TORONTO - The new leader of Canada's once-dominant Liberal Party said Wednesday he will topple Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government next month if it does not present a federal budget that addresses the country's economic crisis.

A very old story is once again being retold, with a few of the characters' names updated to besmirch the innocent. In this story, conservatives are to blame for an economic crisis because they allegedly believe there is no role for government in the economy, and all economic crises are due to lax regulation of markets.

It's exciting that the world is so excited about Barack Obama. I'm excited, too. That he achieved the presidency says something good about America.

WASHINGTON - In defense of his war policy, President Bush will highlight U.S. efforts to help Iraqis overhaul their economy and rebuild their shattered infrastructure - an endeavor continually undermined by unrelenting violence.

Perhaps Rod Livdahl (letter of 3/20) should review his Econ 101 textbook before he presents his next lesson on the subject. “Trickle Down” and “Trickle Up” are not economic terms. They are political terms, coined by Liberals to mock and distort serious economic discussion. There is no authentic “Trickle Down” school of thought that proposed the enrichment of the wealthy by government action in order to allow some of that wealth to somehow dribble down to the masses. “Trickle Up” appears to be an advanced term invented by Mr. Livdahl.

Austin Hill: Michael Moore is releasing a new movie, and I’m sooo excited about it. More about me in a moment. First, the man who brought us “Bowling for Columbine” and “Fahrenheit 9/11” is about to release a new film entitled “Capitalism: A Love Story.” Just as “Bowling” embodied Moore’s left-leaning view that gun rights are bad,  so also does “Love Story” advance another idea that is popular among American liberals: Capitalism is evil.

Grab hold of something quick, namely a newly invigorated regulatory state, because the economy is sucking us downward to some awful end, and, by the way, let go of Milton Friedman. The weight of his legacy will only make things worse.

CANCUN, Mexico - President Bush and the leaders of Canada and Mexico worked to iron out disagreements over trade and border security Thursday and to keep a North American edge against competition from rising powers like China.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Paul Krugman, the Princeton University scholar and New York Times columnist, won the Nobel prize in economics Monday for his analysis of how economies of scale can affect trade patterns and the location of economic activity.

For those who recall the 1961 Inaugural Ceremony, the quote "Ask not what your country can to for you. Ask what you can do for your country," still stirs the soul.

Arguments about spending, the permeating sense of futility when problems and habits are caught in a never-ending loop: Money may or may not be the root of all evil, but it’s the top cause of marital discord . . . and divorce.

Anniversaries come and go, so much so that it’s hard to keep up with them all. But it does speak volumes about how much the world has changed that, 35 years after President Richard Nixon made his historic trip to China, how few people and media outlets commemorated the event last month.

Mesa officials are expected to announce this week the fifth college to join the growing higher education ranks of the city.

TORONTO - Opposition parties said Friday they may seek to topple Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government and form a ruling coalition, charging that the Conservatives haven't done enough to rescue Canada from the global economic crisis.

Regarding the editorial by Richard Carmona: “Politicized attacks on Pell Grants misguided,” March 30.

Every structure has a foundation which sustains it. With liberals, this foundation is class warfare. The recent cries to “tax the rich” to solve our economic problems are a case in point. Current tax rates are high enough so that raising them more stalls growth and produces less revenue. This is not an opinion, it is a proven fact. Yet they keep pounding the drum, pandering to one of the basest of human emotions: envy.

Canadians gave Conservative Stephen Harper a victory in the Jan. 23 election, but no mandate. His party won 124 seats in Parliament, 31 short of a majority, meaning a coalition government with the inevitable compromises.

Whether the new team of President-elect Barack Obama and Joe Biden can be successful in their “change you can believe in” is open to conjecture, mostly based upon which side of the political aisle you reside.

OTTAWA - Conservative Stephen Harper pledged to quickly carry out his campaign promises to cut taxes, get tough on crime and repair strained ties with Washington after his party won national elections.

It is painfully obvious that conservatives and liberals think with completely different sides of their brains! Or more succinctly, one uses it’s brain to think, while the other prefers to let others do their thinking for them. They simply go with the flow because the conservative ‘siren song’ of lower taxes just sounds so pleasant and soothing to the ear!

I have read in this (publication) a letter berating the general concern for our high national unemployment rate and at the same time suggests that corporations have no problem with the high unemployment rate and actually favor it for the cheap labor pool it produces.

When Mesa officials asked more than 1,000 liberal arts colleges last year if they’d consider opening a Western branch campus, city officials had no idea how their unsolicited proposals would be received.

"When Bibi Netanyahu says he is ‘willing to make painful compromises to achieve' peace with the Palestinians, why is it that the pain is generally felt most directly by the Palestinians?"