John Bacon

The 2014 figure is wrong. It should read $1.9 billion surplus instead of $16.6 billion deficit. The government fiscal year runs from April 1st to March 31st. The site states that the years listed represent the year that the fiscal year started. Thus, 2014 would represent the fiscal year from Apr 1st 2014 to Mar 31st 2015. The $1.9 billion surplus for the year ended Mar 31, 2015 has been pretty well reported recently. Overall, I think that Canada's return to deficits had more to do with the world wide economic situation than poor fiscal management by Harper.

Well here is the Wikipedia definition: "A tactical light is a flashlight used in conjunction with a firearm to aid low light target identification, allowing the marksman to simultaneously aim and illuminate the target. Tactical lights can be handheld or mounted to the weapon with the light beam parallel to the bore. Tactical lights also serve a role as a method of non-lethal force, used to temporarily blind and disorient targets.[1][2] Features particularly associated with tactical lights include shock resistance, reliability, lightweight and powerful batteries, and high light intensity. Tactical lights may have optional filters to produce colored light, or may emit only infrared radiation for use with night vision equipment. A sighting laser may also be added to a weapon-mounted tactical light."

The way I read it, the individual doctors will have to take a pay cut. But total compensation to all doctors is up by $100 million per year; perhaps there are more doctors. The cut to the individual doctors is a real cut.

Not true. Health care transfers will increase by the greater of 3% or average rate of growth in GDP over the last three years. It may be less than the 6% annual increase that they have received since 2006 but it is not a cut. The cuts to health care transfer occurred in the mid 90s when the Liberals were in power. Health and social transfers were $18.9 billion in 1993 and $12.5 billion in 1997. http://www.fin.gc.ca/fedprov/his-eng.asp

Funny; you claim that Harper should have given Canada great economic numbers during a world wide recession; but make excuses for Ontario doing worse than the other provinces. Alberta and Newfoundland had oil when Ontario was leading Canada in economic growth. And Ontario would always be a 'have not' province too if it did not have resourses resources either.

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.

When looking at individual provinces, the logical comparison would be to other provinces in Canada. Ontario has fared very poorly compared to other provinces under the McGuinty/Wynne Liberals.

They are giving priority to the most vulnerable. Is that a bad thing?

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.

You talk about other people using scare tactics and then compare Harper to Hitler.

Wouldn't the narrow tubular shape of a pontoon versus the wider open top shape of a boat also be a factor?

This is not good. https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/blue-jays-replace-injured-reliever-cecil-alds-roster-205236636--mlb.html

The NDP have never held power at the federal level; however, they have helped get a lot of social programs in Canada either by holding the balance of power in a minority or just having enough to support for the other parties to realize that they cannot completely ignore their ideas. Other parties such as the Green Party or the Marijauna party can also influence the government if they receive support. If it is a minority government, the few seats that they do win may be very important. Even if they do not win enough seats to hold the balance of power; support to these parties can send a message that people support their causes. Increased support for the Green Party tells the other parties that the environment matters; support for the Libertarian party indicates that people want smaller government, support for the Marijauna party indicates that people do support the legalization of marijauna. If support for these parties increase; the mainstream parties will realize that these issues matter to people and they will need to address them.

Any dibs on what will come first? Honda diesel, or Leafs cup?

I have only used the foot pedal once so far. I am used to cable drive; so I am still getting used to the new pedal. The heading lock is great when trolling alone. I bungee strap a kicker motor in the straight ahead position and use the MotorGuide to steer the boat. Now I can set my downriggers up without doing a 180. Thanks, are these way points that you saved? If it is only following your own way points then I don't see where mapping software would fit in. When the salesman mentioned the mapping software, I was under the impression that it could follow depth contours or shore line. Yes, it sounds like the costs of networking outway the benefits. I saw some Gen 2 HDS units at a good price. I think I may hold off for now.

The chain sounds interesting. Do you know how long of a chain that they would use? Do they attached a few feet of chain to a rope; or, run a chain right from the boat?

Does anyone have experience networking their MotorGuide Xi5 to a Lowrance HDS unit? Does this give much extra functionality to the motor? E.g. do you use it to track the shoreline or a contourline? I was speaking to a salesman at LeBarons and he said that the mapping software does not include Canadian lakes. Can anyone confirm this? If this is the case, then it probably doesn't make sense to bother networking the motor to a graph.

I have been able to keep store bought minnows alive in my garage for a few weeks without an aquarium or aireator. Once or twice a day I take a half bottle of water from the bucket and shake it up then poor it back in. I think this adds oxygen to the water. I also add snow if available. If I am keeping them a long time, then I will fill an extra bucket with water and leave it in the garage for a few days for the chlorine to clear. That will allow me to give them some fresh water. I lose a few minnows, but it is better than having to buy a new batch every time I go fishing. Keeping them during the summer would be more challenging.

I saw this posted on FaceBook. I didn't see a link to an actual MNR site 'The OMNR has decided "not to introduce a discounted Seniors Fishing Licence at this time. Seniors will continue to be able to fish without a licence." Good news for legacy fishing. Grandparents teaching their grandchildren how to fish. Great news for the quality of life for our seniors in this province as fishing is good for both their physical and mental health.'

How about just draping a PFD over the bench seat? A neoprene one would probably work best. If it has buckles you could probably add a strap with a buckle on each end to fasten to the bench seat.

That could get expensive if there are muskie around.

They are looking pretty good for the win this afternoon.

According to the list below; Flint Michigan, with a population of a ~100,000 has the worst homicide rate in the U.S. None of the four largest U.S. cities (New York, Los Angelas, Chicago, or Houston) are in the ten worst. In fact not one single city with a population of over one million people is on the list. So, it is not just a big city problem. http://mic.com/articles/22686/america-s-10-deadliest-cities-2012

. I wouldn't recommend holding yor breath while you wait for an increase in stocking other species should the Atlantic program ever cancelled.

They do, but the Atlantic restoration program is also supported by corporate donations. It is unlikely that those funds would be available to promote non-native species if the MNR were to give up on Atlantics. There is also no guarantee that the MNR would re-allocate their own funding and efforts to bows and browns if and when the Atlantic program is halted. I am not convinced that ending the Atlantic program will benefit other species.