Justin Trudeau has given a whole new meaning to the expression, lowering the bar. His Flacks told reporters. over the weekend that if they are only 15 points behind the Conservatives by the summer, their plan is working. Oh.
The Liberals have plenty of friends, but almost no one praised last week’s federal budget. When the Liberals boasted that there would be no increase in the deficit, what they really meant was that there would be no increase beyond the already announced $40 billion deficit. That, of course, is on top of the $19 billion in tax increases needed to help cover the $53 billion in new spending.
Despite the Trudeau government’s claims that the whopping 33 per cent increase in capital gains tax inclusion will only affect “those at the top,” it soon became clear to all observers that that simply wasn’t the case. TRUE.
Many ordinary Canadians would be affected once it comes into effect on June 25. For those artisans and entrepreneurs whose retirement planning included investing in and then selling property, the effects could be devastating. Politicians like to talk about helping the “little guy” but they tend to forget that most people don’t receive big pensions from the government.
Self-employed Canadians work hard and follow the rules, but they have to plan. This tax increase hits them hard and, as Bill Morneau correctly said, is essentially retroactive. Your only option is to hold a liquidation sale of your property before June 25.
Actually, no one should be surprised that the budget was a tough sell. Before being elected prime minister, Trudeau famously said that if you grow the economy, the deficit will balance itself. He has accumulated more debt than all prime ministers combined in the previous 148 years of Canadian history. To say he is a terrible manager is an understatement.
The Liberals continued to use every smoke and mirrors trick available, such as postponing spending announced in previous budgets, to try to keep a fig leaf over this new deficit. That includes the current $14 billion gap between what they have promised to fight climate change and what there actually is.
All this, of course, after Trudeau increased the size of the civil service by an incredible 40 per cent. What can go wrong? Now they have tons of money and bureaucrats to spend it, right?
Sometimes the smallest example appears in the news and becomes a fabulous metaphor. If you want to understand why the current federal government is one of the worst examples of public administration in living memory, look at what happened at the beautiful park owned and managed by Parks Canada throughout the Lachine Canal.
People enjoy the good weather next to the Lachine Canal in Montreal, July 2, 2022 (Graham Hughes / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
Lachine is an older section of Montreal along the St. Lawrence. Its name (literally meaning “China”) is a joke that dates back centuries, when some travelers tried to find a way to get to China, but never succeeded. His lord’s lands were nicknamed China and the name stuck.
The British later built a major canal and railway there and it became what, at the time, was one of Canada’s most important industrial centres. The area around that redeveloped canal is now a Government of Canada park.
Last week the federal employees responsible for the park decided to remove the trash cans. All trash cans. No wonder people living in the area are upset. Now there is garbage everywhere and bags full of dog poop are left on the grass.
Bags of dog poop are left on a boardwalk along Montreal’s Lachine Canal in Montreal, Wednesday, April 17, 2024 (Christinne Muschi / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
The federal announcement is a masterpiece of high-sounding bureaucracy. It’s one for all ages. Here’s my favorite part:
“We know that actions on the ground have been taken quickly and may have surprised some people. An awareness campaign is being prepared,” reads a statement from Parks Canada. “This pilot project to reduce waste in the Lachine Canal NHS includes the removal or relocation of rubbish bins, as well as potentially new types of facilities in strategic areas of the canal. It is important to remember that waste management remains the responsibility and everyone’s duty.”
From everyone, apparently, except the people who are paid to remove it. It is a magnificent parable for Justin Trudeau’s federal government.
There is a formula.
You get excited about climate change but spend $35 billion on a pipeline to increase oil production. Show up at military parades but cut their budgets year after year (until an election year when voters are embarrassed by our failure to meet our NATO obligations). You say housing isn’t federal jurisdiction until younger voters are about to throw you out for not building houses for their generation, then you hurry up and pose for the cameras.
Hundreds of families flock to this charming federal park in Lachiné every day during the summer. The feds have one job: keep it nice, clean and safe. Instead, they will conduct an “awareness campaign” and monitor a pilot project. It’s a ridiculous pastiche of what the Trudeau government has become. They have people to run an awareness campaign and evaluate a pilot project on garbage, but no one to take out the garbage.
The only thing missing is a multimillion-dollar contract with McKinsey to study it. Trudeau likes to talk about making those “at the top” pay. In terms of public administration, Trudeau’s model has been for those at “the top” to pretend and continue passing the buck.
The real and often difficult work of running the government simply has not been done under Trudeau. That model is now being copied at all levels of the bureaucracy.
You fake it. You have meetings about taking out the trash and then a pilot project to avoid having to do the work.
No wonder Canadian voters seem ready to throw Trudeau and his government in the trash.
Tom Mulcair was the leader of Canada’s federal New Democratic Party from 2012 to 2017.