Achi news desk-
Justin Trudeau gave a whole new meaning to the phrase, setting the bar low. His cons told reporters at the weekend that if they were just 15 points behind the Conservatives by the summer, their plan was working. Ugh.
Liberals have tons of friends, but almost no one is singing the praises of last week’s federal budget. When the Liberals boasted that there would be no increase in the deficit, what they really meant was no increase beyond the $40 billion deficit already announced. That, of course, is in addition to the $19 billion in tax increases needed to help cover the $53 billion in new spending.
Despite the Trudeau government’s claims that the massive 33% increase in the inclusion of capital gains tax would only hurt “those at the top”, it soon became clear to all observers that this was simply not true.
Many ordinary Canadians will be stuck once it goes into effect on June 25. For those craftsmen and entrepreneurs whose retirement planning involved investing and then selling a property, the effects can be devastating. Politicians love to talk about helping the ‘little guy’ but tend to forget that most people don’t get a big government pension.
Canadian freelancers work hard and play by the rules but they need to plan. This tax increase hurts them badly, and as Bill Moreno rightly said, it is actually retroactive. Your only choice is a fire sale of your property before June 25th.
No one should really be surprised that the budget was a hard sell. Before he was elected prime minister, Trudeau said that if you grow the economy, the deficit will balance itself. He added more debt than any prime minister in the previous 148 years of Canadian history combined. To say he is a lousy manager is an understatement.
The Liberals have continued to use every smoke and mirror trick in the book, such as delaying spending announced in previous budgets, to try to maintain this newest deficit. This includes the now $14 billion gap between what they promised to fight climate change and what is actually there.
All this, of course, after Trudeau increased the size of the civil service by a staggering 40 percent. What could go wrong? They now have tons of dough and the bureaucrats to spend it, right?
Sometimes the smallest example jumps into the news and becomes a great metaphor. If you want to understand why the current federal government is one of the worst examples of public administration in living memory, look at what happened at the lovely park owned by Parks Canada along the Lachine Canal.
People enjoy the good weather near Lachine Canal in Montreal, July 2, 2022 (Graham Hughes / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
Lachine is an older part of Montreal along the Saint-Lawrence. Its name (which literally means ‘China’) is a joke that goes back centuries, when some travelers tried to find the way to China but never succeeded. The lands of their dominions were called China and the name stuck.
Later, the British built an important canal and railway in it and it developed into what was, at that time, one of the most important industrial centers in Canada. The area around the renovated canal is now a Government of Canada park.
Last week, the federal workers in charge of the park decided to remove the trash cans. All the trash cans. Not surprisingly, people who live in the area are upset. Now there is trash everywhere and bags full of dog poo are left on their lawns.
Bags of dog poop are left on the boardwalk of Montreal’s Lachine Canal in Montreal, Wednesday, April 17, 2024. (Christine Muschi / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
The federal announcement is a masterpiece of high-sounding bureaucrats. This is one for the ages. Here is my favorite part:
“We know that actions on the ground were taken quickly and could have surprised some people. An awareness campaign is being prepared,” Parks Canada said in a statement. “This pilot project to reduce waste on the Lachine NHS canal includes the removal or relocation of litter bins, as well as new types of facilities in strategic areas of the canal. It is important to remember that waste management remains everyone’s responsibility and duty.”
Everyone’s, probably, except the people who are paid to remove it. It’s just such a glorious metaphor for Justin Trudeau’s federal government.
There is a formula.
You’re excited about climate change but spending $35 billion on a pipeline to increase oil production. Show up for the armed forces parades but cut their budgets year after year (until an election year where voters become embarrassed by our failure to meet our NATO commitments). You say housing is not a federal jurisdiction until younger voters are about to throw you out for failing to build houses for their generation, and then you run around and pose for the cameras.
Hundreds of families flock to this charming federal park in Lachine every day during the summer. Pads have one job: keep it clean, tidy and safe. Instead, they will conduct an ‘awareness campaign’ and follow a pilot project. It’s a funny pastiche of what the Trudeau government has become. They have people to run an awareness campaign and evaluate a pilot project on garbage but no one will actually take out the garbage.
All that’s missing is a multi-million dollar contract for McKinsey to study it. Trudeau likes to talk about the people at the very top paying. In terms of public administration, Trudeau’s model was that someone at the “very top” would fake it and keep passing the buck.
The real and often difficult work of running government just wasn’t done on Trudeau’s watch. This model is now copied at all levels of the bureaucracy.
you are faking You have meetings about trash removal and then a pilot project to avoid having to do the actual work.
No wonder Canadian voters seem ready to throw out Trudeau and his government.
Tom Mulcair was the leader of the federal New Democratic Party of Canada from 2012 to 2017
