Roundup: Unnecessary panic about inflation

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It was predictable that it would happen – yesterday was the day when the Consumer Price Index figures are publicly released, and for the past few months, this has turned into a political gong show. Why? Because the Conservatives have decided to misconstrue what the data shows and to light their hair on fire about the top-line figure and wail that we’re in a “cost of living crisis.” Which is false – inflation is running hot for everyone right now, not just Canada, as a result of economies re-opening and global supply chains being disrupted by the pandemic, which affects prices, on top of the fact that there is some distortion in the year-over-year figures as a result of last year’s price crash. And to add to that, much of what is driving the July numbers are higher gas prices – which is a global issue, and good for Alberta’s economy – and higher housing prices, which is a driven by a lot of different factors. And hey, clothing and food prices were down, so there are upsides, right?

The problem, of course, is that this is being politicised – wildly so. When it came up on the campaign trail, Trudeau said that he was going to let the Bank of Canada do their job and worry about monetary policy while he worried about families, but this was truncated in the reporting, and which also got trimmed into Conservative shitposts, and O’Toole was given fresh cause to decry the “crisis.”

https://twitter.com/LindsayTedds/status/1428104169009909763

Of course, O’Toole isn’t proposing any solutions that actually deal with inflation (and his plans will actually make it worse), but if he wants to start banging on about it and monetary policy, then he needs to start talking about what he thinks the Bank of Canada’s mandate should be – especially as that mandate is coming up for renewal. Should they continue to target inflation between one and three percent? He seems to sound like he wants them to target deflation, so good luck with letting the economy grow under that kind of mandate. Parliament should have this kind of discussion, but they need to actually have it – not just talking points and shots taken that assume people are ignorant about what it means. And the reporters on O’Toole’s campaign need to step up and start asking him these questions rather than just typing up his talking points.

https://twitter.com/LindsayTedds/status/1428094182531510282

https://twitter.com/MikePMoffatt/status/1428096342342213637

On the campaign trail:

  • Justin Trudeau announced a plan to train and equip another 1000 firefighters, as Erin O’Toole demanded he send in the military to BC (which happened on July 4th).
  • Apparently, the Liberals haven’t perfected their full platform yet (but seriously, the bulk of it should be what’s in Budget 2021).
  • Trudeau criticized O’Toole’s pledge to reverse the ban on “assault weapons.”
  • Erin O’Toole re-announced the party’s plans to toughen ethics rules and packaged his Quebec promises into a single “Contract with Quebeckers.”
  • O’Toole pledged to uphold the government’s commitment to resettling 20,000 Afghan refugees.
  • Jagmeet Singh was touting his party’s housing policies.
  • The Star has election policy briefs on the subjects of fossil fuels, racism and reconciliation, the post-COVID economic recovery, and the housing situation.
  • Jennifer Robson does some rough math about the Conservative pledge to “convert” child care spending to tax credits, and spoiler alert, it pulls money out of the system.
  • Heather Scoffield points out that the things Erin O’Toole is claiming will help with the cost of living will actually drive inflation rather than curb it.

Good reads:

  • Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says that the biggest obstacle to evacuating refugees from Afghanistan is ensuring they can make it to the airport, not paperwork.
  • Two military planes will be regularly flying these refugees out of Kandahar, so long as the security situation on the ground allows them to land and take off safely.
  • Elections Canada says that they will enforce mask mandates at polling stations, and will ensure that those affected by wildfires are also able to cast their ballots.
  • Major-General Dany Fortin has been formally charged with sexual assault for an incident alleged in 1988.
  • Facebook claims they will clamp down on misinformation during the election. (Sure, Jan).
  • Some federal Conservatives are worried that Candice Bergen is going to jump ship in order to run for the provincial leadership race to replace Brian Pallister.
  • Nova Scotia’s incoming Progressive Conservative premier, Tim Houston, has made great pains to distance himself from Erin O’Toole and the federal party.
  • A record number of Black MLAs have been elected in Nova Scotia.
  • Complaints have been made to Elections Ontario after Doug Ford’s party sent out fake “invoices” to party donors as a fundraising drive.
  • Stephanie Carvin walks through what foreign threats to our election would look like.
  • Adnan Khan accuses the Canadian government of not taking the situation in Afghanistan seriously enough as the election was set to start.

Odds and ends:

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