Trudeau’s real problem is policy, not comms

by Franco Terrazzano

Trudeau’s problem isn’t that Canadians don’t know what his government is doing. His problem is Canadians know exactly what his government is doing and don’t support it. Pictured: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault. Photo Credit: PMO.   You can put lipstick on a hog and call it Monica, but it’s still a […]

Trudeau not doing the little things to make life affordable

by Franco Terrazzano

The Trudeau government doesn’t need an expensive get-away in Montreal to figure out how to make life more affordable. There’s a simple solution: stop taking so much money from Canadians. Photo Credit: Reuters/Carlos Osorio.   Figuring out how to make life more affordable for Canadians shouldn’t be like unravelling Einstein’s theory of relativity.  If Prime […]

Trudeau bingeing on alcohol tax hikes

by Franco Terrazzano

The federal government increased taxes on alcohol by 6.3 per cent for 2023. Photo credit: The Canadian Press/Chris Young   With sky-high inflation, climbing interest rates and carbon tax hikes, you could be forgiven for drinking. But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is rubbing margarita salt in the wound by using high inflation to binge on […]

No prudence when Freeland spends $20 billion over budget

by Franco Terrazzano

Photo credit: Twitter/Chrystia Freeland   The federal government is already on track to blow its budget by $20 billion. That’s astonishing when we’re only about halfway through the budget year. But here’s the most amazing part: Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland called her fiscal update “prudent.” Freeland said the government would spend $452.3 billion in April’s budget. Now […]

Recession for who? Not government employees

by Franco Terrazzano

Bureaucrats didn’t financially suffer during the pandemic. They benefited. Now they want more. And if taxpayers don’t pony up, bureaucrats won’t show up for work.     Different people experience things differently. The pandemic exposed a specific divide. Private-sector workers missed paycheques. Small business owners worried their savings wouldn’t keep the lights on. Meanwhile, federal bureaucrats […]

Yes, payroll taxes are taxes. No, Trudeau shouldn’t be raising them

by Franco Terrazzano

 If something looks like a duck, waddles like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it’s a duck. Likewise, if it takes money from you like a tax, funds government spending like a tax, and even the government admits it’s a tax, then it’s a tax. Photo credit: AFP/Getty Images   Political pundits are […]

Trudeau’s luxury tax will harm blue-collar workers

by Franco Terrazzano

With its preoccupation with going after the rich, Ottawa is forgetting about the Canadian workers who will get caught in the crossfire.   Hundreds of people who pull wrenches for a living have a unique point of view on Ottawa’s new luxury tax. Most of us might not be too bothered by a tax on […]

Nothing prudent about Trudeau government’s budgeting

by Franco Terrazzano

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alongside Deputy PM and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland. Photo credit: PMO   There’s great irony in Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland touting the government’s “fiscal restraint” on the same day taxpayers find out that the governor general and her fellow passengers racked up an $80,000-bill on in-flight catering.  “I know that my fiscal […]

High and hidden taxes driving up the pump price

by Franco Terrazzano

Photo credit: Pexels/Engin Akyurt   As far as Canadian politicians are concerned, the soaring cost of living is like winter slush, summer mosquitos and other unfortunate forces of nature. They would love to help, but what can they do? Here’s an idea: our politicians just need to follow the lead of other countries and cut […]

Documents show PMO staff held meetings on home equity taxes

by Franco Terrazzano

  Photo credit: Pexels/Curtis Adams   Staff in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office met with a group that received funding to produce a report recommending a home equity tax, according to new documents obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.   “During the election, Trudeau told voters he wasn’t going to impose a home equity tax, so why are […]

The joke is on taxpayers on April Fools’ Day

by Franco Terrazzano

Photo credit: The Canadian Press/Doug Ives   It’s not an April Fools’ joke: politicians are raising their own salaries at the same time they’re hiking carbon taxes and alcohol taxes. “The joke is on taxpayers and it isn’t funny as our members of Parliament pocket a pay raise while emptying our wallets with higher carbon […]

Poll: nearly 8 in 10 Canadians against MP pay raise

by Franco Terrazzano

While many small business owners and employees in the private sector have suffered reduction of hours, job loss, and closure over the last two years, MPs have provided themselves healthy pay raises throughout the pandemic. A recent Leger poll commissioned by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation indicates a vast majority of the population is, unsurprisingly, not […]

The feds need to end their lockdown subsidies: Terrazzano

by Franco Terrazzano

Pandemic subsidies have cost Ottawa more than half a trillion dollars to date. Photo credit: The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick   When governments subsidize something, you can expect more of it. With the federal government covering the cost of keeping workers and businesses afloat during provincial lockdowns, it’s no surprise that provincial politicians are biased toward […]

Politicians know Canadians have no appetite for higher tax bills

by Franco Terrazzano

Photo credit: Pexels/Rodnae Productions   It’s hard to be optimistic after the last federal election if you’re a Canadian taxpayer worried about politicians’ race towards financial insanity.  The most expensive election in Canadian history turned out to be a competition to see which politician could rack up a bigger government credit card bill. Both the […]

Liberals stay on the runaway spending train with no plan to balance

by Franco Terrazzano

 Justin Trudeau at the Liberal Party platform release, Sept. 1, 2021. Photo credit: Facebook/Justin Trudeau   The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is criticizing the Liberal Party’s recently released election platform for its reckless spending and lack of a plan to balance the budget.  “All we’re hearing from the Liberals is more borrowing, but not a […]

Each Canadian owes $57,000 in government debt

by Franco Terrazzano

Photo credit: Pexels/Mikhail Nilov Fifty-seven thousand dollars. That’s the average amount each Canadian will owe in provincial and federal government debt by the end of the year.  It’s not just the rich or big corporations that will be mopping up this budget mess if politicians don’t take some air out of their bloated budgets.  Politicians are already […]

Global tax cartel is a march to higher taxes and more corporate welfare

by Franco Terrazzano

Canadian politicians like Chrystia Freeland see tax competition as a “race to the bottom.”

But for the rest of us, a global tax cartel will mean an inevitable march toward higher tax bills and more pork for companies with access to politicians.

Politicians haven’t been honest about their carbon taxes

by Franco Terrazzano

When you got straight A’s on a report card, it’s a good bet you rushed home from the school bus to show your mom and dad. Maybe they even stuck it on the fridge. But if that report card was covered with F’s you probably weren’t that eager to bring it up at dinner time.

Trudeau is sticking future generations with his spending bill

by Franco Terrazzano

Canadian babies born on federal budget day 2021 had more than $28,000 of debt the moment they opened their eyes. That’s each Canadian’s share of the federal government’s $1-trillion debt. And it’s going up.

By the time those little ones blow out their candles on their fifth birthday, Ottawa projects their shares of the federal debt will be about $35,000 each.

Freeland must watch out for the quicksand of debt interest

by Franco Terrazzano

If you think the federal government’s so called historic spending on a national child-care scheme is big, wait until you hear how much the government is spending to cover its debt interest costs.
In its 2021 budget, the Justin Trudeau government is promising to spend $30 billion over five years on a national child-care program. That’s a tonne of money considering we couldn’t afford it pre-pandemic.

Federal government plans to spend more on everything with no plan to pay for it

by Franco Terrazzano

The British politician Nigel Lawson once said: “To govern is to choose – to appear to be unable to choose is to appear to be unable to govern.”

If Lawson is correct, then the only conclusion to be drawn from Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s federal budget is that the Trudeau Liberals appear to be unable to govern.

Ottawa’s carbon tax is so bad it’s uniting Alberta and Quebec

by Franco Terrazzano

Imagine a tax so bad that it’s uniting Alberta and Quebec. With all of the heated rhetoric over pipelines and equalization, that sort of unity seems like an impossibility. But it turns out the tax is all too real and it’s Ottawa’s carbon tax.
The Trudeau government has been busy uniting the provinces against its economically damaging policies. Six premiers wrote to the prime minister urging him to change or scrap legislation that bans tankers on the West Coast and makes approvals for future pipelines virtually impossible. And following the Alberta’s government’s announcement to challenge Ottawa’s carbon tax in the courts, the Quebec government is now taking on the tax by intervening in Saskatchewan’s Supreme Court challenge.

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