Juno News - November 08, 2025Self-Inflicted Wounds and Forgotten Principles
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Summary
We're a nation of so much potential, but we continue to be held back by those who have lost the plot, don't share in our principles, or are perhaps too thick to know the difference. Even in our period of remembrance, those in power in our broken institutions are getting it wrong.
Transcript
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Hi, Juneau News. Alexander Brown here, host of Not Sorry, director of the National Citizens
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Coalition. I'm a columnist, a campaigner. Thrilled to be back with you to end another
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week here. We like to talk Doug Ford on Fridays when I record this, and we have much to talk
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about. But first, oh, Canada. We're a nation of so much potential, but we continue to be
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held back by those who have lost the plot, don't share in our principles, or who are
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perhaps too thick to know the difference. Even in our period of remembrance, those in
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power in our broken institutions, they're getting it wrong. In fact, a Saskatchewan
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prosecutor was just barred from wearing a poppy in court, as if that in any way perjured
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proceedings. Lana Morelli, a veteran prosecutor, refuses to accept this institutional betrayal,
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and rightfully so. We have freedom of speech because of what these brave men and women
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have done for our country, she's quoted as saying. And not being able to honor them by
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wearing poppies while I'm arguing for freedom and protection tugs at my heartstrings. I have
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grandparents that have fought in the war. I have family members that are part of the Legion,
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and I did go to school in the States, and I had many friends that were in the military and went
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overseas to fight for freedom. Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston is stepping up in response to seeing
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this, announcing that Nova Scotia will move to enshrine the poppy's protection from such
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un-Canadian dictates such as this. At a moment where a percentage of Canadians claim to again
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care about our national symbols and our flag, we have to get this right. That talk, perhaps from them,
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is proving cheap, and we know where the cultural defenestration of the last 10 years has gotten us.
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Our culture and our symbols need to be protected, even if by law. And we cannot deny the sacrifices
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and the concerns of our veterans. We cannot let those sacrifices be in vain. I want you to watch
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these touching remarks from 100-year-old World War II veteran Alec Penstone in Great Britain.
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Arguably now, and sadly so, you could describe Great Britain as once Great Britain.
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What does Remembrance Sunday mean for you? What is your message?
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My message is, I can see in my mind's eye, there were rows and rows of white stones of all the
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hundreds of my friends and everybody else that gave their lives for what? A country of today.
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No, I'm sorry. The sacrifice wasn't worth the result that it is now.
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Oh, well, I'm sorry. What do you mean by that, though, at this point?
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Well, what we fought for, and what we fought for was our freedom. We find that even now,
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it's a darn sight worse than what it was when I fought for it.
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Oh, Alec, I'm sorry you feel like that, because I want you to know that all the generations
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that have come since, including me and my children, are so grateful for your bravery
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and all that for service personnel. And it's our job now, isn't it, to make it the country
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that you fought for. You absolutely fought for.
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I'm so wonderful to know there are people like you that can spread the word around.
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We're not getting it right. Not for Alec, not for our great heroes and veterans,
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our past and present future generations. And on not getting it right and in shifting gears,
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but very much in theme with losing the plot and perhaps not sharing in the principles that we
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should. Canada's self-proclaimed economic engine, home to three consecutive progressive
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conservative majorities, it too remains in crisis. And it's not just Donald Trump's fault. This was
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our great veterans, our great Ontarians. They were insulted by five years of John A. MacDonald
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being boarded up at Queen's Park. They can't just blame Donald Trump. Ontario's fall economic
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statement, it isn't the course correction the province needs. The trend lines remain poor. For
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all the bluster, the parlor tricks, and the political gamesmanship, let's talk to the man
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behind the tweet here, Noah Jarvis, formerly of True North. He's the Ontario Director at the
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Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Let's commit to doing better for our provinces, for our country.
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I want to give a quick word from our sponsor, Albertans Against No Fault Insurance. So did
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you know that the Alberta government is overhauling its auto insurance system? Under a new model
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called Care First coming into effect in 2027, most Albertans injured in car accidents will
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no longer be able to sue the at-fault driver. Instead, decisions about your care and compensation
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will be made by the insurance company, not your doctor, not the courts. Critics say this
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system puts insurance companies first and removes key rights from victims and their families.
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Noah Jarvis joins us today, Ontario Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. You can find
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us on Twitter at Noah R. Jarvis. Noah, thank you.
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Thank you for having me on, Alex. I appreciate it.
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We're taping this on Friday and these are quickly becoming, to me, Ford Fridays, where you get to
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unpack all the issues in Ontario, all the issues you want to be better, all the matters of a
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conservative government. You're hoping to be a little bit more conservative. And the topic of the day
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is this sort of win McGinty-esque spending that seems to be continuing, that world-beating subsovereign debt,
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the Ford government is adding $31.6 billion to the debt this year, set to hit $459 billion. What are your
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comments? Well, I just got to say the fall economic statement does not present good news. As you said,
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they are adding $31.6 billion to the debt. That's far more than the Ford government led us on to believe
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when they were first elected in 2018. I mean, they were elected on a platform of ending the party with
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taxpayers' money, ending the party with taxpayer money. But instead, we've seen the party continue on.
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We've hit $459 billion in debt. It's set to exceed $500 billion in just two years. And that's money
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that you, the Ontario taxpayer, are going to have to pay back. And we're paying it back
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right now. This year, we're spending $16.2 billion on debt interest charges. That's more than we spend
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on post-secondary education. That's about half of the sales tax revenue. So every time you go buy a
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coffee at Tim Hortons or you go buy a laptop or whatever, just remember that about half of that
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money is going towards bondholders on Bay Street. It's not going toward your key government programming.
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And that's because the Ford government has continued to borrow massive amounts of money. So
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just in general, the fall economic statement, not good news for taxpayers.
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Yeah, I think we expected it to be grim, but I didn't expect such an addition to that debt clock
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you guys are famous for. I think you're running out of room on how to keep that going on the
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on the billboard there. The unemployment rate has also been revised to worsen from 7.6% to 7.8%
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and is predicted to remain higher than the 2025 budget forecast through to 2028. This is already a
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province of record youth unemployment. There are more than 700,000 unemployed Ontarians at last estimate.
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The truer number that takes into account the sort of the more fulsome employment in the gig economy
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era is believed to be much higher. Ontario can't just blame a pandemic or a US president. So what's
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your concern there? Well, you're exactly right. We cannot just blame a US president. We've been dealing
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with this unemployment problem for many years now. And the foreign government, they elect this claim
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that all of this deficit spending, all this debt spending is going to help fix the unemployment
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problem. This year, they're giving out $11.9 billion in corporate welfare. These are subsidies to
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corporations who the foreign government claims are training people for jobs and are able to help inflate
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these employment numbers. But we haven't really been seeing those results. And even if this were
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delivering results, I still wouldn't be in favor of this corporate welfare, but it's not. So it's not
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even justifiable based on their own criteria. So when young Canadians are seeing that they're not able
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to get a job, plus they're being saddled with just thousands upon thousands of dollars per person debt,
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purpose and debt has exceeded $28,000 in Ontario. Plus, you have to consider all the federal debt that
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the federal government has been saddling Ontarians with. Once you consider all of that, you'll
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understand that these governments aren't actually looking out for the interests of the individual
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taxpayer. They're just trying to come up with a new program so that they can hold a press conference
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and maybe dump out whiskey or eat a Klondike in front of the press and make themselves look good.
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No, I keep waiting for him to light a Jeep on fire at this point, where it's easier to engage in a
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stunt, a parlor trick than to actually seemingly unlock the conditions for an economy that can grow in
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a healthy way. Now, where do you come down on the ongoing controversy surrounding the Skills Development
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Fund? There are those in proximity to government who are making excuses. Perhaps they're seeing
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something we're not. They're quick to dismiss it. You know, it's just this is the way things go now.
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It worries me. And as a director of the National Citizens Coalition, I know we have our concerns that
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that Bay Street is turning into K Street, that this lobbyist model is further insulating government
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from accountability and from the public. And the kind of pay to play model that seems to me
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similar to liberal cronyism federally. You know, we have our concerns. Do you or the CTF?
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Well, we absolutely do. I mean, the Skills Development Fund is just another one of the
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four governments corporate welfare programs. And if companies are giving donations to the PC party
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and then they are able to extract millions of dollars from the Skills Development Fund, I mean,
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that's pretty concerning. But it's not just that, you know, there's maybe a pay for play model. I mean,
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this is just a massive amount of government waste. We recently heard about the story of $10 million
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going to fund a strip club. I mean, like when you're really paying your taxes and you're filling
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out your income tax form and you're seeing that you're giving away about like 40 percent of your
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wage to the government, you don't expect them to then turn around and spend that money on strip clubs
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and, you know, helping, you know, the skills of the strippers. I mean, look, I'm sure it's not easy
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work. You know, I definitely can't do it and I definitely wouldn't want to do it. But I mean,
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if we're trying to really help train Ontarians with and help develop their skills, I don't think
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we should be helping develop the skills of strippers and taxpayers definitely shouldn't be the ones
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contributing to it. No, that's a tax trough situation that I've never heard of. I mean,
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it's going to, you know, they're barbers. They're they're not there. Let's say gentlemen's
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establishments. It's going to friends. And, you know, it's good to look after your friends, but
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they don't need those handouts. There should be a better checks and balance system. There
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shouldn't be preferred access. It's the role is supposed to be to embolden an economy that where
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you're out of the way and people can go out and, and, you know, make their claim for their own.
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You joined myself and others in attendance for the project in Ontario event on September 30th.
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Did our groups did that gathering in those panels of conservatives, legacy conservative organizations,
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small C organizations, libertarian minded concerned citizens, did they strike you as radical or Yahoo-esque
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as the premier so flippantly put it, or are conservative concerns and criticisms
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of this government warranted? Well, I think criticism of any government is warranted,
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especially a government that is so blatantly driving up the debt and really not adhering to
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their promises of ending the party with taxpayer dollars or delivering significant tax cuts as
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were promised in 2018. I mean, the way we come from at the CTF is we'll work with any organization,
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any like-minded people who want to see the problems in this province resolved or want to see taxes come
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down in this province to help put more money in the pockets of taxpayers, want to see even business
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taxes come down so that we can actually compete with American businesses in the face of American
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tariffs instead of sending out billions upon billions of dollars in corporate welfare. I mean,
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anyone and any organization who wants to help us fight that fight will definitely partner with,
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and it definitely didn't seem like a bunch of radicals. It was just people who wanted to find
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solutions for Ontarians, people who want to help deliver for the young people of Ontario who are
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concerned of the massive amounts of debt that we are saddling on young people. I mean, look, when you
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have a government that sees a decrease in revenues by $4 billion and is instead increasing spending by
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$7.3 billion, you definitely have a problem, and I think a lot of people are recognizing that.
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They're trying to propose solutions, and I don't think the foreign government should be demeaning
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people for trying to find those solutions. No, and these are legacy organizations and those who very
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much respect the legacy of the common sense revolution and who just wish to see a reorienting
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towards some more conservative principles, some fiscally responsible principles, because as to your
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point about young people, Ontario is in the grips of a provincial housing disaster that spurred in part by
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continued fallout from mass immigration, but also because the province isn't building homes. Housing starts
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are off a cliff and heading for just, in accordance with the fall economic statement, just 65,000 starts
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a year at a time when Ontario sort of haphazardly is accepting so many temporary residents, permanent
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residents, asylum seekers. Ford tried to give out more work permits to those asylum seekers. They sat back
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as the diploma mills exploded the last few years. Where would the CTF like to see adjustments on the
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housing file or say the conditions for the housing file? Well, first of all, we have a situation in this
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province where municipalities are levying extraordinarily high development charges on builders who are just
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trying to build new homes, who are trying to expand the housing supply. I mean, developing charges is such a
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creative euphemism. It's really just building taxes. It's taxes on building new homes. And when you explain it like
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that to most Ontarians, you'd find that they are against placing taxes on just builders who are trying
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to build affordable homes for everyday Canadians. And municipalities are profiting, in the case of the
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city of Ottawa, about like 10 to 15 percent of their revenues coming from the development charges. And the
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province is the one who creates these municipalities. Municipalities are creatures of the province. The
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provinces aren't creatures of the federal government in the same way that municipalities are.
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So the province has the power to force municipalities to cut their development charges, to reform development
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charge policies and to incentivize them to maybe cut their development charges. But instead,
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this fall economic statement is concerned with spending billions upon billions of dollars. There was not
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any mention of reforming development charge system in this province. And if we continue to increase
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development charges as, say, the city of Toronto has indicated, or other big municipalities have
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indicated that they'll continue increasing development charges, we're not going to see that increase in
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supply in the housing supply. So there's both sides of the token to the housing crisis, whether it's
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supplier demand. But on the supply side, governments can really help out builders by making it more affordable
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to build homes. And they're just not doing it. No, they're not. And that leads to
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so many downstream issues for our young and working age. There is a tweet today from Harrison Lohman,
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editor, deputy editor of The Hub, where he was going through John Ibbotson and Daryl Bricker's new book.
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And that book, I guess, through Bricker's polling found that 47% of Torontonians aged 20 to 34 still live with
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their parents. That is the highest in modern history. They say that young Canadians are trapped in an
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extended adolescence. If you were a conservative government, say, a progressive conservative
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government, would that number not strike you as a failure to provide those proper conditions for growth?
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Well, absolutely. I mean, if you are a young person and you're having trouble finding a job and then,
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say, you eventually get a job, you're probably dismayed at the fact that the cost of housing is
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so high because of these development charges that your wages, like about 20 to 30 percent of your
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wages are garnished just if you're in the first income tax bracket. I mean, and if you are a more
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successful young Ontarian, someone who has a lot of skills to offer to this economy, you might not
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want to stay around. I mean, I always share the story of my friend who I grew up with through middle
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school and such. He's a really talented guy. He got a, he didn't even get a computer science degree.
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He's so, he was so good at this. He just taught himself and just went straight into the job market.
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And what he found was that living in Canada was so expensive on the cost of living side. And he's
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having so, so such a large portion of his wages garnished by the government that he decided, hey,
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going to the United States and pursuing computer programming over there is a far more profitable
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endeavor. So what did he do? He packed his bags and he went to New York City. It's not like New York
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City is well-renowned for having low taxes and affordable housing. But the situation in Canada,
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the situation in Toronto was so bad that moving to New York was a far better option for him when it
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comes to the cost of living, when it comes to keeping a greater portion of his wage. So I feel as if
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policymakers are really missing the mark when they aren't trying to deal with the productivity crisis
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by cutting taxes, because people don't want to have more than 50% of their wage taken from them
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when they are producing, you know, contributing so greatly to the economy.
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No. And he, well, he might have to move back after mom, Donnie got elected. It might get,
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it might get a little expensive for him, or maybe he'll go to Calgary or go to Florida. Maybe,
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you know, like at this point, if, you know, big city mayors, I mean, even across North America are
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raising taxes, they're going to move to lower tax jurisdictions. But in Canada, we don't have a
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provincial government, at least in Ontario, that is willing to cut taxes. I mean, Ford said he would
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be willing to cut taxes in 2018. Those didn't manifest. And we don't have a federal government
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that's committed to cutting taxes either. I mean, Carney did deliver a very modest 0.5%
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income tax cut for the lowest quintile earners, but that isn't significant. It doesn't change the
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overall high tax environment that we have in this country. And it is forcing a lot of people to
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consider their options abroad. Yeah. Especially coming out of the federal budget that we finally saw,
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which of course has all kinds of people concerned for all kinds of reasons. I had Ian Lee, the
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associate professor from Carleton on this week, who wasn't totally dooming it, but it's still,
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it's as if the middle class in Canada doesn't exist anymore or isn't supposed to exist. You see these
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these gestures for the lowest income and then protections for the highest income. And then there's
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just the social mobility just is not taken into account for anybody else. And so I wanted to touch on
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Ontario's EV subsidy protection model racket. One may call it multiple things. And then you kind
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of have this name calling aimed at West where Ford talks about how, well, Daniel Smith has something
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that people actually want in oil and gas. Should Ontario not be abandoning this, this costly sort
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of Trudeau allied boondoggle to, to pursue better conditions for growth and a healthier economy?
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Well, absolutely. They should be abandoning it. I mean,
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the provincial government and the federal government together, they contributed billions
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of dollars to Stellantis, formerly Chrysler. And what did Chrysler announce just about a month ago?
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They announced that they're going to be moving jobs from a plant in Ontario, I believe in Ingersoll,
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to the United States. And that is because we have a hostile business environment in this country.
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The corporate tax rates are quite high. If Ontario just replaced its corporate subsidies,
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$11.9 billion this year with a corporate tax. You could cut the corporate income tax rate by about
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four, 4.5%. The Montreal Economic Institute, they did a really good report to that effect. And it would,
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it would bring Ontario's corporate tax, combined corporate tax rate into, in line to be competitive
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with many jurisdictions in the United States. But instead we are just filing out billions upon
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billions of dollars to these companies who then turn around and decide that they're going to just
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move their production elsewhere. So I don't believe in these big taxpayer boondoggles promising
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thousands upon thousands of jobs for Ontarians. And then they turn around and they're actually
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shipping out thousands upon thousands of dollars. Look, we shouldn't be picking and choosing winners in the
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marketplace. We should be, consumers should be deciding for themselves what car companies they
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want to support with their hard earned money. And if they decide that they want to make Ontario more
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competitive with the United States when it comes to auto production, they should instead be creating a
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less hostile business environment. That's great advice. I hope they listen. Noah Jarvis, CTF. Thanks for
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joining us. Thank you for having me on, Alex. Did you like this episode of
00:22:54.340
Not Sorry on Juno News? Take advantage of our promo code. Go to junonews.com slash not sorry for 20%
00:23:00.500
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