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PM Trudeau’s “Monetary Policy” gaffe could cost the Liberals the election. But will it?

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Back in 1993 things were not going well for Canada’s Progressive Conservative Government.  Brian Mulroney’s government had served 2 mandates and Canadians were clearly ready to move on.  The Conservatives decided Kim Campbell would be the best leader to bring a renewed excitement to their reelection hopes.  Campbell was a fresh face and that was important to the party which was losing support quickly.  She was also from Vancouver, which was a nice change for the party normally represented by leaders from Ontario or Quebec.  Even more importantly, when she won the leadership she would become the first female leader of a country in North America.  As Canadians would discover just a few months later though, no one cared about any of that.  That campaign did not go well.  The Conservatives not only lost.  They were decimated right out of official party standing.  The governing party won just 2 seats in the entire nation (Jean Charest in Quebec, and Elsie Wayne in New Brunswick). Kim Campbell did not even win her own seat.  Henceforth the Reform Party represented the Conservative voice for the next two elections.

For one reason or another, Canadians simply did not connect with Kim Campbell.  One of the biggest gaffes of that election campaign came when a reporter pressed Campbell for details on an issue and she replied “The election is not a time to discuss serious issues.”  That was the wrong answer.  Despite what she may have truly meant, all Canadians heard was “I don’t need to explain anything to you.”.  That was exactly the wrong thing to say at the worst possible time.

Why bring this up now, 28 years later? Well Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made his first major gaffe of this election campaign.   And for those who care about monetary policy (which should be everyone who pays taxes and works or has savings, etc) it’s very likely as stunning a statement as Kim Campbell made three decades ago.

First some background.  In 2021, Canadians find themselves in an astounding situation.  When the covid pandemic hit last year governments all over the world shut down their economies for weeks, and then months.  Government stimulus was the order of the day and Canada’s was among the most generous in the world.  People were paid to stay at home.  Businesses were paid to continue to provide jobs to people working from home.  Landlords were paid to keep tenants afloat.  All in all, government money is being spent at unprecedented rates.

To pay for all this the Trudeau government attempted to pass a bill through Parliament which would allow it to raise taxes at will without a budget and without even coming back to ask Parliament to present a plan or ask for approval.  That didn’t go over so well.  But instead of turning back the taps, or introducing a budget with higher taxes the government worked out a plan with the Bank of Canada.  How this works basically is that every month the Bank of Canada prints out a few billion dollars, and the government uses that to pay for all the stimulus they want.  Over the first year of covid that totalled about 350 Billion dollars!

The Bank of Canada has left the core function expressed in its mandate in order to print all this extra money.  Despite it’s best efforts to decouple inflation from the printing of extra money, it’s not working.  Canada’s inflation rate has been blowing through the target of 2% month after month after month.

This is the the mandate as expressed by the Bank of Canada itself on its website.

The Bank of Canada is the nation’s central bank. Its mandate, as defined in the Bank of Canada Act, is “to promote the economic and financial welfare of Canada.” The Bank’s vision is to be a leading central bank—dynamic, engaged and trusted—committed to a better Canada.

The Bank has four core functions:

  • Monetary policy: The Bank’s monetary policy framework aims to keep inflation low, stable and predictable.
  • Financial system: The Bank promotes safe, sound and efficient financial systems within Canada and internationally.
  • Currency: The Bank designs, issues and distributes Canada’s bank notes.
  • Funds management: The Bank acts as fiscal agent for the Government of Canada, managing its public debt programs and foreign exchange reserves.

The Bank of Canada’s mandate is expiring at the end of this year and the new mandate could change.  Some are saying the Bank should continue to print money at an unprecedented rate and Canadians will learn to live with high inflation.  Considering this drives up the cost of everything from our homes and vehicles, to the food we eat there could hardly be a more important issue.  That’s why PM Trudeau’s response to this question in Vancouver this week is so stunning.  When asked if he would consider a higher tolerance for inflation going forward here’s what he said.

 

Reporter Question about the renewal of the Bank of Canada mandate due at the end of 2021:

-Do you have thoughts about that mandate?  Would you consider a slightly higher tolerance for inflation?

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: “When I think about the biggest, most important economic policy this government, if re-elected, would move forward, you’ll forgive me if I don’t think about monetary policy.” 

Of course this spurred an immediate reaction from the opposition Conservatives.  That oppostion is perhaps best summed up in this address from Pierre Poilievre.

The question is, will Canadians punish Prime Minister Trudeau for either lacking basic economic knowledge, or not caring about it?  Kim Campbell failed to win her own seat, but she did not seem to connect well with Canadians at all even before that election campaign.  Justin Trudeau has so far been immune to gaffes.  Even though he’s had more than 5 years in government, millions of Canadians stand by him loyally.  Will this time be any different?

After 15 years as a TV reporter with Global and CBC and as news director of RDTV in Red Deer, Duane set out on his own 2008 as a visual storyteller. During this period, he became fascinated with a burgeoning online world and how it could better serve local communities. This fascination led to Todayville, launched in 2016.

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All 49 GOP senators call on Biden admin to withdraw support for WHO pandemic treaty

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From LifeSiteNews

By Stephen Kokx

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson warned that two international agreements are being considered at this month’s World Health Assembly that surrender U.S. sovereignty to the World Health Organization

Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin has rallied every Republican in the U.S. Senate to sign an open letter warning the Biden administration to not support pandemic-related measures being considered at the World Health Assembly (WHA) later this month.

“Some of the over 300 proposals for amendments made by member states would substantially increase the (World Health Organization’s) health emergency powers and constitute intolerable infringements upon U.S. sovereignty,” they wrote.

The WHA is the decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO). Its annual meeting sets policies for its 194 member nations. This year’s gathering, the 77th such undertaking, will be held from May 27 to June 1 in Geneva, Switzerland.

Johnson and all 48 of his colleagues informed the Biden administration that they consider the WHO’s widely criticized Pandemic Agreement a formal treaty that requires 2/3rd approval from the Senate per Article II Section 2 of the Constitution.

“Instead of addressing the WHO’s well-documented shortcomings, the treaty focuses on mandated resource and technology transfers, shredding intellectual property rights, infringing free speech, and supercharging the WHO,” they maintained. “The WHO’s most recent publicly available draft of its new pandemic response treaty is dead on arrival.”

A growing number of public figures as well as U.S. states and elected officials have raised the alarm about the Pandemic Agreement in recent months.

During an appearance on Tucker Carlson’s podcast in January, liberal intellectual Bret Weinstein argued that the WHO is gearing up for a “re-run” of COVID-19 in order to set up a “totalitarian planet.” He noted that the agreement is being modified so the WHO will have even more power to crack down on voices that dissent from Big Pharma’s narrative.

On Thursday, April 18, a group of GOP lawmakers and conservative activists similarly warned about the agreement at a press conference on Capitol Hill organized by the Sovereignty Coalition.

 

Johnson has been one of the most consistent voices in the Senate to expose the dangers of the COVID shot as well as the collusion taking place between the mainstream media and the medical industry. In February, he organized a roundtable discussion titled “Federal Health Agencies and the COVID Cartel: What Are They Hiding?” Dr. Robert Malone, vaccine expert Del Bigtree, GOP Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor-Greene, and many others attended.

Johnson and his GOP colleagues further drew the Biden administration’s attention to the WHO’s poor track record.

“The WHO’s failure during the COVID-19 pandemic was as total as it was predictable and did lasting harm to our country,” they wrote. “The United States cannot afford to ignore this latest WHO inability to perform its most basic function and must insist on comprehensive WHO reforms before even considering amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) or any new pandemic-related treaty that would increase WHO authority. We are deeply concerned that your administration continues to support these initiatives and strongly urge you to change course.”

They concluded that “in light of the high stakes for our country and our constitutional duty, we call upon you to (1) withdraw your administration’s support for the current IHR amendments and pandemic treaty negotiations, (2) shift your administration’s focus to comprehensive WHO reforms that address its persistent failures without expanding its authority, and (3) should you ignore these calls, submit any pandemic related agreement to the Senate for its advice and consent.”

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Immigration Experts Warn Possible Biden Plan To Import Gazan Refugees Would Be ‘National Security Disaster’

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From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By JASON HOPKINS

 

Immigration experts are warning that a reported Biden administration plan to import Palestinians as refugees would pose a unique threat to the United States.

Internal federal government documents leaked to the media on Tuesday indicated that the Biden White House is considering options on how to provide permanent safe haven to Palestinians living in war-torn Gaza. While no official plan has been announced or implemented, many in the government and immigration field have sounded the alarm on the potential consequences of such a move.

Experts who spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation framed the reported plan as contrary to the country’s interests, warned of the risks of importing poorly-vetted foreign nationals with potential terror ties and encouraged the Biden administration to instead relocate these refugees to a nearby region within the Middle East.

“This is an absurd plan that places woke ideology above the public safety and national security concerns of American citizens,” Matt O’Brien, director of investigations for the Immigration Reform Law Institute, told  the DCNF.

O’Brien noted that Hamas is no longer just a designated terrorist organization in the Gaza strip, but the official government of the enclave: “That means an inordinate number of Gazans are going to have direct ties to Hamas — because they voted it into power — and it will be impossible to vet them because we can’t trust records compiled by their chosen government,” he said.

“The smarter thing to do would be to arrange for a third country in the Middle East to provide temporary refuge to any Gazan’s who are allegedly in need of protection,” he continued. “But allowing Gazans into the U.S. in large numbers will only set America up for a large-scale national security disaster.”

Congressional leaders have also noted the ideological extremism in the Gazan population, and what that could mean for everyday Americans if they are welcomed here en masse.

Iowa GOP Sen. Joni Ernst led a delegation of 34 Republican senators earlier this week in demanding President Joe Biden stop his purported plan. In their letter to the president, the senators noted the incredibly high number of Gazans currently supporting Hamas and how, because of the numerous logistical hurdles that come with importing migrants from a war-torn region halfway around the world, it would be nearly impossible to conduct proper vetting of all of them.

“We are confused as to why the United States is willing to accept Gazan refugees when even nearby Arab countries supportive of the Palestinian cause refuse to take them in due to security concerns,” the senators wrote.

Their letter demanded answers on how many Gazans the administration wants to accept and how exactly applicants will be screened to ensure no one with terrorist sympathies is allowed into the U.S.

If polling in the region is accurate, the American government will have a difficult time weeding out those who have extremists ties.

A survey released by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Research in March found that 71% of Palestinians supported Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre on Israeli civilians. A mere 5% of the Palestinians surveyed said they believed the Oct. 7 attack to be a war crime.

Polls conducted in months past also indicated a rise in support for Hamas among the Gazan population after the Oct. 7 massacre.

“Every American should be deeply concerned about reports that the Biden administration is planning on implementing a program to bring Gazans into the United States,” Eric Ruark, director of research and public relations for NumbersUSA, stated to the DCNF.

Ruark echoed calls to relocate Gazans displaced by the fighting to a nearby region, in lieu of using the crisis as another way to bring more foreign nationals permanently into the U.S. He predicted that the administration would make a humanitarian argument in favor of relocating Gazans to the U.S., but added that the White House’s border policies made it clear that “humanitarianism is the least of its priorities.”

Egypt has long maintained security measures to keep Gazans from entering the Sinai, including a concrete wall topped with concertina wire and military personnel at the Rafah border.

It remains to be seen how exactly the Biden administration would go about bringing the Gazan refugees over. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.

One proposal involves implementing the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program to accept those with American ties and already have escaped into Egypt, according to government documents reviewed by CBS News. Top administration officials have also reportedly discussed processing Gazans as refugees if they have American relatives.

The Palestinians who pass a slate of security, medical and eligibility screenings would qualify for refugee status, which can then offer them permanent residency, resettlement benefits and a pathway to U.S. citizenship.

All the logistics that come with such strategies, however, would require coordination and cooperation with Egypt, a bordering Arab country that has so far remained vehemently opposed to accepting a large number of Gazans — a detail that isn’t lost on critics of the Biden administration’s plan.

“Egypt and other Arab countries are refusing to take in Palestinian refugees from Gaza,” RJ Hauman, president of the National Immigration Center for Enforcement (NICE), said in a statement to the DCNF. “Instead of recognizing why that is and acting in our national interest, Biden wants to ramp up the dangerous trend of bringing in unvetted and potentially dangerous individuals who hate us.”

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