@Navy_Pete I want to ask a direct question and try not to get upset.
Are you full time employed by the federal government? If so, your not worrying about where your income comes from, how your going to pay employees or trying to budget for the next year and hoping that your customers are still able to do business with you.
Yes, there are other factors that add to inflation. But Trudeau actions right now are like pouring gas onto a dumpster fire.
Yes, but previously had been self employed before joining have been there, and acutely how lucky I am to not have to worry about that direct impact on having a job tomorrow, and I've been laid off a few times due to economic downturns, softwood lumber tarriffs and some other external factors myself. And just because I don't deal with this at work right now, doesn't mean I don't see family members with these worries as they are business owners, self employed, or working for private companies.
I also remember in the 80s when I was a kid where people had to walk away from their houses when interest rates hit 18%, and that isn't something that ever really leaves you.
I don't agree with the policy of having the BoC driving up interest rates to 'check inflation' when it's a global issue, but increasing them directly drives up things like people's mortgage payments and indirectly increases everything else, will kicking the economy that's been built on cheap credit for the last 20 years. That's their only tool, so they are following their mandate to keep inflation at 2% by adjusting interest, which may actually do very little when it's something like this.
That's not a new mandate though, so calling it 'Trudeau's action' vice long standing Canadian economic policy just seems disingenuous. It's also not just our policy, every other comparable country has the same central bank direction AFAIK.
I think regardless of what actions Canada does or doesn't take we'd be sitting at around the 7-10% inflation rate though anyway. Rather than trying to somehow impact global market forces (when we are fairly insignificant) I think it would make more sense to look at things the GoC and provincial governments can do to lessen the impact, and fundamentally re-evaluate if having the BoC jacking around with interest rates during global events actually makes sense.
Pausing the carbon taxes, temporarily reducing GST, capping utility prices, getting rid of compounding taxes (ie taxing the overall pump charge, which includes tax), cutting administrative processing fees for various government services are all things that will leave more money in people's pockets to actually pay the bills.
Those are all real things we could be doing; some might be quick changes authorized by the Ministers or Cabinet, others may be be things that could get pushed through quickly with all party agreement. Instead we have witty hashtags and no actual plans on how to do things differently. PP can replace as many BoC presidents as he likes, but if the only tool they have is controlling interest, and the mandate remains to keep inflation at 2%, what else does anyone expect them to do? If this had happened when Harper was in power the BoC would have done the same thing.
I'm not happy with how things are going, I just don't see a suggestion for any real, effective changes that could be done now coming from PP, and we can't afford to wait until 2025 for them to figure out what they might do differently.
What I actually want is an effective opposition with a plan for now, that will work with the actual government to get things done
now. F*ck the next election, the attack adds, hashtags, and soundbites, if they think they have a better idea, do their goddamn jobs in Parliament and make things better for Canadians now. That will take actually compromising, and might mean that they are less likely to form government next time, but if they really think things are so bad now, and are prepared to let the world burn for another few years waiting for their opportunity to form government, then they are opportunistic careerist assholes, not leaders in waiting, and makes them complicit in all of it.
In my mind, an actual leader who is genuinely concerned about the way the country is going right now would make those compromises for the benefit of the country, and that would be completely antithetical to how PP is building support. I could see Charest or Atchison both doing that, and maybe Lewis or Barber would as well, but with the impending PP coronation I expect we'll just get more pithy sloganeering about how bad the current guy is doing, while do f-all in reality to try and make it better now. They have 119 of the 338 seats in the HoC, and could have collaborated with the BQ and/or NDP to push things through if they couldn't stomach the LPC.
I think PP is
saying the right things to get support, I think the CPC has been
doing nothing for the last few years as opposition, and I don't see any actual plan from PP to
do things differently. If the HoC can't collectively put aside their differences during a global health pandemic and Russia invading a friendly country, I wonder if a random draw of Canadians for the positions for 4 years wouldn't be more effective.
But then again, nurses and other health care professionals have certainly demonstrated that they deserve an increase other than 1%. 
