Monday, November 29, 2021

How Long?

Justin Trudeau came back to parliament with an agenda. But events, Chantal Hebert writes, could alter that agenda:

Part of the Liberal rationale for holding a snap election was the hope of riding out a possible post-pandemic economic storm from the relatively safe harbour of a governing majority.

By all indications, Erin O’Toole and his caucus are willing to bet the house on inflation turning out to be the Achilles heel of Trudeau’s minority government.

They are bringing a case that the Liberals are missing in action on the economic front with the same gusto that characterized their charge — at the same time last year — that Canada was about to be left behind as the rest of the world vaccinated its way out of the pandemic.

Time will tell whether this latest Conservative gamble will bring more dividends than the vaccine offensive. The latter only succeeded in making the Liberals look like they were exceeding expectations.

Inflation is not just a Canadian problem. It's an international problem. Many economists see inflation as temporary. The big question is temporary -- for how long? The Liberals are touting their national childcare program as a cost-cutter:

For now, Trudeau’s $10-a-day child-care policy and its prospective savings for many families is the main staple on the government’s anti-inflation shelf.

It is easy to see the rationale for that.

Six months after its launch, the Liberals have already secured a lot more provincial buy-in from across the political spectrum for their child-care policy than they ever did for pharmacare.

Among the larger provinces, Ontario alone has yet to sign off on the plan.

So much depends on how long the storm will last.

Image: whysoblu.com

6 comments:

The Disaffected Lib said...

If we endure another summer like the last I think the Libs had better look for a replacement. Sending a few hundred soldiers here and a few hundred more there is not a solution to climate breakdown and the steady failure of our clapped out infrastructure.

It's hard to imagine Canada becoming food insecure but that's no longer out of the question. The economy of my province could take years to recover from the events of the last two weeks.

At first Canada was cut off from B.C. Now Canada is cut off from Asia Pacific. Ships that do offload their containers are being ordered not to wait for our exports but to sail home with empty containers.

What a mess, coast to coast, and all we've got in the way of leadership is a drama coach.

Owen Gray said...

My hunch, Mound, is that Justin won't run again. But I'm not taking bets on when he'll step down.

the salamander said...

.. Oddly, this thought occurred to me as I read your headline per Progressive Bloggers. I often think ‘visually’ & in film language or convention.

Thus, Justin Trudeau or Erin O’Toole or Jagmeet Singh wake up and don or darn their socks or lie abed instead, brainstorming the day or breakfast. Two of them have a chef, maids & aides a dancing, kiss the family n off in the limo with the briefing books or to the video studio or staged photo op with donors

(cut to) Ms Chrystia Freeland, mr Ballingwart, & a mystery person, the Party Whips, House Leaders, the respective caucuses, datawankers, thought leaders, embedded pollsters, bagmen & MainMedia scurrilous slimedogs who are also storming to their well paid battle stations, leaving husbands, wives, mistresses or boyfriends behind.. their official & burner phones are already a sizzling

Justin is boarding Canada One to Halifax, Erin is studying a Terry Fox statue he someho came upon, doing Take 4 all spritzed as if running his daily marathon, Jagmeet is switching turbans for another community hit n run appearance with a gracious Brampton donor via recorded zoom session

And so it goes in political fantasyland or barnyard of smoke & mirrors & approved talking points.. the day whirls into night, check the polls, the infernal stock market plunge, price of diluted bitumen, the current morbidity or mortality of Covid in Canada, get a late brief re the asinine ass talk of Doug Ford plus the daily pompous & pissy venom of Jason Kenney..

Tomorrow is another day .. much the same.. like groundhog day

Owen Gray said...

Like groundhog, day, sal. We've seen this show many times before.

Northern PoV said...

But, not like the movie wherein Bill Murray's characters gets wise, fixes all his flaws and escapes.

iow, he practices his dharma to escape karma! if only ....

Owen Gray said...

We've seen this movie before, PoV. But it's no movie. . .