Mr. Keys' comments certainly ring true for me. I am an ex-pat American living in BC. My Canadian wife and I decided to ditch the frantic pace of Los Angeles about 10 years ago for a lifestyle change. I have never regreted the move. Like Mr. Keys, I also feel that the ideals I grew up with, democracy, tolerance, equality were mostly illusions...and I remember the time I began feeling this way. I was a teen and Ronald Reagan was president. I vaguely remember hearing about places like Nicuragua and El Salvador, Contras and Oliver North...a thought began creeping into my head, " What gives the US the right to tell another country what kind of government they should have?" I began reading authors that questioned the status quo..."Lies My Teacher Told Me", "A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn (required reading for all US citizens in my opinion), anything by Noam Chomsky. I began to realize the hypocrisy of what we were taught, all mythologies, versus how people actually treated each other and how the US treated other nations. I read "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" by Dee Brown and it sunk in for the first time how the nation was created by a genocide against the Native Americans...believe me, you will not see the events in this book in any history textbook. While Canada does have its own issues, I am proud to be a part of a society that recognizes that the needs of the many should be placed above the needs of a few. ( I was disheartened to see Campbell's Liberals come in and smash this concept but am hopeful that BC citizens will deliver come May 17! Campbell is importing that very American concept that the corporation rules and those who are unable to produce will get the rug pulled out from under them. Just look at the US healthcare system! We really don't want to go there, I saw it, lived through it and it does not work!) I was very proud when Chretien said "No" to George W. and his ill-fated adventure in Iraq. I worry about my family and friends in the states...many of them did not vote for Bush and are crushed and depressed ( I lived in a blue state). My sister was verbally attacked as a "traitor" at her job when she began to talk about Michael Moore's film "Fahrenhiet 9-11"...now she steers clear of politics while working...not what I remember being a US ideal. I'm glad to come home to BC every time I travel...and I'm guessing that after the last election there will be many more ex-pats to come.

I'd call it a pretty brave statement, especially since this journalist put his job on the line to make his point, something most wouldn't. How about you bk, are your principles that valuable? Keys, as he stated, knows perfectly well how his comments would play out at home, but he also know perfectly well that America would not be if others hadn't also spoke out 230 or so years ago. I too don't "hate" American, but I do "hate" the road onto which American leaders and apparently a majority of Americans who voted in Nov. have opted to travel down. Christopher Key, what you have done in speaking out is to remind me and others that there is good in the darkest of places. As long as there are Christopher Keys willing to stand up despite the abuse he will suffer, I retain a glimmer of hope America again will be a positive force in the world.

You're right, Allan, I should have written "brave" not "broad." While I don't discount what Key says, it is opinion not fact. To pass it off as "established fact" is not responsible. Kudos to Key for letting us know his opinions.

Would there be changes and reforms in the Ukraine if those unhappy with the first election outcome had simply left? America needs thinkers like this now more than ever.

Good luck. North Americans are numb with a condition called Useless Information Overload - and while it looks bad now it's only going to get worse. Far, far too many young people have crossed paths with have tuned in (to "the hippest shit"), turned on (their radio, television, magazine subscriptions), and dropped out (of democracy) proudly declaring and that they don't vote because it's a sham.

Is it really true that the public is a bewildered herd that functions on animal inpulse alone?

Media is KING. You can get people to stop smoking with it and you can get people to kill Arabs with it. Boy with the right kinda people, a few good Freudian TV shows positioned at the right time in the right places, and a little new-age Gerrymandering, I bet a guy can do some movin' and shakin'.

The problems are dark and deep. So dark and deep I have no doubt that they have good men like George Washington rollin' over in their graves.

Cheers to Britney Spears, NFL Monday, Extreme Makeovers, and Monster Garage and the mass of thinkers they nurture.

The electoral-system in America is flawed. Why are there aelected-senators and elected congress-man, there is no need to have 2 different sets of decision makers? Why is the president voted for separately as opposed to a congressman or congresswoman, who is the head of the winning party serve as president?(This would eliminate the useless electoral-college) How come unelected-people like presidential advisors Rumsfeld, and Rice are always on the news? The best structural-reform that could be done even in Canada, is requiring candidates to pass a math test, and a science test before they can run for government! It is not enough just to be a citizen some abilities are required, we(Canadians/ Americans/ evolved-apes) have to eliminate unqualified individuals from running.

I like the idea of a math test! - as long as they had to keep their shoes and socks on!

Almost forgot - Good idea Mr. Key, run away and hide when the going gets tough!

Unfortunately the Corporate Globalization which is at the heart of the American right wing agenda is looking to destroy all democratic attempts to govern. In Canada, our federal Liberals are led by a man operating offshore to avoid paying taxes while his party oversees a hugh tax payer cash give away scandle. They have payed out billions in a scandle involving computer services never rendered. Citizens are dying due to Liberal health care service cuts Canada wide, while they sit on Billions in surplus taxes. The BC Liberals are worse by further cutting all social services in order to give their Corporate backers hugh tax cuts at the beginning of their term. And now, as TYEE has reported, they are somehow involved in some form of corruption and influence peddling scandle on the sale of BC Rail, something which Campbell swore he would never do? Martin, Campbell, Conrad Black, Enron, and WorldCom Execs all went to the same school for thieves and con artists. Politics is just a safer way to steal big time without much accountability, and our Canadian politicians are a quick learn from our US nabours. I hope Mr Key's high hopes for Canada and our ability to correct our situation is not unfounded. AJ.

What bullshit AJ. Name one citizen who died due to liberal health care cuts, fed or provincial.

Is it just me or is "name withheld" pushing the irony-o-meter into the red when s/he accuses other people of hiding?

Who's hiding Mark?

AJ: Even our US 'nabours' might guffaw at your 'hugh scandle' - Puts 'payed' to the notion that we Canadians can in any way claim the barest notion of superior literacy. Seriously man, your tirade would be far more effective in English. Jaysus. What annoys me most of all is that I agree with most of your somewhat spittle-flecked ESL rant.

Whiners like Key fit right in here. Canadians have the best of everything on this earth and all they do is whine/bitch/complain and otherwise show themselves to be narrow selfish gits. Not *all* Canadians just most. Some of us who have travelled/lived/worked in other countries know enough to keep our mouths shut and be Thankful we live in such a rich generous country.

Why so many ad hominem posts from *rabid* BC Liberal supporters tonight? NAME WITHHELD, plenty of people have died from the BC Liberals crouded hospitals. How about the girl who died from meningitis last week? This was entirely due to your BC government at work with overworked hospitals after the closure of many hospitals in this "most wonderful province to live in".

Whining/having different opinions is what free-elections(democracy) is all about. If the people in Ukraine hadn't spoken out, they would have a president, who won by fraud, as opposed to now having one, who won fairly in front of everyone. People will always have different opinions because "evolution", makes people want to keep improving themselves.

Contumely - your response is so ridiculuous that it doesn't deserve rebuke. What a stupid allegation - you ought to get a life!

Uhm, sorry, the Supreme Court of Canada (can I call it "the Unelected"? hee hee, we know how repugnant that concept is to the author!) did not just "vote to legalize gay marriage". It refused to answer that question. It didn't legalize anything, so to speak, except the constitutional right to clergy to refuse to perform such unions. Maybe...the author (an American foible?) also has an incapacity to read and understand recent history. Also...whew!...isn't it great to be told by an American that he wants to escape a country where the government cynically tries to manipulate the electorate through fear! But if he wants to go somewhere where that's not the case, it wouldn't be Canada!

Maybe the author would temper his praise for Canada if he read the "Year in Review" article!

... not Review. Sort of like the difference between 2004 Redux and 2004 RE: Ducks.

Just as the cdn dollar appears to rise against the usd so too does our perceived stock as a great nation. Of course the cdn dollar only appears to rise because the usd has fallen so low. Then again, my understanding of the currency market may be faulty! ;-)

Obviously - when will you be cleaning up the steaming pile of manure you left on my doorstep Mark - Who's hiding?

Your punctuation is rather strange so your message is unclear. But I will ask: why not post using a real name? I know: because you prefer to duck in anon, fire off a few quick rounds and disappear. You started here by insulting people then offering slim, content/idea-free posts. Thats what Usenet is for. I'm out.

Great post Chicken Slinger, or maybe its just that I agree with you completely.

Nothing wrong with uprooting the family and moving. There wouldn't be a US of A with 300 million people if their families hadn't all picked up and moved there from somewhere else. Too bad we hadn't taken the Jews who sat on their ship and ended up back in Germany from leaving their peaceful (at the time) country.

I guess all of us whose families came from somewhere else are just running away. We should all go back to where we came from. Scotland for me I guess.

Mr. Key can renounce his American citizenship when he moves to Canada and opt for the Canadian-only passport. Why do I have this nagging feeling that, despite his self-righteousness, he'll hold on to it? Just wondering.

Welcome to Canada! Are you the guy who said that he thought he could probably learn to love hockey as part of becoming a Canadian? (I think I saw your CBC piece, and I remember thinking, "Yeah, right!) Well, anyway... I think hockey is pretty disgusting, but I still consider myself to be a pretty good Canadian, eh. I hope some of the people who oppose Bush and the New American Century-type agenda will stay in the States and oppose it. About half of the population of the United States agrees with you, after all! I would have thought you could have found a few compatriots down there. Okay, I guess what I'm trying to say is that your reasons for leaving the country that your ancestors have been in since 16-something--uh...well...uh...don't really impress me all that much, eh. I'm really violating my "judge not lest ye be judged" rule, I admit, and I might be wrong, but I tried to put myself in your place. I think I'd stay. There are a lot of wonderful people down there still, eh. So America has taken a sharp turn to the right. A lot can still happen! I suspect that the Bush-Cheney-Condaleeza-(Condaleeza?)-Rumsfield-Frum (he has triple citizenship,probably)-(Pearl-Wolfowitz-Coulter-Len and Dave(they're Canadians!)-etc agenda might not be all that long-lived. In fact, it's hopefully sowing the seeds of its own destruction right about now. I apologize in advance if I'm way off base about your motives, though. You write, "Americans have a notable incapacity for reading and understanding history." Do you mean all Americans? I wonder if you should have written,"a lot of" or maybe just "many." Chomsky's American. He's good! My ancestors were African slaves and Seminole Indians. I could easily think of your ancestors, who persecuted and enslaved them, as a pack of criminals who should have all been imprisoned, or worse. Certainly a slave-holding nation is a criminal nation, don't you think? Was your direct ancestor, old Francis Scott Key among them? He was a lawyer, after all, so he probably could have afforded a few slaves; they were only eight hundred bucks apiece. Jim, Huckleberry Finn's pal, thought he was rich because he was worth eight hundred bucks. Well, anyway, a few years after old Francis Scott was writing, "Oh say, can you see..." the American cavalry was trying to exterminate and evict the Seminoles from Florida, to make way for resorts, and seniors from Quebec. Regardless, I bet, even then, there were a lot of decent Americans. He wrote that song in 1814, or so, after all,in spite of the fact that the flag was still there because the British had already abandoned their attack on Baltimore... All I'm saying is: there's good and bad everywhere--a not-altogether-sophisticated observation. Reading recommendation: The Confessions of Nat Turner, who your direct ancestors probably thought of as an insurgent. Oh, oh, I just remember that you were a Viet Nam vet. I don't think the guy I thought was you was old enough. Maybe I didn't see your CBC piece, after all. Some of the thoughts in my comment might still hold water, though.(I hope) Okay, I'm kidding about most of this stuff, but I still like America,in spite of all that right wing crap. California's still good.

Actually, it is the disillusioned Americans like good ol' Chris here that have contributed to our left leaning comparatively enlightened ways - afterall, looking at our COPE city council members that put Vancouver on the better side of the socially progressive scale are a fair number of ex-Pat Americans (4 I believe). I too wouldn't be able to contribute to the fabric of a society that spends over a $150 billion dollars on an unjustified crucifiction of over 100,000 Iraqi civilians - and feel $35 million for an equally devasting death toll and destruction (all be it by the much more efficient hand of mother nature) for constructive efforts should suffice. It clearly declares the priorities and perspectives of that society, and it is digestively repulsive to my person. For future ref, dear Chris - it is "favour" and not "favor" henceforth...

Maybe everyone attacking Chris should instead be attacking Canadians who move to the US for a job instead of sticking it out here and making the economy better.

NAME WITHELD, how about the flesh-eating disease that the BC Liberals are giving to women getting C-sections in BC hospitals because Gordon Campbell insisted on giving the cleaning jobs to companies that are not properly training their staff? There is more reality to what I am saying than the nonsense we are hearing about a broad-based economic breakthrough in BC. Growth was higher during the NDP years than in the last three years.

And how about a real response instead of telling me to get a life?

Post a copy of any coroner's report or proof of any cleaning person scrubbing out c-sections with a toilet brush. The reality is that the BC economy nearly died under the NDP and anyone who would even consider voting for the likes of three times disgraced Sihota or Lali the beater has rocks in their heads and doesn't deserve a life. So buzz off Contumely, your allegations are totally worthless! (Liar)

Apparently, Name withheld is in fact a Can-West plant,sent to this site in response to the infiltration of the Sound Off postings.Posting inflamatory personal attacks with no factual basis,sounds like Gordo and Canwest circling the wagons early on in this election campaign!

And another dingy asslicker joins the fray.

Speaking about yourself there name witheld?

It would appear that name withheld is one pissed off right winger. Perhaps this will be a better year than I had anticipated.

Actually KWL in your case you probably like to get your head buried right up there, and it's far better to be a pissed-off right winger than a totally unbalanced wingnut like the Alien and associates.

Name Withheld, prove your allegation. Let's see the data that says the BC economy died under the NDP. Should be easy to prove with stats, right?

It is easy for a government to reduce overhead expenditures by closing hospitals, and schools. By selling publicly owned assets, a government can generate "one-time short-term cash bonanza", while sacrificing the long-term interest of society. None of the above actions qualifies anyone to declare themselves a "governing-genius"!

Frankly Frankie my dear misguided socialist, I don't give a damn! However there are 38 billion reasons why the NDP nearly killed this province. It sounds like you enjoy the taste of Lali's and Sihota's arseholes.

Well, Frank, we can tell Name withheld is a BC Liberal, binette or one of the pilothouse boys, ( the obsession with Lali and Sihota is a sure giveaway). Also, he doesn't care about stats and he uses their party mantra "I don't give a damn", part of the pledge of allegiance to a party that is "gone with the wind" in more ways than one.

Name withheld,do us a favour and withhold your comments. I have yet to see any intelligent passing of wind from your cyber vocal chords but enormous amount of wind spewing from the rectal passage housing your brain.

More than one fart in that nonsense Scarlett and I can see it will take some time with all you asslickers appearing out of the woodwork. Pucker-up good boys and girls because it's much too late for your treatment and these "candidate's" will be long gone in May.

Wow, these latest posts really show me why someone would want to live in Canada, such intelligent comments! Anyways, I think Chris should hold back on moving here, seeing as Canada is already 90% American owned and soon we'll be governed by them as well. Canadians have for the most part bought into the American dream, lock, stock and barrel. Those few of us who can see this fascination with everything American as the siren's call to final amalgamation and engulfment by the brazen hussy to the south just cry in our (better) beer.

Personally, I drink Olympia beer.

ooooo I've been called a name on the internet :) Good one Binette, your paraphrasing of a line from Gone with the Wind while flogging the same horse you've been flogging since forever, Lali and Sihota. Oh how will I live this down from someone who still isn't old enough to have the ID to buy his own Olympia :)

I still say, I'm happy to welcome Chris to Canada. We take in a couple of hundred thousand people a year and I don't think its right for us to tell someone else to improve their own country instead of coming here. If I didn't like winter I wouldn't want to stay in Canada and I doubt staying could stop it from snowing. Whatever the reason people have to want to move, they should be able to do so. If businesses can, why can't labour? I have a good buddy who moved to the US a few years ago. He now listens to Rush Limbaugh on a constant basis and its like I don't know him anymore. So Chris coming here is a fair trade. We have room.

Even Binette can stay in my opinion, once in a awhile he's actually funny and once he's old enough to start paying taxes I think his views will change.

I am not a lier, NAME WITHELD. When the BC Liberals make drastic changes to the system they have to take responsibility for the consequences. Government is more than just the narrow market bottom line.

In Ontario, after Harris cutbacks, the government took no responsibility for the Walkerton deaths, and a scapegoat was prosecuted. BC Liberals and their supporters are abdicating their responsibility to the people of BC.

The BC Liberals have made it *far* less safe in BC hospitals with all of the cutbacks and hospital closures. This is a fact.

Here is another point that is perfectly valid from David Schreck today:

Did the Ministry of Children and Family Development contribute to the death of three year old Cody Fontaine? Attacked by Rottweilers in his own small home, it took another child to alarm adults to the mauling. Two days following the attack his grandmother questioned whether Cody's mother, a convicted thief and drug trafficker, was capable of caring for Cody.

Cody's death calls for an investigation into the role of the Ministry of Children and Family development in his troubled home. The family was known to the Ministry; Cody had previously been taken into care. After returning Cody to the family, why did the Ministry decide to leave vulnerable children in the hands of adults who were apparently incompetent to care for their safety?

The Ministry has reduced the number of line level social workers under the excuse that it is taking fewer children into care so it doesn't need as many protection staff. Does Cody's death explain why? Thanks to the Campbell government BC no longer has an independent Children's Commission who would investigate the death and report to the legislature. The lap dog that replaced the Commission, the Child and Youth Officer, reports to the Attorney General. Her reports are a disgrace. Maybe she can redeem herself by investigating Cody's death and reporting on the role or failures of the Ministry.

Once again Contumely you and your consumate liar associates grasp for straws and come up with nothing more than baseless allegations which positively goes to proof that you and your Sihota and Lali asslicking crowd will stop at nothing in order to get to power. I'll be waiting for the Coroners report before I make any comment on the death of the three year old, you ought to come up for fresh air. (ditto on the stupid Schreck point.)

Name withheld sounds an awful lot like an idiot who confronted me after the 1991 election demanding to know why I had voted for those lefties. I laughed, which only served to piss the poor fellow off even more, prompting him to call me something even better, which caused me to spew coffee out my nostrils because my mouth with too busy letting out even larger howls of laughter. I damn near choked, but it felt so pleasurable just watching the blood pool below his hairline. Name withheld, I can only urge that you get yourself on blood pressure meds prior to May 17.

Name Withheld says: "I'll be waiting for the Coroners report before I make any comment on the death of the three year old..." What are you implying? The coroner's report (according to media reports) deemed the cause of death to be the dog attack, so Contumely is right (except that he doesn't mention the border collie, which had been declared a dangerous dog for having bitten twice before). I agree that the Ministry dropped the ball on that one. What's your point, NW?

"If I am a traitor to the American Empire, I can live with that. "

That's good enough for me. Welcome, brother. We need more of your kind.

Binette, you are a walking, talking parody of the Brownshirt Neocon-Liberal Nutter. Too much. I'm still laughing.

That said, I'm reminded, folks in Germany had trouble taking Hitler seriously at first too.

I'll take Christopher Key as a fellow citizen over our own Binette Brownshirt, anyday.

Anyone recall Trevor Lautens years ago ending every column with a call for the NDP to resign en masse over the death of a little boy that he believed the ministry should have removed from a home? The hypocrisy from the Sun when their own ox is being gored is incredible.

When will the Tyee stop printing these tedious articles by self-congratulatory American liberals? Like true parasites, instead of cleaning up their own back yard, they just look for another one to shit in. And if it belongs to another country they don't care, because they're so arrogant they assume we'll be happy to let them buy up our land and exploit our resources. Yankee, stay home!

Yet another American who thinks it's his patriot duty to abandon his country due to his personal shame and unhappiness. Hey neighbour, it really shouldn't be just about you and your feelings. Unless I missed something, you are not in any personal danger so therefore have no chance at refugee status. Why not stay and fight? And if you are willing to move, may I suggest Ohio, where instead of "business journalism" you can try your hand at political organizing. Or instead of clogging up our immigration system with a frivolous application thus impeding more legitimate applicants, why not use your business journal as a platform to rail against NAFTA, which is slowly choking your putative country of choice.

Wired: Moving to Indonesia Tired: Moving to Canada.

Mr. Withheld uses the logic one finds common among his fellow middle-schoolers. That is, you call someone ugly names, reaching the limit of your vocabulary and rhetorical skills. I hope that he lives in the US; he would make a disappointing fellow citizen for any USer moving to Canada, don't you think? I can hardly wait to hear the name Mr. Withheld calls me. I imagine that it will have something to do with the tongue-to- anus activity he seems to like so much.

For more on Bushco's America, read Bill Moyer's speech at: http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1206-10.htm

You can take the guy out of America but can you take America out of the guy...?what we all have to start to realize is this mad capitalistic grab is destroying the planet... and there is no "away" for the entire population...and would we want to leave our Mother anyway? Sure, Chris, come to Canada, be welcome, but please, put your education and skill to work doing as much as possible to stop the spread of the mental illness which is destroying us all. We're a nation of immigrants, we have room, we seem to slowly be learning to enjoy our differences and even celebrate them.. come and be welcome... and let's ALL of us look, really look, at the fucking mess in which we are all flailing. NAFTA is one face of the horror, but only one.. we all of us can do more than we're doing to resist the creeping morass... Hi, Fi, are you back from the frozen mysterious East? Happy New Year to all, especially those friends I have met through Tyee...and, please, let's all of us try to take it easy on "name withheld" and "binette" and...it isn't easy for them.. their keepers allow them to use the institutional computers only to keep them from pulling out and eating hanks of their own hair... instead of ganging up on them we might try being gentle, indulgent, and maybe give them kudos for using their hands on the keyboard instead of their own genitals... if I knew the name of the head shrink I'd suggest she look at adjusting their medication but until that happens, remember, they, too, are precious in the eyes of God...who seems to still be napping...

Oh dear, I am not a writer nor a journalist. Unfortunately, I am an American. I am embarrased, ashamed, disillusioned and in complete disbelief that my fellow countrymen have elected the current President. I fantasize frequently about fleeing to Canada and then flounder wth guilt at the thought of not working to implement positive changes here. I do want to applaude Mr. Keys for his courage in speaking out and putting to paper what so many of us feel but haven't the convenient avenue for exposure. I love the Tyee...I love this format for response (even plodding thru the dribble from 'name withheld'). Cheers and best New Years wishes from blue Northern California!!

Anne et al, the Libs are in power in Ottawa not the Conservatives. Gordo is only on his first term. In 2015, if Gordo is on his 4th term and the 2nd term prime minister is Stephen Harper with Norman Spector as his chief of staff I will be looking for any way out of this country I can find. And if any of you tell me to stay and fight the good fight as I move my family to a saner country I'll laugh in your face as I board the plane.

I also want to add that we owe America a great debt of gratitude. Its not every country that would have taken David Frum AND William Shatner off our hands. Never mind the other 5,000 or so right-wingers who leave to move to the US every year. I say we should gratefully take all the US liberals we can find room for, maybe even build a statue to them, someplace like Nelson would be good...

Frank, allen, scarlett et all - show mercy to the nameless, and instead of raising ire, respond with the sympathy he who missed out on education while it was still accessible under the NDP. It is apparent that enlightenment is out of reach for our infantile toilet scrubber amongst us, who is representative of so many of the nameless, faceless, and homeless out there who have sprouted from the murky waste produced from from Campbell and company- who have little promise to succeed and educating themselves under the ignorant guidance of this government. The only way to save these souls is ensuring that the regime change that is destined to take place in May of this new year occurs a little more successfully in our province than that our American "friends" attempted in Iraq.

I think that there has been a lot of progress nade by progressive Americans, i think it would do an injustice to a growing movement to move to Canada. In the months after 9/11, critique of the President was tantamount to treason, now it is accepted. Remember, nixon was re-elected with an even greater margin than Bush won by, and he was impeached a few months later.

What turned the American people into unthinking accolytes of BushCo? The media. Yesterday the lead item on CBC's website and its national morning radio newscasts was -- US President Bush appoints two ex-presidents to raise funds for the tsunami victims. This isn't even news, much less something that should be the lead item in the national news broadcast from Canada's national news agency!

Why is the CBC news department giving so much air time to American "news" items? I think it's an agenda of someone/a few at CBC news to condition Canadians to already think of the U.S. as "our leaders."

We need to do what we can to stem this right-wing juggernaut. We need to stand up and speak out before it becomes impossible to do without ramifications similar to what Christopher Key is experiencing.

I'd like to urge anyone else who is concerned about our taxpayer dollars going to a public-owned facility to undermine Canadian sovereignty to observe whether they see/hear this as well, and if they do, to send a letter to CBC and to a couple of our MPs (I send them to Liberal MPs, forget sending it to the Reform guys). It won't do any good just to send letters just to the CBC because unless they can be exposed publicly, they will continue to lard their newscasts with George Bush's press releases.

Again, I'm so grateful for The Tyee, even with the bogus potty mouth entries from people who can't or won't engage in a respectful discussion but who try to shut down communication by using foul language and bully tactics. Let's recognize that as a tactic of the brownshirts, and let's keep talking.

My hat is off to you, Mr. Key! Very few Americans that work in the media have the courage to stand up and say what they REALLY think about their government or GWB! It is a sad day in any country when people do not feel confident or secure enough to voice their opinions. Freedom of expression has gone by the wayside and suppression rules the day! I pray for peace and for honesty in politics throughout the world for without it, we become like Alice in Wonderland as we descend through the rabbit hole into a world of madness. Thanks for speaking up, Mr. Key! You have given your fellow Americans (and Canadians) something to think about.

NAME WITHELD, why is it so important to you to defend an irresponsible Gordon Campbell government? Calling me a liar does not bother me; I am not a liar at all. If liars do bother you, you should not be defending the worst liars that BC has ever known in Gordon Campbell and his buddies. This latest nonsense about an NDP structural deficit is 100% BC Liberal election bullshit.

Lets get this straight. No one died in a BC Hospital when the NDP was in power. As well no child died in custody of their parents during the NDP's reign. I’m glad we have the morally superior left wingers to point that out to us. It’s funny how all of you people trash America and Americans yet NONE of you would enjoy the quality of life you enjoy today without the Americans and their big bad Right Wing capitalist systems. Explain to me how all of us can maintain our quality of life without the Americans? I forgot the Right Wing is always wrong and is very bad, America actually decreases our quality of life.

I guess anyone who is not an extreme left winger is not intelligent. As we all know you guys in here are always right and anyone that has the audacity to question you must be a moron. Stupid me.

"I fantasize frequently about fleeing to Canada and then flounder wth guilt at the thought of not working to implement positive changes here." wrote an anonymous US citizen.

As much as I welcome Mr. Key to this country, and I do, especially as he is doing some vocal good as he leaves the heartland of the US Empire, I should say "anonymous" that I hold a much greater respect for those such as yourself, who feel duty bound to stay and "fight the good fight", as Frank later says here (Otherwise I disagree with him on this score.). If every "progressive" person flees the US, which there may be absolutely no choice about yet, as the US drifts towards fascism, and right wingers from everywhere else in the world, including Canada, flees to the US, to "defend the Empire", you can imagine the nightmare scenario that "is" being created. And I know it is and will likely become even less easy to stand and fight, as current North America continues to unravel and continue the drift. (Like it or not, we are one of the important "subject cogs" in the wheels of the US Empire Juggernaut, and they are not likely, if and as they feel increasingly pressed and threatened from all sides, to allow us to continue our "illusion" of independance either.)

Hang in there brother/sister US citizens, at least for so long as you can and safety allows. Even Europe is not without its deteriorating "right-left" dichotomy, that seems to be going on within capitalism everywhere right now-, and there are likely to be fewer and fewer places to run to, in what seems to be the unfolding future-, even here in Canada. Mostly what we need, the length and breadth of the hemisphere in fact, is a growing sense of solidarity amongst all "progressive citizenry", and the kind of networking that will tighten up our respectful "interconnectedness", as opposed to isolated "separateness"-, which only plays into the hands of the rising neo-fascists represented by the likes of Bush, Klein and Campbell-, and the bootlickers like Martin and Harper.

And whilst I too am concerned that Canada should not be further drawn into and be a pawn or client state of US Imperialism, I am not so much given to or impressed of narrow "nationalisms" of any kind, that I cannot see that which should unite all "ordinary" folks everywhere.

Indeed, in the end, it is likely only this kind of mutually "respectful" People to People Internationalism and solidarity, which will allow us to defeat the ascendant Corporate Internationalism of the global ruling classes and their neo-fascist allies and flunkies everywhere.

Don't feel guilty or ashamed my US friends, get angry and get even with those amongst you who have besmirched your name and brought your great country to this, like the PNAC Neocons. We have our own problems with our own like kind on this side of the border, though with more boot-black on their tongues. Don't you, nor should we, fool ourselves about that.

We are not stopping you from questioning, Jim, and who is calling you a moron?

Sure people died in hospitals during the NDP years, but the BC Liberals have made conditions much worse. Children also died in that system also, but again the BC Liberals have made things worse. There are intelligent right wingers, but I really question the intelligence of the neoconservative agenda. Fiscal prudence is important, but would not a more balanced NDP approach be more reasonable? A socially responsible Progressive Conservative approach would be acceptable, but the BC Liberals are out of touch with the people of BC and this is what I am writing about.

Rob, I too hate to score political points off the death of a child. All I pointed out was that Trevor Lautens did do just that, weekly, when the NDP was in power. As for America, its been a force for both good and bad in its history.

Jim, I never saw you post.

Coyote, disagreement is good. But my point is that its not my job to make Canada or America or anywhere else a nice place. Its simply to do the best for my family. I only have 75 or so years on this planet and would rather spend it somewhere I like. So I'm happy to accept immigrants who just want to do what's best for their family. And voting with their feet is in fact probably a better political statement than staying. So in fact we both arrive at the same end-point, nationalism is secondary to being united with ordinary folk wherever they may be.

Jim, Name withheld, Rob and the other hacks of the Liberal government, I am surprised you are all still here at Tyee failing in your rear-guard defences of the boss Gordon Campbell rather than telling us how Gary Collins is turning the airline industry around all by himself. Perhaps you are trying to avoid talking about a guy named Basi and his unsavoury links to certain provincial Liberal politicans who might also have some questions to answer had they stuck around themselves government one more day. Jim, that final sentence of yours above is the most intelligent thing you've written at the Tyee. Ditto for you too Rob. Yes America does decrease the quality of life for a lot of people. Unfortunately a lot of them are already dead so they can't speak for America themselves. Shirin, you are right again, but I just couldn't resist.

I am enjoying your intelligent combativeness, Allan. But then, I always do. :-)

And Frank, I still think that what we agree upon is much more significant than that which we don't. It's just that I am perhaps more inclined to see my own, and my family's interest, in where I and they are rooted. And whilst I like to think that I am an "internationalist", I am also, I know, very much a creature of "place", as well as time. And that "place" is certainly my first choice of a battlefield, if I have to do battle, which I will only flee, presuming to have the courage, when there is absolutely no other choice.

That said, I have never been in favour of unnecessary or pointless acts of suicide, which produce no good result either.

But then, in your 75 year time frame, I only have 9 years left. (Though hope springs eternal, that I will do better than that-, of sound mind and body which I have been blessed. :-)

Alien - did you know that Harmony air now inverts each of it's incoming flights on final approach for up to one minute in order to shake any loose change out of the pockets of it's passengers? Collins expects these annual revenue windfalls to be in the hundreds of dollars.

Contumely - I didn't know what the word meant so I looked it up in Websters and it meant lies. who knew? Anyway, my sincere apologies to you if I'm wrong. ( However, I still think your an asslicker.)

Coyote - Nobody loves the Coyote more than the Coyote who loves the Coyote more than the Coyote who loves the Coyote.

And Harry who writes, "I can hardly wait to hear the name Mr. Withheld calls me. I imagine that it will have something to do with the tongue-to- anus activity" - Well Harry I don't know what to call you unless you support "Hairy" Lali and the Sihota, if that is the case asslickers is the most appropriate and descriptive term imaginable (even though you could be one of the lucky upper echelon recipients of Frankie's Frenchies, either way try not to forget what those ears are for (power steering). On the other hand if you're voting Liberal I'd call you a smart person and if you're voting Green not so smart!

Frank: they may call themselves the "Liberal" party but they aren't very liberal when it comes to social programmes..or honesty...I don't deny I probably qualify as "anti american" and have been for a long time...the policy of military aggression is just too rooted and for too many years and generations has been feared and tolerated by too many of us...the scarey thing right now is trying to figure out what we are all going to do (or not) when the Amerikkkan empire implodes...Coyote and I are the same age, which might be why we so often agree..we are all of us products of our time and place. For me THIS place, which has been raped, pillaged, and plundered by the corporations and their butt buddies and yet is still so beautiful and so generous to us.// Fi must still be in the frozen and mysterious east, she isn't posting...I miss her... my "girlfriends" are visiting...Joan is heading for four, Emily is trudging bravely toward three...we had wieners, rice and creamed corn for supper with Oh Henry chocolate bars for dessert...they spent nearly an hour in a bathtub full of toys, then we cuddled and smooched while they watched Lilo and Stitch. Then everybody climbed into grandma's "big big bed" and we sang our sleepy song...this morning Emily and I are up early, she is again watching Lilo and Stitch...she tells me she wants to stay "bizzitin" for another sleep, then she'll go home..."fo' a widdle while"... I have enjoyed each and every one of my grandchildren but I have less and less idea what their adult world will be like. When my own kids were small I thought I knew what their world would be...now I know I don't have the beginning of a clue...and all I can do is try to let them know they are more precious to me than the Gross National Product of this or any other country...and I sit in Tahsis and ponder the Tsunami...the earthquake which caused it , they tell me, has altered the tilt of the earth...will this alter our "viewpoint"? I'm told the outpouring of donations is without precedent...I am heartened by what I see as proof of the power of outrage...left alone our CEO PM the PM would have donated a pittance; he announced his miserly amount and the roar of insult and outrage across this nation pierced even the swaddling in which the government wraps itself...perhaps we can learn from that and take heart, there is no real reason for this mean spirited and punitive cow cack to continue... it doesn't seem to matter what "name" they carry, what "party" they claim to represent...the pizmires have held control too long...

What absolute dribble Cameron, obviously your axis has tilted way off balance. It's typical of your type though, blame everything on everyone else.

Here is the latest David Schreck:

You can expect to hear a lot of revisionist history as the longest election campaign in BC history gets underway. One example of such well rehearsed rhetoric was displayed in an interview on the Rafe Mair show with acting host Shiral Tobin and guest Virginia Greene. Greene, Campbell's hand picked candidate, is "seeking" the Liberal nomination in the riding where Garry Collins resigned rather than complete his term. The Liberal nominee will face the NDP's Gregor Robertson on May 17th.

Part of the Campbell mantra is to refer to the 1990s as if they were the dirty 30s, "ten lost years" or words to that effect. In her interview with Tobin, with respect to our economy Greene claimed that "we've gone from worst to first" and that "we were broke as a province". Public accounts, the financial statements audited by BC's Auditor General, report that for the last year of the NDP, the fiscal year ending March 31, 2001, BC ran a surplus of $1.6 billion ($1.5 billion when crown corporations are included). Anyone can check the hard facts for themselves. From 1991 to 2001, BC's population increased from 3.4 million to 4.1 million. The average annual population growth rate in BC in the 90s was 1.9%, almost twice the 1.0% experienced since 2001. BC's real GDP (inflation adjusted to chained 1997 dollars), rose from $98.4 billion in 1992 to $125.1 billion in 2000. The average annual growth rate for real GDP during that period was 3.0%, slightly higher than the average 2.9% experienced since 2001. Just for the record, the average annual rate of growth in real GDP from 1981 to 1990, the decade before Mike Harcourt was elected Premier, was just 2.0%, and average annual population growth in the 80s was 1.7%.

As much as Campbell and his clones may try, the May 17th, 2005, election is not about a past decade; it is about holding Campbell accountable and looking to the future. Do we want to preserve the benefits of ICBC at a time when other provinces envy public automobile insurance and have stepped in to regulate private companies? Do we want to protect the best Pharmacare system in the country, or are we prepared to see further increases in user fees? Should the public and the news media have access to information about the operation of BC Ferries, or should it be treated like a private company even though it is publicly owned? Should an independent officer of the legislature investigate the deaths of children, or should the Ministry be able to hide what it did or failed or do in tragedies like the death of Cody Fontaine? It is time for Campbell and his wannabes to answer some of those questions.

Anne Cameron, it's obvious you are making sense given how Name withheld is accusing you of not making sense. Remember Anne, in Liberal parlance truth is spelled "absolute drivel". Did you really blame the Tsumani on Name withheld or was it just Liberal government policy that shifted the earth so sharply as the premier was heading off on yet another vacation?

Ok Contumely, I know it's right there on the tip of your tongue so name me one good thing Schreck the contortionist has ever done besides sit on your face.

Schreck has done something that you have never done, Name Withheld. He has provided data and analysis that are based on that same data. He has stood up against the wide range of regressive tax increases that the BC Liberals have imposed on 85% of the people of BC to pay for an income tax cut for the top 5%.

All that you have contributed to the discussion is your perverted contumely.

How do you know what I've ever done before Schreck?

Alan: really, I didn't blame the tsunami on name withheld. Honestly, I didn't...he doesn't have that much impact..couldn't cause a wave on a slop pail...poor little guy...nice of his keepers to undo the jacket and let him uncross his arms...but they really do have to get the shrink to take another look at the dosage of his med's...

Name witheld sure likes to talk about a certain activity. Makes me wonder what he, and I am assuming it is a he, likes to do in his spare time.

You guys are bullies. Don't YOU remember what it was like in High School?

Name witheld is some bored lonely teen no doubt.

My best guess is that name witheld is non other than the cowardly little pimp, Mr Jean Binette...

Jean Binette's aka "name withheld's contribution to the bc economy is going to be charging a nickle to watch him crawl 5 miles up gordon campbell's butt, which as you can tell by his obsession with "ass lickin'" is obviously his lifelong dream, give it up binette, you pathetic, transparent little stooge...

Wow! I love the give and take that my piece engendered. This is energizing to me as a writer. The only thing I would care to dispute is the allegations that I am too cowardly to stay behind and fight. I marched with Dr. King for civil rights in the 1960s. I marched against the Vietnam war when I came back from serving my time in the 1970s. I have spent most of my life as a journalist crusading for the values we as Americans are supposed to hold. Quite frankly, I'm too old and too tired to go on fighting. I think I deserve an honorable retirement from the fray. There is a mean-spiritedness about this recent swing to the right that I never felt before. Not with Nixon, not with Reagan. It comes from the religious right who seem to think they own George Bush. With good reason. He used their values to get elected. I am an ordained minister, but I hesitate to identify myself as a Christian in America becaused I don't want to be identified with the values that has come to imply. Religion, especially Christianity, is not about freedom. It is about control. Religion seeks to impose anachronistic values on a modern society. Values that reek of vengeance rather than compassion. The middle eastern terrorists are no worse than our American terrorists. They all seek to impose their beliefs on others. This is not freedom. My American ancestors sought to flee that kind of state imposed religion. I also seek to flee the post-modern imposition of narrow religious values.

Mr. Keys, I think I was a bit out of line. Welcome to Canada. Living in Canada all of my life I didn't have to go to Vietnam as you did. I know I'd have never survived participating in that awful war and seeing what you saw. I barely survived it here, reading about it in the papers and watching it on tv.

Mr. Key, that is, not Mr. Keys.

"an eye for an eye" say.. I just think the parallel between this example and the reality is kind of skewed... I mean, the US attacked IRAQ, not AL QUAIDA, they are two separate entities.. This is more like taking out John's eye because Mary took out your eye.

I was Born in Calgary Alberta Canada,And Still Live here and I feel Safe All the Time Christopher Key