Outside of school … who will be working for whom?  Who will get the mortgage with the good rate?  Who will be seriously shown houses in a good neighbourhood or taken on tours of good apartment buildings instead of being told “sorry, we’re full”?  Who will receive proper service in restaurants every time?

The brawn and aggression that serves those young black kids (and I assume you mean Jamaican, since the African students air complaints similar to yours) so well in the school-yard won’t help them one bit when they face systemic racism … which will start in earnest the first time they visit the school career counselleor.

The Asians and South Asians are forming a  pseudo-majority in Toronto.  Their future is bright.  It makes more sense to learn Mandarin than French in this city.

What is so wrong about wanting to cut back immigration a little in hard times when there are few jobs to go around for those already here? Does that really make me a racist? If EI isn’t working, how about instead of 52 weeks of handouts, 26 weeks and the rest in a lump some for those who want to try running their own small businesses? Does that really make me an evil capitalist? My problem with liberals is that they are almost always berift of ideas, and are always too politically reluctant to change much of anything once in power? The province is going downhill so do we really need more of the same?

I’m not about to spill my life story but it certainly hasn’t been a smooth road and right now I’m putting my own aspirations on hold to put someone else through school.  It’s the only way we’ll get by in this economy.  From what I can tell mine will be the first generation in quite a while to have less than the previous one, as my friends who do have the flashy things are doing so at tremendous future cost (interest) and the more frugal like myself are living in poorly maintained apartment buildings alongside subsidized bums and ex convicts. Not exactly the cushy existence we were hyped up about in University.

Do you really believe that my first thought was or should have been, I don’t need to sell the house, Cynapse has a job so he should pay for it? Of course, if I had never worked and saved my money, and had instead sat around drinking away my welfare money, I would be eligible to collect a more lucrative Ontario disability. Not much of a safety net for my kind though when it comes down to it. Still fighting with the province for help with my prescriptions. CPP helps, but I did pay into it and am not expected to reach old age so as to be able to collect it then. For all the taxes I have paid, I am now eligible for the help of a “liberal with a union job”. Well, more like the empathy of a “liberal with a union job” really, since they aren’t very helpful even when not on one of their day long coffee breaks.

As for seeing it my way, you just have to imagine yourself minus that family tragedy, black and in a rural area during the 1970′s / 1980′s. Reform party membership is no longer a single-issue decision, is it? No, you’ve got to watch your back because the problem isn’t riding down from the ivory tower with some far-fetched scheme. The problem is next door or down the street. People who are able to worry about things like government redistribution can do so because they have no potent predators nearby. Most of the world does not have that luxury. North Americans of northern european origin have only been able to enjoy such dominance for less than 100 years. My point is your speaking from a frame of extreme social luxury when you are able to nitpick over whether the government lets a criminal out a couple years early or gives a welfare check to a single mother. It suggest your hierarchy of needs is being well met.

My father is a former-gun-owner, taxpayer, supreme tax hater, decent job, pro-military (it’s in the family tradition) mistrust of government type individual. I don’t think he voted Conservative once because depending on your demographic there are different considerations.

Probably we will never come to a full convergence because I really can’t imagine what it would be like to Brian S or vice-versa. This is not to say you don’t have a point with the crime – many of us just don’t have the luxury of voting in any group of yahoos that claim they can fix it.