I never trust political opportunists like Layton. The NDP government in Nova Scotia raises their HST rate to 15% and Layton applauds the NDP government for fiscal prudence.

Layton comes out here and says our 12% HST is bad, has nothing to do with Campbell, but has everything to do with Harper.

The same Jack Layton that opposed the GST rate reduction from 7% to 5% back in 2007.

Layton, go back to Toronto where you belong.

He is the only federal leader to come to PG strange this is the second time he drop into the region without any fan fair. Kind of a hit and run.

Layton is an idiot. The Conservatives may have laid the foundation for this to happen but in the end the provincial government is responsible for implementing the HST in BC.

A political lame duck farting in shallow water!
Easy to blame the feds, as many of us do in part,but that still doesn't absolve the B.C. Liberals off pulling a fast one...and lying about it!
He didn't mention that.
He also neglected to mention whether or not he would get rid of the HST if he was PM?
Not likely!(not likely to ever be PM either!)
Good luck bolstering Ms.Boones campain Jack!
One political lame duck supporting another!

"The Conservatives may have laid the foundation for this to happen"

I did not realize they had a majority in Parliament. It is the Government of Canada that laid the foundation. That includes everyone in the the legislature.

One the money gus!
A cheap attempted sidestep by Layton,to try and make the NDP look good.
Not possible!

It took this long for Taliban Jack to comment on this news item that started July 01 this year? Betcha Lois the opportunist put Jack up to commenting on this, hoping the dippers could get a foot in the door in this riding. Good luck to the NDP out here in northern BC.(sarcasm in the last sentence in case ya din't notice)

In 1996 the Liberal Government of John Chretian paid $1 Billion to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland, Labrador, to help them transition to the HST>

The payment of 1.8 Billion to BC and $4.3 Billion to Ontario to transition to the HST is a continuation of the Liberal legistation and policy.

There is no doubt the Conservatives or any Federal Government would be in favour of the HST, however lets put the blame where it belongs, which is on the Liberals. It was part of their feeble attempt to make the GST more acceptable after they promised before the 1993 election to get rid of the GST.

Happy Jack will make no difference to Lois Boones run for parliment, because she doesnt have a hope in hell of getting electied. The NDP have to run a candidate to maintain their credibility as a Federal Party, however they know that it is a waste of time and money.

This thread is so mean spirited it bothers me.

You know, Canada has had a pretty good run of exporting its raw materials and having pretty good jobs as a result. We rank in the top 5 or 10 countries in the world consistently as one of the best places to live.

In the OECD we rate 6th or 7th in terms of lowest tax rates (worldwide). That is in of the 30 countries in the world with the most advanced economies we're in the top 30 percent or so.

So stop whining about taxes.

Now, about 'Taliban Jack'. Afghanistan is a disaster. We'll leave in 2011 in failure, as thanks to partnering with those south of us we're perceived as invaders. It is a corrupt culture that has no sense of western decency and has resisted occupation or westernization for the last 500 years. As far back as 2006 the British military knew we were done.

So Jack suggests that we could engage the Taliban in talk, and save some Canadian lives? Only an idiot would think that saving Canadian lives is a bad thing, unless he doesn't realize that name-calling is a tactic used best by the conservative party when they don't have anything intelligent to contribute. 152 Canadian lives wasted so far. Yea! Harper.

Finally, all of us white rich dudes support the conservatives, in spite of a police force that covered up its badge numbers for a 2 billion dollar party for the elite, in spite of a need for more prisons when in fact our crime rate is falling? Of saying that they are for a separate and elected senate and then appointing 18 (at a cost of 2240000 a year)? Of proroguing parliament every time they look like they're about to be defeated? Or in spite of lying about 'treason' regarding a coalition government? Believe me, under the conservatives we're headed for a police state.

The liberals screwed up. Yes. Move on. But as they have been in power in Canada for the last 15 of 22 Parliaments they deserve much more credit for the great place Canada is to live than the mean-spirited Harper.

Had a conversation with James Moore once (current Conservative MP). He said conservatives basically believe people are evil, and should be watched carefully. His words. He also said the NDP believe people are good, and should be watched rarely if at all.

I propose a third way - people, especially in as rich a country as Canada, if taken care of, given a fair shake, generally turn out all right. Our history proves the point.

So right now Prince George is currently in the crapper, should we blame the liberals, the NDP or the Conservatives?

Ya, sarcasm in that last sentence in case you didn't notice.

apoliticalgeek.

Canada as a member of ISAF International Security Assistance Force, put troops into Afghanistan and were engaged in operations and battles since the beginning of the war in 2001.

You should know that from 2001 to 2006 the Government of the day was the Liberals. Harper and his Conservatives formed a coalition Government in 2006.

How is it that you can blame Harper for the war when it was Paul Martin and the Liberals who got us into it?????

I suggest that the rest of your rant about the Conservatives and Harper is about as correct as your interpretation of Canada's responsibility in the war.

Have a nice day.

" He said conservatives basically believe people are evil, and should be watched carefully. His words. He also said the NDP believe people are good, and should be watched rarely if at all."
-------------------------------------------

He must be dyslexic. Which Party enacts the most "Thou shall not..." rules when in power?

Palopu and Socredible

You're engaging in a red herring.

First.

What my original point was, if there was one, was that the rants against Jack Layton were mean spirited. I daresay he's done more public good than your or I are ever likely to.

The liberals weren't calling Jack Layton Taliban Jack. The cons are/were, and suggesting that you either blindly support the military or are a traitor is disingenuous at best. Afghanistan started out as a good idea. But it has gone wrong. The NDP knew it had, and suggested back in 06 that they should do what they now are - engaging the taliban in negotiations.

The Taliban Jack moniker came into being as a result of a motion presented by the riding association of Nanaimo-Cowichan that said "The resolution suggests that Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan are “acting like terrorists, destroying communities, killing and maiming innocent people”.

Something even Ahmid Karzai agrees the IASF is doing (try to get an Afghani to discriminate between this whitey in a green suite and that one in a green suite). This motion, incidently, was dropped. Unfortunately as you can tell from this article http://www2.macleans.ca/2008/09/13/soldiers-in-a-conservative-party-press-release-being-taken-wildly-out-of-context-to-attack-the-ndp/ the conservatives have never let reality intrude when it comes to headlines.

I don't blame the liberals for the war. Not now. They're not in power. And 9/11 was a serious wake-up call. Some 200,000 civilians have died because of it. But its time to leave.

Tell me this. Did 152 Canadians die in vain in Afghanistan? As 144 have died since 2006 does not some of this lie at the feet of Canada's political elite? And as the party with the most elected MP's is the Conservative party does this not include Harper?

Secondly, in my admitted rant about the conservatives, what is false in any of my statements? Try to argue with the issue at hand, or the argument, not the individual doing the arguing. You have a much better chance of winning the argument. You look brighter too.

Socredible.

My sister in law is dyslexic. She still managed a masters in astrophysics. Did you finish Grade 12? Why not call me a nigger, paki or a chug? Deal with the argument/debate, don't call names. It just makes you look like you haven't finished high school either.

I was quoting James Moore because he raised an interesting point.

Do you believe people are good/bad or a result of how they are raised? I submit, the US, Russia, Somalia and more have very high crime rates. Yet they are very free markets and have very few socialist policies. Life there is, in a phrase, nasty, brutish, and short. People there are raised with poor opportunity for advancement unless they happen to be wealthy. Incidentally, the US now incarcerates a higher percentage of black men under 30 than South Africa did under apartheid.

Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland have very socialist economies. They also (Iceland having a bit of problem with their banking system at the moment) have very low crime rates and very high qualities of life and unionism.

My point here is to avoid a conservative love fest. I am not a member of a political party but I just might join the liberals now. Writing this out has clarified my thoughts, and I always did hate name calling bullies.

Prince George is hurting. Our conservative MP's have done darn near diddly squat to help us out. I know the liberals couldn't do worse. And we'd probably get a seat on the UN security council as well.

I don't have a hope in convincing either of you that Harper doesn't walk on water.

My goal is to have the other readers, some 240000 or thereabouts, realize that all is not well with SS Harper. To have other readers realize that tax cuts we could not afford, given mostly to corporations and the rich, have ballooned our national deficit to 55.9 billion dollars.

Now Harper can cut health care, can gut education, by saying that we can't afford them. Giving another leg up to the rich.

I want people in this town to realize that the conservative party supports big business over little business, and certainly over the middle class. We've certainly seen little to no support from Dick Harris, et al. Now, Colin Kinsley, Enbridge frontman, is running for Jay Hill's seat. Prentice quits and becomes VP for CIBC the next day? Who are we kidding. They support the common person only long enough to get elected.

The conservatives are no longer reformers, no longer conservatives.

Finally, realize this. It takes money to run for office. Your choices are
a) Union/NDP
b) Big business/Conservatives,
c) The middle class/Liberals?

Who do you think has most of your interests at heart? If you own a largish business, great. If you own a smallish business, remember that big business is working as hard as it can to create a great quarter and so just exported all those jobs that bought goods from your store.

Finally, disagree, great. Dialogue, great. That's whats really wonderful about Canada. We can. But lets avoid the sad name-calling that the Conservative Caucus has become ridiculed for and try to get Canada back on track.

For the record, never been in a union, never wanted to.

Apology in advance for the lack of clarity but hopefully you get the gist. Need to type these out in Word and proofread them.

Please don't suggest that the Consrvatives in Ottawa are responsible for police operations and cover ups. Do you also think they are resposible for tazering the Polish guy at the Vancouver Airport? Think again; the police do whatever they want to. WE are supposed to be the government and I don't condone actions of the police most of the time (regardless of which force it is).

For the sake of the argument Supertech.

I'm quite tired now, but to give you a poli-sci 100 coles notes version, it is supposed to be that the Minister in charge of a department stepped down when someone in his department screwed up badly. Its called ministerial responsibility. Its why Mike stepped down over bingo gate, which had nothing to do with him individually.

So, who's in charge of the RCMP - Bill Elliot. A Harper appointee in 2007.
From Wikipedia on the Braidwood Inquiry "Commissioner of the RCMP William Elliot reacted with hours of the report's release. He said the force accepted the report and its recommendations.[41] He stated the RCMP failed at many levels over the incident. Speaking for the force he said "We acknowledge that the actions of our members who dealt with Mr. Dziekanski also fell short." And "our officers did not take enough time to try and de-escalate the situation and did not provide an appropriate level of care to Mr. Dziekanski."[42] The RCMP will be subject to B.C.'s civilian police oversight body once established.[43] Other changes to procedures have already been announced."

So he admitted the RCMP was at fault. After the guilty parties tried to cover it up and denied any problem. Only an inquiry forced the RCMP's hand.

A dramatic example of a case where ministerial responsibility should follow, no? Why not?

Another dramatic example. How about the fact that BC suffered over twice as many in custody deaths with the RCMP as Ontario's OPP suffered with 3x as many people? Who is responsible for this if not Bill Elliot and the Minister? Why not?

Cause the Minister for Public Safety is Stockwell Day. And he's too popular with Harper's support base.

So if Elliot won't fix the problem without provincial interference ala Braidwood, and he gets orders from Stockwell, and he won't fix the problem, who will?

A new minister.

So if WE are supposed to be the government, and the government in power isn't being responsible, then we must vote out those who run it into the ground, 65 billion dollar single bid fighter jet contracts and all.

I have read your speel apoligeticalgeek and I must say I am impressed. But I have never or ever will vote for a Liberal government. Partly because I was in the military and I realized that the Liberals were totally deaf to the needs of the military. We have a lot of territory to defend and we won't be able to do it by ourselves but it is a sure thing that we won't be able to do it without a deturent and I see our military gaining strength. We cannot be offensive but we can be defensive. And the other part is because the liberals have totally lost any credability whatsoever with the people of B.C. their main lies being thed sale of B.C. Rail and the H.S.T. fiasco. If there were some liberal M.L.A's. that had stones enough to say no to the H.S.T. and go against Campbell then I might look at them after reading your story on them.

I agree some good thoughts by apoliticalgeek... hard to argue with much of it other than the maybe voting liberal part.

Glad to hear it guys.

I think you mistake my support for the federal liberals as support for the provincial liberals.

The provincial liberals have much more in common with the federal conservative party than they ever did with the federal liberals. Basically the old money that supported the socred's hijacked the provincial party away from Gordon Wilson back when it was a centrist party. What's happened since then is that it has gone much farther right.

Unfortunately the NDP, in spite of many opportunities, has not been able to come up with a credible opposition. We need a 3rd party in B.C. like in the dying days of the socreds. Lets hope this one doesn't get hijacked by big money.

Apoliticalgeek. When it comes to name calling or calling down people you do a pretty good job yourself.

1. You have indicated that people who do not complete grade 12 are somehow less knowlegealbe than you are. Based on your own in depth assessement of people I would imagine, which would be wrong. Some of the dumbest people on the face of the earth, who have made most of the pertinent decisions and killed the most people were highley educated.

2. You refer to Prime Minister Harper as SS Harper. Would you be implying that Harper is a steamship, or would you be suggeting that he is a **Nazi* SS stands for (Shutzstaffel) which was Hitlers bodyguard unit.

People who live in glass houses shouldnt throw stones.

Have a nice day.

After all is said and said he will always be Taliban Jack to a lot of people. It's my right to call him that. It ain't slanderous or libel and "I know my rights in this country.... blah blah blah." If he endorses talking to our enemy , have him do a "Chamberlain" and get him to bring back a piece of paper signed by the Taliban. He's got the money/expenses. "Useful fools"? Why does that phrase ring a bell? Carry on.

In order to achieve a classless society we must first organize the working class...or sumthin' like that.