I agree that Sajjan in nation defence is a significant appointment considering our Pacific allies have long called for a Canadian pivot to the Pacific with the rise of China and the threats this poses to international shipping in the South China Seas as well as the opening up of the Arctic.

Many are calling on Canada to increase its assets in the Pacific fleet from its current five frigates by transferring some assets from the Atlantic fleet. Considering the importance of the west coast and the Pacific threats we most definitely are short changed on national defence spending and that could change with Sajjan in the post.

My hope would be to see a new naval base for the mainland BC as we currently have none and have this base somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, maybe Kitimat? It would bring economic stability to the region as wel as security for the North Pacific Coast.

Time will tell.

We have the best weed in the country; he’d do well to not piss us off. :)

BC had never had much influence.. it all comes from Ont and Que.. always has no matter who is in power.

axeman… you’re hilarious….ahhahaah

Like get everybody stoned, then they won’t remember all the Promises made..ahhahah

Just take a look at the Equilisation Payment statistics in recent years. Who gives and who receives. It might shake your faith in that old saying, “He who pays the piper calls the tune.”

Wonder how BC Aerospace will fair after the after F-35’s cancelled

But where will the money come from. Lots of promises, hang onto your wallets. The power base still resides in Quebec and will also be the source of future scandals which the liberals are very good at.

Why cancel the F-35? Ever look at what China and Russia are building?

Well at least the CBC gets and extra 150 million a year in tax payers money, and 24 Sussex Drive? We just wasted a billion and we have not even got started.

Wonder is that minister of climate change will ever see this

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/11/05/the-pause-lengthens-again-just-in-time-for-paris/

Naw spoon fed. More carbon taxes, carbon trading, the big money houses and banks love carbon trading. More money in it than oil.

hang onto your wallets, well no point I guess there will soon be less going into them.

Wonder if the CBC will have unbiased coverage of the fiberals, naw.

“Why cancel the F-35? Ever look at what China and Russia are building?”

It is not suitable for Canadian conditions. We need a defensive plane, not an attack fighter plane? Who are we planning to attack? China or Russia? Have you seen their latest attack fighter planes in action? Our military might amounts to what? How many days would we last? Two?

Total bunk. Come next election there will be their fair share of scandals (and possibly a few resurrected old ones) and broken promises to choose from. The supporters will point their fingers elsewhere and the circle begins anew

So the F-35 can’t be used defensibly? Did ya know that defense also uses attack strategies.

Canada is only a supporting role in any “squirmish” The entire F-35 fiasco is a Harper legacy.. how much wasted on this..

With the constant upgrades to Drones, missles and remote control weapons jet fighters are going to be slowly phased out in my opinion..

Back to the topic. how about those blue jays ;)

One of first moves by the PM is the return of the long form mandatory census ( #census ) . This first move affects us all from coast to coast to coast . How wonderful to be out from under the boot of ideology and return to fact based science . Even though it is overcast is still seems a lot brighter out . I’ve been searching for Lynton Crosby online . He’s seems to have completely disappeared . He’s proved to Canadians that we nothing like London , Australia or England herself . That for me is a point of pride .

One of first moves by the PM is the return of the long form mandatory census

——–

I received on of those many, many years ago. I ignored it until they started phoning me with all sorts of threats. In the end, I made the entire thing up and sent it back. I think I had 6 kids, worked a couple of minimum wage jobs, had a PhD in something, etc. etc. etc.

Okay maybe some us are alittle like the folks in OZ and England but the vast majority are not .

“So the F-35 can’t be used defensibly? Did ya know that defense also uses attack strategies.”

It is unsuitable! It is extremely expensive and complicated because of its multi role stealth design, worst of all it is a single seat, single engine attack plane which is not suited to fly long mission distances (like encountered in Canada and the North) as the single engine design, single pilot, virtually dooms it when a problem is encountered, such as engine flame out or a pilot health issue. No back up for either.

Besides, the first version appeared in 2006. Canada will have no access to any maintenance procedures which involve diagnostic trouble shooting as the programs that make the F-35 fly are a top secret military secret.

Result: Canada has to agree to have all maintenance, updates and so forth done by outside expert crews.

There are more advanced better twin engine defensive role planes either already on the global market. A fair bidding competition will reveal who makes what and at what price.

There never was a real competitive evaluation, as you know.

Ataloss – not sure if you’re sarcastic or serious – “under the boot of ideology and return to fact based science”

There seemed a significant reaction to Bill C51 because it was eroding Canadian privacy rights – and do I understand correctly, that you are cheering a move that compels a Canadian by threat of fine and imprisonment to complete a complex form and forces same Canadian to reveal significant private information – protected only by the promise of a government that has show itself adept at losing confidential information – well, at least at CRA they do.

That was actually one of Harper’s more liberal moves – forcing Stats Can to get information without threatening people with jail.

And axman makes a good point – how accurate is information extracted by threat anyway? I know when I got my first low level accounting job at a larger company I got to fill out all the stats can forms, and when I didn’t understand something, I was told to make a good guess.

Ski51 if you’re a numbers person then you must understand ” margine for error ” right . Those that don’t understand what it’s for and how important it is are going to be in that margine . It’s an easy work around for the social scientist .

Why is telling the government how many bathrooms you have in your house, whether you own or rent, what languages you speak such a huge problem.

I always filled out every long form census and thought that with enough information the government can make better decisions for all Canadians. It isn’t a big deal since it happens only once in a decade.

I think it is stupid to mail out millions of short form census forms with less than a dozen simple questions and hope to get some of them back!

Total waste of time and money as far as accurate science is concerned. Did they read any of the few they got back or did they go straight to the shredding plant?

That’s only part of my issue Ataloss. The other is the threat of fine and imprisonment to extract information from a citizen – seems like something you’d find in Bill C-51. It’s almost ironic that Harper – Mr. Hammer, says to citizens – you won’t be fined or go to jail if you don’t answer our demands for information, and then Trudeau – Mr. Sunshine – brings that hammer back. You’d think there’d be another way to get the information without threat of loss of freedom.

On a lighter note, BC is going to have more influence more likely because Justin Trudeau has lived here, worked here, his Mom is from here, and he knows where we are, and his brother is entombed here. BC has personal meaning for him. I think more than any other Prime Minister, even Harper, he gets us. Overall, I’m optimistic life will be better.

Last long form census was 93% return rate . The long form is also cheaper than Stevie’s short form . Even Tony clement today said that ending the long form was a mistake . The only provisions of Bill c51 that I disagree with are the ones that undermine the constitution and charter of rights .

You know Ataloss, you got me thinking there, so I just checked the Charter and we don’t have any privacy rights in the charter, so C-51 spying provisions would technically not be a violation of the charter – nor a long form census. Any privacy rights we have come from Acts of Parliament – so, it seems Parliament can giveth privacy, and taketh privacy away.

I suppose you could argue the penalty provisions of failure to fill out the census could be unconstitutional as cruel and unusual punishment, or perhaps security of the person, i.e, you compel me to tell you my private information you are making me insecure. In any event, I don’t think we have as much protection as we think we do.

Stevie’s issue was about the penalty for revealing mandatory personal info he thought was better found out another way then a government form. Thats why he changed it. Get it leftards???

Axman did you phone into CBC on the topic today? Heard the exact same thing from a caller…6 kids and a PHD.

Check that, it was an e-mail, said 12 kids…still, i call bs.

For those who do not want to fill out Canada’s long form census questionnaire, have a look at the US one:

census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/about/forms-and-instructions/2015-form.html

After that see an example of the information that is available: factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/community_facts.xhtml