National
Trudeau not doing the little things to make life affordable
From the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
Author: Franco Terrazzano
Figuring out how to make life more affordable for Canadians shouldn’t be like unravelling Einstein’s theory of relativity.
If Prime Minister Justin Trudeau won’t do the big things to make life more affordable, he could at least do the little things.
“We know Canadians are facing challenging times right now, people are squeezed between the cost of groceries, rents,” Trudeau said during a cabinet retreat in Montreal aimed at “bringing down the cost of living.”
Trudeau knows “people are squeezed” because his tax hikes are some of the things that are doing the squeezing.
Take the carbon tax. Trudeau may never scrap his carbon tax, but he could at least not raise it again on April 1.
Even after the rebates, average families will be out hundreds of dollars this year because of the higher heating bills, gas prices, inflation and the economic damage wrought by the carbon tax, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer.
Governments of all political stripes have paused fuel taxes to provide relief.
British Columbia’s New Democrats delayed their carbon tax hike during the pandemic. Manitoba’s NDP government suspended its fuel tax. Newfoundland and Labrador’s Liberals are also providing fuel tax relief, and so have the Conservative governments in Alberta and Ontario.
The United Kingdom, Sweden, Australia, South Korea, the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, New Zealand and Portugal also provided fuel tax relief.
To add insult to injury: the feds charge their sales tax on top of the carbon tax. That’s right. The federal government applies its sales tax after all the per-litre taxes are added.
This tax-on-tax is costing Canadians about $500 million this year, according to the PBO. By the end of 2030, the GST on the carbon tax alone will have cost Canadians $6.2 billion.
Ending the tax-on-tax is a simple way to save Canadians billions when fuelling up or heating their homes.
Trudeau knows taxes make it more expensive to stay warm during the winter. Otherwise, why would he have taken the carbon tax off home heating oil for three years?
That political ploy was an attempt to help Atlantic Canadians amid tanking poll numbers in this typical Liberal stronghold.
But 97 per cent of Canadian families use other forms of energy to heat their homes. Trudeau should extend the relief he provided to Atlantic Canadians to everyone by taking the carbon tax off all forms of home heating. That would save the average family using natural gas about $1,100 over three years.
Trudeau can also give farmers relief and ease grocery prices by making sure the original Bill C-234 becomes law this year, which would remove the carbon tax from the natural gas and propane used on farms.
The House of Commons already passed this relief twice, but it still isn’t law because of shenanigans in the Senate.
The carbon tax on natural gas and propane that’s used to heat barns and dry grain will cost farmers $1 billion by 2030, according to the PBO.
By making it more expensive for farmers to grow food, the carbon tax makes it more expensive for Canadians to buy food.
There’s one more easy way for Trudeau to provide relief: stop his upcoming 4.7 per cent alcohol tax hike.
Last year, the feds capped the annual increase at two per cent. Trudeau shouldn’t have hiked the tax at all, but the smaller increase reduced the tax burden by $100 million. At a time when both consumers and businesses are struggling, freezing the alcohol tax is the least Trudeau could do.
The Trudeau government doesn’t need an expensive get-away in Montreal to figure out how to make life more affordable. There’s a simple solution: stop taking so much money from Canadians.
X-post by former PMO chief of staff Norman Spector, who noticed something was up concerning how the Prime Minister’s team got its message out
Press Gallery members denied access to Carney’s Egypt photo opportunity dutifully repeat anonymous, unverified claims elevating the Prime Minister’s importance
Last week, the Parliamentary Press Gallery (PPG) and I had something in common.
We were both dismayed.
They, because they weren’t invited to join Prime Minister Carney on his last-minute trip to Egypt for a photo opp; Me because most of them didn’t seem all that interested in looking into the circumstances of the PM’s hasty departure and instead allowed themselves to be played in the most appallingly obvious manner.
Peter Menzies is a past publisher of the Calgary Herald, a former vice chair of the CRTC and a National Newspaper Award winner.
Subscribe to The Rewrite.
What got the PPG’s knickers twisted was that they weren’t invited to accompany Carney when he departed Ottawa in a rush to get to the Egyptian resort of Sharm El Sheikh, a popular spot on the Red Sea for the world’s glitterati. It took PPG President Mia Rabson a couple of days to issue a statement, but she made it clear the PPG disapproved:
“The Parliamentary Press Gallery was not informed in advance of the Prime Minister’s trip to Egypt to participate in the Middle East Peace Ceremony on Oct. 12 -13,” she wrote. “The Gallery is disappointed and dismayed at the exclusion of Canadian media from the event and expresses in no uncertain terms that this must never happen again.
“It is unprecedented that Canadian media be entirely excluded from a Canadian prime minister’s foreign trip.”
The only reporting I could find on this was in Politico, where it was recorded that the PMO had posted this notice: “6:30 p.m. The Prime Minister will depart for Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, to attend the signing of a Middle East peace plan. Closed to media.”
What first caused my jaw to drop and to become, like Rabin, disappointed and dismayed, were the stories left unpursued. On the morning of Oct. 12, Canada was not listed as among the countries invited to join in the “peace summit” associated with the ceasefire deal reached between Israel and Hamas. If it had been, the prime minister may not have had to charter a private jet because the usual Royal Canadian Air Force planes and crews were, as City News’s Glen MacGregor reported, unavailable.
There are two lines of journalistic inquiry there, neither of which appears to have been of interest. The first is: how can Canada’s military be so poorly equipped that there isn’t at all times a fully-equipped aircraft and crew on standby and is this an issue that will be addressed in the future? The second is: how did we wind up getting invited to the peace summit? Comments by US President Donald Trump indicate that we weren’t initially considered important enough to be on site but phoned to ask if we could join the party. (The Line – which doesn’t accept government subsidies – noticed.)
Trump, in remarks to media said: “You have Canada. That’s so great to have, in fact. The president called and he wanted to know if it’s worth – well he knew exactly what it is. He knew the importance. Where’s Canada, by the way? Where are you? He knew the importance of this.”
What was pursued, at least in comments online by journalists, was Trump’s inability to identify Carney by his correct title. (In an exchange that followed, Carney sarcastically thanked Trump for elevating him and, in response, was told “at least I didn’t call you governor.” Ha ha.)
Everyone is free to make their own decisions, but if Canada had to call Trump to ask to be invited, Canadians need to know if that means we are in the president’s debt. Trump, after all, seems like the sort of guy who keeps score.
Readers will notice a new DONATE button has been added.
This allows you to buy The Rewrite a cup of coffee or, if you are feeling generous, wine, but doesn’t constitute a subscription.
Please consider making use of it and help us save journalism from bad journalism.
Share
But it’s what followed that really got creepy. While Canadian reporters were not allowed to accompany the prime minister to Egypt, someone who says he or she was on the plane started phoning around to tell reporters what happened. And they went for it. The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and Politico all reported unverified statements emanating from a single, unnamed source. The Globe’s Robert Fife reported that “a senior government official” said that while Carney and others thought they were just in Egypt for a photo opp, during a four hour wait for Trump to arrive from Israel “Mr. Carney had back-and-forth conversations with a group of leaders.”
Fife wrote that “The Globe and Mail is not identifying the official so they could speak candidly.”
Tonda MacCharles of the Toronto Star also quoted a “senior Canadian government official” who “spoke confidentially to provide background information on what was discussed at the leaders-only talks.” Said official was buzzing about the dynamism of the occasion and the ever so important role the boss played at the photo opp.
“Imagine the G20 without the talking points and pomp and circumstance. We all came out of it, staffers, like ‘wow that was a useful meeting,’” the anonymous source told MacCharles, whose report, similar to Fife’s, did not indicate that any efforts whatsoever had been made to verify the claims of the “official” with even a second anonymous “official.”
The Globe report expanded on how Carney’s attendance in Egypt was all part of a broader strategy, that he is well-known and liked in the region and how the invitation “was not a surprise” because Carney has “sought” to “act as a go-between Arab states and Washington.”
That doesn’t exactly appear consistent with the source’s concession that Carney’s office “first heard of the invitation on social media” but, whatever.
MacCharles and Fife tried to add greater context to their reports (the former doing the better job, in my view) but while The Free Press’s Rupa Subramanya wondered what all the fuss was about and Brian Mulroney’s former chief of staff Norman Spector (see frame grab above) smelled a rat, my conclusion is that what we have here is unacceptable.
The Prime Minister departed the country unaccompanied by even a single representative of the nation’s press. Upon his return, neither Carney nor any “officials” held a news conference to explain what took place. Instead, targeted media got fed what could be (I’ll use the polite term) pure fantasy. Two of Canada’s leading news organizations, apparently confusing themselves with stenographers, then – and without noting any attempts whatsoever at verification – dutifully passed it all along to their readers on …. faith.
Compare what took place here to what the Associated Press has to say about the use of anonymous sources in politics:
“No one wants news that’s built on unnamed, unaccountable sources and facts seemingly pulled from the air. Politicians and members of the public sometimes have cited such journalism as a reason for the fall in trust in the media….
“Reporting with loose attribution or anonymous sourcing can be dismissed as fake by the skeptical reader or politician. On the other hand, a report filled with verifiable facts attributed to named and authoritative sources of information is impossible to dispute.”
When all was said and done, the coverage of the Prime Minister’s visit to Egypt was denied to journalists and replaced with unchallenged reports from the leader’s staff, just like it’s done in tin pot dictatorships. And not a peep from the nation’s heavily subsidized journalism community.
Not a frickin’ peep.
(Peter Menzies is a commentator and consultant on media, Macdonald-Laurier Institute Senior Fellow, a past publisher of the Calgary Herald, a former vice chair of the CRTC and a National Newspaper Award winner.)
Readers will notice a new DONATE button has been added. This allows you to buy The Rewrite a cup of coffee or, if you are feeling generous, wine, but doesn’t constitute a subscription. Please consider making use of it and help us save journalism from bad journalism.
Subscribe to The Rewrite.
For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
Former Minister of Agriculture Gerry Ritz wonders who’s really in control
Canadians have been watching with increasing anger and outrage. The world has been watching with disbelief that a once great democracy could have become a petty dictatorship where the rule of law is ignored by a government agency – and hence, by the federal government itself – that believes it has impunity from the law and is above that law.
I have been writing about the disaster unfolding in Edgewood, BC for six months now. The problems began almost a year ago at Universal Ostrich Farms with an outbreak of what was believed to be avian flu. The crisis erupted when the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and the RCMP invaded and occupied the farm almost four weeks ago. The death squad came to kill 399 ostriches. They expected no opposition. They got plenty. Then the Supreme Court of Canada agreed to consider the farm’s appeal of a recent decision by the federal court to allow the “cull” to continue despite there being absolutely no reason for doing so. As has been noted, the CFIA steadfastly refuses to test the ostriches for avian flu.
The court ordered a stay of execution.
The CFIA has brazenly but systematically taken over this farm and is doing everything to impair the health and end the lives of the remaining birds.
 |
It made perfect sense since the birds are healthy and have been for well over 260 days.
But the CFIA has ignored the court’s order and continued with an unofficial, piecemeal execution of the ostriches. The herd has diminished by perhaps 100 birds since the CFIA was given “custody” of the birds and the farm owners have not been allowed to feed or care for their ostriches and have instead had to trust the CFIA to do that. It was obvious from the start that these bureaucratic goons were doing anything but and in fact were cruelly mistreating the birds because, after all, they think this court order is just a temporary setback. So not only is the evidence of cruelty mounting, it is becoming obvious that the CFIA is continuing to kill the birds and remove their carcasses from the farm in dumpsters.
 |
Former Minister of Agriculture Gerry Ritz was also an ostrich farmer at one time in his busy life. He was also minister for eight years during the administration of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and he knows how the CFIA works – and doesn’t work. He has been following the saga at Universal Ostrich Farms very closely.
 |
“I think it’s become a debacle. The world is watching, and there’s no accountability for anything that’s being done out there. There’s a stay before the Supreme Court, but while that stay is in place, the CFIA has moved ahead with impunity to do whatever they think they’re going to need to do in the end. And I think that’s just morally and ethically wrong … They’ve gone way beyond any kind of budget capacity. They’re outspending anything I’ve ever seen them try to do,” said Ritz
“They’ve gone sideways again, and no one is calling them to task. There’s a number of people on social media. No one in the mainstream, other than, you know, “This Hour Has 22 minutes” that did a skit the other day, which I found was completely tasteless and offside. Well, that’s what they do, but at the end of the day this is a science-based organization, and I don’t see any science here. They have an opportunity to test the birds, and they refuse to do that.”
“I think it’s become a debacle. The world is watching, and there’s no accountability for anything that’s being done out there,” said Gerry Ritz
The video evidence of the neglect, maltreatment and cruelty is abundant. The CFIA has not only banned the family farm of Dave Bilinksy, Karen Espersen and her daughter Katie Pasitney from feeding the ostriches, these thugs are reluctant to do that task for them and the birds are clearly not just hungry but starving. The CFIA should have been charged weeks ago for violating basic animal cruelty laws. They should also be held accountable for treating an order from the Supreme Court of Canada with the same seriousness as an order at a fastfood restaurant.
 |
The CFIA has even occupied an adjacent farm simply because they wanted to build a road that would allow them to bypass the protesters on the farm and continue to do their work in secret. They have established an execution pen of hay bales inside a fenced-off area of the farm that the farm owners cannot enter. Katie and her family have lost control of their livestock, their farm and their livelihood. The CFIA is conducting its clandestine and dirty work with complete impunity. No one has been charged with cruelty, they operate above the law and control the scope of work performed by the police.
So, while the farm waits to discover the decision of the Supreme Court, time is potentially running out for the ostriches. When we learned that the court would not be responding for at least two weeks after Thanksgiving, it seemed like a good omen. Two weeks to continue to consolidate public opinion against the slaughter. Two weeks to demonstrate that this form of government overreach was not just directed at one farm or one herd of ostriches but against all farmers, all property owners, anyone who has a dog or a cat at home. The CFIA has brazenly but systematically taken over this farm and is doing everything to impair the health and end the lives of the remaining birds.
 |
There may not be a single ostrich left by the time the Supreme Court decides whether to hear the case or not. It may be a moot point and a decision without any purpose because the CFIA might have already disposed of all the ostriches, without any fear of legal consequences.
This story would be sufficiently tragic if it were only about the invasion and occupation of a family farm and the completely irrational and unnecessary decision to kill almost 400 ostriches. But it is about much more than that. It is about the Liberal government of Prime Minister Mark Carney having no respect for private property or the livelihood of farmers.
Ritz says it’s a toss-up between whether the CFIA has become a rogue agency or an agency following the orders of rogue federal government. “ think a little bit of both. Human nature tends to let you run wild if no one’s looking over your shoulder.”
“I cannot, for the like me, understand why SPCA aren’t screaming, you know, a lot more pushback than we’re seeing. Certainly they’re continuing to move ahead full steam, even while the Supreme Court decides whether they have this. [They’ve] decided to hear it, I understand, but at the end of the day, there’ll be nothing left to hear by the time they get there.”
This story would be sufficiently tragic if it were only about the invasion and occupation of a family farm and the completely irrational and unnecessary decision to kill almost 400 ostriches. But it is about much more than that. It is about the Liberal government of Prime Minister Mark Carney having no respect for private property or the livelihood of farmers. It is about a sanguinary government agency that has virtually nothing to do with public health but everything to do with killing animals. It is about the absolute refusal to the CFIA to test the birds for avian flu because the CFIA does not want to be caught in a lie or admit that herd immunity is far more effective than the vaccines that big pharma wants to sell and the Liberal government is clearly benefitting from.
This story is about your family farm, your house and backyard being occupied by the government with a trumped-up “warrant to search.” It is about your farmyard animals or your dog and cat being seized and killed by the CFIA because they say it is necessary. It is about a ravenous federal government not just “stamping out” healthy ostriches but stamping out basic liberties in Canada.
 |
Combined with the Carney government’s obsession to censor social media, confiscate a myriad of firearms from law-abiding gun owners who are largely farmers and establish a digital ID, the tragedy at the ostrich farm is about how a country that used to respect the rule of law and democratic protocol has slid into authoritarian rule that far too few Canadians tried to stop. We know the Carney government is heavily invested in avain flu vaccines that were purchased from the UK’s GSK. Is Mark Carney personally invested?
 |
Sources: https://x.com/TIME/status/
Does Ritz think this is all about doing the bidding of big pharma?
“Well, I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but I mean, when the chips start to fall on one side of the table, you really have to be conscious of where they’re piling up. And in this case, there’s a lot of unanswered questions. I just don’t understand how this has gotten as far as it has without some of those things being addressed,” he said asking, “Why are they refusing to test these birds?”
He noted that the cost of testing was about $100,000 when there were 399 birds still alive. “Now there are fewer. Why that would be an impediment when they’re probably spending that per day with everything they’re doing? Would that not be the ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card for the CFIA and the RCMP to back away and say, ‘Hey, we’ve tested them. Now everything’s fine. We’re good,’” Ritz continued.
“So why they won’t test baffles the crap out of me, and that’s where, as minister, Heath MacDonald should step in and say, ‘Just get it done.’ It takes a few minutes per bird. They’ve already got the system to line them up and run them through. So why aren’t they doing that? I just can’t believe that they’re passing up this opportunity to build the science unless there’s someone calling the shots behind them who doesn’t want the science revealed.”
The City of Red Deer’s Financial Troubles: Here Are The Candidates I Am Voting For And Why.
UN, Gates Foundation push for digital ID across 50 nations by 2028
Click here to help choose Alberta’s new licence plate design
The Trials of Liberty: What the Truckers Taught Canada About Power and Protest
-
Red Deer2 days ago
The City of Red Deer’s Financial Troubles: Here Are The Candidates I Am Voting For And Why.
-
Business2 days ago
UN, Gates Foundation push for digital ID across 50 nations by 2028
-
COVID-192 days ago
The Trials of Liberty: What the Truckers Taught Canada About Power and Protest
-
C2C Journal2 days agoCharlie Kirk and the Fragility of Civic Peace
-
International1 day agoPoland’s president signs new zero income tax law for parents with two children
-
Automotive1 day ago$15 Billion, Zero Assurances: Stellantis Abandons Brampton as Trudeau-Era Green Deal Collapses
-
Business17 hours agoTrump Admin Blows Up UN ‘Global Green New Scam’ Tax Push, Forcing Pullback
-
International2 days agoAustralian territory bans men from women’s prisons in national first