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PM Justin Trudeau's Canada

Admiral Beez said:
If the Feds flip to the Cons before the next Ontario election, does that bode poorly for the OPCs? It's a rare occasion that Ontario voters have chosen Conservative for both Queens Park and Ottawa.

Is Doug Ford hoping for a LPC miracle? He won't do well up against PM Poilievre.
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Seems to me that Ontario is becoming anti-incumbent across the board. It's not just Trudeau and Ford. Look at the election of Chow in Toronto from over a decade of right wing mayors.

Ford is definitely in for a rough ride if the federal conservatives curtail the housing ponzi. So much of Ontario's economy is now built around the housing bubble running on housing scarcity.
 
I can see myself voting OLP and CPC in the next elections. My federal riding hasn‘t elected a conservative MP since the Red Tories David MacDonald and David Crombie, so my CPC voted would likely go to waste - but I can’t vote federal NDP this time.
 
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Admiral Beez said:
I can see myself voting OLP and CPC in the next elections. My federal riding hasn‘t elected a conservative MP since the Red Tories David MacDonald and David Crombie, so my CPC voted would likely go to waste - but I can’t vote NDP this time.
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I may vote ONDP next election but I may abstain from voting federally.

I dislike the CPC, Jagmeet is a buffoon and Trudeau is out of touch.

My worst fear is that people may abstain in large numbers causing the CPC to win.
 
Refusing to vote (in free and fair elections) is an abdication of responsibility.
 
https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6965958

"We told municipalities they could access these funds with bold plans to eliminate red tape and remove barriers," Trudeau said, later adding a "challenge" to other mayors to follow the lead of Morgan.

The housing minister referenced "sluggish permit-approval processes" and zoning challenges.

"The reality is, over the course of generations, we've seen different communities across the country make decisions that actively restrict the ability of communities to build houses for their residents," Fraser said. "This isn't OK."
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What kind of blows my mind is that this controversy around housing affordability was entirely predictable. It's been clear that the federal government's intention was to boost immigration for quite some time. Why were they not preparing a plan to mitigate the infrastructure and housing requirements that immigration would bring? This seems like rank incompetence.
 
afransen said:
What kind of blows my mind is that this controversy around housing affordability was entirely predictable. It's been clear that the federal government's intention was to boost immigration for quite some time. Why were they not preparing a plan to mitigate the infrastructure and housing requirements that immigration would bring? This seems like rank incompetence.
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My theory is a combination of the following:

1) They just didn't think it would turn out this bad. A bit of this is economic ignorance.

2) They didn't think the segment seeing gains would care. They don't understand that those who want mobility will care.

3) They believed the demand would simply drive supply. They don't understand what is holding back development.

And yesterday's announcement in London shows they still don't get it. Unless they have a legitimately transformative plan, they should say nothing. These announcements are pretty insulting. That they don't understand that really has me questioning their political judgment.
 

Justin Trudeau to remove sales tax on new rental housing, sources say​

https://www.thestar.com/politics/fe...cle_93240f0f-d973-5300-9f81-eb09e2c7cb00.html

Under pressure to more aggressively tackle Canada’s housing crunch, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will announce Thursday that his government is removing federal sales tax from the construction of new rental apartment buildings for the next seven years, according to a senior government source.
The source, who agreed to share the news on condition they aren’t named, said the goal of the policy is to make it cheaper to build new rental units and avoid subsidizing construction of luxury condos. To do so, the federal government will remove sales tax from construction of new apartment buildings constructed for renters until 2030, in a bid to help boost the supply of affordable units.
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The announcement is slated to come at the conclusion of the Liberal caucus retreat in London, Ont., where MPs in Trudeau’s governing party are meeting to discuss policies and political strategy ahead of the fall sitting of Parliament. In the weeks leading up to the meeting, several Liberals have privately criticized the direction of their government under Trudeau. MPs told the Star after the prime minister’s midsummer cabinet shuffle that they were disappointed and confused by the moves. Some Liberals have also expressed frustration and raised doubts about the government’s performance as the opposition Conservatives led by Pierre Poilievre have taken a wide lead in national polls.
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Mike Moffatt, an economist and housing expert, presented a report he co-authored to Trudeau and the Liberal cabinet last month that called for a host of measures to boost Canada’s housing supply — including the removal of sales tax on construction of rental apartment buildings.
In an interview with the Star Thursday, Moffatt praised the decision as a smart way to help boost the economic case for constructing new rental units, especially at a time when rising interest rates and inflation have made it harder for some housing projects to get off the ground.
“This is going to be hugely important as the interest rates stay high and a lot of projects had become economically unviable,” Moffatt said. “This will make the numbers work, for both for profit and not for profit.”
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afransen said:
Refusing to vote (in free and fair elections) is an abdication of responsibility.
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It's true, and I always vote if only for the feeling of participation in our democratic process. But I can't help but feel my vote for anything but LPC or NDP in Toronto Centre is a waste of time and effort. Now, if national total vote per party meant something for representation or even party funding (Harper killed this in 2011/12), that would be different. One of the reasons I voted for Trudeau instead of Harper in 2015 was for the promised electoral reform.

reviewcanada.ca

Why Trudeau Abandoned Electoral Reform | Literary Review of Canada

It was incontestably part of the Liberal platform in 2015. Liberal leader Justin Trudeau solemnly pledged to change the electoral system so that the next election, presumably in 2019, would be decided by a new way to count votes. The Special Committee on Electoral Reform was created in the...
reviewcanada.ca reviewcanada.ca

If, as you suggest I should vote in order not to abdicate my responsibility, shouldn't the system ensure that my vote has a purpose beyond democracy theatre?
 
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NDP set to back a bill aimed at Canada's oligopolies.

www.ctvnews.ca

NDP's Singh to champion bill aimed at tamping down corporate powers

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh will kick off the fall sitting by tabling a bill aimed at empowering Canada's Competition Bureau to tamp down corporate powers and practices such as price gouging, CTV News has learned.
www.ctvnews.ca www.ctvnews.ca

I haven't had a look at an actual legislative draft, but based on the description in the story, I would describe this as a material step forward, though not adequate.

The shortcoming that seems obvious to me is that to correct for allowing oligopolies to form, we have to define a standard in law for breaking them back up.

That could be done by a cap in marketshare size nationally and/or regionally, or by some other means.

I would also argue for precluding a retailer also acting as a wholesaler to their competitors as is currently the case for both the Weston/Loblaw group and the Sobey/Empire Group.

This would include a prohibition on having the same controlling shareholder.
 
On the heels of the above, Trudeau out with a warning to the national grocers to reign in prices 'or else'; with his Minister suggesting that the gov't would impose tax measures to force prices down.

www.thestar.com

Justin Trudeau warns grocery store chains as he rolls out measures to tackle rising costs

Facing political anxiety in Liberal ranks and affordability concerns from the broader population, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took a swing at big grocery store chains on Thursday, warning that Ottawa is ready to take action against them if they don’t rein in rising food prices.
www.thestar.com www.thestar.com

Also in the above, Trudeau mentions changes to Canada's competition laws coming soon.

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I tend to think this falls under 'too little, too late' and reminds me a bit of the Wynne gov't announcing lots of genuinely good public policy in its last year and a 1/2 in office after people had already made up their minds they were fed up
w/the rising cost of electricity and the surprise privatization of Hydro One.
 
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