Canuck2fan
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Posts posted by Canuck2fan
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Canuck2fan, thank you for your thoughts. A "secret deal", this is 2015, in a democracy, what's so secret that I can not see when it effects my life seriously. COME ON MAN. I told a few people today at our neighbourhood Thanksgiving feast/horseshoe tourney. "If you see OPP or RCMP helicopters flying over my place they are trying to bust me for selling illegal Insulin and Blood pressure meds on the streets to my former crew". Can you imagine?
I was shocked the judge upheld the publication ban on the deal from 2007 between US Steel and Ottawa. I am also appalled that in 2015 a secret trade deal couldn't be shown the populations of the 18 countries involved until it was struck, but 600 corporate consultants were there with all the details the whole time?
I can relate in a very small way to your pension situation. I am one of the executors for an aunt who passed away 7 yrs ago, we are STILL waiting to finalize her estate because the company she worked at stole her pension in a bankruptcy. The Ontario government used to look after settling this type of situation, but have farmed it out to private businesses. We have had 2 different companies handling it because of corporate mergers and 4 different people as contacts. My aunt was very lucky in that she didn't need the money while alive and now it is just a matter of being able to disperse it to her beneficiaries (2 of who have also passed away) to finally settle her estate. We do know people she worked with though who are waiting who desperately NEED their money. The ironic thing is a really good friend of the family was a manager there and when we asked him about it, he said he was shocked because he got his entire severance payout and pension the DAY THE PLANT CLOSED...
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Ontario is now officially a 'have not' province. We were not a 'have not' province before the McGuinty/Wynne Liberals took power; but we are now. The only way a province can go from not being a 'have not' province, to being a 'have not' province; is for that province to have poor economic performance relative to the other provinces in Canada.
That is not quite as simple as you make it out to be.... Also if Alberta and Newfoundland weren't on top of rotting dead dinosaurs they would always have been have not provinces.
http://cwf.ca/commentaries/ontarios-economic-woes-much-exaggerated
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/04/01/equalization-payments-ontario-canada_n_2992486.html
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What is the bench mark for success of a country? Anyone? We are OK, not thriving, not leading the world in some categories other than standard of living and I believe we are up there, so what exactly is the biggest "we need a change now" problem? Please enlighten me? And I am not being my sarcastic me, I want to know what the everyday "I can't take this anymore" problem is that makes my day to day living tougher. Political scandals are just that, ir doesn't hamper you day to day life, embarrassing, waste of $$$, pisses me off, all yes but does it affect my ability to provide food and shelter for my family?
I know I am pissed over the US Steel fiasco. Apparently tomorrow I am loosing my pension benefits I earned for 30 years working in a shirt hole called Stelco Ironmaking. I earned those benefits and hear nothing coming out of my Prime Ministers mouth. But I do remember him writing off millions of dollars of money owed and a substantial payout of federal dollars to save my pension from the former Stelco. That has given me 12 more years of monthly pensions that I thought were lost. There were no Canadian companies standing in line to buy our plants.
I was saddened and shocked to see that was happening to your pension. Then read later that the details of the secret deal cooked up in Ottawa at the time US Steel bought in can't be released even now? Seriously?
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When looking at individual provinces, the logical comparison would be to other provinces in Canada. Ontario has faired very poorly compared to other provinces under the McGuinty/Wynne Liberals.
Do you have any data to back up your thoughts? I was amazed when I looked into which provincial economies were growing at the start of the election. Last month though things were all switched around again.
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If you compare even the poorest of the poor here to about 95% of people in the world. Those 95% would change places in a heartbeat.... So it is all relative I guess.
The middle class started dying the minute people thought their home was a financial investment as well as a place to live. To keep up with the rise in the price of housing we quickly out priced ourselves right out of the kind of jobs that started a class that wasn't exactly poor, but wasn't rich enough to take very much from those who were.
It didn't help though that along the way the people who were in charge thought that making 8 or 9 times more a year than the average employee wasn't good enough so they started to take 300 times more.
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The entire world economy has had its WORST economic performance since WWII. Harper cannot be blamed for slow growth for the entire world economy.
It would be far more relevant to compare Canada's performance against the performance of other countries such as U.S.A., G7, etc. I think Canada has done quite well compared to most other countries over the last 10 years.
Wynn could use the exact same excuse about things are tough all over to excuse her dismal performance, and I wouldn't accept that either...
Canada has WAY too many advantages over other countries with abundant resources, relatively stable political scene, very few natural disasters. A well educated, innovative and productive workforce. So we shouldn't just be doing well against the other countries in the G7 we should be eating their lunch. Sadly despite what Hampers hype would have us believe we are just mid pack economically right now.
When every other country was down and out we blew an opportunity to grow out of our historical position of being hewers of wood and selling dirty oil on the cheap. Yet nothing was done.
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Ahh Brian, how you going to learn if you aren't willing to listen my friend.
I have learned so much by asking questions then listening to the replies. It is nice to see that some of the replies to this post have very strong views and I love seeing that! We are starting to get some really interesting replies, some supported by facts (to some degree) but the one thing I am really learning is that MANY are in the same boat as I am, want to vote but are not sure what is the RIGHT way to vote.
The following are just my personal opinions based on the information I have at hand as of right now and subject to change:
Trudeau seems like a nice young man and he presents well but his lack of experience really scares me and some of his comments make me wonder: "the budget will balance itself", "I'll take from the rich and give to the poor" (sorry, paraphrased that), "send coats to Syria". The part that really scares me is that if the Liberals do get in our wonderful Premier Wynne the Poo is going to have a field day at our expense.
Harper; well I have to be honest with you, sometimes I think it's better the devil you know, he has done a lot of things I don't like but then again would anyone else done it better? The one big thing he has going for him IMHO is that he doesn't pander to Wynne.
Somethings to think about.... The context of the statement that budgets balance themselves is not something that the cons want to discuss. The context was, The liberals believe if you spend the money on infrastructure that give businesses and people what they need to thrive then the economy grows and people get jobs and MORE tax revenue is generated by a GROWING economy.
Not too much different from the cons trickle down view, that if you give businesses all the tax breaks and perks they will increase productivity and hire more people and the economy will grow and the tax break will be recuperated.... Except after 9 yrs of that strategy it is not working and the cons record of the WORST economic performance since WWII of any government clearly proves that.
So something is missing, business profits are up, over all productivity from Canadian workers is WAY up. So why is the trade deficit growing so much? Why are Canadian corporations hoarding 600 million in profits off shore that they aren't paying taxes on, even though they would be paying the least amount of tax EVER in Canadian history? When is enough money enough to just sit in a corporate bank account? I have no problem with corporations making profits, paying their share, and hiring Canadians to work in Canada, but they sure seem to have a huge problem with doing either under Harper for some reason? Could he be in on the tax evasion?
Lastly, WE NEED a federal government to pander to Ontario who like it or not is run by Wynn so voting for a government that keeps hurting Ontario with crappy secret trade deals only makes sense if you live elsewhere... or are rich enough you don't care about making money anymore.
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One of the problems I am finding is that there is so much misinformation.
One party claims they will do "this", the other claims "that won't work, we'll do this"! Round and round it goes one claim after another. One wrong choice could have a catastrophic effect that your kids, kids will be trying to bail themselves out of.
Almost all the replies I have seen on here so far seem to indicate a choice by heart rather than cold hard facts leading in a logical choice for any one party.
I see so many people who will forget what HAS been done to us and will vote out of fear caused the people who have done it to us. LOL Sad and the choices are not great.
I can not vote for Harper under any circumstances he has not done anything the resembles being a true conservative? Failed at balanced budgets. Failed at reducing the size of government. Failed at EVERY single social issue important to true conservatives!!! If he had really wanted to ban "anything" he had a majority to ram through any vote for the last 4 yrs so all this crap about what people wear is just a distraction, created by his Aussie lap dog.
The most disappointing thing of all, is that he has proven to be a total coward, more interested in saving his own skin than in being a true leader. Time and time again he has tossed loyal friends, employees and party members under the bus instead of standing tall and admitting he isn't perfect.
The last reason I couldn't vote for the cons is at the riding level is his candidate (trying to replace a useless incumbent) bought the kool aid and has refused to show up for some key debates... If you can't face us the voter in a few 2 hr debates NO WAY am I going to trust you for the next 4 yrs.
Mulcair.... I am not sure the NDP has the apparatus as a whole to run a country that would automatically expect them to fail. I look at the hatchet job everyone is doing to the NDP in Alberta, blaming them for things that any sane person would realize were going to happen to any government their with oil at 40.00 a barrel.
At the local level GREAT candidate, who is open and will stop and talk about the issues..
Trudeau.... Is probably the smartest of them all in that he seems to realize the country needs a TEAM to get things going in the right direction. He wants to open up government and despite what all the neocons would have you believe our best FINANCIAL times in Canada have always been under the Liberals. The economic numbers over the years don't lie.
At the local level the candidate is always at the debates, pounding the pavement and also has a good grasp of the issues.
Greens are a non vote as I think they got like 500 votes out of 70K last time out.
The worst outcome for me would be another Harper majority, next an NDP majority LOL. Still not sure about what to do except anything but Harper we just can't be set back for another 4 yrs.
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too true....
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Lew, I think the point is if someone wants to harm you, they will find a way
A gun just happens to be a more effective tool to do so than a pencil
Sadly in situations like this, guns are EASIER and FASTER to use to destroy human life... especially with the extended clips that are all the rage with these maniacs who do these mass shootings.
How anybody could bring up a pencil..... seriously? With a pencil you might kill one or two victims max before 10 other people could grab something to bash your frigging brains in. Against a gun that isn't going to happen as easily despite what American TV shows/movies would have us believe. I would wager is pretty hard to shoot straight when you are crapping your pants at the same time as firing...
What will the NRA say when all the teachers, custodians and other school employees are armed and it happens again. Or heaven forbid one of the employees snaps and starts spraying bullets?
I know all the gun bans/registering won't stop it from ever happening again, because criminals don't register their guns... However, arming more people hasn't worked so far as gun sales have sky rocketed after every shooting, from fear that the government will take away guns or stop the sales...
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Lots of good advice...
One thing to keep in mind, if a physical limitation is forcing the change, and you can get your doctor on board, it makes it a lot EASIER to access whatever help the bureaucracies can offer... Going that route or paying for a career councilor yourself, it what any of them steer you towards doesn't "feel" right immediately on hearing it, it probably isn't, so in the end only you can decide.
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Generator, water filter, machete, malaria pills...
LOL with global warming Malaria pills might not be a bad idea...
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As a society we have seem to have forgotten that ANY government employee works for US the taxpayer, any clouding of that fact just plays into any despotic leader's hand, whether in Ottawa or Toronto...
I would love to see what the outcry would be if anyone but Harper was responsible for burning books, closing labs and firing some of the best and brightest just for possessing or attaining knowledge one man disagrees with?
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/capt-trevor-greene/science-cuts-canada_b_4534729.html
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In 2005 I bought a new Safari van that came with Michelin LTX tires. Very next day after taking delivery I had a 2" drywall screw go thru the sidewall. I called the dealership assuming it had a road hazard warranty on the tires and was told "Nope, every things covered 'cept that".
They gave me a discount on a new tire but their expensive and it still cost me a lot.
Pretty sad considering they only had a few miles on them.
Makes you wonder why wouldn't a new vehicle come with at least the offer to purchase a road hazard warranty on the tires, for a nominal fee?
I am not a fan of most dealership add ons but a tire road hazard plan is one I would consider given the size and shape of our million plus pot holes in the city I live in. Never mind the chance of picking up a screw or nail that goes through the sidewall.
One tire shop manager here says he has NEVER seen so many damaged rims and cases where the hit was so bad the tire was cut too, as over the winter and early spring this year. So he called the city, they just laughed, said no one wants their taxes raised and hung up on him. So I don't see it getting it any better for next year if we have a deep freeze this winter.
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Sorry about your situation Brian, and NO you are not asking too much but tire warranties are really nothing but a piece of paper. The odd time you will win like Big Cliff did but that might have been through a road hazard extended warranty or insurance that customers pay for extra for and costs the manufacturers nothing.
Vehicle manufacturers put the warranty of anything they can onto suppliers, batteries and tires are good examples. It wouldn't be surprising to find out that the "cost" of getting the tire business for those Ram pickups Good Year had to assume responsibility for warranting the tire.
The majority of the time even with replacement tires bought new that have an issue you wind up being forced to take another set of the same crappy tire that failed in the first place. That is bad enough but the "pro rated" part is where they get you. The pro rating saving only comes on a new tire's MSRP, which is often way above what those same tires could be bought for anywhere not to mention what they would go for on sale... I have seen cases where a warrantied tire costs significantly, MORE that a replacement on sale somewhere else...
Expect it too get worse too as the CAFE ratings more strict manufacturers will saving every ounce of weight in a vehicle they can and tires won't be immune to being made lighter and of course cheaper.
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Lew if you have a printer save some money....
The Tractor Supply Comany stores also have LED's that work with dimmer switches on sale until tomorrow.
Swtich
Bulbs
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If you will remember Harper didn't want to run a deficet but it was a minority govt and the liberal and NDP said if he didn't try to spend his way out of the recession they would vote his budget down and trigger an election so he just reied to make them happy
Really, so you are admitting he sold out his principles just to hold onto power? LOL I agree he did and for that reason alone I couldn't vote for him !!!
In any event if the only thing making him run deficits was pressure from the other parties, threatening to end his reign. Then he should have stopped doing it when he got his majority. Yet he just kept on ringing up the debt....?
Got any other excuses that conservative command central puts out? Sorry I couldn't tell if you were being sarcastic or not LOL?
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Yeah, if you cherry pick a short time frame. How has Ontario done over the last 10 years versus the rest of Canada?
I am not cherry picking anything just pointing out now things are moving in the right direction NOW hopefully.
Ontario did better than some regions, and worse than others... I suspect if we had a pool of dead dinosaur bits under our feet like Alberta we would have done better than everybody though until about a year ago....
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Valid point; but, Canada fared quite well compared to other countries, Ontario has fared very poorly compared to other provinces.
Apparently the forecasts show we are leading the way now.... LOL
http://www.investinontario.com/spotlights/ontario-lead-canadas-economic-growth-2015-and-2016
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That is my sentiment exactly.
Libs wasted $2 billion so lets waste some more!!!
I have 2 paries left to vote for, the Libertarian and Green.
Eenie meenie miney mo!!!!!
YES the Libs spent 2 Billion dollars and in the end the program was scrapped by the Cons who really wasted the money LOL... No question, though it was problematic and didn't work programs that are all stick and no carrot seldom do.
Now, If some of the money spent wastefully, went to people who fed their kids, put gas in their in the car at the local station, bought groceries, grabbed a hamburger at a restaurant I was cooking at and eventually paid their taxes is that really more or less wasteful than any other government spending?
If however it went into a corporate bank account in the Caymans then that somebody should be shot by each and every gun that was registered twice LOL
I personally have 2 family members who were PROUD of the fact that they had them "crats" going around in circles trying to register up their guns.... They mislead, misfiled and generally did everything they could do to make the process more difficult that it needed to be. Then they would have a wobbly pop or 6 and moan and complain about the high cost, of the program,..... You can't make this stuff up.... and NO we don't talk anymore.
The only 2 problems I had with the gun registry were very simple. Other than I never heard of a criminal sitting down to register a gun before they headed out on a crime spree. I did see the logic in enabling police to know if possible if there were guns in a home during a crisis too, though.
1) My first problem when I heard it about the NEW registry was.... When I bought my guns I had an FAC and I filled out the forms at the store to buy them. WHAT did I do that for if that paper NEVER went anywhere, the kid at Canadian Tire that watched me fill out the forms seemed so on the ball at the time?
2) If they wanted the guns registered that is great but stop with the stick and give out some carrot.... They should have PAID for it by giving the person they wanted to "voluntarily" register the guns, a same as CASH 20.00 tax credit for each gun and have the info sent in with their taxes.... Better compliance would have resulted and the CRA already had a friggin computer network that could HOLD the data and it is semi secure sorta LOL.
The only penalty if you didn't register and for whatever reason got caught with guns and or not properly stored guns but committed no other "offense" tack an extra 500.00 for each gun onto their taxes. CRA gets their money from honest folks so it would work. Also of course confiscate them and after 2 yrs let them buy them some other persons guns at auction if they want. Don't turn them into a "criminal" save the jail space and court time, hit them where it hurts honest people the most in the pocket book...
However, if you got caught with an illegal handgun or unregistered or stolen registered gun in the commission of a crime. Oops your bad and the next 10 yrs of your life are going to involve some very tense shower times, no time off, no early parole you did the crime you DO the time.
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funny on how everyone loves to blame Harper for all the job loses in Ontario over the past 10 years but they forget who has been in power in Ontario for that time.
LOL I actually don't blame just Harper but I sure won't give him a free pass either like a lot of his base do... Ironically I say the EXACT reverse of what you do when people start bashing the Liberals in Ontario for their deficits. I ask what about Harper's dismal record and all I hear back is... Well, you see the world was going through a recession perhaps you heard of it... so its OK that he ran up all that debt. REALLY, to me that is why either one is no worse than the other, but because of partisanship most people say one is great and one sucks. LOL Math doesn't lie and they both failed all of us miserably.
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Tax and spend...spend and tax...run a deficit with no fiscal responsibility, who cares...I almost hope you guys get what you want...you`ll be back whining here 4 years from now looking for a do over!!!
Vs spend but don't tax then spend even more and don't bother taxing... 156 billion in red ink to give corporations the lowest tax rate in history and after 9 yrs here we are. 400,000 manufacturing jobs gone forever, highest trade deficit in Canadian history, dollar near record lows, infrastructure deficit almost as high as the national debt...
Shall I go on or are you bored with the facts of what the current government has actually done with our money so far? Trying to scare people of what other's MIGHT do worked for a while but when the above is what Harper and Co have done, I personally find it very difficult to see how anyone could do worse. LOL
The Funniest thing though is will all those tax cuts, is that Canadian corporations have an estimated 200 Billion hiding in tax haven banks doing nothing to contribute even to their shareholders as they aren't paying it out in dividends...
So yeah please lets talk in 4 yrs.
As for the old stock comment. Pierre Berton said it best when asked what he was. I am a CANADIAN period isn't that enough?
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When changing tire sizes remember it will affect your speedometer. And possibly ABS. Not rim size, tire size
As for the date thing would you really want buy tires that have been on the shelf for 5 - 10 years and are being sold as a great deal ? old and dried up.
Ask for the date of mfg before the tires get put on your car/truck/trailer.
Regards
Yes but dealers can recalibrate the PCM for different tire sizes in some cases... so weigh a 90.00 one time charge against saving 300.00 bucks on a smaller set of tires. As for the tires and dates, while I wouldn't rush out and buy 10 yr old tires. anything in the 6 and under wouldn't cause me the least bit of concern if I looked at them first. Manufacturers are in the business to SELL tires and limit liability (ever tried to get a new tire under warranty LOL) so of course they would err on the side of extreme caution with respect to dates. The environment and how tires are stored probably would have a much bigger effect on the drying out than age.
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I have always found that If you want to downsize rims going used is the only way it makes sense.... I look at it, this way the rims I already had were used so what is the difference...
Pic and Pulls offer awesome deals, one near me is only 20 for alloy rims and 15 for a tire pressure monitoring sensor.
Kijiji might have something you would use too... If any of these sets of rims come with the sensors it wouldn't be that expensive, when you factor in the cheaper cost of smaller new tires.
http://www.kijiji.ca/b-tires-rims/ontario/ford-flex-rim-and-tires/k0c320l9004
I just don't know what to do!
in General Discussion
Posted
I absolutely agree don't vote for Harper's trickle down economic failure for another 4 yrs.... 156 billion in new national debt from a guy who supposedly has a masters in economics? Biggest trade deficit with China in our history, if you want to create jobs in China Steve is your guy. He even signed a secret trade deal to make sure no Chinese corporation will have their potential profits hampered by any pesky law our sovereign government passes.
Also remember that In the last 19 yrs the cons have been in power in Canada they have added over 400 billion to our national debt with deficit spending and posted only 3 balanced budgets in those 19 yrs, so they most certainly DO NOT look after our money very well.