this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2025
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This is an amazing oped:

The pandemic was a brutal example of Canada’s chronic inability to plan for the worst. When Ottawa finally got around to releasing a report last October about how the various levels of government had handled the crisis, the report’s authors pointed out that its recommendations closely mirrored those in an exhaustive report on the 2003 SARS outbreak in Ontario, which in turn had closely mirrored a 1993 report on the HIV epidemic.

That same inability to focus on issues that don’t provide instant political gratification is exacerbating the threats coming from the Trump White House. The tariffs are all the more potent when applied to a Canadian economy that

Ottawa and provinces have been happy to coast on the fumes of North American free trade, never imagining this might come back to haunt the country.

Politicians of all stripes have repeatedly ignored calls to make the country more competitive and increase its productivity. That includes tearing down the ludicrous interprovincial trade barriers that have been shaving points off of Canada’s gross domestic product for decades.

...

And why? Because it’s easier to sell Canadians on immediate largesse the year before an election than it is to convince them of the need for long-term investments that will cost billions and may not be needed for years, or even decades.

Federal politicians of all stripes are guilty of this. We haven't seen a serious response to climate change, the housing crisis, or Canada's collapsing productivity. We get weird bandaids (immigration to pump the GDP/workforce, reducing GST on property purchases), but rarely do we see well thought out plans with multi party support.

Original: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-the-lesson-that-politicians-never-learn/

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[–] Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

How is the an amazing oped?

All it does is say that Canadians need to plan for long term… okay, how?

Focusing on short term growth is a trait of capitalistic democracies, the solution would be to move away from the profit motive being in every aspect of our life.

The article just implies we need to try harder…