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Freedom Convoy Update: Organizers stressing respect and drivers enjoying incredible Canadian hospitality on the way to Ottawa

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As the Freedom Convoy rolls into Ottawa, organizers are laying down the law on their fellow protestors.  No one knows how many trucks and how many people are a part of this convoy.  There has been a significant amount of concern that fringe groups will attach themselves to the convoy and perpetrate violence.  If they do, there’s a good chance their first resistance will come from the convoy participants.  Organizers have been emphasizing a respectful and peaceful visit to the nation’s capital.  This is the message they’ve posted and shared on their official web pages.

We cannot stress enough how important it is for everyone to do the following:

1. DO NOT enter any government building or government property under any circumstances.

2. Treat all police officers with respect. Front line police officers are already under significant pressure from powerful politicized individuals and local politicians. They are our fellow Canadians, and the police in regions like Peel defended us when they refused to enforce Doug Ford’s draconian Covid restrictions on citizens last year. Please do not put front line officers in a difficult position. Always be respectful, even if they issue you a citation. Just know that most of them are doing so under duress.

3. Keep calm. If you see individuals attempting to bait other truckers and attendees into conflict, report them to the police and our staff, or look to others around you to help with de-escalation. Sometimes it merely requires one calm head in a group to temper us all. Don’t hesitate to be the negotiator!

4. Do not make any type of threat. Threats lead to escalation, which could lead to violence. Please do your absolute best to stifle any aggressive rhetoric. As you know, the legacy media will be present and will use this as ammunition against our movement. Their business model is built on a strategy of destroying reputations. Do not help them profit from destroying your reputation.

If we keep calm and show love and support for one another, many things will happen. We will eventually cause the government to reverse its policy on Covid passports and vaccine mandates as the UK has recently done. We will meet new friends, develop relationships, and there will likely be people who meet during this peaceful protest and fall in love and build a life together. Let’s not sacrifice such a bright future for all of us by loosing our temper.

This is the first step in a long journey to a new golden age of freedom and understanding for one another. Let’s build that future together.

Many would be surprised at the overwhelming support Canadians have showed along the entire route.  At every stop, the participants are experiencing incredible hospitality.  This was the experience of Mirror, Alberta’s Chris Scott and his traveling companions as they stopped for a break in Blind River, Ontario Friday afternoon.

 

The following video was posted by Tamara Lich an organizer of the Freedom Convoy.  This is from an emotional stop in Ontario on Friday where convoy participants were showered with kindness in the form of food, treats, and emotional support.

The cause as posted on the GoFundMe platform (currently at 7.7 million dollars raised)

To our Fellow Canadians, the time for political over reach is over.  Our current government is implementing rules and mandates that are destroying the foundation of our businesses, industries and livelihoods.  Canadians have been integral to the fabric of humanity in many ways that have shaped the planet.

We are a peaceful country that has helped protect nations across the globe from tyrannical governments who oppressed their people, and now it seems it is happening here. We are taking our fight to the doorsteps of our Federal Government and demanding that they cease all mandates against its people. Small businesses are being destroyed, homes are being destroyed, and people are being mistreated and denied fundamental necessities to survive. It’s our duty as Canadians to put an end to this mandates.  It is imperative that this happens because if we don’t our country will no longer be the country we have come to love.  We are doing this for our future Generations and to regain our lives back.

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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Great Reset

World Happiness Report ranks Canada as one of the unhappiest places in the West for young people

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From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

While senior Canadians seems to be mostly happy in Canada, young Canadians may be beginning to feel the negative effects of the Trudeau government’s overspending, onerous climate regulations, lax immigration policies and ‘woke’ politics.

A recent report has ranked Canada as one of the unhappiest places in the West for people in their 20s. 

According to the World Happiness Report, published March 8, Canada was listed as the 58th happiest country out of 143 for people under the age of 30, a trend that coincides with the long-reign of the Trudeau government in which the cost-of-living has exploded.

“Happiness fell significantly in the country group including the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, by twice as much for the young as for the old,” the report noted. 

According to the report, Canada ranked behind many Western countries, including the United Kingdom (32nd), Italy (41st), Poland (43rd), Germany (47th), France (48th), and even South Korea (52nd), which is well known for its high suicide rate. However, the United States ranked even lower than Canada at 62nd.   

The report, published by Gallup, the Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and the WHR’s Editorial Board, found that senior Canadians were much happier than young Canadians.  

Canadians over 60 were ranked as the 8th happiest in the world for their age group, a trend which placed Canada at 15th for the total population’s overall happiness ranking. 

While senior Canadians seems to be mostly happy in Canada, young Canadians may be beginning to reap the effects of the policies of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government, which has been criticized for its overspending, onerous climate regulations, lax immigration policies, and “woke” politics.   

In fact, many have pointed out that considering the rising housing prices, most Canadians under 30 will not be able to purchase a home.   

Similarly, while Trudeau sends Canadians’ tax dollars oversees and further taxes their fuel and heating, Canadians are struggling to pay for basic necessities including food, rent, and heating. 

A September report by Statistics Canada revealed that food prices are rising faster than the headline inflation rate – the overall inflation rate in the country – as staple food items are increasing at a rate of 10 to 18 percent year-over-year.  

Additionally, a recent poll revealed that seven out of 10 Canadians believe the country is broken and that the Trudeau government does not focus on issues that matter. 

While happiness in young people is down in Canada, euthanasia in Canada has skyrocketed in recent years. The most recent reports show that Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) is the sixth highest cause of death in Canada. 

However, it was not listed as such in Statistics Canada’s top 10 leading causes of death from 2019 to 2022. When asked why MAiD was left off the list, the agency explained that it records the illnesses that led Canadians to choose to end their lives via euthanasia, not the actual cause of death, as the primary cause of death. 

According to Health Canada, in 2022, 13,241 Canadians died by MAiD lethal injections. This accounts for 4.1 percent of all deaths in the country for that year ,a 31.2 percent increase from 2021.     

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Business

Balanced budget within reach—if Ottawa restrains spending

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From the Fraser Institute

By Jake Fuss and Grady Munro

This level of debt-financed spending has contributed to an estimated $941.9 billion increase in gross federal debt from 2014/15 to 2023/24. In other words, partly due to its spending habits, nearly one in every two dollars of debt currently held by the federal government has been accumulated under Prime Minister Trudeau.

The Trudeau government will table its next budget on April 16. Federal finances have deteriorated in recent years due to the Trudeau government’s string of budget deficits, and high spending has led to a significant amount of debt accumulation, which imposes costs on current and future generations. Yet if the government presents a plan in Budget 2024 to rein in spending growth, it could balance the budget in two years.

Far from its promise to balance the budget by 2019, the Trudeau government has instead run nine consecutive deficits during its time in office. And it doesn’t intend to stop, with annual deficits exceeding $18 billion planned for the next five years.

The root cause of these deficits is the government’s inability to restrain spending. Since 2014/15, annual program spending (total spending minus debt interest) has increased $193.6 billion—or 75.5 per cent. If we control for population growth and inflation, this represents an extra $2,330 per person.

This level of debt-financed spending has contributed to an estimated $941.9 billion increase in gross federal debt from 2014/15 to 2023/24. In other words, partly due to its spending habits, nearly one in every two dollars of debt currently held by the federal government has been accumulated under Prime Minister Trudeau. Debt accumulation will only continue barring a change in course, as the federal government is expected to add another $476.9 billion in gross debt over the next five years.

Simply put, the Trudeau government’s approach towards federal finances has been characterized by high spending, large deficits and significant debt accumulation.

This approach to fiscal policy is concerning. Growing government debt leads to higher debt interest costs, all else equal, which eat up taxpayer dollars that could otherwise have provided services or tax relief for Canadians. And these costs are not trivial. For example, in 2023/24 the federal government is expected to spend more to service its debt ($46.5 billion) than on child-care benefits ($31.2 billion).

Accumulating debt today also increases the tax burden on future generations of Canadians—who are ultimately responsible for paying off this debt. Research suggests this effect could be disproportionate, with future generations needing to pay back a dollar borrowed today with more than one dollar in future taxes.

Although the Trudeau government promises more of the same for the coming years, this need not be the case. Instead, a recent study shows the federal government could balance the budget in two years if it slows spending growth starting in 2024/25. The following figures highlight this approach. The first chart below displays currently planned federal program spending from 2023/24 to 2026/27, compared with the spending path that will balance the budget, while the second chart shows the resulting budgetary balances.

Figure 1

Figure 2

As shown by the first chart, to balance the budget by 2026/27 the federal government must limit annual spending growth to 0.3 per cent for two years. As a result, annual nominal program spending would rise from $469.4 billion in 2024/25 to $472.3 billion in 2026/27. For comparison, the Trudeau government currently plans to increase annual spending up to $499.4 billion during that same period.

Should the government implement this level of spending restraint, the federal deficit would shrink to $21.8 billion in 2025/26 (as opposed to $38.3 billion), and the budget would be balanced by 2026/27 (as opposed to a $27.1 billion deficit). All told, by slowing spending growth to balance the budget, the federal government would avoid accumulating significant debt. Moreover, this also sets the government up to return to budget surpluses in the following years, which could be used to start chipping away at the mountain of federal debt already on the books.

Rather than continue its current approach to fiscal policy, and risk needing to employ more drastic cuts in the future, the Trudeau government should implement modest spending restraint now and balance the budget.

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