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You get two bags of groceries and it cost about $100. The same two bags would've been just $50 a couple of years ago.
Rent increased again, that's cool. Now it is over $2000. Not bad though, thats still a bit less than the average rent in Canada....wait, what?
The healthcare that was bragged about to anyone who will listen is on paper more than anything. My old doctor left and now I'm looking at not having one for at least one and a half years. What?
Life expectancies are dropping for the under 40 generation and its dropping fast. Unemployment claims just hit their highest levels since 2008. Are we calling this a recession yet? No, instead the government is still enticing poor immigrants into this land of opportunity to blow their life savings here.
Cities have homeless drug addicts sprawled across the streets. I turn on the TV and see politicians making an entire career by offering tax payer funded heroin to addicts. Homeless.People. Everywhere. The good thing though is that we're bringing in record numbers of third world immigrants, that's fun.
Meanwhile the government puts out new ads and news stories about how Canada is the best country in the world according to some new amateur poll. Incredible how obvious it's gotten.
So where will we be in two years? This country cannot possibly continue on this path. 9/10 young Canadians have completely given up on ever owning a home. Thats insane for a self congratulated first world country.
People no longer take pride in Canada because...why should they? Because the federal government will pay for your sex change if you work for them? How does a country that used to pride itself on equality allow it's cities to become dystopias split between homeless drug addicts and well to do people who inherited their parents wealth?
We are headed towards second world status fast. Really, the OECD stated that if the economy turns around immediately it will still take at least a decade to recover to where we are today.
Now we see even progressive people in other western countries looking at Canada a bit sideways. As the example to avoid. It turns out that the world doesn't 'need a lil' more Canada' anymore. You don't want to end up like those Canadians do you? It's an embarrassment.
OK enough sarcasm...what is the solution to this? There are lots of intelligent voices here so what do you think? Where we will be in two years from now if this continues? I don't see a way out so I wonder who does.
Your frustrations are real and I feel them too. The question is, what developed countries are not experiencing these cost of living issues? The US has some affordable cities but for the most part they’re in the same boat. The UK is in worse shape than we are. Australia is basically in the same situation as us but with a different accent. These are global phenomena and Canada has fared better than many places. A change in leadership might somewhat change things but only to a degree. You can’t blame the federal government for all of the difficult things happening here. Canada is not a third world country, the standard of living across the developed world has plummeted in the last 10-15 years and that’s a universal phenomenon
I agree with PDW - a lot of the frustrations Canadians are experiencing are also frustration many countries in the west are facing. I'm still very proud to be Canadian and I think when compared to the rest of the world, we are still extraordinarily fortunate to be able to hang our hat here. The peace and stability is still a far cry above most places.
I've written a few times on this however, the biggest issues we need to tackle in this country is everyday affordability for Canadians. Housing is too expensive, wages have remained flat for a long time - can't just blame that on the pandemic. I think increased funding for R and D is crucial - not just government increases but also in the private world. Companies who invest in increasing worker productivity needs to be incentivised. We need to create a cultural ecosystem that advocates for Canadian innovation and excellence. We have all the ingredients - we just need to start cooking more complex recipes.
In terms of other things like social matters. I think they are overblown and some individuals are allowing fear and paranoia of different to frame a sort of exaggerated threat that largely isn't there.
The only cluster I’ve been really following though is the Plant Protein cluster. It’s interesting but essentially the industry is starting from scratch, so it’s really slow going, with mainly tiny businesses involved. Until they can grow larger and gain market acceptance with their products, they can’t take advantage of economies of scale which would lower the current high prices of their products in stores.
I’ll add the loudest voices complaining about the state of affairs now seem to want a right populist type government and claim that will be the solution. I find myself asking this. Did the cost of living drop for the average American from 2016 to 2020 under Donald Trump? The answer is no. How about on the local level. I’m Alberta have rents and housing prices risen or declined since 2019 when the UCP took over from the NDP? The answer is they have gone up significantly. In a liberal democracy and global economy these leaders have limited measures they can take to tackle these issues. Do I think the federal Liberals have done enough? Absolutely not but I have zero faith in someone like Maxime Bernier to do a better job, and not Pollievre either.
I’ll add the loudest voices complaining about the state of affairs now seem to want a right populist type government and claim that will be the solution. I find myself asking this. Did the cost of living drop for the average American from 2016 to 2020 under Donald Trump? The answer is no. How about on the local level. I’m Alberta have rents and housing prices risen or declined since 2019 when the UCP took over from the NDP? The answer is they have gone up significantly. In a liberal democracy and global economy these leaders have limited measures they can take to tackle these issues. Do I think the federal Liberals have done enough? Absolutely not but I have zero faith in someone like Maxime Bernier to do a better job, and not Pollievre either.
As a strategic message - I largely agree with you. On some tactical issues however, I'm going to point out where I have some disagreement.
Let's look at the Carbon tax. Right now while Canadians are struggling with high and pretty sustained inflation levels and abrupt changes to interest rates, the carbon tax is just not helping. Raise the taxes on gas - everything trickles down. Is the Green economy something we need to work towards - of course but until we are in a place where it actually can start replacing fossil fuels and petrochemicals, making things more unaffordable for who consume them when there is no viable green alternatives - is a kick in the teeth.
China and India are huge carbon emitters. These taxes are good for a green marketing campaign but will do little to actually materially change global warming.
Then we have this requirement by 2035 that all new vehicles sold in Canada must be electric zero emmision vehicles. Ok great so let's make transportation costs even that much higher for Canadians to get back and forth to work.
I remember a few years ago you could get a new hyundai accent for 14 or 15K. Now the cheapest vehicle in Canada is the smaller/miniscule Mitsubishi Mirage @ 20K... Cheapest EV vehicle is 41K...
so how much is the cheapest new vehicle in Canada going to be for the average joe to buy just to get back and forth to work in 2035 and after because of the green requirement. I can tell you probably 2X more than the cheapest gas alternative they could have bought if they weren't banned.
So until we can start offering cost parallel green equivalents - it is hard to say Poilevre wouldn't introduce more pocket friendly policies for Canadians.
The high cost of these vehicles is in large part due to the post pandemic semiconductor shortages. I think the cost of EVs and regular ICE cars will come down once this is dealt with. The carbon tax AFAIK is revenue neutral meaning it gets redistributed as a rebate. This provides a financial incentive to greener measures. It’s not punitive, if you took it away you’re now subsidizing polluters at the expense of people who don’t have cars or whatever causes them to pay less into the carbon tax. I think people have been mislead about the nature of how it works. Not to mention we are heading to climate catastrophe at breakneck speed, imagine how much all these natural disasters are going to cost.
Canada definitely still is first world (among the best in fact) but the gap between the first world and the developing world's better countries is narrowing.
Sadly, I don't think this is because these developing countries are doing that much better (though they are improving a bit) but because the developed world is slowly declining in relative terms.
We almost all seem to be heading in a direction where we'll be a bit more like... Brazil.
The high cost of these vehicles is in large part due to the post pandemic semiconductor shortages. I think the cost of EVs and regular ICE cars will come down once this is dealt with. The carbon tax AFAIK is revenue neutral meaning it gets redistributed as a rebate. This provides a financial incentive to greener measures. It’s not punitive, if you took it away you’re now subsidizing polluters at the expense of people who don’t have cars or whatever causes them to pay less into the carbon tax. I think people have been mislead about the nature of how it works. Not to mention we are heading to climate catastrophe at breakneck speed, imagine how much all these natural disasters are going to cost.
Hmm I'm having a hard time believing that the high cost of EV's is mostly due to semiconductor shortages. That said, don't semiconductors go into regular gasoline powered cars? So they have risen in cost too but still - at time of writing in Canada it is 2X the cost to buy the cheapest EV vs the cheapest gasoline powered car. I have a hard time believing that by 2035 the cost would be parallel - I still think it'll be significantly more. So not only is housing costs out of reach but increasingly just buying the most basic vehicle will be as well.
In terms of the carbon taxes. How is it possible to determine all the price increase inputs down the supply chain when it comes to increased fuel costs. At the end of the day-do they cost the consumer more. I think yes. Additionally, the carbon tax increase again in 2030 will not be rebated.
There are no rebates with the second carbon tax and it’s being added on top of the current tax. By 2030, the two carbon taxes will increase the price of gas by about 55 cents per litre.
I get the cost of climate change. We are already seeing it. That said, Canada contributes very little to this even when we were polluting the most. The fact is - we could be a net zero nation completely right now but it would not move the dial on climate change. One can make an altruistic argument about it, but it will simply not materially change climate change unless everyone is on board with equal vigor across the globe - especially China and India.
We almost all seem to be heading in a direction where we'll be a bit more like... Brazil.
Does this mean we'll have carnival in February
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