How Would You Like Bernard Lord To Be A Future Leader?

OH! Big mistake asking that! I'm a New Brunswicker and just can't let that go! Sorry this is so long but you had to bring it up!
First though,keep in mind who he's addressing. Manufacturers and exporters of course want to hear this kind of talk. In New Brunswick Lord is almost provincially wide disliked and only won because of no viable alternative. The Irving's own all newspaper media so there has been a consecutive drumbeat against unions or the NDP for thirty years and the province is a 'company town' owned by Irving and sometimes rented to various multinational companies.
This doesn't really matter since nobody else in the rest of Canada knows anything about New Brunswick really. I am from there, my family lives there and I visit whenever I can, usually four times a year. The average family income in NB is roughly half what it is for Ontario according to statscan, yet housing in most cities will run only about 50g less than Ontario. On the industrial street of the town where I grew up is two Tim Hortons and two other coffee shops and THREE used clothing outlets. My sister has a computer job where she makes a decent living because she works practically 16 hours a day. The government is pretty much an outpost of the federal government. With no resources to combat Irvings, any type of initiative is frowned upon.
It may be of interest to know that a canadian study was done of the standards of living of the 50 states and 10 provinces in canada. New Brunswick placed 58th!
If you are from Ontario you may remember the hubbub with Bennett Environmental. The Harris government rejected their plans for a soil treatment facility (now that's bad!), well, with generous financial support they now have a lovely facility in New Brunswick where they can pollute away happily. Other genius ideas include cancelling tolls on the new trans canada highway (which is tolled in Nova Scotia). In case you didn't know, New Brunswick is 'the place you drive through' to get to NS or PEI. This would have meant the highway would have been paid for largely by tourists and trucking companies. They actually convinced New Brunswickerst that that is a horrible idea (a toll is about a dollar) so now the taxpayers are paying for tourists to avoid all of their towns.
Bernard Lord is no different than the other corporate talking points we have now, so no doubt he'd make a fine addition to the federal government. However, if you think politician's 'lead' this country, I'd argue with that.

Thanks for the New Brunswick perspective. Yeah, I`ve somewhat followed the 'Lord' through his career as premier.And on top of what you stated, did he not also slash funding to public health care? But go right across the country, and you`ll find that all of the premiers are sellouts and puppets!

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Dave Ruston

My first eye opener about the pig farm pollution problem came from complaints I read about coming from a small farming community (sorry I forget which one), in New Brunswick, protesting the foul air that was making them sick. I never did hear the outcome of their protests. But I do know the pig farm in question basically had a restraining order put on the townsfolk to keep them from filming any of their activities and would threaten anyone questioning their behavior. Lord came out smelling worse than the pig farm as far as I could tell. The perfect fit for the Con party.

The protests are ongoing, but it's business as usual for the hog farms, check out hogwatchmanitoba.org for some really good articles on it. You're thinking of St.Marie de Kent, and for another bit of down home racism you'll notice that most of the industrial eyesores are located in the french part of the province. Well, actually, that's not true, pretty much ALL the province has some notable eyesore. For a little bit of down home elitism you can go boating up the Restigouche and get stopped by the RCMP which patrols the river to keep out the riff raff so that the Irvings can invite all their politician friends to their fishing "cottages". The Restigouche and Miramichi rivers are world renowned for salmon (not so much anymore), and they auction off lots to the rich and famous of the world (who are usually represented so that they don't have to fear the locals finding out who they are), who then keep their 'lots' protected courtesy of the taxpayer. So don't go trying to fish on massa's fishin hole!

Yes I would like Bernard Lord to be our future leader.

Anon. here's a suggestion. Why don't you round up Lord, Klein, Campbell, Harris, Harper, D'Aquino et al., pack your bags and get the hell out of Canada. Head south, do us all a favour, please.

And take the Fraser Institute Stink Tank with you.

Mulroney. Don't forget that traitor !!


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"Arrogance is unacceptable. Do it to my face, and I will react" - Jim Callaghan

Go to hell, statist! There are Canadians who disagree with your smothering, cradle-to-grave nanny state. Get used to it.

Shoo troll. Reactionary fool.

And this little piggy went wee, wee, wee, all the way home.

Well, yes, we want a social democracy. That`s why we have elections! That`s why we want good government! Because everyone deserves a good life! But if you believe in 'survival of the fittest' then if ever such a system pops up, don`t complain if you or some member of your family gets hurt, killed, raped, etc.- The STRONG are only taking their rightful entitlement! Isn`t that what you stand for?

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Dave Ruston

When I was young and naive enough to actually believe that a total capitalist system would benefit everyone, I would've believed that Lord would've been a good choice for prime minister too. But I'm not that naive anymore. It's easy to see that the total capitalist system only benefits the rich and leaves the poor out. Yes there will always be the odd extraordinary "rags-to-riches" story in such a system but they are becoming fewer and farther between. There is nothing wrong with a country with a social conscience. It's a good thing, let's not lose it. Let's keep our Canada.

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Canada for Canadians

Not everyone. People don't deserve a good life if they're capable of taking care of themselves, but prefer to sponge off of their neighbours. And don't tell me that such people don't exist, because I've known a few.

"Good government" doesn't have to mean big government. But even leaving income support aside, the real wastes of taxpayer money are those social engineering programs aimed at changing or "fixing" people - bilingualism, multiculturalism, CanCon, and various political correctness enforcement programs aimed at "building tolerance" (translation: silencing dissent).

You may want a social democracy. I want a democratic capitalist society where effort, enterprise and merit are rewarded, and sloth and parasitic behaviour is punished.

We have elections because all Canadians don't agree on these issues. Canadians have been propagandized for years on the merits of big government. As I put it in a previous post, some Canadians believe that the only reason they're still breathing is because some government bureaucrat is monitoring their respiration.

A competitive society is not about "survivial" of the fittest, but it does recognize the fittest should be rewarded for their disproportionate contribution to the overall wealth and success of the society. There's enough for all, but no reason why it should be portioned out equally.

Canadians can be socialists, but it is not a defining characteristic of being Canadian. There are many Canadians who prefer a competitive free enterprise model. If such a model were to gain the favour of a majority of the Canadian electorate, we would remain just as "Canadian" as were when back when we lodged in the bowels of Trudeau-era soft-socialism