The 2,500–plus men and women now serving with the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan are not, technically, on a peacekeeping mission. Peacekeeping, so far as Canadian soldiers have experienced it, means inserting oneself in between two warring factions. In Afghanistan, of course, we are one of the warring factions.

That said, ...   more »

A Montreal Gazette reporter and headline writer sum things up nicely:

Again, Quebec’s distinct: we don’t want tax cuts

Even toughened pollsters are amazed by the sheer mass of Quebecers who don’t want lower taxes.

It might lead some people to think Quebecers are crazy, said Christian Bourque of Léger Marketing, whose firm ran a post-budget poll that found 70 per cent of Quebecers are opposed to the $950 million in tax cuts announced in last week’s provincial budget.

“One way to look at it is that we’re the only people in North America not to want a tax cut,” he said in a follow-up interview. But looked at another way, it’s perfectly rational, he said: merely people acting in self-interest – the most normal of political responses....

The Washington Post reports yesterday that:

U.S. Rejects G-8 Climate Proposal
Germany Urges Limiting Emissions, Temperature Increase

U.S. officials have raised a second round of unusually bluntly worded objections to a proposed global-warming declaration that Germany prepared for next month's Group of Eight summit, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.

Representatives from the world's leading industrial nations met the past two days in Heiligendamm, Germany, to negotiate over German Chancellor Angela Merkel's proposed statement, which calls for limiting the worldwide temperature rise this century to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit and cutting global greenhouse gas emissions to 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 ...