[lenaitch]

I don't recall decrying that about the Federal government particularly, though I certainly think there is room for them to exit certain program fields and be more judicious with their subsidies, both in overt corporate welfare (cough, regional development) and in the form of tax credits.

"We" 'writ large'; citizens, Canadians. Many want the federal government to be the sugar daddy to all problems (then often complain when they are).

Again, this was the starter of this part of the discussion that I was responding to:

My opinion is that aside from industrial development and extraction projects, Canada should be looking at a long term plan of new strategic townsites (i.e. along the HSR), and to expand existing small towns into (100,000 pop +) mid-sized cities, in order create more evenly-spread housing options and to make a strong economic web especially in areas like SWO.

 

[thettctransitfanatic]

A lot more Americans will know who our Prime Minister is, after Prime Minister Mark Carney was depicted in the new South Park episode at the White House asking President Trump to reduce tariffs, and comparing the President to a middle east dictator:

 

[PinkLucy]

Heather Cox Richardson discussed the South Park episode in her Letters from an American

 

[UtakataNoAnnex]

...so CBS will now be in competition with Fox for who will become the official state sanctioned media over there?

 

[Johnny Au]

Soon enough, the overgrown Oompa-Loompa and his minions would call Comedy Central "Commie Central." No doubt about that!

 

[UtakataNoAnnex]

^...I mean, there was Pat Buchanan's Soviet Canuckistan back in the day. >.<

 

[Monarch Butterfly]

Canada and Mexico get cosy with trade plan to bypass US​

Canada and Mexico are closing in on a scheme to bypass the US to reduce transhipment tariffs and taxes and boost trade between them, reports PPR Mundial.

There are some big numbers in this 10-minute video, which explores the benefits for the US neighbours of a new land and sea trade corridor which avoids the US.

The US could lose some $69bn in taxes, $17bn in indirect benefits, and there could also be a $39bn hit to employment, says the article, making a $245bn hit over five years. It could hit the US Midwest economy particularly hard, causing a 2.8% decline.

But there are also longer-term impacts. A border-free, clean energy corridor for containers and data could also attract non-North American trade, and the efficiencies touted in the plan suggest that even if the US returns to rules-based trade, the corridor would be here to stay.

In September, Mexico and Canada are expected to sign an agreement, the North Belt expected to be fully functioning in 2028. An exciting development.

 

[jje1000]

That man's a moron.

You literally can't cut anything more from VIA without nearly shutting it down. It's already badly funded as it is.

The CBC.. it's our national broadcaster but all that aside it is the TVO of the nation.

Carney is the neolib cleanup crew for the excess and wreckage of the Trudeau era, what else could be said?

The budget situation is trending towards unsustainability at this point:

Canada recorded a sharply higher C$6.50 billion ($4.71 billion) budget deficit for the first two months of the 2025/26 fiscal year as government expenditures grew but revenues stalled, the finance ministry said on Friday.

By comparison, the deficit in the same period a year earlier had been just C$3.82 billion, it said in a statement.

Program expenses rose 4% on increases across all major categories of spending. Public debt charges increased by 3.8% largely because of higher rates of government bonds.

Canada budget deficit over first two months of 2025/26 jumps to C$6.50 billion

Canada recorded a sharply higher C$6.50 billion ($4.71 billion) budget deficit for the first two months of the 2025/26 fiscal year as government expenditures grew but revenues stalled, the finance ministry said on Friday. Program expenses rose 4% on increases across all major categories of...

ca.finance.yahoo.com

 

[UtakataNoAnnex]

^Deficits are not the people though. And good government should not be ran as a business. /shrug

 

[jje1000]

^Deficits are not the people though. And good government should not be ran as a business. /shrug

A strawman, and keep in mind the massive interest payments we are paying at this point, more than we are on healthcare.

• Is the response misrepresenting the criticism?
  The critic is pointing out specific concerns about rising deficits and sustainability. The response replies with a general principle that deficits aren’t people and governments shouldn’t be run like businesses.
• Does the critic argue the government should be run strictly like a business or that deficits are people?
  No. The critic’s point is about fiscal sustainability, not about equating deficits with people or insisting government operate exactly like a business.
• Is the response oversimplifying or distorting the critique to imply it’s just a call for business-style governance?
  Possibly. The response implies the critic wants government run like a business or equates deficits with harm to people, which the original criticism does not explicitly state.

 

[UtakataNoAnnex]

A strawman, and keep in mind the massive interest payments we are paying at this point, more than we are on healthcare.

What strawman? I am merely stating something that is or should be in the opinion, and not arguing about something you did not claim or discuss in an assumption.

 

[picard102]

A strawman, and keep in mind the massive interest payments we are paying at this point, more than we are on healthcare.

Is it a strawman when you say garbage like "the excess and wreckage of the Trudeau era"

 

[jje1000]

Is it a strawman when you say garbage like "the excess and wreckage of the Trudeau era"

Hardly deniable though.

The destruction of our formerly world-class immigration system and its capture by corporatists to ensure a steady flow of cheap indentured labour (undercutting the value of work) should have been enough to set every labour advocate's alarms ringing off.

And then there was SNC-Lavalin, WE Charities, Aga Khan, Arrive-Can, the Sustainable Development Technology Canada program, the failure to deal with foreign interference (China, India), "The budget will balance itself" (it didn't), the wasteful gun buyback, the total erosion of CoL in this country, and the complete lack of transparency from someone who promised a different tact of governing from Harper- aside from the betrayal of election reform, let's not forget his final gift of doing exactly what the Harper government was slammed for doing by proguing government when his minority government was at risk of collapse before his resignation.

Ultimately, not so sunny ways, and Carney is here to clean up.

 

[picard102]

Hardly deniable though.

This right wing hyperbole is tiresome when they ignore the massive global upheaval due to covid. I do gather you'd have rather people died than the government run a deficit, but the rest of the country didn't agree. The country was not wreaked, and the covid spending and recovery is not excessive.

 

[jje1000]

This right wing hyperbole is tiresome when they ignore the massive global upheaval due to covid. I do gather you'd have rather people died than the government run a deficit, but the rest of the country didn't agree. The country was not wreaked, and the covid spending and recovery is not excessive.

A strawman from you, it seems, and an attempt write off real ethical violations, failures in government, and actual wasteful scandals from before and after the pandemic by labelling things "right wing" and defending them as if they were a sports team.

Regardless, the deficits were already present even before Covid, as the "Budget will balance itself" statement was made in 2014, long before Covid.