Crystia Freeland's Resignation

 

So, the cunning neo-liberal with the Nazi Grand-Pappy resigned.  Ostensibly she couldn't bring herself to go along with air-head Justin Trudeau's "Axe the GST" political stunt.

On Friday, you told me you no longer want me to serve as your Finance Minister and offered me another position in the Cabinet.

Upon reflection, I have concluded that the only honest and viable path is for me to resign from the Cabinet.

To be effective, a Minister must speak on behalf of the Prime Minister and with his full confidence. In making your decision, you made clear that I no longer credibly enjoy that confidence and possess the authority that comes with it.

For the past number of weeks, you and I have found ourselves at odds about the best path forward for Canada.

Our country today faces a grave challenge. The incoming administration in the United States is pursuing a policy of aggressive economic nationalism, including a threat of 25 per cent tariffs.

We need to take that threat extremely seriously. That means keeping our fiscal powder dry today, so we have the reserves we may need for a coming tariff war. That means eschewing costly political gimmicks, which we can ill afford and which make Canadians doubt that we recognize the gravity of the moment.

That means pushing back against 'America First' economic nationalism with a determined effort to fight for capital and investment and the jobs they bring. That means working in good faith and humility with the Premiers of the provinces and territories of our great and diverse country, and building a true Team Canada response.

I know Canadians would recognize and respect such an approach. They know when we are working for them, and they equally know when we are focused on ourselves. Inevitably, our time in government will come to an end. But how we deal with the threat our country currently faces will define us for a generation, and perhaps longer. Canada will win if we are strong, smart, and united.

Yeah, ... about "keeping our powder dry" ...

To the extent that anyone is talking about the FES at all, they’re mostly talking about the deficit. The deficit from last year was revised upwards, in large part, to account for the funds needed to compensate First Nations children and families harmed by historic underfunding of services. But for the year we’re in, the year ending in March 2025, the deficit to GDP ratio is 1.6 per cent—higher than the 1.3 per cent projected in last spring’s budget, but still relatively low, historically speaking. 

The largest single cost in the FES, by far, is a corporate tax cut—the Accelerated Investment Incentive. At $17.4 billion over five years, it makes up three quarters of all new spending outlined in the document. It’s not exactly new—it was a pre-existing tax cut that was supposed to wind down this year, but the federal government has decided instead to keep the cut rolling. 

The tax cut allows companies to write off certain capital expenditures more quickly—that is, money that companies spend on fixed assets like buildings, equipment, and so on. And while there are some added advantages for investment in green infrastructure, the tax cut doesn’t discriminate against fossil fuel companies. In other words, the largest spending item in the FES was a subsidy for (among others) oil and gas companies.

The move that gained the most attention in the FES is the temporary GST holiday on certain goods, including food—but the cost of the $17.4 billion corporate tax holiday is 10 times larger and received basically no attention. 

In her resignation letter, Freeland said that the federal government needs to “keep our powder dry” and avoid “costly political gimmicks,” which was widely interpreted as references to the GST holiday and the seemingly cancelled plan to send $250 cheques to working Canadians. It is, more broadly, a position that the feds no longer have the money to improve critical social programs, such as expanding child care spaces, or creating a disability benefit that isn’t insultingly small. But when it comes to corporate Canada’s wish list, it seems “our powder” can be as wet as we want.

...

For Freeland, the reason why Canadians can “ill afford” measures like the proposed $250 cheques is—along with her well-documented hawkish positions on federal deficits in general—because of the looming threat of tariffs coming from the United States. Given the uncertainty of Trump’s threats, the FES talks more vaguely about “weaker business investment and trade due to geopolitical tensions.”

Regarding Canada's deficit-to-GDP ratio and our debt-to-GDP ratio ... JESUS CHRIST!  Google (and other search engines) have really become shit.  The Fraser Institute as my first hit?  Really?!?  Fuck it.  If you look at an actual graph comparing Canada's debt-to-GDP and deficit-to-GDP levels, we're less indebted than most other OECD countries aside from Germany (whose deficits and debts are set to explode as their economy craters due to sacrificing their economy on behalf of the USA's war on Russia OR if that doesn't happen it will be due to their pursuing the ruinous, society-destroying austerity of the UK, which is the other less-indebted OECD nation.

Somebody else on Crystia Freeland ...

Freeland has terrible politics. She’s the worst sort of neoliberal. She’s been Trudeau’s strong right hand, and done most of his dirty work. Given this is the case, I don’t think she’ll make a good candidate if she’s the new Liberal leader.

...

She knows Justin is on the ropes politically.  Either she deliberately sand-bagged him or he forced her resignation.  If she's been a restraining influence on JT's desire to provide more for ordinary Canadians [assuming he has/had such a desire] then she should have been pushed out long ago.  On the other hand, maybe JT just knows that his position is weak and it's often the Finance Minister who replaces a Prime Minister.  Either way, this government has assisted Israel's genocide of the Palestinians and so they can all eat shit and die.