This could end up being the biggest mistake in Canadian political history.
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Elbows up, brave voters, that’s the ticket. How do we deal with the complete failure of the Liberal government of the last ten years?
We put our elbows up; we get drunk on our hubris, our irrational indulgences that flyweights can go toe to toe with the American prizefighter who is 220 lbs and built like a Mack truck; we sally forth, building the case that the Canadian voter is the dull-witted cousin at the family reunion who keeps bragging about how he is going to take over the world but who just lost his job at Hardee's and lives in his parent’s basement.
The Liberal Party of Canada preens and struts, elbows up, bellowing “Bring it on!” to the United States over Trump’s tariffs as if international trade were a schoolyard brawl and not a delicate dance of mutual self-interest.
This is idiocy dressed up as valour, a policy so infantile it could only appeal to voters who think economics is just a louder form of shouting, “Stand up to him!”
For ten years, we’ve watched Justin Trudeau—our petulant prince—poke the thin-skinned Trump in the eye, a diplomatic strategy akin to taunting a bear with a stick. How’s that gone?
Splendidly, if you measure success by a looming trade war that could cost Canada a million jobs and plunge us into recession, as officials grimly predict. Three-quarters of our exports go south; Trump’s 25% tariffs aren’t a bluff—they’re a sledgehammer. And yet, here we are, cheering for a rematch.
Our economy, with Carney as the chief advisor, has plummeted. Ireland, Malaysia, and Turkey are overtaking us, our unemployment soars and Canada, despite our incredible riches of natural resources that we despise, wins the ignoble award of being the only G7 country with a declining per capita GDP, the core measure of our economy.
But boomers wander the streets, prattling on with childish infatuations over Carney and giggling about “elbows up.”
We pretend the economy is just an abstraction - as if the correlation with mortality, suicide rates, depression, and life expectancy don’t track with this ‘frivolous’ abstraction called the economy.
The Economy Is Not Just Numbers
Let’s stop pretending “the economy” is about stock tickers or GDP charts. Economic health affects real lives — your life, your kids’ lives, and the world we build together.
1. Economic Downturns = More Death
Job losses and recessions increase death rates.
The 2008 crisis led to 10,000+ extra suicides, especially in countries that cut social services.
In places where the economy declines long-term, “deaths of despair” rise — suicides, drug overdoses, and alcohol-related illnesses.
Being unemployed raises your risk of dying by over 60%.
2. Richer = Longer Life
Wealth and life expectancy go hand-in-hand.
In the U.S., the richest live 14.6 years longer than the poorest.
Even in countries with public healthcare like Canada, income inequality shortens lives.
3. Money Shapes Mental Health
Poverty drives anxiety, depression, and suicide.
Financial stress triggers chronic stress hormones and long-term burnout.
Higher-income countries report higher happiness, especially when paired with strong community ties.
4. Poor Kids Pay for Life
Growing up poor damages health, education, and earnings for life.
These kids are more likely to get sick, drop out of school, and stay poor.
Poverty even affects brain development, leaving lasting biological scars.
5. Unaffordable Housing = Despair
When young people can’t afford to move out or start families, mental health tanks.
We’re seeing more social withdrawal, anxiety, and hopelessness.
Japan has a name for this crisis: Hikikomori. It’s spreading.
Economic Decline Is Not Just a Chart
When GDP per capita falls, here’s what it means:
Fewer jobs
Lower funding for healthcare, schools, and infrastructure
More stress
Fewer families
More addiction, depression, and early death
Bottom Line
The economy is not just about money. It’s about how long you live, how well you sleep, whether your kids have a future — and how much suffering a society decides to tolerate.
Because Canadian voters lack the depth or patience to understand policy, we pick a good influencer to follow, a parasocial buddy; 90% proclaim we are smarter than average, and we vote on vibes and raised elbows.
Perhaps these voters—let’s call them the boomer brigade—were the same dullards in high school who punched walls in fits of rage, showing up with casts on their hands to the coos of admiring girls, never mind that the wall didn’t budge.
Emotionally satisfying? Sure. Effective? It's about as much as spitting into the wind.
Trump’s threats are bizarre, random, and egomaniacal—yes, we get it. He’s a psychological mess who’d trade his soul for a compliment. So why not flatter him, stroke his ego, and sidestep this mess?
The flyweight boxer doesn’t charge the heavyweight champ unless he’s got a death wish. But no, the Liberals and their flock prefer catharsis over cunning, leaving the average Canadian worse off while they bask in the glow of their defiance.
And you can be sure of this. If the economy tanks, it will not affect Trudeau and Carney. They are worth hundreds of millions and have no skin in the economic game—just ego.
Mark Steyn, that sardonic sage, once quipped, “The Canadian talent for compromise turns out to be a talent for getting screwed.” How apt.
Our productivity has flatlined—per capita GDP growth has been negative since 2019, per Statistics Canada, slipping us below Ireland, a nation we once pitied. We’re the richest in raw resources—mining, oil, gas, forestry, agriculture—yet poorer than ever, a Ferrari chassis with a Mattel brain.
Government debt?
A cool $1.2 trillion, 69.4% of GDP in 2024 and climbing, per the IMF. Voters shrug—taxpayer fairies will sort it out. They feel job losses and raised meat prices, but demand handouts, not competence.
To reelect this Liberal circus, now led by Mark Carney—Trudeau’s economic consigliere during this train wreck—is to reward intergenerational abuse.
The selfish, the homeowners, and the pensioned-off don’t care; they’ll be dead before the bill lands.
George Orwell saw this coming: “A people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves and traitors are not victims, but accomplices.”
Our climate sanctimony proves it—ready to commit economic hari-kari to shave 0.01°C off global temperatures. Canada’s emissions are 1.5% of the world’s total, per Environment Canada; even zeroing them out wouldn’t budge the dial.
Ask a Liberal voter what Pierre Poilievre’s “extreme right” policies are, and they’ll mutter “MAGA,” shuffle, and flee, convinced they’ve won an argument by using a mindless buzzword.
But that is what passes for argumentation and reason these days, and let’s not say it’s those damn TikTok kids; people in their 50s are no better. Let’s stop picking on the kids, they are the ones getting screwed by my generation’s selfishness, and the Liberal party is the home for the selfish voter.
As to reading policy, how many people read?
“It’s too long; I only have a 100-word attention span; hey, look, there’s a cat in jammies on YouTube, hahaha. What’s a book again?”
But as to Pierre? His crime? Prioritising jobs over eco-martyrdom.
But must we slug it out with Trump, this unbeatable heavyweight?
Winston Churchill offers a lifeline: “To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.” Instead of tariffs-for-tariffs, why not negotiate? Trump’s a narcissist—flatter him, call him the greatest dealmaker, and pitch a “fair trade” pact that quietly favours us.
Research from the Fraser Institute (2023) suggests focusing on energy exports—oil and gas could offset tariff losses, with the U.S. still reliant on our 4 million barrels daily.
Or pivot to Asia—our trade with China and India grew 8% annually pre-COVID, per Global Affairs Canada. Diversify, not defy. The Liberals’ bluster is a loser’s game; cunning wins where bravado flops.
This isn’t governance; it’s a parasocial soap opera with the PM as the heartthrob.
Voters don’t want results—they want adoration. We’re slipping down the wealth ladder, yet they’d rather die on this hill than vote for what works.
Stupidity reigns, and the Liberals are leading the charge of institutionalised idiocy.
So much for smart guy Carney; he has recently been found to have plagiarised sections of his PhD dissertation. He’s not dumb, certainly smarter than me, but I don’t want to be PM.
Carney’s record is more a carefully curated construct and his public engagements follow extensive public relations coaching and management.
But elbows up boomers, full charge ahead!
“The Charge of the Elbow Brigade”
Apologies to Tennyson, but he’s dead.
Half-wits to the left of them,
Half-wit to the right of them,
Boomers ahead of them,
All elbows high.
Into the valley of tweets and polls,
Marched the Six Hundred souls
In Liberal-red glory, bold and spry—
Marching for climate, feelings, and pride,
Elbows raised to the sky.
“Forward to lecture the West!”
Cried their fearless, earnest guest—
He who’d never run a shop,
Now, leading with elbows and press.
Though maps were wrong and budgets broke,
Still, they chanted, “Yes, progress!”
Into the media din they strode,
Into the polls, they rode.
Lattes in hand, policies vague,
Charging the Colossus bold and bemused—
The market unmoved, bankers confused.
They knew not yield or rate or load—
Only vibes and code.
Bold they were and proud, and late,
Full of the faith that vibes create.
Home prices soared, the youth despaired,
Yet still, the Boomers never cared.
“We’re saving the world!” they’d claim with cheer,
“We’ll be dead before the debt comes due!”
As they elbowed onward, full of hubris and beer.
Into the valley of debt rode the six hundred…..