Trudeau's legacy

[Thiel]

Trudeau will do anything to avoid the democratic will of the electorate.

[Herman]

[Brent]

Trudeau's resignation, after putting himself before his country, comes far too late to fix the enormous political and economic damage he has caused Canada.

Because of his arrogance and narcissism, there are no good options for Canada going forward at a time when we're under threat of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump imposing a 25% tariff on all Canadian goods, following his Jan. 20 inauguration.

At a time when Canadians need a strong, united and competent federal government to counter this threat, what we have is a governing political party in chaos, its members more concerned with their political futures than the good of the nation.

I give zero credit to Liberal MPs who stood behind Trudeau while he made himself the dominant political story — would he stay or would he go? In Ottawa, typical of the drama queen he always has been.

Their widespread calls for Trudeau to quit came only when the polls showed the Liberals were in danger of being obliterated in an election, were he to remain as their leader.

Another enabler of Trudeau's antics was NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who spent months denouncing the Liberals in the morning before propping up their minority government in the afternoon.

Similar to the Liberal caucus, by the time Singh joined the growing calls for Trudeau to resign, it came far too late to undo the damage his support of Trudeau already had caused.

[Thiel]

The head of First Nations called Trudeau the best pm for reconciliation. Has he ever stepped foot on a reserve since Trudeau became pm.

[Herman]

Justine has changed his party as much as Trump changed the GOP.

[Herman]

[DKG]

Trudeau has put us on an Argentina trajectory. Higher taxes, higher debt, hiring too many federal civil servants, and regulating investment out of Canada. All of this has lead to stagnant productivity and wages and lower living standards.

[Brent]

Trudeau's carbon tax should be tucked under his arm while he doesn't let the door hit him on the way out.

The carbon tax can be slayed on Wednesday during the Liberal party's emergency caucus meeting.

Caucus finally rose up and finally forced the prime minister to face the reality that he can't get re-elected.

But that's only half of the job.

The problem isn't just one person. It's the policies. And Trudeau's trademark carbon tax is one of his biggest failures. Replacing the PM while keeping the carbon tax is like switching the blackjack dealer while still facing a stacked deck.

Hardworking people have been telling Liberal and NDP MPs they can't afford the carbon tax, and it's unfair to be punished for driving to work, heating homes or buying food.

They know the carbon tax adds about $13 to the cost of filling a minivan and about $20 extra to fill a pickup. They know the carbon tax will cost long-haul truckers about $2 billion in 2025, and they know it will cost farmers $1 billion during the next five years.

They know Canada misses its emissions targets, even with the carbon tax.

Get rid of it before it goes up on April 1.

[Herman]

[DKG]

The responsible fiscal approach of the Chretien/Martin years are the polar opposite of what Trudeau has done to Canada.

Trudeau reverses Chrétien's legacy by rapidly expanding federal bureaucracy

Over the next weeks and months, there will be much discussion about Justin Trudeau's legacy as prime minister. To provide some context, it's worth comparing Trudeau's fiscal record with that of another long-serving Liberal prime minister — Jean Chrétien.

In the early 1990s, Canada's federal finances were in shambles. Thanks to years of large budget deficits (and high interest rates), debt interest payments were consuming one-third of all federal revenue and the country stood at the brink of a full-blown fiscal crisis. Paul Martin, Chrétien's finance minister, recognized the gravity of the threat and famously promised to eliminate the deficit "come hell or high water." And that's exactly what the Chrétien government did, thanks primarily to reductions in federal spending.

How'd they do it?

The government launched a program review, which examined all dimensions of spending in search of savings. The review led to a substantial reduction in federal government employment, which shrunk by nearly 15%. While there were many components to the federal reforms of the 1990s, this reduction in the size of the federal bureaucracy clearly helped Chrétien and Martin eliminate the federal deficit.

Fast-forward to the present day and Trudeau, who does not share his Liberal predecessors' commitment to balanced budgets. Federal government employment has increased rapidly in recent years, with the Trudeau government adding more bureaucrats (in absolute and percentage terms) than were reduced during the Chrétien/Martin reform era.

Specifically, from 2015/16 to 2022/23, federal government employment (as measured in full-time equivalents) increased by 26.1%. By comparison, the Canadian population increased by 9.1% over the same period.

Just as the reduction in federal employment contributed to the deficit reduction in the 1990s, the growth in federal employment has helped fuel the Trudeau government's unending string of budget deficits since 2015/16. Incidentally, if during its nine years in power the Trudeau government had simply held the rate of growth in federal employment to the rate of population growth, federal spending would be $7.5 billion lower than it is today.

According to the Trudeau government's latest projections, the federal deficit will reach an eye-popping $62 billion this fiscal year. And thanks to years of record-high spending under Trudeau, total federal debt will eclipse $2.2 trillion. Consequently, the federal government will spend $53.7 billion this year on debt interest payments — or $1,301 per Canadian.

Canadian history is clear — it's difficult to predict the policy orientation of any premier or prime minister based on their political stripe. Prime ministers Chrétien and Trudeau prove this point. Chrétien reduced federal employment with an eye on eliminating the federal deficit. Trudeau reversed this legacy by rapidly growing the federal bureaucracy. This is one important reason for the divergent fiscal outcomes between the two governments.

Under Chrétien, Canadians saw a string of balanced budgets. Under Trudeau, they saw an unending series of deficits and massive debt accumulation, which Canadians must pay for today and for many years to come.
https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-trudeau-reverses-chretiens-legacy-by-rapidly-expanding-federal-bureaucracy

[Shen Li]

After nine years of True Dope, Canadians have lost 41% of their wealth. 25% of Canadians live in poverty.

He has the worst record of any Canadian PM.

[Herman]

Since Trudeau formed government, most middle-income families face a higher tax burden than before, largely due to the elimination of key tax credits, making life more expensive despite Trudeau's claims to the contrary.

[Herman]

[Herman]

The next Liberal Party leader is going to get an ass whooping.

[Prof Emeritus at Fawk U]

I only wish the Democrats in this country would suffer the same fate as the Liberals.