Canada’s largest bank is warning that housing has never been less affordable. New data from RBC shows housing affordability is now the worst it has ever been as of Q4 2023. Income failed to keep up with mortgage payments, resulting in affordability erosion in every market they track. Forecast interest rate cuts are expected to make a slight improvement, but not much.
Jurisdictional jousting has begun over federal funding for housing projects as provincial leaders tell the Trudeau government to stay in its lane.
Over the last week, the Trudeau Liberals have announced billions in funding to kick-start home building in the country. Much of that money comes with conditions that the provinces meet certain criteria and a number of benchmarks.
“This is a significant overreach by the federal government to come in and attempt to nationalize housing,” said Jason Nixon, Alberta’s Minister of Seniors, Community and Social Services.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau dodged questions about MP Han Dong after an intelligence report presented at the foreign interference inquiry said Mr. Dong advised a Chinese official on the two Michaels’ detention in China.
“Foreign interference is a real challenge,” responded Mr. Trudeau when asked by reporters about the information and whether it changes his opinion of Mr. Dong’s fitness for caucus.
When pressed by reporters about not having answered the question, Mr. Trudeau said “obviously, these are ongoing conversations that need to be taken very seriously.”
Inarguably bigger and more seasoned than it was when it was born from the ashes of the Second World War, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization — the West’s great military alliance — celebrated a milestone Thursday: three-quarters of a century of keeping the peace in Europe.
NATO formally came into being with the signing of the Washington Treaty in the U.S. capital 75 years ago, when 12 western democracies — including Canada — banded together against what they saw as Soviet Russia’s expansionism in Europe.
Its creation helped to inaugurate the Cold War and, six years later, brought about the creation of the rival Warsaw Pact of communist countries, led by the Soviet Union.
The flurry of housing announcements by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in recent days just proves that nothing is ever new in politics.
When governments are in trouble at the polls, they start throwing our money at the wall, hoping enough of it sticks to boost their sagging political fortunes.
Federally-funded women’s contraception can safely be said to do one thing: maintain the Liberals’ feminist image.
It won’t realistically improve access for most among the young and the poor, because most provinces already offer targeted coverage for these groups. It won’t help the privately insured. It will provide a nice, but unnecessary, break to everyone else who can front the mild cost. And for those women who don’t want to use any medically prescribed contraception, it provides nothing.
“With CSIS, everything’s a big secret,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford once said about a 2022 briefing his government received about Chinese interference.
It seemed funny at the time, because of course Canada’s spy agency is secretive. But when you hear the way federal officials failed to pass on useful information of foreign election interference to political parties during the 2021 election campaign, you can see the problem.
The freebies are already pouring forth from the Trudeau government in the lead up to the April 14 federal budget announcement. So far their pre-announcements include free contraceptives and more free child care, but expect more giveaways over the next couple of weeks as the Liberals do all they can to try and woo voters back.
What we shouldn’t expect though are any signs of fiscal restraint from what could be described as Trudeau’s “desperation budget,” given his dreadful showing in the polls.
Link fixed
Justin Trudeau: immigration into Canada is far too high
Temporary immigration is too high and putting undue pressure on Canadians, Justin Trudeau has claimed.
“Over the past few years we’ve seen a massive spike in temporary immigration,” the Canadian Prime Minister told an audience on Tuesday. “Whether it’s temporary foreign workers, or whether it’s international students in particular that have grown at a rate that’s far beyond what Canada has been able to absorb.”
Trudeau started flooding the country with immigrants as soon as he was elected.
He called anyone who raised objections a racist and white supremacist.
Now suddenly he admits his own mass immigration policy has failed!!!
Yes indeed, immigration to Canada “has grown at a rate… pic.twitter.com/KWgvU8BFAN
— Maxime Bernier (@MaximeBernier) April 3, 2024
Former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole believes foreign interference may have led to his removal as party leader, according to documents tabled before the foreign interference inquiry.
In a document containing notes from an interview between O’Toole and lawyers acting for the Foreign Interference Commission earlier this year, O’Toole is quoted as saying he was suspicious about the motives of the person behind the petition that called for a leadership review following the 2021 election.
Canadian cities are being overwhelmed by a record surge of newcomers seeking asylum, straining their budgets and pushing temporary shelters beyond their limits.
In Peel, a suburban region in greater Toronto, the shelter system is running at 300% of capacity, with asylum-seekers occupying more than 70% of the beds and many more camping on the streets, according to Patrick Brown, the mayor of Brampton, Ontario.
In July 2019, world-renowned biological researchers Xiangguo Qiu and Keding Cheng were quietly walked out of the Canadian government’s National Microbiology Lab (NML). The original allegation against them was that Qiu had authorised a shipment to China of some of the deadliest viruses on the planet, including Ebola and Nipah.
Qiu and Cheng, a married couple, subsequently lost their security clearances and were then fired by the NML in January 2021. At the time, both were subject to investigations by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Secret Intelligence Service (CSIS). The NML said both had lost their positions for ‘breaches of policy’; it did not say what those breaches or policies had been.
Then the story seemed to go away—until now.
The Trudeau government’s message to our Middle Eastern allies is clear: Canada is a fair weather friend. Stand with us at your peril, because when you’re in the crosshairs, we’ll be too busy polishing our image and playing domestic politics to notice your plight.
Canada made a mockery of not one, but two Middle Eastern allies in the same week — Israel publicly, and the Iraqi Kurds quietly. Make no mistake: the damage we are doing to our friends in the region is catastrophic.
Middle-class Canadians are tired of the rising cost of living and the “high tax burden” placed upon them, according to in-house Privy Council research. Focus groups from across the country told pollsters the federal government has failed to address the issues most important to Canadians.
“Discussing additional measures that could be taken by the federal government to assist the middle class, participants suggested actions such as lowering taxes for middle-class households and increasing the range of benefits and supports available within Canada,” reads the pollsters’ analysis, which was first obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter.
