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- cross-posted to:
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Summary
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced measures to address the rising cost of living, including a temporary suspension of the federal sales tax (GST) on select goods from Dec. 14 to Feb. 15 and one-time checks of C$250 for 18.7 million Canadians earning up to C$150,000 in 2023.
The tax break covers items like children’s clothing, toys, restaurant meals, and beverages.
Critics view the move as a desperate political strategy ahead of a looming federal election, with Trudeau’s Liberals trailing Conservatives 39% to 26% in recent polls.
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I mean of that kinda “totally not bribery” seems to work for Doug Ford why not try it! It’s not like $250 won’t make a fucking dent in our struggles and that…holy shit 4.675 billion dollars couldn’t be used more efficiently.
It’s not like this money is sitting in a bank account. Government finances don’t work like your budget, it’s not a matter of tax income going to a chequing account and him eTransfering Canadians money.
The government decides where new money is allocated and takes money out of the money supply through taxation. When it comes to circulation, the government can also incentivize saving or spending by giving tax breaks or levying new taxes.
The Bank of Canada also influences peoples’ spending, borrowing, and saving decisions by controlling interest rates.
The government could decide to implement UBI tomorrow and they wouldn’t have to hold a bake sale, they’d just have to raise taxes elsewhere (or reduce the amount of money entering the economy through the banking system) to control the inflationary pressure that would add to the economy.
I’m aware of this, and I know that it takes spending money first to strengthen our economy later. Where this is a bother is that $250 won’t do anything for anyone and someone will have to pay for it eventually and that money could be better spent doing things like fixing our horrible situation with a lack of doctors and nurses(and maybe they could pay the nurses more).
If it won’t be enough to make our lives meaningfully different then it won’t do much of anything in the long-term or even much in the short-term.
Health care is a provincial service and the federal government can’t directly pay nurses more.
I understand the point you’re trying to make, but the federal government has certain powers and this is working within the confines of those powers.
Even attempting to do something like forcing provinces to implement a climate change plan are met with extreme resistance. You should take up these issues with your provincial government.
Conveniently, that government blames the federal government and keeps asking for more money that it misallocates or just sits upon, at least this is true of Ontario.
Reducing sales tax (which is a regressive tax) on more things is a good thing, but stability in the money supply should be kept by collecting taxes elsewhere. The NDP plan where this same thing was proposed was a permanent sales tax break on these essentials AS WELL AS a corporate windfall tax in the model of what’s done in Europe and has historically been done in Canada as well.
Like usual, the best Liberal policies are bastardized versions of NDP policies.
Kamala Harris promised similar bullshit. It’s pretty clear that the voters were not impressed with the idea of a one-time coupon you can file along with your tax return. They want to see structural measures taken to rebalance the economy so that ordinary people can live in dignity even if that means that the phantasmagorically wealthy will have to get downgraded to fantabulously wealthy.
Exactly! If you want to put money in our pockets tie minimum wage to inflation or something!
I definitely don’t want conservatives to win in any western country, but this sounds suspiciously like vote buying or bribery…
Begging
In fairness this is something the NDP recently proposed (as a permanent change, offset by corporate windfall taxes). It sits somewhere between bribe and Lib-washed progressive policy.
He does shit like this whenever he’s at risk of losing. The rest of the time he does nothing but virtue signal. And somehow he’s still going to win the next election
checks
cheques
Xeks.
He wants to cover half my next grocery bill as “relief” lol. Feels more like a slap in the face than anything.
“That comes to… $288, sir. Would you like to take advantage of today’s half off promotion, and pay just $144?”
(Slaps cashier in the face)
“How dare you!”
with what powers the Federal government has, what would you have preferred to see?
right wingers basically want everything both ways, they want full blown unrestricted capitalism till it bites them in the arse, then when that happens they will try to elect a dictator to install price fixing which is Literally communism, a word they have no clear definition of that they use to scare people into voting far right every single election cycle.
Man, if they invented a way to grab a pint together anonymously online I’d be glad to talk each other’s ears off about how misinformed the average person is about the economic and political functions of our society.
I think it’s a little harsh to say this is only true of right wingers, but I’ve said much worse depending how spicy I’m feeling on any given day.
If more people really understood what terms like capitalism, communism, socialism, and liberalism meant we could have more meaningful political debate across ideological boundaries when it comes to electing our government.
I don’t blame individuals, though, it’s hard to ask someone to learn these things when everyone is just taking life day by day and trying to survive. Ironically this alienation is part of Marxist theory and the people that would most benefit from class consciousness are the ones that have the highest pressures keeping them heads down.
That’s how politics turns into an emotional debate with teams and colors and brands.
I think the left needs to embrace it moreso, people want to see their feelings reflected in their leaders, and Conservatives excel at this theatre.
For starters, stricter policies on foreign ownership of housing, not to invite a bunch of immigrants to fill up what little housing we have, restrict corporate ownership of housing.
Housing affordability is a large portion of our problems and why so many people have so little in their wallets.
Making immigration less attractive by turning them into second class citizens when we rely on immigration for economic growth is one thing. I can meet you in the middle on corporate ownership.
I’m a leftist so I’m more inclined to say housing is a human right and we shouldn’t be allowing the market to handle it.
Thanks for elaborating. I don’t see the connection between doing this and not doing that (two things can be good) but at least you’re criticising the Feds for things that are within their power unlike most people.
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Still better than Bitcoin Millhouse’s plan to give a 5% GST break to anyone that can afford a sub 1 million dollar house. If you can afford a $950,000 dollar house, you sure as fuck can afford to pay GST.
I also see it being abused to buy cheaper properties to rent…
Exactly… and Squinty McProudboy already rents out several houses so I’m sure he’ll jump on that opportunity.
I miss Canada from like 8 years ago. What a joke this place has become
