PM Justin Trudeau's Canada

[kamira51]

For clarity, today's motion is non-binding on the government.

They don't even have to confer the royal recommendation for the bill in question.

So they've all punted for a few days/weeks.

What the Liberals need, assuming they don't want an early election, is a variation of the bill the NDP can buy into.

That would mean voting for the increase on the GIS side; but on the OAS side, either stripping it out, or, better, financing it entirely by clawing OAS back from higher income earners.

If they moved the phase out from ~$145,000 or so to $100,000 or something like that, and it should cover it.

I thought I read somewhere that this would be a massive expense to our already high deficit, if I'm wrong please correct me.

 

[Northern Light]

I thought I read somewhere that this would be a massive expense to our already high deficit, if I'm wrong please correct me.

Its 16B over 5 years, which presumably works out to something like 3.2B per annum.

This is why I am suggesting paying for the OAS portion through moving the income phase out to a lower threshold.

If you could cut that number down to say ~1B per year, net, all of that clearly supporting low-income seniors, it becomes much more reasonable.

 

[Admiral Beez]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1841563828561313950

So much for the CPC being financially conservative.

 

[jje1000]

Looks like the SDTC is the brewing scandal of the day:

Parliament 'ground to a halt' over Conservative allegations of Liberal corruption​

The government has been unable to put any of its own business before the House of Commons for a full week, and the Conservatives on Thursday said that’s the result of Liberal “corruption.”

Conservative House leader Andrew Scheer said the governing party would rather see the House bogged down in debate than produce documents related to misspent government dollars in a program his party has dubbed the “green slush fund.”

House Speaker Greg Fergus ruled last Thursday that the government “clearly did not fully comply” with an order from the House to provide documents related to a now-defunct foundation responsible for doling out hundreds of millions of federal dollars for green technology projects.

The House has been seized with a debate on the issue ever since and Scheer said it will stay that way until the government agrees to hand over the documents to police.

A similar dispute over government documents played out when the Conservatives were on the governing side of the aisle during a minority government dispute more than a decade ago.

In 2009, the House ordered the government to disclose unredacted documents related to Canada’s role in the torture of Afghan detainees.

A few weeks after opposition parties passed a motion demanding the documents be produced, then-prime minister Stephen Harper prorogued Parliament for several months, preventing the House committee from pursuing the issue.

In this case, the Liberal government abolished Sustainable Development Technology Canada after the auditor general released a scathing report about the organization’s management last spring.

Of the projects she looked at, one in every six that received funding were ineligible. The auditor’s report also found 90 cases where conflict-of-interest polices were violated.

A month later, the ethics commissioner concluded that the former chair of the foundation failed to recuse herself from decisions that benefited organizations to which she had ties.

Parliament 'ground to a halt' over Conservative allegations of Liberal corruption

The government has been unable to put any of its own business before the House of Commons for a full week, and the Conservatives on Thursday said that’s the result of Liberal “corruption.”

www.cp24.com

RCMP says there are ongoing investigations into 'green slush fund' as House is 'ground to a halt'​

OTTAWA — Two months after telling MPs that the RCMP had not found any evidence of criminal wrongdoing surrounding the so-called “green slush fund,” RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme now says there are “ongoing investigations” into the embattled fund.

Duheme made the comment to reporters Thursday after the National Post asked if the RCMP had concerns about receiving documents on the government fund, officially known as Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), through an order from the House of Commons.

Duheme did not specify who or what the RCMP was investigating in relation to SDTC, which the government decided to shut down in June following a scathing audit by Auditor General Karen Hogan.

Hogan’s report found “significant lapses” in the $1-billion fund’s governance and handling of public funds. For example, she discovered 90 decisions in which SDTC violated its own conflict-of-interest policies.

She also noted that one out of six projects funded by SDTC (worth a total of $59 million) she audited weren’t eligible and, in some cases, didn’t even support the development of a new green technology.

Duheme’s revelation of ongoing investigations into SDTC was all the more surprising considering that in a July 25 letter, he wrote that the RCMP had reviewed government and auditor general reports on SDCT and hadn’t spotted any criminal behaviour.

On Sept. 27, House Speaker Greg Fergus ruled that the government appeared to have violated the vast powers of the Commons when it failed to surrender all unredacted records on SDTC so they could beprovided to the RCMP, as ordered by MPs on June 10.

“The House has clearly ordered the production of certain documents, and that order has clearly not been fully complied with,” Fergus said.

Since then, MPs have debated what to do next, with Conservatives arguing that the government should fork over all records. The NDP and Bloc Québécois support the suggestion that the issue be studied in aCommons committee.

The Liberals have argued that the order is an unacceptable blurring of the lines between the legislative and judicial branches and a potential violation of Canadians’ Charter rights.

RCMP says there are ongoing investigations into 'green slush fund' as House is 'ground to a halt'

RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme now says there are “ongoing investigations” into the embattled fund.

nationalpost.com

 

[Northern Light]

Not a particularly great fit here; but because we previously discussed him in this thread, and there's no more obvious fit............. the U of T's Geoffrey Hinton, a world leader in A.I. has won the Nobel Prize for Physics this morning.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/nobel-prize-physics-2024-1.7344607

 

[christiesplits]

With some recent polls placing the Liberals tied or behind the NDP, there are indications of a potential caucus revolt.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/oust-trudeau-document-1.7350967

 

[Dan416]

Polls are pretty suspect with the revelation of Angus Reid's huge anti-Trudeau bias. There's no telling how widespread this biased polling is.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Trudeau is holding on for the same reason that Ruth Bader Ginsburg refused to step down. In their mind, it’s I’m the only hope, they can’t succeed without me, who’s going to replace me? No one, so I must stay. And the results will be equally catastrophic for the centre left leaning when Trudeau is gone.

OTOH, I think once they force Trudeau out and return the leadership to Dion and Ignatieff types the LPC is going to suffer a huge identity crisis.

 

[lenaitch]

Trudeau is holding on for the same reason that Ruth Bader Ginsburg refused to step down. In their mind, it’s I’m the only hope, they can’t succeed without me, who’s going to replace me? No one, so I must stay. And the results will be equally catastrophic for the centre left leaning when Trudeau is gone.

OTOH, I think once they force Trudeau out and return the leadership to Dion and Ignatieff types the LPC is going to suffer a huge identity crisis.

They don't have a great track record with 'tall foreheads' as party leaders. That would also be a problem with Carney. Like it or not, political leadership has devolved to someone who can sell whatever the backroom folks dream up.

I caught an interesting show on CBC radio this afternoon about narcissists. The guest was a psychologist or something similar and was really interesting in connecting narcissism to politics, corporate leadership and domestic violence (I think she just wrote a book so was 'on the tour'). She was American so unfortunately couldn't comment on our party leaders but speculated that they would be little different from theirs; they're all cut from the same cloth.

 

[Admiral Beez]

They don't have a great track record with 'tall foreheads' as party leaders. That would also be a problem with Carney. Like it or not, political leadership has devolved to someone who can sell whatever the backroom folks dream up.

Carney’s not and has never been a Member of Parliament, or elected for anything AFAIK.Surely he needs to be tested for electability before he’s assumed for the party leadership.

 

[PL1]

Carney’s not and has never been a Member of Parliament, or elected for anything AFAIK.Surely he needs to be tested for electability before he’s assumed for the party leadership.

Indeed. C.f. Ignatieff

 

[Towered]

They don't have a great track record with 'tall foreheads' as party leaders. That would also be a problem with Carney. Like it or not, political leadership has devolved to someone who can sell whatever the backroom folks dream up.

I caught an interesting show on CBC radio this afternoon about narcissists. The guest was a psychologist or something similar and was really interesting in connecting narcissism to politics, corporate leadership and domestic violence (I think she just wrote a book so was 'on the tour'). She was American so unfortunately couldn't comment on our party leaders but speculated that they would be little different from theirs; they're all cut from the same cloth.

I think you have to be at least moderately narcissistic to convince yourself that you're the best person to lead millions of people.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Trudeau’s failures and now reversal on immigration are getting us some international media attention.

NYT: One of the World’s Most Immigrant-Friendly Countries Is Changing Course​

Indian Students Caught in Canada's Immigration Crackdown: Khalistani Exploitation Exposed

As new immigration policies take effect, students are finding it increasingly challenging to secure work opportunities or permanent residency, forcing some to engage in unlawful activities out of desperation. This dynamic is being exploited by extremist groups, like the Khalistanis.

www.indiatoday.in

IMO international students should never have been a pathway to residency except for those educated in strategically in-demand roles such as healthcare, senior care and skilled trades and construction. If I go to INSEAD in Paris to get my MA it’s not because I want to become a permanent resident of France, but so that I can return to Canada with new crendetials to advance my career at home.

So, now we must take drastic measures to reverse and repair the damage to our housing and labour markets and lack of innovation (through a new dependence on cheap, unskilled labour), send all the nonessential international students packing and stop any new ones coming who are planning to take non-strategic diplomas and degrees. In it’s place I’d make our foreign student program as follows:

1. Working with the provinces and territories, establish a national employment strategy, identifying the areas where Canada must focus. For example, healthcare.
2. Determine areas of the strategy where the domestic student pool is unlikely to fill the demand. For example, nursing. This would be done in cooperation with the colleges, universities and the national and provincial trade and professional associations, such as the CNA.
3. Instruct embassies that student Visas will only be accepted for those roles.
4. For those international students who will commit to staying in Canada to work (and residing in provinces and territories with need) they can receive PR as well as the same tuition levels paid by Canadians.