Cons Apparently Worried Martin Will Eat Their Livers

Everybody knows, or should know, that the $4.6 billion now going into Canadian services is wasted money, when our multinationals badly needed it to create wealth. Just imagine the profits they could have made with it on the money markets. Well, at least this is what Harper learned in his economic studies, so he knows what is best for Canada. He'll make a great PM one day............ Well, if not, there's always the Citzens' Coalition, without citizens, to go back to, so he can join Dr.Chaoulli in his fight for decent, market economy based health services . Ed Deak, Big Lake, BC.

A leader that speaks like Harper, a poor loser, will never be Prime Minister. Can you imagine him leading a minority government when he can't do anything but call anyone who doesn't agree with him socialists separatists or crooks. He would be an embarassment to us all.

The neoconazis are pissed because they know they will never have political power. They thought they could sneak into power on the back of the hostility toward the Libs and then impose their Made in USA far-right adgenda. But people realize what they stand for and don't trust them

First of all, our multinationals don't need any more money as they are swimming in it now and according to another article submitted on Vive they aren't interested in investing it here anyway. It has also been clearly shown that when these companies are handed more wealth, whether through tax incentives or the outright corporate welfare you are talking about, they don't invest it in capital investment in this country but rather use it to buy up or merge with other companies thereby weakening the market economy that you seem to have blind belief in. Read Mel Hurtig's book for data on this subject, you will be shocked at how little they actually invest.

Perhaps you need a lesson about what constitutes a market economy, something which rarely exists in modern economies. For a market to exist it basically requires three things:
1. Real competition with many buyers and sellers competing for or selling the same commodity.
2. The freedom of either the buyer or the seller to engage in the transaction or not.
3. No collusion between buyers to fix prices or control supply.

Healthcare meets none of these conditions in the private sector, as the private insurance industry is controlled by a few companies who set the rates and the physicians’ union (their medical associations) set prices. This is demonstrated by dentists. Try shopping around for a better price for dental work and you will find that they all charge pretty much what their dental association “suggests.” If I have a health problem I don’t have a choice about whether I am going to buy a physician’s product or not.

Many other industries that sell essential services have these same problems. For example, here in Alberta the energy retailers are pushing for deregulation to continue. We have three retailers we can buy energy from in Alberta (hardly a hotbed of competition) who are selling a product we can’t do without in Canada, and we don’t have the option of going off grid even if we find a way to produce enough energy for our personal needs (meaning that even if we don’t actually buy their product we are still forced to pay connection and administration charges to these companies).

You are certainly welcome to move to the US if you are so confident in their system of delivering healthcare. Please write and let us know when you are leaving so we can see if you are actually willing to live up to the principles you espouse here. For the majority of the rest of us Canadians, putting $4.6 billion back into healthcare is hardly considered as waste but rather a long overdue reinvestment of money that was taken out with the resultant degradation of the public system.

In essence the neo-connazis are getting the kind of government they`d like to deliver from their friends- the fiberals. The minority fiberals are still destroying public health care, and cozying up to that made in the USA far right agenda.Frankly, I`m disappointed in Layton. He could have pushed for more. Now that we have private health care deliverers right across the country either setting up shop or poised to, what is Jack saying about it? No, the current leader of Tommy Douglas` party is quietly onside with the neo-connazis!

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Dave Ruston

You are right, Dave. The Made In USA agenda is being snuck in anyway, I am sad to say

I hope, one day you may recongize satire ? The Harper gang and their stand is so ridiculous that it deserves no serious coments. Ed Deak, Big Lake, BC.

The Liberals will bankrupt the country they're so power-hungry, not to mention act undemocratically, unethically and illegally - and you chumps are attacking the Conservatives? Pull your collective heads out and see what's going on will ya!

For a second I wondered if somebody else had taken to
signing "Ed Deak" but the satire won out. Some of us
do recognize satire and you are correct, the Harper
gang is so nutty they really don't deserve the
commentary they get. Ken, Aldergrove, B.C.

What has never been satisfactorily explained to me is how $4.6, given as a tax break, is not adding to the debt/deficit, yet the same moola, spent on social projects, is somehow adding to the debt/deficit...............

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RickW

Its the math practiced by students of right wing economics.

We see what is going on. The Conservatives are so desperate to get in to power that they will act undemocratically, unethically and illegally just like the Liberals. Except with the Liberals, at least when pushed by the NDP, don't give it all in tax cuts for the rich. The Conservatives would instead do like the Americans and bankrupt their country through tax cuts for the rich and engaging in useless, expensive, and destructive wars to promote "their values" in places that reject those values.

Not much of a choice, is it? I believe a lot of people here are not looking at either Liberals or Conservatives but a real choice.

I hope one day you will learn how to write it.

I have no love for the federal Liberals, but my point was that this kind of crazy-sounding hyperbole isn't going to win the Conservatives any credibility. Criticize Paul Martin, sure, but not by comparing him to a cannibal and murderer. It isn't good politics whatever party you are.

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Now call it extreme if you like, but I propose we hit it hard, and we hit it fast, with a major, and I mean major...leaflet campaign.--Rimmer, Red Dwarf