A coalition of Liberals or an alliance of right wing nutbars bent on destroying healthcare and appeasing their corporate overlords.

Great, maybe this time Harper will get a majority. The other options are too scary. It's like staying with someone you really don't care about when you know the divorce will be too damn ugly!

Denaljo, you have some evidence that the Conservatives are trying to destroy healthcare? I can't imagine you would just make stuff up.

A coalition of leftists would be the worst thing to ever happen to this country.

We have had a coalition of leftists. They have held the axe all along. They finally had enough and called Harper's bluff and let the axe fall. It's not as if Harper did not know that.

It's politics, folks.

I wish there was another way to run the country. At least we don't have to pay as much for the campaigning as they do in the USA. And, at least, it is much shorter pain. The aftermath is not that much different though.

Hey, for those who are naive enough to think that the Harper Government, to use his phrase, did not know about this, why do you thnk the Conservatives have been running all those attack ads on Ignatieff in the last months?

I mean, Harper must think we are all a bunch of idiots. And he is counting on those same idiots that believe this is all a big surpirse to him to give him a majority this time around.

I am afraid we may just have enough idiots to prove him right.

Government funded healthcare is unsustainable, I would sooner them look at new options now, rather than wait until the system collapses.

May 2 is bad timing for me. Any cahnce of looking at another date?

How about April 1? Friday. TGIF. Will spare us a lot of campaigning BS. Most of us already know who we are going to vote for.

The Citizen will be happy. Lots of ad money coming in to keep their cash flowing.

"Government funded healthcare is unsustainable"

Seems to be that the European countries who have been either near the age peak or are over it have been able to sustain it. Conversely, the USA with a partial public funded system are having major difficulties and are looking for alternate systems since more than the population of Canada have totally inadequate care.

One way or another, we will have to pay, whether it is private or public. The health care professionals will not work for nothing. Facilities cannot be built on vounteer workers and material suppliers. And we demand the best of service to keep us alive for another year.

So, we have a closed loop. We are all in it. Our lives are important to all of us. And no one is interested on going to the back of the bus.

It's called insurance. We all pay into it whether it is for cars, houses, boats, or our bodies. We all want the same access for each of those.

It is unsustainable because the majority of problems coming are more and more expensive to treat. They are lifestyle diseases, ongoing degenerative diseases, we are keeping the sick alive for longer and longer, used to be they just died. Now they don't.

I am not saying that we should start revoking care or killing people or letting them die needlessly, merely pointing out fact. Diabetes and Cancer are darned expensive to treat.

Also these diseases lead to high levels of disability, decreasing the tax base. So what you have is more people using a system that they don't contribute to. That is unsustainable.

The solution isn't more public money for more doctors and pills. The solution is getting the average Canadian to loose twenty or thirty pounds and get off the couch. We are fat and lazy and that will break the health system. (As a side note, in 2004 59% of Canadians were considered obese or overweight compared to 49% in 1979, so I don't throw fat and lazy around to be an ass, it is the truth and it is time we started doing something about it.)

Oh, and as for Europe, three countries in Europe are broke. How long until their government funded system collapses?

Gus,I like your attitude. May 2 is not good for me either. I would choose a two week campaign. Get it over with.
Go Conservative majority!

"The other options are too scary."

Well, it looks like Harpo's fearmongering is already winning over those who are easily scared out of their minds!

How about what would happen to our democracy if Harpo gets the dictatorial free hand of a clear majority?

Who is going to keep him in line?

The government having been ruled in contempt of our parliament for disregarding the rules and laws of parliament - a first in Canadian history!

Voting for Harpo's party is like stating that contempt of our parliament is perfectly acceptable!

Go for it!

Nice to see all the right wing trolls come out today. Just to refresh your little minds ; remember that harper was leader of the corporate alliance ( before they called themselves conservatives) and one of their objectives was to get rid of any form of medicare.
FYI King harper has now run up one of the worse deficits this country has ever seen and is now hell bent on making it worse by giving billions and billions to the corporate war machine in the states.Just because USA is going to hell in a handcart does not mean we have to tie our little wagon to it!
Remember when government was for people and not multinational corporations only looking to line their pockets? I doubt it!

"Oh, and as for Europe, three countries in Europe are broke."

New York City was broke too, before 9/11. It is doing quite well now.

The US is broke as well. Being proped up by the rest of the world, including Canada, because everyone is afraid of the consequences of cashing in their US investments.

Just like medicare or whatever you wish to call it, the countries will be given a slap on the wrist, everything will be adjusted, and people's lives will continue.

I can understand the fat issue. But let us say that we can solve that, which will need fixing of lots of the other parts of our society. We will still be dying of other things, and we will still be funding heroic efforts to save people from dying today rather than tomorrow by throwing some money at it.

We used to build police stations for $5 million or so some 40 years ago. Now they cost $50 million. All costs are going up.

We used to have fewer pot holes, better snow removal, parks that had trees in them instead of matchsticks, people downtown, less fat people, fewer cars and other toys in the driveways, cars that cost $4,000 instead of $40,000, station wagons instead of extended crew cabs, 2 TV stations instead of 200.

Improvement? None that I can tell that make much difference. Other than this thing that I am typing on. $350 for a brand new one that has the capacity, and then some, of a multi-million dollar room filled version of 40 years ago. Watching TV from all over the world liver streamed in. Makes my satellite system appear ancient.

I suppose healthcare is unsustainable when doctors get to bill MSP whenever they feel like it and never have to account for anything. If you go to a walk-in clinic, they're going to take your "care" card to bill MSP just for saying hi.

When you see a doctor and (if you're lucky) they request lab tests get done, you have to make an appointment with the doctor to get YOUR results which the lab determined for them (ch-ching!). You sit in a waiting room for close to an hour, and the doctor's office bills MSP for it. Why not just offer patients a toll free number and a pin to patients so they can find out what's wrong without seeing a doctor, or mail the results? Oh wait, doctors wouldn't get their pound of flesh, and continue to be gatekeepers to YOUR health. Why are we as taxpayers not disclosed up front how much the doctor bills MSP when we visit them? Shouldn't it be our right to know? Of course, most doctors are just pill pushers who blindly prescribe antibiotics and drugs based on a very cursory examination without bothering with even the most basic tests in the first place, but that's another rant. You never hear of doctors in Canada having any consequences for screwing up, but you certainly don't need to look very hard to find their casualties.

In this age of "cutbacks" and frugal spending, how come the only ones not being told to tighten their belts are doctors? Taxpayers have to pay more and live with less programs, while doctors continue to get a blank cheque from taxpayers. When did doctors become nobility? Most of our doctors are South African anyway, if they get ticked off and threaten to leave, let them, but send them right back to South Africa and let them face the music there.

Pojeb

MD's have a cap on what they are allowed to see per day. Last I checked at 45/day they take a pay cut per patient, at 60/day they stop being paid.

I don't think you understand follow up appointments well. There are two kinds of out comes: 1) confirms that they were right and they need to give you some kind of treatment 2)they were wrong and have to figure out what is wrong with you still. Either way they need to discuss it with you. As for the toll free number idea, you go to an MD b/c you need help, meaning your not an MD, therefore, you don't know how to analyze the tests properly and the data is meaningless or dangerous in your hands alone.

Also, with one hand you bash them for making you come in for a follow up and with the other you say they don't investigate enough. You can't have both. I do agree they give WAY to many pills, but, what else are they supposed to do?

Lastly,

I think General Practitioner are severely underpaid and I have no love for them to begin with.

Gus,

You fix the obesity issue (with exercise and diet, not a pill that makes you crap fat out) and the VAST majority of all reasons to consult a medical doctor are gone.

Free healthcare for all would be very easy to fix. It's called Health Care Max or Health Care 6/59. It would be a lottery where all and I mean all proceeds and unclaimed prizes would go to healthcare. The hospitals do it what can't Canada or each province for that matter?

Well, apparently Ignatief(?) has ruled out a coalition. Dammit - now I have to chose between apathy & paying attention the infantile name calling. Right now apathy has pulled ahead by a length.

By the way leftists, your idiotic lingo (trolls, Harpo, dictator, neo-con) just makes me want to vote Conservative to spite you. Grow up.

So which country has the most stable economy? Hint here, which government has given us that stable economy?

Why are people willing to risk what Harper will do to this country if given a majority.People say we should not give the provincial NDP a majority,because they were a terrible governing party in the nineties.We should not vote for the federal Liberals because of the sponsorship scandal and Michael Ignatieff.Well then if we are unwilling to forgive other parties failures,we should not give Harper a majority,because of what Brian(the worst Prime Minister ever)Mulroney did to this country.This is the only logical conclusion one can come too,based on a lot of peoples reasons for voting the way they do.

This is the 4th election in 7 years, all but one of them was on Harpers shoulders, even though he likes to blame everyone else.
The 2006 election which Harper won?? was because he brought down Paul Martin's minority government. He and his "coalition" with the Bloc and NDP voted it out.

The one in 2008 was because he changed his mind about having fixed election dates. His reason for that was because he didn't mean fixed dates if it was a minority government. Duh!! He was in a minority govenment when he brought in fixed election dates.

So what changed? The world was going into a recession, and he wanted to try to get a majority before it hit Canada, so he could do as he liked. During the campaign he basically told us that we were in great shape, that we weren't like the US, so we wouldn't go into a recession.

This election was planned a long time ago, why else would they spend so much money on ads against Ignatieff?

We didn't like Paul Martin, he was the one who did all the hated cuts in the mid nineties, which resulted in our debt being paid down, and the deficit wiped out, with much pain. Now we look at him and realize that he was probably the best of all the choices.

Whether we like it or not, it was because of the Liberal policies, banking and otherwise, that we weathered the recession as well as we did. The conservatives had nothing to do with those policies, they argued against them when they were brought in. They wanted to deregulate the banking system as it is in the US.

Steven Harper hasn't been subjected to the failings of a normal minority government. Not because he hasn't had any, but because the opposition has been in disarray. Not many minorities last for 2 1/2 yrs. He has no idea of what it's like to function with an efficient opposition. He's been able to function as though he has a majority.

Sorry, now I'm rambling.

If you hold the people of Canada in contempt - vote Harper.
If you would rather spend tens of billions on a couple of jets instead of health care - vote Harper.
If you want to abandon seniors - vote Harper.
If you want to abandon war vets who served fighting for Bushes oil - vote Harper.
If you want record deficits - vote Harper.
If you believe in beating peaceful protesters - vote Harper.
If you want no access to information and like to be kept in the dark - vote Harper.
If you like record levels of patronage - vote Harper.
If you believe in hypocrisy from the biggest and the best - vote Harper.
Harper claims to be a good Christian; so why does he keep lying to us???

This is going to be great entertainment!

We had the opportunity to watch Duceppe brandishing a letter dated 2004 and signed by Harpo exploring the possibilities of forming a COALITION with the dreaded Bloc and contacting Adrienne Clarkson!

Never (mis)underestimate a politician! THEN it was an option to be considered by Harpo- NOW it is the most terrible thing that could happen to the country, according to him!

Mirth & Merriment 1 Credibility 0
----------------------------------

It'll be sooo much fun to keep score!

This is going to be great entertainment!

We had the opportunity to watch Duceppe brandishing a letter dated 2004 and signed by Harpo exploring the possibilities of forming a COALITION with the dreaded Bloc and contacting Adrienne Clarkson!

Never (mis)underestimate a politician! THEN it was an option to be considered by Harpo- NOW it is the most terrible thing that could happen to the country, according to him!

Mirth & Merriment 1 Credibility 0
----------------------------------

It'll be sooo much fun to keep score!

Denaljo you are absolutely right, vote Harper!

By all means if you support the HST then vote Harper. His government is the one who worked with the Provincial Liberals to have it implemented.

Personally, I refuse to vote for ANY party who resorts to US style attack ads to scare me into thinking they are the best option. That means no vote for the Reform Party from me.

By all means, Canadians wake up....
Use your brains.....
Use your democratic right and freedom...
DO NOT VOTE on May 2nd, 2011...
You know, they all make PROMISES they CAN'T KEEP...
They are all lairs...You just cannot trust them...
If you DO NOT VOTE on May 2nd They have to come up with new Ideas, may be they are smart enough and offer solutions which are in the interest of a united Canada and all Canadians!
Let's see what happens if we all DON'T VOTE on May 2nd.

Excellent post my2bits .....

"which government has given us that stable economy?"

It is never the government in power unless they have been in power for a long time. It was one or more of the governments in power before the current one. Policies typically have to be in place for some time before everything moves according to those policies.

"just makes me want to vote Conservative to spite you"

I do not think that there is any hope in H of moving the two PG seats out of the hands of the conservatives. In order for that to happen, one would need some scandal to break out. The tactic for the conservatives here is going to have to be to lie as low as possible and lie as often as possible. :-)

Paul Martin was a shyster. He stole $40 Billion out of the EI Fund, and transferred it into General Revenues, then he cut the transfer payments to the Provinces, and then everyone said he was a genius. The supreme court ruled that the transfer of the EI funds were not legal, however because the Government could pass legislation to make it legal no action was taken. Martin was and is a Bozo. They did not call him Mr Dithers for no reason.

For those who refuse to investigate anything before they shoot from the lip. The HST was brought in by the Liberal Government in 1991, not the Conservatives. New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland went to the HST in 1991. Quebec went to what they called the QST in 1991, however they changed it a bit so that they collected the money and sent a portion to Ottawa, rather than the other way around, like other Provinces. In other Provinces Municipalities are exempt from the HST or at least to 70%. In Quebec there is no exemption. Anyone who beleives anything that Duceppe says needs a head check.

So lets quit the BS about the Conservatives bringing in the HST. It was the Liberals, which was the best they could do, after promising to get rid of the GST. Get your bloody facts straight.

The Conservatives will have little or no problem taking the two ridings in this area, and they have an excellent chance of forming a majority Government. Mainly because the alternative is incomprehensible.

Who brought in the HST in BC?Was it Gordon Campbell and his party,or was it Stephen Harper and the Conservatives?Palopu,are you trying to say that it was the Federal Liberals from 1991 who are responsible for our HST in BC today!Really!

jakeadoo, the Provincial Liberals worked with the Bloq Quebecois to bring HST into BC, LOL.

When is a plan for a coalition NOT a plan for a coalition but just an innocent plan for a cooperation?

When the skeletons find a way out of the closet!

In my posts above I was actually mocking at how long we can hold parties responsible for what others have done in the past,if the people in the party have been replaced with others and some time has passed.I blame only Gordon Campbell and Colin Hansen for the HST in BC.I won't vote for Stephen Harper,not because of what Brian Mulroney and the Progressive Conservatives did in the past,but because Stephen Harper with a majority scares the hell out of me,and reminds me of Gordon Campbell in alot of ways.

Only brand new parties don't carry any historical baggage. It would be very refreshing if our present parties would apologize for having made mistakes in the past. It would be a new approach and might even restore some credibility.

Let's say a party leader decided to have some aluminum ferry boats constructed, a totally new unproven design etc. They turn out to be vastly over budget, unfit for the job and beyond remediation by modifications.

Or a party leader decided to impose a new HST tax regime without allowing a debate or even a referendum. Or sell a railroad when having promised NOT to do it.

These are some examples familiar to us. Has anybody admitted having made a mistake and expressed any regrets or apologies?

No. Of course not. And, to boot, the present representatives and followers/fans of the respective parties are still unapologetic and they are still defending what happened not too long ago.

As long as they keep doing that it is fair game to connect the present parties to the ongoings in the past.

It's their own fault for not taking responsibility. In my opinion, of course.

Where does all the money come from? In all honesty, I don't think the Liberals or the NDP supporters gave figured that out yet. How about this, it's not the government and it's not Layton, Ignatieff, Duceppe or Harper.

If you don't know the answer, I am very concerned how you may be considering voting.

Let me cut to the quick. Every business whether small or large provides a product or service that somebody else needs or wants and is willing to pay for. In order to provide these products and services, businesses need employees. And guess what, that means jobs.

So, if you think businesses and business owners are the bad guys, you better think past your pay check. People need to work and provide something of value that others are willing to pay for.

Guess what, government cannot provide all of the products or services. Because they do not provide all of the value.

Think hard when you vote. Don't just think about what you want. Think about where the money is supposed to come from to pay for it.

As I stated before the Federal Liberal Government brought in the HST. It has been in effect in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, and Newfoundland since 1991.

What the Conservative Government did was offer Ontario and BC money to help them to transition to the HST if they choose to do so. In the case of BC the offer was $1.6 Billion dollars. Because Campbell and Hansen were feeling the **pinch** and because they saw an opportunity to give a $1.9 Billion tax savings to their business and corporate friends at the expense of consumers they took the bait.\

So the responsibility for the HST in BC lies with the BC Liberals. They werent forced to take the money, or implement the tax. So lets get away from blaming the Conservatives.

There has to be a balance between business and employees. One cannot operate without the other. You cannot run a business without employees, and you cannot be an employee without a business. What we need is fairness in taxation, and we dont have it.

Before the HST business and corporations paid the BC Government $1.9 billion per year in taxes. This tax has now been shifted to consumers.

I for one will do everything in my power to shift this tax back to business and corporations where it belongs.

The Government can do whatever it wants to help business and corporations with their tax problems, however having me pay the taxes for them is not an option.

Palopu, despite what occurred in the past, the reality is that BC could not have adopted HST on its own. It required a "partnership" with the feds to do so. Therefore, it's pretty safe to assume that the feds were supportive of implementing HST in BC. Since the Conservatives were in power, it's then safe to assume that they were an equal partner in it. If they were not a fan of HST, it wouldn't have been implemented and only the Maritimes would still have it. Case closed.

Now, I do agree with the rest of your post in that there has to be balance between business and employees. All one has to do is take a look at the various corporate tax initiatives that have been implemented over the last decade and you'll see a rather obvious shift in ideology amongst ALL governments. It's the "theory" that lower corporate tax rates will somehow create jobs out of mid air and as a result, everyone will be gainfully employed, the government will make up the lower corporate taxes through more personal taxes and everyone will have a big group hug and sing hymns to each other.

The reality of the situation is that to a large extent, tax rates don't have an impact on job creation (extremely high tax rates would but we haven't really ever had those in Canada). Job creation is driven by a demand for products and services and by a large extent, through innovation (the innovators of today will become the job creators of tomorrow). Therefore, I suggest that instead of providing tax breaks to big corps who outsource Canadian jobs, that we provide tax breaks to big corporations who employ Canadian workers. Give the tax breaks to big corporations who invest in research in Canada. Let's invest more money back into the education system so that we can create a future workforce of people who have the ability to think and innovate and drive job creation.

It's my opinion that these far right wing ideals, while cloaked as being "good for the people", are actually the exact opposite. Such policies restrict the people. They make the people dependant on the government for help. They make people powerless to have an equal say with big corporations. We do need fiscal responsibility and we need to ensure that business can operate effectively within our country, but we also need to give power back to the people. I personally think a good start would be taking some of the power away from big corporations and giving it back to flesh and blood people. And don't worry, despite what the textbooks and analysts will tell you, Canfor, the Royal Bank, Air Canada, Imperial Oil and all of these other big businesses will not flee Canada if they have to pay a little more in tax or have some more regulation applied to their industry. There are still allot of bucks to be made in Canada and wherever there are bucks to be made, the big business will be around employing people. They were here 10 years ago when corporate tax rates were MUCH higher than what they are now and they'll be here 10 years from now if rates went back to those levels. When they say they won't be, they are lying :)

Wasn't it Harpo's Conservatives who set the deadline for either going for the HST or passing on the billion dollar carrot?

It wasn't Paul Martin, for sure.