I’ve looked into earthships and they seem like one heck of a lot of work! Those tires take a lot of soil! I do like the concept of a south-facing earth-bermed house. Not particularly practical in the city, but if you have property it is.

Cob construction seems like it would be just about as much work as a rammed earth building.

Hay bale construction seems like a pretty good option on the prairies though. Bales are plentiful and relatively inexpensive, wood is as cheap as ever and they’re super insulated! Not sure, but cities may even approve hay bale construction too.

I sincerely hope all facilities change over to this design. Waaaaaay better from this parent’s perspective.

I am an ex St Joes student that is on a small mission to try to find some information regarding the cancelled GRAPHIC ARTS course they used to teach. It was a great course that taught me alot & my nephew wanted to take the course but it is now not offered. I heard that it was removed from the curriculum in the early 2000′s which is too bad.

I am also trying to locate any other people that took the course so I can touch bases so if anyone out there used to attend the St Joes Graphic Arts course I’d luv to hear from you!

NO GLORY WITHOUT EFFORT

Rarely does Harper act directly, so you won’t see an announcement about privatizing healthcare, banning abortion or anything too controversial. As you’ve pointed out, he’s more likely to hollow out the program and cut funding, effectively doing the same thing while speaking out both sides of his mouth saying he’s supporting it.

This is the way the Conservatives have eroded our democracy to this point and now he can’t be stopped. What took generations to create will be undone in four years. Canadians won’t even realize what they’ve lost.

I’d have far more respect for the Conservatives if they worked above-board and consulted instead of skulking in the shadows. Who knows? Perhaps, emboldened by a majority, they’ll do as other governments have done, ram through major changes in the first two years, and back off for the last two, trying to moderate themselves slightly to appease voters.

I’m beyond party politics now and have been for a few years. I’ve been focusing more on individual policy issues which, coincidentally, doesn’t line me up with many of the Conservative policy ideas. About the only one I do agree with is eliminating the long gun registry.

The thing is that with Supreme Court decisions, they don’t preclude the government from bringing in new legislation to replace old legislation or to deal with laws which may have been struck down. This means that the new laws may be at odds with the Supreme Court decision, but it will take years to run them through the courts to challenge them.

I read somewhere recently that the Conservatives have removed funding for court challenges, but I can’t remember where I’d read that, so I can’t verify it.

I also understand that there are several openings coming up on the Supreme Court, so he’s likely to load up the Supreme Court with sympathetic judges, much as he’s done with the Senate.

So we’re likely to continue to see doublespeak in the Conservatives saying they support something while finding other ways to undermine it. Another tactic we’re likely to see is the government not introducing legislation, but backbenchers doing so and a free vote. It allows the government to maintain a level of plausible deniability which we all know is a sham.

Like I said. I hope I’m wrong about my predictions, but we’ll see in four years.

Almost forgot about foreign workers. There may be some shortages in some areas, but what I would rather see is redirecting that $55 billion EI surplus (long disappeared now) into training un- or under-employed Canadians. We do have the population to fill those positions and should work towards educating our own population to fill them, rather than farming them out to foreigners.

It is an attempt to drive down wages (the hollowing out of the middle class I referred to) by bringing in foreign workers willing to work for lower wages than Canadians are used to in various positions. The line we hear then is that “oh, Canadians don’t want to do those jobs” with the real reason being is that Canadians couldn’t afford to work those jobs at those wages and still be able to pay on a mortgage (and we know how expensive they are these days).

This is the same thing that has happened in the US. Funny how these sorts of tactics are imported here. There are some imports which should be banned.

Canada really does have a problem with the middle class. Real wages have not grown in 25 years. People are barely surviving even in good times. One has to wonder just who will be buying those new houses, new cars and all the toys that drive the economy. This is a real problem but because of the policies we have seen and are likely to continue to see, it’s only going to get worse. I should point out that the Conservatives aren’t the only ones to blame here. The Liberal party has done a lot of damage in its days in power too.