What happened?

Clues abound

Justin Trudeau came to power in 2015 in Canada and Joe Biden was elected in 2020, a sharp left turn in North American politics. One chart simplifies understanding of the result which imperils the wealth of most North American households.

Most of the wealth of households in Canada and the United States is their ownership of their own home. Quantitative Easing (QE), an experiment following the global financial crisis of 2008-2009, drove interest rates to near zero and created a financial “bubble” with home prices and stock prices rising rapidly to record levels. Wall Street broke out the champagne, money-managers became billionaires, and those fortunate enough to own a home saw the market price of their residence more than double in a few short years.

But bubbles burst. Massive federal deficits in both countries, reckless borrowing and objectively stupid policies grounded in the specious “climate change” narrative spurred a rapid rise in inflation and central banks started their rapid increases in interest rates that now manifested in high mortgage rates and plummeting sales of existing homes. Oops! All that “wealth” seems to be vanishing at a rapid clip.

It is remarkable that the leftist governments in Canada and United States followed similar policies despite major differences in their economies and the desires of the electorate. Voters wanted the party to continue and re-elected Trudeau, albeit to a minority government. Biden received the highest number of votes for President in recorded history in the U.S. The voters who embrace their socialist ideology and elected these two leaders are getting their comeuppance today. Households are finding it hard to make ends meet; rental rates have risen to unaffordable levels; banks are having to increase provisions for doubtful accounts; homelessness and crime is rising; “woke” ideology has infected institutions of higher learning; and, the radical left isn’t about to give up their power without a fight.

The greatest indicator of the determination of the radical left to install global socialism is the COP28 agreement to “transition away from fossil fuels”, a leftist ideologically based climate alarmist idea grounded in the theory that only an authoritarian global government can save the planet from the scourge of higher CO2 levels thay claim will cause temperatures to rise to catastrophic levels. Utter nonsense, but they are determined to keep it up.

I am old enough to remember when political leaders had the respect of the population and respected one another, finding common ground through thoughtful negotiation. Those days are gone, replaced by ideological tribalism that damages society and cannot end well for anyone.

Maybe Jagmeet Singh will end his unholy alliance with Justin Trudeau now that he has qualified for a lifetime pension paid by taxpayers, and shift to putting the interests of Canadians ahead of his own interests. If so, we can boot Trudeau down the road in 2024. Happy New Year.