estate at peak prices just before the bubble pops. It will not be surprising to see the Canadian-China, Australia-China phenomena resemble the past Japan-US phenomena.

Reminds me of a joke I read about Mitsubishi Japan buying the iconic Rockefeller Center in New York.

A: What? You sold the Rockefeller Center to the Japanese?

B [shrugs]: So what? We sold it to them, but we sold retail.

[Heracleum Persicum]

.


The first piece of Liberal legislation would lower taxes on the middle class,
Trudeau said to reporters,
by raising taxes on the wealthiest one-per cent


Talk is 50% raise in taxes for the wealthy

1. Tax cuts, tax hikes

Trudeau says the first bill of a Liberal government would include changes to income tax rates and tax credits for families.

The middle-class tax cut will reduce the tax rate from 22.5 per cent to 20 per cent for individuals earning between $44,700 and $89,401 a year. There was also to be a new tax bracket for people earning more than $200,000 a year; they will pay 33 per cent tax on their income.

The Canada child benefit will replace the universal child care benefit that was central to the Conservative budget and election campaign. That means the end of $1,600 taxable cheques for each child in every family. The Liberals will dole out a non-taxable benefit on sliding scale based on income, with low-income families receiving $5,000 a year. That goes down as you earn more and stops for families earning more than $300,000.

The Liberals are also cancelling income splitting for families, keeping the tax-free savings account limit at $5,500 and will reduce employment insurance premiums to $1.65 from $1.88 per $100 in insurable earnings — which is less of a reduction than the Conservatives had planned.

2. New climate with premiers

In an interview with CBC News's Peter Mansbridge, Trudeau said the first thing he would do for the economy is meet with the premiers to prepare for the Paris climate change conference, which runs from Nov. 30 to Dec. 11, 2015.

Trudeau has not specified a target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but said he would create a federal framework to address climate change and take that to Paris.

Trudeau has also said he wants to talk to the premiers about EI reform, a new health accord, a national child-care framework, training programs, a Canadian energy strategy and support for Prairie farmers.

3. Infrastructure money

Trudeau said he'll discuss where federal infrastructure money is going in his first meeting with the provinces. The Liberal fiscal framework says the government will spend an additional $5 billion on new infrastructure projects in its first year — split equally between public transit, green projects and "social infrastructure."

This would contribute to the first of three deficits the Liberals say they will run to stimulate the economy.

4. Call Obama

Trudeau said the first world leader he will call is U.S. President Barack Obama.

"I look forward to speaking with President Obama," Trudeau said, "to talk about the kinds of challenges we're facing on our continent, whether it be around the environment and energy, whether it be on a border that is essential to move smoothly through for goods and services to both sides, to a relationship between friends and allies that has been tarnished over the past years."

Aside from bilateral economic issues, Trudeau will probably have to explain that Canada is withdrawing from the American-led airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq. Trudeau said Canada will contribute humanitarian aid and military resources to training local security forces in Iraq.

5. Syrian refugees

Since January, the Liberals have promised to bring in 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of 2015. During the election, the party said that goal could still be reached if it won the election, and that it would cost $100 million.

The Liberals would also spend $100 million to provide humanitarian assistance to Syrian refugees who are still in the region.

But they will need to get moving quickly, because they haven't provided much detail beyond the projected cost and saying they have the "political will" to get it done.

'Immediately'

The Liberal platform also includes some steps the party will take "immediately" upon forming government:

Call an inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women.

Lift the two per cent cap on increases to First Nations education funding and establish a new financial relationship with First Nations.

Launch a new competition to replace the CF-18 fighter jet and scrap the F-35 fighter program.

Review defence capabilities with the aim of creating a more efficient military.

Hire additional mental health professionals to support veterans.

Reinstate the long-form census.

Implement imported gun-marking legislation.

Begin a review of environmental assessment processes.

Double the number of immigration applications allowed for parents and grand-parents.

Lift the visa requirement for Mexican travel to Canada.

? Habla Mexicano


.

[Typhoon]

Now all that is required is for someone like Ted Cruz to become POTUS.

That would make for the most interesting cross-border relations since Trudeau Sr. and Nixon.

When it was reported to him that President Richard Nixon had called him an "asshole" (1971),
quoted in Absurdities, Scandals & Stupidities in Politics (2006) by Hakeem Shittu and Callie Query, p. 19

My only response was that I had been called worse things by better people.

~account of the comment, in Memoirs (1993) by Pierre Elliott Trudeau, p. 218

Go bang the window and see what happens — just go test it. See that?
Trudeau had the office bulletproofed.
I always contended that the reason he did it was because the American embassy is right outside.
They probably wanted to shoot him.

~ Brian Mulroney, as quoted in The Secret Mulroney Tapes : Unguarded Confessions of a Prime Minister (2006) by Peter C. Newman, p. 331

[Source: Wikipedia]