Federal Government & Politics II

[casper]

Originally Posted by theman23

I don't think it has anything to do with "financial skills". They have access to innumerable competent technocrats. The Liberals chose to be irresponsible for political and ideological reasons.

It comes down to priorities.

The JT Liberal governments have placed the priorities clearly on the next generation by focusing on ensuring we have a clean plant, and successful clean economy for future generations. The focus on children is also clear in past years. This budget was very focused on housing for those starting a family.

While most of us think they should be spending on defence, it comes with the reality that budgets don't balance themselves. Just now housing is the priority.

While PP says he would be aggressive in fighting climate change, I just can't come to trust him yet on that.

[kool maudit]

Originally Posted by YOWetal

I'm not sure it what possible way he is "Trudeau". Please elaborate? He for better or worse is the opposite of Trudeau. A techonocrat with financial acumen. Experience on the world stage. But lacking in the people skills that brought Trudeau to power. If you just mean he's not a right wing idealogue well yeah but neither is 60-70% of Canada.

Obviously he is not a right-wing ideologue, we are talking about a potential leader of the Canadian Liberal Party.

He is an Economist-style liberal. My contention is that Trudeau's government has largely implemented these sorts of things as well, and that his personality is a bit of a distraction. Rutte, Ardern, Marin, Trudeau... and soon Starmer and I guess maybe Carney? It's all the same thing.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

I don't understand the appeal of Carney. Sure, competence matters, but it matters more what you are competent at.

He would just be Trudeau with a more sober demeanour.

Indeed, a bilingual PhD in Economics with extensive experience, domestic and international, in the private sector and at the most senior levels of bureaucracy would be the last person you'd want running a country like Canada.

[kool maudit]

I will concede that Carney has made several negative remarks on MMT and QE, which imply (across the central bank-parliament divide) that he would not run such an impecunious government as JT.

[thewave46]

The Liberals also will ensure that ‘green’ policies such as servicing accumulated debt and OAS entitlements will also serve to keep ‘dirty’ GDP growth low. That, along with keeping dirty SFH out of reach for the kids.

Hard to jet off on vacation, own a vehicle, or have kids when you barely can afford rent or are competing with FNS for employment.

Young adults of Canada: Vote Liberal! For a greener tomorrow (because you’re poor).

Old people of Canada: Vote Liberal! Because them avocado toast eating young ingrates are swine we’re going to stick with the bill!

The fetish for Carney is just this board’s technocratic predilection, mostly.

[goodgrowth]

Feel like Carney would be Ignatieff 2.0

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by casper

It comes down to priorities.

The JT Liberal governments have placed the priorities clearly on the next generation by focusing on ensuring we have a clean plant, and successful clean economy for future generations. The focus on children is also clear in past years. This budget was very focused on housing for those starting a family.

While most of us think they should be spending on defence, it comes with the reality that budgets don't balance themselves. Just now housing is the priority.

While PP says he would be aggressive in fighting climate change, I just can't come to trust him yet on that.

“My name is Justin Trudeau and I have approved this message”

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

I will concede that Carney has made several negative remarks on MMT and QE, which imply (across the central bank-parliament divide) that he would not run such an impecunious government as JT.

"impecunious" - I like that very much. It appeals greatly to my verbosity.

[theman23]

There's certainly been a lot of virtue signaling from the JT LPC, but most of their policy making has been short sighted and when it comes to results they've mostly just buffed the numbers or chosen to ignore their poor performance.

I don't see any candidate that has a serious shot of righting the ship. Carney shouldn't have made media appearances in defense of this current regime and is likely too closely associated with JT and the current LPC braintrust to be seen an alternative. Perhaps a provincial politician, like Furey or Crombie, who have been publicly critical of cornerstone LPC policies might have a shot but neither of them have the profile to be federal leader.

[casper]

Originally Posted by theman23

There's certainly been a lot of virtue signaling from the JT LPC, but most of their policy making has been short sighted and when it comes to results they've mostly just buffed the numbers or chosen to ignore their poor performance.

I don't see any candidate that has a serious shot of righting the ship. Carney shouldn't have made media appearances in defense of this current regime and is likely too closely associated with JT and the current LPC braintrust to be seen an alternative. Perhaps a provincial politician, like Furey or Crombie, who have been publicly critical of cornerstone LPC policies might have a shot but neither of them have the profile to be federal leader.

Ship is mostly going in the right direction. We just need some minor course corrections. Yes, the worlds oceans have been rough for the past few years we have sailed around most of that.

The conservatives would have you believe we are heading for a rocking shore. That is right of center fear mongering.

The current liberal government has already fixed immigration (we now need to wait for the backlog to work its way through), but the numbers have come down. Inflation in Canada is down back to historically low levels, we will need to wait for interest rate to also come down.

The current plan to speed up housing construction is a positive. Perhaps excessively aspirational, in I don't know where all those construction works are going to come from.

Where I think the government has missed the market is in constraining growth in the public service and not being tough enough on China, we need to significantly increase border inspection for fentanyl and pay for it with higher duties on China and any other country that is a major source. They also need to constrain spending on new social programs.

Given how unpopular the carbon tax has become and how many don't notice the rebate, perhaps we should be eliminating the rebate, cutting it half and spending directly on transition programs.

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by casper

Ship is mostly going in the right direction. We just need some minor course corrections. Yes, the worlds oceans have been rough for the past few years we have sailed around most of that.

The conservatives would have you believe we are heading for a rocking shore. That is right of center fear mongering.

The current liberal government has already fixed immigration (we now need to wait for the backlog to work its way through), but the numbers have come down. Inflation in Canada is down back to historically low levels, we will need to wait for interest rate to also come down.

The current plan to speed up housing construction is a positive. Perhaps excessively aspirational, in I don't know where all those construction works are going to come from.

Where I think the government has missed the market is in constraining growth in the public service and not being tough enough on China, we need to significantly increase border inspection for fentanyl and pay for it with higher duties on China and any other country that is a major source. They also need to constrain spending on new social programs.

Given how unpopular the carbon tax has become and how many don't notice the rebate, perhaps we should be eliminating the rebate, cutting it half and spending directly on transition programs.

This is a reasonable analysis for a Liberal course correction. Though the woke virtue signalling dystopia of GBA+ and greenwashing is the real problem with the Liberal party. I think you are right that those that blame the Liberals for mostly worldwide problems are being overly critical. The increase in public spending includes a lot of popular benefits that help the same people complaining about it. Nobody needs more public servants doing GBA+ analysis of the latest carbon boondoggle. But you've got to cancel the programs to cut the jobs. (Including dental, CCB. Carbon tax etc.)

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by casper

Ship is mostly going in the right direction. We just need some minor course corrections. Yes, the worlds oceans have been rough for the past few years we have sailed around most of that.

The conservatives would have you believe we are heading for a rocking shore. That is right of center fear mongering.

The current liberal government has already fixed immigration (we now need to wait for the backlog to work its way through), but the numbers have come down. Inflation in Canada is down back to historically low levels, we will need to wait for interest rate to also come down.

The current plan to speed up housing construction is a positive. Perhaps excessively aspirational, in I don't know where all those construction works are going to come from.

Where I think the government has missed the market is in constraining growth in the public service and not being tough enough on China, we need to significantly increase border inspection for fentanyl and pay for it with higher duties on China and any other country that is a major source. They also need to constrain spending on new social programs.

Given how unpopular the carbon tax has become and how many don't notice the rebate, perhaps we should be eliminating the rebate, cutting it half and spending directly on transition programs.

Make that "so far fairly successful fear mongering".

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by casper

Ship is mostly going in the right direction. We just need some minor course corrections. Yes, the worlds oceans have been rough for the past few years we have sailed around most of that.

The conservatives would have you believe we are heading for a rocking shore. That is right of center fear mongering.

The current liberal government has already fixed immigration (we now need to wait for the backlog to work its way through), but the numbers have come down. Inflation in Canada is down back to historically low levels, we will need to wait for interest rate to also come down.

The current plan to speed up housing construction is a positive. Perhaps excessively aspirational, in I don't know where all those construction works are going to come from.

Where I think the government has missed the market is in constraining growth in the public service and not being tough enough on China, we need to significantly increase border inspection for fentanyl and pay for it with higher duties on China and any other country that is a major source. They also need to constrain spending on new social programs.

Given how unpopular the carbon tax has become and how many don't notice the rebate, perhaps we should be eliminating the rebate, cutting it half and spending directly on transition programs.

I don’t think anyone thinks Canada is going in the right direction. The government hasn’t fixed immigration. It has announced some changes to immigration that will take effect in several years that may somewhat mitigate the problem they created. Anything it has done on housing has been a drop in the bucket that has not affected affordability. Health care continues to deteriorate while the government wastes time and effort on new programs like dental care. Carbon emissions continue to rise (and rise faster because of the massive increase in immigration) despite massive virtue signalling. Trudeau has doubled the debt without building much infrastructure, constraining the ability of future governments to address social and environmental problems. Quality of life has gone down for nearly everyone over the last decade.

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by casper

The conservatives would have you believe we are heading for a rocking shore. That is right of center fear mongering.

You have it backwards. The Conservatives didn't create the dour mood of the moment - they're simply tapping into popular sentiment.

Multiple polls show that the vast majority of Canadians are currently unhappy with the federal government, unhappy with the direction the country is heading in, and generally declining in happiness. And the public's feelings aside, economists paint a similarly bleak picture of the future on top of our already poor economic performance of late; while housing affordability is expected to further deteriorate.

In other words, not much for most people to be optimistic about. It would be quite the impressive feat for the Cons to have pulled all of that off from opposition!

[shreddog]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

It would be quite the impressive feat for the Cons to have pulled all of that off from opposition!

Obviously it's Harper fault as he is behind the green curtain of the public media in Canada!

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by shreddog

Obviously it's Harper fault as he is behind the green curtain of the public media in Canada!

I've seen the rhetoric from LPC boosters on social media. They basically believe that the CPC isn't scrutinized properly by the media. There's a bit of truth in that, since Opposition parties are never scrutinized as much as the government. But the amount of blame they put on the media instead of their party's own failures kinda shows they haven't learned much. Also, there was a lot of the same rhetoric from Conservatives about Trudeau in 2014/2015.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

Multiple polls show that the vast majority of Canadians are currently unhappy with the federal government, unhappy with the direction the country is heading in, and generally declining in happiness. And the public's feelings aside, economists paint a similarly bleak picture of the future on top of our already poor economic performance of late; while housing affordability is expected to further deteriorate.

Exactly, which is what casper, I, and all the rest of the people who have substantial Canadian real estate investments call "the country going in the right direction"

[casper]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

You have it backwards. The Conservatives didn't create the dour mood of the moment - they're simply tapping into popular sentiment.

Multiple polls show that the vast majority of Canadians are currently unhappy with the federal government, unhappy with the direction the country is heading in, and generally declining in happiness. And the public's feelings aside, economists paint a similarly bleak picture of the future on top of our already poor economic performance of late; while housing affordability is expected to further deteriorate.

In other words, not much for most people to be optimistic about. It would be quite the impressive feat for the Cons to have pulled all of that off from opposition!

So lets take a look at the underlying OECD report that the Business Council of BC is using to paint that negative picture.

https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/delive...n&mimeType=pdf

Demographics suggest that on average OECD and G20 countries are going to have extremely low per-capita GDP growth. Demographic changes are the key factory at play. The associated decline in the standard of living should be expected from an aging population.

I get it the population as a whole does not respond well to inflation going up 3 fold over a span of a year while salaries have not gone up as quickly. That said, inflation is back down.

[Marshsparrow]

Originally Posted by acottawa

Latest Liberal fan fiction.

Or conservative nightmare - anyone other than Trudeau or Freeland will give Pierre (I have no platform or policy or have done anything in 19 years) a run for their money... did you see M Lantsman on CTV - she couldn't even answer a question when asked 3x what a Conservative govt would do about the capital gains tax changes introduced by the Liberals - would you keep it or repeal it... axe the gax, make everything affordable, rage, rage rage - nothing about what they would actually do - what a bunch of clowns.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by Marshsparrow

Or conservative nightmare - anyone other than Trudeau or Freeland will give Pierre (I have no platform or policy or have done anything in 19 years) a run for their money... did you see M Lantsman on CTV - she couldn't even answer a question when asked 3x what a Conservative govt would do about the capital gains tax changes introduced by the Liberals - would you keep it or repeal it... axe the gax, make everything affordable, rage, rage rage - nothing about what they would actually do - what a bunch of clowns.

Trudeau has not shown any indication he wants to quit. Freeland just introduced a poison-pill budget to make life very difficult for a hypothetical new leader. Carney has no base, no political organization, no political experience and no obvious platform.