Canadian Federal Election

[Architype]

Originally Posted by lio45

Democracy shouldn't require much (the American list you just posted is actually longer than it should IMO) because the only qualification should be to earn the trust and the votes of the electorate.

You need more formal qualifications to be a truck driver, an electrician, or a nurse (let alone engineer or medical doctor) than to be Prime Minister of Canada. (Although one can be a truck driver or an electrician in one's twenties or early thirties, so for POTUS you could argue it's slightly closer requirement-wise, as each position has theirs.)

No, there should be more requirements than for just getting a job at McDonald's, it should require respect for the country, its institutions, exemplary decorum, and tolerance for those who don't agree with you; that's democracy. This has all gone out the window in the US, and that's why we have a Liberal surge here, and a revulsion for anything resembling MAGA. In the end of course, you can say the voters should decide, and have decided there, but there is so much manipulative misinformation lacking in truth that it's easy to question its validity; truth needs to be protected too. The sad part is that the American political system (perhaps the Canadian one too), with standards and checks rooted in the archaic 18th century is so outmoded now, it might have to be replaced if it cannot adapt.

[Edmonton_Ian]

Already voted to keep my NDP MP in office here in Edmonton-Griesbach. Thankfully it's one of two NDP-leaning seats in Alberta so voting anything but Orange here would be insane...

[ericmacm]

Originally Posted by casper

Sounds like it has caused a significate increase in purpose build rentals owned by the private sector. As well as as significant increases in new social and co-op housing.

Like the 1970s I think history will find this to have been a period of significant creation of new rental housing. Part of JT legacy.

Agreed. The last couple of years have seen some serious push on housing affordability from the feds. The biggest changes IMO are the zoning reforms associated with the Housing Accelerator Fund, the new Housing Design Catalogue, and the new Apartment Construction Loan Program. These items have not been around for very long but they are going to have a major impact over the next decade.

[bodaggin]

Carney Platform to add $225 billion to national debt.

Article: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberal...rs-adding-225b-to-federal-debt-1.7514272
Platform: https://liberal.ca/cstrong/

Bye bye CAD. This is pure communism. It's utterly insane. After all the wishy washy language, it's the same Liberal nonsense as Trudeau. Top-down, government spending, on complete lunacy. He conned us. The $25B government housing agency is ludicrous. There's not a single mention of the word "pipeline" in his entire platform either. No wonder he waited until after the debates to release it.

Canada might be toast after all.

Alberta is going to absolutely lose it. And rightfully so. This is so bad.

(Pierre's still hasn't been released his platform yet.)

[travis3000]

Originally Posted by bodaggin

Carney Platform to add $225 billion to national debt.

Article: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberal...rs-adding-225b-to-federal-debt-1.7514272
Platform: https://liberal.ca/cstrong/

Bye bye CAD. This is pure communism. It's utterly insane. After all the wishy washy language, it's the same Liberal nonsense as Trudeau. Top-down, government spending, on complete lunacy. He conned us. The $25B government housing agency is ludicrous. There's not a single mention of the word "pipeline" in his entire platform either. No wonder he waited until after the debates to release it.

Canada might be toast after all.

Alberta is going to absolutely lose it. And rightfully so. This is so bad.

(Pierre's still hasn't been released his platform yet.)

Pierre won't release his platform because if you add up everything he's promised it will have much higher debt than the Liberal one.

[bodaggin]

Originally Posted by travis3000

Pierre won't release his platform because if you add up everything he's promised it will have much higher debt than the Liberal one.

Likely very true. Pierre went down the vote buying route with a panic of tax cuts, to switch the polls back in his favor. Terrible.

So we're back to the same inflationary spending from both parties. Canada only needed 4 things: 1) Military rearming 2) Real corridor plan 3) Rampant deregulation 4) DOGE level government spending cuts. For a balanced budget and debt elimination plan.

Carney is talking about Hydrogen, Carbon Capture, and a corridor to Gray's Bay Nowhere. The misunderstanding of basic economics and priorities is staggering.

[casper]

Originally Posted by bodaggin

Carney Platform to add $225 billion to national debt.

Article: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberal...rs-adding-225b-to-federal-debt-1.7514272
Platform: https://liberal.ca/cstrong/

Bye bye CAD. This is pure communism. It's utterly insane. After all the wishy washy language, it's the same Liberal nonsense as Trudeau. Top-down, government spending, on complete lunacy. He conned us. The $25B government housing agency is ludicrous. There's not a single mention of the word "pipeline" in his entire platform either. No wonder he waited until after the debates to release it.

Canada might be toast after all.

Alberta is going to absolutely lose it. And rightfully so. This is so bad.

(Pierre's still hasn't been released his platform yet.)

The line items may be different, however this is the path the US was on with Biden. That path would have lead the US to a soft landing and positioned the US as a global leader in clean energy.

Being a "clean" energy producer is where we need to be gain favorable status in the Europeans market. If we don't do this and we are suppling energy that just as dirty as Nigeria, Angola, or Saudi Arabia what incentive do the Europeans have for paying a premium for our energy.

Being a cleaner supplier will provide us with a critical advantage.

[theman23]

Maybe Carney is planning to under promise and overdeliver?

Still, not promising for anyone expecting more fiscal discipline from the a version of the LPC "run by a banker". By the end of his term we'll be on year 14 of "now's not the time to balance the budget" and "it's time to invest in Canadians". And although the crisis has changed, we'll also be on year 9 of "the greatest crisis Canada has ever faced".

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by Mister F

Got to love how this Youtuber uses "green agenda" like it's some sort of smoking gun. A green agenda is a good thing. Treating oil like it's a religion isn't.

And then there's the usual clickbait nonsense about how the target of the video is SPEECHLESS or DESTROYED, usually with the Youtuber's exaggerated shocked face in the thumbnail. All hallmarks of the type of video I will never watch. Algorithm-fed clickbait is cancer.


PP's housing plan is all slogan, no solution. Any plan that relies entirely on the private sector to lower housing prices will fail. Like any for-profit company, developers aren't in the business of lowering the price of their product. Shocking, I know. If a project isn't going to meet their pro forma they simply don't build it no matter how much red tape is cut. They sit on the land for decades if they have to. If we're actually serious about solving the housing crisis (PP isn't and neither was Trudeau), the government has to get involved in a direct way like they do in certain European and Asian countries. Endless gifts to developers accomplish nothing.

Yes it’s empty slogans. But you think spending 10s of billions for social housing helps those with good jobs complaining about not being able to get into the housing market. They will not be getting this commie block and pre fab housing that will soon look like US projects in Baltimore. There might be some mixed housing for teachers and the like but is that what they want.

The level of spending in the Carney platform is pretty shocking. We will have to see the full conservative platform but it’s giving a lot of people in the centre think talk to pause. Meanwhile the leftists conversations over the Easter BBQ in my family are going back to NDP and in some cases BQ to keep the incoming Liberal govt honest. Only the Boomers warn it’s far from certain and rember 2006 when Layton ushered in 9 years of Conservative govt.

[Takeoff]

Originally Posted by travis3000

Pierre won't release his platform because if you add up everything he's promised it will have much higher debt than the Liberal one.

We are all at fault for allowing parties to fake their numbers/not release them and letting them get away without consequences.

[theman23]

I'm really not sure how this Liberal Party is any different from the one that was in power just a few weeks ago? I get that they replaced their leader with someone older and more accomplished, but the policies proposed and language being used are identical. It's kind of insane that he wants to double the deficit from what even JT proposed just a few months ago.

Probably most revealing is that they've kept Casper on the same loop that they've used for the last 10 years. Surely if there was a real paradigm shift, they would have reprogrammed it to spew out a few new canned lines?

In 2015 we went from a Prime Minister viewed as a spendthrift, and there was enough confidence in our economy coming out of the GFC to get people on board with big deficits. But we've now had 10 years of much larger than expected deficits and a sputtering economy. I don't think the average Canadian voter has the same appetite for deficits.

[bodaggin]

Originally Posted by casper

Being a "clean" energy producer is where we need to be gain favorable status in the Europeans market.

Europe is still buying gas from Russia. A country actively invading another country. Canada literally only needs to allow itself to sell gas. The world is begging for it.

Canada is like a grocery store, with fully stocked shelves, a lineup down the street; yet the owner has the front door cemented shut and refuses to unlock it.

35% of global electricity production is still from coal. Coal plants can easily be converted to Nat Gas. NG has 50% lower emissions than coal. NG displacing coal is the fastest way to "Green the Globe" near-term. This is a ~$1T/yr market that Canada can dominate. There's no reason Canada can't steal $500B/yr of this market. Not a single gov dollar needs to be spent. Gov just has to say yes, and stamp approvals. The market will do the rest, and gov can raise $100B/yr+ in tax revenues as a result.

[theman23]

Jagmeet Singh's NDP are proposing borrowing nearly $100 billion less than Mark Carney:

Burnaby, B.C. — NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s full election platform focuses on a slate of commitments meant to build up core Canadian values in the face of strong American headwinds and would add $48 billion to the deficit over four years, to do so.

Also proposing a wealth tax:

The New Democrats are also eyeing the imposition of a wealth tax that they say would rake in more than $94 billion in revenue over four years, by putting in place a graduated wealth tax for anyone with more than $10 million in wealth holdings.

The platform states that the tax would be one per cent for wealth between $10 million and $50 million, two per cent from $50 million to $100 million, and three per cent for households with net worth over $100 million.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/federal-election-...-support-canada-amid-trumps-uncertainty/

What world we live in where Jagmeet Singh is the face of fiscal discipline.

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by bodaggin

Europe is still buying gas from Russia. A country actively invading another country. Canada literally only needs to allow itself to sell gas. The world is begging for it.

Canada is like a grocery store, with fully stocked shelves, a lineup down the street; yet the owner has the front door cemented shut and refuses to unlock it.

35% of global electricity production is still from coal. Coal plants can easily be converted to Nat Gas. NG has 50% lower emissions than coal. NG displacing coal is the fastest way to "Green the Globe" near-term. This is a ~$1T/yr market that Canada can dominate. There's no reason Canada can't steal $500B/yr of this market. Not a single gov dollar needs to be spent. Gov just has to say yes, and stamp approvals. The market will do the rest, and gov can raise $100B/yr+ in tax revenues as a result.

If it really is just "the market" doing the rest as in no taxpayer investment will be required at any stage including to repair environmental damage, then ok. I'm with it.

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by theman23

Jagmeet Singh's NDP are proposing borrowing nearly $100 billion less than Mark Carney:





Also proposing a wealth tax:




https://www.ctvnews.ca/federal-election-...-support-canada-amid-trumps-uncertainty/

What world we live in where Jagmeet Singh is the face of fiscal discipline.

Some people oppose a wealth tax on the grounds of possible capital flight, as in, the wealthy leaving and refusing to play their role in making important economic investments. The argument is that this would counter much or all of the fiscal benefits from the greater revenue collection. I have no doubt some would leave and others would become sneakier at hiding funds. How much these things would happen I don't know. But I think if we're going to do a wealth tax as a society it would be best done as a pact with other developed economies to ensure that if the wealthy want business access to affluent consumer markets anywhere, that they must pay. But that type of agreement would be hard to come by, especially since the US tends to be very hesitant to do anything that would cost the wealthy more money and they're too big and influential an economy to leave out.

Whether or not there would still be a net benefit to Canada doing it alone, I'm not sure.

[bodaggin]

Originally Posted by theman23

Jagmeet is proposing a wealth tax. (To raise $94B over 4yrs)

Is this 1-3% tax every year? Or one-time?

Recurring = bad. One-time Intervention = some merit.

Canada is in a fiscally desperate situation at $1.3T of debt and $60B deficit. But we have ~$15T of sovereign wealth. A one-time sovereign wealth tax of 10% would raise $1.5T instantly. This would be enough to:

-Wipe the $1.1T debt completely (and their $45B/yr interest payments).
-Fund $200B for military expansion.
-Fund $150B of corridors.
-Fund $50B sovereign wealth fund.

But an intervention this radical would also need to be accompanied by ~$60B of annual spending cuts and an extremely strict "budget surplus law". Barring deficits, forever. Like requiring a referendum with 80% support to ever run a deficit again. This plan would truly fix Canada's problems for good, but no politician has the stones to propose something this bold.

[casper]

Originally Posted by bodaggin

Europe is still buying gas from Russia. A country actively invading another country. Canada literally only needs to allow itself to sell gas. The world is begging for it.

Canada is like a grocery store, with fully stocked shelves, a lineup down the street; yet the owner has the front door cemented shut and refuses to unlock it.

35% of global electricity production is still from coal. Coal plants can easily be converted to Nat Gas. NG has 50% lower emissions than coal. NG displacing coal is the fastest way to "Green the Globe" near-term. This is a ~$1T/yr market that Canada can dominate. There's no reason Canada can't steal $500B/yr of this market. Not a single gov dollar needs to be spent. Gov just has to say yes, and stamp approvals. The market will do the rest, and gov can raise $100B/yr+ in tax revenues as a result.

To provide some context, this is LNG Canada, after several years of construction is received its first delivery of LNG last week to test some of the cold system before it starts up the cryogenics equipment and begins making LNG on its own. Later this summer Canada will be exporting LNG at scale.

Construction of this was expedited by having modules built in China and brought to site by barge. Even this its still a massive project that has taken years to come on line. Yes, it required no direct public investment.

There are several other smaller projects under construction. The government is not stopping any of this. The issue is the companies that own these projects need to get their ducks in order before they make the final capital investment decisions.

What was a limiting factor was the government requires LNG facilities to be clean, that means they don't burn gas to generate electricity to run their cryogenic equipment, but instead get electricity from the grid. The government has backed off and now only requires they be capable of running off the grid should sufficient power be available.

The only other current export of LNG from Canada is Fortis Tilbury Island, however that is an extremely small facility, while it exports LNG in small quantities its mostly used to generate LNG to bunker ships in Vancouver and Vancouver Island that are powered by LNG. Even that infrastructure was built over the last 10 years. Before then, Canada had virtually no LNG capability.

• Video Link

[bodaggin]

Originally Posted by casper

To provide some context, this is LNG Canada. The government is not in the way stopping any of this. The issue is the companies that backing it making the capital investment.

LNG Canada is fed by the Coastal Gas Link pipeline, which took 4 long years to approve. Too long. Even after approval, it was plagued by legal challenges and protests.

When we talk "corridors", we're talking a pre-approved swath of land that pipes, rail, roads etc can build on. Pre-approved basically, on a designated route to tidewater. A blank canvas, so to speak. This takes the risk out of building for companies. Same goes for ports.

Of the 11 largest cancelled LNG proposals worldwide, 8 were in Canada. Over 180 million tons per year, cancelled.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1263991/largest-cancelled-lng-terminals-by-capacity-worldwide/

We are strangling our country. We would be the largest LNG producing country worldwide by a factor of 2, if all these projects were approved swiftly.

[casper]

Originally Posted by bodaggin

LNG Canada is fed by the Coastal Gas Link pipeline, which took 4 long years to approve. Too long. Even after approval, it was plagued by legal challenges and protests.

When we talk "corridors", we're talking a pre-approved swath of land that pipes, rail, roads etc can build on. Pre-approved basically, on a designated route to tidewater. A blank canvas, so to speak. This takes the risk out of building for companies. Same goes for ports.

Of the 11 largest cancelled LNG proposals worldwide, 8 were in Canada. Over 180 million tons per year, cancelled.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1263991/largest-cancelled-lng-terminals-by-capacity-worldwide/

We are strangling our country. We would be the largest LNG producing country worldwide by a factor of 2, if all these projects were approved swiftly.

Costal Gas link has capacity for 5 facilities on the scale of LNG Canada. The pipeline is now there but under utilized. Yes, punching a pipeline through two mountain ranges is technically challenging.

Working with local communities that will host the pipeline and terminal is also difficult but its the right thing to do. The idea that a company, especially if its majority foreign owned can come in and bulldoze through a community with out even asking is simply wrong.

To be clear LNG Canada is basically owned by Shell plus some friends that include interests from Japan, Malaysia and China. That is where most of the profits from that operation will go. Asking that local communities along the way benefit is not unreasonable.

Woodfibre LNG does not require any special new pipeline capability.

[bodaggin]

Originally Posted by casper

To be clear LNG Canada is basically owned by Shell plus some friends that include interests from Japan, Malaysia and China. That is where most of the profits from that operation will go. Asking that local communities along the way benefit is not unreasonable.

Yes, mutual benefit is always the goal, including royalties. But with willing partners. This is why one route needs to be picked for all future expansions.

Because LNG Canada looks big, but it's tiny.

LNG Phase 1 is only 14 million tons per year. That list of cancelled projects is 180 million tons per year. That's 13x bigger than LNG Canada. In dollars, that's $100B/yr of GDP alone that Canada missed out on. About $20B/yr of tax revenue. And that's just proposed projects. Show a willingness to approve, and more will flock. Companies will onshore too. We can absolutely hit $500B/yr. This is a growing market displacing coal. But that requires pre-approved corridors with room for 50x Coastal Gas Links. Think BIG.