The world economy and the Canadian economy in general?

[kickidee]

A natural and spirited response. That being said worry will not help and niether will not spending. But I always stock up on food when I worry anyways. I'm such a worrier I bought my Christmas turkey in July just to insure there would be one. And that was before all the bad news. So tell us, what did you buy?

[Gifter]

I'm done , I have all my christmas shopping done . I just bought all the things I need to make my health cookies and that is what i'm up to this weekend .
I have one last gift to send to Ehgland , My nephew just had a baby girl , the first in a family of many boys . I have 4 boys . .
Any way I will wait to get my turkey , let them grow a little bigger !!!!!!!!
Gifter

[kickidee]

Congratulations on the new arrival! I was thinking of you watching the news last night and there is good news, for example a saw Mill outside Courtney is still doing buisness because it cuts specialty lumber orders. On top of that the organic recycling project in this city was a "complete success." Eventually this will extend to each household in the cit and reduce carbon emmissions, while creating compost and they even compost those annoying pizza boxes!!
Creative thinking and finding the new market niches created by the ecenomic slide may be the key. Always there are clever people.
I havn't even started my shopping except for the out of towners. I'll probably go christmas eve with all the men! lol.

[Gifter]

Thank you Kickidee
It will be nice to have a girl in the family . My mother is 80 years old and I think she is more excited than any one .
As for getting my shopping done , I forgot to tell you I have a gift site online so for me it is very easy . Let me tell you I wish it was this simple when I was young .
I hope all is well . Have a great week
Gifter

[kickidee]

Wow some families are shy boys and some have no girls. I have 3 daughters and two grandaughters. I work with a lady with 4 boys. So I can understand the excitment about a little girl if it is an all male familly thus far! I will have a great week, especially as tomorow is Friday, thanks, and you enjoy having nothing left to get but the turkey!!

[Gifter]

Well is it time??
We have voted across Canada and put the government in that won the most seats.
You may not have voted that way but it is what the people wanted. Now all the parties that lost are getting together to oust the government and run the country. They say it is because they have lost confidence in the government. Yet they have not heard the budget yet. Jack is now saying he doesn’t care what the budget is he will vote it down. He has done that for two years now. The liberals only voted yes over the last few years because they knew they could not win the election. For the whole election we had to listen to them they bad mouth each other and yet now they think they can run the country. Come on!!
Is it time to SEPERATE the country. ??? How can the west get ahead or even get fair representation with this Quebec power struggle on. I listen to the government when they are sitting and I wonder some times if some of the Quebec’s ministers even know there is a western Canada. All I hear is what is good for QUEBEC.
Now it may be that my vote means nothing as well.
As far as I’m now concerned our country cannot run right until we fix this power problem. There are just too many parties trying to get a piece of the government.
If the other three parties want to join together, go for it but now run together in a election and let us vote on just two parties . Don’t try to gang together after you did not get in as a single party. As well don’t try to sell us on this we are all together attitude , not more than a few weeks ago you hated each other .
I don’t hear the parties talking about problems with the country any more just who should run the country.
Just who the heck is running the country?
If this country go’s down the tube it will not be because of one party it will because they all have forgot of what they were elected to do and that is run Canada not sit there and yell at each other like little kids having a hissy fit .

[Trailblazer]

Fedearaly

Well is it time??
We have voted across Canada and put the government in that won the most seats.
You may not have voted that way but it is what the people wanted. Now all the parties that lost are getting together to oust the government and run the country. They say it is because they have lost confidence in the government. Yet they have not heard the budget yet. Jack is now saying he doesn’t care what the budget is he will vote it down. He has done that for two years now. The liberals only voted yes over the last few years because they knew they could not win the election. For the whole election we had to listen to them they bad mouth each other and yet now they think they can run the country. Come on!!
Is it time to SEPERATE the country. ??? How can the west get ahead or even get fair representation with this Quebec power struggle on. I listen to the government when they are sitting and I wonder some times if some of the Quebec’s ministers even know there is a western Canada. All I hear is what is good for QUEBEC.
Now it may be that my vote means nothing as well.
As far as I’m now concerned our country cannot run right until we fix this power problem. There are just too many parties trying to get a piece of the government.
If the other three parties want to join together, go for it but now run together in a election and let us vote on just two parties . Don’t try to gang together after you did not get in as a single party. As well don’t try to sell us on this we are all together attitude , not more than a few weeks ago you hated each other .
I don’t hear the parties talking about problems with the country any more just who should run the country.
Just who the heck is running the country?
If this country go’s down the tube it will not be because of one party it will because they all have forgot of what they were elected to do and that is run Canada not sit there and yell at each other like little kids having a hissy fit .

Not my words but worth repeating.
Global warming is with us and quite apparent by the Banana Republic that is Canada.
For those without a sence of humor this is a joke albeit a black one
Democracy on a National ,Provincial & local level is dead.
Locally check the recent RDN / North Oyster fire hall debacle or the manipulation of the Cable Bay annexation result.;we are not been heard.
Provincially consider the BC Ferry's 'we are not private yet we are not Government owned hands off manipulation what happens with our 'water highway' . OUR Government does not GAF!
At the National level the Banana Republic statement stands on it's own merit.
Who can honestly say that their party of choice has anything to offer but being victorious over the competition?
WE have much more important problems in the future namely CLIMATE CHANGE to which our new found Mayor has NO interest.
In my oppinion the decisions we make at this point in time are but lip service to the status quo.

[BigMac]

Someone mentioned the auto industry bailout. That makes me chuckle a bit. The idea is to keep the manufacturing plants rolling and the people in these plants working. However, if no one is willing to buy these cars, then what is the point?

They may as well just give the workers their salary in the form of the bailout money and let them sit at home. Or use all that money for the upcoming relief fund that most of the working poor in the USA are truly going to need in the next few years. Call it welfare money. Call it what you will. But it will be needed.

How about bailing out all the minimum wage workers who are going to lose their jobs?

It really blows my mind that the auto industry could be in such dire financial straights, considering that we have just gone through one of the largest economic booms in the history of the world. Didn't they save anything for a rainy day? Sheesh!

--
TH

Re: 'Bailing out U.S. automakers would be just wrong' (Daily News, Nov. 24)

I agree with Walter Cordery that it was stupid and insensitive of the Big Three automakers' CEOs to show up in Washington last week each in their own private jet. What a great opportunity it would have been for the GM CEO to show up in a Hybrid Malibu or a prototype Chevy Volt.

I disagree with most of the rest of his article however, and I believe it is harmful for pundits to malign the domestic auto industry, for the sake of a column, because of their disdain for the industry's top executives.


If the bridge financing that the automakers are asking for is not forthcoming it won't be the executives who will suffer. It will be the tens of thousands of people across Canada who manufacture the cars, manufacture the parts, and sell and service the vehicles in almost every community in this country. Even the president of Toyota of America said it would be disastrous if even one of the Big Three failed because undoubtedly their failure would cause failures in the parts manufacturing sector that supplies parts to the Japanese, Korean, and German "transplants" as well.

Walter and others who are so quick to criticize the domestic auto industry should do a lot more reading so that they can get their facts straight before advocating an end to an industry that is largely responsible for the creation of the middle class in North America. One in 10 jobs in North America are either directly or indirectly auto industry jobs. Then there are the spinoff jobs, like Walter's, that are dependent in large measure on the auto industry. In Nanaimo alone there are five Big Three auto dealers who collectively employ over 250 people and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars every year on newspaper advertising.

Some of the facts that Walter and so many others get wrong or simply choose to ignore include the following:

1. The new Camaro coming out next year will have a six-cylinder engine as its base and will deliver over 30 miles per gallon. The same thing applies to the Mustang and Dodge Challenger. Sure there are V8 versions, but they are there only for the consumer who wants them.

2. GM is not paying "lip service" to hybrid vehicles. In the 2009 model year, GM offers more hybrid vehicles than any other manufacturer.

3. The Japanese don't have a lock on the small car business. GM Canada sells the most small cars of any automaker in Canada.

4. In Canada, more than half of the new vehicles sold come from GM, Ford, and Chrysler. To me that hardly seems like they are not building what customers want.

5. Innovation was another area where Walter got it wrong. GM does more research and development in Canada than the rest of the auto industry combined. GM won Motor Trend Magazine's Car of the Year for 2008, (the Cadillac CTS). GM is on track to sell the Chevy Volt extended range electric vehicle in 2010. GM invented the airbag, ABS brakes, stability control and so many other innovations that are now taken for granted and shared with other auto manufacturers, including the Japanese ones.
6. The situation that the Big Three find themselves in (liquidity crisis) was not caused by mismanagement. It was caused by the unprecedented drop in vehicle sales in the U.S. in the wake of the financial market meltdown.

There is more, a lot more, that can and should be said but for now I will leave it that except for one thing. Walter and the other pundits who would let the Big Three go without extending some type of government loan assistance or bridge financing should be careful with what they wish for.

They just might get it.

Tom Harris
Nanaimo

[albertabluesky]

GM etal should have saved for a rainy day! Economies always run in cycles....to think the rampant credit-fuelled consumption would continue forever was foolish to say the least....we are in for a long painful savings period (recession)...I do hope their loans are locked into a decent interest rate because the US dollar is going to fall in value eventually and interest rates will increase!

[James Younger]

I had a letter published Nov.22 in the Nanaimo daily news.
Time to quit bailing out big businesses
No bailouts for anybody.
Why do we continue to bail out big businesses that are destroying our planet?
These companies have been earning massive profits for decades. Henry Ford developed the hemp car that was more durable than steel cars. GM developed the EV1 an electric car.
Viable alternatives to gas powered metal vehicles have been quashed by the oil companies. In the real world that I live in, if I can`t make my business work
I am looking for a new job.