Beware Pierre Poilievre’s “Common Sense” Revolution

‘And you can call it something silly like the Common Sense Super Plan and people will just eat it up, assuming they’re not paying attention’ Author: Andrew Scheer. Source: Flickr, Public Domain

During his marathon keynote, Poilievre mentioned common sense several times. The speech stretched so long it would have made Fidel Castro proud, so there was plenty of time to pontificate on the virtues of common sense, without filling in too many details, of course.

Contrasting the Conservative and Liberal parties, the blue-side leader noted he offered “A common-sense Conservative government that frees hardworking people to earn powerful paycheques that buy affordable food, gas and homes — in safe neighbourhoods.”

Later, Poilievre touted his “common sense” plan that “cuts waste and caps spending to bring down inflationary deficits and interest rates.” What was that again? What kind of plan? In case you’d forgotten, he returned to the chorus, adding “My common-sense plan is to have a new funding formula that links the number of federal dollars cities get for infrastructure to the number of houses they allow to be completed.”

The night before Poilievre’s speech, retired Canadian Forces members Michel and Barbara Maisonneuve did the Conservative leader’s dirty work for him in their speech to delegates, hammering on the “anti-woke” agenda that the brass seem to think the made-over Poilievre should leave to others. The Maisonneuves, when not frothing at the mouth while denouncing “wokeness,” were citing Poilievre’s common sense plans. |Read more https://www.davidmoscrop.com/p/beware-pierre-poilievres-common-sense|

#PierrePoilievre #AndrewScheer #cdnpoli #commonsense #politics #wokeness #vauge #empty #lacking

Nick Kadysh: Canada’s new gilded age

We need a Teddy Roosevelt to save us from the rings strangling our prosperity

Mark Twain, a product of the Gilded Age, is said to have quipped that “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” Much ink has been spilled over the past few years about what historical comparisons to make about Canada in the modern day. Are we living through the inflation crisis of the 70s? The housing crash of the 80s? Is it the Roaring Twenties, back again? These comparisons are important, because they inform the policy approach that government must take.

In Canada, as we suffer through rapidly slowing labour productivity and a major cost-of-living crisis, I think the correct comparison is clear: We are actually living through another Gilded Age. This period in U.S. history, stretching from roughly 1875-1900, brought great wealth from industrialization. Similarly, Canada had a brilliant run, gaining the benefit of the revolution in information technology. We avoided the recession of 2008 quite well. But just like U.S. at the end of the gilded age, the Canadian economy has grown stagnant with the weight of the accumulated vested interests created by our economic run.

Across the economic landscape, whole sectors are held captive by monopolistic entities. Oligopolies control our telecommunications, our food supply, our transportation networks. Entrenched labour interests hold vital ports hostage. NIMBY sentiment prevents infrastructure and housing construction. By the end of the gilded age these were known as “rings” — monopolistic consortia of capitalists and bankers that controlled coal, the railroads, all of the necessary elements of commerce.

It has become self-evident that Canada is truly under the control of our own modern-day rings. After all, we’re a country where the competition commissioner is punished for daring to intervene in the Rogers/Shaw merger. |Read more https://theline.substack.com/p/nick-kadysh-canadas-new-gilded-age|

#TheodpreRoosevelt #GildedAge #politics #Oligopolies #economy #stagnant

Conflict of interest: Montreal politicians making decisions on housing are also landlords

A review of financial declarations revealed major omissions and over a dozen evictions tied to just three politicians from across the political spectrum

An audit of disclosure forms that detail the financial interests of all 103 Montreal municipal politicians has uncovered a potentially significant conflict of interest in how the city sets housing policy.

Among Montreal’s muncipal politicians, those who own the largest number of residential units also currently hold seats, or recently sat, on the Commission on Economic and Urban Development and Housing, the standing committee tasked with, among other things, finding affordable housing solutions.

“I think the conflict of interest is really substantial,” said Margaret van Nooten, a social rights worker at Project Genesis, a non-profit organization that advocates for housing rights in the city’s Côte-des-Neiges borough. “I don’t think they’re going to be defending their constituents if they are stakeholders (in the housing market).”

Maeva Vilain, borough councilor for Projet Montréal in the Plateau-Mont-Royal, who sat on the city’s housing committee until 2022, declared interest in five residential buildings in Montreal — a total of 30 apartments, the largest number declared by any municipal politician. Most of the apartments are owned by her husband, Renaud Chartier, or his company 9263-1431 QUÉBEC INC. It’s an investment valued at nearly $6-million according to the city’s tax assessment roll.

Ricochet investigated each apartment’s history at the Tribunal administratif du logement, Quebec’s housing tribunal, and found more than a dozen applications for eviction over the past decade, the most recent having been filed in December 2020, while Vilain sat on the commission. One case was for non-payment of $30. Another eviction was for rent that was less than three weeks late.

Vilain also repossessed an apartment for her mother in 2016, against the wishes of the tenant who had lived there for 16 years. When reached by phone, the tenant said losing her home was a traumatizing experience. “My god, what a nightmare … they’re not good people. They just want to make money,” she said, referring to Vilain and Chartier.

Ricochet agreed to give the tenant anonymity because she is currently looking for housing and doesn’t want trouble with future landlords.

She claims Chartier proposed an enlargement of her apartment that would add an extra room, but in exchange the rent would increase from approximately $700 per month to $1300 per month. “He tried to convince me it was in my interest… but it was not in my interest, it was in his interest,” she said. Permits for the work weren’t issued by the city and the plans to renovate fell apart. According to the tenant, she received a notice of repossession a short time later, giving her six months to vacate her home. |Read more https://ricochet.media/en/3985/conflict-of-interest-montreal-politicians-making-decisions-on-housing-are-also-landlords|

#Politicians #politics #montreal #landlords #renovictions #greed #transparency

Everyone, Everywhere, All At Once

Trust the United Nations to come up with a name like the Global Stocktake for an essential, high-stakes exercise to hold countries accountable for reducing their climate pollution under the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

The formal title makes it sounds like a world-wide network of storekeepers, all closing up shop simultaneously to take inventory. But the Global Stocktake is pretty much infinitely more important than that. The report issued September 8, described by the New York Times as a “first official report card” on the Paris deal, looks at how well countries have kept their promises to address the impacts of climate change and drive down the greenhouse gas pollution that causes it.

The unsurprising answer: Eight years and countless climate disasters since the Paris agreement was finalized, there’s been some halting progress, but not nearly enough.

“While action is proceeding, much more is needed now on all fronts,” the Global Stocktake’s two co-facilitators write, after a two-year slog that had them hosting 252 hours of dialogue and synthesizing more than 170,000 pages of technical input. “Against forecasts made prior to its adoption, the Paris Agreement has led to contributions that significantly reduce forecasts of future warming, yet the world is not on track to meet the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement.” |Read more https://energymixweekender.substack.com/p/everyone-everywhere-all-at-once|

#ClimateChange #environment #ParisAgreement #world #cdnpoli #GlobalStocktake #UnitedNations

Conservatives to close Quebec City convention with votes on party policy

Delegates will be presented with a final slate of suggested changes before voting gets underway today, although some of the more controversial ones were already known to have failed.

That included inking a line into the policy playbook that would see Conservatives pledge to pull federal funding from both the English and French programming wings of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., which would have run counter to the desire among Quebec MPs not to touch its French-language wing.

So after closed-door delegate deliberations to determine which CPC policy proposals would make it to the the plenary room for a vote later today, the final list of 30 resolutions advancing has been released. Both trans-centric submissions have advanced. https://t.co/ViEe8Kowg9 pic.twitter.com/AWS5mJ0zwq
— Rachel Aiello (@rachaiello) September 9, 2023

|Read more https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/conservatives-to-close-quebec-city-convention-with-votes-on-party-policy-1.6554400|

#cpc #convention #voted #poposals #policies #conservatives #cdnpoli