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I agree with your short analysis of social-democracy. Be careful though, I'm sure the Freidmanites will arrive at this thread soon waving their copies of 'Freedom and Capitalism'. (fundamental free market theory which has consistently been shown to fail as a result of its own nature; i.e Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, Urugua, Indonesia, Poland, South Africa, etc, and it will always revert back to center or left of center economic policies)

The coalition is still representative of the results of the election. Who becomes dubbed prime minister is merely incidental of those results. In a multiparty system coalitions are allowed and needed should a minority government consistently cease catering to and opposing the interests of the majority of parliament; however if Harper had a majority he could do whatever the hell he wanted, but despite not having a majority he tries to do so anyway. Some call it a power grab, but it is a perfectly legal power grab; and warranted in response to a government which has no interest beyond pursuing actions which serve only its own interests. Now if things were black and white as with the American two party system, a coalition would be impossible.

Well as Mikhail said, GG does do something, it recently prorogued parliament just so Harper could avoid a confidence vote; that strikes me as a pretty blatant subversion of democracy. He also tried to axe campaign funding in order to kill all of the smaller parties, as well as the Liberal party (which was/is in poor financial straits). Not all of parties have 'sponsors' to cover 85% of their bills. He also tried to ban the right of civil servants to strike until 2012. Harper is purely Friedmanite, seeing as how his economic plan was to cut civil servant wages, sell of public assets, allow deregulation, and cut social spending; which is just more of the same, which we have seen destroy countries like South Africa, Chile, Indonesia, Bolivia, and Russia (most of their population is still impoverished while free market reform benefited only a handful of oligarchs). Also, visit fairvote.ca, see the figures of the election and you'll see how if under a proportionate election system the conservatives would have lost appr. 12 seats. Its also pretty laughable to say that Harper is trying to help the western provinces, since its the conservatives who are responsible for demolishing the lumber processing and pulp industries in British Columbia. Now all the lumber companies are sending their lumber south for processing since trade protections were lifted, and thousands of Canadians are out of jobs.

Also, the conservatives only received 37% of the popular vote (of the total votes), when those total votes constitute less than 50% of the voting population. Thats less than 20% of the total voting population.

Under a proportionate electoral system, the results would have been as follows;

Conservatives - 38% of the popular vote: 117 seats (not 143)
Liberals - 26% of the popular vote: 81 seats (not 76)
NDP - 18% of the popular vote: 57 seats (not 37)
Bloc - 10% of the popular vote: 28 seats (not 50)
Greens - 7% of the popular vote: 23 seats (not 0)

The conservatives will maintain the outdated FPTP voting system so long as is continues to benefit their party.

Mikhail is right to say that Canada is in a dire situation politically, but he needs to look closer at western monetarist imperialism (passed by the fatalistic Milton Friedman) and less at the Queen. Whats gripping Canada is a US interest in turning Canada into a financial vassal like Haiti or South Africa. To maintain a constant state of growth the US has to create parasitic economic relationships with other countries, otherwise the speculative economic bubble pops and we get economic crises and collapse of domestic industries (such as the housing, auto, and financial industries in the US).

What is good for Canadians and what draws foreign investment rarely coincide. American and Canadian companies are investing more in more in countries like China because of the low job security, low wages, and poor worker protections (sweatshop capital of the world). The only way Canada could receive and marginally benefit from foreign investment is if we have above average unemployment and a large impoverished economic demographic. Otherwise no one will be investing here, especially since companies like Ford and GM are 'restructuring' and phasing their operations out of North America to places where the costs of production are cheaper.

However Dion and Harper are in the same boat, since the Liberals are centrist and Harper is Friedmanite; the population is fooled into believing there is some massive conflict of interests politically so that they'll spend more time conducting their struggle internally rather than critically analyzing the economic policies of both the Liberals and the Conservatives and how those policies could, have and are constributing the economic crisis. Prior to the controversy which served as a catalyst for the creation of the coalition, the Liberals and Bloc were always supporting the Conservatives in parliament.

North America is sinking and big business is abanding ship. Trying to bring back foreign investment which supported policies which caused the ship to sink in the first place isn't going to keep it afloat. The economic pendulum is swinging towards all the people we've exploited over the past decades, so its going to be a rough ride for North Americans as they follow the depressive economic circles of the free market they themselves created.

At 1/2/09 01:25 AM, Snicp wrote: sorry for my offensive comment but your a fucking idiot
arabs will never stop the war all they trieing to do is to kill jews because thats what they god said to do
8 years those fuckers sent quasams to sderot every freakin day, israel is doin the right thing
but i dont think they will keep the way to the end because they care too much about the world opinion
in gaza strikes israel killed 90% terrorists, the accuracy of israeli missles are about centimiters
israel are not so stupid to strike every single civilian house in gaza, however arabs all they trying to aim is the civilian innocent people
in 2nd lebanon war israel told a hour before they attacked where they gonna aim, its arabs foult that they didnt do anything about it
i used to live in israel for 12 years with knowing that those fuckers can blow buses that i may sit on
arabs dont give a fuck about their civilians they using them for sacrificing and to show how israel is bad
or to make shaheeds from them to kill as many jews as they can, and after all that your saying that they are the good guys? shame on you

Heard of the occupations of Gaza and the West Bank? Yeah, its been going on for fourty years. It doesn't matter where they aim their missiles, its still in densely populated areas, and hundreds more people are being killed by Egypt and Israel's military blockade. Many more people will die from a lack of food, fresh water, and medical supplies because Israel has devoted its resources to starving all Palestinians in Gaza in a campaign of collective punishment. Haha, don't worry, Israel still kills many more Palestinian non-combatants than Hamas ever will (Israeli non-combatants, that is). I'm sure that if the vast majority of Palestinians weren't starving and/or impoverished they would be more than happy to launch of a conventional modern war against Israel.

You seem to completely ignore the territorial evictions sixty years ago, the land theft in the late sixties, all of the human rights abuses and war crimes/violations of the fourth geneva convention in occupied Palestinian territories (and the Palestinian children who were shot in refugee camps). Perhaps you should factor in the total history of Israel and the Palestinians in the past fourty years before you make your ignorant, sweeping denunciations. Its so easy for e-tards to conflate anti-zionism and anti-semitism, and to mindlessly defend an apartheid state which marginalizes, dehumanizes and suppresses all elements of Palestinian resistance.

You of all people should not be calling anyone an idiot, because its obvious you lack most of the most of the knowledge necessary to appropriately address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in its proper contect, as opposed to incoherently parroting the western bottom-line on the issue. If you actually lived in Israel for 12 years, then the zionist state must do a pretty good job keeping its citizens in an air-tight pro-Israel media bubble.

I have to agree with Mikalus, most Canadians know next to nothing about our own government. Hell, even Stephen Harper seems to have a tough time wrapping his mind around the idea of a parliamentary government.

I wouldn't go so far as to say most Canadians are stupid, only that the educational curriculums don't offer much to students. My civics class taught me next to nothing (the course itself is pretty empty and useless, since it doesn't really engage you in any way besides asking you for desired answers), and I did all of the work. It wasn't until I actually did some research, and read some information on fairvote that I possessed a better understanding of Canada's government. It seems like the government is following the US's example and is doing its best to intellectually dumb-down the youth. Thats why we throw 50 billion at the military when it could be used to build schools for native children who are taught in portables.

Its pretty hilarious that anyone could call Canadians free when we use a disproportionate FPTP voting system, which most of the world has already thrown into the trashcan (even the Americans have a more proportionate voting system than we do, which is pretty depressing [no offense to Americans]). However most people seem to believe that having a free-market system, and simply having the ability to vote, constitutes democracy. Its really depressing how the vast majority of North American social ideologies are economically irrelevent and spun on frivilous/immaterial points. For some reason the federal and provincial governments want to keep youth ignorant of the nature of their own government, and of contemporary economics/economic schools of thought.

Wow, its incredible how many people who have posted here are completely oblivious to most of the facts and the history behind the conflict between Palestinians and Israel. If you don't even know anything about the fourty year occupation, the territorial evictions and land theft, illegal settlements, the recent bombing of Gaza's only higher education facility and only the police stations located in highly population areas (however all of Gaza is highly populated, in relation to its size), then you should go back to watching Fox news. Also two little girls were bombed outside of

I don't blame North Americans though, since our media has taken the entire conflict out of context by censoring most of the crucial facts which would allow an observer to properly understand it in its proper context.

All the severely wounded civilians get to die slowly due to the fact that Gaza has already been starved of food and medicine by the blockade which was in place since before Christmas, and the fact that Israel is doing its best to choke off any incoming medical supplies or assistance (i.e Israel's attack on the Dignity, a clearly identified aid vessel). Also the fact that hundreds of civilians died due to the blockade alone, which was in place long before the expiration of the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. Almost half of their ambulances don't run because of a lack of fuel, over three quarters of their children are malnurished, and the UNRWA can't even deliver aid to civilians because Israel has closed all border crossings (as well as Egypt, the second largest receiver of US 'aid', while Israel is the first largest). Then there was the time early in December when Israel turned away a Libyan ship which was carrying 3000 tonnes food and blankets for the Palestinians of Gaza. Then also there was the 2 million dollars worth of cancer medication which was going to be delivered to Gaza by Qatar Charity and it too was turned away by Israel? I guess terrorists use life saving drugs, food, and supplies to build rockets eh?

Americans seem to have a double standard when it comes to brutal, four decade long occupations run by a state which ignores the fourth geneva convention. I find it incredible how North Americans think Palestinians hate democracy when they're under the thumb of a fourty year occupation and are fighting for the freedom of having a Palestinian, self-determined state. When China annexes Tibet it becomes a terrible thing but when Israel maintains a military occupation for decades its okay? When Russia attacks Georgia for brutally killing over 1500 South Ossetians it was a terrible thing, but when the US satellite Israel brutally attacks Gaza for a conflict which the Israeli government itself perpetuates, its suddenly okay. The brutal, racist agenda about legal and social segregation and illegal land seizure can easily be summed up as being wholly characteristic of an apartheid state. The North American media seems to act like the territorial evictions of the Palestians sixty years ago never took place, nor the land theft in the late sixties, nor the innumerable human rights abuses in Gaza and the West Bank.

Also groups like the Hamas in Gaza or Hezbollah in Lebanon were democratically elected; Mubarak of Egypt is not and he has also been instrumental in starving Gaza (btw Egypt is a US satellite).

Israel is one of the greatest defyers of UN resolutions, humans rights abuses, and war crimes.

How can Israel not be targeting civilians when its doing its best to starve them and intercept aid (it allows in bare subsistence aid, and only a quarter of the mandated minimum of medical supplies [100/400 types of medicines])? In the real world we call that collective punishment, which is prohibited by international law. Before the Israeli military campaign Gaza received most of its supplies from the few ngo's which were allowed through (or which defied the blockade, a member of one being Neta Golan who was arrested by Israel as she attempted to leave after successfully delivering aid to Gaza), and from the smuggling tunnels between Gaza and Egypt; now those tunnels have been collapsed by Israel and Egypt, and most ngo's are now being turned away or forcibly prevented from delivering their aid.

The IOF won't even let Palestinian fisherman go out more than 6 miles, when they are legally allowed to go out 20 miles. They pull in less than 500 tonnes of fish a year for an already impoverished and starving 1500000+ population because Israel ignores interim agreements in the pursuit of further oppressing and starving Palestinians. More than half of the Palestinians are living below the poverty line (absolute limit of subsistence),

Sure, Israel has the right to defend itself, but they've done more than enought in the past fourty years to warrant such actions taken by Palestinians; don't force a people into a severely oppressed position and them denounce and slaughter them for it. I'm sure if Gaza and the west bank weren't occupied, and their government was allowed to make self-determined decisions without the framework of the said occupation, and they received millions in military aid from the US like Israel does, they would gladly respond with something more than just rocket attacks for what they have suffered at the hands of Israel. As things stand though they're impoverished, have no professional army to speak for or defend them besides Hamas malitias, and the vast majority of the world ignores them and their plight.

Want the rocket attacks to end? Then Israel should put an end to its apartheid policies and the occupation of Palestinian lands. Its mind-blowing how the media demonizes Palestinians and completely neglects the mention the impetus for the rocket attacks, and concentrates on the rocket attacks themselves to cast Gazans into a specific light (one where Israel is the innocent victim against bloodthirsty terrorists). Israel makes peaceful resolution of the conflict impossible by itself refusing the create the conditions for a peaceful resolution. The Palestinians of Gaza have no voice beyond international observers and journalists, whose stories are ingored and censored by the western media anyway, so homemade rockets are their only alternative (since Israel takes every measure to protect itself from any possible incursion from the people they oppress). Palestinian resistance elements are forced into the position where they have to adopt tactics which are easy for us to brand as being 'terrorist' in nature, but Americans would do the exact same thing if they were placed in the exact same circumstances are the Palestinians of Gazan.