Liberals’ lead shrinks as Canadian mood plummets to historic lows (www.hilltimes.com)

submitted 23 hours ago by Worstdriver@lemmy.world to c/canada@lemmy.ca

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[-] BCBoy911@lemmy.ca 17 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Liberals got elected on a platform of divorcing the Canadian economy from the Americans and rejuvenating the Canadian economy through nation-building megaprojects from coast to coast built with Canadian natural resources. What do we have so far?

No announcements on any megaprojects
No homes built, instead just a big tax giveaway to developers
all counter-tariffs on the US dropped to appease trump
digital services tax repealed to appease trump
despite appeasement, no end in sight to US trade war
Also started a trade war with China for no reason, so we're getting spitroasted by tariffs from both superpowers
austerity programs at Canada Post leading to the 2nd strike in a year

Unfortunately I don't think the NDP or BQ have the balls to topple the government this early, but Carney came into office looking like a MVP and he's a big fat bust.

[-] ikidd@lemmy.world 12 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Counter-tariffs just raise prices here. They were a terrible idea to start with, just like tariffs are in general. The digital services tax was on its way out even before Trump was elected. China likes kicking people when they're down so we got restrictions on ag products just to twist the knife.

Plenty of reasons to be pissed off with the Liberals, but those aren't some of them.

[-] BCBoy911@lemmy.ca 10 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

Counter-tariffs just raise prices here. They were a terrible idea to start with, just like tariffs are in general

No they aren't, blanket tariffs the way Trump is doing it is stupid, but counter-tariffs on American products that can be replaced with made-in-Canada products works and helps keep jobs in Canada.

The digital services tax was on its way out even before Trump was elected

This is also wrong... the Digital Services tax was introduced as a Liberal priority all the way back in 2020 and passed in 2024. It probably would have been repealed by Pollievre if he won, but Liberals repealing their own years-in-the-making policy, a day before going into effect as an act of appeasement to Donald Trump was definitely not inevitable.

China likes kicking people when they’re down so we got restrictions on ag products just to twist the knife.

Their tariffs on us are counter-tariffs in response to us imposing a 100% tax on Chinese-made solar panels.

[-] ikidd@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

counter-tariffs on American products that can be replaced with made-in-Canada products works and helps keep jobs in Canada.

Well, you and I and most economists will have to disagree about how tariffs "work". The local industries they were supposedly protecting either don't exist or actively dislike tariffs that are supposed to help them. Because a falling tide sinks all boats. Tariffs are inflationary, end of message.

Repealing or delaying the DST was part of the OECD treaty obligations that most of the other countries involved had been doing since it was set up in 2021 with the revamping of the multinational tax treaties. Maybe Trump's bullshit was the nail in the coffin, but it sure wasn't the first and they just followed the other 140 countries involved that shut that down last year if they even still had them.

And solar panels have had the 165% tariff (not 100%) from China on them since sometime in the mid teens (https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/sima-lmsi/mif-mev/sml-eng.html) and we see the incredible effect that has had on the growth of our burgeoning home-grown solar panels industry in Canada, have we not? Because tariffs work, amirite? I hate this tariff with a passion because I'm entirely offgrid and have tried to jump through all the hoops to get my panels at the prices I see on Alibaba, but they aren't going anywhere because China subsidizes their panels so heavily.

[-] BCBoy911@lemmy.ca 4 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

There are no Canadian-made panels because we don't tariff the panels coming in from the US and other Asian countries. Only China is singled out because Canada is playing second fiddle on the US's new cold war strategy against China - sucks that we aren't a sovereign country that can make our own policies and forge relationships with whatever country we want, but it is what it is. 51st state, baby!

[-] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 points 6 hours ago

oh...wait until you see the cuts in the fall budget. The most anti-science PM since Trudeau.

[-] Tigeroovy@lemmy.ca 47 points 16 hours ago

To be honest I didn’t really expect anything from Carney beyond being a less insane seeming conservative. Which seems to be what he is.

I’m not really a fan, but I really dislike Pierre.

I don’t expect a lot from the people in this country. If more people voted more left of either L or C I might. But we aren’t dealing with an especially intelligent populace. Made worse by the bleed of US style political bullshit into our country like a shit stain we can’t ever get clean.

[-] TomatoPotato69@lemmy.ca 5 points 9 hours ago

I think we need an actual left-of-centre party. The NDP is just a right-of-centre party who support some minor social programs as long as they don't interfere too much with extracting money via capitalism. I'm not looking for a socially progressive right-of-centre party. I want to see an actual left-of-centre party. A party that would nationalise our resources and use the proceeds to fund centralised housing, healthcare, education, parks and recreation spaces, infrastructure, and other things that people need and enjoy. A party that wants to improve labour standards and invest in ourselves, and move away from US style capitalism. It can be done.

[-] yes_this_time@lemmy.world 6 points 6 hours ago

NDP is not a right wing party

[-] TomatoPotato69@lemmy.ca 1 points 5 hours ago

I didn't say they are a right wing party... I said that they are drifting right of centre and not really a left-of-centre party any more. They have a socially conscious platform, and in my opinion are the best of the bunch. But economically, they aren't really a left-of-centre party. They still subscribe to a generally free market and even in their 2025 platform, while they commit money to a national housing strategy, they still aren't trying to centralise housing and omit the private developers entirely. They still want to try and legislate private industry in a free market rather than centralise. What I would like to see is an ACTUAL left leaning party, where the government controls the means of supply for our basic needs and critical industries. The government should be directly employing crews to build a variety of housing options. Not just banning REITs and hedgefunds from purchasing affordable housing, but also eliminating the private landlords and having strict standards for property management. The government should be in control of our oil and minerals. The government should control our ferries,mail service, and other services and operate them like the services they are and not corporations, or crown corporations. While I think the NDP is the best we have, I also feel like they have drifted more to the centre and even passing over it during the past 30 years, and I think there is room for a proper left-of-centre party that is more than just words and bandaids and actually has a desire to overhaul our economy to be able to support the social programs that don't really work when everything is trying to operate as a business, crown corp or not. Nationalise our resources and actually get some income for the government that isn't just taxes, and invest it into our country, services, and infrastructure.

[-] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

This is the reverse mentality of alt-right ideology. Their general opinion is that anything left of them is left-wing while you seem to think that anything right of central planning and government-controlled industries is right-wing. Maybe you don't like how the words are used, but trying to convey your ideas to people by using language in a way no one else does isn't going to work.

[-] TomatoPotato69@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 hours ago

Not at all. I'm saying there's a spectrum between a full centrally planned left wing wing government, and a full free market right wing government, and the Canadian political parties generally fall somewhere towards the centre of that spectrum, and that over the past 30 years the NDP along with the Liberals and Conservatives have shifted towards the right. In the case of the NDP, I think that while they have been a centre-left party, some of the concessions they have made with Singh have pushed NDP economic policy to the centre of that spectrum, and possibly crossing over the centre-line. Maybe they aren't quite at that point, but if they continue on that trend, I think it would be good to have another party further to the left. NOT communism. NOT authoritarian. Democratic, but willing to use more government intervention rather than keep looking at only free market solutions, tax cuts, and bailouts. The NDP just isn't quite left enough, in my opinion.

That's hardly a comparable to alt-right shit. Oh, the horror of Canada profiting off of it's resources in order to run BC Ferries and Canada Post (and all the other services that never make the news) like services instead of companies and have well funded health and education systems. The NDP needs to stop selling out (and admitting defeat before the election has happened) or we need an actual centre-left option. Seems like a pretty valid opinion! Not everything has to be black and white, fully right or left with no in-between, or ability for political parties to shift over time.

[-] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 hours ago

But you're also saying NDP is right of center, and I suspect even Europeans in general wouldn't agree with that, let alone North Americans.

[-] TomatoPotato69@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 hours ago

Sure, you can put centre wherever you are comfortable. You're missing the point I'm trying to make though (deliberately, I assume), and that is that the NDP used to be a bit more to the left, and now they have moved a bit more towards the centre-line moving in the rightward direction on that spectrum. Some might say "shifting a bit to the right". Maybe not a lot, but enough to water down their platform and push them at least firmly into just centrist territory and not centre-left, but I still consider them just to the right of centre.

I think so much of Western societies have shifted quite a bit to the right along with increased globalisation and free trade, and a bunch of US influence and missions trying to eradicate socialist governments, that it has blurred where 'centre' is on the spectrum, and 'centre' to many people has moved rightward along with the general sentiment of society today. Which is why I think a centre-left party a little bit further left of the NDP would be nice. That or if the NDP shuffled left a couple times and decided to be bold and go all-in on a proper all-encompassing left of centre policy.

[-] BCBoy911@lemmy.ca 8 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Pollievre will do tax cuts, deregulation and austerity while keeping us distracted with 24/7 idiotic conservative culture wars. Carney is doing tax cuts, deregulation and austerity while keeping us distracted with the promise of "nation building projects" that will never materialize. Either way it's tax cuts, deregulation and austerity. The only difference is the type lies they're telling to distract us. :-)

[-] King_Bob_IV@startrek.website 16 points 10 hours ago

Not true, PP would also be directly and purposefully eroding minority rights and be attacking the vulnerable. Carney is at least leaving them alone. As a minority that is being directly targeted in the states right now I am really happy to be in Canada with a PM that isn't spreading active hate towards me right now. Instead I live in a province where that's happening. I will take only one level of government hating me.

[-] BCBoy911@lemmy.ca 6 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

True, it's like a hostage situation. Conservatives threaten to harm trans kids, or immigrants or whatever, and Liberals say "you'll have the vote for us if you want $(minority group) to live, but don't worry, you can vote your conscience next election", then never do anything to actually protect those minority groups in law, so the cycle repeats next election.

Liberals will never give real protection to vulnerable people because they want them to be constantly under threat of the Conservatives to keep the left from voting for the actual left-wing parties that WOULD give those groups protection that isn't subject to the whims of whatever party is in charge. Diabolical.

[-] King_Bob_IV@startrek.website 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Yeah, 100%. The false dichotomy and the first past the post system really hurts us. Sadly getting that changed is something people don't focus on enough. We were "supposed to" have electoral reforms under the prior liberal leadership, but everyone forgot to bring it up ever again.

But saying they are "the same" really pushes that they are both "equally acceptable". Which I feel undermines the system even further. We need to emphasize the better then push them away from the worse. Right now they ratchet to worse because voters move with the "center" which is a sliding scale. As long as people feel they are equally "bad" then there isn't a big push to change things the same way as if they go "they both suck here is why one sucks more and let's push the better one to be better in areas they suck in" or "let's vote what we believe and stop being "stratigic" which would show parties where they actually should move to

[-] rozodru@piefed.social 8 points 16 hours ago

I mean lets face it the only reason Carney won was because of what Trump said. that's it. We Canadians are honestly pretty dumb when it comes to politics and we sure do love our sound bites. Remember PP had this thing in the bag until Trump opened his mouth and then suddenly we all said "oh yeah...yeah we don't want that lets vote for the guy that kinda isn't that" while the NDP "here's Singh, sure he doesn't have a single original thought in his head but...yeah it's the best we can do"

Like our choices were unoriginal man, nazi man, or none of the above man.

[-] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 hours ago

There were plenty of people who were in the "Anyone but Pete" camp before Trump said his piece. If Pierre had said anything to denounce Trump's statement, a good chunk of those who joined that camp probably would have stayed with the Conservatives just because they were tired of the Liberals. So maybe Pierre is a terrible person, but at least he's willing to say what means, even if doing so loses him an election. And to be clear, what he means is not doing anything against Trump, America, our local far-right head cases, oh, and also run-of-the-mill conservative...businesses.

[-] karlhungus@lemmy.ca 4 points 12 hours ago

I thought Singh was great, but didn't stand a chance against white men.

Carneys been a real disappointment, but I guess he's not Bitcoin pete

[-] snoons@lemmy.ca 29 points 23 hours ago

People voted for a guy that said he would stand up for Canada after Trumps deranged threats. Instead they got a zionist worm that folds at the slightest whisper of "tariff".

[-] Jack_Burton@lemmy.ca 15 points 15 hours ago

While I wish Carney was more openly 'elbows up' I acknowledge there's a tonne at that level of government I don't really know about. I'd say at this point, yeah, I'm disappointed in Carney, but for now I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. From day one his path was to pull away from the strongest ally Canada has ever had and an ally we were near-totally tied to. It takes time to find alternate deals and countries to replace those broken agreements. Cutting ties instantly would have led to the greatest recession Canada has ever seen and may well have destroyed the country. Honestly, if he announces some major shifts to other countries within his first year I'd expect that to be a pretty significant success.

Just like how Trump's policies have taken 6 to 8 months to start showing results in the US, moving away from a country we were so closely tied to will not only take a long time to do, but seeing the results will take longer beyond that. Carney's only been PM for 8 months and is arguably facing the greatest challenge any PM has had to face in decades. I've tempered my expectations and am waiting to see how the next few months play out. My hope is that he's just stringing Trump along until we get our shit sorted, like setting up a new job and place to live before leaving an abusive relationship.

[-] Jason2357@lemmy.ca 2 points 7 hours ago

Canadian imports and exports are an absolutely massive ship to change course -especially when a lot of private contracts are years into the future. That said, we are already trading a lot more with pretty much everyone except the US.

https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/features/2025/canada-international-trade/

[-] Jack_Burton@lemmy.ca 2 points 7 hours ago

Wow I haven't seen this, it's put together really well. Great to see those numbers!

[-] terath@sh.itjust.works 54 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

As opposed to a Nazi simp who would have sold us straight into the gas chambers of America? Right call. Every time.

Also so far Carney has been harder on Israel than any Canadian prime minister to date. So get out of here will your bullshit propaganda calling him a Zionist. Go back to the US.

[-] mrdown@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago

He literally said he want Palestinian to accept Zionism the supremacist ideology that caused the whole mess

[-] Tm12@lemmy.ca 35 points 23 hours ago

Strange. We don't have a two party system, but somehow the seat distribution reflects that. If only the Librerals addressed FPTP like promised during their "crisis election" of the time.

[-] terath@sh.itjust.works 5 points 12 hours ago

If pigs could fly we’d have less bacon. Are you new or did you forget we vote for the least bad party? There was only one option last election that would not result in PP getting in. But you keep going on fantasizing.

[-] ImgurRefugee114@reddthat.com 22 points 21 hours ago

Liberals always want to change FPTP until they pass it...

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[-] FaceDeer@fedia.io 27 points 20 hours ago

Ah yes, as we saw in the US the best thing to do when a left-leaning leader isn't as harsh on Israel as we'd like is to swing our support over to the right-leaning leader.

[-] mrdown@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago

Trump won because Americans was fooled by his promise of fixing the economy and Carney will lose for the same reason next time and like in the USA they will be people who claim that Palestine is the reason he lost and the other side with complain about how anti occupation people are the reason Carney lose

[-] BCBoy911@lemmy.ca 2 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Is that what the poster said? This isn't America, we have 3rd and even 4th and 5th parties to choose from. There's no reason to vote for the zionist if you want a principled anti-Zionist party like the NDP.

[-] mrdown@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago

We have 4 major parties. BC only care about quebec npd was destroyed in the last election. We sre not in the same situation as the USA

[-] FaceDeer@fedia.io 2 points 11 hours ago

The Americans have third parties too. And just like in America, voting third party in Canada usually acts as a "spoiler" that helps out a party that doesn't align ideologically with the voter who's casting their protest vote. You have to vote strategically in each riding to make your vote actually accomplish something and that usually comes down to a choice between Liberal and Conservative.

Thanks, first-past-the-post.

[-] BCBoy911@lemmy.ca 4 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Please do not turn our multi-party democracy into an America-style duopoly with your "strategic voting". All it's done is turn our elections into another Red-vs-Blue nightmare where both parties have the same policies and are only differentiated by culture wars.

[-] FaceDeer@fedia.io 3 points 11 hours ago

It's not my decision, unfortunately. It's a structural feature that's inherent in first-past-the-post voting. If you don't vote strategically then you are "throwing your vote away" whether you believe it or not.

Canada's been fortunate in having some ridings where a national "third party" was locally the strategic one to vote for. I myself was fortunate to be able to vote NDP last election, my riding was one of the few where the two leading candidates were NDP and Conservative rather than Liberal and Conservative. Same went for some Bloc voters in Quebec, presumably. But look at the history of Canadian elections, it's a two-party system in all but name. The times where it wasn't ultimately a question of "Liberal or Conservative?" Were rare aberrations, and even in those rare cases where there was a viable third party candidate they still only made it as far as opposition.

I would very much like to change that. I consider Trudeau's greatest betrayal to be how he reneged on electoral reform, and I suspect it will be seen as Canada's last lost opportunity to avoid an American-style future fate. But just because I don't like it doesn't mean I can't recognize the actual situation we're facing.

[-] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 hours ago

I consider Trudeau's greatest betrayal to be how he reneged on electoral reform, and I suspect it will be seen as Canada's last lost opportunity to avoid an American-style future fate.

This is worth all the upvotes in this discussion.