Isn’t it striking how firmly Jim Flaherty imprinted our politics for his successors? Quite a legacy!
We can have a months long flap about a carbon tax and now we start one about the capital gains tax - but the efficient value added sales tax - the GST/HST - is the one that no one may name or talk about. It is untouchable.
Jason Kenney just ran the usual play for you of framing a zero sum choice between the defence target and health care. Thinking within a box where you accept certain assumptions.
It is at least conceivable to say - well then perhaps the GST should go back to the 7 percent rate it was at from 1991 to 2006 - at least for a while. Or add 2 cents for ten years and label it and track it as a special defence and security tax.. there are more creative ways of approaching the 2 percent target…..
... Or Canada could significantly reduce its operational costs to free up money for Defence. The Federal Public Service has grown by something like 80K under Trudeau while most service metrics have decayed. Hopefully the next government significantly reduces headcount and continues the Harper government's attempts to bring perks like paid sick days, vacations and benefits down to something closer to private sector averages. This could yield maybe $10B per year, which is likley still not enough.
In fact the first time it was lost was ‘88 - not free trade related. Mostly stemming from ‘Pink slips and running shoes’ in the form of a 15,000 job cut target announced in ‘85, but never achieved. ~12,000 voluntary departures. Roughly 69 laid off. But cost the PC government several public service ‘heavy’ seats lost - Ottawa and elsewhere. Halifax, Winnipeg, Cornwall, etc.
65,000 of those public servants work at DND and RCMP as civilian employees, Border Services, the Coast Guard, the cybersecurity agency (CSE) and the security and intelligence agencies. In these perilous times are those the ones you would cut??
This is the Conservative, Axe-the-Facts approach that tends to leave us with the country trashed as they walk out the door in disgrace, leaving us all wondering what their point was in upsetting the applecart.
With a population boom, we need the public service to grow proportionately. If "most service metrics have decayed", we need more, better, and presumably higher-paid public servants to fix it.
With respect to addressing the "defence and security" gap - the arithmetic seems relatively straight-forward; if indeed we want to massively fund new weapons systems (which incidentally, tend to be used to support the foreign adventurism of others, rather than to provide direct value to Canadians), we can increase revenues (which is what the immigration program is doing, as are the recent capital gains tax increases) or we can cut services (which every Canadian will complain about, particularly because the services are already insufficient in scale and scope).
I cant help feeling a certain advance-schadenfreude. A Conservative cabinet, should they succeed in the coming general election, will need at least to be seen to solve this impossible problem. But looking at their front bench, I can't imagine how.
I recently phoned a government office I was transfered 6 times,I recognized 2 of the people transfers as people that had already transfered me before,how would hiring more people help get better service if all they do is pass me around between more people?
The solution to have better services is not necessarily to hire more people but give better tools to those deliver them. People will be surprised how old and in bad shape many IT systems are in the federal government compared of what we find in the private sector.
Headcount increased during most of Harper term and very modest modifications were done to sone benefits (like increasing the employee contribution part to the insurance regime from 25% to 50%). You can’t achieve $10 billion in savings solely based on small adjustments. My bet is that the growth of the public may slow at best temporarily with a conservative government like it did with many governments before.
My column after Bill Morneau's second budget said, with spending like this, they're going to need to hike the GST. A Liberal close to the PMO laughed out loud at the notion and offered to bet me that it'd never happen. I suspect he was right: even a government that doesn't mind taxing is phobic about this tax.
Economists also like tolls on bridges, congestion charges, user fees for water and waste collection, peak load electricity pricing, co-payments, and other « price signals » and are often surprised when politicians often campaign against them.
Interesting interview with Jason Kenney, Being a native Albertan, you have compelled me to comment. Thanks for the opportunity. Your conversation reminded me of why we may have chosen Jason to be our premier and also why we needed for him to go. A consummate politician for both the good and the bad that that implies. The bad, he appears an inescapably 'Ottawa tainted' civil servant. These guys cant help it. Survival there means becoming part of that "Borg". It does 'colour' their politics. Much of Canada looks at Alberta and sees our western apparel, our AG pride, our chuckwagon races, our affection for oil and gas and our fierce need to be independent in our governance as points for mockery and amusement. But like Quebecs Bon Homme, maple syrup and poutine, it is these things that in part define who we are as both a unique Canadian culture and as a people. I'm reminded of a different Trudeau who espoused and legislated the importance and adoption for "multi culturalism". Must skip a generation. The good stuff? Ex premier Kenny is a bright guy. He is for certain verbose (as is typical of the current crop of leaders), sometimes on point and highly opinionated. But to his credit, clearly engaged. He GETS oil and gas. Hey Justin, there is a business case to be made for a robust and supported oil and gas industry. Without it, you and Jagmeet will not be able to pay for the multitude of social programmes you are imagining that you no doubt pray will support your political survival..
I wish Mr. Kenney much success in his current endeavours thanking him for his efforts on behalf of us. You did kick open a door if only a smidge and for that I am grateful. But sadly he, like much of Canada, simply did not 'get' Alberta. His belief that buying a Dodge pickup truck and making it a character of his time here, reveals the tip of that ice berg that is his disconnect. By the way, we drive trucks because we use them as trucks. Get over it guys. That all said, Jason was a step in the right direction for us. He chose not to bow to the Liberals and I think did his best to represent this province as it deserves to be represented.
In the current context of extreme partisanship from all sides, it’s nice to see a politician doing a mea culpa. The current state of the Canadian Army Forces is the result of 30 years of negligence from government of both sides. Hopefully, the current global context would bring serious discussion about our defence policy but I highly doubt that anything serious would come from any party
I don't see it, I think the Trudeau Liberals are much closer to Trump-style than the Conservatives. Trudeau's background and personality match Trump pretty closely.
Really…so JT tried to overturn the govt by force, reused to accept the election results,cozied up to Putin,had affairs with stormy Daniel’s clones, took secret govt files home & refused to surrender them etc , etc
The Conservatives haven't done any of those types of things either, so your comparison is nonsensical. My comparison of Trudeau and Trump is more about the fact they were both born into money, they've always enjoyed a spoiled lifestyle, and they are both selfish, self-centred, narcissistic and impatient. They expect people to agree with them and lash out if they don't.
Challenging your statement, which was that 'our Liberals are similar to Trump' did not require any accusations against our Conservatives, only pointing out the many ways in which our Liberals are not similar to Trump.
Since a majority of politicians come from wealth and have strong egos with a tendency to order others about, your chosen similarities could apply to a lot of politicians.
Personally, I'd pick "febrile and equivocal support for climatology and vaccinology" along with "use of conspiracy theories to sell policy" as the most distinguishing Trump-like characteristics of the best-known Canadian conservatives this year.
Kenney being a team player will probably never admit it but there are some shape difference between today’s conservative and manu former key players of the Harper government. Canada’s politics is just following the same trend we are seing elsewhere
Thanks for this podcast, which makes me reflective and sad. Because it is a reminder of what might have been. I lament the lost opportunity of two potential prime ministers that might have been, but were not. One is Bob Rae and the other is Jason Kenny. Both great Canadians.
The rather laughable suggestion the ‘Harper had it right’ on climate/energy was a show stopper. There’s plenty of evidence to the contrary. He didn’t have anything right. And the carnage of market access projects that followed his administration’s ‘angry Joe Oliver phase’ speaks for itself. The US went in one direction, we ended up in the ditch. And we’re still there.
I don't know what to think about Mr. Kenney now. I'd put him down as not actually believing the conspiracy theory that his "war room" still promotes. (That American oil conspired with Green groups to landlock tar sands exports.) That he was a cynic, merely using the tropes that fire up antivaxxers and anti-Davos conspiracists.
David Moscrop informed me over at his column here, just yesterday, that Nope, Kenney is in fact a True Believer, even as he calls those a little further up the spectrum, "kooks".
Great interview Mr. Wells. I've always liked Jason Kenney, he is intelligent, well spoken, understands the issues and articulates well, I wish he was still interested in being in the next government.
On the defence spending, the UK has raised its own spending and asks all European members to reach 2.5% by 2030. Canada is not seen as an asset and I think America is seen as not being there for Europe unless they start paying their share. 🇬🇧 🇮🇱 🇺🇸 🇺🇦
As I age:- revisiting prior understandiings / actual confirmed, attested, trusted, information, ....> and their original source(s):-has me reasessingna "few" things. Infind myself "back- checking" the "drone of certain Tjrbscholade leader/ minions; when they speak:- ...when before a pop-in visit/ speach:- such as Tjs's fly-in speach in the 'Toon, last night.
Next stop, Wpg.:- a much more compliant stop.
Always double- check your assumptions, AND the sources of them.
Isn’t it striking how firmly Jim Flaherty imprinted our politics for his successors? Quite a legacy!
We can have a months long flap about a carbon tax and now we start one about the capital gains tax - but the efficient value added sales tax - the GST/HST - is the one that no one may name or talk about. It is untouchable.
Jason Kenney just ran the usual play for you of framing a zero sum choice between the defence target and health care. Thinking within a box where you accept certain assumptions.
It is at least conceivable to say - well then perhaps the GST should go back to the 7 percent rate it was at from 1991 to 2006 - at least for a while. Or add 2 cents for ten years and label it and track it as a special defence and security tax.. there are more creative ways of approaching the 2 percent target…..
... Or Canada could significantly reduce its operational costs to free up money for Defence. The Federal Public Service has grown by something like 80K under Trudeau while most service metrics have decayed. Hopefully the next government significantly reduces headcount and continues the Harper government's attempts to bring perks like paid sick days, vacations and benefits down to something closer to private sector averages. This could yield maybe $10B per year, which is likley still not enough.
At times like this, I enjoy reminding myself who lives in the Conservative leader's riding.
In fact the first time it was lost was ‘88 - not free trade related. Mostly stemming from ‘Pink slips and running shoes’ in the form of a 15,000 job cut target announced in ‘85, but never achieved. ~12,000 voluntary departures. Roughly 69 laid off. But cost the PC government several public service ‘heavy’ seats lost - Ottawa and elsewhere. Halifax, Winnipeg, Cornwall, etc.
65,000 of those public servants work at DND and RCMP as civilian employees, Border Services, the Coast Guard, the cybersecurity agency (CSE) and the security and intelligence agencies. In these perilous times are those the ones you would cut??
Governing is always about choosing.
This is the Conservative, Axe-the-Facts approach that tends to leave us with the country trashed as they walk out the door in disgrace, leaving us all wondering what their point was in upsetting the applecart.
With a population boom, we need the public service to grow proportionately. If "most service metrics have decayed", we need more, better, and presumably higher-paid public servants to fix it.
With respect to addressing the "defence and security" gap - the arithmetic seems relatively straight-forward; if indeed we want to massively fund new weapons systems (which incidentally, tend to be used to support the foreign adventurism of others, rather than to provide direct value to Canadians), we can increase revenues (which is what the immigration program is doing, as are the recent capital gains tax increases) or we can cut services (which every Canadian will complain about, particularly because the services are already insufficient in scale and scope).
I cant help feeling a certain advance-schadenfreude. A Conservative cabinet, should they succeed in the coming general election, will need at least to be seen to solve this impossible problem. But looking at their front bench, I can't imagine how.
I recently phoned a government office I was transfered 6 times,I recognized 2 of the people transfers as people that had already transfered me before,how would hiring more people help get better service if all they do is pass me around between more people?
The solution to have better services is not necessarily to hire more people but give better tools to those deliver them. People will be surprised how old and in bad shape many IT systems are in the federal government compared of what we find in the private sector.
Headcount increased during most of Harper term and very modest modifications were done to sone benefits (like increasing the employee contribution part to the insurance regime from 25% to 50%). You can’t achieve $10 billion in savings solely based on small adjustments. My bet is that the growth of the public may slow at best temporarily with a conservative government like it did with many governments before.
Why do you think/say that the GST/HST is untouchable?
In 17 or 18 budgets under half a dozen Finance Ministers no one has touched.
Economists would prefer to tax consumption than income but politicians don’t.
My column after Bill Morneau's second budget said, with spending like this, they're going to need to hike the GST. A Liberal close to the PMO laughed out loud at the notion and offered to bet me that it'd never happen. I suspect he was right: even a government that doesn't mind taxing is phobic about this tax.
But in a scenario where the counterfactual would be a new US tax on all Canadian imports?
Well, if you're gonna go all scenario-y on me...
Economists also like tolls on bridges, congestion charges, user fees for water and waste collection, peak load electricity pricing, co-payments, and other « price signals » and are often surprised when politicians often campaign against them.
Interesting interview with Jason Kenney, Being a native Albertan, you have compelled me to comment. Thanks for the opportunity. Your conversation reminded me of why we may have chosen Jason to be our premier and also why we needed for him to go. A consummate politician for both the good and the bad that that implies. The bad, he appears an inescapably 'Ottawa tainted' civil servant. These guys cant help it. Survival there means becoming part of that "Borg". It does 'colour' their politics. Much of Canada looks at Alberta and sees our western apparel, our AG pride, our chuckwagon races, our affection for oil and gas and our fierce need to be independent in our governance as points for mockery and amusement. But like Quebecs Bon Homme, maple syrup and poutine, it is these things that in part define who we are as both a unique Canadian culture and as a people. I'm reminded of a different Trudeau who espoused and legislated the importance and adoption for "multi culturalism". Must skip a generation. The good stuff? Ex premier Kenny is a bright guy. He is for certain verbose (as is typical of the current crop of leaders), sometimes on point and highly opinionated. But to his credit, clearly engaged. He GETS oil and gas. Hey Justin, there is a business case to be made for a robust and supported oil and gas industry. Without it, you and Jagmeet will not be able to pay for the multitude of social programmes you are imagining that you no doubt pray will support your political survival..
I wish Mr. Kenney much success in his current endeavours thanking him for his efforts on behalf of us. You did kick open a door if only a smidge and for that I am grateful. But sadly he, like much of Canada, simply did not 'get' Alberta. His belief that buying a Dodge pickup truck and making it a character of his time here, reveals the tip of that ice berg that is his disconnect. By the way, we drive trucks because we use them as trucks. Get over it guys. That all said, Jason was a step in the right direction for us. He chose not to bow to the Liberals and I think did his best to represent this province as it deserves to be represented.
In the current context of extreme partisanship from all sides, it’s nice to see a politician doing a mea culpa. The current state of the Canadian Army Forces is the result of 30 years of negligence from government of both sides. Hopefully, the current global context would bring serious discussion about our defence policy but I highly doubt that anything serious would come from any party
Does Kenney not see the parallels between Trump-style conservative politics and what our own conservatives are doing?
I don't see it, I think the Trudeau Liberals are much closer to Trump-style than the Conservatives. Trudeau's background and personality match Trump pretty closely.
Really…so JT tried to overturn the govt by force, reused to accept the election results,cozied up to Putin,had affairs with stormy Daniel’s clones, took secret govt files home & refused to surrender them etc , etc
The Conservatives haven't done any of those types of things either, so your comparison is nonsensical. My comparison of Trudeau and Trump is more about the fact they were both born into money, they've always enjoyed a spoiled lifestyle, and they are both selfish, self-centred, narcissistic and impatient. They expect people to agree with them and lash out if they don't.
Challenging your statement, which was that 'our Liberals are similar to Trump' did not require any accusations against our Conservatives, only pointing out the many ways in which our Liberals are not similar to Trump.
Since a majority of politicians come from wealth and have strong egos with a tendency to order others about, your chosen similarities could apply to a lot of politicians.
Personally, I'd pick "febrile and equivocal support for climatology and vaccinology" along with "use of conspiracy theories to sell policy" as the most distinguishing Trump-like characteristics of the best-known Canadian conservatives this year.
The antagonistic relationship with media being another.
Sure thing.
Kenney being a team player will probably never admit it but there are some shape difference between today’s conservative and manu former key players of the Harper government. Canada’s politics is just following the same trend we are seing elsewhere
Thanks for this podcast, which makes me reflective and sad. Because it is a reminder of what might have been. I lament the lost opportunity of two potential prime ministers that might have been, but were not. One is Bob Rae and the other is Jason Kenny. Both great Canadians.
The rather laughable suggestion the ‘Harper had it right’ on climate/energy was a show stopper. There’s plenty of evidence to the contrary. He didn’t have anything right. And the carnage of market access projects that followed his administration’s ‘angry Joe Oliver phase’ speaks for itself. The US went in one direction, we ended up in the ditch. And we’re still there.
Very interesting discussion........if it's not one thing, it is another!
I don't know what to think about Mr. Kenney now. I'd put him down as not actually believing the conspiracy theory that his "war room" still promotes. (That American oil conspired with Green groups to landlock tar sands exports.) That he was a cynic, merely using the tropes that fire up antivaxxers and anti-Davos conspiracists.
David Moscrop informed me over at his column here, just yesterday, that Nope, Kenney is in fact a True Believer, even as he calls those a little further up the spectrum, "kooks".
https://www.davidmoscrop.com/p/three-books-about-politics-and-power/comments
Just because he's all smart and stuff, Paul (so is Dick Cheney) doesn't mean I want to listen to somebody with delusional underlying priors.
"Oh My God, they've Pilled Kenney" (apologies)
Great interview Mr. Wells. I've always liked Jason Kenney, he is intelligent, well spoken, understands the issues and articulates well, I wish he was still interested in being in the next government.
On the defence spending, the UK has raised its own spending and asks all European members to reach 2.5% by 2030. Canada is not seen as an asset and I think America is seen as not being there for Europe unless they start paying their share. 🇬🇧 🇮🇱 🇺🇸 🇺🇦
Hi Paul,
I don't see a transcript button.
As I age:- revisiting prior understandiings / actual confirmed, attested, trusted, information, ....> and their original source(s):-has me reasessingna "few" things. Infind myself "back- checking" the "drone of certain Tjrbscholade leader/ minions; when they speak:- ...when before a pop-in visit/ speach:- such as Tjs's fly-in speach in the 'Toon, last night.
Next stop, Wpg.:- a much more compliant stop.
Always double- check your assumptions, AND the sources of them.
And:- thank you, Mr Wells, sir.
Peter Marshall, Oakville, ON.