Canada and government

[Cman]

Alberta pisses me off primarily because all they have to pay is GST, while I'm stuck paying 15% HST

 

[singhr]

are you going to do what the ND party suggests and donate it to a charity or have a few beer on Ralph

Beer!! Actually I don't really have any plans for it yet.

Alberta pisses me off primarily because all they have to pay is GST, while I'm stuck paying 15% HST

I guess if Harper makes it in it'll be 6% GST and then down to 5% in another 3 or 4 years..

 

[Iceberg]

Harper's plans for cutting the GST is ridiculous.

It will not save the "average" household $400 per year. In reality, it will save the upper-classes far more than it will the lower-classes and will end up widening the gap between rich and poor. This is because the lower-class cannot afford to purchase more than just the essentials. However, members of the upper-class spend a lot on items which fall under GST taxation.

Even economists are heavily critical of this plan:

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canadavotes2006/national/2005/12/01/gst-reac051201.html

 

[Cman]

And it probably won't help the provinces that have HST anyway, since its not GST + PST, its just a straight 15%, unless they were to make it lower than 15

 

[singhr]

And it probably won't help the provinces that have HST anyway, since its not GST + PST, its just a straight 15%, unless they were to make it lower than 15

Oh geeze I didn't realize that. I used to live in BC and was used to whole GST+PST thing. I had heard about HST but on on my T1 form when doing my taxes. So do you guys have to pay the 15% HST and also GST?

 

[Cman]

we pay 15% on most things like electronics and cars and stuff, luxuries i guess you could say, and just the 7% GST on a few things.

 

[Iceberg]

An interesting survey of personal opinion. This site gives you a decent analysis of who you would vote for in the upcoming election:

http://www.votebyissue.org/cbc/

Two sites which show how out of the loop Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party is:

http://www.domainbaron.com/Stephen_Harper_warning.html

http://www.intheirownwords.ca/index.html

 

[cableguy]

according to that quiz, i would be a confused canadian... i must say that there were about a dozen or so questions that were worded quite poorly, leaving me with part agreement, part disagreement, or demanding i support a position i could not... here are my results..

gilles dusceppe--agreed on 5, disagreed on 7
paul martin--agreed on 6, disagreed on 6
jack layton--agreed on 1, disagreed on 11
stephen harper--agreed on 10, disagreed on 2

all the candidates seem to agree on employment insurance and parliamentary reform, so i dont know why those were included on the quiz...

iceberg, somewhere, there is a website devoted to the nutty things canadian liberals say... you know that, i hope...

also, if the nut on the domainbaron link is your spokesman and biggest reason for voting against harper, well, you can have him... please...

 

[Cman]

gilles dusceppe--agreed on 5, disagreed on 7
paul martin--agreed on 6, disagreed on 6
jack layton--agreed on 1, disagreed on 11
stephen harper--agreed on 10, disagreed on 2

an american agrees with the right wing candidate and disagrees with the left wing???

THATS INSANE!!!! THE WORLD HAS GONE TOPSY TURVY!! :crazy:

ahem... sorry.

anything that any canadian says is nothing compared to dubya LOL

 

[Seanobi]

How small is the Libertarian party up there? I would hate to think it's just Neal Peart by his lonesome.

 

[cableguy]

cman, all i did was take my current views on things, and note a few practical differences between the US and Canada, then i answered each question as if i were a non-quebec citizen of your nation who doesnt speak french, never will, and believes that a seperate quebec is easier bombed than one that is part of Canada...

you see, i like my guns, i like my private health care, i like prosperity and limited government... no matter where i am, i will champion lower taxes... as you can see by the split on the first two candidates, i apparently have elements of those parties in my beliefs as well...

I HAVE NO POLITICAL PARTY!!!!!

 

[Cman]

I don't agree with everything the government does and there are a lot of things I would like to see changed. I'm sure everyone in the world feels that way about their government.

The one thing I do believe in is respecting the right of a foreign soverign nation to organize their country however their want*. Something that the US clearly doesn't agree with.


*assuming it complies with Geneva and all that crap.

 

[Iceberg]

Cman, I completely concur! :canada:

 

[cableguy]

then both of you shut the hell up about how MY country is organized!!!

cman, what aspect of which geneva what are you referring to?? and actually, what in general are you referring to?? one could easily take that to mean that you are against all dictators not democratically elected... in all honesty, in promoting democracy, or self government, the US is doing more to achieve your stated desires...

either i misread, you mistyped, or there is a serious misunderstanding here...

 

[Cman]

i'm not even going to get started on how your mission and even your country itself is NOT a democracy in the first place (by definition) because it would take far too much effort and i'm lazy.

so do this instead. look up the definition of the word democracy in the dictionary, then compare it with what you're doing. its not the same. but like i said, i'm not going to argue.

(the US is closer to a Roman-esque republic than it is a true democracy. a 100% democracy, like any political system, is impossible thanks to the faults of human nature. same with strict communism, which also doesn't work in practice. and no i'm not comparing them)

 

[cableguy]

cman, my government is a representative republic... this is commonly, and mistakenly, referred to as a democracy... its somewhat like calling all adhesive bandages band-aids... not the correct term, but everyone knows what you are talking about... i am aware of all of this, and you are right about all of what you said...

when people refer to a democracy (in general), they are referring to the process of the citizens of a country picking their government by way of a popular vote (or something based on a popular vote)...
by popular definition, your government could be called a democracy, even though it is a cross between a republic and a client state of a monarchy...

in any case, what happened yesterday in iraq was a democratic election of a government... this came about because a dictator was booted out... are you making the case that dictatorships are not only legitimate governments, but something that should be upheld as a goal that other nations could do well to emulate??

 

[Cman]

oh, i'll give you the "everyone knows what you're talking about" argument. i guess thats right. i'm a sucker for semantics LOL

 

[cableguy]

there seems to be a bad case of that going around here... its ok, happens to everyone once in a while...