How FP columnists saw it in 2024

On By Littum

Read excerpts from columns that appeared in April, May and June 2024 in FP Comment. Second in line.

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh says it is a disgrace that we are the only G7 or OECD country or non-failed state that does not have a national school lunch program. He doesn’t seem to realize that we are the strongest federal country in almost any group of countries you care to name, and have a long history of devolved powers as well as an original constitution that was and remains completely committed to the notion that local governments – we call them “provinces” – would have responsibility for many things, exclusive actual liability. But now Ottawa wants to put up a billion dollars for lunches and “work with” the provinces on, I guess, whether they should put mustard or mayonnaise on the sandwiches, or whether sandwiches themselves are too carb-intensive for young minds and growing bodies or speech too much about Canada’s colonial history. (For example, consider the many subliminal implications of “white bread.”) — William Watson, April 4th

Do you think we would be having this pre-Budget cross-country extravaganza if Chrystia Freeland was still Chancellor of the Exchequer? Oh, you’re right: she is. Yeah, I think I’ve seen her in some of those “Where’s Waldo?” tableaus of happy, smiling and above all nodding Liberal MPs you see behind the Prime Minister as he wanders across the country spewing dollars, platitudes and carbon across the country. I’m worried that some of the more enthusiastic nods will get neck pain, although they probably have generous physiotherapy allowances in their sweet MP HR deals, probably a massage or two a year and aromatherapy. The nod is so syncopated that they have to be taught it. Self-respecting adults, elected members of Parliament, wouldn’t volunteer to look like such pliant idiots, would they? China’s President Xi doesn’t get half as many nods when he gives a speech with his apparatchiks lined up behind him. Maybe they’re afraid they’ll nod in the wrong place and there goes their career. Or worse. — William Watson, April 9

Last week’s budget plan to raise taxes on Canadians making more than $250,000 in capital gains was simply the latest manifestation of Chrystia Freeland’s long-standing ideological beliefs, outlined in her book Plutocrats, which was subtitled “The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else.” The subtitle is fake. Global statistics are clear, as are almost everyone else around the world wonnot fallen, during the triumph of 20th century capitalism. Freeland’s budget reflects the idea that governments are the primary driver of economic growth, prosperity and equality. As for the plutocrats, they have their advantages. In Ottawa, the plan is to tax capital gains by Canadian plutocrats and transfer the funds to the plutocrats who run the auto industry. — Terence Corcoran, April 24

You wouldn’t know it from Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s talk about “fair shares”, but rich people already pay plenty of tax. In 2021, the last year for which data is available, the bottom 90 percent of Canadian taxpayers paid income tax with an average rate of just 12.6 percent and generated less than half—45.6 percent to be exact—of total income tax revenue. And both their rate and share would be even lower if child, elderly and other social benefits were deducted. In contrast, the top 10 percent of taxpayers paid an average rate of 29.3 percent and accounted for nearly 55 percent of personal income tax revenue. These numbers are worth highlighting: 90 percent of taxpayers pay less than half of all income taxes; 10 percent pay more than half. — Jack Mintz, April 26

We are told daily that the food industry, telecommunications and financial markets are uncompetitive sectors and intervention is needed. But a report from the Center for the Study of Living Standards at the end of last year raises doubts on the effect of competition. It compared the productivity performance of various Canadian business sectors since 2000 and concluded that the industries with “the largest contributors to productivity growth over the period were the finance and insurance sector, the wholesale trade sector, the manufacturing sector, the retail trade sector, and the agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting sector.” The presence of Canada’s allegedly uncompetitive financial and retail sectors (hello, Walmart, Loblaws and Amazon!) as generators of productivity improvements runs counter to the competition theme. — Terence Corcoran, 3 May

A sensible course for those who believe in investors’ returns grocery business are too high would be to invest in the sector by starting their own stores. One of the activists’ demands is that the government undertakes to increase competition in the grocery sector. Why not deliver that competition yourself? The activists insist Loblaw’s prices does not reflect current economic conditions. Groceries could be delivered much cheaper, they say. It sounds so easy, but if it is, they should show us how it’s done. If they can beat all of Loblaw’s prices by 15 percent with no lower quality or convenience, I for one would want to be a customer. — Matthew Lau, May 7

The man of the system, Adam Smith explained, “is apt to be very clever in his own conceit” and “seems to imagine that he can arrange the various members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the various pieces of a chessboard.” But people are not chess pieces to be moved around with a hand from above; they have their own agency, and if they are pushed in a direction opposite to where they want to go, the result will be misery and “the highest degree of disorder.” That nicely sums up the current government’s efforts to mandate electric vehicles contrary to consumer preferences. The vehicle market is in a state of disarray as the government tries to force people to buy the types of cars many of them don’t want, and the results are miserable everywhere. — Matthew Lau, May 9

When protesters call for a boycott of Israel, does that include denying themselves access to Israeli inventions that may one day save their own lives? Instead of boycotting, Canadians should both access and emulate Israeli ideas, talents and techniques to improve our own backlog productivity. — Jack Mintz, May 17

There is no rhyme or reason to the Trudeau government’s climate spending. It will spend huge sums of money on anything and everything in the name of climate change, from 104 million dollars for British Columbia Home Energy Efficiency Grants for a new project that costs over 20 million dollars “that will focus on improving gender-responsive and climate-resilient agricultural practices” in Tanzania, to take two examples from last week. The Liberals did not explain what “gender-sensitive and climate-resilient agricultural methods” in Tanzania are. Nor did they say how gender-responsive Tanzanian climate action will benefit Canadian taxpayers, who are forced to pay more than $20 million for it. Are there things like “gender-unresponsive” climate-resistant agricultural methods? How do agricultural practices, climate resilient or not, “respond” to gender? And if climate change is an existential crisis, as the prime minister says, doesn’t that mean it will wipe out everyone, regardless of gender? If so, why should a policy that attempts to combat climate change even consider gender? — Matthew Lau, 21 May

If you subsidize it, they will lobby. The greater the subsidies, the greater the incentive to devote resources to lobbying rather than real economic activity. Are you really building an innovative, industrious, self-reliant economy by teaching people the biggest rewards that come from successfully petitioning the government? A nation of extremely skilled prayers may have its place in the world, but it is not what industrial policy enthusiasts portray. — William Watson, 30 May

The monthly labor force survey now producing unemployment figures for nine ethnic groups and races. Statistics Canada has embraced the vigilante movement’s fixation on race and gender. As Richard Hanania wrote in The origin of Woke“the level of vigilance in a country and what form it takes depends on whether and how certain kinds of data are collected.” France simply prohibits collecting data on individuals’ race, religion or ethnicity. In contrast, Canada’s chief statistician went all out in defense of expanded race data, arguing that it was justified by “real racial disparities in the challenges Canadians face,” though such issues are better left to the public and their elected representatives. — Philip Cross, 30 May

For years, Canada’s sluggish legislative and policy response to opportunities to increase LNG export helped move investment and production to the United States, which is now the world’s largest exporter of natural gas. A decade ago, dozens of proposals for LNG projects circulated in BC and on Canada’s east coast, but few moved forward. Canada now has an opportunity to win back some of the global LNG market from American producers, providing a much-needed boost to our prosperity while helping to reduce Asia’s dependence on coal. — Philip Cross, June 5

If you go to CBC website and search “far right”, you get 2,457 hits. If you search for “far left,” you get 219, less than nine percent of that number. By the way, you get exactly the same totals if you use a hyphen, i.e. “far right” and “far left”, which means the CBC search engine is hyphen-blind – although I doubt it’s any other kind of blind, given the corporation’s devotion to identity politics. By the way, if you search for “far out”, you get 329 hits, 50 percent more than for “far left”. At the CBC they are clearly much more concerned about the far right (and the extreme) than the far left. — William Watson, June 20

While it may be inappropriate to engage in the dubious and frivolous business of long-range forecasting to launch the 26th edition of FP Comments Junk Science Week, here’s a prediction nonetheless: History will show that the UN has established itself as the biggest organizational perpetrator of junk science in modern times, if not of all time, with current UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres destined to be single for his personal contribution to twisted UN climate alarmism. Since his appointment in 2019, Guterres and the UN have lived up to our formal standard definition of junk science. It occurs when scientific facts are distorted, risk is exaggerated (or underplayed), and “science” is adapted and distorted by politics and ideology to serve another agenda. — Terence Corcoran, June 25

According to Chrystia Freeland, China’s state-run policy of overproducing electric cars is “anti-competitive” and must be fought. Ironically, the federal government made one separate announcement last week to fight “anti-competitive” corporate mergers that lead to higher prices. So if prices are too high, they are anti-competitive; but if prices are too low, they are also anti-competitive. Apparently only through central planning by the Trudeau government will goods and services become competitively priced. — Matthew Lau, June 30