Election 2021
 

Red, Blue, Orange, or Green, it's time to exercise our right to vote. I found this online tool for setting the questions for the Leaders' Debate, and it seems to cover a lot of ground:
https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/long...bate-form-2021

Re: Election 2021
 

None of the above. I would vote for the Bloc Quebecois but they don't have candidates outside of Quebec. I am all for Quebec separating.

Re: Election 2021
 

Why so negative?

Re: Election 2021
 

Errrr because politicians lie and promise the earth and fail to deliver and won't bargain in faith and make you wait 3 years for a new 4 year contract that expires in 10 months. Need I go on? Give me some positives to gush about?

Re: Election 2021
 

That one is true.

Re: Election 2021
 

How do you think the Govt handled the pandemic for Canadians living abroad wanting to return back to Canada?

Re: Election 2021
 

I know all that and experienced it. Same for the large crowds at Pearson airport.

I am also well aware that politicians are mostly liars.

Also, I disagree with the election, especially as it's only tactical, and deeply wrong at this time of the pandemic.

If Trudeau really wants an early election, he should have picked Sept. 2022.

Re: Election 2021
 

Maybe if voters stopped voting in the same 2 parties over and over.

NDP as far as I know have never formed government, so hard to say what they would be like, if people want to try for actual change, stop voting for Conservatives and Liberal Party.

We have provincial NDP and in their first term they completed 80% of what they said they would do in the campaign, which finally we had a party in BC in power who did what they said they would do, rather than fluff from BC Liberals (not affiliated with Federal Liberals.) Did they complete every promise, no but its not realistic, 80% kept in my book is pretty good, some of the campaign promises are reliant on the federal government (housing funds for example) but NDP has done more in 4 years for housing than BC Liberals did in 16 years.

Oh well, if they didn't charge so much for citizenship, but not like my vote matters, no way I can convince the die hard conservatives who live in Kelowna to ever vote anything else.

Re: Election 2021
 

But then he may have a higher chance of losing, although I hope this election backfires and he does lose or at least a another minority government and the party wises up and gets a new leader.

Re: Election 2021
 

Actually, I kind of like the idea that Trudeau gets back in with a minority government but that the NDP is the next largest party.

Re: Election 2021
 

I also hope that it backfires for Trudeau. Also considering the amount of debt the country has amassed during the pandemic, the election is also a cost factor.

I personally find the election rather selfish, political tactics and of no benefit to Canada at this point of time.

Re: Election 2021
 

Election costs are surely easier to budget with set election cycles, Canada seems to be in the middle, sort of kind of set, but can be called early, where the US its set in stone, nobody can call an early election just because their polls look good.

Re: Election 2021
 

Trouble is, though, that fear of the other side comes into play. As much as one would like to see an NDP led by someone like Jack Layton, not voting middlish or safe has seen a government like Harper's or the possibility of the outdated Scheer. Trudeau and his party is infinitely preferable to either of those tory options.

Just looking over BC voting history and if a vote for NDP doesn't put them in power, maybe you at least get something watered down rather than the complete opposite. Put simply, a vote for NDP in BC doesn't risk getting the polar opposite (relatively speaking ;)) like it does for Canada as a whole.

And there does seem to be quite a difference between province versions of the same party name compared to federal versions.

When I first moved to NB Liberal vs Conservative seemed bass ackwards - eg Liberals favouring ambulance charges, tories against and Liberals wanting to sell off NB Power to Quebec with tories opposing.
Some years later, and an incoming Liberal government was a breath of fresh air - increased abortion availability, affordable prescription plan for everyone and free tuition for low income families rather than tax credits for the wealthier folk. It was just like you're saying for BC's NDP. :nod:

Re: Election 2021
 

We're old and grey and we're here to stay, and we vote. Here's a rundown of what pensioners have been promised so far:
"Out of the gate, most of the parties have made promises to help seniors, largely focused on fixing the vulnerabilities exposed in long-term care homes by the COVID-19 pandemic."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/sen...ises-1.6146275

Re: Election 2021
 

And that is why nothing will change, people wont take the risk and vote for who they want not who they fear.

BC is more or less really not even represented at the federal level at the moment, mostly NDP & Conservative with a smaller liberal area and a former liberal riding now independent since Trudeau kicked her out.

As for the liberal name, it can get confusing in Canada, we have a party called BC Liberals which in reality is a right leaning more conservative party, but having conservative in the name in coastal BC isn't going to win you elections, the interior though is BC Liberal stronghold but the interior can't win elections.

From 2017 to 2020 election in BC, the NDP was only holding on by a string, the Green Party went into a limited coalition with NDP to prevent BC Liberals from forming government. 2017 election was 43 seats BC Liberals, 41 seats NDP and 3 seats Green Party, so with the green party coalition they had 1 seat above BC Liberals, but it started to fall apart a bit last year and it wasn't going to last another 12 months, which is the maximum BC could have gone until the next election.

Re: Election 2021
 

Ever since we came here 54 years ago, the NDP has been labelled the "Red horde", and both Liberals and Conservatives, but particularly the latter party, have made huge noises about what the "red horde" would mean ................. in words, they scared people silly as "red horde" was the name for the Communists of Russia.

That label was applied both federally and provincially.

Jack Layton was really the one that broke down the barrier federally, while Dave Barrett had broken it several years earlier in BC.

Jagmeet Singh seems to be having much the same popular appeal as Jack Layton once had.

Of course, those of us from the UK know that the NDP is nowhere near as far to the left as the Labour Party, and how false the label was.

Many of the NDP policies have been adopted by the Liberals for many years ............ after all it was a CCF later NDP party leader Tommy Douglas who first introduced a provincial Health policy, which was then adopted federally ...... hence out social security and medical programmes.

Re: Election 2021
 

I think maybe you are in a unique position over there. You're happy with the NDP and you'd like to see them governing Federally too.
From looking at recent election results in BC a vote for the NDP benefits the NDP.
For Canada, unless a voting swing to the NDP is a big one, the beneficiary will either be Libs or Cons, with the largest number switching from one of those feeling the worst about it.

Sometimes voting for the party you want works and other times you vote tactically to keep out the ones you'd least like.

Problems of the current system.

Re: Election 2021
 

This is the problem!!

We will have a Liberal running in our district, after Jody decided not to run again. Not sure if I will vote for him or not ........... I know nothing about him. We did have a several page pamphlet through the door 2 or 3 weeks ago, but he hasn't been officially nominated yet, so far as I know.

No idea of who the candidates are for the NDP or the Conservatives.

But what do I want to happen????

Re: Election 2021
 

I just don't like the current liberal party leader, anyone but Trudeau at this point for me. NDP has so far been the only party to remotely do anything to improve lives of more than just the wealthy, which is really all the BC Liberals did, take from the lower classes to give breaks to their upper class friends oh and sell of government assets too, and screw up ICBC to the point it was horrendously expensive, from my perspective BC NDP has done more to improve BC than the liberals did in like almost 16 or 17 years.

Re: Election 2021
 

The NDP have done well in BC .................... but can they win enough seats in the federal election to make the government?

I honestly don't think they can.

So, if you don't like Trudeau, do you mind if O'Toole becomes PM?

IMHO, he's making big promises that he will be unable to keep.

Think ............. how is he going to build 1 million homes in 3 years?

He's going to have to pander to the largest group in his party, who are more conservative than he is trying to be. If he fails to satisfy them, then he will soon be out.

I believe Trudeau has done well during the pandemic with the money he has been handing out ........... business kept going, people laid off with money to feed their family. Certainly I can't complain as a senior on a pension.

The economy is turning around.

Re: Election 2021
 

Here's a tool CBC calls their Vote Compass, intended to show which party you align with:
https://votecompass.cbc.ca/canada

And some more electioneering:
https://www.insauga.com/liberals-ndp...eral-election/

Re: Election 2021
 

That was fun
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...b051d915e1.png
For some reason, saving the image removed the identifiers. Maybe a screenshot is a better idea than having to do what I did.

Re: Election 2021
 

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...d2d48dae0d.png
There's mine.

Re: Election 2021
 

Canada, on average, builds 200,000 new homes. 1 million/3 years = 330K new homes per year. The plan is to:

a) repurpose 15% of federal buildings and convert them into apartments. Federal government is the largest property owner in Canada.
b) explore converting office space to housing. Some commercial offices are no longer used due to Covid-19 and a percentage will not be used going forward.
c) allow Canadians to defer capital gains taxes if they reinvest proceeds in rental properties to encourage development
d) implement recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry into money laundering in British Columbia
e) ban foreign buyers who are not moving to Canada from buying houses for 2 years (this is a gimmick; will not increase the number of new homes).

Re: Election 2021
 

Are you referring to Social Conservatives? They form a vociferous but small minority of the party. Had zero impact on policy in 2005-2015; their numbers have been going down. O'Toole made clear that there will be no changes to laws on abortion. Here is an example of another policy: https://www.thestar.com/politics/fed...nvestment.html

Derek Sloan was the most prominent social conservative candidate during party leadership election. He received 14% of the vote. O'Toole had him kicked out from the caucus a few months ago.

Re: Election 2021
 

"Roughly 100,000 businesses that were active in February 2020 were closed by September and remained closed as of November." https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/.../00003-eng.htm

The forecast is for over 200,000 businesses to be permanently closed.

Meanwhile:

- completely unnecessary money has been doled out to companies with good connections https://www.orilliamatters.com/local...erator-2777517 This follows a pattern, of course. We remember government connections to SNC and WE.

- Anyone over 75 got $500 bribe timed to the election, regardless of need

- Why exactly are we spending half a billion dollars on this election? Was there a particular policy that Trudeau couldn't implement without this election? Which one? Sure looks like Trudeau is wasting a lot of taxpayers' money. Again.

- Canada's debt has ballooned. Understandable during a pandemic but the rate of increase has been unprecedented and the way money has been spent has been irresponsible. Projected to reach $1.3336 trillion by 2022.

At the current rates debt servicing amounts to 6% of our taxes. Current interest rates at 0.25% are unusual. Rates of 2% would be more normal; that's almost an order of magnitude increase. The other impact of a massive increase in money supply is inflation. Pierre Trudeau implemented similar monetary policies, which caused 12% inflation. Meanwhile our Prime Minister asks: "forgive me if I don’t think about monetary policy." Seems unforgivable given his job description.

Re: Election 2021
 

This is interesting, I have a deferred CGT liability, it seems the suggestion is that I can defer it again by becoming a slum lord. That seems like terrible public policy but it might allow me to get another car.

Re: Election 2021
 

Yes, if you are a landlord and will sell your property to invest into building more rental accommodation. This will be over a fixed period of time (I recall 2 years?) and is designed to incentivize development in the rental market and help reach the 1M target. I have no idea if this will be an effective policy but the logic makes sense to me. Presumably some of the current landlords don't sell/reinvest because they don't want to trigger CGT, so they just sit on their capital.

"Another car" scenario is a nice thought but in direct contradiction with the proposal.

Re: Election 2021
 

I was between Liberal and PC but voted for neither in the last election and will not likely vote for either. I am quite disillusioned with the 'big 3' and have little to no trust in Justin Trudeau and his 'don't worry about inflation or the debt' mantra.....

Re: Election 2021
 

There can't be a huge number of such people. I expect it's just that someone in that situation is a significant donor.

I first read this to mean any CGT liability could be deferred by buying apartments.

Re: Election 2021
 

More than two in three Canadians own their homes. Of them 26% are landlords. So, about 20% of all Canadians are potentially impacted by the proposal. https://insurance-portal.ca/article/...are-landlords/

As of 2021, the maximum yearly contribution limit is $1650 to a given federal political party, $1650 to a given party's riding associations, $1650 to a given party's leadership candidates, and $1650 for each independent candidate. The maximum total contribution is set at $3300.

Re: Election 2021
 

This cannot be true. Many Canadians are married, married couples do not typically own two houses. Many Canadians are minors, school children do not typically own houses.

For this to be true, in conjunction with the previous claim, there would have to be over 5,000,000 privately owned rental properties in Canada. I don't think there are 5,000,000 buildings in Canada.

I don't have an issue with a party pandering to the special interest of a candidate or supporter but it's silly to pretend that a highly targeted policy, in this case one that benefits rich people in a niche tax position, has a broader intent. Next you'll be trying to sell us trickle down economics!

Re: Election 2021
 

Gut feel is always a good source of information but here is the actual data: https://tradingeconomics.com/canada/...nt%20in%201999.

Quote: "Home Ownership Rate in Canada increased to 68.55 percent in 2018 from 66.30 percent in 2017". Source: StatsCan. I am pretty sure that a couple owning a single home counts but you could direct your concerns to StatsCan.

Re: Election 2021
 

No housing crisis in Canada, then. Good to know.

Can you substantiate the claim that 26% of these homeowners are landlords? There aren't 5,000,000 privately owned rental dwellings so is the trick that parents count as landlords to their children?

Re: Election 2021
 

Straw-man is always a good argument but would you mind if I speak on my behalf? We have an affordability crisis in Canada. Its driven by a combination of

1. increases in money supply
2. low construction rates.
3. Taxation which gives house owners unfair advantages vs investments (no CGT on primary residence).

Substantiation for the 26% number has been provided above but here you go https://insurance-portal.ca/article/...are-landlords/

No, parents do not count as landlords to their children.

Re: Election 2021
 

Oh, that's flat shares. Someone starting out with a house or apartment and renting out a room or the basement so as to be able to afford to buy. It's not landlords in the sense of someone who buys a property specifically to rent it out. They're not going to be subject to CGT anyway.

Re: Election 2021
 

Look, I know little about the subject but just about enough to be aware that in most cases CRA would disagree with your expert evaluation of CGT liability.

Appreciate the chat.

Re: Election 2021
 

Twitter wasn't happy with a Liberal Party post and marked it as manipulated media, of course they don't think they did anything wrong and want an explanation from Twitter.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/twi...edia-1.6149734

They basically took a clip of the conservative leader, edited it to what they wanted to hear, but left out a crucial part, seems manipulated to me.

Liberals going to Trump 101 it seems.

Re: Election 2021
 

Pardon my slowness in grasping the essence of this policy. I think I have it now. The idea is that people who rent out a room in their house so as to pay their mortgage are going to declare that income for tax so as to make the property subject to CGT then sell it and buy another one, partially or wholly rented. The policy incentivizes them to do this by allowing the CGT on the first property to be deferred until the sale of the second one.

That's all wildly improbable. I still think it's more likely that a senior Conservative would benefit from such a policy than that the Conservatives think it would provide more housing.

Re: Election 2021
 

Ignoring the fact that this has actually got the backs up of 65-74 year olds, why would you bribe a smaller number of seniors when you could bribe a bigger number of seniors?

Interesting that you view allowing Canadians to defer capital gains taxes as an incentive but something that benefits some seniors is a bribe. Remind me of the local newspaper a few years ago with bribes from the Liberals and tax reductions from the conservatives.

But that's always the way isn't it, sticks for the poor and carrots for the rich.