The Canadian Dream

There's a warm feeling of unity in Canada right now. Like when we see one of a rash of TV commercials that tell us how great Canada is like that Molson Canadian ad and slogan of "I Am Canadian." Or when we see an internet meme or a TV show joking about how polite Canadians are. Or when we come across one of those highly questionable surveys about national happiness quotients and we find Canada at the top. Or like when the Vancouver Canucks' national anthem singer stops and allows the crowd to earn his paycheck for him. Or like when Bernie Sanders tells America how great Canada's health care system is. Or like when we hear those stories about travelers overseas being treated rudely by the locals until they find out they're Canadian, not American. Or like when people turn on their porchlights at a predesignated time and all go outside and clap for the hard working nurses and caregivers and shop workers and food delivery drivers and Walmart and Mcdonalds and Amazon workers who are braving the virus on the "front lines" mostly for minimum wage or maybe a bit higher. And right now we have a leader who is better than the American guy. And we're proud of that. But should we be very proud of that leader just because he's better than Trump? Trump is a bozo. You'd have to be Snidely Whiplash to be worse.

I've droned on and on about the "Well at least" attitudes I see in Canadians and others which allow us to tolerate mediocrity or even less. I think there's a specific one in Canada that translates to, "Well at least we're better than America." This brings up a lot of questions. Should we be satisfied with that? In what ways are we better? How MUCH better are we? And even are we actually better at all?

Well, as we saw in the last post, we've got the better leader right now, but we've had some whackjob PMs in Canada. Maybe our best ever was a weirdo. So let's not break our arms patting ourselves on the back over Trudeau. Let's just enjoy it while it lasts.

Our present situation dictates where I should begin this investigation. The Coronavirus. The Canadian trade relationship with China. China's culpability in regards to this international pandemic. Are the three connected? Well, let's Xi...

I've heard Trudeau tsk tsk tsk the human rights violations in China, but I've seen him do jack shit to decrease trade with them or to quell the disastrous impact the Chinese have had on our economy. I was impressed with the way he stood up to the whole Huawei Princess fiasco. Huawei cheated. They did business with Iran because the CCP won't have anyone tell them to obey international sanctions. In fact, that's just a nice way to limit competition. Huawei swears up and down that they have nothing to do with the CCP but they do. All business in China is controlled by them. EVERYthing in China is controlled by them. This is why business with them is stupid. Do you think the two Canadians taken hostage immediately after Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou was a coincidence? I'd be absolutely shocked if Xi Jin Ping didn't own stock in Huawei for crying out loud! It's a massive company and it's leading the world in 5G infrastructure. Which brings us to today. Right now Canada is choosing between a few 5G infrastructure companies. Huawei is one and there are a couple others from Finland and Sweden I think. This could be another reason why China is not being reprimanded for its behavior during this pandemic. Who do you reckon Canada will choose? I think the above picture might give us a hint. Watch for it. It's coming.

Now I will show you the benefit of having the US government graft being so well publicized. Canada can commit the same crimes against Canadian tax payers on the down low. For years 99% of Canada's oil went to the US. Now we've got a new oil customer. The pic above is a good hint. Harper made the deal even though he knew Canadians would hate it, and Trudeau is pushing the pipelines through. Why? Because we'll be sued if he doesn't. "We" meaning the taxpayers.

So now that the facts are coming out that China lied about Coronavirus numbers to preserve the image of the Chinese Communist Party and Xi Jin Ping, enabling the deaths of many and the spread of the virus worldwide, Trudeau has to force a smile, get well within 9 feet and shake the infected hand of the Chinese leader. He can't tell the truth. For economic reasons.

Now there are rumours that the virus was created as a biological weapon in China. Or that the workers at the virus testing facility in Wuhan were selling test animals TO EAT on the nearby market. And we've heard about the bat eating. These are speculation on how the virus that originated in animals, made the mysterious jump to humans. Well I dunno. I doubt we ever will. But a Chinese newspaper based in Beijing reported on government officials ordering labs in December of last year that had identified the new coronavirus to hand over their samples to be destroyed and to declare themselves liars! A CHINESE newspaper. In China, a good rule of thumb for news agencies has been 90% good and only 10% bad, and most don't DARE approach the 10%. This is why. The CCP will force them to declare themselves liars. Or worse.

But before you blame your house-arrest on China, remember, we (Canada) and every other country in the world it seems, have been falling all over ourselves for a couple decades to be China's "preferred" trading partners, or as I more accurately call these countries in which Canada is included, "China's primary enablers." It's not just oil. Try to find any real estate in Canada's major cities that isn't spectacularly overpriced and owned by some Chinese person who probably doesn't even live in Canada. The Canadian government enabled our housing crisis by allowing Chinese investors to bundle our Canadian real estate, especially condos, so that one condo was "owned" by 50 people. Because of this, laws were relaxed on having to LIVE in the condo and the government couldn't go to China or Hong Kong and chase around 50 people to pay the capital gains tax, property tax or ANY tax on the damn things so those laws were relaxed. Even the normal 10% minimum buy in was relaxed to 5%. It wasn't just the US housing market crash that lead to the latest Canadian housing market collapse, it was the same sort of Canadian housing bubble created largely by the Chinese.

Well AT LEAST we didn't have to create an emergency 700 billion dollar bailout like the US. It has now ballooned to an estimated 3.6 TRILLION in the US. Ha ha ha. Canada didn't do that. We're better than the US. Well, that's not true. We did the same thing, only, again, on the down low. Now when you compare a 114 billion dollar and a 700 billion dollar bailout you might say, "Well at least we're better than the US." But when you consider the Canadian GNP is about equal to that of the State of Texas, no... no we are NOT better. We're considerably worse.

Now, we've got this financial crisis that isn't yet as bad as 2008, but I'd bet it will get there. The government has already created a financial package for the Canadian people that amounts to about 3% of our yearly taxes. Where do you suppose the other 97% goes. To corporate tax breaks like in America? No, of course not! Or maybe more goes there than we know. Only it's on the down low. It's more SECRET. Hidden in a mountainous Canadian Tax Code. And I've heard from reliable sources that "official" stats that are used in that article are bogus. The situation on paper is laughable. Most statistics on corporate taxes are released so that Canadians THINK corporations are paying taxes. ANY taxes.

And in case you think that's not enough, what are the credit card companies doing in this crisis. I heard that they are getting together and lowering loan or mortgage payments or something like that. That'll be something good Canadians remember to come out of the crisis. But have they lowered their interest rates at all? In this time when Canadians are locked away and ordering more stuff than ever online with their credit cards, why, it would violate all that is good and capitalist in any large company in Canada to pass up this opportunity!

How do you think our government will propose to recover from the Coronavirus disaster? Same way they have recovered from all our economic challenges, tax breaks for the banks and corporations and tax hikes for the rugged individuals of Canada. As I have mentioned, the economically feasible solution would be to get rid of income tax altogether, thus stimulating the economy of Canada by enriching its spenders instead of its savers and investors. But this is never the case. Income tax is going up. AGAIN. And it won't go down in a few years after we've completely paid for the crisis.

Ironically, even though the power to solve our economic woes will be in the hands of our own government in the form of money put there in the form of taxes paid by the people who wish the government to use that money to solve our economic woes, it won't be invested into our people and our economy, we will probably be told our government needs to invest it in a new FIPA or NAFTA or SHITTA agreement with China or the US, the two majority architects of Canada's economic woes. It's coming. Watch for it.

And when the real estate bubble bursts in our major cities' housing markets, taxes will go up again and banks and corporations will receive secret government bailouts again. Watch for it. It's coming.

So I'm sorry if I don't respect Canadian politicians and I don't get a warm, fuzzy feeling from anything that comes out of Justin Trudeau's face during one of his fireside chat drama shows. I know better than to fall for that. He's doing this so that when he springs the tax hike on Canada, Canada will probably go, "Okay. All right. We DID have that big Coronavirus problem. Hem, haw. I guess we should pay more. Hummina hummina. It's our duty. And he was such a nice guy all the way through it! Hermina hammina. But at LEAST I can drink beer and watch hockey again."

However, I believe Canada IS great and I still think there's a lot to be proud of in my country. I think maybe this challenge will open Canadians' eyes to the power the triumvirate of Canadian evil (the politicians, big business and banks) have stolen from the people over the years. I believe that instead of calling people like me who say, "Let's stop paying income tax," conspiracy theorists, angels of death or negative Nancy, people might use this time at home to research for themselves the economic and political realities in our country and get pissed off! Maybe even ACT like Canadians once DID in times of crisis. THOSE are the actions we can be proud of! People who refused to pay income tax back in the depression years. They weren't thrown in prison back then and we won't be thrown in prison now.

I have a dream! In it the people of Canada have a little bit of power again. The politicians of Canada sometimes do what we want them to do again. And the companies appreciate the people as their workers and customers again. The banks will pay more than half a percent of interest on our savings again. That we will HAVE savings again. And the credit card companies will charge less than 23 percent again. These things, not the list of things at the top of this post, are what would give ME a warm feeling of unity. I have a dream that ONE person will read this post and be inspired toward taking action and doing that which will make Canada TRULY more independent, one of the happiest countries in the world and worthy of worldwide and self respect. I have a dream.