Prime Minister Trudeau is poised to announce billions in GST relief in time for Christmas, to address affordability issues in Canada. Could this be a sign of new life from the embattled PM and his scandal plagued cabinet?No. This is merely political theatre, and the NDP are pulling Mr. Trudeau's strings.For those not closely following Canadian politics, our government has been at a virtual standstill since the beginning of October. This occurred because the Liberals have refused to produce unredacted documents pertaining to the now obsolete Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC,) which is now commonly known as the “green slush fund”. SDTC was at the heart of an explosive report by Auditor General Karen Hogan earlier this year which found that the erstwhile entity had violated conflict of interest rules, 90 times. As a result, millions of dollars of government contracts were awarded to projects that were undeserving or inappropriately benefited government insiders.To date, the three main opposition parties have presented a united front agreeing that the government must come clean on this scandal and have been demanding full transparency and accountability. Without their support the government cannot pass any legislation, nor can they introduce a supply bill earmarked at $26.1 billion which Treasury Board President Anita Anand says federal agencies need to meet their obligations and operational expenses.Until now, it looked like both sides were going to head into the next parliamentary recess in a fierce stalemate. But with this GST relief announcement, Justin Trudeau and the Liberals have devised a brilliant way to undermine the coalition and end the war by Christmas — give into the NDP demands.Those demands were announced last week by NDP leader Jagmeet Singh in an election-style post on the social media site ‘X’. In it he promised to remove the GST from many everyday consumer items and make life more affordable for Canadians.So it comes as little surprise that with his government on the ropes reeling from scandals and bordering on broke, Mr. Trudeau proposes to do the very thing the NDP just announced, in a bid to save his government's political skin.The frustrating thing is that it will work. It has in the past and there is no reason to think it won’t now. Because despite the NDP’s dramatic withdrawal from the confidence and supply agreement with back in September, they have continued to support the flailing minority government of Justin Trudeau whenever push came to shove. In this case it’s a win-win for both of them.With a compliant opposition partner in the NDP, the Liberals will be able to push their supply bill through the house before it rises for Christmas. Even better than that, the problematic issue of having to be accountable to parliament and Canadians can be bought off with mere cents on the dollar from the tax revenue stream.Which — when you’ve already blown past any semblance of fiscal prudence — what does it matter if you’re not paying down that intergenerational level of debt quickly, or slowly... or at all.For the NDP, since they have no chance of forming government after the next election, it’s a means (however dishonourable) to achieve some of their agenda without actually having to do anything meaningful.Which is probably a good thing otherwise when would their caucus find time to craft those kitschy beaded watermelon pins to sell to their anti-Israel base in an effort to bolster their election war chest.The whole thing is a farce, and Canadians who’ve watched this play unfold over the past nine years won’t be fooled by such a predictable plot twist. Too bad there’s no way to drop the curtain on this tragedy.
Prime Minister Trudeau is poised to announce billions in GST relief in time for Christmas, to address affordability issues in Canada. Could this be a sign of new life from the embattled PM and his scandal plagued cabinet?No. This is merely political theatre, and the NDP are pulling Mr. Trudeau's strings.For those not closely following Canadian politics, our government has been at a virtual standstill since the beginning of October. This occurred because the Liberals have refused to produce unredacted documents pertaining to the now obsolete Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC,) which is now commonly known as the “green slush fund”. SDTC was at the heart of an explosive report by Auditor General Karen Hogan earlier this year which found that the erstwhile entity had violated conflict of interest rules, 90 times. As a result, millions of dollars of government contracts were awarded to projects that were undeserving or inappropriately benefited government insiders.To date, the three main opposition parties have presented a united front agreeing that the government must come clean on this scandal and have been demanding full transparency and accountability. Without their support the government cannot pass any legislation, nor can they introduce a supply bill earmarked at $26.1 billion which Treasury Board President Anita Anand says federal agencies need to meet their obligations and operational expenses.Until now, it looked like both sides were going to head into the next parliamentary recess in a fierce stalemate. But with this GST relief announcement, Justin Trudeau and the Liberals have devised a brilliant way to undermine the coalition and end the war by Christmas — give into the NDP demands.Those demands were announced last week by NDP leader Jagmeet Singh in an election-style post on the social media site ‘X’. In it he promised to remove the GST from many everyday consumer items and make life more affordable for Canadians.So it comes as little surprise that with his government on the ropes reeling from scandals and bordering on broke, Mr. Trudeau proposes to do the very thing the NDP just announced, in a bid to save his government's political skin.The frustrating thing is that it will work. It has in the past and there is no reason to think it won’t now. Because despite the NDP’s dramatic withdrawal from the confidence and supply agreement with back in September, they have continued to support the flailing minority government of Justin Trudeau whenever push came to shove. In this case it’s a win-win for both of them.With a compliant opposition partner in the NDP, the Liberals will be able to push their supply bill through the house before it rises for Christmas. Even better than that, the problematic issue of having to be accountable to parliament and Canadians can be bought off with mere cents on the dollar from the tax revenue stream.Which — when you’ve already blown past any semblance of fiscal prudence — what does it matter if you’re not paying down that intergenerational level of debt quickly, or slowly... or at all.For the NDP, since they have no chance of forming government after the next election, it’s a means (however dishonourable) to achieve some of their agenda without actually having to do anything meaningful.Which is probably a good thing otherwise when would their caucus find time to craft those kitschy beaded watermelon pins to sell to their anti-Israel base in an effort to bolster their election war chest.The whole thing is a farce, and Canadians who’ve watched this play unfold over the past nine years won’t be fooled by such a predictable plot twist. Too bad there’s no way to drop the curtain on this tragedy.
