By Pepper Parr
April 19th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
OPINION
Is this a good time to look at what the political leadership in the country might look like once all the ballots have been cast and everyone sworn in and settled in the House of Commons seats?
Jagmeet Singh
Should Jagmeet Singh lose his seat in Burnaby South– who replaces him as leader of the New Democrats?
Pierre Poilievre
If Pierre Poilievre loses the election by a number larger than the pollsters are suggesting – what do the Conservatives do? Hold a Leadership review? And what if the Conservatives decide Poilievre has to go – who do they choose to replace him?
It looks like Carney is going to win the election, but what if he has a plurality of just one seat – who does he look to for support?
Mark Carney
And what does a week Liberal majority do to the strength that Carney said he needs to confront Donald Trump?
We will ban the use of everything and we will force the use of nothing. I have seen companies working with this strategy, Their CEO’s are awarded accolades for setting industry standards for all to follow, even forcing their suppliers and customers to abide by their standards; The end story is the same, they go broke and get liquidated or they go broke and get taken over.
Speaking on the subject of investment, the Federal government’s pension plan’s majority of funds are in foreign investments (only 2% are invested in Canada). My investments are also in foreign market funds, the reason being is so you can earn better returns on well-run profitable companies in well-run investment-orientated countries. The difference is that the government pension fund is a Crown Corporation and therefore pays no taxes, whereas my investments are taxable. This will allow Carney to set a higher tax rate on foreign investments for people like me and private pension plans while leaving government plans to invest wherever they wish.
While ignoring the fact that Canada has very few investment opportunities due to government regulation.
It is well known, and for a long time, that the service sectors have been steadily increasing in low wage employment share, alongside shrinking higher real wages manufacturing and industry. This is what happened to the US and it was caused by the brand of Free Trade that reigned from 1973 to Trump’s second term , and is what is Trumps main beef right now.
The other joined problem most people don’t really know, is that it took most of 50 years to happen. Another fact today, is that there are no quick fixes – no one can just go back in time to where we might want to rather be.
Another thing not being thought about, is that Trump has a host of options to screw us, not just Tariffs. If Tariffs don’t work enough, e.g, he wants more water, and he can just take it if he is not satisfied with our water-sharing agreements. The same holds for any number of commodities, products, policies, really anything he wants. He is completely untrustworthy.
Any one that thinks thinking this is going away and we can just do affordability, balance the budget, and make everything better for everyone without any problems , like PPCon has been promising, without the same financial and debt pressures facing everyone, is just talking slogans.
Please look closely at what he says about his plan – he does not have a concrete plan that clearly states what exactly what he will do and at what costs and debt. I have been waiting for more that a year for something, anything. This situation just cannot be fixed the way we are used to, with no thought.
Everything is different now. You have seen the chaos of Trump, and his doing everything that he wants. We are facing a totally spontaneous possibility of his coming after us in ways no country or the US ever has. Watch out for anything.
I absolutely do know why I already jumped off the fence long ago. Only Carney has the weight and savvy, and experience to deal with Trump, who has reasons to respect him.
I shudder to think if Poliviere were to win, especially for all the wrong reasons. I cannot even imagine Poliviere getting any respect from Trump. He has no relevant experience, no weight at all for the situation the new context represents. He can’t even be honest about the money and what to do.
And what will he do about Trump about everything that he wants, which is everything. Just look.
If you play around with the data in the link below, you will see that Canada’s top ten companies by wealth are mainly services (financial), ‘Brookfield’ comes in at 6&7, but if you switch the search criteria to ‘Employees) You will see those companies employ fewer Canadians than other companies that are in Manufacturing or resources. By contrast, Mexico has a more diverse top ten that employs more Mexicans, Australia is the same as Canada, a resource-based country, trying to be something it is not. America’s top ten are (technologies) with high employment in those fields but lacking in Manufacturing, with (services) being just that, to service consumer needs, not a driver of employment. A (services) economy in Canada will only last while the boomer generation’s needs are to be satisfied; once that generation’s wealth has been consumed, then what? It’s back to what Canada has that is saleable, Water? This is why the West accumulated wealth and then invested that wealth in evolutionary ideas of free-thinking individuals, not jumping ahead to change the world en masse to a common goal.
https://companiesmarketcap.com/canada/largest-companies-in-canada-by-market-cap/
I don’t know why but I’m going to jump off the fence here and say that the Conservatives will win by a majority. As every investor knows it’s hard to predict the bottom of an investment of interest. Canada is not a start-up, it was just under bad management regarding profit. So you wait and watch and place your bets on the upswing. But has it reached the bottom yet? The shareholders are voting in a week on two candidates for the position of CEO, what are the shareholders’ expectations for this Company? The established are voting for the brand and it’s traditional values, the newer and younger shareholders will vote for younger leadership committed to the modernization of the brand that pays dividends.
The question of, are we seeing the bottom yet? Can be answered by, have the majority of shareholders seen enough of the downward trajectory? I think the majority have, and will vote Conservative. And by the way, I wont be putting any money on this race, but the younger me probably would have.
The Trump situation is about to go into self-correction mode as U.S citizens led by Bernie Sanders, the Dow, NASDQ , market panic and Jerome Powell kicking into gear. That will leave us with being able to renegotiate CUSMA with a calmer administration.
You articulate it well, Joseph. For everyone’s sake, I hope it plays out as you say.