Liberal leadership candidate Karina Gould made a policy announcement in Ottawa yesterday, and it was…not great. Gould says she’s serious about tackling cost-of-living challenges, so she wants to give a one-year GST cut, and to pay for it by increasing the corporate tax rate for businesses making over $500 million in profit in one year. That sound you’re hearing is every economist in this country crying out in anguish.
It’s just so needlessly dumb, and you would have thought that Gould might have paid attention to what an absolute fiasco the HST “holiday” has been, and how her fellow Cabinet ministers debased themselves to sell it to the public. It’s also giving shades of Stephen Harper circa 2006, and how that government increased income taxes to pay for the first GST cut, and then spent through the surplus they inherited to give a second cut, which permanently hampered the fiscal capacity of the federal government (which was Harper’s plan). And reducing it for one year? So that you face the blowback of the tax going back up? Seriously? I get that Gould is trying to break through the noise around Mark Carney, but come on. There are plenty of economists whom she could consult with, who would gladly give her the time of day and to explain these things to her, but she decided to go with the same kinds of populist stunts that the Conservatives and NDP run on, while ignoring the notion that the Liberals have been the party doing the sensible policies in spite of them being less popular (such as the carbon levy) because it’s the right thing to do. It’s a disappointing first move by Gould out of the gate.
In a related note, Jaime Battiste has dropped out of the race, and will be backing Carney instead. Battiste was a marginal candidate to begin with, so this move isn’t really a surprise, as much as he wanted to be a First Nations candidate in the race, there just wasn’t a viable path forward for it.
Ukraine Dispatch
A Russian drone hit an apartment building in Sumy overnight Wednesday, killing at least six people. Aid groups in Ukraine are scrambling to compensate after the Americans suddenly cut funding to their programming.
Last night, Russia launched a “Shahed” strike on Sumy, targeting an ordinary residential apartment building. Four people were killed. My condolences to their families and loved ones.
Nine others were wounded, including a child. Rescue operations are still ongoing, with rubble… pic.twitter.com/MLg7h9Zk36
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) January 30, 2025
Oil shipments on pause at Russia's Ust-Luga port after drone strike, Bloomberg reports.
A drop in shipping activity appears to back up the SBU's claims that Kyiv struck the Andreapol pumping station, shutting down a pipeline that feeds Ust-Luga.https://t.co/wobEeREGIk
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) January 30, 2025