Comment: “It’s the depopulation, stupid!” It started in 1990s with voices requiring us to be more “competitive”, namely, to do more and earn less. Right after that came the offshoring and the restructuring of our economy. We exported our real economy (not only industries and production but also many services) to cheaper countries like China, so that the investors could lower their costs and max up their profits. This process began under the conservative government of Mike Harris and continued under both Conservative and Liberal governments.
As a result, three things happeded: 1) Many people have lost their jobs and job security, have lost their pensions, their savings and even their houses; 2) The corporate and individual tax base shrunk, so the governments were forced to apply cuts to education, health care and social programs; 3) There were many redundant people left over who were unemployed or underemployed but still needed to be provided with food, shelter, education, health care, social services, etc. Now, go back to the first sentence in this comment…
Free market, including the principle of demand and supply, can only work properly when there is a free competition, not when our markets are monopolized. Unfortunately, this is where we have been heading for years. Our anti-trust laws are toothless and the consumer protection is dead. Our current “free market economy” benefits only the corporations and the rich.
It’s easy to understand why NDP is supporting Trudeau and Freeland:
My Dundas Valley 