PM Mark Carney's Canada

[kEiThZ]

If Elizabeth may can be counted on to support the government, that makes the gap even smaller.

Carney is removing the carbon cap. No way the Greens support the budget.

At $78.3 billion, Carney has presented to largest non-Covid deficit in Canadian history. I wonder if we’ll ever again see a balanced Liberal budget like the Chrétien-Martin years? Trudeau’s first finance minister Morneau said in 2015 that the Liberals would balance the books by 2019. They never got close.

Harper's 2009 deficit adjusted for inflation is actually a few hundred million higher.

I think this is what the modern version of Martin-Chretien policy looks like. He's going back to basics emphasizing infrastructure and federal responsibilities.

 

[Admiral Beez]

I think this is what the modern version of Martin-Chretien policy looks like. He's going back to basics emphasizing infrastructure and federal responsibilities.

I just hope we get balance the books by the end of the Carney years, which given the state of the opposition and the PM's relatively young age of 60 and good fitness, will go well into the 2030s.

I wholly support Carney significant slashing of TFWs. Why would any firm invest in innovation or new equipment if they can hire cheap overseas labour? TFW should only be seasonal agriculture work, with the TFWs sent home each season. If PSWs, childcare, food processing, service and restaurants, construction or manufacturing need workers, they can compete for Canadian citizen and PR labour with wages and incentives, while innovating and investing to reduce their reliance on unskilled/semi-skilled labour. As for international students, hopefully we can find pathways to attract the best (we'll see, the best have many options), but the days of diploma mills and post-secondary schools (and their provincial overseers) relying on foreign money to pad the books are over. Sharpen those pencils, and offer programs that Canadian students want and that employers and the country need.

And I don't think Canada can fix its demographic problems with mass migration from the developing world, because once those new immigrants (and their large family) are settled, their own children once they become adults will assume the low birth rates of other established Canadians. My two adult, recently uni-graduated kids have many friends who are relatively new to Canada, and while they may have four or more siblings, they themselves have no plans to have children at all, with the women all with advanced STEM degrees and building their careers, not families. My 20-something parents arrived in 1977 with us three kids in tow, but us three produced only three kids total, for a replacement rate of only 1.5 children per couple (or 0.75 per person). The World's population growth has stagnated, with only sub-Saharan Africa seeing any strong growth. Canada needs to look to Japan and other advanced countries that are figuring out how to run a country with fewer people, because even with mass immigration, that's where Canada is going to end up. Women just don't want to have children any more, and those that do, seem to want at most two, and start later. Hopefully Carney's reset on immigration will start us down a new path of stabilizing the country as its population flatlines.

 

[Monarch Butterfly]

This Liberal and/or any other Canadian party's budget and following budgets are "Trump" budgets. Until the USA gets a new president.

 

[Monarch Butterfly]

 

[hw621]

I hope these "investments" are actually building something, not down the drain through payroll and consulting fees...

 

[hw621]

Carney’s the guy that many Conservatives wish they had as a leader. Cutting civil service, taxes, foreign students and TFWs, boosting the military and infrastructure, etc.. what’s a Con not to like?

Sounds like Carney should be the one who crosses the floor lol

 

[Admiral Beez]

Sounds like Carney should be the one who crosses the floor lol

True, but really what most Canadians want is a pragmatic centrist with the necessary skills, experience and relations in global economics, trade and affairs to ensure Canada is as successful as it can be. If Carney can bring the LPC to the centre. the CPC, NDP and BQ will be in the shadows for years to come.

 

[afransen]

Sounds like Carney should be the one who crosses the floor lol

Nppe. The CPC is no longer Progressive Conservative.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Nppe. The CPC is no longer Progressive Conservative.

We must mind that the meaning of words change over time, referred to as semantic drift. The PCs were never “progressive” in the modern, woke sense of the word. Back in the early 1900s, the Progressive Party was a US inspired, free trade focused movement that caught on in the Prairies. Its leader, John Bracken, was the premier of Manitoba. When he later agreed to run for the leadership of the federal Conservative Party in 1942, he did so on condition that the party be renamed the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. That's where the Progressive in PCs comes from. It has never referred to today's progressive movement and its emphasis on social equality, environmental protection, diversity, expanded social programs, higher taxes on the wealthy, and policies advancing diversity, gender rights, etc.

Excluding Campbell and Clark's short windows, we've only had two postwar Progressive Conservatives Prime Ministers, Mulroney (1984-1993) and Diefenbaker (1957-63). I would not consider either of their governments as progressive in today's sense. For example, in 1990, Mulroney introduced Bill C-43 to make abortion a criminal offence unless a doctor determined the woman’s health was at risk. Diefenbaker does deserve credit for passing the Bill of Rights and in extending the federal vote to all First Nations people without forcing them to give up treaty rights. But still, neither of these men or their government's were progressive as we use the term today.

 

[Thaboss]

Carney’s the guy that many Conservatives wish they had as a leader. Cutting civil service, taxes, foreign students and TFWs, boosting the military and infrastructure, etc.. what’s a Con not to like?

Generally the risk when the libs move right is that the cons move further right.

I see this happning with pp. He went from hating on the consumer carbon tax to hating on all carbon tax, eventhough he knows trade with eu is not possible without one.

I say this with all due respect, but time and time again we see that the further right you drift, the less evidence based arguments you begin making, and the focuse becomes even more about feelings and less about facts behind certain solutions.

 

[kEiThZ]

Generally the risk when the libs move right is that the cons move further right.

How much further can this CPC go?

Their members are crossing the floor because they want stability and are fed up with their leaders antics. They wouldn't have crossed for Trudeau. But they will cross for Carney.

 

[Thaboss]

How much further can this CPC go?

Their members are crossing the floor because they want stability and are fed up with their leaders antics. They wouldn't have crossed for Trudeau. But they will cross for Carney.

If you consider global politics, there's a lot of room. I couldn't see the cons ever winning a majority this way but certainly a minority. Especially if the gta continues shifting to the right on economic and safety policies. Meanwhile, the country moves even further right on immigration.

 

[Northern Light]

I've given the budget a thorough look through and think.

While there are many things I like it, I'm somewhat disappointed with certain omissions.

The best items: The money for Universities to attract the best and brightest professors and researchers, the investments in new, affordable housing, the money for health infrastructure, which if well used could catch us up on diagnostic imaging equipment, stem cell therapy, bring a proton beam (or 3) to Canada, and deliver additional state-of-the-art ORs. Also worth mentioning the Defense Industrial Policy (but like many things we need details) and the new funds for Venture Capital.

The meh: I get the need for a competitive tax environment for businesses and to boost productivity, but we already tried Accelerated Capital Cost Depreciation under Harper and it didn't move the needle on productivity. Business that is unambitious and reliant on simply being lower cost due to labour is unlikely to make the investments in plant, equipment and training that will level them up. If we were to go the tax competitiveness route, I would rather eliminate many existing tax credits, raise the small business rate, but lower the general corporate rate. The idea would be to create the same marginal tax rate achieve through this budget but without market-distorting effects.

On immigration, I'm happy w/the overall shift; but annoyed that I did not hear a clear statement about ending low-wage TFW admissions entirely excepting agriculture.

The disappointment: Not enough done to address the generation squeeze problem. No reductions in OAS or the Old Age Amount for higher income seniors, nothing extra for low income seniors or families with the (non-existent) savings from the above.

The transit infra. component is not as good as it first appears as they are rolling the existing program into it. We're still not really hearing clarity on nation-building, paradigm-shifting infra. projects.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Foreigners living in Canada will get permanent residence priority, Immigration Minister says

Budget’s cuts to immigration targets to be partly offset by one-off programs

www.theglobeandmail.com

Paywall free: https://archive.is/BaekU

So immigrants that entered the country illegally or over stayed their visa and work permits get priority over the ones who applied properly from abroad? Fair enough, but let’s now determine and identify how many former international students, visitors and TFWs have remained illegally after their permits expired. This population should be deducted from the total number of new foreign residents permitted. The problem is, how do we identify and measure this group when the federal government does not record exits? It's not like there is a deposit paid upon arrival that is returned when you leave.

 

[hw621]

How much further can this CPC go?

Their members are crossing the floor because they want stability and are fed up with their leaders antics. They wouldn't have crossed for Trudeau. But they will cross for Carney.

Not sure how this crossing the floor thing makes sense. In parliamentary politics, voters primarily vote for the party platform, less so for the candidates. Almost feel that if the crossing happens, it should be deemed as a resignation and a by-election be automatically triggered.