Roundup: NDP remain clueless about inflation

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Yesterday, Statistics Canada released the December inflation numbers, and they ticked up to 1.9 percent as higher energy prices offset the downward effect that the stupid GST/HST “holiday” was having on some of the indexes. That “holiday” ended last week, so that effect will end shortly, but there were also notes to watch in that some of the core measures that the Bank of Canada tracks closely started to tick back up again after months of steady declines.

In response to these results, the NDP put out a statement that crowed that the GST “holiday” had driven down food price inflation, and therefore must be made permanent. *sighs* My dudes. No. You didn’t actually read the fucking report, did you? If you had, you would have seen that the decline in food price inflation was from restaurant meals, not grocery stores, along with alcohol purchases because beer and wine was also affected by the GST/HST holiday. Also, you don’t know how inflation works, because it’s a year-over-year measure. That means that if you make it permanent, within a year, the one-time tax cut will disappear as the year-over-year figures no longer count it. It also ignores that the real driver of food price inflation is climate change (and the yes, the war in Ukraine). This is not only illiterate, but it’s sheer incompetence.

If the NDP had bothered to read the report, the food price inflation effect recorded by StatsCan was from restaurants, not grocery stores. Meanwhile, the cause of food price inflation is not the GST or "corporate greed," it's climate change.FFSwww150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quo…

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-02-18T16:07:47.883Z

There was something else in the report that bears mentioning, that was included in the rising energy prices, which was the provincial gas tax in Manitoba. A year ago, when Wab Kinew suspended the tax, he boasted that it meant Manitoba had the lowest inflation in the country. Well, it’s a year later, and inflation is a year-over-year measure, and said gas tax has been reinstated (albeit at a lower level than it was previously). And what are Manitoba’s numbers like? Well, their energy prices increased by 25.9%. Because inflation is a year-over-year measure, and this is the price you pay for a gimmick like suspending your gas tax for populist reasons.

Everything is just so stupid all of the time in #cdnpoli. Just relentless idiocy.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-02-18T16:07:47.884Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia has launched an overnight drone attack on Odessa, which has injured at least four. Ukraine launched their own overnight drone attack on Russia, hitting an oil refinery in the Samara region, after they previously hit a pumping station for the Caspian pipeline that supplies Kazakhstan. Russian forces claim to have control of the settlement of Yampolivka in the east, while Ukrainian forces destroyed a North Korean self-propelled howitzer in Luhansk region.

Meanwhile, president Zelenskyy is not visiting Saudi Arabia so as not to legitimise the “peace talks” that the US is holding with Russia without Ukraine or Europe present, where the US is throwing a lifeline to Putin rather than using the opportunity to maximize the pressure on him, while Trump himself was reciting Russian propaganda from the White House.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau was in Haida Gwaii on Monday for the official recognition of Aboriginal title of the region with the Haida First Nation.
  • Mélanie Joly has been warning European counterparts about the “wake-up call” that Trump is providing, in part  by his attacks on Canada’s sovereignty.
  • Anita Anand is expected to announce plans for high-speed (not high-frequency) rail between Toronto and Quebec City (which leaves the Windsor corridor without).
  • The planned new surface combatant vessels are supposed to use an American combat management system, which would give them control over our warships.
  • Inuit leader Natan Obed is calling on the prime minister to step in to ensure that the Inuit Child First Initiative is extended, as its funding is slated to run out in March.
  • Here is a longread about the Murdoch family, their control over Fox News, and the dynastic struggle that has erupted among the children and heirs.
  • Here’s a conversation with the former advisor to Quebec’s finance minister about some of the truths about those interprovincial trade barriers.
  • All five Liberal leadership hopefuls have cleared the final financial burden to move on in the race for next week’s debates.
  • Elections Canada filings show that not only has Mark Carney dominated the race in terms of donations, but Karina Gould has managed to outpace Chrystia Freeland.
  • Pascale St-Onge isn’t going to run again in the next election.
  • Liberal MP Arielle Kayabaga worries that the government’s forthcoming Africa Strategy won’t have any dollars attached to it.
  • Conservative “strategists” insist that the whole “Canada First” thing isn’t a pivot. (It’s not really, because he’s doubling down on his same vacuous policies).
  • The Green Party has adopted the green dot emoji as their new logo. (Seriously?)
  • The BC legislature was summoned with a Speech from the Throne.
  • Emmett Macfarlane remarks on how the nature of Canadian federalism, coupled with premiers who act like mewling teenagers, is impacting the fight against Trump.
  • Colby Cosh looks back to when the Americans tried to use free trade as a means to try and annex Canada back in 1911.
  • My column points out that it’s too early to start to use the King to exert our sovereignty, because of the rules of constitutional monarchy.

Odds and ends:

When I say that I feel like we're living in a William Gibson prequel, this is the kind of thing I mean: The Klept are taking control while the Jackpot starts to pick up steam. #Peripheral @greatdismal.bsky.social

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-02-19T03:13:09.837Z

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