Conference kaosws::canada

    
    	With the completion of the Grand Canal in 1990 the VIA Rail
    decision will be of no consequence. The government obviously took
    this into consideration as the VIA Rail cutbacks don't start until
    1990 to coincide with the completion of the Grand Canal.
    
    I don't see what everyone's worried about. We'll have the Grand Canal
    to keep us together, if you follow my train of thought, as it were.
    
    Glenn

     I am appalled at the short sighted retrenchment that our government
    has initiated with all sorts of things throughout it's term of office.
    
     This business with VIA has me more pissed off than ever before.
    I am an ardent supporter of high speed rail systems, and if anything
    right now, the government should be investing in VIA and such systems
    for our future rather than crippling us and preventing future
    generations of Canadians from enjoying cost effective transportation.
    
    Regards, R. Tomkins
    
    P.S. that last entry does not even deserve the reading you gave
    it.

    Re-.1  I agree, instead of write-locking notes on the grounds of
    sqabble on subjects (the one on abortion), the moderator should
    make sure that frivolous notes about the gran canal would not be
    entered by the initiator of such non-sense (Mr Richardson).  Taking
    about the grand canal is more of a rat hole than ANY subject of
    interest to Canadians and Canadaphiles.
    
    If it is non-sense that you want watch CODCO and KIDS in the HALL.
    
    Jean
    
    

    re: the original discussion
    
    A few years ago, the Federal Government announced that it was getting
    out the railway business in Newfoundland.  It made a lot of economic
    sense (as does this decision), but the provincial government raised the
    issue of the terms of Confederation (as has Vander Zalm).  It was only
    a negotiating ploy.  Newfoundland received a large sum to upgrade the
    highway system across the island, since it would now carry a greater
    load.  I suspect Vander Zalm will make his request within the next
    week or so.
    
    Glenn 

    
    	It's hard for me to imagine for a moment that ANY Canadian would
    consider the Grand Canal a frivolous topic! I find this kind of
    apathy on such a key issue affecting all Canadians as well as Albertans
    quite staggering. 
    	I have been accused of being an initiator of non-sense, as it
    were. Though I am flattered, I cannot take credit for the building
    of the Grand Canal. This has been accomplished through the cooperation
    and dedicated effort of many individuals across Canada and Alberta.
    It is a mammoth undertaking by visionaries who believe they can build
    a better Canada, yea even a stronger Canada and the Grand Canal
    is just the culmination of those dreams. I believe that the Grand
    Canal will soon bring an end to all the petty bickering that goes
    on across our great land as well as Alberta and I hope that those
    who belittle it will begin to see it as it was intended to be seen.
    A mighty link, stronger than steel rails the Grand Canal will be!
    In the sense that if you take a piece of steel rail and try to smash
    water with it, you will discover that try as you might, water cannot
    be smashed. This I believe is a symbol of the flexibility and integrity
    of the Canadian spirit. 
    	I think Canada will be back on track with the Grand Canal, if
    you follow my train of thought via the note you have just read.

    Glenn
    
    P.S. The rat hole just got bigger. Anyone care to step in?
    

>    I believe that the Grand
>    Canal will soon bring an end to all the petty bickering that goes
>    on across our great land as well as Alberta and I hope that those

(?)I always thought Alberta was part of your Great Land.

As far as rail service vs. canal service is concerned, the railroads
in the U.S. were built mostly by Chinese coolies.  We've built a lot
of dams as well, but I don't think they were built using Chinese
laborers, though we do have a dam called the Grand Cooly, or something
like that.  I'm not sure if any of our canals were ever considered
grand, though many of them were affected by various dams.

But it was the trucking industry that literally bought out the rail
service in the States, which had originally forced the canals out of
use.  In time the canals became obsolete which made them huge tourist
attractions.  Many tourists and others have been coming here in large
numbers from the Far East to sell us trucks, which we use to take our
families to see the canals, and an ocassional train.

A grand idea that is working to keep North America north of Panama,
home of the famous isthmus.

Kip

    At least the last noter digressed in his note, not like the "one
    track mind" of Mr. R.
    
    Jean
    

    oh, get a grip you guys, and stop bickering over noting styles,
    or content. Humour is humour, and squabbling is squabbling.
    
     And, as mentioned earlier, the Grand Canal is NOT fiction, although
    it does invoke funny images.
    
    Scooter

	'Evoke' not 'invoke', Scooter.

     What's that? The Grand Canal is not fiction? I am sorry Glen.
    Here I was, all these days, thinking what silly and stupid humor you
    have, and it's true (The Grand Canal, that is).
     Now I can only think about silly and stupid politicians.
    ;-), ;-),
    Is that enough smiley faces, or do I need more?

    >>  'Evoke' not 'invoke', Scooter.
    
    I stand connected.
    
    Scooter

    If that stupid canal is NOT fiction, where is it?
    
    

< Note 234.12 by MQOFS::DESROSIERS "Lets procrastinate....tomorrow" >

<<If that stupid canal is NOT fiction, where is it?
    
	I suggest that you familiarize yourself with the feeble-minded
verbiage in note #206, particularily replies # .1, .3, .4, .9, .11 and .13
If you still wonder where it is after that then you should try calling the
company which has the general contract to build the Grand Canal.

	Call 1-800-555-1212, ask for the toll-free number of the LEGO
Construction Company in Flower Station, Ontario.  This company is in the
forefront of holistic construction techniques - the entire project will
be constructed without building materials, blueprints, machinery or
workers.  Apparently, they are going to use a recent invention of theirs,
the Mitcheson Improbability Drive, which can build almost anything from
just brain patterns.  They built Brian Mulroney's jaw and Sheila Copp's
mouth, and all of the imitation finger-smudges on the brass door handles
in the new Museum of Civilization.

	Hope this helps.

Pat    

    
    What's all this scatology about ?
    
    a) Is this about a reality of a situation ?
    
    b) How to insult sophisticatedly - without feeling guilty ?
    
    c) Who's who in using sarcastic insinuation ?
                 Or
    d) A case of: "If you can't dazzle with a logical (argument) bamboozle
       with the **scatological  ?
    
    From:
    ME (the wanzam)
       

    re: .-1
    
        huh? are you in the conference you meant to be in?
    
    
    Scooter

    re -.1
    
    Scooter, he has the right conference. I believe he's what is known
    as a Holistic Engineer, as it were. You can see by the way he made
    his statement in a multiple choice format. These holistic guys are
    really a scream.
    
    I'm rolling!
    
    Glenn

    Not that I care about this topic - and I have detected most of the
    implied smiley faces - but where would the naive extra-Canadian reader
    go in this notesfile if he actually wanted to find out about some
    current topic?
    
    (I don't have any particular current topic in mind - but I assume
    there *are* some, somewhere, in Canada.)
    
    Or have I just established an infinite loop back to reply .15?
    
    Mark

    
    Re: 15
    
    What made you ask ?
    

	No.  The VIArail decision will not break up Canada...but we
are having a good time!

Really breaking up,

Pat    

    
    Re: -1
    
    Who are those ?
    

    
    	The VIArail decision is having an affect on Canadians, especially
    
    Maritimers who are now fit to be tied!
         
    (Hope I didn't 'steel' anybody thunder)
    Glenn

I started reading the base note with some interest, even with the intention of 
putting in my .02c worth at some point. I think it's appalling that pratically 
every serious subject that comes up for discussion in this conference, usually 
de-generates into some sort of discussion about this "Grand Canal".

Snow-bags is one thing (even humeraous at some point), but this "Grand Canal" 
thing leaves me pretty cold.  I have some suggestions:

1. start a seperate note on this subject so that the originator of this 
concept can babble away at to his hearts content, independant of other 
subjects worthy of discusssion.

2. The moderator of this confernece could delete any replys that deal with 
this subject when they are inserted into the middle of discussions meant to 
inform/enlighten/provoke-discussion.

Could we please stay on the topic of VIA rail in this note please?

Fred-who-is-sick-of-hearing-about-the-stupid-canal.

    
    Re: 22 
            Just so !
    
    BTW: Where have you been ? Where  were U when all this B.S. was going
    on ?
    Is reality finally surfacing ?  Hopefully not !

I was raised in the Medicine Hat area of Alberta, and if you know something 
about history, you will know that most of the bigger cities in the west got 
started because of the CPR.  Before the CPR, the Hat did not exist.

When my family immigrated to Alberta from Holland (me too), we got to Taber on 
a train from Montreal.  Still even now, the "Canadian" crawls up the hill west 
bound out of the Hat every morning.

Now our politicos say that no-one is using the trains and that's why they want 
to cut back passenger service.  They seem to have the statistics right, and I 
personnnaly am on the side of belief.  I also don't see why we shoul throw 
money at a venture that no-one supports in *practice*.

Trains going away is nothing new to Canada.  Just ask they Newfies where their 
train is....or ask some poor prairie farmer in the Manyberries district of 
southern Alberta how far he has to haul his wheat to the nearest Pool 
elevator. The branch lines are all closed and the steel is now in your Ford 
Taurus.

The problem?  Our emotions are getting in the way. Folks can still hear the 
whistle blowing in their memory, and it feels good.  But then they step into 
their car made of recycled rail-segments and drive to their destiniation.
The solution should be that no subsidy should be givin.  If a route can be 
run at a profit, run it.  Otherwise scrap it.  Let's not as Canajuns let 
"wants" get in the way of "needs".

F.

OK, you want train talk?

Here in the States, as previously noted, much of our railway system went
away mostly as a direct result of the trucking industry and the airlines.
(Along with inner-city commuter buses, which in many cases forced out
the existing rail service of such cities as Los "CarCrunchCapitolofTheWorld"
Angeles.)  Since passenger service had dropped off dramatically, and there
was now a great Interstate Highway system which the United Auto Workers
were just _itching_ to build more and bigger trucks to wear down, the
argument was essentially to do away with many of the railroads and save
money.  Hah!  Not too smart.

Now we're on the brink of the '90s, the skies are over-crowded, the highway
infrastructure is deteriorating, and many folks want to bring the trains back.
Ahh, but it costs BIG $$ to refurbish the long-neglected railroads, yet there
are few other choices to help alleviate the over-crowded highways (and skies)
and now we're paying the price - in more ways than one.

Think twice before you advocate doing away with the rail system you now
have, thinking that it's obsolete.  Subsidies are often a good investment.

Kip (who-thinks-the-Grand-Canal-is-still-a-good-idea-who's-time-has-come!)

    I just re-read this note and I had a very huge chuckle. Actually, I busted a
    gut!
    
    Ah, the good old days eh?