Canadians Voted For Economic Ruin

And here it comes:

Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem says inflation may be around longer than anticipated.

“I think transitory to economists, means sort of not permanent,” said Macklem in an interview with CTV’s Question Period with Evan Solomon, airing Sunday. “I think to a lot of people, transitory means it's going to be over quickly and maybe I don't know exactly what the right word is, but it's probably something like you know, transitory but not short-lived.”

Canada’s inflation rate currently stands at 4.4 per cent, up from 4.1 per cent in August, according to the latest data from Statistics Canada. The central bank expects the inflation rate to near 5 per cent by the end of this year, which remains above its mandate target of 2 per cent.

Canadians have seen that inflation reflected in certain consumer goods such as meat, dairy products, gas and vehicles.

 

(Sidebar: more on that later.) 

 

I'll leave these right here:

Many Canadians are too young to remember the high interest rates of the 1980’s. Others remember those days all too well. The days when the price of the average Canadian home was well under $100,000—a dream for many prospective homebuyers today—but interest rates topped 19%. In the early 1980’s the mortgage payment for a $189,000 home was roughly $2200 per month—half the price but double the payment from today.

There were numerous factors that contributed to the high inflation/interest rates of the 1980’s but one of them was that during the 1970s Pierre Trudeau tripled government spending, running large deficits.

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...  the implementation of a National Energy Program that was disastrous for western Canada’s economy and a lasting source of resentment; and, the social-minded, state-intervention approach to Canadian business that challenged free enterprise and destroyed private sector confidence – leading to greater inflation and unemployment rates of 11.2 percent in 1984 (it was 4.5 percent in 1968).

Yes, inflation:

If inflation is surging, but wages don’t keep up, then that means people are becoming poorer and poorer.

Sure, you can have all the ‘money’ you want in your account, but if that money is being robbed of value month after month, than what really matters is what you can buy with it, not the overall number you see in your account.

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Maritimers are seeing a slight decrease at the gas pumps this week, with prices dropping by about 2.3¢ per litre.

But with fuel prices hitting record highs recently and food costs climbing, people are still feeling the strain.

“It’s definitely been creeping up for a while now and changes the way that I drive,” says motorist Cliona O’Brien. “I do live 30 kilometres out of town, so I definitely try to group things together when I’m heading into town.”

“With inflation and everything that’s rising in price, from food to gas, now I’m hearing cheese and milk are going to go up, and oil prices just to heat your home,” says Jon Kester, who also filled up at the pumps Friday. ...

Analyst Dan McTeague, the president of Canadians for Affordable Energy, says we might see another decrease next week, but the winter won’t be friendly.

“I think we’re going to be looking at testing those record prices we set last month,” he says, “so back in the middle-to-upper $1.40s, possibly hitting a $1.50.”

And he’s not sure when the end will be, pointing to Nova Scotia’s cap-and-trade program and the carbon tax in New Brunswick, both adding on to the cost of gas.

 

The people of the Maritimes voted for this to happen all over Canada because free stuff.

 

The majority of Canadians support squeezing more prosperous provinces dry:

Two-thirds of Canadians are supportive of equalization, according to a new Postmedia/Leger poll conducted shortly after Albertans voted in favour of scrapping the program. However, a smaller majority also said that some provincial governments are taking unfair advantage of the program.

Among the 1,554 Canadians polled, 25 per cent said they strongly supported equalization, a program under which the federal government redistributes tax revenue to ensure all provinces have similar levels of public services. A further 42 per cent said that they somewhat supported it.

 

Imagine Canada as a flat in which Alberta is the successful post-graduate student who pays all of the rent because the other provinces don't want to. 

Now imagine Alberta walked out of that flat.