The (Right) News Rundown
- O’Leary was mulling about the idea for about a week.
- The reason: O’Leary doesn’t believe he would have enough support from Quebec to win a majority mandate.
- He says his tipping point was when he saw overall Conservative membership numbers were higher than expected meaning his share of support was lower than intended.
- This combined with his perceived position as being tied with Maxime Bernier for front runner meant that the strategic play was for him to bow out because as an outsider O’Leary felt he would have weak 2nd ballot support.
- Where does this leave the race?
- This story is only half covered. The media is overly focusing on buzzwords and debates, not policy. People who don't like the Liberals but are afraid of the return to the 90's NDP are encouraged to vote Green but probably don't know what they're actually voting for
- Here's a look at each BC party's platform, with information provided from the nonpartisan ICanParty.ca
- On housing, NDP want to give $400 a year to subsidise renters - roughly a dollar a day, a waste of money that wouldn't solve any problem. Libs want to wait for the market to stabilise before making any more changes to the foreign buyers tax which has cooled the spiking market somewhat. Greens want to jump in with both feet and double the foreign buyers tax immediately as well as introduce a lot of other taxes on home buyers and owners making it harder to afford your own home.
- On MSP, Libs want to cut MSP gradually while economy grows so no new taxes or deficits are put on BC population. Both the NDP and Greens want to invest massive amounts of money into the healthcare system to cancel out MSP completely within 4 years. They plan to pay for this by increasing taxes on corporations and wealthy, but even that doesn't cover the amount of money they would be spending
- Greens and NDP want to increase the province's carbon tax, Greens by $10 each year to a total of $50/year in 2021, NDP wants to match Trudeau's federal levels. Libs want to keep it where it is until other provinces catch up.
- Libs want to approve pipelines and LNG initiatives to increase energy independence, NDP and Greens want to halt Kinder Morgan
- On Vancouver toll bridges and transportation, Libs will cap tolls at $500/year and decrease it gradually as bridges are paid for. NDP and Greens want to cancel the tolls immediately, with no plan as to how to pay for the bridges later, outside of tax increases
- In summary, the Liberals want to carefully tweak policy without impacting the growing economy greatly, and cutting taxes when economy deems it stable to do so. NDP want to raise taxes and spend spend spend on major welfare policies, and Greens want to drastically increase taxes, including the carbon tax, homeowners taxes to pay for major environmental promises. Neither the NDP or Greens provide a stable economic solution to pay for their promises, and would result in massive deficits or tax increases.
- With that in mind the choice is clear. The BC Liberals and Christy Clark are far from perfect, but voting NDP or Green simply for a "change-up" vote would be disastrous for the province. After all, just look at Alberta…
The Firing Line
- 1. US dairy farmers are upset about certain aspects of Canada’s supply management system.
- Explain supply management
- Trump brought attention to these issues when he was in Wisconsin a week and a half ago stating that the practices are unfair and needed to be looked at.
- 2. The US imports a good amount of lumber and raw timber from BC for their housing economy. The US has placed up to 24% tariffs on wood products imported from Canada.
- Softwood lumber trade issues with the US have been a commonplace issue going back all the way to the 1980s.
- The Chretien and Martin governments had their own issues with softwood lumber in the early 2000s. This was rectified with a deal put in place by the new Conservative government in early 2007. This deal expired in October 2015. Without a deal there is no guaranteed entry into the US lumber and timber market which in itself can be very protective.
- In order to bring attention to the dairy issue the US placed tariffs up to 24% on lumber and timber entering the US from Canada. This has far reaching consequences by increasing the price of Canadian wood forcing house builders to buy American. Downside in Canada? We lose our consumer and potentially face job losses.
- 3. Following this President Trump mentioned that the White House was drafting an Executive Order to pull the US out of NAFTA.
- 4. With this potential event on the horizon both Prime Minister Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto have agreed to renegotiate NAFTA.
Word of the Week
Trade war: A negative side effect of protectionism that occurs when Country A raises tariffs on Country B's imports in retaliation for Country B raising tariffs on Country A's imports. Trade wars may be instigated when one country perceives another country's trading practices to be unfair or when domestic trade unions pressure politicians to make imported goods less attractive to consumers.
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Show Data
Episode Title: Surprises with Kevin O’Leary, NAFTA, and BC Party Platforms
Teaser: Kevin O’Leary has dropped out of the Conservative leadership race. A look at the BC party election platforms and which one will hurt you the least. And, a summation of the media being blindsided by the United States stance on NAFTA.
Recorded Date: April 29, 2017
Release Date: April 29, 2017
Duration: 48:56
Edit Notes: None