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i read some articles in the paper today, so i decided to make a thread about them....

they all fall under the politics subject, but on various things.

What's the difference? Quebec already runs the country anyways.

Ever since mulroney has been PM along with lucien bouchard as his 2nd in command, Quebec keeps getting most, if not all the goodies. Jean also sent a bunch of money into Quebec. And now THIS... Sure is unfair to the rest of the country. I don't think that they should allow a party representing a single province. I think that it just stinks, and I am from the dam place. The Maritimes are most of the times getting the big shaft. For example, the Canadian government is spending millions of dollars just to keeps the St-Lawrence seaway opened every winter. What if the Quebec government has for law that every thing coming thru Quebec has to be shipped thru them . Make them pay for the seaway. As Canadians lets save our money, upgrade the Halifax shipyard, and send every thing thru train.

-M-

I don't know what it's like out there Mario, but Mulroney and Martin killed rail service out here as part of their war on farmers. Harper is continuing that war by protecting US corporate meat-packers from being fined for their crimes.

We have a 3-season port up in Churchill too. That could see a lot use, especially with the Conservative plan to increase global warming.

Here in the Annapolis Valley, all the railroads were pulled out and installed in the northen Quebec during the LaGrande Dam project.
So, now, there is no railroads between Yarmouth and Windsor.

-M-

We've been losing tracks, but what's really been killing us is that the trains won't stop in the small towns anymore. The grain elevators are disappearing. Farmers now have to truck their grain to inland terminals. That raises costs for the farmers because they need to truck the grain. The increased truck traffic, much of it on gravel roads and secondary highways, destroys the roads, raising costs for the provinces and rural municipalities.

That is weird... I don't know if CN is private now, but if there is money to be made... why won't they stop? I heard that the small grain elevators were disappearing but I thought that it was because they were being replaced by super-ones.

-M-

Yes CN has been privatised. It's run by a consortium out of Chicago now. The Canadian government has vwery little control over where they stop.

The inland terminals are the "super" elevators you were thinking of. Where every town used to have its own elevator, often three or four, now they put up on large one in the largest town around and everybody has to go to it.

That does away with the elevator jobs in the small towns, then the businesses start to close. It's killing the small towns. I was talking to a teacher in the town where my mother lives. He bought a house for $700.00 (no that's not a typo). People are actually buying houses there and moving them to the town that got the inland terminal, leaving a valueless empty lot behind them. That is the reality of what happens when the elevator disappears.

Is there an airforce base near those cheap houses? I have to move in a couple years. No but seriously, I think that is too bad for the locals. I believe in job displacement, but first you need a new industry. All those grain elevator could house good businesses.

-M-

That town is a long way from an air force base. The same kind of thing is happening around Moose Jaw though. You could do worse than to consider a move to Saskatchewan. My wife and I seriously considering retiring in one of these places one day...most likely here in Manitoba, but possibly in Saskatchewan. That depends more on my mother-in-law's health more than anything else.

These towns do need other industry, but what is there? The industries naturally gravitate to the larger towns.

There is some hope. A cabinet maker took over the store in my mother's town. It was sitting vacant and he needed a big space. He got it for the price of paying the taxes once a year.

He doesn't live there though. He commutes. He also doesn't provide steady work or training either. He does hire day labour sometimes, but that is hardly a replacement for the store economically. The store closed after the elevators went.

get a load of this crap....

The guy's partly right on the issue about ceo trying to increase shareholder wealth. For some reason north america has this notion, the only way for a company to be successful is to increase shareholder wealth. In europe and japan and the rest of the world, a successful company maximizes stakeholder wealth. Stakeholders are everyone from the ceo's and the shareholders to the frontline employees, suppliers, environment, and the community. All of those have to be balanced out. If compnaies here did that, think about others for a change instead of their wallets, the world would be very different.

He's right about watching what you buy too. I try for union made or a company that has a good record of treating its employees well. I do not buy things from companies that have a tradition of union busting (Wal-Mart eg.).

As for which country it comes from...I've been shying away from a lot of US-made goods, especially if they have a lot to do with the oil industry (plastics etc.)

The thing is that you never know where the materials that make up a product come from. That shirt may be made in Canada, but where was the cloth made?

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