Close Reading

Honestly I like Trump because he is anti woke but his economic policies are downright dumb…

I’ve held my tongue on this long enough, but the writing’s on the wall — Canada is cooked.\n\nOur finance minister calls it a “vibecession”, as if we’re imagining the economy sputtering. But here’s the reality: GDP growth at 0.1%, per capita GDP down 0.5%, and youth unemployment at 13.5%.\n\nThere’s the recent bait-and-switch $250 stimulus cheque — an ill-disguised vote buying grift. It was scrapped when the government realized it would add $4.6 billion to an already projected $60 billion deficit. \n\nThrow in a two-month sales tax holiday announced without thinking about the logistics, leaving businesses scrambling. Some aren’t even participating because it’s not worth the headache.\n\nHousing starts are at a 10-year low, the housing accelerator fund has delivered zero new homes, housing prices have left wage growth in the dust, and immigration has blown past what our infrastructure can handle. \n\nMeanwhile, the CBSA isn’t bothering to track expired international student visas. After all, someone has to keep the for-profit diploma mills thriving and the service industry fully staffed.\n\nCanada Post is falling apart under strikes, crippling small businesses, and 47% of job growth in the last five years has come from the public sector while our capital markets and innovation stagnate. \n\nThe $CAD is currently plummeting against the $USD, as the Bank of Canada scrambles to firefight the government’s incompetence with two jumbo 0.5% interest rate cuts.\n\nAnd let’s not ignore the trade war brewing with our historical ally, the U.S.. Trump has made it clear he’ll punish our abysmal border policies, which have allowed fentanyl to flood into America unchecked, with a 25% tariff on Canadian exports.\n\nIf you’re trying to get ahead — building jobs, working for yourself, pooling capital to invest, why bother?— the proposed 66% capital gains inclusion rate over $250,000 punishes you for taking risks and succeeding.\n\nAsk yourself: are you happy with the state of Canada right now? Honestly. Because it doesn’t feel like the same country I grew up in, went to school in, worked in, served in, and built a business in.\n\nI’m done. For once in my life, I don’t want to be Canadian anymore.

I would hope you could find happiness in Canada. One of my concerns about living in a theocratic country would always be, is this choice really your own? Can you ever be certain, if faced with violations of your rights, that the choice is really yours? And, if not, can you consider yourselves as choosing Islam, rather than being forced into it, even if in absence of theocratic rule, you would have chosen it anyways? Maybe I’m overthinking it. I have the tendency to do that. I think if I were Muslim, I might choose Tunisia. I’ve known people from Tunisia and it sounds like they’re pretty open-minded, but still obviously predominantly Muslim. I’ve been to Dubai, and while I see many people recommending it, I honestly thought it was the worst combination of East and West. All the commercialization of the West, but none of the democracy. Plus, if you are not native Emiratis, you will always be second class. I’m from the US in what I think is the mini-Canada (ok, the Twin Cities) and we have a big Muslim community, but I’m very concerned Trump will win again in 2024, and I don’t know what will come of it. My daughter is part Afghani, but raised Catholic because her father’s side is irreligious. But I still worry for her, looking like she does and carrying that last name. People are so awful.