Demanding Better from Canada's Federal Politicians

Well, it is nearly one week into the Federal Election campaign and the start was less than auspicious for the Liberals given that a campaign bus damaged the official plane on day one.  I was surprised that no pundit noted that it seemed like the left wing of the plane carrying Canada’s self-styled champions of progressive thought was damaged.  But then, media observers were probably too entranced by the plethora of slogans and ads which had already started to crescendo a few days before the call.   Yet, the slogans were for the most part predictable and really rather bland.  The general blandness of indeed the entire election, is coming during a time when Canada’s position in the world is under severe stress and change. How a country with an export to GDP ratio of 30 percent can continue to prosper in a world of tariffs and trade wars is a pressing question.  One was expecting more.

The campaign slogans are remarkably interchangeable.  The federal Liberals are asking us to “Choose Forward” which I am sure means other parties are a backwards choice rather than an exhortation to engage in time travel or perhaps go to an advance poll.  The federal Conservatives are telling us that “It’s time for you to get ahead” which again is a call to vote Conservative as a way of doing materially better rather than proceed to the front of a checkout line or perhaps take early action in setting your clocks back for the fall. 

Keeping to the theme of moving forward and ahead, both the Liberals and Conservatives are facing the Green Party with their “Not Left. Not right. Forward Together” which suggests rival parties are directionally challenged when it comes to deciding where to go.  And of course, there are the New Democrats who want us to know that they are “In it for You” which is a comment on the other parties being focused on themselves rather than a call to attract more candidates of which they are still woefully short.  And who can forget the People’s Party of Canada who are simply “Strong and Free” but based on their polling numbers are not strong and probably do not wish to apply the concept of free to immigration.

These are of course only slogans designed to highlight differences and send subliminal messages.  The Liberals are suggesting that choosing anybody other than them is a step backwards especially when it comes to their much-vaunted promotion of growing the middle class.  I suppose this  is a more charitable interpretation of their message than a more strident “We always know what is best for you” or “We are going to help the middle class whether you like how we do it or not.” 

Meanwhile the Conservatives, seem to be telling us if you want to be middle class, the best way to get ahead is to support them which is probably a more prudent line than “We want to help you help yourself get more”.  As for the New Democrats, well they are middle class boosters too but want to explicitly let you know they are in it for you if you vote for them with the policy prescription being there is no problem that cannot be fixed with more government spending - even if not necessary or counterproductive.  Here, the more accurate reality might be a reverse Walmart ad like “Spend more, Get Less”.

In the end, these official slogans are all interchangeable and designed to sell a message that if stated more bluntly would probably not be seen as a good idea by the in-house advisors.  It would be a fun party game to see how many permutations and combinations can emerge by combining and rearranging these words.  How about, “Not left, Not right, but forward and backwards” or “Forward for a Strong and Free You” or “Time to choose forward to get ahead together while strong and free and realizing what’s in it for you.”   We are truly in a pickle this fall but unless we demand better from our politicians, we will not get anything better.  It can start with better slogans but a better policy debate would be even more useful. 

 

Thunder Bay's Tax Levy Debate

It would appear that the municipal election campaign is starting to heat up with the outgoing Mayor taking issue with the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce's recent election policy document which among things argues that the City of Thunder Bay's tax levies have increased by an annual average of 3.36 percent over the last decade.  Their graph is for the period 2012 to 2022 which includes projections for the 2018 to 2022 period which is not exactly the last decade. The Mayor maintains that the average tax levy change over the past eight years is only 2.4 percent - after new growth in the tax base was factored in.

This is all really quite entertaining because what matters is the increase in the total tax levy - that is what is being drawn from the tax base and used to fund spending.  The tax levy is essentially an expenditure estimate for taxpayer assisted spending and in the end what matters is the total amount of the revenue taken in and its growth and not whether some of it comes from the existing base and some of it is coming from new assessment growth.  The latter argument is really only being advanced to deflect attention from the overall increases.


So, what are the numbers?  Well, here is my two cents worth.  The accompanying figure plots the annual tax levy increase for the period 2008 to 2018 based on total tax revenue numbers from the Financial Information Returns from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (with the exception of the last couple of years which come from City of Thunder Bay budget documents).  If you take the average, it comes out to comes out to 3.3 percent which is pretty close to the Chamber estimate.  If you take the average for only the 2011 to 2018 period, you get an average of 3.4 percent.  The last four years average out to 3.7 percent which is a rate well in excess of the rates of inflation and income growth in this city but the number is skewed by the 5.7 increase in 2015 - the year right after the last election. In the end, the tax levy in Thunder Bay has increased at an average of over 3 percent annually for the last decade and based on the chamber numbers is projected to continue doing so.