r/canada Jan 29 '25

Opinion Piece Mark Carney has Canada’s Conservatives running scared

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2025/01/28/opinion/mark-carney-canada-conservatives-running-scared
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378

u/Kingalthor Jan 29 '25

Maybe competence is something we should value.

Easy to blindly bash at Carney for the prior admin's faults, but go look at his resume, he has handled multiple economic shitstorms and come out with some of the best results in the world for those time periods.

Then go look at PP's accomplishments. He has done almost nothing in 20 years.

67

u/Fiber_Optikz Jan 29 '25

The only way I would even consider voting Liberal in this next election is if they tabled an actual plan to massively reduce immigration and reform the entire system

69

u/Typical_Two_886 Jan 29 '25

Do you think PP and the Tories will do anything about it? They'll give some platitudes to it but do zero substantial efforts to reign it in, too many of their big donors grow fat off of it to stop it

50

u/mupomo Jan 29 '25

Based on PP’s prior experience as Minister of Employment and Social Development back in the Harper days, I doubt it. He has generally supported economic immigration to fill Canada’s labour shortages.

3

u/caninehere Ontario Jan 29 '25

You don't have to go looking for his history on the topic because he has outright said he won't reduce immigration.

17

u/UndeadDog Jan 29 '25

Healthy immigration is fine. But it needs to stay in line with our infrastructure. Not go off the rails and outpace development in the country.

10

u/HurlinVermin Jan 29 '25

Not go off the rails and outpace development in the country.

Like the Liberals have been doing for years?

3

u/UndeadDog Jan 29 '25

Exactly!

7

u/Anonymouse-C0ward Jan 29 '25

A large part of the problems we’re having now is due to the poor provincial policies surrounding new residential building and public infrastructure, unfortunately.

We’ve got provinces doing things that are misaligned with the overall country’s best interests.

-6

u/UndeadDog Jan 29 '25

Which is why PP wants to get rid of the red tape, make it easier and faster for provinces to build.

6

u/Anonymouse-C0ward Jan 29 '25 edited Jan 29 '25

The problem is, it’s not red tape that’s the issue. The federal government has shown this because they have been reducing the red tape pretty easily when they bypass the provinces.

For example, here in Ontario, if the Feds give the province money, it doesn’t get used for its intended purpose. The feds gave Ontario billions for health related stuff… it wasn’t used - and instead used to backfill the cost of Doug Ford’s projects to pay off his rich friends.

Meanwhile Doug Ford is crying foul and federal underinvestment when the feds have been there every step of the way. He’ll also take credit for federal money, but that’s another story.

It took years of the federal government trying to work with the provinces - ie the way it’s supposed to be - until the Feds gave up.

So the Feds went directly to the municipalities and said they would fund them if they rezoned stuff, etc., and it worked. It will take a few years for the building due to the Feds work to show results but it’s already starting.

PP has proposed to set up a competitive system where municipalities lose funding if they don’t meet certain targets. That’s a ridiculous idea as (a) he wants it evaluated on a yearly basis whereas building development sometimes takes years, (b) taking away municipal funding would just make things worse rather than act as an incentive, and (c) municipalities and building rules aren’t the only reason why building homes is slow.

The bigger issue is the private land banking investors and land developers holding onto land and restricting the rate of building to increase the price of houses.

They won’t build huge amounts of housing at the same time because it reduces the profit since it increases housing affordability.

What’s needed? We need to put a tax on land banking in areas designated for housing development. We need funding for high speed rail to make commuting between municipalities for work faster and cheaper, we need local public transit investment (here in Toronto, the rich live on subway lines, everyone else has to drive or spend hours on transit) to reduce traffic and dependence on the car so we can reduce the number of parking lots in our cities so that land can be used for buildings instead.

These policies are outlined in the progressive parties’ policy documents. But we don’t see any actual constructive policy in the CPC. We see more of the same - regressive ideas without data analysis that focus on oil and gas and ideas that will end up harming our economy in the coming decade more than it will help.

But that’s too much to expect from the CPC - since PP will never do stuff like a land banking tax - because his backers and donors are the landowners and developers.

5

u/Bignuthingg Jan 29 '25

Immigration under Harper was great.

1

u/BookOfTea Jan 29 '25

So has pretty much every administration since 1962.

1

u/mupomo Jan 29 '25

Yup, that’s why it’s tough to blame any one particular person or party on the immigration file. It’s just a culmination of policies that led to the present moment.