(RightWing.org) – Canada’s ultra-liberal government has now decided it can ignore the laws of economics. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is threatening grocery chains if they can’t “stabilize” prices. If they don’t eliminate inflation he could hit the stores with extra taxes.
Talking to the ruling Liberal Party’s national caucus on September 14, Trudeau said he “expects to hear” from Canada’s largest grocery chains about their plans to “stabilize” food prices. He warned that he wants to hear these plans by Thanksgiving, which in Canada falls on the second Monday in October, and that if they don’t “provide real relief for the middle class and people working hard to join it” the government will “take further action.” He added that when it comes to that action nothing is off the table, including punitive taxes.
Trudeau’s threats were quickly backed up by Innovation, Science and Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, who announced on September 15 that he’d invited the heads of five grocery chains — Costco, Loblaw, Metro, Sobeys, and Walmart — to a September 18 meeting to discuss their plans. The government is framing this as protecting Canadians from greedy businesses.
Not everyone agrees, however. The Conservative Party says one big reason food prices are rising is the Liberal Party’s own agenda, specifically Trudeau’s carbon tax. Spokesman Sebastian Skamski said the government is taxing “the farmer who grows the food, the trucker who transports the food, and then the store that sells it,” and argued that stores are passing those taxes on to customers as higher prices. Loblaws president Galen Weston also blasted the Liberals, pointing out that prices aren’t rising faster than costs.
Inflation is a global problem, affecting all advanced countries, and it has multiple causes. One is the rise in energy prices caused by the 2020 pandemic and made worse by the Russian invasion of Ukraine; another is massive government spending. Maybe liberals should be blaming themselves for more expensive food instead of the grocery stores.
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