I guess I don't view this as a technology problem - more of an 'economic demand' issue. Looking at the evolution of email (and I know this is a simplification)... There were lots and lots of proprietary walled-garden email solutions pre-Internet. They worked fine for what they were - electronic memo systems for corporate users. The Internet changed the game, of course, and all those corporate users became interested in inter-operability - i.e. Company A want to exchange emails with Company B. My perspective is that email standards only gained real traction because of this economic imperative. People were willing to pay for email inter-operability and vendors were only too happy to adopted technology standards to make some money off their products. Where instant messaging is concerned, I don't think we have a economic imperative to drive a market that can pick winners and losers. Interestingly, there are plenty of walled-garden IM platforms in corporate use - e.g. Lync, Groove/Spark, etc. There is some amount of demand for inter-operability, but it's minimal in my experience. So without an economic impetus to standardize - here we are.

You can already just email your money in Canada. Anyone use this service? http://www.interac.ca/consumers/productsandservices_ol_emt.php

Ummm.... I live in Southwestern Ontario, I hate Toronto, and I'm still Canadian. I don't watch the newscasts that flow from south of the 49th - nor does anyone I know. I tend to wath CTV for national news and my local station for the - ummm- local stuff. Are people in my environs shaped by geography? Sure they are. And I've lived in or at least visited every province and territory and I can tell you that uniqueness abounds everywhere you go. But I've always felt Canadian no matter where I am in this country or any other. And, yes, I know where Ottawa *is* (been there, too). I'm not sure *you are*, but you've obviously got a chip on your shoulder about Toronto. Welcome to the funnest pasttime in CanadaLand, dude. As for the original post - I'm a little bewildered about the Harper/Bush/Israel comments. Maybe I'm just not paying attention, but I cannot recall Harper making comments about Israel - at least not on a weekly basis. Nor have I ever seen any evidence that he's a Bush lapdog. Methinks Cutman has an agenda.