Canada's social contract needs to be torn up and rewritten. Decades of Liberalism have allowed a population to grown up thinking that the government can and will be there for everyone and do everything for them. That government has crushed the entrepreneurial spirit with restrictions and regulations so that growth in the economy is dictated by them in their image. Those in todays workforce don't know and were never taught the history of what made this nation great and they don't seem to care, they just want more. Combined federal and provincial debt levels are reaching crushing levels and if massive change doesn't come soon, recovery will be next to impossible without that rewritten contract.
The challenge is mathematical. Expensive programs like healthcare and pensions grow faster in cost than does GDP, while taxes cannot grow faster than GDP. Higher taxes only push out the end date for these programs. The electorate can't handle the truth that public funding of health and retirement is unsustainable and a greater share of user pay is inevitable.
Absolutely agree however if you can massively cut expectations and find a leader with a set, you can introduce more private participation in health care and higher income tests for government benefits. The current trajectory is unsustainable.
That still doesn't mean that the electorate won't look for someone to punish. It's always someone else's fault. "Look in the mirror" led to the NDP in Alberta for instance.
Upon reading the submission my takeaway is the writer implies that Canada is in its current state thru a series of unfortunate events that we couldn't see coming.
In my view we are exactly here thru deliberate government policies (primarily by Liberal governments) that chose to ignore or strongest assets namely natural resources of all types and instead chose a path focused on social issues & every increasing governmental growth.
I am a senior, so when I say we are trapped in an attitude of looking back not forward and with the vast majority of seniors not wanting to rock the book they bought the Liberal/Carney messages in the last election. Seniors became Liberal voters dropping their lifelong general overall support for the Conservative Party.
Do I believe we are going to snap out of our belief that all is okay - NO - until the sh_t hits the fan we will bounce along the bottom wallpapering over the problems thru misallocated government spending & the federal government pretending it supports unlocking the vast wealth our natural resources would provide. At the core the Liberal government believes the resources should be left in the ground & we need to do our part in reducing our greenhouse gas/CO2 emissions. Even though whatever we can accomplish will be negated by China in a number of days emissions. It looks to me that the current government believes this policy is worth handcuffing the countries growth drivers and flatlining the economy.
I closing, I am also from Alberta and would prefer not to seperate but it is very challenging to look at the state Canada is in and believing it is going to change anything. Unless the ROC puts tangible proposals forward on addressing the issues Alberta has highlighted I regret to say I will be choosing Option B in the upcoming Separation question vote in October
Besides, it looks like the "knife at the throat" strategy is working for Alberta. We haven't gotten this much focus for decades.
Jen is absolutely wrong when she says that separatism hurts a province politically with Ottawa. Any fool can see that Quebec is treated as the first among equals among provinces, especially anyone visiting Montreal.
Good luck in your negotiations with First Nations about what you get to keep. You can be quite certain that if you go, the only pipelines you build will go south....at a discount, and TMX might move a whole lot less. God knows where your water will come from in 20 years. I hope you stay. The grass in the US is dead.
So kids today want the same terms we had? I graduated from uni with no debt by having a part time job in winter and full time job in summer. My first mortgage was at 20% interest rate. By putting all our funds into paying it down we were free and clear in 6 years. I cycle through a nearby uni and see students at Starbucks and a high end bakery Cafe with prices that make my eyes water. My friends' children all insist they have to go to far away universities and live in the world's most expensive places. Colour me unsympathetic.
I'll take your $150k house at 20% interest over paying $1m for the same house at 4% interest any day of the week.
A part time job in the winter and full time in the summer? That's standard now. Those are rookie numbers. Where was your overtime and holiday working?
Uni with no debt by only working part of the year and you could still pass and graduate? Yeah, that isn't happening anymore unless you are taking something with only 12 hours class time a week and no labs.
I'm right in between the boomers and Gen Z. I'm definitely on the have side and have done better than most boomers in life. I still think boomers were born on 3rd base and have no clue. Only generation where even my parents have said "you just had to show up on time and stay sober and it was hard to screw up. Any moron our age could get a good job." It isn't like that anymore.
That said, Gen Z Canadians are even less ambitious than other generations. At least with past generations, they aspired to an easy job with a pension. These guys don't even think that far.
There are too many takers and not enough makers in Canada. The math doesn't math. If that leads to less fairness, social cohesion and trust, then Canada is well on its way.
Too many Canadians see the country as a service provider, protector and a something that helps people avoid the consequences of their mistakes and poor actions. A society can't survive this.
Perhaps at heart that is what is driving the schism and even separatism in Canada. Those who make resent those who take.
I’m going to be cheeky and say, “Be a member of the Liberal party and no one will ever cancel you even if you were the politician who brought in the head tax. Cancelling is for silly politicians like MacDonald. Like, what did he ever do?”
Boomer comment section filled with people denying that people used to pay high taxes in this country to provide their lifestyle, and those taxes have been slashed to the bone and the services are falling apart accordingly.
Not a single great leader in history ever slashed taxes to prosperity. Every single one required tax reform (IE: hikes and taxing more sectors) to bring in more revenue for their national projects, rather than less.
Just to clear up any misunderstanding. My position is that Laurier should be warning against the Libertarians.
And yes I do think that the government of Alberta is an example of that ideology not working. I won’t comment on the other seemingly libertarian provinces because I don’t live there. But Alberta. Yes this wreck is 100% attributable to libertarians
Yet Alberta is the best faring province post COVID. Libertarian thought may be unpopular but acknowledging the supremacy of markets in allocating resources is a fundamental truth akin the laws of physics.
Doug. There’s no plan in Smiths world. She operates like a magpie, whatever is bright and shiny she wants, for herself.
Your libertarian bullshit leaves nothing but destruction behind it.
Without the institutional base your libertarians would have nothing. No roads, no trained populace, no runways,
The slash and burn, salt the fields behind you leaves you with a world of trumps and Smiths who make no forward contribution to anything but themselves
As a non-Albertan I am curious to know what libertarian policies/legislation has been enacted by the Smith government and exactly how those policies/legislation have acted to the detriment of the Province?
Really none. Most of the heavy lifting happened during the Klein era. The only tangible example is Smith outsourcing some health services provision away from the union monopolies. In some ways, Smith has moved in the opposite direction by increasing spending faster than GDP, interfering with school boards, imposing more rules on wind and solar projects and proposing new Crown Corps. The UCP is only better than the even more regressive NDP.
"Have a look at every piece of 2025-2026 legislation.
Not one of them was for the welfare of anyone but the ucp and ucp adjacent friends and family."
This, as written, is simply not a critiques of libertarianism. It is a claim that the government is engaged in a pattern of self-dealing/corruption. Government self-dealing is not a tenet (central or otherwise) of libertarianism. There is simply no reason to associate general corruption/graft with libertarianism vis-a-vis any other political ideology.
"Her legislation has been always in favour of oil and gas to the detriment of $33B in solar wind investment."
Assuming this to be true (I have no insights into whether it is or isn't) this amounts to a claim that there is too *little* libertarianism, not too much. Your complaint is essentially that the government has put its hand on the scale to favour one industry over another - intervening in the market in such a way is the very antithesis of libertariansim.
"Check out her coal policies."
I don't have the time right now, but if this is another claim of her government interfering in the market to favour, in this case, the coal industry, this is AGAIN the antitheisis of libertarianism.
So again I ask, as a non-Albertan, what are these bad libertarian policies/legislation that have been enacted in Alberta?
I am disappointed by the "school of hard knocks" tenor of many comments written in response to this thought-provoking article.
It seems that the self-styled graduates of that school seem not to understand the social and economic dynamics that have put Canada where it is (not to mention the fact that the United States under Donald Trump is essentially at daggers drawn with Canada).
Mr Quinn was correct in noting the difficulty of building up national morale in a very different domestic and international context. It is worth remembering that Laurier had a very optimistic view of liberalized trade with the United States, and pushed to have such a policy implemented. This was opposed by the pro-Empire Tories of the time.
Today, the foundations of that liberalized trade vision, which was consummated by the government of Brian Mulroney in 1989, are crumbling. Replacing that construct is going to prove very challenging, particularly when our Tory friends are telling the proprietors of SMEs that the REAL problem is the Liberal government in Ottawa. Nothing at all about the need for businesses to grasp the nettle and push out beyond North America.
It is hyper-partisanship masquerading as considered policy debate.
First, I am not sure your characterization of a conservative is fair. I am apolitical in terms of party affiliation but there isn’t any conservative platform in Canada that’s arguing for elimination of all social programs. Even in the United States, which is far more right than any conservative party here, no one is arguing for that except a few more wolves here and there.
Second, it is a reasonable assessment to say that the policies the last 10 years at the federal level have greatly contributed to this current malaise.
My concern about the current direction isn’t necessarily a dislike of Carney per se; It is more that he is getting credit for doing more than he actually has. There has been no substantial change to the federal bureaucracy or rules that have contributed to the current issues. He has a majority government and is extremely popular. In other words, there’s no excuse to not proceed unless you never intended to. That should concern us all because we’re running out of time. Every year, we don’t do something, that federal debt gets bigger and bigger, and as it becomes bigger and bigger, the ability to do things become smaller and smaller.
Finally, taking 15 to 20 years to complete big projects Is ridiculous. You might as well not do it because the landscape would be entirely different in 15 years.
There has been no substantial change to the federal bureaucracy or rules that have contributed to the current issues.
END QUOTE
I agree with this statement. If nothing else is clear, the crying need for public service reform at both the federal and provincial levels in Canada is clear.
Unfortunately, to take something like that on would be a big deal.
Given the very sticky wicket we're in WRT the United States, both in strategic and economic terms, I think it could be argued that Carney's apparent reluctance to move on that issue is understandable.
As for my jab at the Conservatives, unfair it might seem, but my impression of Mr Poilievre's approach is that he is keener to "beat Carney" than he is to come up with constructive responses to the very real threats posed by the United States.
If anyone could convince Albertans that there m-i-g-h-t be a need for tougher action that involves the threat of throttling WCS crude oil flows to the United States, it would be him. However, he seems more intent on shoring up his party's extreme right-wing support in Alberta than he his in dealing with these problems.
Maybe it's good politics, in the short-term, but it's lousy in the long-term, given the potential threats that right wing poses to Canadian unity.
People keep saying this but how would this work? There is no room to ship it anywhere else but south and the US knows this. We put an export tax on the oil the US will simply pay less for it, putting the pressure on our companies. Again, there is no capacity to move it elsewhere.
Same with potash. There is a reason Nutrien is looking to ports in Washington state; no space in any Canadian port to move it elsewhere.
We did that to ourselves and the US is taking full advantage. That’s business.
The concept of shutting down oil exports to the USA needs to be considered in the context of probably retaliation:
1. Eastern Canada oil imports: 80% from USA. Trump says “SHUT IT OFF”
2. Canadian oil transiting across USA territory before delivering to Ontario (100% of Ontario’s oil demand) and Quebec (60% of Quebec’s oil demand). Trump says “I agree with Governor of Michigan. It’s too dangerous to take dirty Canadian oil across Michigan. SHUT IT DOWN”
3. Nat Gas: About half of Ontario and Quebec’s Nat Gas supply comes from USA. Trump says “SHUT IT OFF”
It’s gonna be a cold winter in Canada. But hey, Elbows Up, right…
Canada is suffering the inevitable and unavoidable decline facing all welfare states where wealth redistribution eclipses wealth creation. Change will require more than Liberal promises of prosperity for all while continuing to spend and tax the life out of the economy. Unless and until we have government that recognizes and embraces free markets, rewards capital formation and relaxes its stranglehold on infrastructure and resource development, the decline will continue. I'm not holding my breath.
Canada has become a country where growth and opportunity is constrained by special interest groups such as our dairy cartel, unions, financial interests tied to Communist China, the Indigenous Industry and a political party focussed on power at the expense of whatever may be in the best interests of Canadians. The entrepreneurial spirit goes south and the parasitic class comes north.
The issue is greed. Decades ago, the rich put their names on things they built that benefitted of socisty and enjoyed the tax breaks that came with it. Their taxes are cut, and they now hoard their wealth. The solution requires the leaders of the G20 to take back the power given to them by the voters, and that means taxing the rich, taxing corporate profits before the shareholders get paid, wiping out the offshore tax havens financially, and building an economy from the bottom up. Get rid of tax writeoffs for bizjets and corporate entertainment. Trickle-down economics is a lie. Deficit financing is a lie. That will fairly quickly solve the debt and deficit issues. And the rich will still be rich. Maybe they'll have to cut back to a 150-foot yacht. The Climate crisis is bigger than anyone's need for a 700-foot party boat. And they'll all be dead before the real consequences are paid...maybe. As Allan says below, massive change is required. Our leaders need to get together and end the oligarchs....all of them.
Canada's social contract needs to be torn up and rewritten. Decades of Liberalism have allowed a population to grown up thinking that the government can and will be there for everyone and do everything for them. That government has crushed the entrepreneurial spirit with restrictions and regulations so that growth in the economy is dictated by them in their image. Those in todays workforce don't know and were never taught the history of what made this nation great and they don't seem to care, they just want more. Combined federal and provincial debt levels are reaching crushing levels and if massive change doesn't come soon, recovery will be next to impossible without that rewritten contract.
The challenge is mathematical. Expensive programs like healthcare and pensions grow faster in cost than does GDP, while taxes cannot grow faster than GDP. Higher taxes only push out the end date for these programs. The electorate can't handle the truth that public funding of health and retirement is unsustainable and a greater share of user pay is inevitable.
Absolutely agree however if you can massively cut expectations and find a leader with a set, you can introduce more private participation in health care and higher income tests for government benefits. The current trajectory is unsustainable.
The impending sovereign bond crisis may rise the priority in addressing the issues.
That still doesn't mean that the electorate won't look for someone to punish. It's always someone else's fault. "Look in the mirror" led to the NDP in Alberta for instance.
All problems emanate from the Oranage Menace
Always blame the Republican President.
Upon reading the submission my takeaway is the writer implies that Canada is in its current state thru a series of unfortunate events that we couldn't see coming.
In my view we are exactly here thru deliberate government policies (primarily by Liberal governments) that chose to ignore or strongest assets namely natural resources of all types and instead chose a path focused on social issues & every increasing governmental growth.
I am a senior, so when I say we are trapped in an attitude of looking back not forward and with the vast majority of seniors not wanting to rock the book they bought the Liberal/Carney messages in the last election. Seniors became Liberal voters dropping their lifelong general overall support for the Conservative Party.
Do I believe we are going to snap out of our belief that all is okay - NO - until the sh_t hits the fan we will bounce along the bottom wallpapering over the problems thru misallocated government spending & the federal government pretending it supports unlocking the vast wealth our natural resources would provide. At the core the Liberal government believes the resources should be left in the ground & we need to do our part in reducing our greenhouse gas/CO2 emissions. Even though whatever we can accomplish will be negated by China in a number of days emissions. It looks to me that the current government believes this policy is worth handcuffing the countries growth drivers and flatlining the economy.
I closing, I am also from Alberta and would prefer not to seperate but it is very challenging to look at the state Canada is in and believing it is going to change anything. Unless the ROC puts tangible proposals forward on addressing the issues Alberta has highlighted I regret to say I will be choosing Option B in the upcoming Separation question vote in October
Besides, it looks like the "knife at the throat" strategy is working for Alberta. We haven't gotten this much focus for decades.
Jen is absolutely wrong when she says that separatism hurts a province politically with Ottawa. Any fool can see that Quebec is treated as the first among equals among provinces, especially anyone visiting Montreal.
Good luck in your negotiations with First Nations about what you get to keep. You can be quite certain that if you go, the only pipelines you build will go south....at a discount, and TMX might move a whole lot less. God knows where your water will come from in 20 years. I hope you stay. The grass in the US is dead.
So kids today want the same terms we had? I graduated from uni with no debt by having a part time job in winter and full time job in summer. My first mortgage was at 20% interest rate. By putting all our funds into paying it down we were free and clear in 6 years. I cycle through a nearby uni and see students at Starbucks and a high end bakery Cafe with prices that make my eyes water. My friends' children all insist they have to go to far away universities and live in the world's most expensive places. Colour me unsympathetic.
"My first mortgage was at 20% interest rate. By putting all our funds into paying it down we were free and clear in 6 years."
I don't think you're making the point you think you're making here.
I'll take your $150k house at 20% interest over paying $1m for the same house at 4% interest any day of the week.
A part time job in the winter and full time in the summer? That's standard now. Those are rookie numbers. Where was your overtime and holiday working?
Uni with no debt by only working part of the year and you could still pass and graduate? Yeah, that isn't happening anymore unless you are taking something with only 12 hours class time a week and no labs.
I'm right in between the boomers and Gen Z. I'm definitely on the have side and have done better than most boomers in life. I still think boomers were born on 3rd base and have no clue. Only generation where even my parents have said "you just had to show up on time and stay sober and it was hard to screw up. Any moron our age could get a good job." It isn't like that anymore.
That said, Gen Z Canadians are even less ambitious than other generations. At least with past generations, they aspired to an easy job with a pension. These guys don't even think that far.
word
There are too many takers and not enough makers in Canada. The math doesn't math. If that leads to less fairness, social cohesion and trust, then Canada is well on its way.
Too many Canadians see the country as a service provider, protector and a something that helps people avoid the consequences of their mistakes and poor actions. A society can't survive this.
Perhaps at heart that is what is driving the schism and even separatism in Canada. Those who make resent those who take.
I’m going to be cheeky and say, “Be a member of the Liberal party and no one will ever cancel you even if you were the politician who brought in the head tax. Cancelling is for silly politicians like MacDonald. Like, what did he ever do?”
Boomer comment section filled with people denying that people used to pay high taxes in this country to provide their lifestyle, and those taxes have been slashed to the bone and the services are falling apart accordingly.
Not a single great leader in history ever slashed taxes to prosperity. Every single one required tax reform (IE: hikes and taxing more sectors) to bring in more revenue for their national projects, rather than less.
Taxes have not declined over the past decade.
I would argue that public services are failing because of poor innovation from monopoly service providers like government and public sector unions.
Canadian decision makers are allergic to competition. It's not nice and Canadians are nice people.
70% isn't enough for you?
As Thatcher said, the only problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.
Friend, taxes go up. They don't go down. This is the way.
Hopefully Laurier would also condemn libertarians and their selfish ideology. He would reinforce us over me
You really think Canada is in the position it is today because of Libertarians?
Just to clear up any misunderstanding. My position is that Laurier should be warning against the Libertarians.
And yes I do think that the government of Alberta is an example of that ideology not working. I won’t comment on the other seemingly libertarian provinces because I don’t live there. But Alberta. Yes this wreck is 100% attributable to libertarians
Yet Alberta is the best faring province post COVID. Libertarian thought may be unpopular but acknowledging the supremacy of markets in allocating resources is a fundamental truth akin the laws of physics.
Doug. There’s no plan in Smiths world. She operates like a magpie, whatever is bright and shiny she wants, for herself.
Your libertarian bullshit leaves nothing but destruction behind it.
Without the institutional base your libertarians would have nothing. No roads, no trained populace, no runways,
The slash and burn, salt the fields behind you leaves you with a world of trumps and Smiths who make no forward contribution to anything but themselves
You forgot "no weekends". I'll disengage as I've heard the AUPE, ATA and UNA speeches many times before
Perfect. Can’t think of a better solution
As a non-Albertan I am curious to know what libertarian policies/legislation has been enacted by the Smith government and exactly how those policies/legislation have acted to the detriment of the Province?
Really none. Most of the heavy lifting happened during the Klein era. The only tangible example is Smith outsourcing some health services provision away from the union monopolies. In some ways, Smith has moved in the opposite direction by increasing spending faster than GDP, interfering with school boards, imposing more rules on wind and solar projects and proposing new Crown Corps. The UCP is only better than the even more regressive NDP.
Doug, I thought you were dropping out. Seems like your promises are as hollow as your masters
Only from pointless conversations
Have a look at every piece of 2025-2026 legislation.
Not one of them was for the welfare of anyone but the ucp and ucp adjacent friends and family.
Her legislation has been always in favour of oil and gas to the detriment of $33B in solar wind investment.
Check out her coal policies.
It’s worse than Kleins years. At least he could fall back on his alcoholism as an excuse
"Have a look at every piece of 2025-2026 legislation.
Not one of them was for the welfare of anyone but the ucp and ucp adjacent friends and family."
This, as written, is simply not a critiques of libertarianism. It is a claim that the government is engaged in a pattern of self-dealing/corruption. Government self-dealing is not a tenet (central or otherwise) of libertarianism. There is simply no reason to associate general corruption/graft with libertarianism vis-a-vis any other political ideology.
"Her legislation has been always in favour of oil and gas to the detriment of $33B in solar wind investment."
Assuming this to be true (I have no insights into whether it is or isn't) this amounts to a claim that there is too *little* libertarianism, not too much. Your complaint is essentially that the government has put its hand on the scale to favour one industry over another - intervening in the market in such a way is the very antithesis of libertariansim.
"Check out her coal policies."
I don't have the time right now, but if this is another claim of her government interfering in the market to favour, in this case, the coal industry, this is AGAIN the antitheisis of libertarianism.
So again I ask, as a non-Albertan, what are these bad libertarian policies/legislation that have been enacted in Alberta?
Easy for Carney to spend, it’s not his money
I am disappointed by the "school of hard knocks" tenor of many comments written in response to this thought-provoking article.
It seems that the self-styled graduates of that school seem not to understand the social and economic dynamics that have put Canada where it is (not to mention the fact that the United States under Donald Trump is essentially at daggers drawn with Canada).
Mr Quinn was correct in noting the difficulty of building up national morale in a very different domestic and international context. It is worth remembering that Laurier had a very optimistic view of liberalized trade with the United States, and pushed to have such a policy implemented. This was opposed by the pro-Empire Tories of the time.
Today, the foundations of that liberalized trade vision, which was consummated by the government of Brian Mulroney in 1989, are crumbling. Replacing that construct is going to prove very challenging, particularly when our Tory friends are telling the proprietors of SMEs that the REAL problem is the Liberal government in Ottawa. Nothing at all about the need for businesses to grasp the nettle and push out beyond North America.
It is hyper-partisanship masquerading as considered policy debate.
First, I am not sure your characterization of a conservative is fair. I am apolitical in terms of party affiliation but there isn’t any conservative platform in Canada that’s arguing for elimination of all social programs. Even in the United States, which is far more right than any conservative party here, no one is arguing for that except a few more wolves here and there.
Second, it is a reasonable assessment to say that the policies the last 10 years at the federal level have greatly contributed to this current malaise.
My concern about the current direction isn’t necessarily a dislike of Carney per se; It is more that he is getting credit for doing more than he actually has. There has been no substantial change to the federal bureaucracy or rules that have contributed to the current issues. He has a majority government and is extremely popular. In other words, there’s no excuse to not proceed unless you never intended to. That should concern us all because we’re running out of time. Every year, we don’t do something, that federal debt gets bigger and bigger, and as it becomes bigger and bigger, the ability to do things become smaller and smaller.
Finally, taking 15 to 20 years to complete big projects Is ridiculous. You might as well not do it because the landscape would be entirely different in 15 years.
QUOTE
There has been no substantial change to the federal bureaucracy or rules that have contributed to the current issues.
END QUOTE
I agree with this statement. If nothing else is clear, the crying need for public service reform at both the federal and provincial levels in Canada is clear.
Unfortunately, to take something like that on would be a big deal.
Given the very sticky wicket we're in WRT the United States, both in strategic and economic terms, I think it could be argued that Carney's apparent reluctance to move on that issue is understandable.
As for my jab at the Conservatives, unfair it might seem, but my impression of Mr Poilievre's approach is that he is keener to "beat Carney" than he is to come up with constructive responses to the very real threats posed by the United States.
If anyone could convince Albertans that there m-i-g-h-t be a need for tougher action that involves the threat of throttling WCS crude oil flows to the United States, it would be him. However, he seems more intent on shoring up his party's extreme right-wing support in Alberta than he his in dealing with these problems.
Maybe it's good politics, in the short-term, but it's lousy in the long-term, given the potential threats that right wing poses to Canadian unity.
People keep saying this but how would this work? There is no room to ship it anywhere else but south and the US knows this. We put an export tax on the oil the US will simply pay less for it, putting the pressure on our companies. Again, there is no capacity to move it elsewhere.
Same with potash. There is a reason Nutrien is looking to ports in Washington state; no space in any Canadian port to move it elsewhere.
We did that to ourselves and the US is taking full advantage. That’s business.
Fair dinkum rejoinder. You are correct. We likely won’t have capacity for years. On both the potash and oil fronts.
The concept of shutting down oil exports to the USA needs to be considered in the context of probably retaliation:
1. Eastern Canada oil imports: 80% from USA. Trump says “SHUT IT OFF”
2. Canadian oil transiting across USA territory before delivering to Ontario (100% of Ontario’s oil demand) and Quebec (60% of Quebec’s oil demand). Trump says “I agree with Governor of Michigan. It’s too dangerous to take dirty Canadian oil across Michigan. SHUT IT DOWN”
3. Nat Gas: About half of Ontario and Quebec’s Nat Gas supply comes from USA. Trump says “SHUT IT OFF”
It’s gonna be a cold winter in Canada. But hey, Elbows Up, right…
Canada is suffering the inevitable and unavoidable decline facing all welfare states where wealth redistribution eclipses wealth creation. Change will require more than Liberal promises of prosperity for all while continuing to spend and tax the life out of the economy. Unless and until we have government that recognizes and embraces free markets, rewards capital formation and relaxes its stranglehold on infrastructure and resource development, the decline will continue. I'm not holding my breath.
New boss, same as the old boss.
Canada has become a country where growth and opportunity is constrained by special interest groups such as our dairy cartel, unions, financial interests tied to Communist China, the Indigenous Industry and a political party focussed on power at the expense of whatever may be in the best interests of Canadians. The entrepreneurial spirit goes south and the parasitic class comes north.
The issue is greed. Decades ago, the rich put their names on things they built that benefitted of socisty and enjoyed the tax breaks that came with it. Their taxes are cut, and they now hoard their wealth. The solution requires the leaders of the G20 to take back the power given to them by the voters, and that means taxing the rich, taxing corporate profits before the shareholders get paid, wiping out the offshore tax havens financially, and building an economy from the bottom up. Get rid of tax writeoffs for bizjets and corporate entertainment. Trickle-down economics is a lie. Deficit financing is a lie. That will fairly quickly solve the debt and deficit issues. And the rich will still be rich. Maybe they'll have to cut back to a 150-foot yacht. The Climate crisis is bigger than anyone's need for a 700-foot party boat. And they'll all be dead before the real consequences are paid...maybe. As Allan says below, massive change is required. Our leaders need to get together and end the oligarchs....all of them.
Canada has cocence not to growth. Government has deliberately put in place policies to discourage and hinder growth.