Tuesday, October 04, 2022

Out of Touch? That Is ONE Way of Putting It

To wit:

From out of that deep but callow mindset came the blocking of pipelines, the wretched, useless (and in this time of rampant inflation) insulting so-called “carbon taxes,” the supine genuflections to the international global warming extremists, the hobbling of a mighty natural resource, and latterly the incredible elevation of a one-time Greenpeace activist and tower-climber, Steven Guilbeault (name his other qualifications), to a ministry in a supposedly mature national government.

The second greatest failure is a corollary of the first, the disregard, perhaps reaching to contempt, for the interests of the Western provinces. It amounts to the prime minister establishing a two-tier Confederation.

I am very well aware that I have made this observation many times before, but that puts no halt on my restating it: If oil and gas were the principal industries of Ontario, or especially Quebec, a drawing of an oil pipeline, or better yet that of an oil barrel, would long ago have supplanted the maple leaf on the Canadian flag. ...

It may be fine for cabinet ministers flying abroad, a PM with his private air accommodation, and MPs with solid salaries not to care about pump prices or the jump in food costs and mortgage payments, to ignore reality and stick with the global warming fixation. But it is not for most Canadians, and certainly not for the poorest of them, which should always be our care.

 

Narcissists don't care about others.

Cases in point:

Canadians are finding it more difficult to pay for food, housing and transportation and nearly half are on the brink of insolvency as rising interest rates and soaring inflation continue to weigh on household budgets.

That's according to MNP's quarterly Consumer Debt Index released on Monday. The survey, which is conducted by Ipsos and tracks Canadians' attitudes towards their debt situation, found that 52 per cent of respondents say it is becoming less affordable to feed themselves and their families, an increase of five percentage points from December 2021.

It also found that 45 per cent of respondents say it's becoming less affordable to pay for transportation, up nine percentage points from last year, and another 45 per cent say it is becoming more difficult to pay for clothing and other household necessities, an increase of five percentage points from last year. Paying for housing is also a challenge for many Canadians, with 37 per cent saying it is becoming less affordable (up two percentage points).

At the same time, Canadians are finding it more difficult to save. The survey found that 49 per cent say it's becoming less affordable to put money aside for savings, up five percentage points from last year.

"Canadians are putting more of their paychecks towards paying for basic necessities as the cost of living rises, which in turn is leaving less of a financial buffer to manage the impacts of current and potential future interest rate hikes," Grant Bazian, president of MNP, said in a statement.

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The parliamentary budget officer estimates the Liberal bill proposing to temporarily double the GST rebate will cost $2.6 billion.

 

(Sidebar: ask about the dental cheques that drive up taxes. Go on.)

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The Conservatives' cheeky term for inflation under the Liberals has got some MPs into trouble in the House of Commons, where saying "Justinflation" has been deemed verboten.

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Federal departments are spending billions on consultants with little oversight, the Commons government operations committee was told yesterday. MPs expressed amazement over amounts of money given to large private firms: “Who is going to step up to protect taxpayers?”
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Residents of Prince Edward Island say they’re growing exhausted, anxious and cold as thousands remain without power 10 days after post-tropical storm Fiona swept through the region.

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Homeowners who paid down mortgages and built up equity should “demonstrate allegiance” by paying more tax, says a CMHC consultant. The remark in a confidential email by Professor Paul Kershaw of the University of British Columbia was obtained by homeowners’ advocates through the Freedom Of Information Act: “You must be joking, buddy.”

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New figures provided to the Canadian Press show nearly 4,500 Armed Forces members and their families were on a Canadian Forces Housing Agency waitlist in July.

 

(Sidebar: why should Canadians fight a Ukrainian war?)


Then again, Canadians DID vote for this, so ...

 

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