CanPol: Thread of the Year Edition

[Tingkai]

The Leopard tanks will go out of service around 2010.

They'll be replaced by a "mobile gun system" which is a 105mm gun stuck on top of a eight-wheeled LAVIII.

The only advantage of the MGS is that it can be airlifted. The Leopards and other MBTs cannot, unless we buy something like the C-17 (the Leopard is too heavy for the airbus A400M).

The downside of the MGS is that it can't stand up to much because of lack of armor.

[notyoueither]

The claws are out.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canadavotes2006/national/2006/01/04/harper-patriotism060104.html

Harper questions Martin's commitment to Canada
Last Updated Wed, 04 Jan 2006 18:28:09 EST
CBC News
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper questioned Paul Martin's commitment to Canada, a day after the Liberal leader slammed Harper's values regarding Canada.

Following an announcement on immigration, Harper raised the issue of loyalty to Canada. He said Canadian Steamship Lines, the company owned by Martin's family, registers its ships in foreign countries and avoids paying Canadian taxes.

"I don't know any party leader in the history of this country, other than Mr. Martin, who ever aspired to be prime minister who ran his life under the flag of Barbados and Liberia and tried to avoid paying taxes in this country. That's Mr. Martin's record on his love of Canada."

Harper was responding to comments made by Martin on Tuesday, who said that when Harper discusses Canada, it's to talk about what he views as its failings.

"I see a Canada I'm proud of, a nation I believe to be a model to the world, but Mr. Harper speaks of how our country comes up short in his eyes," Martin said during a speech Tuesday.

"Mr. Martin has questioned my patriotism," Harper said Wednesday. "The fact is Mr. Martin lived a good deal of his professional life under the flags of other countries and Mr. Martin constantly tried – and was successful, I gather – at avoiding paying taxes in Canada. That's the record.

"Mr. Martin wants a debate about patriotism. I'll put the facts in front of the Canadian people and they can judge."

But Martin said Wednesday his attacks against Harper aren't personal.

"I'm not quite sure why he makes it personal. It's not. It is a fundamental difference in value systems."

Martin also made no excuses for how he ran his former company. The company is now being run by Martin's three sons.

"I am very proud of having started with a small Canadian company which today builds most of its ships in Canada, has probably built most of its private ships in Canada in the last number of years, has the majority of its employees who are Canadian and has its head office in Canada. Yet it operates around the world.

"In fact, I think that's what we want to see Canadian companies do."

[notyoueither]

Campaigning against himself? Would a long lived Mulroney have proclaimed 'axe da tax'?

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canadavotes2006/national/2006/01/03/martin-immig060103.html

Martin to scrap immigration fee
Last Updated Tue, 03 Jan 2006 22:06:19 EST
CBC News
Liberal Leader Paul Martin will pledge to kill a costly immigration landing fee in an effort to lock in the traditional support of new Canadians.

Martin announced during a campaign stop in B.C. Tuesday that he will roll back the $975 fee if he is re-elected in the Jan. 23 election.

"For many Canadian families with immediate relatives overseas, one of the challenges that they have faced is the $975 right of permanent residence fee," he said.

In 2000, refugee claimants were exempted as well.

The government had claimed the fee was imposed to cover costs associated with processing applications. Yet opponents criticized the fee, saying it was a money grab.

Martin made the announcement in an area where large blocs of Asian-Canadian voters could make the difference in several key ridings in the Jan. 23 election.

The landing fee will be phased out over the next three years. The fee will drop immediately to $600, then to $300 after 12 months, and finally to zero within the next two budgets.

The fee was introduced by the Liberal government in 1995 and applied to adult immigrants. But children and orphaned relatives applying for immigration were exempt from paying the fee.

[notyoueither]

For all of us.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canadavotes2006/national/2006/01/04/election-results060104.html

Media organizations seek suspension of election gag law
Last Updated Wed, 04 Jan 2006 22:23:10 EST
CBC News
A group of media organizations, including the CBC, has filed a motion to lift a publication ban on voting results for the upcoming federal election.

The election gag law, in effect for the Jan. 23 vote, prevents results from being released until all polls across the country are closed. The media wants it lifted so results can be broadcast as soon as they become available.

In a motion filed in the Supreme Court of Canada Wednesday, various media outlets wrote that any impact on other voters would be minimal and should "not justify infringing the expression rights of literally several millions of Canadians.

"[The ban]] should strike any reasonable person as being extremely harmful to the public good and interest."

B.C. resident Paul Bryan deliberately broke the election gag law during the 2000 federal election.

He posted results from Atlantic Canada on his website before polls closed in B.C. He was convicted in provincial court and fined $1,000.

The conviction was overturned in 2003 by the B.C. Supreme Court, which struck down the gag law section of the Canada Elections Act.

That allowed media companies in the 2004 election to tell voters in Western Canada what the results were elsewhere while polling stations in B.C. were still collecting ballots.

In May of this year, the B.C. Court of Appeal reversed the lower court's decision and upheld the ban, saying it promotes fairness and ensures all voters receive equal treatment on election day.

But the media's motion says the ban is meaningless because it doesn't cover those who can telephone or text message.

As for a perceived information imbalance, it argues that all voters are subjected to different levels of information throughout the campaign.

The motion also argues that there are staggered voting hours, meaning there are less than 30 minutes between the closing of the polls in the Central-Prairie region and B.C. and would have little impact on voting patterns.

For example, when the polls closed in B.C. in 2004, only 8.4 per cent of the votes cast across the rest of the country had been reported .

In an affidavit, CBC News Editor in Chief Tony Burman wrote that news organizations "will have to deny Canadians what they know and give them news for up to three hours on the basis of news judgments that are...constrained by the Canadian Elections Act."

He said the ban will have a "huge and quite detrimental effect on societal communication at a key moment in the life of a democracy.

Go media! I want to watch the results on CBC and CTV, not have to scrounge the internet to find out what's going on in the Maritimes.

[notyoueither]

If you want balanced reports of polling, keep polls open in the ETZ and ATZ til 11PM and close them an hour earlier as the zones wash across the country (10PM in CTZ, 9PM in MTZ, etc.).

They would close at 8PM in BC, and the ballots from Quebec City to Victoria could be counted at the same time.

Also, enforce laws allowing time off for voting, or go so far as to ban businesses opening before noon or 2PM on federal election days.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by notyoueither
For all of us.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canadavotes2006/national/2006/01/04/election-results060104.html

Media organizations seek suspension of election gag law
Last Updated Wed, 04 Jan 2006 22:23:10 EST
CBC News
A group of media organizations, including the CBC, has filed a motion to lift a publication ban on voting results for the upcoming federal election.

The election gag law, in effect for the Jan. 23 vote, prevents results from being released until all polls across the country are closed. The media wants it lifted so results can be broadcast as soon as they become available.

In a motion filed in the Supreme Court of Canada Wednesday, various media outlets wrote that any impact on other voters would be minimal and should "not justify infringing the expression rights of literally several millions of Canadians.

"[The ban]] should strike any reasonable person as being extremely harmful to the public good and interest."

B.C. resident Paul Bryan deliberately broke the election gag law during the 2000 federal election.

He posted results from Atlantic Canada on his website before polls closed in B.C. He was convicted in provincial court and fined $1,000.

The conviction was overturned in 2003 by the B.C. Supreme Court, which struck down the gag law section of the Canada Elections Act.

That allowed media companies in the 2004 election to tell voters in Western Canada what the results were elsewhere while polling stations in B.C. were still collecting ballots.

In May of this year, the B.C. Court of Appeal reversed the lower court's decision and upheld the ban, saying it promotes fairness and ensures all voters receive equal treatment on election day.

But the media's motion says the ban is meaningless because it doesn't cover those who can telephone or text message.

As for a perceived information imbalance, it argues that all voters are subjected to different levels of information throughout the campaign.

The motion also argues that there are staggered voting hours, meaning there are less than 30 minutes between the closing of the polls in the Central-Prairie region and B.C. and would have little impact on voting patterns.

For example, when the polls closed in B.C. in 2004, only 8.4 per cent of the votes cast across the rest of the country had been reported .

In an affidavit, CBC News Editor in Chief Tony Burman wrote that news organizations "will have to deny Canadians what they know and give them news for up to three hours on the basis of news judgments that are...constrained by the Canadian Elections Act."

He said the ban will have a "huge and quite detrimental effect on societal communication at a key moment in the life of a democracy.

Go media! I want to watch the results on CBC and CTV, not have to scrounge the internet to find out what's going on in the Maritimes.

**** that. The election gag law is a reasonable precaution to prevent people in the West from voting based on additional knowledge simply because they live in a different time zone.

If the gag law goes down then you're going to have to vote before 5 pm while we'll only get to start voting at noon.

**** that ****.

A ****ing 3 hour delay in reporting isn't going to undermine the fabric of a free society.

[notyoueither]

No one's going to stop us from knowing what is going on. That is the point. The gag law belongs on the trash heap of bygone eras. Time to come up with a different solution.

[notyoueither]

A ****ing 3 hour delay in reporting isn't going to undermine the fabric of a free society.

A three hour delay in information in an open society is more tolerable than a one hour delay in traffic?

[KrazyHorse]

It's such a nice solution, though.

The other obvious solution is to keep polling hours the same but only start counting after all polls close. But that ****s volunteers in the East.

[notyoueither]

Ouch. People in the east will be inconveneinced. Oh the horror!

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by notyoueither

A ****ing 3 hour delay in reporting isn't going to undermine the fabric of a free society.

A three hour delay in information in a democracy is more tolerable than a one hour delay in traffic?

Yes.

Especially because I consider the democratic process more important than I do unreasonable fears about some politician's safety.

Plus I'd get a hell of a lot more pissed off sitting in traffic than I would because I have to wait until 9 to see the results from the ridings east of me.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by notyoueither
Ouch. People in the east will be inconveneinced. Oh the horror!

I'm sure that it'll be easy to recruit volunteers in Nfld when you tell them that they can only start counting at ****ing 2 am.

[notyoueither]

DaSed you, but no need to panic. I originally said 'democracy'.

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse




I'm sure that it'll be easy to recruit volunteers in Nfld when you tell them that they can only start counting at ****ing 2 am.

11:30.

And it is surprising how little time it takes. I was very late to vote not long ago and was asked to stay behind as a witness for my poll. It was all done and over in 30 minutes.

[KrazyHorse]

**** it. The clowns in BC should just get 5.5 hours less voting time than the poor sods on the rock.

Can't make it to the station by 3:30 p.m.? **** you, you lazy hippie scum.