By Jim Mauro
As many know, my brother Bill was a long-time politician. To some, Bill became a person born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Nothing could be further from the truth. Bill was the third child of our parents, and it was then they decided to get a car. Despite three kids and only 3 bedrooms, a boarder still brought in much needed funds.
My parents then took a huge financial gamble and opened a small corner store on Churchill Drive with a personal loan from Mr. Zanette. This loan was based on a handshake which says a great deal about the character of both men. Even though the store was 7 days a week, 14 hours a day, dad kept working for four years while mom watched the store. When they sold the business in 1976, everyone thought about how rich they were. But at 50, our dad went back to welding and mom went to work. They both continued to work for 20 years after this. It was important lessons us children were being taught about effort and doing what was necessary.
At 21, Bill went out and got an apprenticeship as a pipe fitter, digging ditches while working towards his ticket before going back to school in his late 20’s while married to get his degree. A short stint teaching, then a government job before entering politics. Nothing handed to him, no silver spoon, just hard work and commitment. It is funny how people’s perceptions can change based on nothing.
I say all of this because it appears to me that our society has changed in a negative way to a sense of entitlement. There are still many hard-working people but the expectations of some as to what is necessary seem to have exploded.
My weekly indulgence on Saturday morning is listening to Michael Smerconish, in my opinion the best host on any media station. He calls both sides out when necessary. For him, it is about the issue, not the party. He had a segment on debt, an issue that I believe is a huge challenge facing countries around the globe.
In 1980, I cast my first vote in a federal election for Joe Clark, the only politician speaking about Canada’s debt. Forty-five years ago, Clark thought it was important to deal with it and I agreed. Instead of dealing with our debt, we got another four years of Trudeau senior and piles of additional debt. It has only gotten worse.
The financial collapse in 2008 didn’t help but in Canada, under Stephen Harper, Canada came out of it rather well positioned. The previous Liberal government had also done a decent job of reducing deficits, although some would argue it came at the expense of the provinces. Canada was positioned fairly well to tackle the existing debt and could look at balancing the budget. For clarity, a deficit is the yearly expenses over what is taken in by the government and the debt, is the total accumulation of those deficits.
When Justin Trudeau was elected, his promises of financial stability quickly disappeared. Even if we ignore the impact of COVID, this government has done little if anything to curb spending and our accumulated debt now sits at around $1.2 Trillion, almost double from when he was elected. Yes, you read that correctly. In the United States, it is more than $34 Trillion and is expected to grow by another $20 Trillion in the next decade. My question is simply this: does anyone care? The evidence suggests that very few do.
The baby boom generation is using more and more resources in many areas. Most would argue it is deserved and there is some validity to that argument, but that position is not full proof. Think of it like a Jinga tower, with the top of the Jinga being much wider, than the base. At some point, the tower will fall because there are more blocks at the top than can be supported by the blocks at the bottom. A 2022 estimate had 3.4 workers for every retired person. The economy may not be growing fast enough to support the expenses that come with that population change.
The other impacting factor in my view, is people’s demands on government to not sacrifice anything. We want every road paved, every street to have a sidewalk, easy access to a growing list of government services, basically anything that makes our life easier and more enjoyable. Deliver it, no matter the cost. Where exactly is the money coming from? The answer, DEBT. Politicians, looking to stay in the good graces of the voters are only too happy to oblige.
Joe Clark ran for Prime Minister saying he wanted to deal with this and proposed a tax on gas to deal with the issue. Pierre Trudeau said he would not raise gas taxes and was elected again yet raised gas prices even higher while accumulating even more debt. Was that Trudeau’s fault, or the fault of the voter? Most experts suggest that gas policy by Clark, designed to deal with our debt played a huge part in losing the election. He spoke to the truth of an issue and the voter didn’t care.
Very often when people are critical of a politician, the real fault lies with the person looking in your mirror. The power is with the people. The people through a vote or a non-vote, by not understanding the issues or more likely not even paying attention to them or just voting for the familiar name always decide who leads and what decisions are then made. I think the US elections are an easier way to demonstrate this because most often voters are presented with a binary choice.
In 2016, there were lots of reasons that Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump but in total, it was about 30-40,000 votes in three states that cost Clinton the election. Many Bernie Sanders supporters decided to stay home because they loved Bernie and felt he was slighted by Clinton or the Democratic Party. Jill Stein also was on the ballot with no chance of winning and most believe the votes that went to Stein would have likely gone to Clinton.
Those two decisions by voters likely cost Clinton the Presidency. Were Bernie supporters better off achieving their desired policy choices by staying home? Clinton was much closer to Sanders on those issues than Trump ever would be. Were Jill Stein supporters sending a message to Clinton by voting for Stein? How did that work out for them? Let’s turn to the 2024 election.
In October of 2023, Hamas launched an attack against Israel. Over a thousand dead, many taken hostage, leading to a full-scale assault by Israel in response. Muslims in the US were outraged at the response by Israel and by the position of the Biden government, a far too complicated issue to discuss here.
University/college campuses saw large protests. Some university leaders were forced to resign over their public statements. Many leaders did not know how to respond to these protests that were demanding the US do far more for the people of Gaza.
I listened to one protestor being interviewed during the US election speak about how Kamela Harris needed to change her position to gain the support of the large Muslim majority in Detroit, one of the important swing states in the election. When the interviewer asked what the protestor thought about how not supporting Harris would assist Trump in winning, the response of the protestor was close to: “well that is Harris’s problem”. No voter, it is not.
Kamela Harris would have loved to have been the first female President, but I am sure she is fine. As the former VP, she will have a security detail, a very good pension, will make money on speaking tours and will have a pretty good life. You the protestor, did your non-vote help your cause? Did staying home and not voting for Harris or even voting for Trump in any way move your issue forward?
That voter had a binary choice. Team A or Team B. If you are not going to vote for team A because of one policy, then you are assisting team B in getting elected. It is as simple as that. Your non-vote has almost as big an impact as your vote. But back to the debt bomb.
I would argue that we care far more about ourselves, than what is the right decision. We are leaving a legacy of debt that my grandson and his children will have to deal with. The cost of managing this debt is taking on a larger role in the expenditures in governments all over the world. Let’s return to the US for a moment.
The defence department budget is almost $1 Trillion a year for the US, almost the same as China, Russia, Germany and France combined. At the same time, the interest cost on the US debt exceeds that amount. In Canada it is worse. By 2029, Canada is expected to pay around $60 Billion per year in interest while in 2023, we spent about $29 Billion on defence. Should we really keep following this policy. Are we prepared as taxpayers to say stop, that we are ready to accept the pain to put our financial house in order.
Now in some cases, there are good reasons to incur debt. Long term projects like a bridge that may last 100 years should not be paid over three years by those using it today. But a great deal of this spending is being used by us, and we have shown little desire for that to change. We continue to demonstrate that when the debt crisis hits, we will blame the politician, any politician before accepting any of the responsibility ourselves. So let me make this as plain as possible.
Would you decide today, to go buy a brand-new house, or an elaborate vacation or expensive sports car and arrange with the bank, to have your children take over these payments when they turn 21? Because that is what we are doing. Living how we like today and leaving the bill for future generations.
Very few people have demanded politicians tackle this ever-increasing problem. It is barely spoken about until now, as we see Elon Musk take a chainsaw to “government waste”, allegedly to tackle the debt, while they provide further tax cuts that will instead add far more to their total debt. Eliminating government waste is a good thing but it avoids the tougher decisions that need to be made.
I have heard comments about the money Canada gives to other countries when we need to focus on our own. I get the argument, and I don’t have a half hour to discuss with every person how sometimes this money avoids far larger expenditures later in terms of pandemics, wars etc. The money given to most other countries is a drop in the bucket when considering our large deficits. Are these same people willing to face the hard choices necessary to get spending under control and if so, are they voting that way to make it happen?
I hope our children forgive us for this mess, but I wouldn’t. Leaving the future generations better off is a pretty good policy. I never saw a decision by our parents that didn’t at its core, have making life better for us four kids be a major consideration. Countless people of that generation believed in the same philosophy.
Where did that lesson go and when was it replaced by “what’s in it for me” at election time? It is a heck of a way to cast a vote, but it is most often true. I often use this to describe what I feel are many voters: you could be the best politician that person has ever seen but if you don’t get a stop sign at the end of the street like he wants, you won’t get his vote.
So go buy that new car, and when you pass on, leave the payments to your kids because that is exactly what we are doing as a country. After all, why shouldn’t our children pay for the way we want to live. I am sure they won’t mind. Just a thought.
