In Canada we don't have provinces that can simply abdicate the tax burden from the wealthy via the total elimination of income taxes.

In states like Texas, you have zero income tax, putting the tax burden disproportionately on the poor and middle class through property, and sales taxes.

It's a fundamentally broken system in many places down there that results in areas where you can go from the King William District (a fairly affluent area in SA, and four blocks down in South Town be in complete squalor).

I should post some videos of my daily drive abouts, it was all quite jarring to see on a daily basis.

Kensington, Philadelphia man, jesus fucking christ. Makes DTES look good.

I find it so hard to get Canadian news nowadays with news being banned on social media. Anyway, enrollment is higher by 1000 people this year, compared to last year. Also hot take and I hope I'm wrong but this whole 51st state / annexation / US vs Canada thing is starting to feel a lot like Russia vs Ukraine.

Putin is Trump's handler, so he's going to learn from the master.

If Trump makes a move for Canada, he'll likely go after Greenland and Panama as well. Russia will try to take a European country, my bet is Poland. Israel will take Gaza and likely attack Iran. China will attempt to take Taiwan. NATO will be non-existent, leaving every country to fend for itself.

Welcome to WWIII.

You realize that this is exactly what the government does with most communities right?

They spend inordinate amounts to service remote communities of anywhere from 100 to several thousand with postal, clean water, sewage treatment, electricity, communication, etc.

Money that logically based on the userbase they will never recoup ever.

This has been in the news constantly over the last decade, that large swaths of canada dont have access to treated drinking water, or good access to comms/electricity, and the outrage was huge. Here is an article from literally a month ago:

https://canadiangeographic.ca/articl...ater-advisory/

If you google it there is a hundred outlining the exact same thing.

Hell Ontario was about to a hundred million on starlink to service some of these places, cause that was cheaper to the option of having to run trunk lines.

Again I wasnt making the argument that Canada is a third world country, neither for that matter is the US, but what I am saying is there is impoverished and suffering people on both sides of the border.

Ehh WA state has a similar tax system and it’s not all destitute aside from the hick towns across the cascade mountains

I understand that but it isn't unlimited, nor is comparing the remote living conditions in a town of 200 in Saskatchewan to crumbling infrastructure in a city of over a million like San Antonio.
Quality of life in the US on average is lower than ours for the average person and that won't change unless we get rid of public health or they get public health. It's measurable right in life expectancy, which probably would skew far heavier if you were to look at the bottom 50% of earners even further.
That said I don't think reservations should have the same caveats as other remote communities, based on the fact that these places existed as a choice of the government, and not necessarily the communities themselves.
Their purpose was to segregate indigenous people unfairly and as a result they should be able to have whatever is necessary paid for by the government.

Worth mentioning.

Net 76 indigenous communities have clean drinking water that did not prior to this government, so the rhetoric of libs turning this into a third world country seems pretty silly.


147 long-term drinking water advisories lifted since November 2015.

33 long-term drinking water advisories are in effect in 31 communities.

2025: 2 long-term drinking water advisories added and 0 lifted
2024: 6 long-term drinking water advisories added and 4 lifted
2023: 3 long-term drinking water advisories added and 6 lifted
2022: 7 long-term drinking water advisories added and 11 lifted
2021: 7 long-term drinking water advisories added and 28 lifted
2020: 13 long-term drinking water advisories added and 11 lifted
2019: 6 long-term drinking water advisories added and 9 lifted
2018: 10 long-term drinking water advisories added and 38 lifted
2017: 13 long-term drinking water advisories added and 19 lifted
2016: 10 long-term drinking water advisories added and 17 lifted
2015: 3 long-term drinking water advisories added and 4 lifted

I'm not fan of Washington's tax structure, but it's definitely more equitable than Texas, there is a reason many tech companies had fled there in the 2000s.

They're able to make it work because they have some of the highest taxes on gas, excise taxes on services, highest liquor taxes in the nation, high sales tax, capital gains taxes, B&O taxes (big revenue source), etc.

Two completely different tax structures between the two states, they are not similar whatsoever outside of the lack of basic income tax.

I'd guess this is a reflection of the difference between liberal and conservative leadership - Texas is a screw the poor state while Washington is far more liberal so the impact of a lack of an income tax (which is stupid) comes out differently.

I'm having a hard time believing these numbers. But if the libs win trump will call the election rigged and sens in the military to free Canada.

Even 338 is showing huge loss in runway for conservatives I
In recent weeks

Who’s more likely to bend over for Trump? The Cons. PP also looks weak because a fairly sizable percentage of Con voters still like Trump, so he can’t go after him like the Liberals and NDP can.

"Yes orange daddy" -PP

The segment that pays the most income tax is the upper middle class - highly educated professionals such as doctors, lawyers, etc. If you get a T4 for a living because you work for somebody, you have basically no options other than making a few RRSP contributions.

Ultra high net worth families with generational wealth have a ton of tools available to mitigate taxes, if they even work in a traditional sense. Much of their income is unrealized so is not taxable.

As an example, if you are Elon and your shares of Tesla double in value and you have an additional $50-billion in net worth, you have not triggered a tax event unless you actually sell the shares, and do not owe a penny in taxes. You could basically choose to never sell those shares, and just take out a loan secured by the shares, and access a huge chunk of that $50-billion but never sell them.

This is just a silly and extreme example, but it's one of the biggest problems with income tax. On the other hand, a wealthy family will probably buy more stuff - whether essentials or toys - and therefore they will have no choice but to pay more sales tax. This is why there is a lot of support for sales taxes (and especially luxury taxes etc) versus just straight income taxes.

-Mark

Tax the rich! Kill the billionaires !!!

Count me out on the whole 'Kill the billionaires' part. Just tax profits correctly - don't let them offshore it, and make sure they pay workers what they are worth.

So basically most of us here except maybe hehe

meh i dont shed tears for dead billionaires if their business model was quite literally letting others die so they could profit

The fact you think tax the rich is in the same category of kill the billionaires says a lot about your understanding of this.

So this guy from Nanaimo posted a tiktok inviting Americans to come to Nanaimo at the end of April. Now 2000 plus have signed up.


https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...tors-1.7464714

Of course you have a few people on facebook that are not happy but most think it is a great idea.

TIL: Mark Carney has a book he published in 2022 that lays out his beliefs pretty clearly. I just ordered a copy to learn more about him.

The Amazon summary:

Link: https://www.amazon.ca/Values-Buildin...s%2C158&sr=8-1

He's also got a second book on the way: https://www.amazon.ca/Hinge-Time-Bui...71024959&psc=1

Oh, you thought I was being serious.

That's not entirely true.

My comments are in relation to overall tax burden by percentage, which skews more to the lower to middle class in terms of household income devoted to paying taxes. Not simple dollar amount, those two things are very different.

The below is a non-partisan study on such burden:

https://everytexan.org/images/IT_201...aysTxTaxes.pdf

So yes, while the upper-middle class pays higher taxes when analyzed by total amount in dollars, the burden in relation to overall percentage of income/tax burden is less within that economic class, which was the exact point I was making.

im pretty sure he understood exactly what you meant. maybe you're the one not understanding here.