The latest Liberal budget is out, and there are plenty of howls of outrage and damnation to be heard across the land. In the largest budget (in dollars, if not in percentage of GDP) in history, the governing Liberals have managed to outrage both sides of the political spectrum.
The Conservatives are railing about the size of the budget, claiming the Liberal largesse will stoke inflation into the stratosphere, but not doing enough on defence in these troubled times. True enough on the face of it, although the military did get a substantial boost, we still are not meeting the aspirational, albeit arbitrary two percent mark suggested by our NATO compatriots. It’s a case of priorities and the Tories have never been much on the butter end of things, convinced that will be handled by the invisible hand of the market.
The NDP, who hold many of the cards when it comes to keeping the minority Liberal government afloat, are also castigating the budget as not doing enough for the people.
Sounds like the traditional Liberal sweet spot has been nailed at first glance. Tories to the right of them, socialists to the left, into the valley of budget ride the 155. The Bloc Quebecoise and Greens were also unhappy with the budget, for varying reasons including overreach and not doing enough.
The backlash in online media has also been intense, mostly focussed on the dastardly increase in taxes on the .013 percent—through an increase on capital gains tax. Most Canadians will only see a hit once their capital gains pass the exemption mark—that’s (effective June 25, 2024) $1.25 million, up from the current amount of $1,016,836 in capital gains tax-free on the sale of small business shares and farming and fishing property. Residential property sales are also exempt.
A recent series of polls have shown that the Liberals are falling out of favour with youth, largely due to the housing crisis apparently (weirdly a provincial responsibility—so much for civics class efficacy). This despite Conservative premiers like Alberta’s Danielle Smith chastizing the Liberals for daring to offer assistance to Alberta cities if the province won’t play ball because, you guessed it, housing is a provincial responsibility—and frankly the current crisis is a pox on all their houses, whatever partisan stripe (although the NDP do get a bit of a bye on this one as they have at least attempted to make a difference when they had a chance).
Although the Liberals have tossed a whopping $8.5 billion over five years to tackle housing issues, it is in the capital gains area this budget may well help with the insane rise in housing costs going forward. One of the most popular trends in investment has been in property speculation—buying and selling property in a constantly rising market is a great way to invest, and a surefire way to hoist prices in an endlessly upward spiral. The capital gains move will put a little bit of a pause on that, or at least ensure that some of the profits go toward helping solve the problem. We can only dream of silver linings.
