01.12.2016 12:53 PM

Dear Kinsella kids

There will be no Spring Break in Florida this year!

Screen Shot 2016-01-12 at 12.49.32 PM

37 Comments

  1. P. Brenn says:

    bought some sand , tanning spray and few disney movies for living room…all good and no airport lineups ..

  2. dean sherratt says:

    I’ll make the most unpopular argument ever by hoping that Treasury Board is quickly adjusting the “Post Index” for our diplomats working overseas. They are paid in Canadian dollars but buy almost all their goods in local currency. I was posted in Boston when the dollar was 62 cents US…The post index is intended in a monthly payment to enable your income to reflect local currency values so your salary is as valuable elsewhere as it is in Canada. It almost never does and when I was in Boston circa 2000, the local school board in my residence thought my family was so poor that they offered us certificates to buy shoes for my kids.

  3. Peter says:

    I certainly don’t put all of the blame for this on Trudeau

    Les, as a con, I completely agree with you. Trudeau is not to blame. But neither was Harper. Nor do I think Trudeau should be held to account for fixing this ( “A $0.70 dollar is not who we are!”). No Canadian PM can–it’s absurd to imagine he/she could direct global commodity prices or currency values. My hope is he finds a way to admit this, but I’m not holding my breath.

    Sometimes Canadians need to be reminded of their place in the world.

  4. Matt says:

    Well, I don’t like Trudeau, but I don’t see how you can put the blame on him and the Liberals, at least not yet.

    He’s facing the same external forces beyond Canada’s control as Harper did in his last year to 18 months.

    We can’t do squat about oil prices or China’s poor economic performance.

    Now, if the Liberals just ignore the realities of the current situation and just plow ahead as planned without making the necessary adjustments, then you can blame them for the poor results that will surely follow.

    • ottawacon says:

      The declared intention to increase the deficit is the secondary downward force that Trudeau definitely bears responsibility for loading on to the dollar – but fundamentally CAD is a petro-dollar.

      • Terence Quinn says:

        Wrong. His deficit spending will create jobs and enhance our economy starting the dollar on its way back to some respectability. Yes, we are mostly a petrodollar but you must also remember we export billions of dollars in commodity sales for gold ,copper. iron ore, diamonds, etc that are also price hammered.
        in my opinion one of the ways to steady this economy would be to seriously lower income taxes for all and raise the VAT/GST to at least 10% and possibly higher. The billions and billions of dollars made by “under the table” cash business is an enormous burden to this elf us who simply pay our taxes as employees or small business owners. By raising the GST to a much higher number the government would capture that money as it gets spent at a higher tax rate than the 5% we currently pay. The GST, PST should be built into the cost of goods.

        I know I will hear that this is preposterous but it works very well in the UK and other European Countries. The poor are not disadvantaged as the income tax thresholds get raised so those on lower incomes pay no withholding taxes at all.

        • ottawacon says:

          Deficit spending is extremely unlikely to produce an increase in currency value, and it never has in Canada. That is the sort of fuzzy thinking that got us into such trouble under the last Trudeau PM. We are too trade exposed to do anything but export a significant number of jobs that result from government spending, and the bond markets price that in fairly efficiently.

          It must be downright distressing to Chretien to see one of his major achievements undone.

          Absolutely agree with you about the GST. Reducing it was one of the first instances of the moronic populism in place of principles that eventually led to the destruction of Harper’s government.

        • Curt says:

          Terry,
          A little perspective here.
          The oil and gas industry has removed $35-$40 billion in capital expenditures from the Canadian economy while Mr. Trudeau is proposing $10-15 billion in additional expenditures. Alberta has lost ~40k jobs and the industry has lost a guesstimate of 40K additional jobs by people from other provinces.
          The biggest thing that Mr. Trudeau can do to improve our currency is to reduce investment risk. His agenda that includes additional borrowing, climate change, anti-pipeline and social programs are scaring investors both in Canada and from abroad. Investors like security from the Governments and right now they are not getting it, hence the meme, get our money out of Canada.

        • Cory says:

          you would have to increase the GST credit as the poor do not pay income taxes so would not benefit from an income tax cut, while a disproportionate amount of their income goes to necessities which would be taxed by the higher GST.

        • Ted H says:

          The Harper government put all of Canada’s economic eggs in one basket, the oil patch, when they could have put more effort into diversifying the economy. They bragged far and wide about Canada’s status as an energy “superpower” and in doing so solidified it’s standing as a “petro’ dollar in the eyes of the market. Now here we are with a $.70 dollar that certainly would not have been at par but could have been perhaps closer to $.80 if those “great money managers” the Conservatives had been as astute as they like to claim they are and really done something rather than almost nothing to really advance the Canadian economy. But go ahead, blame it on Trudeau, on a government that has been in office for less than 3 months if that suits the conservative ideological view of reality.

        • Ronald O'Dowd says:

          Terence Quinn,

          The PMO needs to think only in stark political terms on this one. It was the kiss of death for Mulroney. Secondly, the government has absolutely no political mandate on this matter.

          If this is a trial balloon — it’s a lead one, right out of the gate. The PM needs to stay clear of such concepts. This is also a poll nose diver.

  5. Ronald O'Dowd says:

    Warren,

    Canadian monetary policy can only affect our dollar on the margins. We cut interest rates but the dollar continues to drop.

    It’s all about the FOMC. They raise interest rates and the American buck goes up. No way around that when monetary policy is geared toward successive interest rate hikes.

    Emerging markets are headed into the toilet and the rest of us will follow, to differing degrees.

    • Wayne says:

      Ronald,

      Raising rates increases the value of a currency. More people want to purchase said currency in order to get a better return, thereby increasing its value.

      The age-old axiom applies now as much as ever “math is hard for lefties”.

  6. Jack D says:

    Maybe now’s a good time to consider the Turks and Caicos offer.

    • e.a.f. says:

      Jack, if you’re running for political office anywhere, you might get elected with a suggestion like that. although they may have withdrawn the offer, given how low our dollar is. Might be good to have a province in a warm climate though. Like how did the U.S.A. get Hawaii and not us?

  7. smelter rat says:

    10 years of the Harpercons putting all their eggs in one tar sands basket certainly hasn’t helped the current situation.

    • Elisabeth Lindsay says:

      Oh stop Smelter…..now you are just embarrassing yourself.

    • Lyndon Dunkley says:

      I’m curious as to these wonderful mystery industries you and Ted H think Canada is missing out on?

      • doconnor says:

        Manufacturing. Provides high quaity jobs with less environmental impact, higher productivity, less subject to wild price swings and still bigger then the oil industry even in its diminished state.

        • Peter says:

          Manufacturing what? Every time I hear that argument, no specifics are given and we’re left with some kind of dreamy vision of a semi-autarkic return to protectionist times. What do you think Ottawa can do (specifically, what do you think Harper should have done?) to promote manufacturing? Ban oil production to try and force the dollar down? Give tax breaks to Microsoft? Do you want to withdraw from the rest of the world and erect tariff walls so Canadian consumers can pay premium prices to support those “high-quality” jobs? I’m sure no one would retaliate. Are you nostalgic for all those failed attempts in the 60s and 70s by governments to support uneconomic ventures (a.k.a. pork barreling )? And have you considered that a significant portion of Canadian manufacturing (11 % of workers) is in support of resource industries? Really, there is so much nostalgia in this thinking that it reminds me of desperate efforts to preserve the family farm. It’s one thing to temper economic swings, quite another to try to march against history.

          Anyway, if you are right, the collapse of the dollar should help manufacturing more than any government policies. Let’s see if we give China a run for its money and corner the global market in children’s clothing.

        • doconnor says:

          Canadian didn’t seem to mind paying a premium on gas to make foreign petroleum investor’s rich.

          The government could have talked down the Canadian dollar, not engages in trade deals that hurt manufacturing and promoted resource exports and used tax policy to encourage manufacturing and slow oil development to a more sustainable pace.

        • Peter says:

          The government could have talked down the Canadian dollar…

          Right. An incantation and his magic beans would have done it. I hope Trudeau will soon talk up the dollar so Warren can go to Florida and eat more cucumbers.

          The number of trade agreements the Cons negotiated that are in force are few and only involve small countries. Can you name one manufacturing venture in Canada that blames any of them for lost sales?

          What do you think the SCC would have to say about a federal government that uses tax policy expressly and openly to slow the pace of resource extraction, which is of course owned and managed by the provinces?

          You’re in the fantasy world of a first year university seminar.

  8. billg says:

    Every time we give you guys the keys to the economic car you run it into a ditch.
    Regards,
    All Conservatives
    **note for the humour challenged, its just a joke, relax**

    • Ted H says:

      I hope I’m reading you right, it is the Conservatives that don’t know how to drive, even though they claim to be the best drivers ever. History generally bears out that under Liberal governments in Canada and Democratic governments in the US, the economy does better.

      • billg says:

        Actually, its a swipe at both sides who say they are the best drivers of the economy when in fact both fail and succeed at almost the same rate.
        And, if I was a deeply partisan Ted all I would say to counter your argument is, “Ontario”.

        • Ted H says:

          And I would say that both McGuinty’s and Wynne’s Liberal governments exhibit a lot of humanity and are doing the best they can to repair years of totally catastrophic damage done by the application of conservative ideology by a couple of previous governments. I live in Ontario and would take a Liberal or NDP government run by human beings over the sub human swine that constitute the Conservative party any day, any week, any year. Pardon my lack of humour but I hate these people and all they stand for.

        • doconnor says:

          Ontario tends to elect Liberals when Conservatives are in power federally and the federal government has more impact on the economy.

  9. JamesHalifax says:

    Well,

    I don’t think the folks managing Trudeau are going to ask him to make good on all the campaign promises. Liberals speak a good game when it comes to Government spending, but when the rubber hits the road, they DO try to look after the economy if possible.

    Unfortunately for me, I booked my trip to Cuba in the fall when the dollar was much higher. Getting down there, and accomodations are no problem, but my plan to bring back 100 nice cuban cigars may be reduced to 50 cubans instead. (COHIBA – Maduro #5 Genios….best ever)

  10. Bill says:

    The best thing Trudeau could do is immediately jump start the Trans Mountain and Energy East pipeline projects when he gets the NEB recommendations mid-year. It would (1) create tens of thousands of new jobs; (2) restore some of the lost investor confidence in the oil patch; start to eliminate the discount for Western Canadian Select compared to the WTI; restore the lost cap ex in Alberta; and boost government tax revenue federally and provincially. The current downturn in the economy would give the government enough cover to override objectors and get these projects going based on the national interest. Critical infrastructure, paid for by the private sector.

    • e.a.f. says:

      there is no point in building something we don’t need. Our oil is expensive to produce. Its cheaper to buy it from another country and Saudi is going to keep pumping it out until all the expensive oil producers have folded.

      If we are going to “create” jobs we might want to start with infrastructure where needed, like really needed and then start building some new hospitals and training more doctors and nurses. We really need those. then we could build some affordable houses, which we really need in some parts of Canada and new water processing plants in the north because most reserves don’t have clean running water.

      if we are going to create jobs, we had better get back to manufacturing. Building pipelines is so yesterday.

      • lance mclean says:

        We don’t need oil, really? Buy from Saudi’s, are those the same Saudi’s it is bad to sell stuff too, but clearly OK to buy stuff from? Wow I used to think it was hard suck and blow at the same time. Clearly I am wrong.

        • Ted H says:

          Those same Saudis are supposed to be allies of the west but they are flooding the market to destroy the industry in the countries with hard to extract oil like Canada and the US. If I remember right, most or maybe all of the 911 hijackers were Saudis and their human rights record is in the same range as North Korea and Iran. Maybe we should re-think who our friends are.

          • e.a.f. says:

            my apologies, what I meant to say was that we don’t need to build pipelines because our oil is not going to be exported. The Saudi’s are cheaper to buy from and other countries will buy from the Saudis. Now in my opinion Canada ought to build its own refinery in Alberta and we use the tar for Canada’s benefit. we would have a stable supply of oil, although some what expensive, but the jobs and money would stay in Canada. well the profits would leave Canada because a lot of those oil companies in Alberta are owned by the Communist government and army of China who are about as nasty as the Saudi’s, except in China women get to drive.

      • Ted H says:

        Years ago, Stephen Harper if he had not been in the pocket of the oil industry should have had the foresight to come out and say “F**K the oilpatch”. After all, he was an economist, wasn’t he?

        • lance mclean says:

          Well e.a.f, all and good but you still need to move refined product and gasoline in pipelines is a disaster waiting to happen

  11. MississaugaPeter says:

    Florida?

    That is a place you went when we had a boring prime minister like Harper. It is so, so last prime minister. I am sure they were expecting CHANGE anyways.

    Hint: Be hip, and send us selfies from St. Kitts and Nevis. Maybe you can get the prime minister’s rate.

  12. e.a.f. says:

    remember they may decide which rest home you go to so you might want to reconsider about the Florida trip. On the other hand, the weather here on Vancouver Island can be very nice at that time of year and there is always surfing at Tofino in a wet suit.

    The low Canadian dollar will be with us for some time, I would suggest so we might as well cope and adjust and buy Canadian for awhile. We can’t do anything about the price of oil unless Saudi stop pumping so much and it will take young Trudeau a few years to work towards returning the economy to one which is a tad more broad based. Our $ fell because our economy was based on oil and yes Stephen there is a Dutch disease. We got a very bad case of it. Now its time to move on and not blame all the newly elected politicians in Ottawa and Edmonton.

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