Cross Talk

Shoot from the lip Finance Minister Jim Flaherty does it again, remember the Halloween surprise, now he is being the sock puppet for the Chinese Government;

China Wants More Investment From Canadian Banks, Flaherty Says

Making amends for the Harper almost blowing it at the APEC Conference. But wait Flaherty is singing to the choir.

His announcement was on Sunday. On Monday BMO Capital Markets releases it' s report on China and Canada, being critical of the Harpocrites playing politics and interfering with investment opportunities in China.

In a special 17-page report entitled The True North Meets the Middle Kingdom: Why Canada Must Embrace China, Dr. Cooper will highlight how China has the potential to contribute to Canada's long-term growth and prosperity.

There are enormous opportunities for Canadian banks to provide savings and investment
vehicles, personal loans, credit cards, online banking, commercial loans and foreign exchange
services—just to name a few. Those that are there have joint ventures with Chinese
companies and a growing presence in Beijing and/or Shanghai, in addition to the Hong
Kong ventures they have had for many years. At the end of last summer, BMO became the
fi rst Canadian bank to receive permission to provide banking services such as loans, deposits
and trade fi nance in Beijing in the renminbi. It was also the fi rst to be granted permission
to sell derivative fi nancial instruments such as futures and options contracts. It was the fi rst
foreign bank to buy into a Chinese fund-management fi rm, taking a stake in Fullgoal Fund
Management Co. Ltd in 2003. RBC has a fund-management venture with a local bank in the
works and Scotiabank has a 12% stake in a regional bank and a presence in Shanghai.
Canadian banks will also benefi t from off ering Chinese investment products to domestic
and U.S. clients. Those same mutual funds developed for the Chinese market will be
quite attractive for North American or European investors that want a piece of the Chinese
growth story. Many Canadians, for example, have strong business and familial connections
with China and Chinese is the third most commonly spoken language in Canada.

Hmm, ok both are talking, now who is listening?

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Flaherty

China


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Common Sense of The Common People

90 per cent of Canadians don't think they're wealthy, survey finds

Well the majority ain't that's true, but 10% of these folks are lying to themselves if not to pollsters.

Butdespite all the whooping over the boom in capitalism from the boys on Bay Street and Wall Street, well folks don't feel it in their pocketbooks.

Salary concerns were a prime consideration for many respondents in the Mackenzie Investments study, with 40 per cent saying they expected their incomes to hover around the same mark over the next 10 years, dipping or rising marginally.

And for all the criticism of the Boomers they at least recognize that we are in a debt crisis, which government and business refuse to see.

According to the poll, 79 per cent of respondents said they feared that if shopping continued
to be viewed as a recreational activity, Canadians could face a crisis where they spend too much with little regard for the future.

"Overspending today but worrying about not having enough in the future is like waiting for your roof to fall in — it certainly isn't worth the wait," John Dale, executive vice-president of Mackenzie Investments, said in a release. "The 'haves and have-nots' in the future may be determined in part by the 'shop and shop-nots.' "

But their kids are shopoholics. It is the truimph of consumerism over productivity, the triumph of the American ideology of the lesiure class . Their parents had the middle class dream their kids live it. But it is still a dangerous myth.

But the study noted that more than any other demographic, young people tended to see shopping as a recreational pastime. About a third of respondents between the ages of 14 and 19 said they spent money as part of a larger socializing ritual, as compared with 13 per cent of all Canadians.

More than 92 per cent of young Canadians expect the same or more expensive lifestyles as their parents, it reported, suggesting their expectations may not be realistic.

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Canadian Wealth

Wealth

Housing Crisis

Variable Capital


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The Ultimate Republican Team

This would be a chicken hawks ultimate fantasy dream team for the Republican entry in the 2008 Presidental race.

Tim Russert did not challenge Sen. John McCain's dubious claim that it is not "clear-cut" that the war is unpopular nationally because, if it were, Sen. Joe Lieberman "would not have been re-elected in the state of Connecticut."

Since both have experience being has beens in previous races.

John McCain, Republican, President

Joe Lieberman, Independent Yankee from Connecticut, Vice-President


McCain vehemently opposes the non-binding resolutions and the idea of putting a cap on the number of troops in Iraq.

The Arizona Republican got strong support in his use of the morale issue from his allies Sen. Joe Lieberman, independent Democrat from Connecticut and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

And, Lieberman asked, Senate passage of a resolution of disapproval of this new strategy in Iraq would give the enemy some encouragement?

“That’s correct,” replied Petraeus.

Lieberman said, “I want to make a plea to my colleagues” to not pass a resolution of disapproval of Bush’s troop surge. He urged them to consider Petraeus’s testimony about the effect on morale and to delay any move to pass a resolution of disapproval.

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Richardson On The Ticket

Iraq


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Silent Tories

Another example of the Harpocrisy of the New Canadian Government.

While the Conservative Ministers of Finance and Industry were in China during the Chinese Satellite Weapons Test, this is all they said; Canada's New Government Focuses on Strategic Partnership with China

Now where was all that Conservative bombast and outrage that PM Harper mustered up and blasted the Chinese with when he was attending the APEC meeting? Why like most of the Tories Hot Air statements it's a blowin in the wind.

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Flaherty

China


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Arar Redux

So two days before Public Security Minister Stockwell Day visited the U.S. and in advance of the Leahy Senate Hearings, U.S. Homeland Security issued a letter to Canada saying that Arar was still considered a 'terrorist' by the United States.

Maybe Gonzales, who cosigned the letter, shouldn't have lied to Senator Patrick Leahy and just handed him this letter.

A letter that Stockwell Day said proved nothing.

Still waiting for the New Government of Canada to get tough with the U.S. on this...still waiting...yep waiting....waiting still....

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Arar


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Scooby Secrets

File this under little known facts.

‘Scooby-Doo’ cartoonist dies at 81
Iwawo Takamoto said he created Scooby-Doo after talking with a Great Dane breeder and named him after Frank Sinatra’s final phrase in “Strangers in the Night.”

Actually Frank never said Scobby-doo it was "doo-be-doo-be-doo,"

This is another case of mis-hearing lyrics. I do it all the time so do most people.


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RIP

Comics

Obituary


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Animal Tales

Passport? Passport?! Skunks don't need no stinkin passport....

- A stowaway skunk that ended up in Canada after traveling more than 3,500-kilometres (2,200 miles) shut in the back of a truck from California has found a ride home.

Do you think they were watching Happy Feet.

Sixty seals at a Dutch refuge took shelter from the devastating storm which

swept across Europe in a cinema.

Elmer Fudd has nothing on this duck hunter....

Duck shot by Florida hunter survives 2 days in refrigerator

Wildlife officials said the feathered Lazarus had been shot by a hunter and put into his refrigerator for two days. That's when the hunter's wife opened the door and the duck lifted his head, giving her a scare. The man's wife "was going to check on the refrigerator because it hadn't been working right and when she opened the door, it looked up at her," said Laina Whipple, a receptionist at Killearn Animal Hospital.

This gives new meaning to Blowin in the Wind....

The pilot of a TV news helicopter used wind from the aircraft's rotor to push a stranded deer to safety after it lost its footing on a frozen lake and could not get up.


You might not be cheering so loudly for Free Willy if you knew where he is ending up....Killer whales drawn to 'warm' Arctic

And this guy obviously was just not tasty enough....Diver 'swallowed' by shark survives

The hew and cry will be raised about the need to kill man eating sharks despite the fact that sharks continue to be endangered....

Conservationists worry about shark population
Experts point out attacks on humans are overblown and millions of the fish are being killed

Conservationists: C'mon, give sharks a break!

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Endangered Species

Animals

Environment

Orca

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Save All The Bears

$30M forest pledge 'clear signal' of green Tories: Baird

This is a nice start, but in no way proves the Conservatives are Green since the promise for federal funding was made by the previous Liberal Government. And like all of this weeks announcements the Conservatives are recycling old Liberal policies on the environment.

Now If John Baird really wants to save the Bears and not just those in Spirit Bear Park, there are the polar bears in the Arctic, Black Bears and Grizzly Bears in Alberta and B.C. he could declare as endangered species.

Of course the last Conservative Environment Minister opposed declaring any species endangered, which is perhaps why her position became endangered.

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Baird Pushes Aside Native Elder

Bears

Environment


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