Even Canadians have noticed that something is not right

Officially today is Canada day although unofficially Justin Trudeau changed the date to April 1^st several years ago.  In the lead up to this now defunct Canadian holiday pollsters asked Canadians how they felt about Canada.  They found national pride waning significantly.

But 45 per cent of people who did the survey said they were feeling less proud than they did five years ago in 2019. Leger said that’s up 16 percentage points from 2021, when they posed the same question.

Normally oblivious Canadians are starting to realize all is not well with Canada.  The country has some serious problems and at the top of that list is housing.  Many young Canadians can no longer afford to purchase a home.  They can’t even afford to rent.  So far, the governments solution to this critical problem has been to demonize landlords and people who already own homes.

I did not take political science so I really don’t see how demonizing people who did not cause the problem will help solve the problem.  Even some of the media has noticed that whipping up anger likely won’t make houses more affordable.  This article points out that some concrete action rather than hateful ideological rhetoric might be far more useful.  Below are the top 7 points from their list.

1. One of the obvious solutions is to slow the flow of immigration until the housing supply can catch up.

2. Instead of rubberstamping redevelopment proposals, local governments could choose to protect trailer parks and other forms of affordable housing.

3. Local governments could revise zoning bylaws to allow small, affordable houses to be built. Many bylaws require new houses to be a certain size and have expensive features.

4. Local governments could give encouragement and even tax breaks to builders who would build low-cost housing and co-op housing.

5. Local governments could speed up the processing of building permits. Delays cost builders money, and those costs are inevitably passed on to the eventual owners.

6. Governments at all levels could reduce taxes on housing. These include “development charges” at the municipal level, PST at the provincial level (and taxes such as British Columbia’s Property Transfer Tax), and GST at the federal level.

7. Considerable amounts of underutilized land owned by governments could be made available for housing.

I don’t know about you but there was a common theme that jumped off this list for me.  First every single point dealt with government.  Second, they were not things that the government should do.  It was a list of all the things the government should stop doing.  They did not come out and say it directly, but the point is well made.  The housing crisis was caused by the government.  Specifically, the housing crisis is the result of too much government.

Canadian governments have grown like a cancer at all levels.  We simply have too many takers and not enough makers.  The cost of this imbalance is far higher than most people realize.  The money necessary to support our bloated bureaucracy must come from somewhere.  It comes from your pocket in the form of a myriad of taxes and fees that make everything expensive.

Secondly, fixed-rate municipal charges (like Development Charges), now constitute a larger proportion of new home costs. In many GTA municipalities, these charges can average between $100,000-$150,000 for a single family home and are going up not down, contributing as an inflationary pressure to the cost of a new home.

Supporting the bloated bureaucracy in Toronto adds up to $150,000 to the price of a house.  Pro government lunatics, of which Canada has far too many, will point out that this money is needed to upgrade infrastructure.  There is some truth to that but most of this will never be invested in infrastructure.  Just go ask anyone in Calgary under water restrictions from old water lines that have received little to no maintenance in 50 years.  Most of this money will be used just to support the ungodly weight of the government.

Canadians are not really losing confidence in Canada.  They are losing confidence in Canadian government, and they are not alone.  Voters are opting for change at the ballot box almost everywhere.  I have serious doubts that voting for a different career politician will solve the problems caused by other professional politicians.  Once in power they all find it difficult to pull their nose out of the public trough long enough to consider who fills the trough.

Voting likely won’t fix this.  Purging the country of the people causing the problems might fix it.  It is at least worth a try.  I certainly would not object to never seeing this himbo in the country again.