Jagmeet’s Questionnaire

I got an email the other day – from Jagmeet Singh himself! Imagine my surprise that he wanted my advice on planks for the upcoming NDP platform. Although I am a lapsed NDP voter and have been sending Jagmeet some not very flattering reviews I decided to help out by completing the questionnaire.

Question 1

My knowledge of economics is limited, and this question flummoxed me. Several of the above choices will have a significant effect on my household budget but not the way Jagmeet seemed to think. Rebating double the GST will require an increase in taxes just so they can be turned around and double redistributed with all the expensive inefficiencies of significant paperwork.

Free health care isn’t free to those who pay more taxes and will the freebie be just drill, fill and bill or will it include orthodontia, caps, root canals, implants and other expensive procedures. Wonderful to think of all those Canadians with perfect teeth but will it evolve from a user pay (and benefit) system to the abuse, priorities, waiting lists and limits that we see in the present health care system? How will the dental profession react to having their incomes limited like those of physicians?

Out of a total budget of $462 billion in the federal budget this year, the deficit is estimated at 11.5% or 53 billion dollars. If we go with Jagmeet’s child benefits for 8.0 million kids 18 and under, a one time payment of $500, this will add another $4 billion to the deficit. How about taxing those gluttonous billionaires? In 2021 there were an estimated 53 Canadian billionaires so if we take all their assets and investments we can pay down that $53 billion deficit as long as we don’t have that additional child benefit. Of course removing that much invested money from the economy will increase unemployment but hey! it feels good to gouge those guys.

The above question showcases Jagmeet’s economic ineptitude, no emphasis on stirring up the economic engine that pays the bills, just finding a whole lot of nice sounding vote buying expenses going out. Who wouldn’t like to have someone else paying the dental bills or posting cheques in the mail but when money is tight and getting tighter someone has to go out and get a job.

Question 3

I looked all the way down the list and found no reference to the loss of Charter Rights and Freedoms, no thought to reducing the PMO, limiting emergency powers, reviewing Health Canada’s COVID response, the return to Parliamentary decision making, the booting of ‘you know who’ out of office, investigation of unlawful arrest and detention, using the judiciary and the RCMP to target political dissidents, using mercenary troops to trample and beat legally protesting Canadians, suppressing information about antiviral COVID treatments, suppressing the numbers of vaccine adverse effects, coercing Canadians into dangerous vaccinations …

Lots of very important topics but Jag thinks a good choice would be screwing over fossil fuels, spending even more on pharmacare, and beating the Climate Change boogyman at his own game. Again freebies, spending and no earning. If this was a household budget, his solution to economic woes would be to apply for a new credit card, not kicking the Xbox playing, basement dwelling teenager out to get a job.

Finally there was a question that I could answer: