Canadian Politics Thread

[aGENT]

1 minute ago, Bob Long said:

 

Yep. My hope is JT sees the light and steps aside for a better leader before the next election. Slim chance but still, one can hope.

 

Does that move the needle? I doubt any of the "Fuck Trudeau" crowd are suddenly going to vote Liberal if he's replaced. He's just the lightning rod for their ignorance and vitriol. Replacing him doesn't turn them Liberal.

 

The party would have to move toward making meaningful change to some of those things I mentioned to make a dent IMO.

[Bob Long]

Just now, Johngould21 said:

What could have been, if Jack Layton were still around. They haven't had leadership since, and likely never will. But, I'll never vote for PP and that Conservative bunch. I also think that many will realize what he's up to if and when he says what he's going to do to "fix" the Country. He's the third of Stephen Harpers hand picked leaders that have failed miserably. I don't trust the man or his qualifications. I've mentioned this before, any leader that marches lock step with a bunch of Freedom Convoy idiots can't have any credibility.

 

He is truly the worst kind of politician .

 

One of the reasons I want JT to step aside is it takes away PPs entire shtick. With no Trudeau boogeyman he has nothing.

[Bob Long]

2 minutes ago, aGENT said:

 

Does that move the needle? I doubt any of the "Fuck Trudeau" crowd are suddenly going to vote Liberal if he's replaced. He's just the lightning rod for their ignorance and vitriol. Replacing him doesn't turn them Liberal.

 

The party would have to move toward making meaningful change to some of those things I mentioned to make a dent IMO.

 

Agreed, but voters are going to have to believe the next set of election promises. JT has lost that ability. Maybe a new credible leader could pull it off.

[Optimist Prime]

12 minutes ago, Bob Long said:

 

He is truly the worst kind of politician .

 

One of the reasons I want JT to step aside is it takes away PPs entire shtick. With no Trudeau boogeyman he has nothing.

for over 8 years teh entire CON schtick has been to tear down Trudeau's appeal. Nice Hair Though, What about those Socks? Ooo he wore some colourful clothes abroad..oh my... and get this, his GODFATHER from his baptism took him on a family vacation he has done many times since he was a toddler...what a horrid crime that was.... 

Et cetera et cetera ad infinitum...

 

and it has taken 8 years of these constant nothings to add up to finally a momentus moment where JT is no longer the most wanted person for the PM job. 

And the guy who is the new most wanted for the PM job? Coincidentally the leader of the team that took over 8 years of this constant nitpicking away at the Prime Minister.

He is going to reap just what he has sewn if he ever gets the job and it won't be pretty after even 8 months with the ideological bent of his party pushing P.P. to ever more unpopular positions. Anti Women, Anti Gay, Anti Progressive, First Nations? bah....they dont need no water... Vets? Psh posh they didn't need that leg or the pension for life that covered its loss. The Con Men have told us exactly who they are...Reform!! and they did it with dimples, and they did it with a cherubum veteran closer to center and now they are doing it with the mirror version of Steven Colbert's "honourable opponent". With or without glasses, we are not sure yet...but at least he stopped yelling for a few weeks now.

[D.B Cooper]

24 minutes ago, aGENT said:

 

Does that move the needle? I doubt any of the "Fuck Trudeau" crowd are suddenly going to vote Liberal if he's replaced. He's just the lightning rod for their ignorance and vitriol. Replacing him doesn't turn them Liberal.

 

The party would have to move toward making meaningful change to some of those things I mentioned to make a dent IMO.

It would help!   
I used to vote Liberal.  
With JT at the helm, not a chance in hell.  
If someone good came in, and didn’t focus their entire platform on being an overly woke bitch, I’d be happy to vote liberal again.  
They would have to cool it on the international handouts as well, but ditching Trudeau is a step in the right direction.  

[Bob Long]

7 minutes ago, Optimist Prime said:

for over 8 years teh entire CON schtick has been to tear down Trudeau's appeal. Nice Hair Though, What about those Socks? Ooo he wore some colourful clothes abroad..oh my... and get this, his GODFATHER from his baptism took him on a family vacation he has done many times since he was a toddler...what a horrid crime that was.... 

Et cetera et cetera ad infinitum...

 

and it has taken 8 years of these constant nothings to add up to finally a momentus moment where JT is no longer the most wanted person for the PM job. 

And the guy who is the new most wanted for the PM job? Coincidentally the leader of the team that took over 8 years of this constant nitpicking away at the Prime Minister.

He is going to reap just what he has sewn if he ever gets the job and it won't be pretty after even 8 months with the ideological bent of his party pushing P.P. to ever more unpopular positions. Anti Women, Anti Gay, Anti Progressive, First Nations? bah....they dont need no water... Vets? Psh posh they didn't need that leg or the pension for life that covered its loss. The Con Men have told us exactly who they are...Reform!! and they did it with dimples, and they did it with a cherubum veteran closer to center and now they are doing it with the mirror version of Steven Colbert's "honourable opponent". With or without glasses, we are not sure yet...but at least he stopped yelling for a few weeks now.

 

Pretty much. 

 

I also think politicians have a natural shelf life up here. JT has reached it.

 

Imagine if someone like Carney took over. Very different election picture.

[aGENT]

49 minutes ago, D.B Cooper said:

It would help!   
I used to vote Liberal.  
With JT at the helm, not a chance in hell.  
If someone good came in, and didn’t focus their entire platform on being an overly woke bitch, I’d be happy to vote liberal again.  
They would have to cool it on the international handouts as well, but ditching Trudeau is a step in the right direction.  

 

Ignoring how sad the entire "woke bitch" line of thinking is, you seem to be conflating his personal views with his party's platform. You also seem easily distracted by dumb shit.

[Elias Pettersson]

13 hours ago, aGENT said:

The housing crisis has been building for about 30 years, multiple governments, Libs and cons

That’s not true. There was no housing crisis in 1993. Not even in 2003. In 1993 you could buy a house in Vancouver for $300,000. In 2003, you could buy that same house for $500,000. In 2013, you could buy that same house for $800,000. 

So, between 1993 and 2013, a period of 20 years, that house went from $300,000 to $800,000. Inventory levels were still high in 2013. 
 

Fast forward to 2018 and that same house was selling for $1.6 million. So in 5 years the price of the house doubled. Meanwhile, inventory levels shrunk by up to 50%. 
 

The real housing crisis didn’t start until around 10 years ago.  This was under Harper and continued and got 10 times worse under Trudeau. In BC, it was the Liberal government under Christy Clark and it continued and got much worse under John Horgan. 

Edited November 27, 2023 by Elias Pettersson

[Elias Pettersson]

12 hours ago, UnkNuk said:

 

So is this tactic fooling the bond rating agencies?  Again, if our financial situation is as bad as you say, why are these agencies giving Canada such a high grade?

 

 

That's good to hear.

 

So how is this economic crisis and possible economic catastrophe that you've mentioned going to manifest itself?

I wouldn’t base our economic situation on our bond rating. That’s a pretty low bar to go by. 
 

You need to look at debt. Debt is what makes hard working people go into bankruptcy. 
 

Governments are different because they have the ability to print money and throw it into the system so people can spend it and then give the illusion that the economy is thriving. 
 

At some point this process causes inflation when there is too much money chasing too few goods. This is what has happened both in Canada and the US. 
 

With inflation comes rising interest rates. So now you have a double whammy. Not only have you increased your debt, but the interest rate on that debt has also gone up substantially. 
 

Fast forward to 2023, and we are $1.3 trillion in debt with a $60 billion interest payment on that debt that needs to come out of our tax revenue to pay it. This is what you would call fiscal mismanagement. An average Joe in this case would need to declare bankruptcy and lose everything they own. With the government, they will simply print more money and pass along that debt to the consumers by increasing our mortgage rates, increasing our taxes and cutting social services. It’s a vicious cycle that has no end game. 
 

Our economic catastrophe comes when people can’t afford to put food on the table and feed their kids and pay their mortgages. We will see when that day comes. 

[Elias Pettersson]

Trudeau's government has hired nearly 21,000 new employees since last year (msn.com)

 

Trudeau is a big spender

 

While many Canadians are struggling with inflation and making ends meet, that hasn't stopped Trudeau from doing some major spending by increasing the number of federal employees in the country. You might be shocked to learn just how many new people have been hired.

 

Information published by the Treasury Board of Canada earlier this month showed Trudeau’s federal government hired roughly 21,000 new employees since last year. 

 

The addition of these new hires brought the country’s total number of personnel working for the federal government hired by Trudeau since he was elected to 98,268. 

 

Canada’s federal public service now sits at 357,247 employees according to the report and that number was only at 257,034 workers when the Liberals took office in 2015. 

 

That means Trudeau and his government have increased the number of federal employees by roughly 40% since being elected to office, which is an absolutely astounding figure. 

 

“Was there a bureaucrat shortage in Ottawa before Trudeau took over?” Franco Terrazzano of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation said to the National Post. 

 

“Canadians need a more efficient government, not a bloated government full of highly paid bureaucrats,” Terrazzano added.

[Elias Pettersson]

LILLEY: Trudeau continues to fall in the polls as Poilievre holds lead (msn.com)

 

LILLEY: Trudeau continues to fall in the polls as Poilievre holds lead

 

Since Justin Trudeau announced his big carbon tax change a month ago, in an attempt to turn around plummeting poll numbers, things have only gotten worse. There have been nine polls by five different firms where all the questions were asked after Trudeau’s announcement and the lead by Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives has ranged from 13 to 18 points .

 

The poll giving the Conservatives an 18-point lead was a telephone poll conducted by Nanos that has the Liberals taking just 22.4% support. The latest poll from Abacus has Liberal hearts all aflutter when it showed the Conservatives had dropped to 39% support, but those hearts quickly sunk when they realized Liberal support had dropped to 24%.

 

That’s still a 15-point gap no matter how you slice it.

 

The small changes are margin of error differences, the real issue is the trend line and it’s not going in the right direction for Trudeau and his Liberals. The Poilievre Conservatives continue to lead in every region of the country except Quebec and in Atlantic Canada the Conservatives hold a lead of between six and 10 points depending on the poll.

 

So much for that big move to pause the carbon tax on home heating oil!

 

When it comes to unionized workers, Abacus found that the Conservatives have the support of 36% of voters who are members of a private sector union compared to 26% for the Liberals and 20% for the NDP. More shocking is that among public sector union members – your bureaucrats, teachers and health workers – the Conservatives have 31% support compared to the Liberals and NDP both tied at 25% support.

 

The Conservatives are even leading in Toronto, not the GTA, but Toronto itself.

 

Pollster David Coletto, the president and CEO of Abacus, was posting some interesting numbers over the weekend from his latest poll of 3,450 Canadians taken between November 15 and 22. That included the 21 point lead the Conservatives have over the Liberals outside of Quebec and the lead they hold not only with private sector unionized workers, but also public sector unionized workers .

 

When Coletto looked at the Abacus Data polling numbers without Quebec, Conservative support went up to 44% while the Liberals and NDP were tied at 23% apiece. That is a staggering 21-point lead for Poilievre and the Conservatives over Trudeau and the Liberals outside of La Belle Provence.

 

Even in Quebec, the Conservatives are polling higher than their 2021 election results and could pick up a few seats. The latest projections from 338Canada.com shows the Conservatives could grow from 10 seats in Quebec to 15 seats based on recent polls.

 

This same polling analysis firm predicts that if an election were held today, the Conservatives would rise from 117 seats to 208 , the Liberals would fall from 158 to 73, the Bloc Quebecois would drop two seats to 30, the NDP would stay the course at 25 as would the Greens at two seats.

 

If Poilievre were to win 208 seats, it wouldn’t be the biggest majority in Canadian history, that honour still belongs to Conservative PM John Diefenbaker. It would be the biggest majority since Conservative PM Brian Mulroney’s 1984 election win.

 

All of this is good news for Poilievre and the Conservatives and bad news for Trudeau and the Liberals, but it comes with a caveat. We don’t know when the next election will be, voters can be fickle and politicians can be their own worst enemy.

 

It would be a mistake for the Conservatives to think they have the next election is all sewn up. The Trudeau Liberals, however clumsily, are starting to fight back. They’ve also just hired a marketing expert in Max Valiquette, to continue that fight.

 

Counting the Liberals out now would be a mistake, but things don’t look good for the party that likes to think of itself as the natural governing party of Canada. If voters had their say right now, it’s clear that Justin Trudeau and his Liberal team would be sent packing.

[Bob Long]

20 minutes ago, Elias Pettersson said:

Trudeau's government has hired nearly 21,000 new employees since last year (msn.com)

 

Trudeau is a big spender

 

While many Canadians are struggling with inflation and making ends meet, that hasn't stopped Trudeau from doing some major spending by increasing the number of federal employees in the country. You might be shocked to learn just how many new people have been hired.

 

Information published by the Treasury Board of Canada earlier this month showed Trudeau’s federal government hired roughly 21,000 new employees since last year. 

 

The addition of these new hires brought the country’s total number of personnel working for the federal government hired by Trudeau since he was elected to 98,268. 

 

Canada’s federal public service now sits at 357,247 employees according to the report and that number was only at 257,034 workers when the Liberals took office in 2015. 

 

That means Trudeau and his government have increased the number of federal employees by roughly 40% since being elected to office, which is an absolutely astounding figure. 

 

“Was there a bureaucrat shortage in Ottawa before Trudeau took over?” Franco Terrazzano of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation said to the National Post. 

 

“Canadians need a more efficient government, not a bloated government full of highly paid bureaucrats,” Terrazzano added.

 

Oh good, let's bash the public service. 

[Elias Pettersson]

Canada’s worst fiscal crisis in generations is brewing: Full Comment podcast (msn.com)

 

Canada’s worst fiscal crisis in generations is brewing: Full Comment podcast

 

The financial trouble the Trudeau Liberals have put Canada in is unlike previous debt and deficit hangovers, William Robson tells Brian Lilley this week. The losses Ottawa has pushed onto the Bank of Canada are choking off desperately needed income, explains Robson, president and CEO of the C.D. Howe Institute. Wages are losing ground. Business investment indicators are the worst since the 1940s. Unfunded pensions are soaring. Federal spending keeps rising. And the government continues adding enormous immigration inflows to an acute housing shortage. Canada, Robson says, is “going down a very strange path” — and Ottawa seems not to care. (Recorded Nov. 24, 2023.)

[4petesake]

47 minutes ago, Elias Pettersson said:

 

 

The addition of these new hires brought the country’s total number of personnel working for the federal government hired by Trudeau since he was elected to 98,268. 

 

 

 

To add a little context the population of Canada has increased by some 4.5 million since 2015.

The public service employee to population ratio is only fractionally higher than in 2010 under Harper.

[aGENT]

1 hour ago, Elias Pettersson said:

That’s not true. There was no housing crisis in 1993. Not even in 2003. In 1993 you could buy a house in Vancouver for $300,000. In 2003, you could buy that same house for $500,000. In 2013, you could buy that same house for $800,000. 

So, between 1993 and 2013, a period of 20 years, that house went from $300,000 to $800,000. Inventory levels were still high in 2013. 
 

Fast forward to 2018 and that same house was selling for $1.6 million. So in 5 years the price of the house doubled. Meanwhile, inventory levels shrunk by up to 50%. 
 

The real housing crisis didn’t start until around 10 years ago.  This was under Harper and continued and got 10 times worse under Trudeau. In BC, it was the Liberal government under Christy Clark and it continued and got much worse under John Horgan. 

 

It is true. I said it STARTED then, I didn't say houses were $1m+ 30 years ago. 

[aGENT]

36 minutes ago, 4petesake said:

 

To add a little context the population of Canada has increased by some 4.5 million since 2015.

The public service employee to population ratio is only fractionally higher than in 2010 under Harper.

I'd also love to see what those numbers represent. Is it just "bureaucrats" (doubtful)? More likely actually public service jobs that help actual Canadians, but hey...Are they all full time? How many are re-filling jobs that maybe got reduced during COVID? Context matters here.

 

Again, this is not too suggest that we don't need to reform some spending but come on... One of the reasons I'm interested in a universal income benefit. Could cut a LOT of government spending by nixing a bunch of other programs (welfare, EI etc). 

[Satchmo]

2 hours ago, Elias Pettersson said:

That’s not true. There was no housing crisis in 1993. Not even in 2003. In 1993 you could buy a house in Vancouver for $300,000. In 2003, you could buy that same house for $500,000. In 2013, you could buy that same house for $800,000. 

So, between 1993 and 2013, a period of 20 years, that house went from $300,000 to $800,000. Inventory levels were still high in 2013. 
 

Fast forward to 2018 and that same house was selling for $1.6 million. So in 5 years the price of the house doubled. Meanwhile, inventory levels shrunk by up to 50%. 
 

The real housing crisis didn’t start until around 10 years ago.  This was under Harper and continued and got 10 times worse under Trudeau. In BC, it was the Liberal government under Christy Clark and it continued and got much worse under John Horgan. 

Let's not forget the role of realtors in all this.  No matter how they may vote they are well aware of the fact that higher house prices = higher commissions.

[RupertKBD]

4 minutes ago, aGENT said:

I'd also love to see what those numbers represent. Is it just "bureaucrats" (doubtful)? More likely actually public service jobs that help actual Canadians, but hey...Are they all full time? How many are re-filling jobs that maybe got reduced during COVID? Context matters here.

 

Again, this is not too suggest that we don't need to reform some spending but come on... One of the reasons I'm interested in a universal income benefit. Could cut a LOT of government spending by nixing a bunch of other programs (welfare, EI etc). 

 

Maybe it's just me and my lack of Economic credentials, but I've always felt that job creation is one of the best ways to spend money. More people paying taxes, participating in and stimulating the economy....

[The Lock]

51 minutes ago, RupertKBD said:

 

Maybe it's just me and my lack of Economic credentials, but I've always felt that job creation is one of the best ways to spend money. More people paying taxes, participating in and stimulating the economy....

 

Depends on how much unemployment is there to begin with. There is such a thing as too little unemployment (ie. going underneath the natural unemployment rate). If companies cannot acquire new labour from job creation then it becomes a lack of productivity, wages rise as well as inflation as a result.

 

So there is a balance that has to be addressed in the end. If you create jobs in a market that already is having trouble recruiting, then you're not solving anything.

Edited November 27, 2023 by The Lock

[Boudrias]

2 hours ago, Elias Pettersson said:

Trudeau's government has hired nearly 21,000 new employees since last year (msn.com)

 

Trudeau is a big spender

 

While many Canadians are struggling with inflation and making ends meet, that hasn't stopped Trudeau from doing some major spending by increasing the number of federal employees in the country. You might be shocked to learn just how many new people have been hired.

 

Information published by the Treasury Board of Canada earlier this month showed Trudeau’s federal government hired roughly 21,000 new employees since last year. 

 

The addition of these new hires brought the country’s total number of personnel working for the federal government hired by Trudeau since he was elected to 98,268. 

 

Canada’s federal public service now sits at 357,247 employees according to the report and that number was only at 257,034 workers when the Liberals took office in 2015. 

 

That means Trudeau and his government have increased the number of federal employees by roughly 40% since being elected to office, which is an absolutely astounding figure. 

 

“Was there a bureaucrat shortage in Ottawa before Trudeau took over?” Franco Terrazzano of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation said to the National Post. 

 

“Canadians need a more efficient government, not a bloated government full of highly paid bureaucrats,” Terrazzano added.

Apparently, to some here, Trudeau dropping in the polls is either simple bumpkin ignorance or that his time is simply up. It certainly can't be bad governance can it? Some are suggesting that the country is humming along and that Canada ranks as good as or better than most other countries. I suggest they look at income per capita figures. I believe the USA is now + 35% higher than Canada. Sorry I am not looking it up. 

 

I can understand people not liking the conservatives if their personal politics prefers other philosophies. But the standard approach is character assassination. Sheer was a religious nut, O'Toole was a nazi and now PP is what? What PP is doing is using what people are telling him in the field. Yes, appealing to people's fear and distress over hard times is cheap politics. Actually developing a plan to change the economic circumstances for people will be hard. Trudeau has had 8 years and the country is in worse shape than when he took it over. Most Canadians agree with this statement. They aren't agreeing necessarily because they like PP. They are dealing with hard economic realities. 

 

My hope is that Canadians get off their asses and start talking about real issues and how the country can afford to make change. We don't need to worry about the length of JT's hair or whether PP is simply a fear monger. Ask the hard questions and demand more from leadership. Leadership is not the politician with the blank cheque making unaffordable promises. 

 

I just paid my natural gas bill and $40 of the $183 was carbon tax. The government gave me $3200 about 5 years ago to switch to gas from wood heat. I guess I am as stupid as JT and PP. 

[The Lock]

So I'll still watch Global News every now and then and one trend I've noticed with their stories is how everyone wants money. For example, there will be a story about the wine industry and how they've taken a blow due to factors like global warming, etc and want money from the government.

 

Is anyone else thinking what I'm thinking with stories like these and hoping they money gets put more towards more vital things that are evidently in need of help such as healthcare? I don't doubt wineries are struggling, but wine's not exactly something I would consider to be important outside of economy maybe? Just a random thought anyway. Don't get me wrong, I like wine and I feel for the industry, but I'm sure they can rebound.

Edited November 27, 2023 by The Lock

[D.B Cooper]

4 hours ago, aGENT said:

 

Ignoring how sad the entire "woke bitch" line of thinking is,

I’ll ignore the couple of petty little personal stabs you are trying to take, and just respond like a person. 
You should try it. 

 

I don’t see it as sad at all.  
The ‘woke’ thing has gone too far and has jumped the shark.  
I can’t take most of it seriously anymore.  

4 hours ago, aGENT said:

 

you seem to be conflating his personal views with his party's platform. You also seem easily distracted by dumb shit.

I am fine with the party.  

Personally, I’ve completely had it with him.  
He is a horrible leader, a full blown hypocrite, and one of the most wishy washy wankers ever.  

I have zero faith in him whatsoever, and seeing as he is the leader of the party, it’s hard to not conflate his views with the platform.  He is the face of it, and his face fucking annoys me.  

As for easily distracted by dumb shit, maybe.  Possibly. Probably.  

 

Edited November 27, 2023 by D.B Cooper

[Optimist Prime]

2 hours ago, Elias Pettersson said:

I wouldn’t base our economic situation on our bond rating. That’s a pretty low bar to go by. 
 

You need to look at debt. Debt is what makes hard working people go into bankruptcy. 
 

Governments are different because they have the ability to print money and throw it into the system so people can spend it and then give the illusion that the economy is thriving. 
 

At some point this process causes inflation when there is too much money chasing too few goods. This is what has happened both in Canada and the US. 
 

With inflation comes rising interest rates. So now you have a double whammy. Not only have you increased your debt, but the interest rate on that debt has also gone up substantially. 
 

Fast forward to 2023, and we are $1.3 trillion in debt with a $60 billion interest payment on that debt that needs to come out of our tax revenue to pay it. This is what you would call fiscal mismanagement. An average Joe in this case would need to declare bankruptcy and lose everything they own. With the government, they will simply print more money and pass along that debt to the consumers by increasing our mortgage rates, increasing our taxes and cutting social services. It’s a vicious cycle that has no end game. 
 

Our economic catastrophe comes when people can’t afford to put food on the table and feed their kids and pay their mortgages. We will see when that day comes. 

Inflation rates for 2022 in G7 nations, Russian and China speak to how Canada is just a bit higher than France and then Japan is doing quite well in 2022, but noticeably, Japans inflation rate has been negative for many years in a row, so being positive 2.73% has some additional % added to it from the negative number the year before to note the change, but I don't have that number, suffice to say Japan is doing really well as they have done since they decided to play nice with us after ww2. China is sitting at the usual rate Canada would have in precovid years. Shrug. You can blame a person all you want, but I find that a little too simple. If JT is to blame for 6.8% inflation last year then is he not also the one who should be credited for it not being 7.9%, or 8.0% or 11.1%, like some of the other G7 nations? My point is inflation is a global issue right now, the best economies in the world are struggling with it, and the poorer ones are in peril because of it. 

 

Russia: 13.77%

UK: 11.1%

Italy: 8.2%

USA: 8.0%

Germany 7.9%

Canada: 6.8%

France: 5.9%

Japan: 2.73%

China: 1.9%

 

[The Lock]

4 hours ago, aGENT said:

 

Ignoring how sad the entire "woke bitch" line of thinking is, you seem to be conflating his personal views with his party's platform. You also seem easily distracted by dumb shit.

 

Separate views or not, he's still the leader of the party and, as such, a lot of Canadians are going to view his views as being the party's views. It won't matter if the party itself is different than him. The average person is not going to do their research about it. It'll be "Do I vote for Trudeau or someone else?"

[Boudrias]

1 minute ago, The Lock said:

So I'll still watch Global News every now and then and one trend I've noticed with their stories is how everyone wants money. For example, there will be a story about the wine industry and how they've taken a blow due to factors like global warming, etc and want money from the government.

 

Is anyone else thinking what I'm thinking with stories like these and hoping they money gets put more towards more vital things that are evidently in need of help such as healthcare? I don't doubt wineries are struggling, but wine's not exactly something I would consider to be important outside of economy maybe? Just a random thought anyway.

Hard question. It was just announced that Cranbrook will get a rebuilt extended care facility with a $152 million cost. 182 beds. Let's face it those 182 beds will be filled with boomers. A good cause but should that money go towards educating more doctors who will in turn treat the entire demographic? The boomers, or the majority of them, will be mostly gone in 15 - 20 years. Currently the federal government is paying more on debt service than they are transferring to the provinces. +/- $50 billion a year (CTV Question Period). Many of us fear a very serious debt crisis. That will lead to very hard choices. Oh, I am a boomer by the way.