Opinion writer says Trudeau is the future and Scheer is a return to the past

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5 years ago

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This post was contributed by Red Deer blogger Garfield Marks

Faster Horses

In less than 100 days we will be voting federally, either for the “past” or for the “future”, because apparently the “present” is unsatisfactory.
Here in Alberta, we yearn for the good old days when we had big pay cheques, big houses, big trucks, big bikes, big quads, big trailers, big boats and big payments. We worked hard and we played hard.
The world evolved around us, over time, and things changed. Our vehicles went from 350 C.I. and 5 miles per gallon at 50 cents per gallon (4.5 litres) to 3.5L and 50 miles per gallon or 18 kms. per litre at ($1 per litre).
Then the environment started having a mid-life climate crisis and consumers started looking for alternatives. Politicians started playing politics and pipelines did not get built and production began to suffer. Big paycheques shrank.
4 years or so Albertans turfed out the provincial government of the day, because they seemed so out of touch with the needs of Albertans. They voted for the future and things started changing but the big paycheques did not return and even though the future was improving it wasn’t the good old days. A few months ago they turfed out the “new” provincial government and brought back the re-branded “old” government and Albertans have not yet returned to the good old days.
4 years or so Canadians turfed out the federal government of the day because they seemed out of touch with the needs of Canadians. They voted for the future, a new government, and things started changing.
Yet oddly enough this “new” federal government, so disdained by Albertans, did what the “old” government was unable or unwilling to do. They bought a pipeline company for billions and moved forward and approved a new pipeline to encourage oil production. Necessary for those Big paycheques and big oil for Albertans.
Albertans will still likely, vote to turf this “new” government out. Well, they want to bring in a carbon tax. That could cost Albertans $10 per week before rebates, and that is a tragedy.
Never mind that this same “new” government invested billions to bring back the big paycheques, that $10/week before rebates is a no go.
This “new” government had nothing to gain, politically, in Alberta helping the Alberta economy in a political rivalry, so why do it? If they had not purchased and approved the new pipeline they would have gained political support in a majority of other provinces but now they are losing support, in other provinces, and could lose their majority in less than 100 days.
In 100 days we will be voting for the future or the past because presently we still have the big houses, big trucks, big toys, but not the big paycheques of the good old days. We voted for the past a few months ago and no big paycheques, yet, so maybe it’s the next time, is the charmer, when we get to go back to the good old days.
Since 1867 Canadians have seen many great economic engines, whale oil, furs, nickel, fisheries, forestry, coal, railroads, and they were great but temporary and now we face another transition. Change is hard.
Henry Ford pushed through change on an unsuspecting and often times uncooperative and unwilling public. He was once reported to have said: “If I had asked what the public wanted, they would have said, faster horses.” but he voted for the future.
In 100 days are we going to vote for the future or for the past with dreams of faster horses? I am hoping for the future, you?

Garfield Marks

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Daily Caller

New York City Reportedly Seeking 14,000 Hotel Rooms For Migrants, To Spend Over $2 Billion As Crisis Rages On

Published on October 10, 2024

Todayville

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Jason Hopkins

“The taxpayers can’t pay for this indefinitely” …

Spending on migrant services for the next three years will reach a total of $5.76 billion… The average cost to house illegal migrants per room is $352 per night.

New York City officials are reportedly looking to keep thousands of hotel rooms available for illegal migrants as the crisis in the Big Apple rages on, according to the New York Post.

The city’s Department of Homeless Services is seeking a contract with local hotels to provide roughly 14,000 rooms in order to shelter migrants through 2025, according to a report from the New York Post. The city anticipates spending on migrants in need of housing for the current fiscal year and the past two years combined will surpass $2.3 billion, with a significant amount of these costs going toward hotel rent.

“The taxpayers can’t pay for this indefinitely,” Nicole Gelinas, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute think tank, said to the Post. “We should stop using hotels as shelters by the end of the year.”

Spending on migrant services for the next three years will reach a total of $5.76 billion, with around 150 hotels currently sheltering migrants, according to the Post. The average cost to house illegal migrants per room is $352 per night.

A spokesperson for New York City’s Department of Homeless Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Well over 200,000 migrants have overwhelmed New York City since the spring of 2022, according to city officials. The influx of illegal migrants forced Mayor Eric Adams to declare 5% budget cuts in September 2023 for government programs and services in order to pay for their housing and other services, and in August of that year he said the city was reaching a “breaking point” from the sheer volume of migrants.

Spending on migrant housing forced city leaders to cut back on how long people could remain in the shelter system. Adams had said that the city’s right-to-shelter laws were never intended for large-scale migrant populations.

Migrants living in city shelters were ordered to leave after 30 days with no ability to reapply, although some exceptions for medical conditions or “extenuating circumstances” were made, per a decree from the mayor in March. Migrants under the age of 23 were given 60 days to remain in the shelter system, and other exceptions were made for migrant families.

“This issue will destroy New York City,” Adams said during a September 2023 town hall. “Every community in this city is going to be impacted. We have a $12 billion deficit that we’re going to have to cut – every service in this city is going to be impacted.”

When addressing the public last month after being indicted on alleged bribery charges, Adams claimed he had been targeted by the Justice Department ever since he began speaking out about the city’s immigration crisis.

New York City has several sanctuary laws in place that restrict how federal immigration authorities can cooperate with local law enforcement. While some moderate lawmakers have attempted to roll back these laws in the wake of numerous high-profile incidents involving illegal migrants, those efforts have so far fallen flat with the City Council.

Economy

Canadians think Canada is ‘broken’ amid gloomy economic numbers

Published on October 10, 2024

Todayville

From the Fraser Institute

By Jock Finlayson

Approximately three years have passed since the end of the initial phase of the COVID pandemic that saw large swathes of the economy shuttered for most of the 2020-2021 period. And it’s almost nine years since the 2015 federal election, which resulted in a majority government for Justin Trudeau’s Liberals. So, it’s a good time to do a pulse check on Canadians to see how they’re faring and feeling about the country.

Overall, the news isn’t particularly cheerful, on either front.

Dealing first with economic prosperity, the big story is that Canada’s population has been growing faster than the volume of output produced by the economy (defined as gross domestic product, adjusted for inflation). This means the economy has been shrinking on a per-person basis, prompting some analysts to coin the term “per-person recession” to describe the performance of Canada’s economy since 2022.

The trend has been stark in the last two years, but it started earlier. The absolute level of per-person output is smaller today than in 2018 in seven of 10 provinces including Ontario. More importantly, income and earnings growth has been essentially stagnant for most Canadians over roughly the last decade. Canada has also fallen further behind the best-performing advanced economies on productivity, per-person income and real wages.

What about public attitudes? A recent Ipsos survey finds 70 per cent of Canadians think the country is “broken,” an opinion especially common among young adults. Older Canadians have a more positive view of things. A Statistics Canada survey shows a significant drop in the percentage of Canadians reporting high levels of “life satisfaction.” The same survey shows that 40 per cent of respondents between the ages of 25 and 54 say it’s difficult to meet their financial needs.

The shock delivered by the recent bout of high inflation no doubt has contributed to this gloomy assessment. And it doesn’t help the public mood that housing has never been less affordable, that crime is on the rise, and that basic health-care services are harder to access than they were five or 10 years ago.

Other data paint a more nuanced picture of how Canada is doing. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)—a collection of mostly rich countries—publishes a “Better Life Index,” which aims to gauge overall citizen wellbeing. In the most recent iteration of the Index, Canada beats the OECD average on income, employment levels, education attainment, life expectancy at birth, and environmental quality, among other indicators. Our relative ranking has slipped in some areas—a worrisome sign—but overall, Canada puts up a decent score.

Still, stagnant real incomes and an economy that’s expanding more slowly than the population is not an ideal place to land. To do better, Canada will need at least a few years of stronger per-person economic growth. This will require a turnaround in our notably lacklustre productivity record and a sustained pick-up in business investment. Revisiting the federal government’s ambitious immigration targets may also be necessary, as Trudeau government ministers have publicly (albeit somewhat sheepishly) acknowledged.

Getting the economic fundamentals right is essential to making progress on most economic and social indicators. As the OECD notes, “while money may not buy happiness, it is an important means to achieving higher living standards and thus greater well-being.”