dave_j

I'm not considering foreign policy or how he behaves on the world stage, it's how he addresses the problems that affect normal people. I appreciate he might find it difficult the understand why some people find it difficult to heat and eat at the same time, but the man has influence and I see no evidence of it's being used for the common good.

dbd33

I agree completely.

scrubbedexpat091

The people as a whole didn't vote for Trump exactly. More people voted for Clinton but of course the popular vote unfortunately doesn't win presidential elections.

dbd33

What is frightening is that a person, any person, voted for Trump.

Note that I write as the irritated owner of a LL Bean jacket which although passers-by assure me must be "piss proof" will now have to go to Goodwill.

BristolUK

Or even admits to it.

MarkG

I'd prefer neither, but if those were the only two choices, I'd take Trump. I think it's pretty clear that America will be much better off after eight years of Trump than Canada will be after eight years of Trudeau.

On the plus side, Trudeau may make the Liberals as unelectable here as the Democrats now are in America. If he's going to be the Canadian Obama, I guess we have to wait a few years to find out who's going to be the Canadian Trump.

MarkG

Yeah, but many of them were dead or illegal.

Not long before the election, some American liberals were saying that Trump might win the popular vote, but there was no way he could win the electoral college, and that's what counts.

The Narrative changed very quickly after Trump proved them wrong.

Former Lancastrian

Lets have some fun and change it around rather than have it become a thread on Trump V Trudeau or Canada V USA.

This question could be asked of a number of leaders of G20 countries who are not exactly the flavour of the day in charge of their own countries

Australia are now on their 4th Prime Minister since 2010
Of course the UK has no problems with Theresa May at the helm.
Is Angela Merkel as popular now as she was when she swept to victory in Germany?
France will be choosing a new leader this year Marine Le Pen for PM anyone?

I dare say there are others who their citizens are not happy with for a variety of reasons. How did Greece become such a basket case? Terrible leadership maybe but the citizens voted for them thinking they would do the right thing and ended up suffering because like a lot of politicians these days they will say things to get elected but fail to deliver on promises made.

Leading up to being elected Trudeau and the Liberal Government made 223 promises/announcements or whatever you want to call them.
He has been in office for 439 days. Lets look at his record so far

28 broken promises
38 promises achieved
67 in progress
90 not yet started.

Now as with any promises some are harder than others. Some will say but he has achieved 38 which is good. But if you look at the 38 achieved you might go mmm not that great or that was a no brainer and easy to do like

Eliminate all fees associated with the Access to Information process except for the initial $5 filing fee.
Increase the Northern Residents Deduction residency component by 33% (to a maximum of $22 per day).
Introduce a new Teacher and Early Childhood Educator School Supply Tax Benefit for the purchase of up to $1,000 worth of school supplies each year.
Make the Compassionate Care Benefit more flexible so that those who care for seriously ill family members can access six months of benefits.
Immediately double the number of applications allowed for parents and grandparents to 10,000 each year.
Meet with the provinces and develop a plan to fund a gradual enhancement of the CPP’s defined benefit plan.

Full list here
https://www.trudeaumetre.ca

Now what didn't he do
Create a common, quarterly, and more detailed parliamentary expense report.
Run short-term deficits of less than $10 billion in each of the next two fiscal years (2016 and 2017).
The 2016 middle class tax cut combined with the new 33% tax bracket will be revenue neutral. They just recently announced a 1.2 billion dollar shortfall.
Immediately start to invest $3 billion over the next four years to deliver better home care services (including in-home caregivers, financial support for family care, and palliative care).
Provide $100 million each year to the provinces and territories to support guns and gangs police task forces.
Invest an additional $775 million per year for job and skills training.

Full list here
https://www.trudeaumetre.ca

So yes depending where you live and what circumstances you have I guess there are a few questions others would like to ask the PM.

Shard

Not following Canadian politics much. Has Trudeau had any positive impact yet ?

Former Lancastrian

Yup I think the picture of him and Sophie on the cover of Vogue sold a few more copies than it normally would have done.

dave2003

When I arrived in Canada as a child-1968-Canada's national debt was about $78billion. There was no deficit. From Lester Pearson on to the present day, the debt increased relentlessly and deficits became the norm.

not2old

compare that to the UK national debt in 1968 ~£ 33 billion to today's £1.8 trillion or ~£28.989/person.

Now, compare the UK debt to Canada 1968 $78 billion to 2017 $636 billion or ~$17,000/person.

Canada is a good place to be eh!

US national debt today is huge, yet in 1968 it was $348 billion, but is it really all that bad living in debt?

US national debt (changing fast by the second) is ~$20 trillion or $64,000/person & you cannot blame that or any of the historical debt on Trump, maybe the last 8 years Obama really screwed things up.

https://www.thebalance.com/national-...events-3306287

Australia national debt

$519 billion or $21,848/person

.

dave_j

A question, the answer to which depends on whether you intend to repay the loan.

Broadly speaking debt is borrowing from your future income.

National debt is incurred by political policy making, for example: Schools are falling apart, as PM it would make me look good if I rebuilt a few but the provinces won't pay so I'll borrow from the international community and give the procedes to provinces to do just that and splash my generosity across the TV news. I look good, my party looks good, the public feel as though I care about them and the national debt ticks up. So what? The man in the street doesn't care, understand or want to understand what the national debt is. My smile on the TV is my best feature.

Do I intend to repay the loan? Of course not.. it'll still be there when I'm out of office and when that happens it'll be someone else's problem, someone else will always pay, they always pay for my mistakes.

not2old

The Americans seem to be unconventional when it comes to debt IMO

Borrow, live for today, screw the future for others to take care of

Some 318 million people, low unemployment rate, most Americans would rather drive a new expensive flashy car than have medical insurance, not bother going to the dentist, not own a home & if they did would walk away from it if they couldn't pay the mortgage.

Trump, the financial community, those huge conglomerates leverage to death. Many like Trump go bankrupt, then start all over again.

Live for today & cash flow, screw the debt

Imagine small scale Canada, someone has an income property that they've managed to get it to 100% mortgage. Its all about cash flow.

Borrow to pay for whatever Mr. Trudeau, it wont be your problem a few years from now, after all you'll have your pension, write a book or two, sit on the board of directors of a few corporations, stash your money offshore - like so may ex politicians have done & will continue to do - Canadians being no different than the rest around the globe

magnumpi

It's also hard hard to find anyone in Ontario who proudly says they voted for Wynne