Almost half of Canadians living paycheque to paycheque as Tory support grows: poll
Almost half of Canadians living paycheque to paycheque as Tory support grows: poll
OTTAWA – A new poll suggests nearly half of Canadians are living paycheque to paycheque as the cost of living crisis continues to squeeze household budgets, and young people are more likely to s...
Let's elect the Conservatives so they can cut taxes on the rich, cut services for the poor, neglect our government systems and infrastructure, drive up the deficit and the debt, then blame the Liberals for trying to fix their mess.
Rinse.
Repeat.
Why are people so fucking dumb? The Conservatives do the same thing every time. Then they lie about what the Liberals are doing and people swallow it hook, line, and sinker.
Taxes are too high, government spending is out of hand, too many immigrants, and it's all the Liberals' fault.
That's it, I'm sawing off my legs! That'll show those Marxist bastards!
People are upset with Trudeau so they will try another option.
I don't like Trudeau either, but PP is way worse.
That's part of the stupidity OP is talking about.
They will try the other option that worked so well the last time and the time before that and the time before that and the time...
The problem is we're facing a crisis where once in the entire stupid goddamned history of economic crises, this the one time where small-government libertarianism actually really would help. Municipal government overrestriction of housing-construction (also a few federal housing regs like single-stair construction) is a massive chunk of the problem. And both the Liberal and NDP parties have a very tight relationship with municipal governments and so they want to keep their friends there. Meanwhile, Pierre Poilievre isn't a "friends" type of person, so he's able to call out the "let them eat cake" politics of municipal governments.
Of course, (a) there's a substantial chance that PP is lying about his plans to strongarm municipal governments, and (b) while he may help solve the crisis with that action, he will also likely help exacerbate it on the other hand by slashing supports for the poorest Canadians, and he'll also create a few new crises related to climate change and LGBTQ rights, and possibly vaccines.
So yeah, no love for him.
But I'm not looking forward to the day when a Conservative federal government is kicking municipal asses and I have to go to bat for an absolute shitheel like Poilievre on the principle that he is right exclusively on this one very specific issue.
The problem is that every single thing a Conservative does is designed to look like is helping the common man when its actually helping the wealthy and corporations. Dig for us going to make land available for 50,000 units of urban sprawl? Million dollar houses that only the upper middle class can afford and 8 billion dollars of benefit to his wealthy friends. They weave a good story that the least of us believe while the entire time funneling billions and billions of dollars of the tax money paid by the least of us to the wealthiest of us and corporations. What we need is good management and good social programs. We're not going to get that combination from either party so I would rather have social programs while they try to figure it out.
Even if he was hypothetically not lying about wanting to address housing in the way he suggests, I still wouldn't be able to support him because eroding our social protections and freedoms is not worth it.
But I also think the likely hood that he upsets his rich suburban supporters and friends by allowing condos to be built next to their nice houses is close to zero. So it's probably one of those bullshit planks like the liberals saying they were going to potentially get rid of first past the post. There are zero consequences for our politicians lying like this.
It would be nice if our elections laws defined a class of promises where if they are broken an election is forcibly triggered.
Cool, so people are interested in making it worse? Lol.
As long as they can blame liberals, they'd be ok with making things worse.
The fact is, all the hardship that most people are going through is likely down to their provincial leadership. Surprise, surprise, the majority are conservative.
I believe only Newfoundland and Labrador has a liberal premier, and their cost of living is below average.
But yeah, let's have more pain and suffering.
The problem isn't even with Canada, it is a global phenomena. If you check news sites in other western democracies, they all have very similar struggles. The problem is wealth distribution is concentrated in too few people, and their wealth is such that like a black hole, it greedily consumes everything. The only solution is a readjustment of the global wealth pie, and break up many of these overly large monopolistic corporations. A vote for the cons is a doubling down of what we are already getting.
BC has an NDP premier.
All the Conservatives have to do is wait long enough and they'll win an election. They literally don't need to do anything. Eventually enough Canadians will blame the current Prime Minister for their city buses running late and vote in a Conservative.
While our politics is not technically two party, in terms of parties which have held power it is, and people seem stuck in that mindset. They know they are unhappy with the status quo, they know they want change, and the only change a lot of people are willing to consider is the one with the history of austerity.
So here's the issue. I align more with NDP but I don't want conservatives to win. I don't want to split the vote between NDP and liberals so I end up voting for the more popular candidate which ends up being the Liberals.
This is the issue with the current voting system. If only there was a different voting system proposed. Maybe one party could even back it. Maybe we can vote that party in power and then can actually change our voting system /s
It worked in Ontario!
Wait...
I hate Rob Ford so fking much.
STOP. SUPPORTING. TORIES. GODDAMN IT.
Honestly, what's the first thing out of a British person's lips? "I hate Tories, they're ruining this country." Yet they keep getting elected anyway. Can... can you see the problem with this? They pretend to be populist, but invariably steal from the poor and give to the rich. Stop falling for the bullshit and for your own prejudices and vote for people who will actually help the common man. Don't make the same mistakes we Americans keep making!
It's been almost 100 fucking years and yet this is still relevant.
Haven't half of all Canadians always lived paycheque to paycheque? We can find the same headline going back decades. I thought the news was supposed to deliver that which is... new?
It's especially rent, there was an article in Québec about someone who saw her rent increase from 1750$ to 2900$, condo was not re-sold or anything, it's just the owner who want to eat poors.
If we want rent control, tories aren't the answer.
They're never the answer.
A lot of people just want to punish the Liberals for their failings (of which there are... many). The meme that Canada votes against people and not for people seems pretty accurate IMO.
I thought Quebec had strict rent control? That shouldn't have been possible. It's the kind of thing I would expect to hear out of BC or Ontario.
I don't understand how people can complain of "no options" or act like there are no other parties, just Coke or Pepsi. There are other parties, and even independents. Voting isn't supposed to be a popularity contest for the most slick and charismatic candidate, nor is it a game where you try to match who you think everybody else is voting for.
It just feels to me like everyone is doing what they think they're supposed to do (as if our votes are public?), instead of trusting themselves to really look at what they believe should happen and find a party that is willing (or at least more likely) to fight to have it done. 😟
In Alberta there's a disgustingly large amount of people who simply vote blue because that's what their dad did, and what his dad did. If you ask them WHY they hate Trudeau, you can't get a coherent answer because they don't actually know.
My dad made a comment one day about how the "ruined" economy was all Trudeau's fault. I asked what he'd done and he couldn't think of anything to say.
Hard agree.. They just spew rhetoric because they think it's what they're supposed to say.. it's like a cult.
Part of the problem is that none of the parties address the real problems created by their actions. Liberal introduce a nation-wide carbon tax that should in theory tax large companies. In reality: Companies don't pay taxes, they raise their prices to cover the tax increase which "trickles down" (the only time trickle down economics actually "works") to the people.
So without dealing with that scenario when implementing the taxes, the ordinary Canadian gets hosed.
But now lets say PP becomes prime minister and reduces the taxes. Is he going to force companies to drop their prices to make up for that? Probably not. Companies will just use that as profit. So Canadians are still getting hosed.
And now after that lets say Liberals rise to power again. And re-implement these taxes. Once again, the companies will just pass those added costs onto the consumer again.
I wish I knew what the solution is here but I really don't. It feels like no matter what the government in charge does, companies just keep using it as an excuse to hose us one way or the other.
I do need to point out that the carbon tax is a bad example here, because the tax is rebated directly back to individual Canadians. So even if companies are folding the tax into their prices, we're not paying for it. They're effectively raising the price, then paying us the difference.
Of course, companies that can find ways to reduce their carbon footprint can simply avoid paying the tax altogether, allowing them to obtain more profit at the same price point. This incentivises climate friendly behaviour.
It's not a perfect solution, but within the neo-liberal paradigm that we're currently stuck in its at least making a difference, and a lot of climate experts agree that carbon taxes are an effective strategy (they shouldn't be the only strategy, but that's a separate discussion).
Point is, companies raising prices in line with carbon taxes isn't hurting your wallet, because you're getting that money right back. The designers of the policy already knew that would happen and factored it in.
Trudeau has struggled to make housing a serious issue so Pierre is doing a lot better.
I'm not convinced this issue has an easy solution. Most people who voice their opinions here always seem to have a silver bullet to the housing problem yet in most cases I can't find any evidence supporting what they are proposing will work. People seem to just be guessing what the problem is based on anecdotal evidence. The only thing I can find evidence for is there is not enough housing being built in Canada but this seems like a tough problem to solve.
I'm also not even convinced this is a purely national problem. It seems like a lot of countries are dealing with the same problem right now. This isn't to say there is no answer but it seems to suggest this is a tough problem and no one has a great solution to it.
You're right. It's not a purely Canadian problem, and the solution is not easy.
But we've long since left behind any semblance of a world where easy solutions are enough. We need politicians who will embrace hard choices.
The hard choice behind housing comes down to one simple fact; for housing to be an investment, there must be a housing crisis. The scarcity of housing is what forces home prices to continuously rise. Any solution that doesn't end the utility of housing as an investment will ultimately be insufficient. And no one wants to seriously talk about the idea that housing shouldn't be an investment anymore.
And we need to be absolutely clear that the Conservatives have even less interest in tackling investment property than either the Liberals or NDP. Taking care of the wealthy is always their number one priority.
What we should be talking about is something like this. That's the kind of big idea that would make a real difference.
The difference is other countries are at least trying things. The federal Liberals have only done things that actively make things worse (boosting demand via savings plans or RRSP withdrawals).They are all in on subsiding the landowners via the youth. It's disgusting and I'm sick of it. It has destroyed the economic outlook of this country for decades IMO.
Is he?
Its gonna be ok, Canadians. You are all living rent-free in my head!
Thanks, stranger. I don't know why some people downvoted you (am I missing something here?), but I appreciate your concern and friendly sentiment.
Lots of chatter in here about not supporting the conservatives. But, there's no options for Canadians. Liberals are outta gas and haven't done anything praiseworthy in a while. Conservatives suck and PP would just be a lamer Harper who wants to eat the poor. The NDP need a new leader as J.S. hasn't made headway in years.
More importantly, theyre all just arguing about how to tweak the broken, oppressive system we live with. No one is advocating for change. It's just a debate over who thinks they can keep liberal capitalism afloat. But liberal capitalism is the root of the problems. We have no advocates for change.
I vote we all go pull a 1919 Winnipeg and have a Canada-wide general strike in support of truly radical change. Change that pulls us away from rampant neoliberalization and rejects the basic assumptions of liberal capitalism.
Lots of chatter in here about not supporting the conservatives. But, there’s no options for Canadians.
Ok...but why elect a government that we KNOW is going to be worse? That hurts us. They cut revenue, cut services, run up the deficit and the debt, then lose and blame the Liberals for their mess. We would be better off to just stick with the Liberals who are bumbling idiots but at least they aren't actively trying to fuck us over to give billions of dollars to the wealthy and corporations. That doesn't make any fucking sense.
I hear you. But I think both are equally damaging, ultimately. One party might accelerate the process, and the other may drag the damage out over decades. But we end up in the same place.
And, just spitballin' here, maybe an accelerated view of how destructive liberal capitalism is may be exactly what Canadians need to jolt us out of our world-renowned complacency. I dunno what it'll take to get Canadians fired up enough to seek actual change. Clearly raging forest fires, a housing crisis, a health care crisis, drug addition crisis, rampant depression and anxiety, rampant inflation, ballooning cost of living, and political corruption (both domestic and foreign) isn't enough. So, maybe shit needs to get even worse before it gets better. Aka. Vote in the conservatives?
Money printer go brrrrrrrr!
Deficit spending also makes things better!