Liberal Minority Government 2025 - ???

[brihard]

Sure. We might differ on whether we view that pressure as positive or negative. To be clear, I favour Canada being pushed to cope with perceived problems internally.

Passing our own tax legislation applied to corporations doing business in Canada is coping with a perceived problem internally, presupposing that the mechanism actually works to achieve a policy objective.

Al alternative could be to establish a threshold (Revenue? Employees?) above which a non-resident corporation must establish and operate through a subsidiary registered in a Canadian federal or provincial jurisdiction. I’m not convinced nor suggesting that’s the way to go, but if one wishes to get picky about how precisely Canada reaches for taxation on revenue from Canadian operation, there are various ways it could be done.

 

[PPCLI Guy]

Thats a good analogy.

My personal views (if I had a secret power to control things), I want PMMC to get at least 2 years to try and right the ship. That could happen and maybe longer, but if there are some in his crew that are anchors on him, yikes, the other three parties will pick an opportunity and force an election, especially after I would guess, early to mid 2026.

So you want him to fix things so that another party can replace them? I want him to fix things cus thing are fucken broke. No politics. Just running a country.

 

[ArmyRick]

So you want him to fix things so that another party can replace them? I want him to fix things cus thing are fucken broke. No politics. Just running a country.

Thats not what i said at all. I want him to get a fair chance (as Martin got in 2004) to prove he can offer this nation something valuable. MY POINT (that you can't understand and I suspect you have past prejudices on what I say), is PMMC looks to be very smart, and has objectives, but he will not reach them with Champagne, Gibeault, Melanie Joly, McKinnon, Gregor Robertson (the new housing guy), and a few others keep saying dumb things to the media, in parliament and in public. It won't matter how effective his plan is if these other buffoons bring him down.

If he plays his cards right, and does an effective job of lowering our deficit and raising our productivity (in theory improving personal wealth for all Canadians), he won't have the opposition taking it from him. Unless the media turns completely against him, then he could be toast regardless of well he does.

 

[Brad Sallows]

Passing our own tax legislation applied to corporations doing business in Canada is coping with a perceived problem internally, presupposing that the mechanism actually works to achieve a policy objective.

"Doing business in Canada" depends on framing. To me, buying ad placements from a US-based provider or subscribing to a US-based digital magazine is no different than buying groceries and gas or a hardcopy magazine subscription across the border. To me, pulling a web page from a server physically in the US is no different than receiving a TV or radio broadcast. If Canada wants a piece of the action it should tax me directly. "Accessible to Canadians" is not equivalent to "doing business in Canada".

Al alternative could be to establish a threshold (Revenue? Employees?) above which a non-resident corporation must establish and operate through a subsidiary registered in a Canadian federal or provincial jurisdiction. I’m not convinced nor suggesting that’s the way to go, but if one wishes to get picky about how precisely Canada reaches for taxation on revenue from Canadian operation, there are various ways it could be done.

Any fix that is not and does not look like exercising taxation power across a border would be worth entertaining.

 

[brihard]

"Doing business in Canada" depends on framing. To me, buying ad placements from a US-based provider or subscribing to a US-based digital magazine is no different than buying groceries and gas or a hardcopy magazine subscription across the border. To me, pulling a web page from a server physically in the US is no different than receiving a TV or radio broadcast. If Canada wants a piece of the action it should tax me directly. "Accessible to Canadians" is not equivalent to "doing business in Canada".

Sure but I don’t believe that reflects the bulk of what it was aimed at. It would more have been taxing transactions like me taking an Uber from the airport to my AirBNB in Nova Scotia on vacation, putting in an Amazon Prime order for a few items I forgot, and killing some of the evening on Netflix.

 

[MilEME09]

Sure but I don’t believe that reflects the bulk of what it was aimed at. It would more have been taxing transactions like me taking an Uber from the airport to my AirBNB in Nova Scotia on vacation, putting in an Amazon Prime order for a few items I forgot, and killing some of the evening on Netflix.

End of the day we dropped it because the OECD is working on its own digital tax among all members so dropping our own just staves off the inevitable while scoring a negotiation point.

 

[brihard]

End of the day we dropped it because the OECD is working on its own digital tax among all members so dropping our own just staves off the inevitable while scoring a negotiation point.

More bluntly we dropped it because the costs of sticking to our guns on this one would have been intolerably high. It is what it is. Against a coercive U.S. we need to pick our battles.

 

[Brad Sallows]

Sure but I don’t believe that reflects the bulk of what it was aimed at. It would more have been taxing transactions like me taking an Uber from the airport to my AirBNB in Nova Scotia on vacation, putting in an Amazon Prime order for a few items I forgot, and killing some of the evening on Netflix.

If government is too dumb to figure out how to tax the first two by treating the car and the premises as the place of business in Canada, there are no words. Prime is mostly just a broker and courier; if we want to tax goods entering Canada at the point of entry, we can, since we've already solved that problem (eg. Canada Post charging GST on orders shipped into Canada from abroad). Netflix is (I assume, since I don't have it) just a subscription not meaningfully different from a Substack.

 

[brihard]

If government is too dumb to figure out how to tax the first two by treating the car and the premises as the place of business in Canada, there are no words. Prime is mostly just a broker and courier; if we want to tax goods entering Canada at the point of entry, we can, since we've already solved that problem (eg. Canada Post charging GST on orders shipped into Canada from abroad). Netflix is (I assume, since I don't have it) just a subscription not meaningfully different from a Substack.

I don’t believe they’re too dumb to figure that out At all. I’m sure the tax covered exactly what they intended it to cover on the way they wanted it to, just that, e.g., digital advertising was probably not ever intended to be the most significant part of this. They would have put considerable analysis into where both the statutory and the economic burdens of the tax would have landed.

 

[Brad Sallows]

I don’t believe they’re too dumb to figure that out At all. I’m sure the tax covered exactly what they intended it to cover on the way they wanted it to, just that, e.g., digital advertising was probably not ever intended to be the most significant part of this. They would have put considerable analysis into where both the statutory and the economic burdens of the tax would have landed.

Part marks, I suppose. Did they cost pissing off the US, either before or after the Biden administration objected, or rework their estimate for a significant change in the situation (Trump's election), I can only wonder.

 

[brihard]

Part marks, I suppose. Did they cost pissing off the US, either before or after the Biden administration objected, or rework their estimate for a significant change in the situation (Trump's election), I can only wonder.

The previous governemnt probably realized problems were brewing, but then, you know... gestures vaguely at Canadian politics circa December and January

 

[Brad Sallows]

The previous governemnt probably realized problems were brewing, but then, you know... gestures vaguely at Canadian politics circa December and January

So the people who do these things are easily distracted?

It just gets better and better.

 

[brihard]

So the people who do these things are easily distracted?

It just gets better and better.

No, you just remain very selective in what you choose to pull from a light quip and a little erratic in how seriously you choose to take it. I’m sure the career diplomats at GAC have remained on course on this issue, and were adequately prepared to both brief and advise the new PM about the difficulties this would present.

Somehow I doubt PM Carney was taken particularly by surprise by this development.

 

[Brad Sallows]

No, you just remain very selective in what you choose to pull from a light quip and a little erratic in how seriously you choose to take it. I’m sure the career diplomats at GAC have remained on course on this issue, and were adequately prepared to both brief and advise the new PM about the difficulties this would present.

I don't take it very seriously because despite all the ink and electrons spilled to provide assurances that "they" (whomever "they" might be) are skilled and prepared and whatnot, the very big unforced foreseeable and foreseen errors still happen.

Somehow I doubt PM Carney was taken particularly by surprise by this development.

No-one should have been, except those who thought the Trump administration would look more favourably upon the DST than Biden's.

This, and stuff like it, has all the hallmarks of people who "hope" things will turn out because they find it very hard to change course.

We couldn't really manage to meet alliance defence spending targets on our own without pressure from Trump. We couldn't really manage to tear down any internal trade barriers on our own without pressure from Trump. We couldn't really manage to avoid or remove this provocative bit of legislation without pressure from Trump. Is there anything we can do "right" without pressure from Trump anymore?

That Trump is provoking us to make ourselves a better country is a miserable state of affairs.

 

[Jarnhamar]

Thousands of foreigners’ criminal convictions forgiven by Ottawa over 11-year span, raising transparency concerns

More than 17,500 foreigners have had their criminal convictions forgiven by the Immigration Department over the past 11 years, removing a bar to coming to Canada, federal government figures show. The disclosure has raised transparency concerns about the type of offences they committed.

Foreigners are, in general, inadmissible to Canada if they have been convicted of an act that is considered a criminal offence in this country. But Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has the power to grant an exception if five years have elapsed since a person was convicted or finished a sentence.

Government figures show that in the 11 years up to and including 2024, 17,600 people convicted of criminal offences abroad were considered “rehabilitated” by IRCC. This meant they were able to apply to enter Canada, including through work and study visas, as permanent residents or visitors[\quote]

 

[QV]

I don't take it very seriously because despite all the ink and electrons spilled to provide assurances that "they" (whomever "they" might be) are skilled and prepared and whatnot, the very big unforced foreseeable and foreseen errors still happen.

No-one should have been, except those who thought the Trump administration would look more favourably upon the DST than Biden's.

This, and stuff like it, has all the hallmarks of people who "hope" things will turn out because they find it very hard to change course.

We couldn't really manage to meet alliance defence spending targets on our own without pressure from Trump. We couldn't really manage to tear down any internal trade barriers on our own without pressure from Trump. We couldn't really manage to avoid or remove this provocative bit of legislation without pressure from Trump. Is there anything we can do "right" without pressure from Trump anymore?

That Trump is provoking us to make ourselves a better country is a miserable state of affairs.

That hits raw for some but it's fact.

 

[brihard]

Thousands of foreigners’ criminal convictions forgiven by Ottawa over 11-year span, raising transparency concerns

Sure. We have both automatic (after ten years, for more minor criminality) and upon-application (for serious criminality) ‘rehabilitation’ for people who have committed criminal acts and whose convictions are now long behind them. Best analogy is to think of it as a ‘border pardon’. Someone has to have been free and clear of criminality for a long time to get ‘rehabilitated’ under IRPA. Minimum 5 years if it’s an application, and minimum ten years for automatic for minor offences.

‘Serious criminality’ under IRPA includes anything for which you can be sentenced to ten or more years. This is stuff like someone who got an impaired driving conviction in the U.S. more than ten years ago. Even a misdemeanour DUI down there equates to an indictable offence that constitutes serious criminality here… I’d be willing to bet that DUIs are the largest proportion of these.

I have no real gripe with it if people have completed their sentence, have stayed out of shit for the necessary time, and their original offences weren’t heinous.

 

[dapaterson]

I have no real gripe with it if people have completed their sentence, have stayed out of shit for the necessary time, and their original offences weren’t heinous.

So being an ongoing fan for the Maple Leafs would disqualify them?

Harsh but fair.

 

[brihard]

So being an ongoing fan for the Maple Leafs would disqualify them?

Harsh but fair.

That falls under the ‘refugees’ portion of the act I think.

 

[Jarnhamar]

I have no real gripe with it if people have completed their sentence, have stayed out of shit for the necessary time, and their original offences weren’t heinous.

That remains to be seen.

IRCC has not, however, released a breakdown of the kind of criminal offences that were forgiven

This seems like an important piece of transparency which is missing.

But he said applicants convicted of “crimes against the person,” including sex offences and domestic violence, should face a higher level of scrutiny.

We dont need more sex offenses and domestic violence in Canada, I'd prefer their applications turfed in those cases.