In total, 386,698 people signed the petition calling for Trudeau to be removed from office.

"We the citizens of Canada have lost confidence in Justin Trudeau and the Liberal/NDP coalition," the online petition reads.

"We call on the house for a vote of no confidence. We ask for an election 45 days after the vote if won."

The petition – launched by Melissa Outwater from Peterborough, Ont., and sponsored by Peterborough-Kawartha Conservative MP Michelle Ferreri – stated that the government isn't acting in the best interests of Canadians.

"The policies of this government aren't aligning with the crisis Canada is facing: housing costs, infringement of civil liberties, highest inflation in history, unbalanced immigration policies, taxation to the point of poverty, weakening of our economy by importing natural resources that Canada already has and under-utilizes," the petition states.

Despite being promoted heavily on social media as an "important" document and something "all Canadians must sign" the petition actually carries no weight. Having received as many signatures as it has, the government is required to present an official response to the House of Commons withing 45 sitting days but that's about it.

Remember during the 2015 federal election when Justin Trudeau positioned himself as the champion of the middle class? He was going to make the "rich" pay a little more tax so the middle class could get some relief.

By 2018, the Liberals' third year, over 80% of middle-class families were paying an average of $840 more per year in federal taxes. And that was before the carbon tax.

If you still believe Justin Trudeau is good for your taxes, 2024 is going to provide you with a rude awakening. According to Franco Terrazzano, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF), higher payroll, carbon and alcohol taxes could add between $700 and $1,300 to the tax bill of the average family.

Even at the lower end of these increases, the cumulative effect of Liberal tax increases since 2015 has been about $2,500 per year per family. In other words, you'd be $200 a month richer if the Liberals hadn't been the government for the past eight years.

And that doesn't include the impact of inflation the Trudeau government has caused. Or the effects of their immigration flood on housing prices and per capita GDP. Or the future costs of their net-zero electricity grid and electric vehicle mandate.

The cost of the Liberals' "green" fantasies alone will be nearly $2 trillion over the next 25 years, which will have to be paid for by higher taxes or higher prices, or both.

Far from defending the middle class, the Liberals are choking the life out of it.

This coming year, the federal government is raising the mandatory Canada Pension Plan and Employment Insurance contributions by $347 per worker. In total, the CTF reports, a worker earning just over $73,000 annually will pay $5,100 for CPP and EI, whether they ever use EI or not.

Employers will pay more than $5,500 per employee in payroll taxes. (The Liberals have been just as hard on small businesses as they have been on the middle class.)

The carbon tax is going up – again – in 2024, this time from 14¢ a litre for gasoline to 17I¢. t's also going up on propane and natural gas (but not, of course, on the home heating oil used by Liberal voters in Atlantic Canada).

Higher carbon taxes will ding the average household between $400 and $900 this year, even after the Liberals' vaunted rebates.

And if you're thinking of drowning your tax sorrows in booze, remember that alcohol taxes rise by 4.7% on April 1.

Now consider that inflation, which reached a high of 8.1% in June of 2022, has eaten a chunk of about $4,000 out of your income in the past two years as the price of groceries, gasoline, utilities and everything else has risen sharply.

Inflation is a Liberal creation, in large part, caused by their out-of-control spending, which has added hundreds of billions to the national debt and sent interest rates soaring as they borrowed more and more to finance their spending.

Higher interest rates caused by Liberal mismanagement have eaten away at middle class incomes, too, with higher mortgage payments, rents and consumer loans.

Even the astronomical cost of housing is mostly due to Liberal policies, particularly on immigration. If the government insists on letting a million new people a year into the country, while housing for around only 300,000 is being built, the effects on housing prices is predictable.

Liberal mismanagement has robbed Canadians of thousands of disposable dollars and their "green" agenda on electric vehicles and renewable energy will only compound the steal.

Quote from: DKG on January 01, 2024, 02:50:27 PMRemember during the 2015 federal election when Justin Trudeau positioned himself as the champion of the middle class? He was going to make the "rich" pay a little more tax so the middle class could get some relief.

By 2018, the Liberals' third year, over 80% of middle-class families were paying an average of $840 more per year in federal taxes. And that was before the carbon tax.

If you still believe Justin Trudeau is good for your taxes, 2024 is going to provide you with a rude awakening. According to Franco Terrazzano, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF), higher payroll, carbon and alcohol taxes could add between $700 and $1,300 to the tax bill of the average family.

Even at the lower end of these increases, the cumulative effect of Liberal tax increases since 2015 has been about $2,500 per year per family. In other words, you'd be $200 a month richer if the Liberals hadn't been the government for the past eight years.

And that doesn't include the impact of inflation the Trudeau government has caused. Or the effects of their immigration flood on housing prices and per capita GDP. Or the future costs of their net-zero electricity grid and electric vehicle mandate.

The cost of the Liberals' "green" fantasies alone will be nearly $2 trillion over the next 25 years, which will have to be paid for by higher taxes or higher prices, or both.

Far from defending the middle class, the Liberals are choking the life out of it.

This coming year, the federal government is raising the mandatory Canada Pension Plan and Employment Insurance contributions by $347 per worker. In total, the CTF reports, a worker earning just over $73,000 annually will pay $5,100 for CPP and EI, whether they ever use EI or not.

Employers will pay more than $5,500 per employee in payroll taxes. (The Liberals have been just as hard on small businesses as they have been on the middle class.)

The carbon tax is going up – again – in 2024, this time from 14¢ a litre for gasoline to 17I¢. t's also going up on propane and natural gas (but not, of course, on the home heating oil used by Liberal voters in Atlantic Canada).

Higher carbon taxes will ding the average household between $400 and $900 this year, even after the Liberals' vaunted rebates.

And if you're thinking of drowning your tax sorrows in booze, remember that alcohol taxes rise by 4.7% on April 1.

Now consider that inflation, which reached a high of 8.1% in June of 2022, has eaten a chunk of about $4,000 out of your income in the past two years as the price of groceries, gasoline, utilities and everything else has risen sharply.

Inflation is a Liberal creation, in large part, caused by their out-of-control spending, which has added hundreds of billions to the national debt and sent interest rates soaring as they borrowed more and more to finance their spending.

Higher interest rates caused by Liberal mismanagement have eaten away at middle class incomes, too, with higher mortgage payments, rents and consumer loans.

Even the astronomical cost of housing is mostly due to Liberal policies, particularly on immigration. If the government insists on letting a million new people a year into the country, while housing for around only 300,000 is being built, the effects on housing prices is predictable.

Liberal mismanagement has robbed Canadians of thousands of disposable dollars and their "green" agenda on electric vehicles and renewable energy will only compound the steal.

Oh for Christ sake. How are young folks like my boy and his old lady supposed to make ends meet. I know, they will ask me for money.

The Liberals first sold us the carbon tax as the only measure needed to reduce GHGs, arguing it was a market-based mechanism that would motivate consumers and businesses to make their own sensible decisions to reduce fossil fuel usage. We were also told by former environment minister Catherine McKenna the carbon tax would never exceed $50 a tonne, which we now know was just one of many Liberal bald-faced lies as the tax is slated to increase to at least $170/tonne by 2030.

Despite dishonest claims the carbon tax was the only measure needed, we have subsequently seen the so-called Clean Fuel Standard, the absurdly red-tape intensive Impact Assessment Act (which the Supreme Court has now overthrown), and Guilbeault's recent emissions cap.

Interestingly, other parts of the economy emit similar amounts of GHGs as the oil and gas sector, but those industries are not subject to an emissions cap. Could it be because those industries are located in regions that tend to vote Liberal, unlike Alberta and Saskatchewan? Perish the thought!

Throughout all of the climate policy overkill, the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan have remained steadfast in opposing foolish federal government initiatives based on facts, science and constitutional law. All Canadians should know that Alberta in particular is a disproportionately significant contributor to the rest of Canada in many ways — equalization payments, contributions to programs such as CPP and Employment Insurance as well as personal and corporate taxation and royalty revenue from the oil and gas industry.

It was truly ironic that, in the context of the federal budget earlier this year, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland boasted that government revenues had come in higher than forecast. Yet the key source for this excess revenue was the oil and gas sector the Liberals are working hard to kill.

Canadian citizens need to re-arm.

I am concerned for Canada's future.

We have an environment hostile to entrepreneurs, energy providers, and innovation, unlike the Western world has ever seen.

We have legalized disorder in our streets, the trial balloon of socialized 'Universal Basic Income,' veritable puppy mills of foreign students using up declining precious resources. Two entire generations are at risk of never owning homes, and the Liberal government is offering suicide in place of timely healthcare.

Every day, these problems fester like an open wound. Every day, our federal Liberal government, and even risk-averse Conservatives, offer band-aid solutions to problems of too many people, too few services, and far too much red tape.

It's not hyperbolic to suggest that without a major course-correction, and soon, Canada may find itself on the outside looking in at the Developed World.

Behind the scenes, the Bank of Canada has been quietly researching ways to launch a Central Bank Digital Currency for years. Now we know that they're one step closer to their goal. The Bank of Canada has staked their claim on the trademark for the term "Digital Dollar".

We must reject a Central Bank Digital Currency. Trudeau and his Liberal WEF agent government have proven that they will push the Bank of Canada to work against the well being of Canadians.

Justin Trudeau accepted an $84,000 luxury vacation from a wealthy Trudeau-foundation donor.

He told Canadians he was paying for it. He lied.

Did he also lie to the ethics commissioner about who was paying? Could be third strike for Trudeau. No other pm has had a single strike.

Those bastards in the Trudeau government knew two years ago that insanely high immigration levels were destroying public health care and causing a scarcity of affordable housing.

QuoteThe Trudeau government was warned that their rapid push for higher and higher immigration numbers was having a negative impact on housing and health care across the country. A presentation to the government in 2022 warned of the problems but rather than rethinking or adjusting their policy they pushed ahead.

he numbers the Liberals have been admitting, in particular temporary residents, mostly in the student sector, are not sustainable. Our population grew by one million people between Jan. 1 and Oct. 1, according to Statistics Canada's quarterly population estimate.

When StatsCan released the October number three weeks ago, the population had already grown from 40,528,396 to 40,720,342. According to StatsCan's real time population clock, we've added another 67,000 people in the last three weeks.

This is the unsustainable level bureaucrats were warning the government about in 2022.

"In Canada, population growth has exceeded the growth in available housing units," one of the documents obtained by CP stated.

"As the federal authority charged with managing immigration, IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada) policy-makers must understand the misalignment between population growth and housing supply, and how permanent and temporary immigration shapes population growth."

Over the past several months, StatsCan has been warning the government in their monthly jobs report that population growth was outstripping job creation.

None of that seems to matter to the Trudeau Liberals.

CP reporter Nojoud Al Mallees, who wrote the original story, asked Freeland if tempering demand for housing by lowering immigration numbers was part of the solution.

"I think it's important for us as Canadians to recognize the really positive role that immigration plays for our country," Freeland said.

The closest she came to admitting that there was any problem was when she blamed post-secondary institutions for taking in close to 900,000 students this year without proper housing for them. These schools aren't home builders, and they aren't in charge of who gets admitted to the country. That would be the federal government, currently controlled by the Trudeau Liberals.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said the problem with the Liberal plan is that it doesn't take the impact of the influx into account.

"Obviously, you need to build homes if you are going to bring in people," Poilievre said noting that last year fewer homes were built across Canada than in 1972 when the population was just about half of what it is today.

"Common sense Conservatives will get back to an approach of immigration that invites a number of people that we can house, employ and care for in our health care system," Poilievre said.

That sounds like a better policy than the one Trudeau continues to push despite the harm it is causing. Is it any wonder that Poilievre and the Conservatives are leading in the polls?

https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/trudeau-ignored-warnings-on-immigration-now-you-pay-the-price

Don't blame premiers for the sorry state of public health care and homelessness. This makes my blood boil. We have a government that is deliberately making life harder for Canadians.

QuoteTwo years ago, the federal immigration department received advice from its own public servants that large increases to immigration would adversely impact housing affordability, health care and other government services.

As reported by The Canadian Press through documents obtained from access-to-information requests, the department was warned that:

"Population growth has exceeded the growth in available housing units.

"As the federal authority charged with managing immigration ... policy-makers must understand the misalignment between population growth and housing supply and how permanent and temporary immigration shapes population growth.

"Rapid increases put pressure on health care and affordable housing. Settlement and resettlement service providers are expressing short-term strain due to labour market conditions, increased levels and the Afghanistan and Ukraine initiatives."

According to current immigration minister Marc Miller, Canada is hosting 900,000 international students this year, compared to 352,000 in 2015.

He told CTV's Question Period in an interview to be aired Sunday that Ottawa is now considering a cap on international students because, "It's really a system that has gotten out of control."

Meanwhile, Canada admitted 220,00 temporary foreign workers in 2022, an increase of 68% over 2021 according to a Globe and Mail analysis of federal data.

The cumulative result of these policies, as Statistics Canada reported in December, is that, "Canada's population was estimated at 40,528,396 on Oct. 1, 2023, an increase of 430,635 people (+1.1%) from July 1 ... the highest population growth rate in any quarter since the second quarter of 1957 (+1.2%), when Canada's population grew by 198,000 people."

So, once again, the Liberals are now frantically trying to fix a problem they exacerbated through their own policies, because they ignored the advice of their own experts.

https://torontosun.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-liberals-ignored-warnings-about-high-immigration

This was in Postmedia.

I am appalled at Canada's decline in the last decade. I can't think of any other developed nation where the overall quality of life for the working class has fallen so much and so fast too.

QuoteAccording to the respected international recruitment and relocation consultancy Henley & Partners, Canada's passport is only the 31st most respected passport in the world.

We've dropped from the Top 20 since the Liberals came to office in 2015 and now rank behind Brunei, Malta, Monaco, Hungary, Estonia and Slovenia and only marginally above Croatia, the United Arab Emirates and the Republic of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean.

The most-respected passports are from France, Germany, Italy and Spain, followed by the Netherlands and Singapore. Those countries' passports will get their bearers into 192 or more countries without a separate visa.

Ours will get Canadians into 188 — the same as the Americans.

A Canadian passport is still desirable and useful. It's just that dropping to the bottom of the G7 (and near the bottom of the OECD) is a far cry from the Liberals' boastful promises when they returned to power eight years ago.

Recall the night he was elected, Trudeau announced the long, dark days of Stephen Harper's approach to foreign affairs were over. No longer would Canada involve itself in making war alongside allied countries in the Anglosphere. Nor would we confront authoritarian, human rights-abusing regimes like China.

"To this country's friends all around the world, many of you have worried that Canada has lost its compassionate and constructive voice in the world," Trudeau said on election night, "Well, I have a simple message for you ... We're back!"

But as the passport example (and a host of others) show, the opposite is true. Canada's international reputation has been shredded by the inept foreign policy of the Trudeau government. As bad as Trudeau has been on housing policy, affordability, taxes, the economy and austere environmental regulations, he's been just as bad or worse on foreign affairs.

Turns out the world hasn't been eager for his preachy, sanctimonious, woke prescriptions to international problems.

He promises big on the environment (big enough to scare away hundreds of billions of dollars in investment), but delivers few, if any enviro improvements.

And he is either hectoring the Chinese communists or rolling over and begging them to scratch his belly.

Is it any wonder respect for our passport has fallen?

Justin Trudeau can't stop violating ethics rules. And the Liberal-NDP cover-up coalition is now scrambling to protect themselves, again. They opted for smoke, mirrors, and deception instead of telling the truth about Trudeau's gifted $84,000 luxurious Jamaican vacation.

But this is nothing new for this Liberal government.

And now, the NDP has chosen to stand side-by-side with their morally bankrupt coalition partners and block the release of documents that would provide answers to Canadians. I used to be a NDP voter. I hate them now as much as they hate the blue collar working class.

Besides accumulating a lot of debt that future generations will have to pay off, Justin Trudeau's spending spree has lowered Canadians disposable income.

QuoteThat a government cannot spend away the country's problems is a clear lesson of history. The Trudeau government evidently has not learned this — it has spent, spent and spent more and the country's problems have gotten worse.

In 2014-15, before the Liberals took office, federal program spending was 12.8% of Gross Domestic Product (the value of final goods and services produced in Canada). In 2023-24, it is projected at 15.7%. And relative to 2014-15, annual program spending is $89 billion higher than if it had tracked with overall economic growth.

This extra spending has not solved most problems. Consider health care. The Fraser Institute's survey of health-care specialists found a median wait time of 27.7 weeks between referral from a general practitioner and receipt of treatment in 2023 — a 51% increase versus 18.3 weeks in 2015. Relative to peer countries, Canada is a big health-care spender but with poor results, and is far below average on key metrics such as physicians and hospital beds per capita.

Another big spending area is climate change. The Liberals boast of pouring more than $120 billion into climate programs, but even with an annually increasing carbon tax and onerous regulation on top of that spending, the government is on track to miss its 2030 climate targets. Given the high cost of its climate policies relative to environmental benefits, that's not a bad thing. Ottawa's climate targets are wildly unrealistic, and achieving them would mean devastating the economy further.

Speaking of devastating the economy, when the Trudeau government spends, it claims it will support economic growth, increase affordability or otherwise deliver financial benefits. Eight years in, these benefits have not materialized. As of the third quarter of 2023, after five consecutive quarters of declining real GDP per capita, Canada's cumulative growth in the past eight years is a paltry 1.6% versus 14.7% in the United States. One way to think about this gap: if Canada's real GDP per capita growth tracked with the U.S. since the Liberals took office, Canadian living standards would be about 12.8% higher than they are today.

Finally, the Trudeau government has significantly ramped up child-care spending, but the effect of the national child-care program has been to severely distort and in many cases destroy the child-care sector by applying a discriminatory funding model that pushes child-care entrepreneurs out of the market and discourages private investment. The federal program is composed of separate agreements with the provinces, but with the child-care sector suffering crisis and widespread shortages from coast to coast, it's reasonable to conclude Ottawa's plan is fatally flawed.

Wherever you look, the pattern is the same — federal spending is up, but outcomes are worse. The government creates problems and does not solve them when it spends money like water.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/topstories/lau-trudeau-cranks-up-spending-but-canadians-are-worse-off/ar-AA1n4ZNb

When politicians as diverse as Quebec Premier Francois Legault and Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow are singing from the same hymn book, voters across the country should sit up and take note.

Legault sent a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau this week, asking him to slow down the number of asylum seekers allowed into the country.

His province, he said, was "close to the breaking point."

In a letter obtained by The Canadian Press, Legault said nearly 60,000 new asylum seekers were registered in Quebec in the first 11 months of 2023, which put "very significant" pressure on services.

"Asylum seekers have trouble finding a place to live, which contributes to accentuating the housing crisis," he said. "Many end up in homeless shelters, which are overflowing."

Chow is locked in a similar showdown with the feds. She's threatening that a planned 10.5% property tax hike in that city could balloon to a whopping 16.5% if Ottawa doesn't pony up an extra $250 million to help pay for settlement costs for the huge number of asylum seekers showing up there.

Last summer, hundreds of newcomers camped out on sidewalks because the city was unable to provide shelter space for them. Churches eventually stepped in and provided emergency beds. That kind of bandage solution is not sustainable.

This is on top of large numbers of international students, many of whom do little studying and often take jobs and settle in large urban centres.

The strain is already being seen on health-care systems and housing. Hospitals across the country are bursting at the seams. Premiers are scrambling to build new homes. You can expect similar strains on education and social services soon. We'll need more schools and more community supports.

The Trudeau government is courting disaster with its sloppy immigration policies. It must listen to the provinces and cities across the country — and pay its fair share, which is all of it since they let them in.