Federal Government & Politics II

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by YOWetal

The plan to let the budget balance itself and big spending promises was apparently responsible for the Liberals passing the NDP at which point as you say they became the default to turfing them out.

Harper had a modest and detailed platform in 2006. Certainly plans need to be a bit more realistic and costed than in the US. The Cons will get away with some unnamed cuts and efficiencies but if they stretch it to far they may get push back.

Letting the budget balance itself is the exact opposite of a plan. If PP said that people here would be up in arms.

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

Given that the shift seems to be limited mostly to people under age 30, I think the fact that the LPC is spending more time talking about housing is a making the bigger difference here. If it was about the gaffes I'd expect more of a shift among older people.

Interesting theory but I'd be shocked if the announcements so far have done anything to give 25 year olds hope for Liberal housing policy.

Has Gaza been a factor for some?

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

^ I read that Maclean's story. What's ridiculous is the advice received. They bought in 2021. And they took a variable mortgage? Seriously? This is why I believe everybody in the real estate field from agents to mortgage brokers should have liability imposed on them. Clients should be able to sue for bad advice. Unfortunately, there's no real penalty for terrible advice in those "professions". If that couple had a fixed mortgage, they'd be very comfortable right now.

Yes, I'm not sure where those who got variable rates during Covid could have thought they were going to go anywhere but up upon renewal.

[travis3000]

Originally Posted by shreddog

Or it could be a hiccup? Think we should wait for a couple more to establish a trend.

Nanos is also showing a tightening race.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Yes, I'm not sure where those who got variable rates during Covid could have thought they were going to go anywhere but up upon renewal.

But the wider context is that housing is so expensive that average families really struggle to buy anything in the bulk of Canada's housing market, and so they're very vulnerable to making bad decisions in an area they're not expert in. If we had reasonable housing options there wouldn't be so much make-or-break pressure on people like this.

The causes are factors like poor productivity growth, asset bubbles/inflation, red tape around building, and extreme spikes in migration. They mostly come down to government-level management decisions.

In a lot of Canada even a few years ago housing was pretty low stakes. You did the math on renting vs. owning, considered what you wanted, maybe you bought, maybe you sold with a small gain or loss. You could stretch to buy a mansion but didn't need to stretch to get a 2 or 3 BR place if you had a mid-range job. Even Vancouver was somewhat like this around the 90's and early 2000's and in those days rents were reasonable.

[TorontoDrew]

Gotta love the Con's little stunt the other day taking from the MAGA playbook in the Senate with their failed filibuster that went nowhere. The The Conservatives and Bloc Québécois calling for the Speaker of the House of Commons to resign after he appeared wearing his parliamentary uniform in a video paying tribute to the outgoing interim leader of the Ontario Liberals.

This shit is just so petty. Canadian's don't care about the speaker of the house, they hold very little power over our politics, nothing like the speaker of the houses job in the U.S. Sure polls might be in favour of the conservatives right now but in another election the NDP and Liberals can just form another joint government seeing as left leaning voters far out number right leaning voters in this country.

Continue down you pathetic little wanna be Trump path PP, and see where that gets you next election. Just like the Republican Party your party offers nothing but blame and no solutions. All you can offer is quick intensives like killing the carbon tax to win a few cheap votes at the expense of the future of the planet. Well done sir.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0CzvFUgeRJ/

[TorontoDrew]

Pretty sure this is where the conservative party goes looking for it's leaders these days. Maybe they will have better luck next time.


source: https://images-prod.dazeddigital.com

[WarrenC12]

We might have seen the CPC peak. A minority CPC government would certainly be the most interesting.

[O-tacular]

I've lost faith since recent polling showed respondents thinking PeePee would make childcare more affordable and improve healthcare. That level of delusion is alarming. Not to mention the fact that he ranked only a few point behind Trudeau for helping the environment.

I'm actually curious to see if the wartime housing plan the Liberals have unveiled will speed up construction. Even if it has a tangible benefit PeePee would cancel it out of spite I'm sure. He will act like Dump and try to undo every Liberal policy regardless if it is working.

[whatnext]

A reminder of where failed policies have led Canadians:
[IMG]debt by bcborn, on Flickr[/IMG]
Credit Ben Rabidoux https://twitter.com/BenRabidoux/stat...61309781741705

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

We might have seen the CPC peak. A minority CPC government would certainly be the most interesting.

The least desireable of all possible results, imo.

[Marshsparrow]

Originally Posted by whatnext

A reminder of where failed policies have led Canadians:
[IMG]debt by bcborn, on Flickr[/IMG]
Credit Ben Rabidoux https://twitter.com/BenRabidoux/stat...61309781741705

The government is responsible for Canadians assuming tremendous amounts of debt? Houses, cars, vacations, Starbucks, Lulu, Apple...

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Marshsparrow

The government is responsible for Canadians assuming tremendous amounts of debt? Houses, cars, vacations, Starbucks, Lulu, Apple...

Canadians need to learn to be like the virtuous Americans with their prudent financial decisions. Americans finally learned how to manage their debts around 2008.

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by someone123

Canadians need to learn to be like the virtuous Americans with their prudent financial decisions. Americans finally learned how to manage their debts around 2008.

Will Canadians finally learn after this election?

[svlt]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

The least desireable of all possible results, imo.

I'd be less in favour of either LPC or CPC led majorities - and with still nearly two years out, both are still within the realm of possible results.

[Hawrylyshyn]

Originally Posted by Marshsparrow

The government is responsible for Canadians assuming tremendous amounts of debt? Houses, cars, vacations, Starbucks, Lulu, Apple...

"Tell us you're out of touch with reality without telling us"

[suburbanite]

Originally Posted by Marshsparrow

The government is responsible for Canadians assuming tremendous amounts of debt? Houses, cars, vacations, Starbucks, Lulu, Apple...

How exactly does the median Canadian acquire a home these days without assuming "tremendous amounts of debt"?

These arguments of personal responsibility would hold more weight if there was a robust Canadian rental market that provided alternative housing arrangements at a large scale. The fact that the rental market is already bursting at the seems after 1.5 years of interest rate increases is evidence that it is far from robust. If 5% of people are over-indebted, you have a personal responsibility problem. If over half your population is over-indebted you have structural failure.

[Dengler Avenue]

To me, a tightening race may be fine. It may well be time that PP learns to behave.
I’m more concerned that it’s being tightened for the wrong reason.

[theman23]

Originally Posted by someone123

But the wider context is that housing is so expensive that average families really struggle to buy anything in the bulk of Canada's housing market, and so they're very vulnerable to making bad decisions in an area they're not expert in. If we had reasonable housing options there wouldn't be so much make-or-break pressure on people like this.

The causes are factors like poor productivity growth, asset bubbles/inflation, red tape around building, and extreme spikes in migration. They mostly come down to government-level management decisions.

In a lot of Canada even a few years ago housing was pretty low stakes. You did the math on renting vs. owning, considered what you wanted, maybe you bought, maybe you sold with a small gain or loss. You could stretch to buy a mansion but didn't need to stretch to get a 2 or 3 BR place if you had a mid-range job. Even Vancouver was somewhat like this around the 90's and early 2000's and in those days rents were reasonable.

It’s easy to criticize in hindsight, but likely this young family has never seen high interest rates before and were being given advice by people who had a similar experience. Many realtors and brokers at the time were imparting the wisdom that variable rate mortgages tend to be cheaper if averaged over time. The rhetoric from both the bank and the government at the time was also that rates would stay low for a long time. From the article, they bought a small 2 bedroom townhouse for a very modest price of $600k and even then could only afford it with a gift from parents and a variable rate mortgage. It’s unlikely they could have purchased this home if they had taken on a fixed rate mortgage.

To be honest, it is weird that anyone takes advice from a mortgage broker or real estate agent. Perhaps there needs to be more clarity from these professions is needed about exactly what role they perform. They are salespeople and not much more.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by svlt

I'd be less in favour of either LPC or CPC led majorities - and with still nearly two years out, both are still within the realm of possible results.

The idea of a CPC minority dependent on the Bloc to hold power makes me cringe.