The Trudeau Promise Tracker

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

I will believe it when I see it. If he actually puts this in a budget, I am ok with it as I don't quite make 200K/year yet. Assumes this is still individual and not household?

Not much of a savings for lower middle income earners but hopefully the tax revenue from higher incomes will be put toward good services.

I am sure it will be wasted. I hear there are some bridges in Asia which need repair.

 

[captain morgan]

I will believe it when I see it. If he actually puts this in a budget, I am ok with it as I don't quite make 200K/year yet. Assumes this is still individual and not household?

The devil is in the details.

If I were to hazard a guess, the income cut-offs are based on household incomes and according to what I have heard, Trudeau has spoken about eliminating (or altering) income-splitting... This makes sense really as the marginal increases at the top end are so small that in order to have any positive impact, there will need to be something more substantial involved that will raise tax revenues

 

[davesmom]

They will raise the GST by 2% and EVERYBODY pays that, even the poorest. When Government 'gives' you a break they always take it back some other way.

 

[CDNBear]

The Liberal plan for a strong middle class will invest to build Canada again. As part of our platform, we will provide direct support to low- and middle-income students, so they can afford a quality education and build a strong future. Liberals will create jobs by making the most significant infrastructure investment in Canadian history. We will raise taxes on the wealthiest one percent, so we can cut taxes for the middle class. We will also offer more support to those working hard to join the middle class by giving families more money to help with the high cost of raising their kids, and investing in essential social infrastructure, including affordable housing and child care.

https://www.liberal.ca/trudeau-unveils-liberal-platform-for-a-strong-middle-class/

Uh huh.

 

[davesmom]

They had better shut it down right quick. Election promises have already been broken. Take a look.

Trudeau promised 'openness and transparency'. It is now 5 weeks from Dec. 31st and the Canadian public has yet to be informed what the plan is for bring in the refugees. Even the Provincial Premiers aren't clear on how many they are getting, what they are to do with them, who is paying what portion of the cost. The Feds are supposed to release their plan on Tuesday. Can't wait! This should be good!
Trudeau told his Cabinet members to not talk to the public about the refugees until they had checked with him first.
Trudeau has promised to let his Caucus and Cabinet talk freely to the press. Right! They can do that right after he tells them what they can say.

Trudeau promised to cultivate a better relationship with the U.S. He has refused to consider their request to rethink their refugee plan. He can't wait to stop the bombing mission. He is going the opposite way to the U.S. on the TPP. If he keeps going he's going to really tic the U.S. off. Trudeau should be aware that he and Obama may be best buddies but Obama will soon be gone. It is the next guy he is going to have to get along with. Can't wait to see how this all plays out!

Trudeau promised to give Canada a better image on the world stage. So far he has gone exactly opposite to what the rest of our allies are doing. They are beefing up their bombing campaign. Trudeau is backing out. France is enacting a law to revoke citizenship of terrorists, something that Harper had already done. Trudeau is reversing that. None of these moves will have improved Canada's image. Trudeau talks the talk, ( "we will do everything in our power to aid in the fight against ISIS') but he certainly isn't walking the walk. Can't wait to see how this plays out!

These breaches of promise are so subtle that one has to keep his eyes and ears on the news every day to know what is leaking out. But leak out it will. Can't wait!

Trudeau is, however, keeping his promise to 'change'. It is the motive behind the changes that are questionable. He has instructed his Cabinet to 'reverse all of Harper's policies'. that sounds more like grinding an axe than changing to put things right.

By the way, I heard the U.S. Rep stating publicly on CNN yesterday what the security checks on potential refugees entail. He said it can take up to 2 years.
First they must be checked and passed by the UN. Then the FBI, CIA and Homeland security each check their background, their documents, fingerprint them and conduct personal interviews which often take up to a full day. At some point in the process they are also subjected to other technological ID scanning processes (I can't remember them all and don't understand them anyway). And in view of this lengthy and detailed process, the U.S. is still leery.
How in the hell is Canada going to do a thorough security check in a few short days? NOT! And the emotionites wonder why some of are skeptical!

 

[tay]

Trudeau government wimps out on Canada Pension Plan reform


They are not doing anything. They are not even bothering to make empty promises about doing anything.

After hosting a federal-provincial meeting this week that dealt with the CPP, all Finance Minister Bill Morneau could provide was a promise to study the issue further and meet again.

It was hardly an example of the federal leadership that Trudeau had promised during the election campaign.

At one point, both Quebec and Alberta were opposed to CPP reform — which was enough to kill the idea (amendments require the agreement of Ottawa and seven provinces representing two-thirds of Canada’s population).

By 2013, enough provinces were on side to get something done. But the Harper Conservatives remained opposed.

That’s when Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne announced plans to set up a supplementary provincial pension scheme in her province.


She said she’d scrap those plans if a new government in Ottawa could be convinced to expand the CPP proper.

Her federal Liberal cousins promised to be such a government.

Last June, they issued a statement under the name of then seniors critic John McCallum arguing that the CPP “simply isn’t enough,” and that the Liberals would increase benefits gradually to improve it.

“Clearly, the time is right,” said McCallum, now immigration minister. “All that is missing is federal leadership.”

Alas, that federal leadership is still missing.

more........

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada...out-on-canada-pension-plan-reform-walkom.html

 

[CDNBear]

Oh oh, lol

 

[Locutus]

I know eh. sunny daze.

 

[CDNBear]

Many many sunny dayz, lol.

BIG plans! Hope and real change, lol.

 

[B00Mer]

You may want to stay away from the St. Lawrence river for a long, long while..

 

[Locutus]

Broken Economy The 2016 middle class tax cut combined with the new 33% tax bracket will be revenue neutral.

Broken Immigration Welcome 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of 2015.

Broken Immigration Immediately double the number of applications allowed for parents and grandparents to 10,000 each year.

 

[taxslave]

Broken Economy The 2016 middle class tax cut combined with the new 33% tax bracket will be revenue neutral.

Broken Immigration Welcome 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of 2015.

Broken Immigration Immediately double the number of applications allowed for parents and grandparents to 10,000 each year.

Looks like they will have to tax the trust fund yuppies a little more.

 

[tay]

Meanwhile, on the long list of areas where Canadians who voted for change have every reason to be disappointed in the Libs, Andrew Mitrovica reminds us that C-51 is still in full effect without any hint of restraint or oversight.


Janice Dickson points out that the NDP is having to prod the Libs to remember the need for pay equity. Kristy Kirkup reports that there's little indication the Libs are living up to the acknowledged obligation to stop discriminating against First Nations in funding child welfare programs.


And Ryan Moore notes that Stephen Harper's edifice of dumb-on-crime legislation has been left standing except for the parts which had already been dismantled by the courts.

 

[tay]

As of 2016, with 423 days in office, the Trudeau Meter has been keeping track of policies in the Liberal Party manifesto.


As of today, here is policy statistics by their current status.

StatusNumberBroken28Achieved38In Progress67Not Started90Total223Leaving Trudeau's cabinet 1025 days to complete their manifesto.


High Priority promise-breaks :

• Reduce the small business tax rate to 9% (from 11%). NOTE: 10.5% instead (25% fulfilled)
• Offer a 12-month break on Employment Insurance premiums to encourage companies to hire young people NOTE: Completely reneged
• Run short-term deficits of less than $10 billion in each of the next two fiscal years (2016 and 2017). NOTE: Potentially 3 times that, but it is hard (at least for me) to call how much at this point.
• Phase out subsidies for the fossil fuel industry. NOTE: Completely reneged.
• Ensure every new policy and law would meet with the principles of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). NOTE: Site C, with other infractions on their way it looks like.
• Guarantee that First Nation communities have a veto over natural resource development in their territories.
• Do not buy the F-35s, and immediately launch an open and transparent competition and reduce the procurement budget to replace the current CF-18s. NOTE: I'm honestly confused at where this promise is, actually.

Low Priority:

• Invest an additional $100 million each year in the Industrial Research Assistance Program. NOTE: At least $50 Million, but not necessarily every year. (between 10% and 50% fulfilled)
• Invest $300 million more in the Youth Employment Strategy to create 40,000 youth jobs NOTE: Funding fully provided, but potentially far less than 40,000 jobs.
• Invest $40 million each year to help employers create more co-op placements for students in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and business programs. NOTE: More like $18 Million (~50% fulfilled)
• Invest $50 million in additional annual funding to the Post-Secondary Student Support Program. NOTE: There is a large bucket that may fulfill the spirit of this promise, however, this money was not set aside in the budget
• Immediately implement the imported gun marking regulations. NOTE: Much-delayed regulations continue to be delayed.
• Maintain current National Defence spending levels, including planned increases. NOTE: Decrease, followed by larger increase, planned to end up equal in the end.

Other:

• Increase funding for Telefilm Canada and the National Film Board with a new investment totaling $25 million each year. NOTE: Actual budget seems to be $11.5 Million over 5 years (~10% fulfilled)
• Immediately start to invest $3 billion over the next four years to deliver better home care services NOTE: Completely reneged.
• Invest an additional $775 million per year for job and skills training. NOTE: Seems more like $175 Million (~23% fulfilled)
• Re-do the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline expansion review. NOTE: Process was expressly complementary to the prior review, not a redo.
• End MSM blood donation ban. NOTE: Ban relaxed from 5 years abstinence to 1 year.
• Welcome 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of 2015. NOTE: Required additional time
• Immediately lift the two percent cap on funding for First Nations programs. NOTE: 2% continues.
• Provide $100 million each year to the provinces and territories to support guns and gangs police task forces. NOTE: no money provided directly for this in the budget, but lesser amounts are provided to bucket amounts with other things in them.
• Re-establish lifelong pensions as an option for injured veterans. NOTE: Litigation has ensued on this issue.
• Invest $80 million every year to create a new Veterans Education Benefit. NOTE: Not this year, apparently. (0% fulfilled)

• Set a cap on how much can be claimed through the stock option deduction on annual stock option gains higher than $100,000. NOTE: Promise element was in a set of bullets introduced with "Our priorities...include:" and the bullet began with "A starting point would be to". Completely reneged, but arguably this wasn't a clear commitment. See link.
• The 2016 middle class tax cut combined with the new 33% tax bracket will be revenue neutral. NOTE: $1.2 Billion shortfall estimated. Not entirely sure how broken this is. This could swing to be a lot more broken. It could also be accounted for later. I don't think it will, but it could.
• Create a common, quarterly, and more detailed parliamentary expense report. NOTE: No progress, so it is arguably not particularly quarterly and certainly not "each quarter" as per the platform. Nonetheless, I'm not sure I consider this failed yet.

 

[tay]

When Trudeau reneged on his solemn promise that Canadians would never have to put up with another first-past-the-post election, another false majority government, he covered his *** with the story that there had been no consensus for change either in committee or among the public.

That seemed to be an implausibly thin excuse given that Trudeau had done nothing to increase public awareness of electoral reform, why we needed it and the competing options.

Now that implausibly thin excuse turns out to have been just another of Justin's tall tales. He switched course because he feared proportional rep might lead to admission of "extremist voices in the House (link is external)."


So, you see, they're only doing it - reneging on their promise, even all the cover up lying - not for their benefit but for ours. It's for our own good. We can't be trusted with such things. We'd ruin the furniture and God knows who we might let in the door. We shouldn't be troubling our pretty minds with that stuff.


Leave it to the folks in the big pants.

Condescending *******s.

 

[tay]

Louis-Philippe Rochon writes that while American voters had to know what they'd get in casting their most recent ballots, far too many Canadians may have believed the Libs' promises of something else:

On this side of the 49th parallel, however, when Canadians elected Trudeau a little over 15 months ago, on Oct. 19, 2015, we were led to believe he was some sort of a progressive politician with respect to social and economic issues, which essentially is what got him elected.

What a difference a year makes.

In recent months Trudeau has behaved very little like a progressive economist and has instead embraced with great fanfare some oddly conservative policies. In doing so, has Trudeau revealed himself to be a conservative wolf in liberal clothing? If so, it would appear the fix is in: Canadians voted for one guy but got another. It was the classic political bait and switch: the great Canadian hoodwink.
...
[Under a privatized structure,] any infrastructure project will easily cost twice as much over a 30-year period. In other words, for any project, Canadian taxpayers will end up holding the fiscal bag through higher fees and taxes, whereas the government could finance the project at much cheaper rates. This makes no economic sense, which raises the question, is the government doing this simply as a way of thanking their financial supporters?

There is a more sinister argument looming under all this, and it regards the role of public spending and the privatization of the state. Indeed, with all these musings about privatizing airports, ports and public spending, Trudeau is in fact championing the privatization of the state itself, robbing it further of its powers to create jobs and regulate unstable markets. This is clearly not what Canadians were expecting when they elected him last year.​

 

[tay]

Sunny ways fading as the Liberals hit the halfway mark

While the parties wrangle, the Liberals struggle to advance their legislative agenda. Not that it is particularly impressive. The spring sitting will mostly be remembered for broken or missing-in-action promises.

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada...-the-halfway-mark-in-their-mandate-hbert.html

 

[Curious Cdn]

Trudeau has not yet been challenged by a major crisis of any kind. That's where the rubber will hit the road. It's inevitable that one will come along. Perhaps, the election of Trump is that disaster. If so, he has conducted himself rather well through that minefield, so far.

 

[tay]

The Trudeau government redacted the details of its own transparency plan


https://news.vice.com/story/the-trudeau-government-redacted-the-details-of-its-own-transparency-plan


And...... The Trudeau government’s access to information reform doesn’t expand transparency like they promised

 

[tay]

Justin Trudeau has broken his election promise of consultation and transparency with the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks.

On October 5, 2015, just two weeks before the last election, Trudeau responded with this statement to the Harper government's announcement that it had reached agreement with eleven other countries on a Trans-Pacific Partnership deal.

He said, "The Harper Conservatives have failed to be transparent through the entirety of the negotiations – especially in regards to what Canada is conceding in order to be accepted into this partnership. The government has an obligation to be open and honest about the negotiation process, and immediately share all the details of any agreement. ...If the Liberal Party of Canada earns the honour of forming a government after October 19th, we will hold a full and open public debate in Parliament to ensure Canadians are consulted on this historic trade agreement.”

Yes, the federal government held a public consultation on the TPP in 2016, but according to Global Affairs documents obtained through an Access to Information request made by The Council of Canadians, only two out of more than 18,000 Canadians wrote to the government's email address in support of the TPP. That means only 0.01 per cent of those who participated in this email consultation supported the deal.

And yes the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade did hold public hearings on the Trans-Pacific Partnership between February 2016 and February 2017. But NDP MP Tracey Ramsey has highlighted, "It is worth noting that every individual who spoke at the public participation sessions expressed concerns with the TPP and in most cases opposed the agreement outright."

Despite this overwhelming public opposition, the Liberals have clearly chosen to pursue a TPP agreement.

And now we read in the news that a TPP-11 agreement was thought to have been reached in principle. While International Trade Minister François-Philippe Champagne assures us via Twitter that there is no agreement in principle, New Zealand's trade minister has now publicly stated that Canada did not object to the agreement in principle that ten countries thought they had reached yesterday.

The New Zealand Herald reports, "The fact is that Trade Ministers from 11 countries thought they had reached agreement late last night and had all but broken out the rice wine when, like the Best Picture blunder at this year's Oscar, someone said there had been a terrible mistake. One country, had misunderstood a part of the agreement and there was no agreement. [New Zealand trade minister David] Parker also made it clear that it was not [New Zealand nor] Canada either - despite its Trade Minister taking to Twitter last night to contradict reports from Japan's Trade Minister that an agreement in principle had been reached."

It is still not clear what country objected, or what it objected to, or what the other ten countries - including Canada - did agree to.

But wait, there's more!

https://canadians.org/blog/liberals...on-and-transparency-trans-pacific-partnership