Is Harper on the way out?

[chuckChuck]

Parsley, after 5 years Harper has not been able to attract very many centre voters in this country. Why? Because he is always playing to his Conservative core support in Western, Rural, and Suburban Canada.
Canada is mostly an urban country with centre left views on most issues. If you add the greens, NDP, Liberal, and Bloc together plus all the alienated people who don't vote the only reason Harper is around is the centre left is divided politically. Most advanced industrialized countries use some form of proportional representation. The first past the post system we use in Canada is archaic and doesn't give most voters a fair voice. That is one of the reasons many people are not engaged politically and voter turnout is relatively low.

[jensend]

parsley i'm not sour but i'm not a cheerleader for any of them. the main reason i can't like harper is that he reminds me of bush senior running for his second term. the american electorate could see he had no vision for his country, he just wanted to be president for another four years. he handed that election to clinton by not being able to show he had accomplished anything. harper has increased spending and run up the deficit and debt so he is easy pickings when you compare his record to his rhetoric.

[bigsteve]

Harpers hands are tied behind his back through a minority gov't.He does have a vision to take our country to the next level up.We have the resources[oil,natural gas,nickel,iron ore,coal,potash,uranium,agriculture,etc.]to make canada the most powerful country in the world.Harper under a majority gov't would have the opportunity to make us all proud.

[chuckChuck]

Bigsteve. Harper is in favour of letting shareholders of foreign controlled companies take control of our resources. Once the bounty runs out then what? What about a diversified economy based on long term sustainable industries not finite resources? Norway for example has over 400 billion in its "heritage fund" compared to 380 million in Saskatchewan's. What happened to all the revenue from potash, oil, gas and uranium? Lets give it all away as soon as possible. Party On!

[bigsteve]

Chucky,research and technology is going to make oil and natural gas use-near to obsolete in 50-70yrs.Hydrogen is on its way,all culivated plants will have the ability to fix there own nitrogen,hence-no need for nitrogen fertilizer,hence no need for natural gas.Nuclear powered electrical genorators will be the norm in 40yrs.Lets use our resources to create wealth now or we are going to miss the boat.

[ColevilleH2S]

"Nuclear powered electrical generators will be the norm in 40yrs"

Don't forget the flying cars ;-)

[bigsteve]

Don't get too concerned ColevilleH2S GAS you will be long gone before the inevitable.

[TOM4CWB]

bigsteve;

Don't underestimate how long it takes!

http://www.egmcartech.com/2010/10/29/maverick-a-flying-subaru-powered-car-that-has-received-faa-certification/

"A Christian missionary working with an Amazonian tribe in Ecuador has received the first FAA certification for a flying car. Steve Saint, a missionary, inventor, and pilot, had been working on the project in Ecuador, saying that he drew his inspiration from the driving obstacles of people in places like Ecuador.

While there is another similar vehicle with FAA certification called the Transition, that vehicle is an aircraft that is drivable on roadways with its wings folded up, not a car that flies. It is more of a plane that drives, if you will. Saint founded the non-profit I-tec, the Indigenous People’s Technology and Education Center, out of Florida, as a means to help the people of the Waodani tribe learn to fend for themselves, as opposed to relying on outside aid.

The Maverick flying car is just one piece of the puzzle for I-Tec. “We’ve been working on this particular project for six years,” Saint said. “But it’s just one, the bigger thing that we do is developing health care technology and tools and training systems so that we can train people that live out in the jungle areas, that don’t have any formal education, and don’t have access to doctors or nurses or midwives, or optometrists, or dentists, teaching them how to take care of these needs for their own people. That’s really what we’re doing.”

Check out the car in action in a video posted after the jump.


The car transitions from road to air by way of a parachute and mast mechanism. “The Maverick is not only a practical flying car but it’s also a beefy car,” says Logan Ward from Popular Mechanics. “They put a Subaru engine in this thing with 250 horsepower. It goes 0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds. We were really impressed they gave it that sort of on-road performance.”

I-tec hopes to send the Maverick to the production lines soon, and if they can get a manufacturer on board, Saint estimates an MSRP of about $80,000 if they can get 11 per year rolled out. Saint wants to get the vehicle to the masses to drive the price down, and roll the cash into RnD for future projects and to make the car more affordable for people in frontier areas who have a high need for such a vehicle but little resources to obtain one."