Taxes are too high, government spending is out of hand, too many immigrants, and it's all the Liberals' fault.

That's it, I'm sawing off my legs! That'll show those Marxist bastards!

The problem is we're facing a crisis where once in the entire stupid goddamned history of economic crises, this the one time where small-government libertarianism actually really would help. Municipal government overrestriction of housing-construction (also a few federal housing regs like single-stair construction) is a massive chunk of the problem. And both the Liberal and NDP parties have a very tight relationship with municipal governments and so they want to keep their friends there. Meanwhile, Pierre Poilievre isn't a "friends" type of person, so he's able to call out the "let them eat cake" politics of municipal governments.

Of course, (a) there's a substantial chance that PP is lying about his plans to strongarm municipal governments, and (b) while he may help solve the crisis with that action, he will also likely help exacerbate it on the other hand by slashing supports for the poorest Canadians, and he'll also create a few new crises related to climate change and LGBTQ rights, and possibly vaccines.

So yeah, no love for him.

But I'm not looking forward to the day when a Conservative federal government is kicking municipal asses and I have to go to bat for an absolute shitheel like Poilievre on the principle that he is right exclusively on this one very specific issue.

As long as they can blame liberals, they'd be ok with making things worse.

The fact is, all the hardship that most people are going through is likely down to their provincial leadership. Surprise, surprise, the majority are conservative.

I believe only Newfoundland and Labrador has a liberal premier, and their cost of living is below average.

But yeah, let's have more pain and suffering.

All the Conservatives have to do is wait long enough and they'll win an election. They literally don't need to do anything. Eventually enough Canadians will blame the current Prime Minister for their city buses running late and vote in a Conservative.

While our politics is not technically two party, in terms of parties which have held power it is, and people seem stuck in that mindset. They know they are unhappy with the status quo, they know they want change, and the only change a lot of people are willing to consider is the one with the history of austerity.

It worked in Ontario!

Wait...

Do you have any links to perhaps back up that assertion? I have my doubts that it's always been as high as 50%.

In Alberta there's a disgustingly large amount of people who simply vote blue because that's what their dad did, and what his dad did. If you ask them WHY they hate Trudeau, you can't get a coherent answer because they don't actually know.

My dad made a comment one day about how the "ruined" economy was all Trudeau's fault. I asked what he'd done and he couldn't think of anything to say.

Hard agree.. They just spew rhetoric because they think it's what they're supposed to say.. it's like a cult.

If we want rent control, tories aren't the answer.

Lots of chatter in here about not supporting the conservatives. But, there’s no options for Canadians.

Ok...but why elect a government that we KNOW is going to be worse? That hurts us. They cut revenue, cut services, run up the deficit and the debt, then lose and blame the Liberals for their mess. We would be better off to just stick with the Liberals who are bumbling idiots but at least they aren't actively trying to fuck us over to give billions of dollars to the wealthy and corporations. That doesn't make any fucking sense.

I do need to point out that the carbon tax is a bad example here, because the tax is rebated directly back to individual Canadians. So even if companies are folding the tax into their prices, we're not paying for it. They're effectively raising the price, then paying us the difference.

Of course, companies that can find ways to reduce their carbon footprint can simply avoid paying the tax altogether, allowing them to obtain more profit at the same price point. This incentivises climate friendly behaviour.

It's not a perfect solution, but within the neo-liberal paradigm that we're currently stuck in its at least making a difference, and a lot of climate experts agree that carbon taxes are an effective strategy (they shouldn't be the only strategy, but that's a separate discussion).

Point is, companies raising prices in line with carbon taxes isn't hurting your wallet, because you're getting that money right back. The designers of the policy already knew that would happen and factored it in.