I love it! Speak on Mr. Iggy, speak on I say!

I wonder if those Boulet boots of his were specially fitted to his mouth?

Iggy should be busy casting the chicken bones, reading the tea leaves and praying to Mother Earth Gia for intercession on his behalf, because Trudeau's kid is being groomed by the Libs as Canada's next St.Pierre.

Its almost as if Dion or Chretien was speaking....but they had the excuse of English being their second language.

It isnt that he is grammatically incorrect, just evidence of a "tin ear"

How out of touch is Ignatieff?

Does he seriously think that boasting that his cowboy boots are 'the best' and are 'made in Quebec'- that this will endear him to the West????
Is he aware that there is no cattle ranching in Quebec and no cowboy culture? Is he aware that Quebec doesn't have a Calgary Stampede but instead, has its Jean-Baptiste Day, a nationalist separatiste official holiday.

Is he aware that Harper has signed agreements in 2009 and 2010, that strengthened Canada's economic and political relations with China?

Oh - and moving into ad hominem is a disgraceful form of behaviour - and particularly unseemly in a so-called intellectual.

Hate to rain on Iggy's parade but the best cowboy boots are made in Winnipeg, Manitoba (that's in the West Iggy, you know - fly over country)
Canada West Boots.
www.canadawestboots.com/

Well, here he comes, all across western Canada. Kissing hands and shaking babies..er......

First he's in Sask scolding people to learn French and now he's in Alberta saying his boots are made in Qweebec. People say he doesn't know Canada, but more specifically, he REALLY doesn't know the West.

He's trying to pick up votes over here with this strategy/rhetoric? Who the hell is advising him? Even Kinsella isn't this stupid.

"We’re going to stop at every legion hall, every barbecue, every Tim Horton’s and shake every hand in the house.”

Westerners are very adept at recognizing a horse's ass when they see one.

Parading this clown throughout Western Canada in what has all the makings of a bizarre travelling freak show is definitely not a wise move on the part of the Liberals.

Better to remain out east and be thought of as an elitist, out of touch fool rather than travel west and remove all doubt.

Iggy, like all the rest of the Liberals don't care about the West where folks are smart enough NOT to vote for them.
Iggy figures his Boulet boots will gain him votes in Quebec and those boots will walk him to closer to power. His Boulets may be a tad run down in the heels before that happens.

He seems to be competing with Dion as the underdog of the new millenium. This is to play in Ont. West is gone, Quebec is pretty much gone. Wild Rose would indicate Alberta isn't even thinking Liberal. Rational people aren't thinking Liberal.

ET asks (rhetorically): "Does he seriously think that boasting that his cowboy boots are 'the best' and are 'made in Quebec'- that this will endear him to the West????"

I'm sure he's thinking there's more voters in Quebec and he can run the old Liberal "win Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver" scam and win the country. Which proves your point about him being out of touch.

Iggy's comments were clearly intended for an Eastern audience. He has written off Alberta and his Quebec boots and sophomorically PC ad hominem comments were intended to show the East that he can stand up to the emerging Western power base exemplified by Calgary. He hasn't outgrown Trudeau's political geography. Either that, or he actually is so flustered by Harper's gamesmanship that he doesn't know which side is up.

Harper has taken the centrist policies and currently occupies all former liberal turf except the further left which is occupied by the Greens and NDP. That leaves Iggy trying to claim the centre which the "far right wing" Harper has stolen. A man and Party with no turf to call their own contrasted by a man and Conservative Party forced to rule from the centre.

Next he'll be telling us that some of his best friends are Canadian.

“They’re going to say ‘That guy is not as bad as everyone is talking about — in fact he can occasionally smile, in fact he likes Canadians,” he said.

Wow, is that ever inspiring.

Ken Finney wins the thread.

Joe Molnar at 11:27 AM: "Iggy should be busy casting the chicken bones, reading the tea leaves and praying to Mother Earth Gia for intercession on his behalf, because Trudeau's kid is being groomed by the Libs as Canada's next St.Pierre."

Good news!! That'll keep 'em out for a long, long time.

LBJ was known to use an old saw about instructions written on the bottom of a boot and a well known liquid......

Wonder if new Boulet's come with those written instructions?

The best part of course, is that Boulets' are actually a really good boot. Bought a pair when I was out west almost 20 years ago. Re-soled a couple times, but still going strong.

Da Key-beck Boot Compagnie Annual Report 2010

Sales: $2000 (nine pairs of boots sold)
Debits: $2 000 000 salaries
$2 000 000 rent space
Credits: $4 000 000 Alberta transfer payments/ Fed subsidies

Looks to me like he's come to correct us and disabuse us of our erring ways and thoughts. His vision is to see us all bowing before him, acknowledging our sins and asking for penance, while we lick his Quebec made boots.

Sorry that coming to preach to us is so exhausting and dangerous, Iggy, but it was your idea, not ours.

He's trying to pick up votes over here with this strategy/rhetoric? Who ... is advising him? Even Kinsella isn't this stupid.

Like you, I thought at first this one is a head-scratcher. However, if one starts with the assumption that even the average Liberal has at least a certain level of common sense, another explanation could be in play.

If the Liberals have concluded that Ignatieff is a mistake, then they will want to get rid of him before the next election. As I understand it, Liberal policies cannot force a leader out except after the next election. Perhaps, if his popularity folds enough before the next election, he could be persuaded to step down.

I have no inside info on this, but absent some design on the part of Liberals to do Ignatieff in, I am at a loss to rationally explain this decision.

I further suggest Kate's heading is in agreement with this theory: murder - not suicide or accidental death through negligence.

So does anyone know the identity of "Brutus" who is out to get CeeZar?

Whiff of sulfur?

Heh, I guess he's playing to the pro-Chavez crowd.

I checked at the CTF but I couldn't find any subsidies to the Boulet boot company....

Okay okay, I'll vote for him if he'll stay for a while longer.

I can't help but analogize the Liberals to the mouse that can't figure-out why he gets shocked every time he goes for the cheese.

The Liberals have nowhere to go as they are book-ended on both sides. Their Liberal predecessors would be rolling in their graves at the site of the destruction of their elitist machine. Today's Liberal broke the cardinal rule of liberalism: never expose your true motives. Dion's publicly moving the Liberals to the Left has exposed the Red inside the Liberal watermelon.

One of the readers' comments was hilarious; commenting on his tour:-
"The wheels on the bus go....clunk....clunk....clunk."
Coffee spewing material on at least 2 levels.

Is he aware that there is no cattle ranching in Quebec and no cowboy culture?
ET @ 11:40

There is indeed a cowboy culture in Quebec.
They use aluminum paint on their trucks instead of chrome.

Cool Iggs - remember to tuck your pants inside the boots. Or better yet try them with lederhosen on. Honest - thats how your suppose to wear them holms

I have the feeling this tour is going to be the font for a lot of great mat'l. Oh man a whole summer of unintended comedy - don't the libs realize...?

Got to give the Liberal GTA rump party points for tenacity - trying to sell another yapping toy poodle lap dog as a working Labrador retriever.

"Ignatieff took aim at Prime Minister Stephen Harper suggesting the Conservative is to the extreme right of most Canadians."

I'm a traditional liberal (Haven’t voted Liberal since there is no party that reflects Liberal democrat populism) and I think Iggy is right of GW Bush on most policy. I know one thing, if we allow Iggy's republican mercantilism to mingle with Liberal party Klepto-nomics, Ottawa will be a branch office of the Beijing Global monopolist cartel. Vote liberal if you want Melamine in all your (imported) processed food.

It seems to me that Ontario voters and their bottomless well of apathy is the problem here. Ontario voters are playing a game of "Chicken" with the ROC and will continue between the lines and wait for us to bail(vote Liberal). I shudder to think of the consequences of a coalition because one thing is certain. For all of the disagreement on the Left, they can all agree on one thing: control of the federal government and coffers must be in central Canada. On this they would in fact have a majority and will find ways to enforce this control, and most importantly ensure they maintain control. You can look to the United States for the model the Left wishes to impose here. Unfortunately for us, we do not have constitutional rights to property.

Harper needs a majority to enforce success on Ontario, but nobody knows with the current voter breakdown if this is even possible. IMO the safe money is NO; therefore, it begs the following question: will Ontario liberals ever concede that they're wrong,do a turn-about and willingly concede federal power to outsiders?

I had the opportunity to talk to some Liberals on my recent quasi-vacation (if you can call moving your daily routine from home to somebody else's house a vacation, but then they live in a much nicer house in a much nicer place).

It's unnerving for a Canadian conservative to peer that deep into the void, because in many ways we are exactly alike, then you get into politics and it all sounds crazy, like they were educated in Cuba or something similar.

Not that any of this is news or meant to be a revelation, I just wanted to say that Iggy's remark about Harper is standard Canadian Liberal thought that applies to ALL OF US ... they hate us all for no other reason than that we refuse to enable their sense of entitlement. This hatred is held behind a barrier of subtle contempt, but you can really feel it during a political or sometimes a religious discussion. But then the lines get blurred because conservative libertarians then swing over to the Liberal view and take that side of the same debate.

Perhaps we do all belong in different worlds (and fates) with a great gulf fix'd between us.

It seems to me that Ontario voters and their bottomless well of apathy is the problem here.

Will you PLEASE stop repeating this endless line of horse manure? ONTARIO RETURNED MORE CONSERVATIVE MPS TO THE LAST PARLIAMENT THAN ALBERTA, SASKATCHEWAN, AND MANITOBA COMBINED. Where is the apathy, you blithering idiot?

Yes, Toronto and Ottawa are bastions of the Liberals. No wonder - both cities suck off the public teat like gangbusters. But the 905 - that's the area that surrounds Toronto, and where many of the people who work in Toronto actually live - returned more Tories than Liberals.

Stop repeating this crap, else I'm going to start thinking you're a lefty plant.

Ziffy's Quebec Nemesis.

Maxime Bernier, MP, Beauce.

Calgary speech.

11-February-2010.

Excerpt:

..-

"Zero budget growth"

[...]

"We have to convince people that we're not simply aiming to be better managers of a bigger government; we are aiming to be better managers of a smaller government.

There is a large constituency for these small-government principles. But because there are no lobbies to defend them, they get lost in the debates.

We have to act as the lobby of the silent majority. The silent majority who are tired of working to pay for special interests. The silent majority who are dismayed at seeing their freedom curtailed at every turn. The silent majority who are losing hope that life will get better for them and their children.

It is not always possible, of course. There are political realities that cannot be overlooked. But being pragmatic is not enough. In the long run, there are political gains to be made by telling people the hard truth, and not just what they want to hear or what is politically correct.

And not just telling it; doing it too! We have to justify our actions on the basis of these principles."

http://www.financialpost.com/todays-paper/story.html?id=2548328

http://www.maximebernier.com/en/2010/02/revue-de-presse-mon-discours-de-calgary/

“We’re going to stop at every legion hall, every barbecue, every Tim Horton’s and shake every hand in the house.”

Oh please follow through on this, that way we'll never see you on TV again - EVER!

I have some suggestions about what this smarmy bastard can "do with his shame about that"...

Okay KevinB

“ONTARIO RETURNED MORE CONSERVATIVE MPS TO THE LAST PARLIAMENT THAN ALBERTA, SASKATCHEWAN, AND MANITOBA COMBINED.”KevinB

RU serious?

It looks like I’ve hit a nerve here. This appears to be nothing but the rant of an unemployed engineer working at Subway. In typical KevinB fashion he chooses to blame everyone else for his woes except himself. Perhaps it IS YOUR WHINNY FAULT that you’re a$$ can’t get a job…..hmmmm? Perhaps people are tired of hearing about the respect you should have, or how things were done at your old job …hmmmm? Perhaps you should be instituting your own business plan (since you’re an expert) instead of waiting for Albertans to send work east….hmmmm? You might not have noticed, but the engineering firm I work at is hiring, and the one on the floor below, and the one that scooped my manager last week, and the one we farmed-out excess work to.

Perhaps instead of complaining that ““It's pretty discouraging to hear that at 50, with a wealth of business knowledge, the only way I can find work is to hide my lamp under a bushel.” KevinB July 9,2010” you could apply for one of those jobs in Alberta or Saskatchewan …hmmmm?

You also may not have noticed this:

2008 election results

Ontario elects: 38 Liberal MPs
ROC elects (including Quebec): 36 Liberal MPs
ROC elects (excluding Quebec): 22 Liberal MPs
Western Canada including Territories elects: 8 Liberal MPs

How about the 2006 election results:

Ontario elects: 54 Liberal MPs
ROC elects (including Quebec): 49 Liberal MPs
ROC elects (excluding Quebec): 36 Liberal MPs
Western Canada including Territories elects: 16 Liberal MPs

“ONTARIO RETURNED MORE CONSERVATIVE MPS TO THE LAST PARLIAMENT THAN ALBERTA, SASKATCHEWAN, AND MANITOBA COMBINED.”KevinB

Have you considered that it might be your use and understanding of statistics that has prevented you from obtaining meaningful work in you area of “expertise”?

And finally;

"Stop repeating this crap, else I'm going to start thinking you're a lefty plant."-KevinB

C’mon artard, feelings of western alienation are rooted on the right.

Save your spin for your resume KevinB, your remedial understanding of this issue is laughable.

The best boots I ever owned were made in Calgary!

Perhaps I should go to Quebec and tell THEM that.

KevinB: typical Ontario "pseudo-conservative" voter.

You guys voted in Chretien 3 terms with +100 seats federally. You guys voted in McGuinty 2 terms and probably will for a 3rd. Ontario "conservatives" are fake conservatives called "progressive conservatives". You are only "conservative" when it suits you to be, the rest of the time you vote Liberal.

You like Big Government and high taxes, you adore mommy government. If you didn't you wouldn't have McGuinty running your province into the ground like he is. You are too chicken to kick him to the curb, 'cause you might miss out on a hand out or subsidy or some other incentive to use other people's money to fund your day to day lives.

You need more McGuinty PAIN to get you to change your voting habits and frankly, with the population living in your neck of the woods, why you haven't is beyond me. You're fake conservatives until you prove otherwise sport!

Take Hudak: a "progressive" conservative who is so scared of his own shadow he won't come out publicly and state that the HST is gone if elected, because he looooooves all that ROC money shipped to Ontario to make this tax go down better. What a twerp! McGuinty in drag!

Bite it fake conservative, wallow in your cesspool province with your mommy state premier. You deserve each other. If you were a real conservative, you'd move out west and find a job and ditch those commies who live right next door to you.

Mr Ignatieff does little to convince anyone he and his party are "centrist" by quoting arch-socialist Venezualan president Chavez.

Mr Ignatieff does little to show he is pan Canadian by telling Albertans some firm in Quebec makes the best cowboy boots.

And, ah yes, the strange "sheep" comment.

BTW, nobody's buying the merger/coalition dodge. Should the Tories fail to win a majority next election, a minority government is opposition's next play. The other two are bait and switch.

Unfortunately for the opposition, it isn't easy to co-opt non Tory votes and, anyway, what are the chances of Lib/NDP seats being greater than Tory, let alone forming a majority together?

Never mind though, Mr Harper (right and smartly so) will drive a wedge, which the opposition provided, into this idea, and present two positive views of his government: peace, order and good government; and, Canada was last in, first out of the global recession.

Mr Ignatieff is putting his foot in his mouth everywhere he goes, on the barbeque circuit, in safe intellectual/university seminars/talks, and with idiotic policy announcements such as banning supertankers in the inside passage between Vancouver Island and the mainland.

A paucity of policy is compensated with preposterous policy. It's now widely believed the LPC and Ignatieff are afraid of facing the Tories in an election, so they sabre rattle.

Oh, mean Mr Harper won't be nice. More of the entitled schoolboy mentality from the LPC (when they're not slandering our troops in Afghan that is).

The LPC should be consigned to third party status except for the stubborn refusal of the NDP and Jack Layton to take their vote away on the left, forcing them to drift rightward, in front of the Tories gunsights.

Layton's fear of a Tory majority is the only thing keeping the Grits even close right now.

"The whiff of sulfur" perhaps the Counts nose is too close to his own ass...

Related quote and/or advice:
An irate King Juan Carlos then stepped in, demanding of Chavez: "Why don't you just shut up?"

P.S. I thought "Boulet Boulet" was Yale's 'fight song' not Harvard's?

2008 seat totals for CPC:

BC 22; AB 27; SK 13; MB 9; ON 51; QC 10; NB 6; NS 3; PE 1; NL 0; NU 1; NT 0; YT 0
Total: 143 seats

27 + 13 + 9 = 49

Thanks Einstein.

You might notice that Ontario has 106 seats in the House; therefore, 51/106= 0.48; or in other words 52% of Ontario's elected federal officials are Liberals and Dippers!

So, instead of trying to impress us with your math skills andycanuck, perhaps you should try some critical thinking and ask: what is the relevence of KevinB's statement that “ONTARIO RETURNED MORE CONSERVATIVE MPS TO THE LAST PARLIAMENT THAN ALBERTA, SASKATCHEWAN, AND MANITOBA COMBINED.”? It's a misdirection to confuse the issue. Without Ontario's support for the Liberals, the Liberals cannot obstruct the government. That's on Ontario.

So to be sure I've got this straight, I'm to rejoice at the fact that only 16% of Ontario MPs are hardcore socialists(Dippers) and 36% of them are ONLY quasi socialists (Liberals) willing to participate in backroom deals with the hardcore socialists?

It seems to me that Ontario gave about the same percentage of the vote to the socialst party(s) that the Americans gave to the President in 2008 and we all know how that's working out.

Finally, including KevinB's rant, neither of you have commented on the core of what I was saying above that: "For all of the disagreement on the Left, they can all AGREE on one thing: control of the federal government and coffers must be in central Canada." and that "On this they would in fact have a majority and will find ways to enforce this control, and most importantly ensure they maintain control. You can look to the United States for the model the Left wishes to impose here." If you disagree, make your argument, but quit trying to deflect the issue with a straw-man argument.

"Men lie, women lie, numbers don't"-Jay-Z

Without IGGY most of Canada's comedy would disappear.
Frankly I figure Him, Layton & the bloc are unofficially in alliance. All the denunciations where just the usual liberal fibs from the coup attempt. Next time it will be with more finesse.
Its why he doesn't care if he acts the Jackass.
hell be leader anyway if Harper is defeated.
JMO

Question:
How do you know that Count Iggy of the Eyebrows has a bladder control problem?

Answer:
By his rusty belt buckle and yellow stain on the Boulet boots.

andycanuck:

Thank you; apparently, you're the only person here who looked at the facts.

I noted explicitly in my earlier post that Toronto and Ottawa were Liberal strongholds, which that idiot from Indiana completely ignored in his haste to put his spin on things. But if you get out of those two cities, Ontario is almost completely Tory (and yes, I know there's some Lib/NDP seats in Windsor/London/Hamilton).

I never said Ontario didn't vote Liberal in past federal elections. But there's been a tremendous increase in CONSERVATIVE votes and seats in Ontario. Since the sot from South Bend wants to bring up ancient history:

2004 election: Ontario - 24 Tories, 75 Liberals
2006 election: Ontario - 40 Tories, 54 Liberals
2008 election: Ontario - 51 Tories, 38 Liberals

In four years, the number of Tory seats doubles, the number of Liberal seats is cut in half, but this is evidence, according to the goof from Gary, of "a bottomless well of apathy". (And you call my abilities with statistics into question?!) I think it's evidence of a pretty significant turnaround in voter thought, but what do I know, since I'm just a "whinny" (sic) ass. ("Whiny", of course, refers to one who whines, while "whinny" is the sound a horse makes, but perhaps this was an intentional whinny/ass pun. I rather doubt that.)

Finally, for the kook from Kokomo: 1) I have a business plan, and I've been seeking funding for some time. 2) As I've mentioned many times, I have two daughters, 13 and 16, and I'm not running off to AB or SK while they're still in high school. In four years, when the youngest is off to university, I might be off to Western Canada, but I think my position as a parent, even if I'm only working at minimum wage, is more important than my temporary finances. Your mileage may vary.

I didn't even mention provincial politics in my previous post, but for "po'ed"'s benefit: I suspect John Tory might well have won last time out except for his disastrously stupid policy on funding religious schools which, if implemented, would have allowed any group of Islamo-terrorists to start educating their spawn in their anti-Western venom, at public expense. So, "po'ed", call us any names you want - would you vote in Danielle Smith if she ran on a platform of publicly funded Islamist schools? If so, I'd like you to state it here; otherwise, please don't comment on provincial politics where you clearly don't know what happened.

As for the HST: I asked my wife, who's director of finance for a chain of auto dealers, what the effect will be on her business. Her reply was of course it will help business in the long run. The changeover will be an annoying one time thing, but, as with the replacement of the MST with the GST, a good thing for business overall. (Never mind that scores of economists and businessmen of all stripes agree that direct sales taxes are more efficient for the economy, easier to implement, and harder to avoid, thus fairer.) And I don't expect Hudak, if he's ever elected, to repeal the HST; as with Harper, I expect him to cut the HST, and then dare following politicians to raise it.

andycanuck:

Number of seats in Alberta = 28. 27 elected Conservatives or 96.4% of seats.

Number of seats in Ontario = 106 total. 51 elected Conservatives or 48.1%.

You need a little work on the Conservative file bud. When you return 100+ seats Conservative like you did the Liberals for 3 terms federally, we'll call you Conservative. Until then you're still Liberals.

("Whiny", of course, refers to one who whines, while "whinny" is the sound a horse makes, but perhaps this was an intentional whinny/ass pun. I rather doubt that.)

yes your right, thanks for another deflection, my poor grammar wins the argument for you. \

so the disagreement then is about the word "bottomless". okay u win, how about "almost bottomless"?

I'll leave the name calling to you, and the proof reading of my as you coined it "hasty" comments. because that's whats important right?

po'ed:

Number of Liberals elected in Ontario: 38
Number of Liberals elected in GTA: 29
Number of Liberals elected ex-GTA: 9
Number of Tory seats ex-GTA: 46
Number of Ontario seats ex-GTA: 70
Percent of Ontario seats ex-GTA that are Tory: 65%

As I've noted twice now, the NDP and Liberals have seats in Windsor, London, and Ottawa, plus one in Kingston, one in Guelph, and one in Temaskaming. Elsewhere, Ontario is Tory.

This is what po'ed ME about the original post from the fart from Ft. Wayne. He tars everyone from Ontario with a single brush, when it's clear to anyone with a hint of intelligence that the province is bifurcated; there's the GTA, and then there's the rest of Ontario. If he'd said that Toronto voters had a bottomless well of apathy, I'd have no argument with him. But his mindless generalization of everyone in the province, which is repeated here often, and not just by him, makes me want to vomit. It's as if I said that anyone from Alberta is an uneducated mouth breather who mindlessly votes Tory because his daddy told him to (which I never would say, of course). You'd be all over me, po'ed, and with good reason. So why I can't take offense when someone slurs my province with complete and utter bullshit that collapses on the least bit of inspection?

I can't believe he went to Calgary during Stampede Week showing off his spankin' new Quebec made c'boy boots 'cause they're the best evah!! and he didn't get hung from the nearest tree. The Quebecois are loved in Calgary but their political toadies most definitely are not.

“They’re going to say ‘That guy is not as bad as everyone is talking about — in fact he can occasionally smile, in fact he likes Canadians,” he said.
Migawd, the twerp is politically talentless.
I mean, not as bad as "some people" might pass, but "not as bad as everyone is talking about"???

Correct, me, ET, if I'm wrong: He was NOT a Harvard professor. (nor was Obama)

Sulfur? Extreme right? Quebec-made boots in the land which justifiably screamed, "Let the Eastern Bastards Freeze in the Dark".

Won't westerners be thinking, if not saying out loud: "All hat, no cattle."

Behold: Mr. Bean.

yes your right, thanks for another deflection, my poor grammar wins the argument for you.

Except that you don't address a single important point that I made, did you? Didn't address them because they're correct, and you can't refute them, so you ignore them, and then accuse me of deflection. Sounds like a lefty to me - ignore the important points, and then accuse your critic of the exact tactic you're using.

I at least show my critics the courtesy of proof-reading my posts, so they don't have to decipher what I mean. You clearly don't give a rat's patootie.

Indiana Holms said:
"feelings of western alienation are rooted on the right."

They're "rooted" in isolation, exploitation and two tiered federalism.

Just finished reading "Wyley's War" by Terry Anderson. I suggest you get a copy.

Now people, do not squabble amongst ourselves and besides the topic is going astray.

Sean M @ 6:38 gets the prize to this point.

"He's trying to pick up votes over here with this strategy/rhetoric? Who the hell is advising him? Even Kinsella isn't this stupid."

Care to bet?

The Boulet boots that I have seen have been made from ostrich and alligator skin. They run between $500-$900 a pair. I'm sure they make other styles but those are they boots that make the Boulet name.

I have a rounded pair of Ariats and a square toe pair of Brahmas that run about $270 each (both made in Canada). Great for goig out in but don't want to be walking around all day shakin hands in those. (As if!)

Best pair of boots that I have are a pair of steel toed Canada West Boots made in Manitoba. (H/T Mikewa) Worked all over western Canada and up north in those and never had a day where my I felt my feet. Just bought another pair in February, $170. Still do the lawn with my old ones, better than my Nike air sneaks.

Nothing drives the ladies crazier in the summer than seeing a guy break out of his coveralls wearing cut off jeans, a white T with emulsion stains on the back from crawling around the belly of a treater and wearing a pair of black comboy boots. Except for maybe those big balls hanging off the trailer hitch of a Gremlin in downtown Vancouver. Eh!

KevinB, I agree & regularly find your posts to be highly informative.

A few young people in the west with a bit of time to spare could follow Iggy's advance team around and put up one of those old style WW2 movie joke directional signposts nearby with "Le Puits, Les Martins, Provence, France 7532 km" instead of Brooklyn USA 4321 mi.

Sgt. Lejaune, that's funny right there, I don't care who you are. ROFLMAO

Rick Mercer where are you?

I agree Ken(Kulak), Sean M gets the prize!

I live in the Yukon, right next door to Palin Country (Alaska), we have not sent a Conservative to Ottawa since

Yukon gument employees are overpaid ( a gument dishwasher earns $23.00 an hour) and over pampered (free trips 'home' for self and family, N. Living allowance, paid for moves up here, no medicare premiums and LOTS of medivacs, often with a 'friend'...it goes on and on...);if anyone here wants to pick a target for piling on it should be the Yukon, first. Ontario people pay some of their own bills and many are independant of gument handouts; under Mike Harris, Ontario fueled the engines of this nation. They have a dud in power right now so does Alberta and Manatoba and B.C. Sask just got rid of their Dipper Dud. We need more Conservatives in the Yukon to rid ourselves of the Liberano/Dipper goofs we have running the show. The best way to get a Conservative elected is to cut off the $$$.

Start Squawking about the real drags on the economy: Quebec and the Territorys!! The drags are not short of resources, they are short of ambition and a requirement to be ambitious to eat. As my Mom says "Necessity is the mother of invention".

Since I've only ridden a horse a few dozen times in my life, and never actually owned a pair of "cowboy" boots, perhaps someone could enlighten me.

I was under the impression that the high heels and shape of the boots' soles were made to make it easy to slip your boots in and out of the stirrups, and to keep them there when riding hard, but that actually walking long distances in boots was painful. Is this actually the case?

KevinB

"Show me the money"

First, Ontario isn’t a commonly referred to voting block? My comments were about a potential coalition between the Liberals and the Dippers that I believe will likely be enabled by Ontario voters; not that Ontario is a bastion if strength for the Liberals, which you deny.

If you're going to claim that Ontario voting less than 50 Liberal MPs ONCE in my lifetime is tantamount to a turn-around in the views of Ontario voters then I'll leave you to it. And if Ontario helps the Conservatives to a majority in the near future I'm sure you'll consider it vindication. Then the question will be: how deep is Ontario’s support for the Conservatives or conservative values?

If you haven’t noticed, many commenter’s here have complained religiously about our not conservative Conservatives and Ontario still hasn’t come on board. Sure Ontario ONLY has 38 Liberal MPs today, and maybe 33 tomorrow, but what about the day after tomorrow? Ontario won’t last one election cycle if meaningful cuts are made to the government, not to mention any iota of a social conservative agenda; but again, no Conservative government would have the power to do so if given a mandate by Ontario’s voters. That’s the problem! Conservatives voted in by Ontario wont be conservatives, so you can manage the numbers to your hearts delight, it’s all nonsense.

If you’re position is to deny the merit of my position regarding western alienation then so be it.

Regarding work, perhaps you should preface your statements about the woes of the market with: I’m not willing to travel/move; else someone out west scrambling to keep-up might mistake you for someone pulling-out all the stops to find a job. Where I work, in Saskatchewan, we are constantly hiring people of your description and value their contribution. Just another cultural difference between the East and West I guess, and far too complex for me to understand.

Bygons

Where I work, in Saskatchewan, we are constantly hiring people of your description and value their contribution.

Really? Where do they advertise? I can't afford to buy every paper in Canada. But I'm a member on virtually every job board in Canada, and I've never, ever, been notified of a position available in SK.

However, I did say that I'm trying to stay near my daughters. They are way more important to me than any job or level of comfort. If I can pay my bills and be a part of their lives, that's enough for me for now.

BTW, Ontario added 43,000+ full time jobs in June. SK added 800, and Alberta actually lost almost 10,000 full time jobs. You may doubt my statistical acumen, but this suggests to me that there are more opportunities in Ontario.

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/subjects-sujets/labour-travail/lfs-epa/t100709a4-eng.htm

But I'm willing to bury the hatchet if you are.

No prob KB, and I'll take your criticisms into consideration. Now if I was a "Lefty" could I do and say that?(kidding)

You're not the first to call me an idiot.

"You may doubt my statistical acumen," I take that back.

Anyways, perhaps I could forward some information, but I'm not sure of the appropriate way to get in touch. For example, we have a referral program where I work. Let me know, I'm not the jerk I seemed to be yesterday.

We're hiring. I live in Calgary. My company is going flat out. I took three weeks off and missed a well, to take a breather. Your stats are outdated sport. I've been going flat out since December 28, 2009! I'm training new people for the next while to do my job.

The Patch is on a roll and will experience another round of labour shortages by this winter. "Special Ed" has seen the light and it dosen't shine on him or his government, so he's trying to make nice with the boys who pay the bills in Alberta. Keeps the wolfette from his door, maybe.

What are you doing sitting on your ass "waiting" back home, don't be such a cheapskate, buy a friggin' ticket and fly down during Stampede and do some schmoozing for a job. We don't hire fence sitters. My company is hiring, because we have been going flat out since December, 2009. This is a record year already and it's just half over!

Typical Ontarioan. Johnny come lately to the job scene. Want's a written guarantee before moving off his ass! Show some initiative. Go get the job, sport.

Isn't this Iggy tour all part of the wanting to divide Canada plan their pollster revealed?
(calling Albertans sheep, dissing the cowboy boots, wearing his black hat while doing so)

Iggy is acting like a 98lb weakling trying to kick sand into the eyes of the West, but this isn't going to give him any muscle to back up his act.

Po'ed:

My stats are not out of date; if you'd bother to check the link, you'll see they're for June 2010. The fact that your company is hiring cannot be extrapolated into the conclusion that everyone in Alberta is hiring.

And I'm trying to start my own business, so investing in a plane ticket, hotel, meals, etc. on the off-chance that I might find a job in AB, and then spending thousands more to move there just doesn't make sense; it's better spent on my market research and advertising. But thanks for attributing it to your mistaken perception of Eastern Canadians.

Moving expenses are tax deductible. Got any more excuses?

Face it, from what you post, you wouldn't climb down from your Ontario ivory tower to come out here. Not even to visit.

Best stay in Ontario bud, you'd stick out like a Boulet boot, just like Ignauseous.

Hey KB

There's a good chance that if the demand is right you could negotiate a good per-Diem(sp?) with good experience. Someone I worked closely with, with teenagers and a wife back in TdotOdot travels back and forth weekly on the companies dime. Others I know are cheap and collect the $$. It's something to consider(I usually poke my nose around here) I appreciate your personal situation being that I too have girls of a similar age. I doubt I'd have the option not to move were I in your situation, but I don't begrudge you for having some flexibility. Good luck with you're business plan, perhaps I'll be sending you a resume someday.

"Best stay in Ontario bud,"

Po'ed

My dad told me to "take your work boots with you when you apply for a job; else how will you work if you find a job". IMO this is typical of the Alberta attitude and culture and I'll go out on a limb and say it's quite foreign to many people outside Alberta. Folks like you and me will never appreciate how important it is to work where, when and how you want, as opposed to working period.

That said, this isn't a slight at KB who has repeated that he has lowered his expectations but continues to work and look for greener pastures. Not working in his field is his choice and I respect that, but I would agree with you about what you and I perceive as a sob story.

In the end, and in my view, the grievance between Albertans and central Canadians (both ways) is Culture, Culture, Culture. Even if dare I say Ontario comes around on fiscal issues(see the light) they will still hate us for who we are.JMO

KevinB, I know rig workers that are going to Saskatchewan for work FROM Alberta. That's where the work is buddy. Believe it. Look at Sask. if you're serious about relocating. Winters are ugly, but they are in Alberta too. Living expenses are very cheap in Saskatchewan, housing is inexpensive. No HST!!