This is your designated opinion page for all discussions on politics, whether Canadian, American, or any place else in the world. Enjoy!
I had a hotdog and a pickle for lunch. [img style="CURSOR: pointer" onclick=url(this.src); src="http://www.cheesebuerger.de/images/more/bigs/e058.gif" border=0]
....and I ate it with my hands, and I didn't use a napkin. I don't know if this is politically correct or not, but I was feeling wreckless.
[A href="http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb001_ZNxmk788YYCA" target=_blank][img height=45 alt="Laughing 2" src="http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_1_20.gif" width=50 border=0][/A] Now THAT'S political! A very well expressed opinion.
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Thank you.
I think it's our responsibility to get involved. Discussion is the key.
[A href="http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb001_ZNxmk788YYCA" target=_blank][img height=46 alt=No src="http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_1_30.gif" width=64 border=0][/A] It has to be civilized discussion or I will personally go to your cave and bash you with my club.
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lol
to hungry to care P.C.?
anyway
Canada needs a federal ubran transit budget. So the expansion of Milienum line doesn't get messed up for example.
Cars are outdated urban wise.
I was looking at Surrey's website they're really going to change that city a lot in the coming years. That old ugly, abandoned factories along the river next to the Patullo Bridge is going to become the next Coal Harbour if the city layouts are correct.
westminster district I think its called.
It has to be civilized discussion or I will personally go to your cave and bash you with my club.
I promise to behave. [img style="CURSOR: pointer" onclick=url(this.src); src="http://www.cheesebuerger.de/images/more/bigs/a176.gif" border=0]
Are you talking New Westminster?
Surrey's got bigger problems than how it LOOKS.
I'm not too sure about it being called "Westminster District", but you could be right. However, it is mostly the Surrey side that needs development. Along Scott Road in Surrey is an ugly mess of car part dealers
South Westminister that's the district.
New Westminster has the Quay, as well as all those high-rise developments. It's not that bad until you get to Columbia street. I haven't been out there for a while, but it wasn't very nice.
South Westminster is that ugly part that you look at if you are on the New West Quay side across the river.
Really? I thought that was all Surrey.
Strange.....I used to live in New West. I've never heard of South Westminster. Is it new? [img style="CURSOR: pointer" onclick=url(this.src); src="http://www.cheesebuerger.de/images/more/bigs/c008.gif" border=0]
its part of Surrey.
Its that ugly area you see off of skytrain on the river front.
Looks like this:
(http://static3.bareka.com/photos/medium/598546/decrepit-industrials.jpg)
I've lived around the Lower Mainland for a very long time, and I've never heard of it either.
Here's a link:
[a href="http://www.surrey.ca/NR/rdonlyres/F9FD221B-1A07-4791-ABFE-D8CB0C9D8E63/0/COUNCILRESOLUTION033189.pdf"]http://www.surrey.ca/NR/rdonlyres/F9FD221B-1A07-4791-ABFE-D8CB0C9D8E63/0/COUNCILRESOLUTION033189.pdf[/a]
Yeah, I've seen that area. Ugly to the bone! But I didn't realize it was called "Westminster District", seeing that it is in Surrey across the river from New Westminster.
This is odd. It connects on the link, but it won't download.
Its a pdf
yeah its that part that people see from skytrain and go 'oh surrey such a dump' attitude.
[a href="http://www.surrey.ca/Doing+Business/Land+Development+and+Building/Plans+and+Policies/Plans+in+Progress/South+Westminster.htm"]http://www.surrey.ca/Doing+Business/Land+Development+and+Building/Plans+and+Policies/Plans+in+Progress/South+Westminster.htm[/a]
There's the main page link that has the link to the pdf.
Saw the presentation it looks really really nice.
That's how I saw it. I took a round trip tour on Skytrain just for something to do. Interesting trip. You can look at people's apartments with their curtains open, and wonder who had the bad taste in decorating! LOL The noise is terrible for people living close to the Skytrain, but the trade-off is that it is close to their home if they commute by train or bus.
I think it's an area that's considered the south of New Westminster. I've never heard of it.....I've never known anyone who's heard of it, and be darned if I can find it on a map. Chances are 'South Westminster' is what it may be called after it is developed?
yeah its going to be called south westminster lol. Officially its being called the South Westminster revitalization project.
I clicked on that last link and it really is an area just the other side of the Patullo Bridge. When I was in Surrey the poorest home buyers lived down there, as there was no soil drainage and a lot of flooding when it rained. As I recall, the garbage dump was not too far from there.
I always called that area Sorrey. [img style="CURSOR: pointer" onclick=url(this.src); src="http://www.cheesebuerger.de/images/smilie/frech/c025.gif" border=0]
yeah that would be the area.
When I lived out there it was called "Surrey for the inconvenience".
lol
anybody seen that vancouver website where they have before and after pics?
Don't think so. Do you have a link? I lived through quite a bit of the before. I'm constantly amazed by the downtown changes from twenty years ago.
Its really really really cool!
It works with IE though so if you have firefox you don't get the cool special effects.
[a href="http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/COMMSVCS/fade/fadepanorama.htm"]http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/COMMSVCS/fade/fadepanorama.htm[/a]
[span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"] P.C. wrote:[/span][br style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"][span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"]Strange.....I used to live in New West. I've never heard of South Westminster. Is it new?[/span] [img style="cursor: pointer;" onclick="url(this.src);" src="http://www.cheesebuerger.de/images/more/bigs/c008.gif[/img]
[hr style="width: 100%; height: 2px;"]Me too...never heard of it either.
I don't normally click on polictical threads but since this one was started by Ms Kitten, I knew that it was a fun one. ;)
If we were strictly discussing politics, then I have absolutely nothing to add!
well this thread has morphed into vancouver urban projects, pl. lol
What a fabulous site! Thanks for posting the link.
I knew you'd like it. It's actually the site that changed my career paths. That's all urban planning.
To know you have had a hand in changing something from ugly to beautiful would be a wonderful feeling.
yup that's why I changed my focus. Heck vancouver is now a building philosphy 'vancouverism'.
I read elsewhere that other cities are looking toVancouver for inspiration in urban planning. Good choice of careers.
Any city that has limited space uses Vancouver as their model now. The city planners in Vancouver realized in the 70's that the only way for Vancouver to grow was to grow up and not use sprawl.
Naturally when the terrain makes it impossible to grow outwards, the only direction is up.
I'm going to guess by 2020 Surrey will look a lot like Downtown Vancouver.
And pretty much everything inbetween Royal Ave and the water front in New Westminster will go the same way.
It will likely be a megacity along the lines of Toronto.
That's what it looks like is going to happen. A Vancouver-New West-Surrey mega corridor.
each suburb will have a downtown area of skyscrapers.
I don't particularly like the idea of so huge a city. I don't like big crowds, and houses all crowded together. There will be constant traffic gridlock; it's close to that now. I don't like small towns either, but a mid-sized city is perfect for me. All the amenities without the crowding.
do you like high rise apartments?
They make me nervous in earthquake territory. I live in a low-rise on the ground floor.
ah, well the newer buildings are all earthquake tested.
But that's where the region is headed though unless you want sprawl from Stanley park to Hope where you don't have any green space let. Basically the city centres are now walkable. Something I can't say about were I live.
I can guarantee you that I wouldn't walk down Granville St. at night. Too much crime.
what's a vancouverites idea of 'crime'.
Organized gangs warring with each other. Drug addicts and pushers. Assaults and rapes. The usual city crimes.
ah I see so no gang wars in house to house shooting then. That's pretty common here. People in the city sitting in their kitchens and bullets go flying through the house. lovely.
Drive-by shootings are getting more common as part of the gang wars. There are several gangs, usually based along ethnic lines but not always, and they are frequently warring for turf. Illegal guns are a lot more plentiful than they used to be, and you know where they come from. I think drugs are the biggest factor in the crimes that are committed.
the gangs in Canada have resources to pot they sell the pot to the american drug dealers in exchange for guns. Legalize marijuana and that money flow stops. Because americans can get their cocaine from the mexican drug lords. So what then would the canadian gangs trade to the american gangs?
That's easy...heroin. Legalizing alcohol didn't stop bootleggers, and legalizing pot won't stop drug dealers. The one thing about pot is that persons driving under the influence of pot are still impaired. It's just harder to detect without special equipment.
The mexican drug folks take up that trade as well, I don't see where the canadian crime bosses fit into the nafta of drug trade.
There are Canadians in Afghanistan, the heart of the poppy-growing industry. I'm sure that most of them are honest citizens, but still there are temptations to make a quick buck abve and beyond their basic salary.
I don't see the corelation.
any foreign nationals doing that would be caught pretty quickly and the u.s would take the folks and throw them into gitmo since the poppy growers are taliban supporters there by you would be helping the enemy.
Not necessarily. Remember, the Canadian troops are separate from the American troops and stationed in different areas. Smugglers from that part of the world have learned to be very clever. How many Americans have come back from war totally addicted to drugs? You think it won't be the same for the Canadians? And once they are addicted don't you think they would do almost anything to keep their drugs coming?
purelife wrote: If we were strictly discussing politics, then I have absolutely nothing to add!
Me too. Discussing politics makes my eyes glaze over and my frontal lobe goes numb.
NOT that there's anything wrong with it.
true, I just don't see that as a possible scenario. But it just doesn't make logical business sense. South America is where most of the drugs that Americans consume come from. Europe though, that's where Afghanistan's crops are going.
Ah no worries P.C.
you do vote though P.C., right?
I don't think there are very many topics that haven't wandered away and become completely different. I just didn't think the lunch thread was the place to have political discussions. It tends to spoil the appetite!
considering most of this thread is about vancouver population growth, lol its not really politics.
But politics tend to sneak into the strangest places. At least this will give it a place to go.
true. I have been on occasion to hijack the lunch thread. ;)
And the "Caution: Twins" thread.
lol for sure. I think I hijacked that one too. (//forums/richedit/smileys/Happy/12.gif)
There's only so many times you can talk about a spammer.
That is when I think there must be a better place to post, and let the caution stand as it is. Isn't that why we post new topics?
true. never really thought about that. Whenever I try to make a new thread nobody really goes to it. So I sorta stopped.
Make the title topic sexy. That will grab them. LOL!!
I think it was an excellent idea to set up this thread !
lol. A mod at the hockey board I go to always edits my thread titles saying they're misleading when I just take the title of the article and post it up as the thread title. (//forums/richedit/smileys/Other/5.gif)
goofy kid from Columbus Ohio, usually the swedes, europeans and two canadians living in south korea and japan come to aid when he does that on the site. lol
talk about mod censorship.
I think he does it because he just doesn't like my political views, he's a right wing social conservative and my 2 years on that site we've never agreed on anything. lol He always seems like he targets me and stuff. He only edits my threads, my responses and so on. very odd
Maybe a little more hockey and a little less politics would get him to see reason.
P.C. wrote:
I think it was an excellent idea to set up this thread ![/DIV]
Thank you! It seemed a good idea to condense this stuff into one category instead of having it all over the forum.
Hi everybody! Sorry, I may be just a tad late here. Anyway, I had the Creole chicken Caesar, and calamari. To die for!
well its in the 'lounge' part of the site where your not suppose to talk about hockey. pretty much everything non hockey goes there. I feel bad for him though, they just recently updated the site to where you can add personal photos. He's not the best looking fella. Of course I'm a stud. ;)))))))) (//forums/richedit/smileys/Happy/4.gif)
And from here on in, I'll force myself to behave.
....for the most part.[img style="CURSOR: pointer" onclick=url(this.src); src="http://www.cheesebuerger.de/images/smilie/frech/d015.gif" border=0]
huh? I'm confused.
OOOOOOOOO.....calaMARi.......scrummy !!!!!!!
OK.....from HERE on in.......
I can't wrap my mind around the idea of eating something with that many arms. I visualize the calamari wriggling around live, and those things are the vision of ugliness!
I did try eating deep-fried squid once and I thought my teeth would be worn out trying to chew through the rubbery thing. I thought some hockey nut had accidentally dropped a puck in there instead.
We're just being naughty SD. Carry on as if you were normal.
P.C. wrote:
And from here on in, I'll force myself to behave.
....for the most part.[img style="CURSOR: pointer" onclick=url(this.src); src="http://www.cheesebuerger.de/images/smilie/frech/d015.gif" border=0]
NOOOOOOOOO!!!! Please don't behave. *sob*
Ahhhh
we had calamari on cape cod once and didn't tell my sister what it was (she doesn't like fish) and she liked it, then when we said what it was well the look on her face was an all time classic.
Did you like the shade of green on her face?
haha it was more of a angry pout followed by a never ever again. But the bizarre thing is, she likes canned tuna.
Can we not talk about food in this thread please. Let's get serious. This is about politics.
[A href="http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb001_ZNxmk788YYCA" target=_blank][img height=81 alt="Belly Laugh" src="http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/4/4_1_219.gif" width=81 border=0][/A] You're kidding, right????
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Takes cue from P.C. ;)
So does everyone here vote?
Of course. I always like to know which idiot will supposedly represent me next time.
None of your bizwhacks.
you don't participate in democracy P.C? How un-democratic you must be for the taliban! (sarcasm)
What a shocking comment, SD. A vote is supposed to be secret, and I'm sure that answer was a definite maybe, or perhaps maybe not. Only the Shadow knows!
That WAS quite the response. I'm pretty sure I didn't say, or even imply that I didn't participate. I think I just said it was nobody's business.
Rightly so. That information should only be given if you feel like giving it. I don't mind saying I vote, but I won't divulge who I vote for. That is nobody's business but mine.
I just ask if you vote or not, didn't say whom you voted for.
kitten wrote:
Rightly so. That information should only be given if you feel like giving it. I don't mind saying I vote, but I won't divulge who I vote for.
I didn't vote for Bush.
But you see you gave that information voluntarily. If you didn't want to, you wouldn't have been expected to, just because someone asked. That is the difference.
ah I see. I tend to put on a pollsters hat a lot. (I could be a pollster if I wanted to).
Usually down here its pretty normal to ask if you vote or not, I don't want to know who, just a general question like did you have pizza today or something.
Here it is considered rather rude and personal. It really is nobody's business but your own. If you offer the information, that's one thing, but to ask for that information is rude. Around election time pollsters and campaigners phone to as who you plan to vote for, and I always tell them it is whoever they are representing. They go away a lot faster that way.
ahhh
I see, I see
Yeah I haven't had many democratic party folks call me much anymore. I wrote them a letter that I was moving to Canada about a year ago and they haven't emailed me or sent me anything in the mail since.
If you aren't there to vote for their candidate then you aren't much use to them, are you? If they can't use you, they drop you in a flash.
Yeah true. I'm probably not going to vote in the next U.S. election, just not into it. Probably '06 was my last US election. That doesn't really bother though. Politics here stink.
When you think about it, anyone who advocates change is shut out of the competition, so whoever you think will make a change doesn't stand a chance of winning.
that's pretty much been the case on the left side of the political spectrum here for years. Now the right is feeling that dissolutionment.
They claw their way to the top with promises, and then they go along with the rest to keep their position with all the perks it entails.
FREEDOM FOR ALL SIMIAN LIFE FORMS!!
GIVE IT TO US OR WE WILL TAKE IT FROM YOU BY FORCE!!!!
HAVEN'T YOU HUMANS EVER SEEN PLANET OF THE APES??
You have 10 Earth days to comply.
Sorry, I'm much too busy to let some more aggressive apes try to run my life. There are enough of them around now in government.
As a representative of the most civilized and peaceful simian species I thought I'd just give the non-violence option a shot.
When a purple-assed baboon kicks in your door and takes a steaming dump on your couch don't come crying to me.
[A href="http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb001_ZNxmk788YYCA" target=_blank][img height=78 alt=Whip src="http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/4/4_2_111v.gif" width=110 border=0][/A] If that should happen to a nice peaceful person like me, I would immediately forget the code of non-violent behaviour.
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Looks like Harper is going to take Bush's line on the environment at G8. lol
I suspect he is Bush's clone.
This has to be quote of the day:
"We've had a huge reaction to the launch of the new logo- most of it negative"
- Interactive Olympics editor Claire Stocks
London unveils logo of 2012 Games
(http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/43005000/gif/_43005619_london_new_pink_203.gif)
Oh and on Harper:
Support for U.S.
Harper's expected support for the U.S. view on climate change is promising to create a rift at the G8 summit.
The G8 nations have been wrestling with finding a climate change solution that works for everyone, but there is a growing gap between the position of the U.S. and most other countries.
The U.S. rejects ambitious greenhouse gas-reduction targets proposed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The Germans want to see a resolution holding the rise in global temperature to two degrees Celsius, the level at which scientists say damage to the planet can be contained.
Doing so will require a cut in greenhouse gas emissions of at least 50 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050, say the Germans and most other European nations.
[a href="http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070603/harper_g8_070604/20070604?hub=Canada" target="_blank"]http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor...0604?hub=Canada[/a]
PM likely to back U.S. view of new climate treaty
The U.S. rejects ambitious greenhouse gas-reduction targets proposed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
[a href="http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070603/harper_g8_070603?s_name=&no_ads=" target="_blank"]http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor...me=&no_ads=[/a]
World meet Harper, Bush's new call girl.
ROFL.
It's still head and shoulders above the 2010 Vancouver Olympic logo.
Remember the handicapped version someone made as a gag.
I lolled so hard I nearly puked.
that made the news. I remember.
CTV9 and their 'famous' chopper that just goes around town taking video of the skyline.
that made the news. I remember.
CTV9 and their 'famous' chopper that just goes around town taking video of the skyline. (http://discoverseattle.net/forums/richedit/smileys/8.gif)
its okay monkee bcctv 9 with bill goode and pamela martin
I used to watch it everyday on the net. lol
[a href="http://www.bcctv.ca/index.jsp"]http://www.bcctv.ca/index.jsp
[/a]
Street Cars are about to invade downtown Vancouver:
(http://vancouver.ca/engsvcs/transport/streetcar/images/Phase0.gif)
(http://vancouver.ca/engsvcs/transport/streetcar/images/granville_isl2and.jpg)
(http://vancouver.ca/engsvcs/transport/streetcar/images/modern-1.jpg)
sweet!
It's a good idea, and about time.
That's the urban planning part I'm most interested in. Growing up in the suburbs where the only way to get around is by car, I've always wanted to see transportation change. But its never going to happen here do to other idiotic factors.
(http://vancouver.ca/engsvcs/transport/streetcar/images/DTStreetcarMap.jpg)
It looks really nice the way they've planned it out.
Downtown Vancouver needs it in my opinion. It fills the transportation hole in the downtown area.
Maybe it will encourage them to clean up the rest of the area. Once you get past Science World it gets rather ugly in spots.
Isn't that South False Creek? That's where the olympic village is going.
Its bigging to look a lot like San FRancisco, tra lal la. ( I live in SF).
Really, Vancouver is so like San FRancisco in so many ways- from crazy left wing crazies to the Bridge.
So...whe does the serious discussion of politics begin on this thread?
It was started to keep politics out of the lunch thread. Somehow it didn't work out like that. I guess it should be called the "Whatever you want to say that doesn't belong elsewhere" thread. (http://discoverseattle.net/forums/richedit/smileys/Teasing/12.gif)
oh I know what to call it.
On Broadway they have Broadway shows and then "Off Broadway Shows".
It could be called The Off Lunch Thread
anybody think the cold war is coming back with the threats Russia has been making lately?
No. Bush and Harper may pout and stomp a bit, but they'll back off.
well this about a missile defence system in eastern europe. Putin said if you build it he will nuke Europe. US is building it anyway. They're like little kids fighting, its sad.
Yes, I know. But it could be construed as a threat to Russia and they should pay attentiont to Putin because I don't think he will be the one to back down.
Yeah I don't trust Putin at all. I'll probably fix the constitution so he can legally run again in the next elections. Right now Russian law says he cannot run again. Russia is going backwards again. Rights are being supressed, its sad. Then Russia acts like a bully to its old soviet satelites by pulling gas support to them in the winter if they seem to be drifting away from Russia and towards the EU.
I don't trust any of them, full stop.
yeah they do whine. Its almost like kids in the sand box.
And the U.S. doesn't do the same thing? You have to look at it from both sides.
I'm talking about all countries. When countries get into disputes it degenerates into a sand box mentality.
The Swiss seem to do Ok.
Except for that unfortunate Nazi collaboration business...
$17.5 billion invested in transit over 12 years in the GTA starting next year.
MoveOntario 2020 will build 902 kilometres of new or improved rapid transit with 95 per cent of the construction expected to be completed by 2020.[/p] "What this is really all about is jobs," McGuinty said durign the press conference.[/p] "Our ability to have a growing prosperous economy and the good high-paying jobs that come with it, is dependent on the ability to move goods and people quickly, safely and efficiently."[/p] More than 175,000 jobs are expected to be created for the 52 new projects that include:[/p] [ul][li]The extension of the Yonge St. subway line to Highway 7 [/li][li]Electrifying the GO Lakeshore line and expanding capacity on all GO lines [/li][li]Expanded express bus service across Highway 407 [/li][li]Two rapid transit lines across Hamilton [/li][li]Air-rail link from Pearson International airport to Union Station [/li][li]Nine light-rail projects proposed for various locations across the GTA[/li][/ul] The electrification of the GO Transit line is expected to cut emissions in the province and reduce commute time from Hamilton to Toronto by 15 minutes.[/p] "That can make the difference between hearing about your daughter's first soccer goal or seeing it yourself," McGuinty said.[/p] The plan is expected to remove 300 million car trips from the road.[/p]
[a href="http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070615/transit_plan_070615/20070615?hub=TopStories"]http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070615/transit_plan_070615/20070615?hub=TopStories[/a]
[/p]