The Liberals have never met a country that they didn't want ruined:
(Sidebar: even Israel, but especially Canada.)
Canada’s in the throes of a seemingly endless cost of living crisis, and while it’s doubtless a consequence of federal policies like mass immigration and the increasingly punitive carbon tax, the country’s over-inflated civil service is an outsized factor.
Since Justin Trudeau’s Liberals were elected in 2015, the federal public sector has swelled by 42 per cent to nearly 370,000 employees. But because the government doesn’t produce revenue for the economy, bureaucrats are remunerated in taxpayer dollars and freshly printed money.
In 2014, the prime minister infamously claimed “the budget will balance itself,” but his government’s reckless spending has maintained upward pressure on inflation — which Statistics Canada says surged by over 19 per cent between 2015 and 2022. During this period, 31 per cent more executive-level bureaucrats were hired, and their total compensation surged by 42 per cent from $1.4 billion to $1.9 billion, with their average salaries growing from $193,600 to $208,480.
The government confoundingly hired 635 new public executives between 2020 and 2021, when it shut down the economy because of COVID-19. At the same time, billions were printed for income subsidies that were often excessive or poorly targeted. In total, the Fraser Institute estimates that “COVID fiscal waste” will accumulate to $110 billion by 2032.
Moreover, the auditor general found in 2022 that $4.6 billion in Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and other payments went to ineligible recipients (dead Canadians, prisoners and children), and $27.4 billion was deemed worthy of a government investigation. Another $9.9 billion in COVID subsidies was linked to more than 51,000 ineligible employers.
The federal government’s deficit per employed Canadian was $1,246 before 2015, but it’s since nearly tripled to $3,482. It’s worth noting the post-2015 deficit per employed person would be much higher without Canada’s recent population boom, prompting the question: are the feds bloating the population through immigration, even though it’s immiserating Canadians, because they’ve lost control of the deficit?
Whether through scandals like ArriveCan or generally pointless transfers, Liberals overspend with predictable results.
There is a causal link between unchecked spending and the price of consumer goods — the larger the former, the more expensive the latter. Moreover, as is the case with the carbon tax, consumer prices are increasing in Canada, and will continue to through 2030 when the tax reaches $170 per metric ton from today’s $80 per metric ton. This is affecting the production and transportation of everything from simple goods to livestock.
The latest StatCan data revealed consumers paid 2.4 per cent more for groceries in August than they did 12 months earlier, with meat and dairy increasing by 6.8 and 3.3 per cent, respectively, while beef prices grew by 7.4 per cent. The carbon tax raising livestock premiums is doubtless at play here.
Financial strain is metastasizing among Canadians, who are taxed to the hilt, while their buying power is eroding. Credit rating agency Equifax, noting that consumer debt grew by $2.5 trillion year-over-year in the second quarter of 2024, surmises that multigenerational households are growing in number due to economic strife. The growth is preponderantly driven by credit card debt increasing by 13.7 per cent to $122 billion, averaging a 17-year high of more than $4,300 per consumer.
Consumers’ waning spending habits and mounting debt signify they’re struggling to meet basic living needs, elucidating the depth of Canada’s cost of living crisis. But it didn’t occur in a vacuum.
Why would I want a foreign-owned toy car that will explode like an EV in a Florida flood?:
Canadian taxpayers must "rally around" Northvolt, the Swedish electric vehicle battery manufacturer, despite significant setbacks, including confirmed job cuts at its Swedish operations, said Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne.
Blacklock's Reporter says his comments came following Northvolt’s announcement of 1,600 layoffs, which the company attributed to "headwinds in the automotive market."
“We have to rally around them and help them,” Champagne emphasized to reporters, expressing his hope for Northvolt’s long-term success. “I hope we all want them to be successful.”
Champagne drew comparisons to other industry giants like Tesla, which took 17 years to turn a profit. “Look at Uber, how long it took,” he added, stressing that challenges are inevitable for groundbreaking projects.
“What’s important is we managed to get Québec into the automobile industry,” Champagne said, calling it a "big gain" for Canada.
(Sidebar: not even a gain for Quebec.)
“Now are you telling me there can’t be adjustments? You’re going from a technology that we’ve been doing for 100 years and now we’re looking at the next 100 years.”
In response to concerns about how the Swedish layoffs might affect Northvolt’s Canadian project, Champagne downplayed the impact, stating, “It concerns Sweden.”
He reassured that such hurdles are expected in long-term ventures, citing the 10- to 50-year timelines investors and managers typically consider.
Bill C-319’s second reading on Oct. 18, 2023, saw the Bloc, NDP, and Conservatives vote in favour and the Liberal Party vote against it.
During a debate on Oct. 4 that year, Liberal MP Irek Kusmierczyk said the bill is “not in sync with the demographic information we have.”
“I don’t negotiate in public, but I speak with all of the House leaders from all of the political parties ... on a regular basis, and that’s my job as the House leader to try and make this minority Parliament work,” Liberal House Leader Karina Gould told CTV on Sept. 25.
(Sidebar: you're lazy, Karina.)
While debating the legislation on Sept. 25, Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux, without explicitly stating whether the government would support Bill C-319, said the government is “very much in tune with the needs of seniors, and we will continue to look at ways to support them.”
Quelle surprise:
Back in May, the Liberal/NDP’s Housing Minster Sean Fraser was traipsing across the country saying he would “actually solve” the housing crisis in Canada by building 3.9 million homes by 2031.
That works out to about 488,000 new homes that Fraser expects to have built every year from 2024 to 2031 to “actually solve” the problem.
To coin a couple of old adages, a new report from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) shows Fraser was a day late and a dollar short, dreaming the impossible dream.
To coin a new name for the Liberal’s plan for solving the housing shortage, let’s go with ‘Fraser’s Follies’ because that’s what it is.
In its 2024 Housing Supply Report, CMHC said, “Total housing starts in the six largest census metropolitan areas rose by 4% in the first half of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. The level of new construction (68,639 units) was the second strongest since 1990. However, when adjusted for population size, combined housing starts were close to the historical average and weren’t enough to meet growing demographic demand.”
“Given the long history of supply not keeping up with demographic demand this level of activity is not enough to reduce the existing supply gap and improve affordability for Canadians.”
The busiest construction time of the year is rapidly coming to a close, but let's be generous and say Canada’s builders are on pace to start 140,000 new homes in the country’s six largest cities this year, well short of Fraser’s Follies of 488,000 per year, nation-wide.
But starts are only an indication of what the final outcome might be because the numbers that really count are completions and a number of variables, from labour to finances to the weather and more, play a significant role in how long the starts-to-completion phase can be.
To shine some light on it, most of the starts in Canada this year and in the future, according to the CMHC report, will be apartments in low- and high-rise buildings. If we include the amount of time added by the bureaucratic gatekeepers at the municipal level for permits and approvals, a 20-storey apartment building can take anywhere from five to seven years to reach the completion stage.
This time frame may or may not include the caveat that builders of high-rise buildings won’t receive financing until, depending on the situation, 50% to 75% of the apartments in the building have been sold and deposits received.
Only one's political superiors can eat meat:
Private member’s bill C-293, An Act respecting pandemic prevention and preparedness, was introduced in 2022 by Liberal backbencher MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith. It would “regulate commercial activities that can contribute to pandemic risk, including industrial animal agriculture” and enforce the “production of alternative proteins.”
The bill on September 17 began its second reading in the Senate. The House of Commons completed its third reading of C-293 June 5. The NDP supported the Liberals in pushing it through, while the Conservatives and Bloc Québécois opposed it. It was then passed onto the Senate, which completed its first reading the next day, on June 6. It is unclear when the second reading will be completed.
The very country that brags about its bloated and ineffective institution:
“This exodus of young nurses has been worsening for the past decade, contributing to our health care woes.” said MEI economist and co-author of the publication, Emmanuelle B. Faubert, in a news release.
A Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU) survey found the most common reasons nurses leave is due to staffing levels, workload, and a lack of work-life balance.
Stop trying to rehabilitate your flagging career.
You let the blackface-wearing moron destroy this country:
Former foreign affairs minister Marc Garneau is criticizing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his office, saying that he was "never sure" if something conveyed to the Prime Minister's Office "ever got to the prime minister's ears."
In an interview on Rosemary Barton Live airing Sunday, he said he felt the PMO "acted as a bit of a filter," and that certain ministers had closer access to Trudeau, like childhood friends.
"There are occasions when a minister wants to talk directly to the prime minister. And I never felt, despite the fact that he said his door was always open, that was really something that he invited," he told CBC chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton.
Earlier intelligence reports presented at the commission and summarized in the commission’s May 3 interim report say that international students were bused in to the 2019 Liberal nomination contest of Toronto’s Don Valley North riding in support of Han Dong, who went on to win the nomination and subsequently won in the 2019 election to become MP in the Liberal stronghold.
The intelligence reports said the international students had been supplied with falsified documents by a proxy of China, and had been told to support Dong’s nomination under threat by the Chinese consulate. Dong, who now sits as an Independent MP, has denied any wrongdoing. He hasn’t responded to requests for comment.
Other cases of foreign interference reported in the CSIS document released on Sept. 27 include Pakistani officials attempting to “clandestinely influence Canadian federal politics,” and Indian proxy agents being suspected of providing financial assistance to support specific candidates from three parties in federal elections.
China-backed cyber criminals hijacked nearly 10,000 devices in Canada and used them to hack government, university and critical infrastructure networks and steal confidential data, according to the FBI.
And:
Chinese-language media in Canada are playing a key role in promoting pro-Beijing narratives and facilitating censorship within the Chinese diaspora, according to recently released intelligence assessment.
Chief Electoral Officer of Canada Stéphane Perrault was asked at the inquiry on Sept. 24 about the report’s concerns that the Beijing regime “controls narratives by limiting opportunities for dissenting voices” by providing economic incentives and fostering self-censorship in its efforts to influence electoral outcomes.
Perrault said the Canada Elections Act’s foreign interference provisions contain exceptions for media content but agreed the activities could be a concern if economic incentives were involved and that they could violate foreign third party contribution rules.
Rather, you don't think that it is your job to deal with this.
I recently spent two weeks in Japan, including visits to Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, where I noticed zero litter — not a cigarette butt, not a coffee cup — and just one person sitting on the curb apparently intoxicated. A police officer had him detained at that very moment. I went on dozens of subway rides without feeling unsafe once.
Japan convinced me that Canadians don’t need to accept so much urban disorder. Addicts deserve compassion and treatment, but there are no excuses for letting them destroy our downtowns, to say nothing of themselves.So what’s Japan doing differently? Enforcement of strict laws against drug possession seems to be the solution. Japan has convinced me, despite my strong civil libertarian leanings, that it’s time to end the failed decriminalization experiment and treat possession of hard drugs like fentanyl and methamphetamine as crimes again.The prevailing viewpoint among Canadian experts is that we should treat drug addiction only as a health issue, not as a crime. As a result, drugs were officially decriminalized in British Columbia and unofficially decriminalized in many other places with a new focus on “harm reduction.” They have now been officially recriminalized in B.C. but even if technically illegal there is no sign yet of a zero-tolerance approach.
In 2016, the federal Liberal government dropped requirements that travellers from Mexico obtain visa to come to Canada, a requirement imposed by the previous Conservative government. Canada’s intake of asylum seekers from Mexico more than doubled each year from 2016 to 2023.Canada also succeeded in closing the Roxham Road border crossing in Quebec last spring, where irregular migrants from third countries had been walking into Canada after first finding their way to the U.S. That preceded a sharp increase in arrivals at airports in Ontario and Quebec, according to federal data. At around the same time, the federal government implemented measures to speed up its processing of visitor visas to clear up a mounting backlog. It quietly dropped requirements that passengers arriving here by air from certain countries demonstrate they are just visiting, for instance by proving they had a return ticket home and funds in a bank account.It proved to be a hugely consequential move that coincided with the surge in asylum claims.Migrants are using the Montreal and Toronto airports as landing points because they’re Canada’s two biggest hubs for international flights.
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