Diane Francis
Jan 07, 2022
Canadians should stop fretting about what may happen to America’s democracy and worry more about what’s going on here in our own backyard. The undemocratic, unjust, and bigoted undercurrents south of the border also exist here but are cloaked in politically correct, shame-based pronouncements articulated by the Liberal-NDP coalition and amplified by Canada’s liberal co-opted media, principally the state-owned CBC.
Canada, under inept management for years, has become an autonomous economic region of the United States. It’s forfeited any international status or role by abrogating NATO pledges. In fact, it is barely sovereign and its military has been neglected. Just before the last election, the Pentagon force-fed a new template — described as a NORAD modernization — onto the hapless Liberal government.
This was quickly followed by an offer by Britain to patrol the Arctic Ocean. British Gen. Sir Nick Carter snarkily said the U.K. wants to “co-operate in terms of helping Canada do what Canada needs to do as an Arctic country.”
Internally, there are two major concerns: Quebec and Alberta. La Belle Province, with its anti-hijab law, has veered embarrassingly away from human rights and been allowed to. Far worse, Quebec is undertaking a slow-motion secession paid for by excessive equalization payments extracted mostly from Alberta and pushed by its “federal” separatist party, the Bloc Quebecois.
Alberta — the engine of economic growth for Canada — is treated like a stepchild. Its recent referendum passed by Albertans to make equalization fair, is a wake-up call that, if ignored by this government, also imperils the Confederation.
That’s the big picture. The small picture is that Canadians are severely over-taxed, compared to the competing economy south of the border, because of vote-getting handouts to Quebec, Atlantic Canada, and Liberal loyalists. Canadians are also captive to runaway housing prices due to rampant money laundering by criminal and offshore sources — laundering that could be curbed with regulations and new laws but which the Liberals ignore.
Federal management is awful. The Ottawa bureaucracy is swollen, expensive, and run by amateur cabinet ministers who hire more amateurs as consultants. The 2021 budget estimated the costs for “professional and special services” are expected to hit $16.4 billion by 2022, up from $10.4 billion when Trudeau took over in 2015 and represents the highest level of spending on consultants since the 1990s.
The Post reported that “The cost of paying government worker salaries has also increased sharply from $39.6 billion before 2015 to $47.5 billion in 2020.” This is because the size of the federal public service has grown by 10,000 bureaucrats a year since 2015 and now totals 380,000, which is bigger than the population of Victoria.
Then there’s the issue of gerrymandering that has given Atlantic Canada and Quebec more seats than they deserve. This has allowed prime ministers, whose governments have failed to get majority votes since Brian Mulroney did, to rule like dictators because of support from the two poorest regions in the country.
This is an anti-capitalist bunch disguised as environmental zealots, with policies forged by Greta Thunberg that are devoid of recognition that the country is a gigantic carbon sink – with 318 billion trees, muskeg and farmland — that dramatically mitigates emissions. Even so, the Liberal regime continues to destroy Canada’s oil and mining resource industries without any justification.
The result of all this is a loss of national pride and purpose. Properly managed countries — notably Australia and South Korea — will soon overtake Canada in economic size. Australia also outperforms Canada in all other metrics from per capita incomes to unemployment while providing health and education benefits that match Canada’s.
This is why Canadians best focus their worry on what’s going on domestically. This country has a serious democratic deficit, a rogue province threat subsidized by the rest, and has a federal government bent on dismantling the free enterprise system of wealth creation.
financialpost.com
Jan 07, 2022
Canadians should stop fretting about what may happen to America’s democracy and worry more about what’s going on here in our own backyard. The undemocratic, unjust, and bigoted undercurrents south of the border also exist here but are cloaked in politically correct, shame-based pronouncements articulated by the Liberal-NDP coalition and amplified by Canada’s liberal co-opted media, principally the state-owned CBC.
Canada, under inept management for years, has become an autonomous economic region of the United States. It’s forfeited any international status or role by abrogating NATO pledges. In fact, it is barely sovereign and its military has been neglected. Just before the last election, the Pentagon force-fed a new template — described as a NORAD modernization — onto the hapless Liberal government.
This was quickly followed by an offer by Britain to patrol the Arctic Ocean. British Gen. Sir Nick Carter snarkily said the U.K. wants to “co-operate in terms of helping Canada do what Canada needs to do as an Arctic country.”
Internally, there are two major concerns: Quebec and Alberta. La Belle Province, with its anti-hijab law, has veered embarrassingly away from human rights and been allowed to. Far worse, Quebec is undertaking a slow-motion secession paid for by excessive equalization payments extracted mostly from Alberta and pushed by its “federal” separatist party, the Bloc Quebecois.
Alberta — the engine of economic growth for Canada — is treated like a stepchild. Its recent referendum passed by Albertans to make equalization fair, is a wake-up call that, if ignored by this government, also imperils the Confederation.
That’s the big picture. The small picture is that Canadians are severely over-taxed, compared to the competing economy south of the border, because of vote-getting handouts to Quebec, Atlantic Canada, and Liberal loyalists. Canadians are also captive to runaway housing prices due to rampant money laundering by criminal and offshore sources — laundering that could be curbed with regulations and new laws but which the Liberals ignore.
Federal management is awful. The Ottawa bureaucracy is swollen, expensive, and run by amateur cabinet ministers who hire more amateurs as consultants. The 2021 budget estimated the costs for “professional and special services” are expected to hit $16.4 billion by 2022, up from $10.4 billion when Trudeau took over in 2015 and represents the highest level of spending on consultants since the 1990s.
The Post reported that “The cost of paying government worker salaries has also increased sharply from $39.6 billion before 2015 to $47.5 billion in 2020.” This is because the size of the federal public service has grown by 10,000 bureaucrats a year since 2015 and now totals 380,000, which is bigger than the population of Victoria.
Then there’s the issue of gerrymandering that has given Atlantic Canada and Quebec more seats than they deserve. This has allowed prime ministers, whose governments have failed to get majority votes since Brian Mulroney did, to rule like dictators because of support from the two poorest regions in the country.
This is an anti-capitalist bunch disguised as environmental zealots, with policies forged by Greta Thunberg that are devoid of recognition that the country is a gigantic carbon sink – with 318 billion trees, muskeg and farmland — that dramatically mitigates emissions. Even so, the Liberal regime continues to destroy Canada’s oil and mining resource industries without any justification.
The result of all this is a loss of national pride and purpose. Properly managed countries — notably Australia and South Korea — will soon overtake Canada in economic size. Australia also outperforms Canada in all other metrics from per capita incomes to unemployment while providing health and education benefits that match Canada’s.
This is why Canadians best focus their worry on what’s going on domestically. This country has a serious democratic deficit, a rogue province threat subsidized by the rest, and has a federal government bent on dismantling the free enterprise system of wealth creation.
Diane Francis: Canadians should worry more about democracy here than in the United States
We have a serious democratic deficit and a federal government bent on dismantling the free enterprise system of wealth creation
financialpost.com
