Quote:
Originally Posted by OldDartmouthMark
With the understanding that the pandemic created difficult, complex situations for everybody involved, and knowing that it's difficult to view anything as a stand-alone situation, off the top of my head it would be these things mostly (and perhaps a few more if I took the time to think about it a little more deeply):
1) Not taking action on the emerging housing crisis that was happening before 2020. It wasn't country-wide at the time, but it was clear and obvious that prices were rising steeply in Vancouver and Toronto, and it appeared (to the layman at least) that foreign investment and money laundering had a hand in it, among other things. Perhaps if this had been identified as a major potential problem and action had been taken, things wouldn't have exploded into the major crisis that we are still dealing with, and perhaps anybody who hadn't been fortunate enough to get into the market pre-2015 wouldn't be shut out of it now.
2) The deep dive into identity politics. There was some good work to be done regarding diversity, inclusivity, indigenous reconcilliation, but what actually happened was over the top and misguided. IMHO. I recall many saying that it felt like we should be embarrassed to be Canadians, but in reality it's that the view through the looking glass was majorly skewed.
3) Post-pandemic recovery that involved the feds dragging their feet, investing heavily into poorly functioning software like ArriveCan, and then flooding our already-suffering population with more newcomers than we could ever deal with, and the fallout on our healthcare systems, and our housing situation. Nobody has ever seen as many tent cities filled with poor homeless people who are out of options and many of whom turned to hard drugs to deal with their hoplessness, and the proliferation of mental health emergencies that resulted from above... exacerbated by the lack of healthcare to help them deal with their crises.
4) Lack of investment in our military, even after Trump 1.0 pointed out that we weren't living up to our NATO committments. Rather than plan for increased investment, money was cut from military budgets.
5) Etc. I could go on, but you get the idea.
Note that none of this happens in a vacuum, and some was likely contiguous from previous governments, but blaming former governments when you've been in power for 10 years is not a valid excuse.
So, while it may seem like I was just parroting social media claptrap, I didn't arrive at my conclusion after listening to somebody's podcast or youtube video, I've lived much of it, or at least watched it happen around me. Having experienced Canada for decades, I can say without hesitation that the previous few years have felt like the worst time in my life to be a Canadian citizen, and I have to put at least part of the blame on the incumbent federal government.
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Thanks for the reply. Appreciate it.
I won't argue but I would point out a few things....and I might say that I'm not sure those things can be said to have 'ruined Canada'.
I agree with the virtue signaling and "woke agenda" as they say....in a very cancellable take, I have often wondered if the explosion of encampments has been due in part to the opposition there has been to not allowing it....if you look at the statistics, homeless shelter numbers are not up from before the pandemic....maybe people live in tents because we started to let them...I mean, I would choose that over a shelter, given the choice....anyways...I know that's a take that would get me in trouble if said out loud....i definitely think all levels of government have been delinquent in addressing it....there should be an all hands on deck approach but that hasn't happened.
I also agree with this "the previous few years have felt like the worst time in my life to be a Canadian"....i do think that you could probably say this for most western countries...this is why every single government that presided over the post covid inflationary period has been punted, be they left, right, or centre....it's why the Liberals were 30 points back for two years and the only hope they have is that a new crisis has emerged in time for them.
The three-year increase of immigration was done to stop inflation and fill labour shortages, but I agree....it had unconsidered consequences.
They did spend more on the military than anyone else, and I'm not sure it has ever really been a priority for Canadians. It should be noted that Canada has the 16th largest defence budget in the world...9th out of 32 in NATO.....but I get that for some reason percent of GDP is all that matters.
It is interesting to see that the cost of housing increase has been a perfectly straight line since the turn of the century....there was of course a big bump after covid that has come back down to the line....this has always been a difficult one for governments because most Canadians have their savings locked into real estate, so lowering housing values is lowering wealth for many....i do agree that they were late, but I also think their programs now are really working....i'm an architect and the amount of housing we are doing is unbelievable....all supported by the feds....we would typically do about 1000 units in a year and we have 7000 in the office right now.
The issues in Toronto and Vancouver have also taken over the narrative for all of Canada....people just need to move to Winnipeg
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