Getting the Government They Deserve Good and Hard

The hammer comes down tomorrow and if beer money is not provided, some people might be a trifle out-of-spirits:

Since 2015, they have hiked deficits, debts, taxes and regulatory burdens. As a result, investment in 10 of Canada’s 15 major business sectors dropped by 17 per cent, as domestic and foreign investors fled for more profitable countries, representing a loss to the economy of more than $185 billion. Two of the top three credit rating agencies downgraded Canada. The current account balance, or outflow of funds annually, jumped.

In other words, the Liberals squandered the good times and they cannot revert to their tax-and-spend ways. The parliamentary budget officer recently stated that the country has two years before this level of spending becomes completely “unsustainable.”

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Cabinet will introduce a late budget within days following unprecedented federal borrowing for pandemic relief programs. Legislators yesterday were advised a budget is expected by Thanksgiving, October 12: “We don’t know what the world is going to look like.”

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“People are depending on those cheques to pay rent and buy groceries,” Canadian Labour Congress president Hassan Yussuff said in an interview. “And, more importantly, it’s what’s been keeping the economy to a large extent going.”

The federal government said CERB was necessary, but that it was meant to be a temporary measure, one that will likely cost more than $80 billion. That cost estimate (as well as that for a projected deficit of $343.2 billion in 2020-21) came before August’s announcement that the benefit would be extended by another four weeks, with the overall plan to replace CERB, tweak EI and institute new benefits costed at around $37 billion.

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The typical grocery bill has gone up 240 per cent over the past two decades — and it’s set to go up higher still, according to Sylvain Charlebois, senior director at Agri-food Analytics Lab at the Dalhousie University, who tracks the country’s food sector.

“Some will think that such a percentage is expected, given the effects of inflation. Perhaps, but the overall cost for other products and services in the economy did not increase as much as food did – far from it,” according to the professor, noting that the country’s food price index has been outpacing the general price index over the past twenty years.

Statistics Canada’s latest consumer price index shows food prices were the biggest contributor to inflation, rising 1.8 per cent (not seasonally adjusted) in August, compared to the same period last year.

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More than half of Canadians now say they believe the federal deficit is too big.

And even a majority of Liberal supporters say they want to see a plan for getting back towards balanced budgets when they weigh their options before the next federal election — whenever it may be.

This is the government idiots believe will protect them when they make stupid decisions in life.

Typically socially pious Canadians.

Enjoy the inevitable decline.