How many of you actually believe that voting Liberal; PC or NDP is going to help Cape Breton this year? All 3 of these parties have been in power in N.S. and yet we continue to be severely neglected by our provincial government. Let's not be naive any longer. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity! It is time for drastic changes. You need only go on facebook to find numerous groups fighting our government for change in Cape Breton: NSEF; CB United Party; CB Greener Pastures; My Heart on My Sleeve(child poverty); Capers for Health Care; CB Railway Victim's; CB Talk Back Real Issues; CB Slumlords; CB Live TV just to name a few and there are many more. Most of us know someone who is on assistance; collecting EI; working for minimum wage; living on a pension or going West for work. This is the majority of CB. Our property taxes are comparable to Toronto or Vancouver yet we have no industry left. I don't have to tell you how bad our healthcare system is and our government's solution is to have us all go to one overworked hospital and add 73 more beds to die in. With poverty comes addiction and there is plenty of that! Our children see no hope for their future and teen suicide is at an all time high! This island is bigger than the province of PEI. Like Sen. Dan Christmas said "WE ARE DYING!" Every year the NS gov. receives approx. $2Billion in Federal Equalization funding. CB only gets $15 million of this yet we are one fourth of the province's land mass. The purpose of this fund is to have comparable services at comparable taxes to the capitol of Halifax. The capitol is not entitled to this funding but instead the NS gov. puts this money in a "General Revenue Fund" so they can spend it how they want to. Anyone been to Halifax lately? It's booming on this money! Our fair share of this fund is closer to $300 million (check NSEF for actual amount). Now imagine how our island would look and be if we had been receiving this amount since it was enshrined in 1982 by Pierre Trudeau! It is blatantly obvious we are being severely neglected by the NS government. We are predominantly Celts here in CB and Celts are historically strong fighters! I believe CB can be self sufficient like PEI but instead of fighting in separate groups; we need to unite together to make CB prosperous again! When I grew up here; you said "Hi!" to people you passed on the street and we had compassion for each other; we were a happier people. For God's Sake Cape Breton; can we PLEASE come together again and save OUR beautiful island? At least for our children's future. Pamela McNeil.