Your Rotten Government and You

We do not live in a democracy:

On March 9, the Liberal Party of Canada will select a leader to become the country’s next prime minister. Fewer than 1 percent of Canadians will cast a ballot in the leadership race, as roughly 400,000 people registered to vote. It sounds undemocratic, but it’s the nature of Canada’s system in that parties select who will be the head of the government rather than voters at large.

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Has nothing convinced one that the Liberals are backstabbing thieves of the worst sort?:

Released this week, the new Leger poll commissioned by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation found 60% of respondents want the next leader of the Liberal Party to take a stance against the carbon tax.

 

That will never happen.

It is too lucrative:

The reason the federal Liberals can never be trusted on the carbon tax is that even as they seemingly abandon it, they refuse to admit they were wrong to introduce it.

Instead of apologizing to Canadians for their half-baked, poorly explained policy that divided the country, while they insulted anyone who opposed it as wanting to let the planet burn, the Liberals even now refuse to accept responsibility for what they did.

In announcing what he described as his new climate change plan on Friday, basically Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s old climate change plan with a few tweaks led by scrapping a relatively minor component of it known as the consumer fuel charge – while retaining its much larger industrial carbon pricing component – Liberal leadership frontrunner Mark Carney blamed its demise on Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.

“When Pierre Poilievre says we have to choose between fighting climate change and growing our economy, he’s lying to us,” Carney alleged, adding public opposition to the carbon tax was “fed by misinformation and lies quite frankly by the leader of the opposition.”

 

(Sidebar: this Pierre Poilievre.) 

So everyone really didn't see the cost of living rise because of this?

The lies that this man tells ...

 

Then there are the true believers: 

What’s Carney’s “serious plan” to deal with Trump’s promise to impose 25 per cent across the board tariffs? While not mentioning a plan in his opening remarks, when pressed by a reporter, Carney said the Liberal party’s, and therefore Canadians,’ hopes come down to the negotiating chops of ministers Mélanie Joly, David McGuinty and Marc Miller in Washington.

If they fail, he suggested we can always just impose dollar-for-dollar targeted regulatory tariffs.

Then Carney showed us his cards. He suggested that Canada take this “opportunity to reinforce the strength of our economy” with green initiatives. That’s because, he said, the U.S. “is taking their eye off the ball of some big issues” — read, climate change — “that are going to be fundamental, not just to the future of our planet, but to the competitiveness of companies. So, let’s take advantage of that and move forward.”

Canada’s Trump tariff nightmare is Mark Carney’s big opportunity to turn Canada into the climate Emerald City Carney’s always dreamed of. Good to know.

The bulk of Carney’s speech Friday was devoted to explaining to the crowd that all the major issues that Canadians are facing are really wrapped into one big one — climate change.

 

Also:

The federal government confirmed on Friday that it's reversing course on increases to the capital gains tax first announced in the last federal budget.

The government is delaying the effective date of the increase to Jan. 1, 2026.

 

 

With friends like these ...:

New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh yesterday reneged on his Christmas pledge to “bring this government down” and allow a winter election campaign. Singh said New Democrats instead will support any cabinet bill tabled in response to U.S. tariffs: “Your position has been moving on this issue.”

 

 

Canada is a hub of all manner of illegal activity:

Canada’s newfound reputation as a money laundering hub hasn’t motivated much action. FINTRAC, Canada’s anti-money laundering watchdog, announced only administrative monetary penalties for real estate firms in 2024. All of the firms were located in Toronto and Vancouver, and appear to be entirely over minor compliance issues. Considering the agency took up to 3 years to fine real estate firms over minor filing infractions, the agency doesn’t seem to be motivated to actually crack down.

 

 

Spoken like someone with a plan:

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is calling for a joint Canada-U.S. Norad military base in Northern Canada, expanding the organization’s aerospace and maritime defence efforts.

In a Thursday statement, Smith said she pitched the idea at a meeting on Wednesday with fellow premiers and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“To further bolster Canada-U.S. Arctic security, I asked my provincial and federal counterparts in the first ministers’ meeting to consider establishing a joint Canada-U.S. Norad region base in Northern Canada, similar to the Canadian Norad Region (CANR) headquarters in Winnipeg, Manitoba,” she wrote.