Canada: We like being 'un-American'

[dArKeR]

By Randall Palmer

Stratford, Prince Edward Island - After pledging to develop a more sophisticated relationship with the United States, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin defined his election platform on Monday largely as being un-American.

The Liberal leader appeared to cast aside his record as a tax-cutter and declared Canada could not afford large tax reductions but would instead pour money into health and social programmes under his leadership.

"We are different than the United States. We want to be different than the United States. We want to be Canada, and we are Canadians and we're very proud of it," he told a rally on the first full day of his campaign for election on June 28.

http://iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=3&art_id=qw1085420701894B253&set_id=1

[achtung_circus]

1. Bottom line, you can pay for your health care through taxation

or you can pay as you go, if you can afford it or have a job with benefits. When I get sick I don't need to check the balance in my account or on my credit card.

[Village Idiot]

2. There is no way in HELL

that this guy is ever going to get elected.

Go Harper! CPC Rules!

[Screaming Lord Byron]

11. LOL! You almost sounded serious, there. Scary.

[cyclezealot]

3. If I were Canadian I would vote NDP.

Polls right now show NDP at one of the highest percentages in decades? Martin..what a change of face...Earlier he was cozzing up to Bush with his Missle shild fiasco. Reports from Canada said Martin was wanting to be with Bushie on something due to Iraq differences...Actually Canadian business was pressuring Martin over Trade issues...
I can't believe this story to be true since the Libearals have been sacking Healthcare for years..What pols will do with a turn about in order to get elected..
Glad Canada feels a need to be different..They should.

[ArkDem]

4. Wow! Canada and sophisticated in the same sentence!

:evilgrin:

[Minstrel Boy]

5. Arkansas, eh?

You know what they say, about people who live in glass trailers.

[Zhade]

7. GLASS TRAILERS! HAHAHAHAHA!

Oh, man, that's excellent.

:evilgrin:

[0007]

15. That's better than dragging a hundred dollar bill through a trailer park

[Spazito]

6. Good, Martin is listening to Canadians...

80% despise bush and most support our universal healthcare system. Harper IS bush in all aspects. He would have had Canadian troops in Iraq in a heartbeat, cut taxes for the rich. The faux Conservatives will never be the governing party, Canadians are too smart and have seen what would happen if they were ever elected.

[Minstrel Boy]

8. He knows it plays well in a campaign.

I'm unpersuaded that he'd govern accordingly. Need a bunch o' NDPers there to keep his feet to the lefty fire. :)

[Spazito]

13. LOL don't disagree there...

I could handle a minority Liberal government with the NDP holding the balance of power providing the NDP were wise enough to work with the Liberals and not bring the government down on an issue that is not paramount to Canadians.

[CHIMO]

10. Of Course

It's election time.
If he was so good with health care then he shouldn't have cut it to the bone. Now he comes out with 3,000,000,000 after telling us that money is not the only solution. Well what is the rest of the story?

Our defense minister happens to support star wars.

The Liberals have no more left wing. They have all the big consultants from the bean counters' life as finance minster.

Martin is P. Manning ten years ago. It is now 2004.

[Spazito]

14. You forget the state the great Mulroney left Canada in...

our financial standing was in ruins, massive deficit. There was NO money to pay for social programs. Martin took us from financial disaster to financial security. We are now top in the G8 with a triple A rating. The money will go into healthcare, I have no doubt, because it is the #1 priority with the Canadian people. Manning was a failed preacher, simple as that.

[CHIMO]

16. Sounds Like A Reformer to Me

Money will not solve the medicare problem. This is what we continually hear.
Martin is to meet with the medicare owners this summer to solve the problem.
We are the payers. We want to know how he proposes to solve the problems that the providers are having. One gets a bit tired of passing the buck back and forth. If he wants to implement the Romanow report then come out and say it. If he wants to implement the Maz report then come out and say it. If he wants a combination of both then come out and say it.
We know where Harper stands and I know where the NDP used to stand.
How does he propose to solve the problem.

I would also point out that Irish eyes did not decimate the PC's on deficits alone. It was arrogance, corruption, GST, NAFTA and nationalosm.
I have seen the Liberals routed by Dief when no one thought he would have a majority.

[Spazito]

17. Yes, I agree with you on that, he should state he is supporting

the Romanow or the Mazinkowski report or a combination of both, no argument from me on that. He isn't the one to solve the problem but he does have to put into place the impetus for others to solve it. We know Harper won't, he will privatize it, Americanize it. The BQ couldn't care less about it and I am not sure what the NDP position is on it, to be honest, I must check that out. RE the PCs, yes it was all that, my point was strictly on why social programs were cut by Martin, it was because of the deficits.

[CHIMO]

18. He Was A Good

Technician.
The leader was the one who set the course.
Now he wants to accept all the roses for cutting the deficit and at the same time not acknowledge the person who permitted him the leeway to implement the plan. In the same vein he is going to solve medicare when he was the cause of the original deficit by reducing the funds and transfering tax points to the provinces.

So, How is he going to solve this one problem that we have been batteling for a decade. Medicare.

After this election we will solve the next problem. The only time politicans listen is at election time and this is one issue that needs solving now.

[Spazito]

19. LOL You lost me...

first you say it can't be solved by throwing money at it and then you say he caused it by cutting money from medicare. Which is it? HE can't solve it singlehandedly, just like past PMs couldn't, it is putting in place the environment that allows others with expertise to solve it. Bottom line, universal healthcare will never be perfect, it will always be a problem but it is better than any other system of care.

[CHIMO]

21. I Didn't

Say it couldn't be solved by throwing money at it. The politicans use that term to cop out.
If you looked at the reason that the premiers are backing out of medicare, their reason is that they can't afford it. It was an agreement from the federal government to pay somewhere around 50%. The federal government, a few years back, when Martin was Minister of finance, reduced the funding for medicare and other social programs and in return gave the provinces tax points. Guess what. The provinces took the tax points and say that Ottawa isn't providing enough funding.
How is Martin going to solve the problem. I am not interested in hearing that it will be decided in meetings. If he wants me to consider the Liberal candidate in my riding, then I want to know.
Is he going to implement the Romanow report.
Simple yes or no.

[Zomby Woof]

9. one set of my great-great-great grandparents was Canadian

I wish that were enough to switch citizenship and residency.

[cyclezealot]

12. My dad was Canadian by birth.

Think I had rights to Canadian citizenship..Missed opportunites..But then they have no Mediterranean climates to move to...What there was talk they might annex some Carribean island somewhere.?

[Hand]

20. Turks and Caicos...

Apparently true; there's been some talk of these Caribbean islands joining Canada. Seriously... weird, huh?

:silly:

[ConcernedCanuk]

22. hmmm - such a "polite" bit*ch-slap !

.
.
.

"I'm not attacking the United States," he told reporters. "Just because we share a continent with the United States and just because they are our closest friends doesn't mean we don't have Canadian interests and Canadian perspectives."
_____________________________________________________________

Personally, I will be voting NDP, but it is most likely that the Liberals will form the government.

Gawd help us if that two-faced war supporting Harper forms the government

he'd crawl righ up the BoyKings' - well - uknow - where the sun don't shine - -


HARPER'S COMMENTS





"Mr.Harper’s quotes aren’t random musings or slips of the tongue. He’s held extreme views for a long time – as the head of the far right wing National Citizen’s Coalition, and as a former Alliance Party member"

http://www.stephenharpersaid.ca/

We don't need no right-wing radicals running our country, bad enuf we have them to the south!