save our salmon? we had one

save our salmon? we had one of the largest sockeye return on history... we don't need whining, we need research.

"To my admittedly biased eye, there are two issues before us that can and should be dealt with -- energy and its twin, the environment. What makes these issues so critical is that unlike the other issues above, something can be done and the failure to do anything will have immediate and devastating impacts -- and the damage is forever."
-Do you recommend a swap to uranium? coal based energy? Natural gas fracs? Solar Power- Rafe! these are all extreme costs to the environment. Nothing comes out of the ground without serious environmental reprecussions. In our current status, we rely on Oil for power, power in vehicles, heating in homes and hydrocarbons in manufacturing and production.
"n fact, a never-ending risk is not a risk anymore, but a certainty waiting to happen. Worse than that, the bitumen is hugely destructive and all but impossible to control, as we saw last year with Enbridge's spill into the Kalamazoo River and with the Exxon Valdez. Enbridge has an appalling record, and wants approval to transport their bitumen across over 1,000 kilometres of our land, crossing more than 1,000 rivers and streams, then down our hugely dangerous coast." - Have you at any point discussed with the executives of this project on the project dynamics? Can you present a company that has a better record when it comes to hyrdocarbon contaminants? Have you ever seen or heard of the kinder morgan pipeline, which is operating at almost 100% over capacity? does that not scream imminent failure?
OK- lets not really go into this - should we swap to uranium then? how about flat top coal removal?
you need to get it right, there is no environmentally sound decision (yet) when it comes to energy production. The only sound practice would be to stop consumption, that would drive the demand curve down and supply would naturally follow. do you think BP wanted to have the gulf well blow up, absolutely not. If you want publicly traded corporations to demonstrate environmental fitness, its time to assert intelligence upon the shareholders, as they control (by voting, AGMS) the executive outcome of profits.
My final question is this - where on earth do you think your computer came from?

I Won't Be Voting Conservative Either

Nope not a chance. Good article today. Let's hope that it inspires readers to cast their ballot today. I have never been good at predicting the outcome of an election but it looks like some changes are coming to Ottawa and I for one can hardly wait. It'll be interesting to see the final results when all the ballots are counted, get out and vote Canada!

Not a Chance Steve

When you cast your vote today, you will be hiring a CEO to "run the company".

Harper is on the shortlist of candidates because of his resume achievements - his apparent technical skill in managing a large operation. Plus, he says all the right things about growth, efficiency and profits.

But would you hire a person with such extreme and obvious personality shortcomings?

Not even his closest colleagues and advisors can stand the man, describing him as a cold, calculating control freak with an irrational hatred of the competition; a man who will do anything and say anything in order to win.

In his previous position, he divided the organization almost beyond repair, alienated shareholders and employees alike, and damaged the brand in markets around the world.

So, is that the guy you would hire to run your company?

Not me. Not a chance in hell.

I liked the bumper

I liked the bumper sticker"Real fish don't eat pellets" almost as much as the decision that Intelligent thinking people don't vote Conservative.

Giving the cons a majority government is my worst fear.

Say Nay to Lizzie May

Any support for the the Green party especially Lizzie May, in Saanich, is a huge strategic error.

If she wins a seat automatically the Green's move from the 6% territory nationally into the 10%-15% or so area with the legitimacy of a Parliamentary seat.

This bunch of worthless malcontents who don't play well with others including vastly more qualified environmentalists who have done such great work on influencing the Liberal and NDP parties, will then split the progressive vote into such tiny splinters that the Canada will be under fascist rule into the next century.

Better one seat lost to the fascists in this battle than losing the war for the next 100 years.

Say Yay to Lizzie

As per usual, "Seth" you don't back up your malodorous piffle with even a mote of evidence.

The Green party remains far and away the party with the deepest integrity on any issue pertinent to sustainability - renewable energy, conservation, biodiversity protection, waste and C-footprint reduction, etc. The other parties don't mention these issues (Harper is openly contemptuous of them, Ignatief ignores them, Layton recites over them but offers no deeper commitment [and one does well to remember that it was Layton who sent Paul Martin's minority gov't to the showers, after collapsing an enviro vote in the H of C]).

So, at the end of the day, any voter who is significantly interested in advancing renewable energy, conservation, biodiversity protection, waste and C-footprint reduction should recognize the reward the Green Party.
- michael maser

What if he won't go?

Harper is in trouble!, and will be petulant he didn't get his majority.
Even amongst his supporters he is know as a megalomaniac with excessive authoritarian tendencies, common traits in dictators everywhere.
He holds parliament and democracy in contempt.

[ADVOCATING VIOLENCE, EVEN APPARENTLY IN JEST, IS NOT ALLOWED IN THE TYEE FORUM. COMMENT REMOVED. -MODERATOR.]

Good one Rafe! I agree.

I heard Harper this morning on the CBC tear into the NDP about taxes. All the NDP wants to do is raise taxes for social programs and the Conservatives want to boost investment by lowering taxes. He went on and on and I began to wonder how he was going to pay for those fighter jets and prisons. But before I could fully get a fix on the message that he seemed to be giving, you know that the Conservative party was going to pay for them, it hit me. He was going to pay for that with out taxes. Oh the dishonesty that only the NDP uses taxes.

thinking

not much thinking needs to be done.

any reasonable research on harper will reveal questions about his honesty and sincerity.

like 'does he understand the concept, at all?'

of course, he does understand, but chooses to behave otherwise.

he is a control freak who has the rcmp eject citizens from public rallies.

and as rafe has mentioned, often, he even wants fish to march in lockstep.

but he did not discover the criminal records of a man who became a close adviser.

the bullshit meter needle in my head bends around the post, at the far end.

as for the mainstream media, remember the province editorial on the eve of the campbell landslide, promising campbell was the best for bc.

they still think that, and they believe the same of harper for canada.

they also believe, because they have done surveys, that canadian voters are as apathetic as their subscribers, and will take whatever they are given, as long as they are not made to think about it.

they back losers, it would seem.

generally, canadians flock to the polls only when they are disgusted with the current govt, and stay home when they are satisfied.

we only show up when we want to change the govt, because they have displeased us, even when the object of our hate has already stepped down.

trudeau, chretien, mulroney, van der zalm, glen clark, all quit, but their friends were shitkicked in the next election, with two faced jean, and lyin brian, smilin bill,and control freak glen presiding over the ruination of their parties.

with any luck, gordocchio will join that group for all of history.

i do not understand why the economy should be the only issue, nor why harper claims he is the hero responsible for canada not becoming bankrupt.

even if he is, given his personality, he should be finance minister, or an adviser.

who would put their accountant in charge of their healthcare, education, their professional policies, or the environment?

hope the large turnout means what it has in the past...

out with the current.

personally i do not even care who gets in, as long as it is not a harper majority.

i think a minority would be best for canadians, as it would hopefully foster an age of cooperation for the good of all, rather than the all or nothing attitude of harperism.

jack would be the best pm, as he is the most open to ideas, and dose not have the vitriole

oops

sorry wrong button.

jack does not have the vitriolic personality and hate for his colleagues who disagree with him, like harper does.

harper will likely quit if he cannot be the boss, so that will be another gain for canada.

the libs are messed up and disorganized. the chretien/martin feud is still on.
now their integrity is attacked again with the claim they leaked the massage parlor story.

anyone but conservative.

British Columbia has

British Columbia has issues
========

Yet most still vote for the likes of Gordo and Stevie...

Bring on the COALITION
=======

Unfortunately the only coalition will be a lib-con one or the libs will just back the cons. The libs are not willing to work with NDP. http://hilltimes.com/page/view/legislation-05-02-2011 down near bottom.

**The lobbyist agreed, saying rather than allow Mr. Layton to become the Prime Minister in a coalition government, the Liberals would rather work with the Conservatives while they rebuild. "If the NDP came second, boy does that put the Liberals in a spot. The Liberals may decide on some kind of working arrangement based on clear policy arrangements with the Tories, as opposed to putting Jack Layton at 24 Sussex.**

Don't forget it is the Liberal Parties fault we still have Harper, he would of been kicked out if the Libs would of gone coalition route and do not forget the libs almost always backed Harper. The liberals are still a selfish entitled arrogant party and hopefully (I doubt it) if they get wiped out it will teach them a lesson...

Right-on Rafe (yes, right, but not Right)

Rafe, I'm not sure if you've been reading my blogs or I yours, and Alex Morton, on fish farms, or Maude Barlow on fresh water, or...

I gave up reading the V Sun in the Glen Clark 90s, when a Fraser Inst. report that promoted the sell-off of profitable Crown Corps., promotion of what later became known as P3s and depowering unions like the HEU, was plastered all over the Front Page, instead of P.3 of the business section, where it belonged.

Schemeboat, one great Sockeye run does not a healthy salmon population or viable wild fish industry make, any more than one cold, La Nina winter eliminate global warming. Please check out the Coho, Chum, Pink and Chinook catches, this year and past.

Yes we currently use too much fossil fuel, be it sweet crude, bitumen, fracked gas or bituminous coal. Nuclear may be even a worse monster.

Those nations that practice the precautionary principle, rather than the highly flawed, risk assessment system, are also using fossil fuel to wean themselves off fossil fuel, be it solar, wind, passive or active geothermal, hydro, wave or tidal power, whatever works best locally or regionally, rather than centrally controlled. We'll use oil for a long time, but hopefully not to burn, except in flight, as there are no options at this time.

Canada must join those nations that are moving as quickly as possible toward renewables, instead of dragging their feet, essentially for fossil fuel corps. profits.

Maintaining the status quo, or worse yet, the expansion of fossil fuels for energy use, is suicidal.

Back to Politics and elections

Like former Nfld. premier, Danny Williams, I am ABC.

The economy is very important, but not prime. If that were the case, we should follow the lead of China or Saudi Arabia. I don't think most of us would want to live there full time.

I suspect that the constant attack ads long before the writ was ever dropped (something that should be made illegal) and the heckling at all party meetings has turned off many moderate conservatives. This too could change the results.

For Democracy to work properly, it must be respectful, rather than contemptuous of others who have differing opinions. The call to "shut down the CBC" (as the Sun station gets up and going) is the howling of those who don't want to here anything except their own rantings. If it was just financial, the scream over F35 expenditures would be deafening.

It really is up to the politicians to set an example, by debating the issues, listening and working with each other in committees, where the real work takes place, rather than sidetracking the important issues with manuals on how to disrupt this work and then going "ad hominem" on their opponents.

But these ongoing ads have got to stop before some whacko acts on that spite.

Lizzie May has a nice ring to it...

In my riding NDP Libby Davies ALWAYS wins, and I support the way she represents our neighbourhood, but I have a deep skepticism about the coherence of the NDP platform federally.
The Green Party is the ONLY one that legitimately represents the sustainability platform.... WOW, this is unbelievable, but true. My vote for the Greens is in the hope that those who do win 'power' (insert dry snicker here) will notice that some of us would like to have a planet to live on, the one we are borrowing from our children.

Bottom line, I hope apathy is not once again the prevailing force in this democratic exercise.

A contemptuous government should be banned from ever governing.

Not only should Mr. Harper NOT be allowed a majority, but he and his ilk who have been found in contempt of parliament should never be allowed to govern again.

It is completely unacceptable to me that the conservatives are even allowed in the race this time around. A contemptuous government does not deserve our confidence and they most certainly do not deserve to participate in the democratic system which they so frequently and flagrantly abuse.

Shades of pasts - same old, same old

We, the sheople, are being manipulated because we all fail our grades about history. "those that ignore history, are condemned to repeat it" - Churchill.
The real power behind all this surface patter is well hidden and insidious.
It really does not matter who we vote for, rather than, and this is more often than not the case, who we do NOT vote for. -
If we don't vote for the conservatives, there are a number of other candidates to vote for, therby splitting the vote and through the back door who gets in? You guessed it and therein lies our collective dilemma. So grin and bear it. It will not be long now, that this beautiful planet becomes a horrible wasteland. - Amen

Spare Us From Ourselves

No matter what the results of today's vote across this country, Stephen Harper will not have the majority support of Canadians. Most Canadians do not agree with his policies or his practices. Let us hope that we don't do anything so antithetical to our own interests as to give him the majority he wants in Parliament.

Vote for the coast!

The tanker ban is a huge issue this election in BC - and with 80% in support across party lines, it's amazing how arrogant Harper's been on the issue. Show how much you care by voting for the coast - vote for the NDP, Liberal or Elizabeth May candidate most likely to oust the Conservative in your riding. Vote, vote, vote and don't forget that democracy doesn't end on election day.

You got my vote Rafe!

Why is it that we have a good number of sane and intelligent individuals on the Tyee, yet a substantial number of those reading the Vancouver Sun seem to be falling for Harper's view of Canada? Even Iggy has fallen into Harper's trap and stated that he would not be involved in a coalition. Given with what we have gone through in BC provincially over the last decade, and what Harper has done to democracy even with a minority, I have a real fear of him getting a majority. I vote ABC (anybody but Conservative) and in my opinion strategic voting is the only way to go if you want to prevent Harper from a free reign over Canada with a 4 year dictatorship. Due to the excerpts from the book Harperland in the Tyee, I borrowed it from the library. An excellent read for Conservative supporters. I am crossing my fingers and hoping the best for the election results! Just the negative ads and the Layton smear are sufficient for me to never vote for Harper or his neocon puppets.

gsarahs

You ask why "yet a substantial number of those reading the Vancouver Sun seem to be falling for Harper's view of Canada?". That is a really easy one. If you have ever tried to get a letter published in the Vancouver Sun, you know they are very selective about what they use. If it does not suit their purpose then it is filed in the circular file. One the Tyee everybody has a say.