đź§µJust a friendly reminder that at this time a year ago, social gatherings of more than 10 people were illegal in Alberta. Furthermore, those gathering had to be vaccinated. In other words, even family members couldn't come to your small Christmas party. 1/
A year ago, this was considered a normal way to broadcast a hockey game. 2/
A year ago, showing a vaccine QR code to enter a restaurant was considered normal. Today, asking if someone who recently had a heart attack was vaccinated is not. 3/
A year ago, making people spend up to a week in a quarantine hotel after returning home from a vacation was considered normal, even if they were healthy and had no symptoms.
A year ago, filling a skateboard park with sand to prevent kids from using it was considered normal.
A year ago, Alberta legalized discrimination through its Orwellian double speak program called "The Restriction Exemption Program". Some businesses even got money to promote discrimination.
A year ago in Alberta, the government was handing out $100 gift cards to encourage people to get vaccinated. The government even gave $1 million to a lucky Albertan, a teacher of course.
Don't forget what the politicians did to us. Remember that this was encouraged by senior bureaucrats and supported by an army of middle managers at every level of our governments.
A year ago, Alberta was arresting kids who just wanted to play outdoor hockey. In one instance, they even threatened a kid with a taser and knocked him to the ground with violent force.
đź§µThe Liberal platform is a total disaster. If Carney wins, the next 3 generations of Canadians are royally screwed.
Let's break it down quickly.
1/
The starting point of the Liberal platform is the deficit forecast published by the Parliamentary Budget Officer in the fall 2024 economic update.
The Liberals have never run a balanced budget.
The deficit for the fiscal year that just ended is $50.3 billion. I'm sure that will be closer to $75 billion by the time all the year-end accounting is done.
Freeland & Trudeau never even had plans to run a balanced budget. They also never had provisions to pay down any of our debt.
Ottawa's interest on debt is $1 billion/week.
2/
Carney is showing a modest increase in revenues during the next 4 years.
$20 billion in tariffs collected this fiscal year. Interestingly he shows no tariff revenues after that.
The increased revenues in the following three years is from what he calls "increasing penalties and fees" as well as "savings from increased government productivity"
The only gains in government productivity are if we layoff a bunch of civil servants. According to his numbers, he's only considering reducing the civil service by about 10,000 bureaucrats.
The more I think about the 2025 Liberal leadership race results, the more I suspect the outcome.
They're trying too hard to make it look like it was a fair and democratic process.
85.9% for an "Outsider" who doesn't have a seat in the House of Commons. I mean, I don't like Freeland and Gould, but certainly they should have grabbed 10-15% of the first round votes. Carney is in despot territory with that result.
Here's some recent international examples of other dictators for comparison.
Vladimir Putin (Russia, 2024): Putin won the Russian presidential election with 88.48% of the vote on March 15-17, 2024.
Paul Kagame (Rwanda, 2024): Kagame secured 99.18% of the vote in the July 15, 2024, presidential election, extending his rule since 2000
Ilham Aliyev (Azerbaijan, 2024): Aliyev took 92.12% of the vote in the February 7, 2024, presidential election, called early after Azerbaijan’s military success in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Emmerson Mnangagwa (Zimbabwe, 2023): Mnangagwa won the August 23–24, 2023, presidential election with 76.8% of the vote
Politicians in western democracies rarely win with more than 50% of the popular vote, that's just the result of, fair, open, competitive elections.
1/
I find this part equally bizarre.
Registering for the Liberal party was free, which is why 400,000 people did it (including me).
Obtaining a ballot was very complicated. Voters had to prove their age, nationality and place of residence, either in person at a Canada Post outlet or online using a new App.
Some people were legitimately disqualified, but thousands also gave up out of frustration. Eventually 163,836 people qualified for a ballot.
Voting was open for a week, and 151,899 (92.7%) of eligible voters cast a ballot. That means that 11,937 people who went through the complicated registration process didn't bother voting.
2/
This is the most suspicious part for me.
According to the "official" results, Carney won in all 338 ridings. He even won in the ridings of his opponents, including Freeland and Gould's who are currently sitting MPs.
He won every single riding with 75% or more of the votes.
That's statistically impossible. There should have been a few ridings where Freeland and Gould had strong showings.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 1.9% year-over-year in January, following an increase of 1.8% in December.
In January, increased energy prices, notably for gasoline and natural gas, contributed the most to the acceleration. These price increases were partly offset by continued downward pressure on prices for products affected by the goods and services tax (GST)/harmonized sales tax (HST) break introduced in December.
Note: It's interesting that the Liberals will claim that removing the GST decreased inflation, but they won't say the same thing about the carbon tax.
1/
Prices for new passenger vehicles rise, while prices for used passenger vehicles fall in January.
2/
The Consumer Price Index rises at a faster pace in six provinces in January.
Yesterday the Parliamentary Budget Officer put out this report, highlighting serious errors in the Fall Economic Update tabled by Freeland just before Christmas.
Here are his biggest concerns:
1) As the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) estimated last year, the Government’s 2023-24 budgetary deficit was worse than Budget 2024 indicated.
2) Given the uncertain and volatile global context, the Government’s economic scenarios downplay risks.
3) The demographic assumptions underpinning the Fall Economic Statement’s economic projection are not transparent, and likely inconsistent with current Government policy.
4) Expenses for contingent liabilities continue to grow and are an increasing source of fiscal risk.
5) The Public Service’s ability to produce timely, high-quality Public Accounts is deteriorating.
This should be discussed in the House of Commons, or in the Standing Committee on Finances, but unfortunately both have been suspended when Trudeau prorogued Parliament.
Freeland said the deficit is in the $62 billion range. The PBO thinks there's an additional $15 billion.
We're also learning that the tax revenue expected from the changes to the capital gains inclusion rate might be null, so that could add another $10 billion to the deficit.
CAnada is facing a potential $90 billion deficit for this fiscal year.
2/
No transparency on immigration assumptions.
The PBO is saying that immigration assumptions, which have a huge impact on GDP calculations, are all speculative.
On October 24, the Government released its 2025-2027 Immigration Levels Plan (ILP), which included permanent resident targets and, for the first time, temporary resident targets for international students and temporary foreign workers.
The new targets for international migration translate to a 3.2 per cent downward revision to Canada’s demographic outlook, equivalent to 1.4 million fewer residents by the end of 2027.
PBO estimates that the new immigration targets would reduce nominal GDP—the broadest measure of the government’s tax base—by 37 billion on average over the next three years.
That's going to negatively impact the debt/GDP ratio, which is the measure that Freeland used to justify her reckless borrowing.
This post created a lot of debate, and it became apparent very quickly that most Canadians don't have a clue about the difference between federal and provincial taxes, transfer payments, equalization payments and the complex relationship between Ottawa and the provinces.
I put together the following table, based on 2023 data. It's not perfect because I had to get information from half a dozen places, and it takes a lot of time to understand the various reports, and filter out what's relevant.
This is a summary of the federal taxes collected by Ottawa vs. the expenditures, sorted by province.
(I excluded the 3 territories because they're so small).
I'll go into detail in the following posts.
1/
The left side of the chart is the amount of federal taxes collected from every province.
The column marked "Federal Personal Income Taxes Collected" is simply that. I did not include corporate taxes, provincial taxes, royalties or other fees.
Ontario has 14.2 million citizens, so it sends the most tax money to Ottawa. Followed by Quebec, AB and BC. Then it drops off quickly.
2/
On a per capita basis, Albertans pay the most federal taxes.
That's simply because we have better paying jobs, and work smarter than everyone else.
At the bottom is New Brunswick. The disparity is actually wider than I expected, and explains why equalization payments are a thing.