Discussions

Evil flourishes when good people do nothing (I'm paraphrasing lol)  
 
To Don - most people give up trying to break down the brick wall that the government institution builds. Unfortunately an institution whether it is government, healthcare, education or everyday culture, is almost impossible to change. It is deeply rooted in history that does not change easily. But it can change. Whether that be through tiny steps in policy development or through a whole scale disaster with all kinds of opportunities in between those two extremes.  
 
The problem in the party leadership is there is no honest vision for Canada. They have a vision but that vision is how to get on top and destroy the other parties or how to bribe the people into voting for us by giving out false, unattainable promises that they think we want to hear. Those are not visions that will move our country forward.  
 
Change has to come from within where elected officials are listening to what values constituents have, standing up and communicating those values and communicating back to the constituents how their values are going to be represented in policy development, how the government is run.  
Change can also come from the people demanding true Canadian values with accountability and transparency from their elected officials.  
 
It was suggested that this discussion should take on its own thread. I agree.  
 
Edited by Spades!!, 2020-10-04 10:18:46

Fiscally Canada is not in a good position. Our government has borrowed a lot of money and increased money supply. Soon our country’s debt level will be at the point that potential lenders will want a higher interest rate to make up for risk, and because we’ll be desperate to borrow money. This will push inflation up. The increased money supply will also push inflation. Inflation affects us all. We just need to look at our own country’s history to see why high government debt and inflation is harmful. The 80s and 90s . We had runaway inflation in the 80s and hit the debt wall in the 90s.

The International interest rate is at it's lowest standing in decades which is why the Liberals are confident in their spending. Your post is simply a conservative fear mongering tactic which serves no purpose other than to create confusion.

Melsey was right!  
While it’s true that interest rates are low now, it doesn’t mean they will stay low forever and remember that debt has to be paid or defaulted on at some point. Hopefully paid rather than defaulted on. Canada’s economy has not done well for several years and for several reasons, some of which has to do with the Federal government. The strength of a country’s dollar is usually a very good gauge of how well the Federal government is managing its fiscal responsibilities and the economy. I believe that the strength of the CDN dollar is directly linked to the sentiment that the investing community has towards Canada’s leadership. The investing community observes how the Liberal government grow the economy and manage their finance and this relates to our dollar being strong or weak. Next time JT tells the country that Canada is strong fiscally, go check the value of our dollar. If it’s . 75 US, then he’s lying! BTW, you probably won’t like this, but the last time Canada had a strong currency was with Steven Harper’s Conservatives. Currency traders had confidence in his governments ability to grow the economy and be fiscally responsible. It’s clear to me anyway that JT is no Steven Harper when it comes to fiscal responsibilities. Link is for historical CDN dollar values. https://tradingeconomics.com/canada/currency  
 
Edited by 70`s guy, 2020-10-05 01:09:22

your point and do not disagree with you. I was simply pointing out the fact that we do have the ability to pay the debt with greater ease at this time due to the interest rate at it's current standing. Of course the world economy is constantly shifting due to a myriad of factors, most of which we have no control, so it is reasonable to see the current spending as a snapshot in time as opposed to the unproductive sky is falling routine meant to invoke fear.  
 
Ahhh....you assume that I am opposed to Steven Harper, therefore a fan of Trudeau? Funny how assumptions work.  
 
Conservatives are too austere while Liberals are too ready to offer handouts does appear to be the common consensus here.

A lot of people seem to think that a retail/service dependant economy is a good thing. I don’t necessarily agree.  
A weak Canadian dollar is a good thing. It makes goods produced here more competitive on the world market encouraging export and encouraging domestic consumption of goods and product produced domestically.  
A weak canadian dollar also makes imported product more expensive discouraging purchase and consumption of imported goods and discouraging people from holidaying abroad in turn supporting Canadian business and jobs.  
Under the current weak Canadian dollar my own agricultural production is worth more and is priced largely at a competitive advantage especially compared against American product. On the downside things that I may buy such as imported equipment are much more expensive which encourages me to seek out and buy Canadian made product where possible therefore supporting the Canadian economy which I think is positive.  
I have lived through many years struggling under a strong currency ( and excessive regulation) which is largely the reason that we moved our own business to Canada to become more competitive.  
As far as interest rates go it’s a double edged sword, low interest rates in theory encourage consumer borrowing and spending , the trouble is that consumer and national borrowing is now excessive and has been for some years, an inevitable and probably small interest rate rise would make much current debt at unfixed rates unserviceable and that is the risk that we face asa country. Higher interest rates encourage consumer saving and encourages people to consider their spending habits more carefully, as individuals wealth grows the economy should grow with it. It’s about the need to find the elusive happy medium.

I agree with what you say about interest rates. There's an elusive middle ground that seem unattainable. What we have right now is unsustainable, supposedly, except we've been here for well over a decade. They keep saying the crunch is going to happen, but it never does... yet.  
 
I'm interested in what you say about the service/retail economy. I feel like that too - in anything this pandemic has shown us that much of those types of services are fabricated demand (i.e. we really don't need them in the long run), but also lots is at stake if those associated jobs evaporate. Lots of people work at menial jobs in those industries, so what happens to them? Or will it right itself in the end - there's less need for income generally if there's less discretionary spending on those good and services, ergo there's generally less need for employment generally?  
 
I'm curious to know what you envision the end result could be!

It’s a valid question. If we could atttact more domestic manufacturing it should provide some better quality opportunities. That’s not to say that there’s anything wrong with working in retail work, I just find it hard to see the same stores/restaurants in different locations but in the same town or city, the market is overserviced.

Call Joe Biden the “Vice President”? I hear it all the time in the news when they’re covering the US election. He isn’t the Vice President, Mike Pence is. It would be challenging to follow, if Trump would be finishing his second term and the current Vice President (Pence) would be running against the former Vice President (Biden) for the US Presidency. It would be funny to hear CNN announce that Vice President Pence is debating Vice President Biden on such and such a date. Oh life’s little mysteries, lol!

There's a long history of expressing respect to the office-holders by continuing to refer to them as "Vice-President" or "President" long after they have left office.  
 
If referring to someone in the third-person, they may interject "former" in there, as in "former President Obama". However, in general conversation, they'll usually always be addressed as "President Bush" , "President Obama" , etc, etc.