who are you going to vote for?

[RSi]

I voted today too.... now i can complain about the government all i like :P

[falcon]

I voted already. Changed it up this time. I'm usually a conservative voter, however with all the recent scandals and party being found in contempt of parliment... and renaming it "Harper Govnt" and many other small things... I voted NPD. Federal NDP seems to have things going the right direction for their platform. That, and Jack Layton is baus. Ignatieff is a loser and I would never vote for him. If he was not the party leader I most likely would have voted Liberal.

Now... get out there and vote. Do some actual reading and make a legit vote. None of this spoiling your ballot. No one cares and you're not getting noticed by anyone.

[dah_hunter]

Ya.. Vancouver/Lowermainland Area.. there are tons of Area's where you (If your a White Cracka like me) feel like your in a different country.. no one is speaking English, signs arent in English, strange clothes.. take the good with the bad i say..

[quadracer111]

You haven't been to Vancouver have you? It's ok if you don't understand, you're a prairie boy; the only illegal immigration you need to worry about is your neighbors cattle crossing into your pasture and eating your grass/wheat/barley. :P

I'm all for voter turn out but I think what's worse than not voting is voting based on a name or TV commercials for campaigns. At this point I don't know enough to make a well-educated decision I would be comfortable with.

Haha, true... I haven't been as far west as you can get, but I have been in BC, and it wasn't bad. Have you been to Toronto? I don't think it could get worse, but if you have been and say it is, I feel sorry for you people.

[dah_hunter]

cortexx for Supreme overload of Earth.. I will vote for him.

I agree 100% with what he is saying..

Equality breeds laziness.. and stop innovation..

Ever heard of progress.. Guess when it happens......... no little girl it doesnt happen when your sitting on a pretty flower, holding hands, and counting the stripes of a rainbow..

It happens when people are dieing, when when people have little or no rights.. thats when things advance..

Right now.. Prime Example.. China.. Economy is owning.. What doesnt china have.. Lots of human rights, High paid employees, Unlimited access to the the internet.. etc.

Hmmm.. Country's with lots of equality, High Wages, Facebook... Well were are sitting here arguing about the cost of a new Transit system, or voting on weather we should be allowed to smoke Weed.. really.. really.... sigh...


we are already like the USA, and UK. what a waste..

side note im voting conservative now.. all this Anti-Harper stuff has actually made me like him more.. and form a better opinion.. :-)

[CanadianGTR]

I'm all for voter turn out but I think what's worse than not voting is voting based on a name or TV commercials for campaigns. At this point I don't know enough to make a well-educated decision I would be comfortable with.

Agreed 10000%
If I had to choose between 43% voter turnout, and have those 43% be at least SEMI-educated as to what the parties stand for.
or
90% voter turnout with 47% of the people voting based on pressure from their parents/peer groups/media/favourite colour/whether you would want Ignatieff to babysit your niece

I would choose 43% voter turnout any day.

[Snow]

Huh? I have no idea where Warden and Steeles are, but I am guessing they are in Ontario? Re-read my post, I was talking about how immigrants only seem to be an issue in Ontario and not the rest of Canada.

Everyone always talks about all these immigrant issues we have, and I just don't see it here in Western Canada. I go to Ontario and it's like holy ****...

You haven't been to Vancouver have you? It's ok if you don't understand, you're a prairie boy; the only illegal immigration you need to worry about is your neighbors cattle crossing into your pasture and eating your grass/wheat/barley. :P

I'm all for voter turn out but I think what's worse than not voting is voting based on a name or TV commercials for campaigns. At this point I don't know enough to make a well-educated decision I would be comfortable with.

[CanadianGTR]

Harper FTMFW.
Also, better the devil you know than the devil you don't.
I may not always agree that he is doing a GREAT job... but he's certainly doing a better job - in my eyes - than anyone else would be doing.

[RSi]

Huh? I have no idea where Warden and Steeles are, but I am guessing they are in Ontario? Re-read my post, I was talking about how immigrants only seem to be an issue in Ontario and not the rest of Canada.

Everyone always talks about all these immigrant issues we have, and I just don't see it here in Western Canada. I go to Ontario and it's like holy ****...

Ever been to BC? LOL

[Snake556]

Chris and Cortexx: Agreed with your rants, I totally feel where you're coming from. It's getting worse and worse it seems.

Quad: Again, I agree. Ontario is getting quite bad for it. I mean, I'm all for immigration. Without it, none of us would be here. But I work in retail, and you'd be AMAZED at the amount of people that come in and are unable to communicate to me what they want in English. Makes me shake my head. Please, come here, but for the love of god, learn English first!

Cortexx: The Tori Stafford case was terrible. Although I don't quite agree with capital punishment, I do believe that those two should be locked up for the rest of their lives and never eligible for release. Those two were actually housed at EMDC which is RIGHT down the street from my house (literally a 7 min walk or so.)

No. That leaves the whole world with bad depth perception

ROFL!

[cortexx]

I used to have the same opinion until i became a parent , it's amazing how much your views change when their safety is put in danger .

Go google tori stafford , im sure she'd really appreciate her killers be able to live while she's pushing up daisies

read this http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/...mcclintic.html

Now how would you punish the ones responsible dreadedfist ?

As for avoiding me ? unless your called michael rafferty you'd have nothing to worry about , i'm really a nice guy ( really )

Cool man, willing to kill people? I'll make sure to avoid you. An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.

[doublejceballos]

No. That leaves the whole world with bad depth perception

[DreadedFist]

Well murdering people and raping women is also barbaric , punishment should fit the crime. I have no problem issueing death penalties , infact i'd have no problem being the executioner myself for some people. (example - the 2 basterds that raped and killed the little 8 year old girl in woodstock 2 years ago ). NO PROBLEM AT ALL KICKING THE CHAIR OUT UNDERNEATH THEIR FEET!.

And selling drugs is just as bad as murdering , your contributing to someones misery and quick demise.

Cool man, willing to kill people? I'll make sure to avoid you. An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.

[quadracer111]

Are you kidding me ? go down warden to steeles and check out the strip plazas , everything is written in asian , alot of buildings dont even have their signs in English. Talk about big trouble in little china ...

And the driving skills up there , oh my god , you take your life in your hands just driving down warden from the 407 , U turns on a 3 lane road with NO WAY to get to the other side except mount the central reservation , I have been backed into at the lights because an ethnic minority does not understand R does Not mean drive , it's effing retarded!

Huh? I have no idea where Warden and Steeles are, but I am guessing they are in Ontario? Re-read my post, I was talking about how immigrants only seem to be an issue in Ontario and not the rest of Canada.

Everyone always talks about all these immigrant issues we have, and I just don't see it here in Western Canada. I go to Ontario and it's like holy ****...

[jdms13rhd]

I'm probably coming off as a self-righteous douchebag, but I'm really open to your opinions. Please, if you have a retort, I'd love to hear it.

Edit: saying "equality is a joke" is referring to the amount of anything people are looking for just because they exist. I'm absolutely all for equal opportunities, but my whole rant pretty much implies that I think.

Edit 2: Some numbers to attach to some of this argument:
"For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2011, about $6.6 Billion of the federal government's Canada Social Transfer to the provinces and territories will be for welfare and social programs."
"Canada's population is estimated 33,739,900
In March 1995, there were 3,070,900 people on welfare in Canada.
By 2005, that number had dropped to 1, 682, 500.
In March 2009, there were 1, 711, 500 people on welfare in Canada.
The percentage of the Canadian population on welfare in March 2005 was 5.2%.
By March 2009, that proportion had decreased to 5.1%."

Wow that's kind of disgusting to me that 95% of the population is paying for 5% to live for free.

"All welfare rates in Canada are well below the poverty line. A couple with 2 children in Toronto receives $14,316 per year. This is $21,115 below the estimated Low Income Cut-Off (LICO) for 2001."

See this is the complaining I'm talking about. Be happy you're getting something for free instead of complaining about the fact of not having a job yet you're still making money. Get a cramped, crap-ass apartment and go get a job. You'll be out of there in no time.

In 1945 the total govt tax burden/budget was split 60% business, 40% individuals. Now it's 95% individuals, 5% business. So if you want to get all technical, businesses are receiving far more "welfare" than Canada's neediest individuals are. And a $6.6B budget for social programs & welfare is extremely low for a 1st world country with such resources as ours.. especially when you look at the rest of Harper's budget: $30 B+ for engineless jets & $6 in 2011 alone for big business tax cuts. We're giving more money to our richest banks/corps than we are to our poorest.

Regardless of your opinion on the "needy", taxes are the bill for programs. We just need to decide what we fund with those taxes -- help for those who need it or breaks for big businesses, which has been proven not to "filter down" to benefit the economy as much as Harper would like to imply. The technicalities? For every $1 that big business gets, 20 cents of that comes back to the economy. The rest? Check out the reports of record profits for Canadian companies last year, & the combined $83Billion that has been stockpiled by our largest companies since the recession hit.

That's just for perspective.

Now, let's look at why so many people are on welfare? (although note, as per your statistics, the rate of welfare-receiving people is decreasing)
But there are many reasons for why so many people are on welfare in Canada, and not all of them are just people being entitled or lazy: the raising cost of living in Canada; the fact there is a severe lack in public childcare, forcing mothers to stay at home instead of work; closing mental-health facilities so those with legitimate illnesses can't receive the help they need to be productive in society; the disabled, etc. Ideally welfare should be an in-between -- something to help when needed & provide support to get back into the job world. But the govt keeps cutting funding further for programs that would help get people off of welfare, so it isn't fixing any of the problem.

And as for immigrants, we do not make it easy to transfer degrees & training from other countries here. So for example, a skilled surgeon from India coming here may find his credentials don't permit him to work a job in his field. Now he's forced to join the ranks of all the other people looking for entry-level jobs, which can be hard to find already in this economy. This happens more often than you'd think -- it is a growing issue.

None of these underlying causes are being addressed, which means people are forced to depend on welfare. In order to deal with these systematic issues, they need to be addressed at the root, instead of getting angered at the end result. It's a lot easier to stop a problem before it starts, than deal with the problem once it's so ingrained.

I do agree that welfare should be a last-resort, not "permanent" solution, but a lot of these people aren't on it by choice but by necessity. And anyone who thinks they deserve something just for existing has the wrong mindset too. Just like Harper assuming he "deserves" a majority.