Who does Canada think it is?

The death penalty is barbaric. I am totally opposed to it on moral grounds.
This country needs to revisit it penal code and adjust it.

It was because of the U.S. failing to participate fully in the League of Nations, and the complete crushing of the German economy and people that World War II was inevitable. But typical of so many of my fellow U.S. citizens, you haven't a clue about real world history and politics.

If daddy Bush hadn't helped Saddam get the chemical weapons, he would have had the to use on his own people. And if the war criminal junior Bush hadn't invaded Iraq, and had stuck with the search for the Saudi citizens that attacked us, gas in North America would probably still be around $2.85 or $3.00, as Iraq would still be exporting "oil for food".

And maybe Afganistan wouldn't be exporting so much cheap heroin and binLaden would have been brought to justice by now. Instead he's hiding in Pakistan, stirring up jihad there, and trying to get control of their nukes. Oh, by the way, 15 of the 9/11 hijackers were SAUDI. Four were of unknown nationality. None were known to be Iraqi or Iranian.

I hope you continue to believe that after they cut off our oil supply. After all, we import more oil and natural gas, as well as electricity, from CANADA than from anywhere in the Middle East! Their hydro-electric plants (especially in Ontario and Quebec) power much of the north-east U.S., and their natural gas heats most of the same area. We also get most of our lumber from Canada, though that has changed some under CAFTA (the Canadian American Free Trade Agreement) which preceded NAFTA by several years. NAFTA was mostly about U.S. companies sending U.S. AND CANADIAN jobs to Mexico.

As someone who grew up less than a mile (as the crow flies) from the N.Y./Ontario border, and still lives less than a 100 mile drive from a border crossing, I am deeply offended by the way SOME U.S. "citizens" think of our neighbors to the North. I use the word citizens in quotes, because so many U.S. citizens show such a lack of citizenship it is appalling. And to our neighbors to the North, I offer an apology for the crude and revolting behavior of so many of my fellow "Americans".

1) Ol' Steve has lost 40 pounds and looks pretty sharp these days.
2) He hasn't lost a vote in Parliament that would precipitate an election. The Liberals don't really want an election ... Stephane Dion is a bright nice policy wonk who has no chops as a leader at all, so they're afraid to appear before the electorate with him at the helm.
Harper is ahead in the polls, but not enough to ensure that the next election brings him a majority.
Harper, you may know, brought in fixed election dates that will require another election four years to the day after the last one.
That means we can expect to go to the polls on Oct. 19 of next year, unless he loses the confidence of the House before then.

This is so completely off topic but then so is much of what we're talking about here:

I have strongly considered moving to Canada myself. I see it as the United States was about 1840; full of opportunities that haven't yet begun to be exploited. In the long term, Canada will be a superpower and I think it's a good idea to get in on that sort of thing early. The government doesn't begin to be perfect but I don't know of one that is.

Any free and single Canadian guys out there looking for a husbear?

See, if we had that whole, "loss of confidence thing," that parliaments have, we wouldn't be in the mess we're in now.

If a genie popped out of a bottle right now and I got four wishes, one of them would be to see Dubya doing a PM Questions & Answers period.

Once, just once. Oh man...

Thank you, husky.
We may bark a little, but I don't think the Americans have better friends on this green earth.

A superpower? Well, Jason, I can't quite believe that myself.
But I like your remarks anyway.

That'd be Question Period.
Wouldn't be pretty.
They act like a bunch of goons.
(I sometimes think bringing in the television cameras was the worst thing any Canadian government ever did to the institution of Parliament.)

I kind of like this idea of the Canadian superpower, hadn't thought of it due to Chinese interference-running, although might like to move to Taiwan if the Reds don't nuke it. true Chinese culture. But very fond of Toronto, no such thing in U.S. as that clean a major city.

Less a failure to participate fully than not even joining at all (refusal to ratify the Versailles Treaty) would be a better description. As for the complete 'crushing of the German people and economy' I'm not sure I agree, hardly any reparations were ever paid and many argued that the Versailles Treaty didn't go nearly far enough, the US wasn't one of them. Had the US added it's new found strength I think WWII may have been delayed but probably not avoided, arguably it's as well it happened when it did, i.e. before the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

The root causes were the same as those underlying World War I, or more accurately the failure to properly tie up loose ends at its end meant WWII was inevitable. Simmering resentment among a number of nations, policies of nationalism, isolationism and appeasement by European powers (and the US) in the 1930s were all major factors but WWII was fundamentally a European problem.

Wilson tried to get his 14 point plan adopted, but he was but one voice. The allies were out for revenge. It's not entirely fair to place blame solely on the US' shoulders.

This thread has more tangents than a geometry class!

Señor Rubirosa (any relation to the polo-playing Dominican playboy with the same name in the 1950's who possessed a world famous schlong?):

Thanks for clearing up the S. Harper issue. And I'm glad husky pointedly pointed out that "Oh, Canada!" is the USA's biggest supermarket for buying petroleum and electricity.

Now, if the Canadian Navy would just stop buying the UK's old, leaky diesel propelled submarines, the oil slicks off of New Foundland änd Nova Scoita just might clear up.

"Et ta valeur, de foi trempée,
Protégera nos foyers et nos droits.

He was my paternal granddick.
(Actually, no ... I thought initially I would be on the board for two weeks or so, and when I realized that I would have to choose a name, that one just popped into mind. But we both have 27 ever-throbbin' centipedes.)

It's an important point -- and reason why Canada hasn't a great deal to fear from any reopening of the NAFTA. We have a lot of leverage.
But did you realize that the U.S., for all its energy woes, is the third largest producer of oil in the world? Not many people seem to know that.
And you're by no means stragglers behind numbers one and two ... Saudi Arabia produces 10.66 million barrels a day; Russia, 9.67 mbd; and Merka, 8.49 mbd.
We in Canada, back at number seven, produce only a bit more than a third of the oil you do, 3.36 million ... but of course, to our mutual advantage, much of that is for export since our economy is so much smaller than yours.

Once bitten, twice shy, I hope.
(BTW, mlb ... Newfoundland is one word.(:-{ }) )

"Thy valour, steeped in faith,
Will protect our homes and our rights."
I'm impressed, mlb.
Not many Canadian anglos, much less American ones, know the French words to O! Canada.

Apropos of nothing, I once lived on a street in Old Quebec City where either Calixa Lavallee, the composer, or Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier, the lyricist, lived.
I don't remember which, so I've lost the details of my near brush with greatness.
Dommage!

It was such a shock to learn that Alberta was not named after prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Right.
It was named after Princess Louise (Caroline Alberta), after whom Lake Louise was also named.
Her husband, Lord Lorne, one of our 19th C. Governors-General, was alleged to have been a 'friend of Dorothy,' in advance of the expression finding its current meaning.
I can assure you there are currently no friends of Dorothy in the province of Alberta (I, for example, left decades ago), and the president of Iran will back me up.

I thought Canadians were supposed to rank on Newfies. What's up with the hate for Alberta?

Hate? Hate?
I'm sorry, sir ... you confuse me.