This USA today article is pretty accurate

[Barbara Moulton]

FOr those seeking to understand what has happened in our election campaign.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-01-19-canada-conservatives_x.htm

[Jim Franklin]

Thanks, Barbara, I was wondering just how that campaign was going.

[Gary Swartzlander]

This will be interesting to watch over the next few months. Being in Michigan we hear of issues regarding Canada. Will he help to stop sending Canadian trash to Michigan to be dumped? I hope they address it.

[Barbara Moulton]

This will be interesting to watch over the next few months. Being in Michigan we hear of issues regarding Canada. Will he help to stop sending Canadian trash to Michigan to be dumped? I hope they address it.

While I am not a big fan of Canada sending trash to Michigan, it was a contract that was negotiated with the landfill sites in Michigan. In other words, these companies are being paid to process our waste. It's not like it is being sent by cover of night to Michigan and being dumped in people's yards :-)

I agree that other trash solutions need to be found (and they are being worked on) but I am not sure it is fair for the States to arbitrarily overrule a legal contract that was made in good faith.

The States doesn't have such a great record either. It sends toxic waste to developing countries who need the money and are willing to take the risk to have it in their backyard.

North America has a waste management problem.

[Jen Blackburn]

when we were contemplating purchasing some land and building a new home last summer, the land we were looking at was in the township that one of the large landfills that gets trash from Canada is. It was just down the road about 5 miles.

The interesting thing is that most of us that live in SE Michigan don't want the landfills here at all, but those that live in that particular township, don't want to get rid of them because of the income that it provides for the township. Trash is worth big bucks!

If we'd moved there, we would have had free access to the dump -- not to peruse :P but to dump our own things there -- we'd get two visits a month for free -- which would've saved a lot of money if we were to have built there -- we wouldn't have had to pay for refuse pick-up during the building process, but could have just used our pass to dump the construction refuse twice a month.

I am not watching the election with great intensity, but it is on my radar of something pretty important that may impact even my life here in SE Michigan. :)