Anger, pessimism towards federal government reach six-year high: Nanos survey
https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/anger-pessimism-towards-federal-government-reach-six-year-high-nanos-survey-1.6852187?
Jesse Kline: Chrystia Freeland's Canada is no place for the ambitious or hard working
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/liberals-have-fully-embraced-being-a-tax-and-spend-party?
"加拿大不適合努力工作的人"！60%國民悲觀憤怒：這個國家已崩潰
2024年04月19日 加國無憂 51.CA作者：51.CA 堅果兒
文章指出，盡管杜魯多領導的自由黨政府在過去8年半的時間為遇到的每一個問題投入了大量資金，但大多數加拿大人認為這個國家已經從根本上崩潰了。現在，自由黨試圖讓民眾相信，解決（他們幫助製造或未能解決的）問題的答案就是：撒錢。
在本周二的預算案公布之前，加拿大副總理兼財政部長方慧蘭（Chrystia Freeland）一反近年來的傳統，在預算日之前的幾周內試圖讓加拿大人相信，政府計劃表現出財政緊縮。
也許這表明自由黨已經開始接受他們與新民主黨（NDP）的邪惡聯盟，今年，方慧蘭甚至懶得假裝財政責任會納入她的考慮因素。
2024年預算案旨在解決兩個主要問題——不是為了加拿大，而是為了這個國家的"執政黨"。最近的民意調查顯示，加拿大人對聯邦政府的憤怒和悲觀情緒創6年新高，大多數人認為這個國家已經支離破碎。
Nanos Research的一項調查顯示，3月份有62%的加拿大人表示，他們對聯邦政府感到憤怒或悲觀，達到6年來的最高水平。
僅有11%的加拿大人感到滿意，另有11%的人表示不感興趣。
在此之前，Leger在今年早些時候對1,554名18歲或以上的加拿大人進行的一項在線調查結果顯示：67%的加拿大人認為"這個國家已經崩潰了"；50%的人對加拿大現下的管理方式感到憤怒。
同時，計劃在下次選舉中投票給保守黨的年輕選民數量是自由黨支持者的近兩倍。
因此，方慧蘭在過去三周裏一直試圖"撒錢賄賂"千禧一代和Z世代：5億元用於青少年心理健康，24億元用於人工智能（因為搶走人們工作的機器人也需要補貼），10億元用於學校午餐，10億元用於托兒貸款計劃。更多的支出還在繼續......
在其預算案的前言中，方慧蘭向加拿大年輕人保證，自由黨"計劃建設一個更適合你們的加拿大，在這裏你們可以取得進步，努力會得到回報，可以買得起房子"。他們將通過"建造更多的經濟適用房"、"降低生活成本"和"以一種全民共享的方式發展經濟"來實現這一目標。
不可否認的是，自由黨在住房方麵的一些想法是好的，比如激勵各省和地方政府減少繁文縟節、放寬分區限製，以及在聯邦土地上建造住房。
但這意味著，未來幾年納稅人的數十億元將用於資助"經濟適用房"，國家將承擔數十億元新公寓樓貸款的風險，還有數億元資金將用於從市政基礎設施到培訓技工等各種項目。
同時，自由黨不會通過減稅、取消碳稅和結束供應管理等政策來降低生活成本，從而迅速降低物價並刺激經濟活動，而是將更多的錢用於補貼托兒服務、為學童的午餐買單，以及資助NDP的牙科和藥物保險計劃。
至於他們的經濟增長計劃，拋開細節不說，這將花費76億元。
總的來說，2024年預算案在未來五年新增了530億元的新支出。為了支付所有這些開支，同時將赤字保持在每年400億元左右，直到2025年底的下一次聯邦大選。2024年預算案打算僅在今年就從辛勤工作的加拿大人的口袋裏多掏出219億元。
不過，方慧蘭向加拿大人保證，這些錢不會從中產階級手中拿走，而是從通過提高資本利得稅（capital gains tax），從成功的企業和富人手中奪取；以及通過再次增加煙草稅和電子煙稅，從對尼古丁上癮的人手中攫取。
自由黨政府希望資本利得稅改革能在2024-25財年額外增加194億元的收入。方慧蘭試圖淡化這一影響，她稱增稅隻會影響到收入最高的0.13%人群，但這也將影響超過30萬家納稅的公司，導致它們更不可能投資於經濟和創造新的就業機會。
方慧蘭說，她希望建立一個"努力工作就有回報"的國家，但她傳遞的信息卻截然相反：沒有必要努力工作來改善生活，因為政府會出錢照顧你的孩子、補牙、購買避孕藥和糖尿病藥物，這樣你就可以維持你的生活。如果你真的努力奮鬥並致富，你會受到嚴厲的懲罰。
在麵對那些將受到這些措施懲罰的行業領袖時候，方慧蘭問道："你想生活在一個什麽樣的國家？隻有父母能幫助付首付的年輕加拿大人才能買得起房子的國家？"
"你想生活在一個什麽樣的國家？政府已經在醫療保健、住房、養老金等方麵進行了必要的投資，但卻缺乏支付這些投資的政治意願，而是選擇將不斷膨脹的債務轉嫁給我們的孩子？"
的確，我們不想。但也許這位財政部長需要被提醒，正是自由黨袖手旁觀，房價在他們任期內上漲了60%；國家債務在十年間增加了一倍多，從2014-15年度的6490億元增加到2024-25年度的約1.44萬億元。
而且，情況隻會變得更糟。政府預計今年的赤字為398億元，比2023年預算中預測的多出48億元。
事實上，盡管自由黨政府誓言要幫助年輕人，不讓他們背負沉重的債務，但數字卻講述了一個完全不同的故事。今年，加拿大人將支付540億元來償還現有債務。到2028-29年，這一數字將增加到643億元。
這是未來幾代人將肩負的負擔，他們將被迫從購買短期選票的高昂長期成本中吸取慘痛的教訓。
Megan DeLaire CTVNews.ca JournalistMost Canadians in March reported feeling angry or pessimistic towards the federal government than at any point in the last six years, according to a survey by Nanos Research(opens in a new tab).
Nanos has been measuring Canadians' feelings of optimism, satisfaction, disinterest, anger, pessimism and uncertainty toward the federal government since November 2018.
The latest survey found that optimism had crept up slightly to 10 per cent since hitting an all-time low of eight per cent in September 2023.
However, 62 per cent of Canadians said they feel either pessimistic or angry, with respondents equally split between the two sentiments.
(Nanos Research)
"What we've seen is the anger quotient has hit a new record," Nik Nanos(opens in a new tab), CTV's official pollster and Nanos Research founder, said in an interview with CTV News' Trend Line on Wednesday.
Only 11 per cent of Canadians felt satisfied, while another 11 per cent said they were disinterested.
Past survey results show anger toward the federal government has increased or held steady across the country since March 2023, while satisfaction has gradually declined.
Since the survey was conducted before the federal government released its 2024 budget, there's a chance the anger and pessimism of March could subside a little by the time Nanos takes the public's temperature again. They could also stick.
The five most important issues to Canadians right now that would influence votes, according to another recent Nanos survey(opens in a new tab) conducted for Bloomberg, include inflation and the cost of living, health care, climate change and the environment, housing affordability and taxes.
With this year's budget(opens in a new tab), the federal government pledged $52.9 billion in new spending while promising to maintain the 2023-24 federal deficit(opens in a new tab) at $40.1 billion. The federal deficit is projected to be $39.8 billion in 2024-25.
The budget includes plans to boost new housing stock, roll out a national disability benefit, introduce carbon rebates for small businesses and increase taxes on Canada’s top-earners.
However, advocacy groups have complained it doesn't do enough to address climate change, or support First Nations communities and Canadians with disabilities.
"Canada is poised for another disastrous wildfire season, but this budget fails to give the climate crisis the attention it urgently deserves," Keith Brooks, program director for Environmental Defence(opens in a new tab), wrote in a statement on the organization's website.
Meanwhile, when it comes to a promise to close what the Assembly of First Nations says is a sprawling Indigenous infrastructure(opens in a new tab) gap, the budget falls short by more than $420 billion. And while advocacy groups have praised the impending roll-out of the Canada Disability Benefit(opens in a new tab), organizations like March of Dimes Canada and Daily Bread Food Bank say the estimated maximum benefit of $200 per month per recipient won't be enough to lift Canadians with disabilities out of poverty.
According to Nanos, if Wednesday's budget announcement isn't enough to restore the federal government's favour, no amount of spending will do the trick.
"If the Liberal numbers don't move up after this, perhaps the listening lesson for the Liberals will be (that) spending is not the political solution for them to break this trend line," Nanos said. "It'll have to be something else."
While the Liberal party waits to see what kind of effect its budget will have on voters, the Conservatives are enjoying a clear lead when it comes to ballot tracking.
(Nanos Research)
"Any way you cut it right now, the Conservatives are in the driver's seat," Nanos said. "They're in majority territory."
According to Nanos Research ballot tracking from the week ending April 12, the Conservatives are the top choice for 40 per cent of respondents, the Liberals for 23.7 per cent and the NDP for 20.6 per cent.
Whether the Liberals or the Conservatives form the next government will come down, partly, to whether voters believe more government spending is, or isn't, the key to helping working Canadians, Nanos said.
"Both of the parties are fighting for working Canadians … and we have two competing visions for that. For the Liberals, it's about putting government support into their hands and creating social programs to support Canadians," he said.
"For the Conservatives, it's very different. It's about reducing the size of government (and) reducing taxes."
Watch the full episode of Trend Line in our video player at the top of this article. You can also listen in our audio player below, or wherever you get your podcasts. The next episode comes out Wednesday, May 1.
Nanos conducted an RDD dual frame (land- and cell-lines) hybrid telephone and online random survey of 1,069 Canadians, 18 years of age or older, between March 31 and April 1, 2024, as part of an omnibus survey. Participants were randomly recruited by telephone using live agents and administered a survey online. The sample included both land- and cell-lines across Canada. The results were statistically checked and weighted by age and gender using the latest census information and the sample is geographically stratified to be representative of Canada. The margin of error for this survey is ±3.0 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
With files from The Canadian Press, CTV News Senior Digital Parliamentary Reporter Rachel Aiello and CTV News Parliamentary Bureau Writer, Producer Spencer Van Dyke
Jesse Kline: Chrystia Freeland's Canada is no place for the ambitious or hard working
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/liberals-have-fully-embraced-being-a-tax-and-spend-party?
Canada's budget 2024: This is not your father's Liberal party, this is the spirit of Jack Layton coming to exact his revenge
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Perhaps a sign that the Liberals have come to accept their unholy alliance with the socialist New Democrats, this year, Freeland didn’t even bother pretending that fiscal responsibility would factor into her calculations at all. This is not your father’s Liberal party — the party of Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin — this is the spirit of Jack Layton coming to exact his revenge.
The 2024 budget is intended to address two major problems — not for the country, but for its “natural governing party”: recent polls show that a majority of Canadians think the country is broken, and that nearly twice as many young voters are planning to cast a ballot for the Conservatives, as opposed to the Liberals, in the next election.
Thus, Freeland has spent the last three weeks attempting to bribe millennials and gen Z with their own money: $500 million for youth mental health, $2.4 billion for AI (because the robots that are going to take our jobs need subsidies, too), $1 billion for school lunches, $1 billion in loans for daycare centres. The list goes on.
In the forward to her budget, Freeland assured young Canadians that the Liberals “have a plan to build a Canada that works better for you, where you can get ahead, where your hard work pays off, where you can buy a home.” They’ll do this by “building more affordable homes,” “making life cost less” and “growing the economy in a way that’s shared by all.”
Some of their housing ideas — like incentivizing provinces and municipalities to reduce red tape and ease zoning restrictions, and building housing on federal lands — are good.
But billions in taxpayer dollars will also be spent in the coming years directly funding “affordable” (read: government) housing, the state will assume the risk for billions in new loans for apartment buildings and hundreds of millions more will be spent on everything from municipal infrastructure to training tradespeople.
Likewise, rather than making life less costly by reducing taxes, getting rid of the carbon tax and ending supply management, policies that would quickly lower prices and spur economic activity, the Liberals will be spending more on subsidized child care, picking up the cafeteria tab for schoolchildren and funding their new socialized dentistry and pharmacare programs.
As for their plan to grow the economy, well, I’ll spare you the details, but it will cost you $7.6 billion. Starting to see the pattern?
In total, budget 2024 introduced $53 billion in new spending over the next five years. In order to pay for all this while keeping the deficit at around $40 billion per year until the next federal election at the end of 2025, budget 2024 intends to pilfer an additional $21.9 billion from the pockets of hard-working Canadians, this year alone.
The government hopes the capital-gains changes will raise an additional $19.4 billion in the 2024-25 fiscal year. Freeland tried to downplay the effects of this by saying that the tax increase would only apply to the top 0.13 per cent of earners. But it will also affect the over 300,000 companies that pay capital gains, making them less likely to invest in the economy and create new jobs.
Freeland says she wants to build a country where “hard work pays off,” but the message she’s sending is quite the opposite: There’s no need to work hard and improve your lot in life because the government is going to pay to care for your children, fix your teeth and buy your birth control and diabetes meds, so you can maintain your lifestyle. And if you do happen to go that extra mile and strike it rich, you’ll be severely punished.
Addressing the captains of industry who will be penalized by these measures, Freeland asked, “What kind of country do you want to live in? … Do you want to live in a country where the only young Canadians who can buy their own homes are those with parents who can help with the down payment?
“Do you want to live in a country where we make the investments we need — in health care, in housing, in old-age pensions — but we lack the political will to pay for them and choose instead to pass a ballooning debt on to our children?”
Well, no, I don’t. But perhaps the finance minister needs to be reminded that it was the Liberals who sat idly by while house prices increased 60 per cent under their watch; and it was her government that more than doubled the national debt in a decade — increasing it to an estimated $1.44 trillion in 2024-25, from $649 billion in 2014-15.
And it’s only going to get worse. The government plans to run a $39.8-billion deficit this year — $4.8 billion more than it forecast in budget 2023. If anyone thinks Freeland has a hope in hell of reaching her deficit target of $38.9 billion next year, or the $20 billion projected for 2028-29, I have some beachfront property in Nunavut I think you’ll be extremely interested in.
That’s money that could be going to fund all manner of Liberal pet programs, but is instead paid as a penalty for years of fiscal mismanagement. And it’s a burden that will be shouldered by future generations, who will be forced to learn a hard lesson in the high long-term cost of buying short-term votes.
