We don't have the benefit of having large populations East and West so when the Frogs in Quebec and Ontario vote the rest of the country might as well forget voting.

We don't even have a free vote in parliament.
Just vote the way the PM dictates, and forget about the people that voted members of parliament in, in the first place.

We would be better off in joining the USA as they are our greatest trading partners and have more influence over our dialy lives.

Consider youselfs lucky that you threw out the parliamentry system 200 years ago.

You only have to put up with Gore or Bush for 4 years. We are stuck with these jerks until they get too old to remmeber there own names.

Rant over.

Cheers from the Deprived West Coast.

Gord

Regards

Mailman, Are you happy with your political system? Parliamentry also, isn't it.

Cheers

But I don't really know what I am talking about so don't flame me if I sound like an idiot.

P.S. You are right about the amount of time someone spends in politics here. Joe Clark has been around since he had black hair (1970s???). Now he is complaining about the american potato conspiracy to keep him out of Parliment... I bet the PC would get a lot more votes if Joe Clark wasn't such an idiot.

The Canadian parliamentary system puts primacy on 'peace, order, and good government' (which is why that is in our constitution). By having the PM chosen by locally elected MP's it is rare to have parliament tied up in knots like the states has occaisonally. Remember a couple of years ago when the REP's in the house and Senate shut down the gov't in a fight with Clinton? such a thing can't happen here, why? because the PM is always the one with the most votes of any party, and if everyone gangs up on him we have another election.

Its not all bad. The big problem though, is representation. Parliament does not reflect the voting patterns of Canadians. Last election PC and Reform votes were far higher than there representation in seats, as were the NDP. however, its not a perfect system.

We are ignored almost completely, in comparison to Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes, and have had almost no Liberal gov. handouts, unlike Quebec and other provinces, and the handfull we did get were only done to gag western protest over this issue.

Maybe we should form a "western separation organisation" to form our own country! Hmm, start with BC and Alberta, and invite Yukon, Saskatchewan, maybe even Manitoba... We could be a chip of the old Bloc...

Seriously, though, we should start whining and bitching loudly to our MP's, as that is what we have not been doing much of, and it seems to work for the eastern provinces.

Any ideas, thoughts?

Rick,
I doesn't do any good to whine to our elected MPs for the reasons stated above.

Tha Maritimes have always been predomitately
Liberal or Conservitave and when the Feds screwed up the fishing in their area with mis management they turned into Welfare states. The feds are now giving them numerous handouts to buy their votes.

So much for Canadian democracy.

Oh well, I will still vote Alliance.

With lots of trade now comming from the have nots in Asia, maybe the shift of power may eventualy switch to the west.

If only we could get the freight rates equalized so that we can ship East as cheap as the East can ship West.

Cheers

I hope Paul Morrison reads the articles.

I thought that the WCC was dead but it appears not.

Cheers,

PatriotStorm, what do you mean MMP works, okay? the extra politiacains we ended up with is enough to damn it, let alone that the lunatic fringe now holds power in New Zealand, if it isn't the Greens and their loopy theories, it's the likes of Tau Henare and his motley crew.

Sorry, but the previous system, FFP (First Past the Post), was far superior, at least in my opinion.

Regards James,

Just because I'm from ontario doesn't mean I think like a S. Ontarian. I live in Thunder Bay, just about as far NW as you can go in ontario without ending up in Manitoba. I also understand and support the west on many grievances.

I think that FPP is superior to MMP now, but once MMP has been here for a while and everyone is used to it, it will be superior. My main concern with FPP is that the one elected party dosn't have enough control measures placed on it. Imagine the damage the current green party could to to the nation if they got elected under FPP.

For MMP to work better, I think we need less politicians. Smarter ones could help, but I don't see that happening any time soon!

Another thing - I desperately think our country is in need of a decent green party that DOSN'T run around in a constant state of paranoia, and dosn't smoke dope at caucas.

And here's the Green party's site
http://green.ca/

Here's a listing of most important Canadian political parties http://ca.yahoo.com/Regional/Countries/Canada/Government/Politics/Parties_and_Groups/

Now, as to the topic.. I do not want to join the USA.

I'm not going to add anything else to this topic, since I might not be well received with my different ideas and ideological beliefs.

Good day to you all.

The fat cats from Ontario were not included, but come on, I would like to hear from some one from the East. There are two sides to every coin and I would like to hear from someone, not from the West, on the mistreatment of the West by the Feds.

Respectfuly,

And how are they paranoid? Disband the SAS (is a hostage crises comes, they plan to throw together a squad of cops), disband all NZ intelligence agencies, and disarm our armed forces (they will become caring resource police)
http://www.greens.org.nz/

We have First Nations out here also plus a few Frogs.

It would appear that the Easterners [ Fat Cats} don't want to reply. They know which side of their bread is buttered on.

PS. I don't belieave you 14 either!

Cheers from a West Coast Seperatest.

You should live on any of the countries to your south and see real national problems and stop worrying about how much influence your gov has on your dialy lifes. The fact is that you live in countries where you have more oportunities to prosper than allmost anywhere in the World and that you should be thankfull for.

If you want to seperate fine. The gov should give one of those northern islands to all the crazy french and farmer seperatists. If you don't wanna live here go somewhere else, problem solved.

P.S. The bloc already does look like mickey mouse. I doubt you guys will EVER get organized.

I guess our petty squabbles seem pretty funny to those less fortunate than myself. Having said that, everyone everywhere will have something to be pissed off about the government....

Most Ontarians are nice, good people, who for reasons unbeknownst to me (and I lived there) can't see past their glasses. I now live in NW Ontario (Thunder Bay) and most Ontarians think Minden is N. Ontario, when in reality, it is South Central ontario. They forget that beyond a 500 km bubble covering toronto and Montreal there is an entire country out there.

Second, Whistler, the farmers are not looking for handouts, they are looking for equitable treatment. How would you like it if you were a small manufacturer of quality goods, forced to sell it on a government market to serve the interests of speculators in a different part of the country?

P.S. the Bloc are nothing, there are better ways of applying pressure...

And Dairy Farmers, and Marketing Boards. How would you feel if you were not allowed to increase the number of your dairy cows and had to pour all the excess milk you produced down the drain. Free enterprise at its finest?

PS. I still don't think you are 14. 10 maybe 11 at the most.

A skinny cat from the West.

Forgot to say to: Go somewhere else? Thats what were are thinking of.

"Hmmmm Draper, looks like trouble brewing in our northern colonies,will have to send in the redcoats, restorm those hights of abraham
shouldn,t be much of a prob since those american rebels prevented them from building a good fighter aircraft of their own."

LMFAO!!!!!!!!!

D

great. Where?

BTW, figure on more than a website.

According to the Alliance Party it will take the Liberals 188 years to pay off our National Debt at 3 billion per year. Strange how the people in Ontario and Quebec still vote Liberal. Eh? Looks like no significant reduction in taxes if the pork barrellers get in again. Talk about the dumb voters in Florida!

Oh well. the US national debt is 5,692 Trillion and growing as of 11,2,00.

Gord. Tired of sending our tax dollars to the East for zip in return.