7 Comments
Nov 21·edited Nov 21

I don’t understand why people are expecting a Trump bump for the Liberals. Mr. Trump is not in power yet and will not be for another 2 months. Nobody knows if he will follow through on his policy promises (if you can call them policies) and it remains to be seen if his nominees will turn into actual appointments (with the first casualty today).

On top of that, we tend to give people the benefit of the doubt when they come into a new role. Even when there is absolutely no basis to give them any benefit at all. A good example is Pete Hoekstra, nominated to become the ambassador to Canada. Comments in Canada are generally friendly and along the lines of it could be worse and we can work with him. However, Mr. Hoekstra was ambassador before and things did not go smoothly (at all).

Pete Hoekstra, born in the Netherlands and emigrated to the US when he was 2 years old, was appointed ambassador to the Netherlands during the first Trump term. Mr. Hoekstra had made several comments in the past about the Netherlands about no-go zones for non Muslims and politicians being burnt to death (none of this is true). At his first press conference Dutch journalists came prepared. Mr. Hoekstra did not. He made a complete fool of himself. He never recovered from this embarrassment and was mostly ignored by the Dutch during his tenure in the Netherlands.

It is not clear how an author of project 2025 would be a welcome appointment as ambassador and we will see if Canadian journalists will be as prepared as their Dutch colleagues to hold Hoekstra’s feet to the fire. Suffice to say, the second Trump presidency has not become reality yet and Canada is in its usual polite wait and see mode. It is not realistic to expect a bump yet when the conflicts with new administration have not started yet.

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In reflecting upon the GST and $250, most groceries are already GST free, but I do agree with it being removed on child raising needs, like diapers, etc which should never have been subject to the tax anyway. This should be permanent as well as being removed from home heating and electrcity costs. The $250 cheque is interesting. Personally I would lower in the income max to received it at $80K and then double it to $500 and send to lower income qualifiers. Sadly with a total cost of near $6B, this could be mildly inflationary but more importantly increases the deficit and debt when we already have passed on over $1Tr in debt to future generations. Interest costs will consume a bigger bite in annual federal budgets. With no certainty as to the impact of president-elect DJT, it is best to wait and then act once policies are defined and implemented by the new government. DJT likes people and countries ot be afraid, which reduces their ratiionality in responding. Calm, clear thinking and waiting is first.

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As much as I appreciate the GST holiday, the $250 apparently won’t be coming to someone on CPP-D, which is woefully low once the province claws back every cent. At about $14K/year that leaves recipients at living at 2/3 below the poverty line. I know Ford will not do anything additional for ODSP recipients.

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The GST holiday and spring payment are not going to land.

The GST is going to be a mix of invisible and ineffective. It might even backfire. I guarantee that, of the people even aware of it, a significant percentage will think it’s a complete GST holiday and will be annoyed to still be charged on anything. For everyone else, the given that GST is added at point of sale, it’s not going to result to any visible price drops.

And the spring payment will just be an invisible direct deposit with a confusing name in the bank account. Half the people won’t even realize they get it.

These are initiatives cooked up by people sitting around in a board room who have complete economic security themselves, and are checking boxes based on things their accountants pay attention to

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What would you propose the Liberals do instead?

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A little Ford-ish…

Cash to the masses and make beer more attainable.

At least there is no buck-a-beer!

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And there is a problem with lower priced beer?

How elitist of you!

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