Check It Out: What’s at stake?
By Joan Janzen
This week, I was not planning on writing about politics, but after listening to a ‘4 My Canada’ broadcast, I was reminded how much is at stake in this election. And even though there’s little humour to be found in politics, I’ll share a couple of riddles.
Q: What is the favourite footwear of politicians? A: Flip Flops. Q: Why don’t politicians ever play hide and seek? A: Because no one would ever look for them.
People wouldn’t look for them because they’re too busy searching for all the important issues that are being suppressed and taking note of the sudden flip-flops that occur during election campaigns. There’s much at stake in this upcoming 2025 election, but we’ll cover just a few things today.
Faytene Grasseschi pointed out on the ‘4 My Canada’ broadcast that the Liberal-NDP union changed everything in the last election, enabling them to receive a majority. A majority equals 170 seats. So, what are a few situations that occurred during the past decade?
The federal debt doubled, which means 100 percent of all federal sales tax collected goes to interest on the debt; nothing goes towards paying the debt. An average Canadian owes between $50,000 to $60,000 in debt, depending on what province you live in.
Another change was that MAID (Medical Assistance In Dying) is on track to be legal for the mentally ill and depressed by 2027, with same-day requests and administration for the vulnerable.
Something many may not be aware of is Canada is one of the largest distributors of child porn. The present government has refused to shut down PornHub, which is based out of Montreal, exporting mass non-consensual and child porn to the world.
Equalization payments are a massive dividing factor in the country. The Fraser Institute reported that in 2022 alone, Alberta contributed $14.2 billion more than it received in federal transfer payments. Meanwhile, New Brunswick received $2.9 billion, which makes up nearly 25 percent of its total provincial budget.
“Alberta is a major contributor, not a recipient, despite the fact that federal policies have actively harmed and targeted Alberta’s economy,” Faytene reported.
A graph of the Canada Pension Plan showed BC paid $8.9 billion and Alberta paid $53.6 billion which helps fund the pensions of Canadians in nearly every other eastern province except for Quebec. On the receiving end were: Ontario $18 million, Manitoba $319 million, PEI $750 million, Sask. $1.9 billion, Newfoundland $3.5 billion, New Brunswick $4.5 billion, and Nova Scotia $12.1 billion.
These situations, plus many others, have caused the Premier of Alberta to list demands that need to be met by the next Prime Minister within the first six months of being elected. A few of the demands include lifting the tanker ban off the BC coast, guaranteeing Alberta full access to oil and gas corridors to the north, east and west, and repealing the No New Pipelines Act. Nevertheless, recent reports indicate that Mark Carney has no intentions of repealing the No New Pipelines Act.
A possible “unprecedented national unity crisis” would dramatically shake the economies of provinces if Alberta declared sovereignty as Quebec did in 2006.
In December 2024, a new government recommendation was made to amend the Income Tax Act to provide a definition of charity that would remove the privileged status of ‘advancement of religion’ as a charitable purpose. This recommendation was buried in a 300-page report. Since 42 percent of all charities fall under this category, “It would deal a massive blow to society in general,” Faytene observed.
“Recommendations are gently introduced until finally they are picked up into a legislative mandate and cast into law. This has been our national experience,” she observed. “Some say that will never happen, but we do have tangible evidence that Christian and pro-life charities are already being actively targeted.”
So what happens if charitable status is lost? Her guest, Stockwell Day, said there’s more to it than not being allowed to issue receipts. “If your status is taken away, you have to dispense with all of your assets within 12 months. Your assets will go to a registered charitable organization, or if you’re not willing to do that, you’ll be subject to a 100 percent revocation tax after one year. These things are very real but responding on this can turn the tide,” he advised.
He suggested Canadians email or phone their Member of Parliament and ask a simple question: “Do you and your party plan to put in place the recommendation from the financial committee to cancel charitable status of churches?” He said a few people sending that message makes a difference at a caucus level. “The Liberals have not at all indicated they’re not going to act on this recommendation,” he advised.
By this time, you may be thinking you’re in need of a strong drink (purely for medicinal purposes, I’m sure). But even that is of little consolation since two-thirds of the cost of good old Canadian Club whiskey is tax.
The good news is that you can sign up at 4mycanada.com, where a system has been set up to make it easy for people to volunteer wherever they are. Volunteers would help distribute important information prior to the election, which is especially important in swing ridings.