...and yet, he isn't finished setting impossible goals for us to judge him by.
In Parliament this past week, Liberal Ministers told us that this budget "will make Canada the fastest growing economy in the G7", and our Finance Minister actually said this budget would make Canada "the strongest economy in the G7".
High bars to clear, indeed.
All based on the fantasy that this budget is going to unleash (or catalyze, if you prefer...) a trillion dollars in new private capital, which the Liberals seem to believe will now come flooding back into Canada because.... well, there is no "because", they just expect it to happen because Mark Carney told them it would happen.
A government which was serious about attracting private capital investment would take steps to actually FIX Canada's ridiculous regulatory environment, but they've chosen instead to leave the draconian bureaucratic nightmare in place, and provide an end-around for "insiders" who are friendly with the government. This isn't brilliant strategy, it is outright Banana Republic behaviour.
In EVERY budget since 2015, this government has told us that they were going to spend (oops, "invest") more money than they have, in order to bring us prosperity. Somehow, the promised prosperity has never arrived, and it is always "just over the next hill", but requires us to spend (Invest) just a little more than we did last time.
Maybe I am being a pessimist, but I don't for one second believe that THIS budget is the one which will make us "the strongest economy in the G7".
I'm still having difficulty believing that anyone thought any of what Carney promised was going to happen, or that he had any intention of improving things.
My personal view is that it was so obvious that re-electing the Liberals would be a disaster that few if any people will admit they were wrong and repent. Far more likely is that Liberal voters will let Carney drive the aircraft of state all the way into the ground.
Especially since the Boomers mostly think they will be using their heavenly parachutes before impact.
"He’s not treating his entire government as a gigantic comms exercise aimed at below-average schoolchildren"... One of the worst was Chrysta Frieland for this and the previous gov still grates my nerves thinking of it... It was some media scrum after some political event and she went into Kindergarten teacher voice and affect, "I know we are all afraid...." ... trying to reassure is like we were 5yr olds.
I'm sure she came top of her class in every academic setting she ever encountered, probably driving her classmates and many of her teachers crazy in the process with what I can only picture as a truly grating level of smug keenness.
And yet every word she ever spoke in Parliament or in public throughout her career was that of a total disingenuous nitwit.
She was/is no dummy. But talking like that to adults is insulting to say the least. Its like she watched the movie Election, and saw Tracy Flick as an instructional video.
It's not that she had great ideas and was bad at communicating them. She was a partisan water-carrier for some of the dumbest and most destructive ideas ever to enter our politics, which she presented in the most arrogant I-know-better-than-you demeanor. To say otherwise totally misrepresents her body of work, such as it is.
And a person can be smart, as in "give them 10 complicated books to read and they can prepare a very well-reasoned analysis and synthesis of those in a weekend" mental processing power sense, and still apply those smarts toward a stupid end, especially if they are incentivized with money and power to do so.
Not that her defences of Trudeau's dreck were even particularly clever. In fact most of the evidence I have for C. Freeland's intelligence is people repeatedly saying it.
Like you I have honestly looked for evidence of her competence/intelligence and all I ever find is people repeatedly saying it.
I give her some credit for her involvement in CUSMA but that is it. Otherwise she was a complete abomination. And the cringeworthy word-salad truly made her Canada's answer to Kamala Harris.
Furthermore it is infuriating when people give her "credit" for knifing Junior. There is ZERO chance she finishes him off but for his demoting her. She was a catastrophic Finance Minister and would have happily carried on in that vein but for the demotion. I get it - politicians gonna' politic. But please, no praise for knifing him when the motivation was 100% self-interest.
Too often the use of the term "smart" conflates competence and wisdom. Sometimes, those who are "smart" in a competent way, can be the most effective at self deception, as they are better than the average bear for coming up with more reasons to justify whatever "passion" at hand.
Where do we stand with free trade between the provinces? How are we doing with the free movement of trades people. Are we allowed to buy beer & wine made in other provinces?
Free trade within the provinces was supposed to raise our GDP by millions.
Yeah that was an area where, during the initial hyper-elbows-up period, it seemed like something substantial could really happen if our politicians were really serious about coming together for Canada. I guess they have proved they weren’t … no one even mentions free trade between provinces in passing now. It would be interesting to understand what has happened there, where the barriers are and what groups are resisting taking them down. And it would be nice if somehow we could put pressure on those groups.
I have often felt that provincial premiers are a bigger anchor on Canada than anything the feds can do. There was literally enough business within Canada to replace a lot of the US drop off if they opened their doors. And so far, that conversation was an absolute farce and no premier ever took it seriously. I am out on BC and Eby is a complete obstructionist. Premiers constantly act like the provinces are independent nations and have zero interest in true national co operation.
The scorecard on inter-provincial trade is exactly 0, like every other Liberal promise. Great marketing, and comms, but zero execution. The thing is though - they can’t blame our inability to have free trade on Trump. That get out of jail free card is rapidly expiring, and at some point Canadians are right to ask “where’s the results”?
None of the headwinds Carney is encountering are news and all were known to him when he put his name in the race to lead the LPC and subsequently the country. In my opinion, Carney lacks the imagination to move the country forward, he lacks the team to help him get Canada on the right track and he, like all politicians, seems motivated by one thought and one thought alone: How do I get this government re-elected.
We all want Carney to succeed even if he was never my choice to lead the country in the first place but he has so far proven that the job is a lot bigger than him He suffers from paralysis by analysis. Striking new committees to study this and offices to study that just won't cut it anymore. What Canada needs is a leader motivated to cure Canada from what ails it, a leader capable of motivating Canadians to pitch in, someone who leads by example, talks to people not at them and a leader who recognizes the huge potential this country has and is willing to break a few glasses for the greater good. Instead, we got a drab bureaucrat who thinks he's smarter than most if not all but lacks to initiative to find the opening to get out of the paper bag.
Totally agree with this comment. I still don't get how so many people apparently thought he could deliver 'salvation' when his entire vibe is 'drab bureaucrat'.
I, for one, most resolutely do not want Carney to "succeed". I want that sac of credit-thieving and plagiarizing crap to vanish and the rest of the "Liberals" with him. Because if he "succeds", Canada will end up in pieces.
For better or worse, the libs are in power and Carney leads them and therefore he leads Canada. If he succeeds we all succeed. I don’t want him to push his green agenda, I want him to be true to his word, remove barriers, unleash our energy sector, get his inept minister to work or they can get out of the way. I want him to reach across the isle, lead as a true leader should, leave ideology behind and think of Canadians first for a change. Pipe dream I know but in lieu of anything else, hope may be all we have at this point. Come the next elections, fingers crossed we can finally toss them to the curb.
You have encapsulated exactly how I, and, I venture to say, thousands of Canadians are feeling, Matt. Thank you. And we are going to need a lot of luck!
The budget is pretty much exactly what I expected it to be. Probably better than one Trudeau would have put together, but not by much, and totally insufficient to address the real problems the country faces. Nobody was ever serious about the "existential threat" narrative and it shows. Canadians proved themselves to be a bunch of gullible provincial rubes that got fooled by a clever and well-connected "bank guy" who was willing to say anything to win.
This is why you don't accept at face value the outlandishly bold statements of someone who returns to your country after a 10 year absence, with no record and no way to test his truthfulness other than the fact that the G&M hangs on his every word like a fawning groupie. Jesus, he basically came here on vacation for four months and ended up getting elected PM over the guy who spent two straight years campaigning and clearly identifying every problem we continue to face.
No Liberal can ever fix our problems, because they got us here and their constituents support the status quo or support everything getting even worse. More uncontrolled immigration (check out that amnesty!), more spending, more debt, criminals are the real victims, rights should differ by ethnicity and language, success is only due to privilege (unless you are multi-generational elite or well connected enough), media should be subsidized and beholden to government, resources need to stay in the ground, it's better to line up and die than reform healthcare, and above all government always knows best. As long as these fundamental philosophies remain in place, we cannot move away from the path we are on, and the rest is all window dressing and "tone".
And before I get too hyper-partisan I also have concerns that any Conservative has what it takes to correct this course either, including Poilievre, but we have to try something else before it's too late.
Carney and the liberals sold fearful Canadian voters a bill of goods based entirely on potential threats posed by Trump and like chickens too many people fell for it. I don’t expect Carney to be anything more or less than a smoother talking Trudeau. He’s still surrounded by Trudeau sycophants and inept failures in far too many key cabinet positions.
A mature and serious country would have responded to Carney's candidacy with uproarious laughter at the obvious ploy it was, not "oh, let's hear him out, he seems so convincing and trustworthy especially when he says he is the only one who can save Canada from a foreign invasion he keeps suggesting is about to happen".
No, it's not happening fast enough, but pivoting an entire economy away from your neighbour isn't a "waving a magic wand" exercise. I'd love to break off diplomatic ties with the US, tell their Ambassador to get the hell out as a persona non grata. Should they return to a rational democracy, we can sit down and talk, but the trust is gone. That's my mood. It is neither pragmatic nor practical. I think we elect a government to do what is in the best interests of the country as a whole, even if it doesn't satisfy my wishes at the time.
We have a massive roadblock of national inertia to overcome. It's not that easy. But, IMHO, the best option available is running the show. That's one thing we got right.
Sadly, the best option available is not all that shining. I am not disappointed because I was pretty sure during the election, that Carney knew that he was not being as truthful as he should have been.
Carney's rise wouldn't have been possible without a cooperative mainstream media. If he had received more than token pushback from reporters he would have been cooked.
Instead he was seen as a lifeline for many of their careers so they spent more time harping about Poilievre's "security clearance" than "where the fuck has this other guy been for 10 years and why isn't he telling us what his investments are?"
Sure, this has been a tumultuous year, Matt, but you have neglected to take into account the fact that Carney was an important "behind the scenes" advisor to JT for a number of years. There's no way that he didn't know what a mess Canada was in when he was annointed.
Brilliant, but a decade too late. All I want is a separation vote so I can determine my familys and my future. We have been invaded and Canada is a failed state. Just my thoughts before they are illegal
Too late, you are guilty of thought crime, report to nearest Service Canada bunker immediately ; unless you're a PAL holder, in which case, sit tight they will come get you.
I am comparing him to the alternative, I would much prefer the alternative!
Geography is permanent, no matter what Carney says, both he and trump are politicians, they are temporary. Canada cannot exist without co-operation and trade, with the USA. they are our closest ally and generally, discounting the past 10 months our best and most reliable trading partner. Europe has an established trading network, it will be equally as difficult to break into that market, ditto for China, south east Asia and India, Particularly given that the only thing anyone wants to buy from us, Carney, Eby et al wont make available to sell!
What's even worse, the budget ignored what I believe to be the biggest domestic issue we need to solve, the high youth unemployment rate, 14% for people under 30, when the youth represent our future is potentially catastrophic for our country, this never ends well wherever it has been experienced globally. Yes Healthcare, education, crime are huge issues but ultimately some of that is structural and will take time to fix no matter how much money is thrown at it, Youth unemployment could be addressed much easier buy reducing TFW's, by offering subsidies to hire youth. (FYI these existed when I was young and got my first job, I signed monthly paperwork for my employer so they could get part of my hourly wage paid by the federal government, it was 1985). I would much prefer my tax dollars be supporting youth employment initiatives than likely enriching companies the government decides should be the winners and allowing others to falter, or fail.
Thank you for reading the Maclean's article. I used to like the publication, and soon forgot about it. Driving in from hockey this morning, I heard Trump has lowered the fat drugs after meeting with Big Pharma yesterday. The Middle East appears to be settling down for the first time in a century, with the army being assembled from a myriad of Islamic Republics to keep the peace. DOGE brought some hope to address the runaway government, and new blood was put into the heads of all departments. People wanted change in Canada as much as the USA, and all we got was Eurovision and Carney's 25% tariff on the car parts I order from Atlantic British..... (I thought he said tariffs are a tax on the people but still decided to tax Canadians.....) Shocking to me that he has brought these ideas from decades ago, notwithstanding the world is a different place today, with the ice caps growing and the developing nations no longer willing to sacrifice for Net Zero. Find me a nation who will pay more for a decarbonized barrel of oil and I will sell you wonderful beachfront property off of Tuk!
With an obvious track record of failed government involvement in the economy it is very disappointing to see the recent budget accelerate the role of government involvement even further. Future success will not come from more government involvement but thru unleashing the private market thru the use of the tax system. If memory serves me correct the explosion of multifamily apartments in the eighties was thru programs like MURB's that provided tax incentives to developers. If the government truly believes housing is one of the countries biggest problems they should re-allocate all the money in the budget, focused on a government based approach, to a tax incentive based approach which allows our world class builder/developers to do what they do best - build,build,build
Matt you just scared the hell out of me. I found myself agreeing 100% with what you wrote. 😆
Guess I’ll have to recharge my batteries and follow up on what you wrote. Let’s see… Economic history of Argentina post 1900s? Mexican peso devaluation in the 1960s? Ecuador changing its currency to the $ US ? Greece and Spain under World Bank rules? So many ways to get to the same place 🚽🚽😢😢😢
I’m willing to be more patient. 1. Carney inherited a stalled economic country 2. Carney had that creature south of us stabbing him (and us!) on a regular basis and 3. I, for one, did not expect him to fix all the issues in a few months. But I’m sure some of you could have!
And when Carney flames out and the LPC replace him with another leader that "meets the moment", whatever that means, how much time will you give that person? Another 4 years? At what point does giving each of these leaders a term worth of runway become indistinguishable from just being a partisan Liberal?
Carney sold us on the idea he could tame the "creature to the south". He has been a disaster on that front. I have exactly zero trust in him, he lied about little things during the campaign, who knows what big things he lies about!!! Either Ford to Carney is lieing to us about the ad, I don't trust either, but Fords story aligns which lived experience where Carneys does not. That ad may have cost us a deal, and contrary to popular opinion, a poor deal with the USA is better than no deal. Right now we can only hope that the SCOTUS will save the canadian economy and global economy from tariffs.
...and yet, he isn't finished setting impossible goals for us to judge him by.
In Parliament this past week, Liberal Ministers told us that this budget "will make Canada the fastest growing economy in the G7", and our Finance Minister actually said this budget would make Canada "the strongest economy in the G7".
High bars to clear, indeed.
All based on the fantasy that this budget is going to unleash (or catalyze, if you prefer...) a trillion dollars in new private capital, which the Liberals seem to believe will now come flooding back into Canada because.... well, there is no "because", they just expect it to happen because Mark Carney told them it would happen.
A government which was serious about attracting private capital investment would take steps to actually FIX Canada's ridiculous regulatory environment, but they've chosen instead to leave the draconian bureaucratic nightmare in place, and provide an end-around for "insiders" who are friendly with the government. This isn't brilliant strategy, it is outright Banana Republic behaviour.
In EVERY budget since 2015, this government has told us that they were going to spend (oops, "invest") more money than they have, in order to bring us prosperity. Somehow, the promised prosperity has never arrived, and it is always "just over the next hill", but requires us to spend (Invest) just a little more than we did last time.
Maybe I am being a pessimist, but I don't for one second believe that THIS budget is the one which will make us "the strongest economy in the G7".
Do you?
This budget really is any different from the ones over the past 10 years. There was a little tinkering, but that’s it.
I strongly agree.
This is hardly surprising, given that Mark Carney has had a huge hand in setting financial policy in the LPC for several years already.
nope
I'm still having difficulty believing that anyone thought any of what Carney promised was going to happen, or that he had any intention of improving things.
My personal view is that it was so obvious that re-electing the Liberals would be a disaster that few if any people will admit they were wrong and repent. Far more likely is that Liberal voters will let Carney drive the aircraft of state all the way into the ground.
Especially since the Boomers mostly think they will be using their heavenly parachutes before impact.
"He’s not treating his entire government as a gigantic comms exercise aimed at below-average schoolchildren"... One of the worst was Chrysta Frieland for this and the previous gov still grates my nerves thinking of it... It was some media scrum after some political event and she went into Kindergarten teacher voice and affect, "I know we are all afraid...." ... trying to reassure is like we were 5yr olds.
Chrrysta ALWAYS believes that she is the smartest person in the room.
Or when Chrysta said (I’m paraphrasing) “I feel your pain. That’s why I cut my Disney+ subscription”
I think she probably was. That doesn't mean she was in touch with the average person's reality, which was her failing.
I'm sure she came top of her class in every academic setting she ever encountered, probably driving her classmates and many of her teachers crazy in the process with what I can only picture as a truly grating level of smug keenness.
And yet every word she ever spoke in Parliament or in public throughout her career was that of a total disingenuous nitwit.
She was/is no dummy. But talking like that to adults is insulting to say the least. Its like she watched the movie Election, and saw Tracy Flick as an instructional video.
Incredibly smart and excellent communicator/orator can be mutually exclusive characteristics; true in her case.
It's not that she had great ideas and was bad at communicating them. She was a partisan water-carrier for some of the dumbest and most destructive ideas ever to enter our politics, which she presented in the most arrogant I-know-better-than-you demeanor. To say otherwise totally misrepresents her body of work, such as it is.
And a person can be smart, as in "give them 10 complicated books to read and they can prepare a very well-reasoned analysis and synthesis of those in a weekend" mental processing power sense, and still apply those smarts toward a stupid end, especially if they are incentivized with money and power to do so.
Not that her defences of Trudeau's dreck were even particularly clever. In fact most of the evidence I have for C. Freeland's intelligence is people repeatedly saying it.
Every. Word. Of. This.
Like you I have honestly looked for evidence of her competence/intelligence and all I ever find is people repeatedly saying it.
I give her some credit for her involvement in CUSMA but that is it. Otherwise she was a complete abomination. And the cringeworthy word-salad truly made her Canada's answer to Kamala Harris.
Furthermore it is infuriating when people give her "credit" for knifing Junior. There is ZERO chance she finishes him off but for his demoting her. She was a catastrophic Finance Minister and would have happily carried on in that vein but for the demotion. I get it - politicians gonna' politic. But please, no praise for knifing him when the motivation was 100% self-interest.
Too often the use of the term "smart" conflates competence and wisdom. Sometimes, those who are "smart" in a competent way, can be the most effective at self deception, as they are better than the average bear for coming up with more reasons to justify whatever "passion" at hand.
Found the clip I was thinking of. Man, it did not age well for a number of other reasons
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.6557280
Where do we stand with free trade between the provinces? How are we doing with the free movement of trades people. Are we allowed to buy beer & wine made in other provinces?
Free trade within the provinces was supposed to raise our GDP by millions.
What's the scorecard on that?
Yeah that was an area where, during the initial hyper-elbows-up period, it seemed like something substantial could really happen if our politicians were really serious about coming together for Canada. I guess they have proved they weren’t … no one even mentions free trade between provinces in passing now. It would be interesting to understand what has happened there, where the barriers are and what groups are resisting taking them down. And it would be nice if somehow we could put pressure on those groups.
I have often felt that provincial premiers are a bigger anchor on Canada than anything the feds can do. There was literally enough business within Canada to replace a lot of the US drop off if they opened their doors. And so far, that conversation was an absolute farce and no premier ever took it seriously. I am out on BC and Eby is a complete obstructionist. Premiers constantly act like the provinces are independent nations and have zero interest in true national co operation.
The scorecard on inter-provincial trade is exactly 0, like every other Liberal promise. Great marketing, and comms, but zero execution. The thing is though - they can’t blame our inability to have free trade on Trump. That get out of jail free card is rapidly expiring, and at some point Canadians are right to ask “where’s the results”?
None of the headwinds Carney is encountering are news and all were known to him when he put his name in the race to lead the LPC and subsequently the country. In my opinion, Carney lacks the imagination to move the country forward, he lacks the team to help him get Canada on the right track and he, like all politicians, seems motivated by one thought and one thought alone: How do I get this government re-elected.
We all want Carney to succeed even if he was never my choice to lead the country in the first place but he has so far proven that the job is a lot bigger than him He suffers from paralysis by analysis. Striking new committees to study this and offices to study that just won't cut it anymore. What Canada needs is a leader motivated to cure Canada from what ails it, a leader capable of motivating Canadians to pitch in, someone who leads by example, talks to people not at them and a leader who recognizes the huge potential this country has and is willing to break a few glasses for the greater good. Instead, we got a drab bureaucrat who thinks he's smarter than most if not all but lacks to initiative to find the opening to get out of the paper bag.
Totally agree with this comment. I still don't get how so many people apparently thought he could deliver 'salvation' when his entire vibe is 'drab bureaucrat'.
I, for one, most resolutely do not want Carney to "succeed". I want that sac of credit-thieving and plagiarizing crap to vanish and the rest of the "Liberals" with him. Because if he "succeds", Canada will end up in pieces.
For better or worse, the libs are in power and Carney leads them and therefore he leads Canada. If he succeeds we all succeed. I don’t want him to push his green agenda, I want him to be true to his word, remove barriers, unleash our energy sector, get his inept minister to work or they can get out of the way. I want him to reach across the isle, lead as a true leader should, leave ideology behind and think of Canadians first for a change. Pipe dream I know but in lieu of anything else, hope may be all we have at this point. Come the next elections, fingers crossed we can finally toss them to the curb.
You have encapsulated exactly how I, and, I venture to say, thousands of Canadians are feeling, Matt. Thank you. And we are going to need a lot of luck!
Bingo. So much for “elbows up”
Elbows up was always a fantasy. It was always gonna be: elbows down, ass up and lube at the ready.
Make that "millions" of Canadians
A commodities super cycle is Canada's best hope
With a PM that’s obsessed with Climate change and net zero?
The budget is pretty much exactly what I expected it to be. Probably better than one Trudeau would have put together, but not by much, and totally insufficient to address the real problems the country faces. Nobody was ever serious about the "existential threat" narrative and it shows. Canadians proved themselves to be a bunch of gullible provincial rubes that got fooled by a clever and well-connected "bank guy" who was willing to say anything to win.
This is why you don't accept at face value the outlandishly bold statements of someone who returns to your country after a 10 year absence, with no record and no way to test his truthfulness other than the fact that the G&M hangs on his every word like a fawning groupie. Jesus, he basically came here on vacation for four months and ended up getting elected PM over the guy who spent two straight years campaigning and clearly identifying every problem we continue to face.
No Liberal can ever fix our problems, because they got us here and their constituents support the status quo or support everything getting even worse. More uncontrolled immigration (check out that amnesty!), more spending, more debt, criminals are the real victims, rights should differ by ethnicity and language, success is only due to privilege (unless you are multi-generational elite or well connected enough), media should be subsidized and beholden to government, resources need to stay in the ground, it's better to line up and die than reform healthcare, and above all government always knows best. As long as these fundamental philosophies remain in place, we cannot move away from the path we are on, and the rest is all window dressing and "tone".
And before I get too hyper-partisan I also have concerns that any Conservative has what it takes to correct this course either, including Poilievre, but we have to try something else before it's too late.
Carney and the liberals sold fearful Canadian voters a bill of goods based entirely on potential threats posed by Trump and like chickens too many people fell for it. I don’t expect Carney to be anything more or less than a smoother talking Trudeau. He’s still surrounded by Trudeau sycophants and inept failures in far too many key cabinet positions.
A mature and serious country would have responded to Carney's candidacy with uproarious laughter at the obvious ploy it was, not "oh, let's hear him out, he seems so convincing and trustworthy especially when he says he is the only one who can save Canada from a foreign invasion he keeps suggesting is about to happen".
When he appointed Gregor Robertson as housing Minister, I lost all the little faith I had in the intellect of my fellow citizens.
No, it's not happening fast enough, but pivoting an entire economy away from your neighbour isn't a "waving a magic wand" exercise. I'd love to break off diplomatic ties with the US, tell their Ambassador to get the hell out as a persona non grata. Should they return to a rational democracy, we can sit down and talk, but the trust is gone. That's my mood. It is neither pragmatic nor practical. I think we elect a government to do what is in the best interests of the country as a whole, even if it doesn't satisfy my wishes at the time.
We have a massive roadblock of national inertia to overcome. It's not that easy. But, IMHO, the best option available is running the show. That's one thing we got right.
Sadly, the best option available is not all that shining. I am not disappointed because I was pretty sure during the election, that Carney knew that he was not being as truthful as he should have been.
The media dutifully went along with the show.
Pretty sure? Blatantly and obvious lies more like.
Carney's rise wouldn't have been possible without a cooperative mainstream media. If he had received more than token pushback from reporters he would have been cooked.
Instead he was seen as a lifeline for many of their careers so they spent more time harping about Poilievre's "security clearance" than "where the fuck has this other guy been for 10 years and why isn't he telling us what his investments are?"
Sure, this has been a tumultuous year, Matt, but you have neglected to take into account the fact that Carney was an important "behind the scenes" advisor to JT for a number of years. There's no way that he didn't know what a mess Canada was in when he was annointed.
Brilliant, but a decade too late. All I want is a separation vote so I can determine my familys and my future. We have been invaded and Canada is a failed state. Just my thoughts before they are illegal
Too late, you are guilty of thought crime, report to nearest Service Canada bunker immediately ; unless you're a PAL holder, in which case, sit tight they will come get you.
Amen brother
I am comparing him to the alternative, I would much prefer the alternative!
Geography is permanent, no matter what Carney says, both he and trump are politicians, they are temporary. Canada cannot exist without co-operation and trade, with the USA. they are our closest ally and generally, discounting the past 10 months our best and most reliable trading partner. Europe has an established trading network, it will be equally as difficult to break into that market, ditto for China, south east Asia and India, Particularly given that the only thing anyone wants to buy from us, Carney, Eby et al wont make available to sell!
What's even worse, the budget ignored what I believe to be the biggest domestic issue we need to solve, the high youth unemployment rate, 14% for people under 30, when the youth represent our future is potentially catastrophic for our country, this never ends well wherever it has been experienced globally. Yes Healthcare, education, crime are huge issues but ultimately some of that is structural and will take time to fix no matter how much money is thrown at it, Youth unemployment could be addressed much easier buy reducing TFW's, by offering subsidies to hire youth. (FYI these existed when I was young and got my first job, I signed monthly paperwork for my employer so they could get part of my hourly wage paid by the federal government, it was 1985). I would much prefer my tax dollars be supporting youth employment initiatives than likely enriching companies the government decides should be the winners and allowing others to falter, or fail.
Thank you for reading the Maclean's article. I used to like the publication, and soon forgot about it. Driving in from hockey this morning, I heard Trump has lowered the fat drugs after meeting with Big Pharma yesterday. The Middle East appears to be settling down for the first time in a century, with the army being assembled from a myriad of Islamic Republics to keep the peace. DOGE brought some hope to address the runaway government, and new blood was put into the heads of all departments. People wanted change in Canada as much as the USA, and all we got was Eurovision and Carney's 25% tariff on the car parts I order from Atlantic British..... (I thought he said tariffs are a tax on the people but still decided to tax Canadians.....) Shocking to me that he has brought these ideas from decades ago, notwithstanding the world is a different place today, with the ice caps growing and the developing nations no longer willing to sacrifice for Net Zero. Find me a nation who will pay more for a decarbonized barrel of oil and I will sell you wonderful beachfront property off of Tuk!
With an obvious track record of failed government involvement in the economy it is very disappointing to see the recent budget accelerate the role of government involvement even further. Future success will not come from more government involvement but thru unleashing the private market thru the use of the tax system. If memory serves me correct the explosion of multifamily apartments in the eighties was thru programs like MURB's that provided tax incentives to developers. If the government truly believes housing is one of the countries biggest problems they should re-allocate all the money in the budget, focused on a government based approach, to a tax incentive based approach which allows our world class builder/developers to do what they do best - build,build,build
When he said that he wouldn't touch OAS, I knew this wouldn't be the budget we needed.
Matt you just scared the hell out of me. I found myself agreeing 100% with what you wrote. 😆
Guess I’ll have to recharge my batteries and follow up on what you wrote. Let’s see… Economic history of Argentina post 1900s? Mexican peso devaluation in the 1960s? Ecuador changing its currency to the $ US ? Greece and Spain under World Bank rules? So many ways to get to the same place 🚽🚽😢😢😢
I’m willing to be more patient. 1. Carney inherited a stalled economic country 2. Carney had that creature south of us stabbing him (and us!) on a regular basis and 3. I, for one, did not expect him to fix all the issues in a few months. But I’m sure some of you could have!
And when Carney flames out and the LPC replace him with another leader that "meets the moment", whatever that means, how much time will you give that person? Another 4 years? At what point does giving each of these leaders a term worth of runway become indistinguishable from just being a partisan Liberal?
That’s the thing, there isn’t another person. He’s it. If he doesn’t succeed, the party gets wiped out.
We can only hope
We can wish..... but ....
The bottomless and eternal shallowness and stupidity of a large part of "Liberal" and "progressive" voters will prevent the much-needed wipeout.
They just need to rag the puck until Xavier Trudeau is old enough to plausibly run. Maybe Mike Myers wants to take a turn? Yeah Baby!!!
Carney sold us on the idea he could tame the "creature to the south". He has been a disaster on that front. I have exactly zero trust in him, he lied about little things during the campaign, who knows what big things he lies about!!! Either Ford to Carney is lieing to us about the ad, I don't trust either, but Fords story aligns which lived experience where Carneys does not. That ad may have cost us a deal, and contrary to popular opinion, a poor deal with the USA is better than no deal. Right now we can only hope that the SCOTUS will save the canadian economy and global economy from tariffs.