The communications around the capital gains changes have been atrocious. Chrystia Freeland is painting an apocalyptic picture of what will happen to Canadian society if we don’t make these changes, and the talk about fairness, where workers pay more taxes than those who can earn it on investment income is missing the key component of the discussion which is around the unequal treatment of different types of income that allows people to engage in tax arbitrage—picking and choosing which revenue models will net them the least taxation, which is a real problem for fairness that is not being discussed at all.

https://twitter.com/LindsayTedds/status/1801021913738698941

https://twitter.com/LindsayTedds/status/1801022109172256818

In amidst this comes Calgary economist Jack Mintz, whose sole entire schtick is to cut taxes to solve every problem under the sun. And of course, Pierre Poilievre was quoting him in Question Period, calling him the greatest economy in the country, which is pretty risible. It didn’t help that Poilievre made the basic mistake of believing that the tax rate is going up rather than the inclusion rate (the point at which it kicks in on the profit you’ve made), but he has doomsday scenarios to unleash into the world to make his case that this is a Very Bad Thing, when it’s nothing at all like he seemed to believe.

https://twitter.com/LindsayTedds/status/1801086926696415384

https://twitter.com/LindsayTedds/status/1801088499522937017

https://twitter.com/LindsayTedds/status/1801096926227497107

Everyone has handled this whole situation poorly, media included, and this has been al lost opportunity to try and have a proper conversation about these kinds of tax measures and changes.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russian missile attacks have left much of Kyiv without power and water. Russian missiles also struck an administrative building and an apartment block in Kryvyi Rih in the south, and killed nine and injured 29. The American government says they are aware of credible reports that abducted Ukrainian children are being put up on adoption websites.

https://twitter.com/zelenskyyua/status/1800901662820704467

⚡️Kyiv Pride march planned for June 16 with tightened security measures.

Originally planned for the Kyiv metro system, the march had to be relocated to the streets after the Kyiv City Council denied permission to hold it in the metro for security reasons.

Around 500…

— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) June 13, 2024

Good reads:

• Justin Trudeau has arrived in Italy for the G7 Summit there, to be followed by the Ukraine peace conference in Switzerland.
• Mélanie Joly is preparing an Arctic foreign policy in order to prepare for a more tense time in international relations.
• Jonathan Wilkinson and other federal officials say that wildfire damage is below average so far this year, but that could change in an instant.
• The government has one more week to pass their “Lost Canadians” citizenship bill in order to respect a court-imposed deadline.
• The CBC followed a group of military recruits through their nine weeks of basic training, and showcased how that’s evolving to meet the modern reality.
• A recent conference on Canada-US relations is showing that Canadian officials are not really ready for a potential second Trump administration.
• NSICOP chair David McGuinty says it’s a good thing that people are talking about foreign interference these days, and that media are also being targeted.
• Dominic LeBlanc told a Senate committee that he’s not instructing Justice Hogue to name any names from the NSICOP report (of which there are apparently none).
• The ethics committee is summoning Randy Boissonnault’s former business partners to testify, and demanding their phone records despite being private citizens.
• Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet wants a legal opinion of a potential trade challenge by the Americans to Quebec’s most recent language laws.
• NDP MP Laurel Collins’ bill on criminalising coercive control in intimate partner violence passed the House of Commons and heads to the Senate.
• Danielle Smith is turning the Canadian Energy Centre “war room” from a Crown corporation to a division of her office, under the rubric of fighting Ottawa.
• David Eby is grousing that he’s not getting enough federal cash for immigration, but BC gets two percent of asylum seekers while Quebec gets 65 percent.
• Keldon Bester explains the oligopolistic practices of the Big Five banks as they squeeze Canadian consumers with higher fees and spreads.
• Paul Wells’ third and final instalment of his series on the opioid crisis in Alberta is out, and it looks at the people dealing with the crisis at the street level.

Odds and ends:

The Star spoke to Twitter menswear guru Derek Guy about the styles of Canadian politicians (and I will disagree on Singh’s double-breasted suits, which are far too boxy).

https://youtu.be/y00Nc3-Kif8 

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