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Here's the three reasons why it costs so much:
Bell
Rogers
Telus

If you want more details, watch the video at this address:
http://theprovince.com/news/ca...

Bottled water does not compete with pipes.

Apparently, it does), at least for drinking water. Oh, but you were talking about the consumer side of the transaction? Well, some people think that competition is happening there as well.)

But, yes, I'd like to see a transition of water-supply (and other "natural" monopolies) from governments to competing businesses.

Great - even more shared-infrastructure disputes, and more wasteful duplication of infrastructure. And no, von Mises' nuance-challenged Randian 'either / or' arguments don't impress me.

Then, maybe, we'll finally see some 21-st century innovation in those markets too.

Oh... you mean like the modern tracking and advertising innovations we're now enjoying at the hands of Google, Facebook, et al? Or do you mean the IOT innovations that render things like thermostats remotely hackable? Again, no thanks. Innovation is neither inherently bad nor inherently good; I promise to remember the latter and take it into account, so long as you promise the same about the former.

Look at how successful the privatisation of UK steel has been at making efficiencies and helping lower costs and increase quality.

http://www.theprovince.com/bus...

When I first saw the headlines for this story I immediately went to a much darker place. I envisioned doctors going into the morgue and borrowing a few digits for use in fooling the machines. I mean, it's not like those guys needed them any more. Things like this have happened before.

Then I realized this wouldn't work. For one thing, they'd have the wrong prints. For another, they'd be, well, a bit chilly.

Most current fingerprint scanners have technology that can detect whether the finger has a pulse, and some read fingerprints at a depth below skin level, which would render the silicon fingers useless. Apparently, that hospital is using an older type of scanner.

Giving biometric scanners the (fake) finger

Inside job.

The perfect example of corruption and conspiracy that begins --- and must begin --- at the top.

Another television network said it was the head of the emergency room that ran the scam and that his daughter had not worked a day in three years but got paid all the time.

Fake fingers to fool the boss at Brazil hospital

Ferreira confessed to using different fake fingers bearing the prints of 11 fellow doctors and 20 nurses in order to pretend they were showing up to work five overnight shifts each month, instead of just one, police said.

Ferreira also said the staff at the Ferraz Vasconcelos Hospital paid $2,400 per month to participate.

The doctor will face charges of falsifying a public document and could get two to six years in prison.

Brazilian doctor caught using fake fingers in biometrics scam

Don't forget the moose attacks!

http://www.theprovince.com/Moose+attacks+police+with+Prince+George+Mountie+inside/7447294/story.html

I'm going to assume you're just misinformed rather than being woefully full of shit.

http://blogs.theprovince.com/2012/03/05/andres-oppenheimer-rising-wages-in-china-will-benefit-workers-in-the-americas/

So, because the wages are rising in Asia, and now US companies are moving their manufacturing back to Central America where wages are low, will benefit who? Obviously, the workers in Central America, but not US workers. The US corporations are just chasing the lowest wage base they can find. Ten years from now, when Central American wages start to rise, and Asian economies have declined because US companies have pulled out, they will return to Asia, because the wages will again have fallen to become the new lowest wage rate. And the cycle will repeat.

Of course one only has to look at Mexico to see what is left out of the article you point to. When the local economies collapse because the US companies pull out, then poverty and crime skyrocket and the local governments cannot contain it and we end up with whole new kinds of problems.Many economist would argue that if US companies paid a just wage in whatever country they were in and quit chasing lowest dollar wages, it would stabilize local economies and world markets. But instead, buy trying to squeeze out the last iota of profit available, they are actually destabilizing local economies, causing disruptions on world markets and ultimately disrupting their ability to generate sustainable profits in the long term.

As one economist put it "Sometimes doing the right thing means less profit now, but the prospects of steady profit tomorrow." Oh, btw, that was written just after WWII and referred to Japan's Economy and how they needed to reinvest profits to pull themselves out of their situation. Seems to have worked quite well.

I'm going to assume you're just misinformed rather than being woefully full of shit.

http://blogs.theprovince.com/2012/03/05/andres-oppenheimer-rising-wages-in-china-will-benefit-workers-in-the-americas/

I hate linking to this POS paper but here's the story http://www.theprovince.com/life/Privacy+czar+scolds+Sony+calls+power+levy+heavy+fines/4725743/story.html

>. A lot of media pundits are nothing but paid writers employed by major companies -

You should check out The Province http://www.theprovince.com/ when a new Apple toy is introduced or updated. Last iPad2 intro was on the front page as a main story for about 3-4 days. Yup more important when local and national news. Which plays into The Province pushing for viewers to read their site through an app. Yes you too can get your The Province website through an app.

The "existence of a record" in a database is not the same thing as having a criminal record. That is strictly a data retention policy, for internal usage (administrative purposes). The person who is granted an absolute discharge at the time of their trial does not have a criminal conviction, despite the presence of a notation in the database that they received the discharge. An absolute discharge means that the judge never convicted them, even though they pled guilty. The judge has the absolute right to order that the person not be convicted of a crime when there is no minimum sentence, even if the accused has pled guilty.

Or perhaps you forgot the case where a JUDGE turned out to have had an absolute discharge for an offense when he was a lot younger. It came out years later, and his argument was quite simple - absolute discharge == no criminal conviction, as per the law. It happens all the time. It's not hard to find cases where that happened. It took me less than a minute to find one, and only a few minutes more to cut-n-paste a bunch more.

Here - recent cases: read them and weep.

SAGUENAY, Que. -- The son of former Montreal Canadiens goaltender Patrick Roy received an absolute discharge Wednesday after pleading guilty to an assault charge in connection with a nasty hockey fight last year.

Jonathan Roy, a former goalie for the Quebec Remparts of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League now turned singer, will not have a criminal record. He will have to donate $5,000 to local charitable organizations.

The younger Roy was charged after pounding rival goalie Bobby Nadeau during a hockey brawl in March 2008.

Another case from July of 2009

P.E.I. MLA gets absolute discharge for assault

P.E.I. Progressive Conservative MLA Mike Currie has been given an absolute discharge for assault during a sentencing hearing in Charlottetown on Friday.

Currie, MLA for Georgetown-St. Peter's, said he was relieved by the judge's decision to grant him an absolute discharge, which means he will not have a criminal record.

And Another one, April of 2009

Quebec boy's record cleared despite kirpan conviction

Judge says case has been given too much attention, gives boy unconditional discharge

Jan Ravensbergen, Canwest News Service
Thursday, Apr. 16, 2009

A 13-year-old LaSalle youth involved in Quebec's latest skirmish over the kirpan was declared guilty yesterday in Quebec Youth Court of having threatened two schoolmates with a hairpin normally used to secure his turban.

But Judge Gilles Ouellet then removed the sting from that conviction by handing the youth an absolute discharge -- ensuring the boy remains free of any criminal record.

One form BC in February, 2009

B.C. Supreme Court Madam Justice Marvyn Koenigsberg also found the man at the centre of the ruling, a worker for a marijuana compassion club on Vancouver Island, guilty of producing and possessing for the purpose of trafficking the drug, but gave him an absolute discharge.

Same with an RCMP Officer in Nova Scotia

Truro, N.S. (Canadian Press) - An RCMP officer was granted an absolute discharge today on a fraud charge in Nova Scotia provincial court.

In passing sentence in Truro, Judge Robert Stroud said Ron Lamb has an u