Latest news with #Libs
Toronto Sun
a day ago
- Business
- Toronto Sun
GUNTER: If Trump forces end of Canadian supply management, good riddance
Prime Minister Mark Carney and U.S. President Donald Trump pose during a group photo at the G7 Summit in Kananaskis, Alta., on Monday, June 16, 2025. Photo by Mark Schiefelbein / AP Remember when the Liberals were adamant they would never give up their digital services tax (DST)? This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account They were all 'elbows up.' They huffed they would never give in to the Trump White House. Besides, they were sure there were votes to be had in making 'rich' American streaming services pay more than $2 billion a year. That was on a Friday. By late that Sunday, the Libs had folded. Completely. What changed in 48 hours is that U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to cut off all trade talks with Canada if the Liberals didn't jettison the DST. The Liberals did the right thing. The DST was a bad idea. Canadians would have suffered higher subscription costs, higher prices for delivered goods and fewer viewing choices. But the way the government went about doing away with the DST made Prime Minister Mark Carney look weak. So weak, it's only a matter of time before Trump comes back looking for more. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The safe bet is supply-managed agriculture will be next. Canadians should be grateful. In Canada, all but the smallest, artisanal agri-food businesses are controlled by government-backed marketing boards that decide who can produce — and more importantly sell — milk, cream, butter, cheese, yogurt and other dairy products. Eggs, chicken and turkey are included, too. Price controls and import restrictions are also part of supply management. Some dairy products, for instance, are protected against imports from the States and EU by tariffs as high as 300 per cent. It's a good deal for supply-managed producers. It protects them from competition and ensures they received stable prices without much risk. But it's a bad deal for consumers. Economists estimate the average Canadian family pays $400 a year more for dairy alone. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. There's another problem, too. Milk supply is heavily skewed toward drinkable milk. That makes the price of milk for producers of, say, special yogurts, too expensive. So consumers have fewer choices. Supporters of supply management claim it protects farmers' incomes, making it unnecessary for governments to subsidize their livelihoods, as they often do in the U.S. But that only means that Canadians are subsidizing farmers as consumers, rather than as taxpayers. (They shouldn't have to do either.) For decades, Canadian politicians of all stripes have been afraid to significantly modify supply management. The farm lobby is more vocal than the consumer lobby. And supply management is heavily concentrated in vote-rich Ontario and Quebec. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. It's no coincidence that the first motion passed by Parliament after April's election was a unanimous resolution, introduced by the Bloc, to exempt supply management from any future trade talks. It won't be as easy for the Liberals to crater on supply management as it was on the DST. The digital tax had few supporters. Supply management has vehement defenders in parts of the country the Liberals count on to keep them in power. For instance, while the farm receipts from supply-managed operations account for less than 10 per cent of total farm income on the Prairies, they can be more than three times that much in Ontario and Quebec. And all across the country, diary quotas in particular can cost millions for new farmers to buy from older ones. That is a 'stranded cost' that would have to be paid for by any government wanting to disband supply management. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The cost could be well over $20 billion to buy out supply-managed farmers. But Australia ended supply managed dairy during the 1990s. Their consumers now enjoy lower prices while their farmers enjoy revenues more than 50 per cent greater after inflation. When the Harper government sought to get rid of the Wheat Board monopoly over Prairie grains in 2012, there was no end of fearmongering over the devastation it would rain on farmers. But that never materialized. There are very few wheat farmers who would go back to old way. Provided the stranded costs are fairly handled, a decade from now few farmers would miss supply management, either. World Relationships World Toronto Blue Jays MLB
Sky News AU
6 days ago
- Politics
- Sky News AU
NSW Liberals lobby party to implement US-style primary system to choose candidates as re-build continues
High ranking NSW Liberals are calling on Sussan Ley to consider imposing a US-style primary system to pre-select candidates in significant structural overhaul of the party's long-standing practices. The NSW Liberals were all but decimated at the recent federal election which has led to internal debate about how to bolster the party's appeal and revitalise aging local branches. Gender quotas have become a point of contention within the party, with proponents and critics engaging in a bitter public dispute including in a leaked group chat titled 'quotas v merit' where senior Libs debated the policies validity. However, top NSW Liberals have touted a separate route, urging the party to revamp its pre-selection process through the use of US-style open primary elections. Shadow attorney general and federal member for Berowra Julian Leeser has said opening up pre-selection to non-members and the wider public would expand the Liberal Party's scope and bring in a new wave of members. 'The best way to ensure that our members reflect the communities that they represent is to have the largest number of members of the general community choose them,' Mr Leeser told the Telegraph. Mr Leeser, who is one of the last Liberal members occupying an outer-metropolitan seat nationwide said the plan would increase 'diversity' and 'overcome the challenge of a declining membership an supporter base.' Liberal Party pre-selection, which currently involves local party members and state delegates voting to choose a candidate, would be scrapped, with all eligible voters in the relevant electorate given the chance to have their say under the proposed model. Mr Leeser, who narrowly fended of a challenge from local publisher turned Teal candidate Tina Brown said holding US-primary style elections would bring ideological vigour to local branches and allow the community to actively immerse themselves in the inner workings of the Party. He insisted it would 'demonstrate to the general public that we are a broad, open welcoming party that is seeking the best talent available.' Mr Leeser has been a long-time advocate of parachuting the concept of US primary elections down under, with the move also receiving the support of numerous party elders including former NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet. The method was previously considered a fringe idea in Liberal ranks. Shadow defence minister and former Liberal leadership contender Angus Taylor backed Mr Leeser's proposal and said open primaries could aid in rebuilding the party's 'grassroots movement.' 'One pathway to do that would be by bringing in primaries,' Mr Taylor told The Daily Telegraph. 'The objective here has to be to rebuild the grassroots political movement that stands for our values, and to do that we're going to have to involve and engage people in ways we haven't before.' Mr Taylor's staunch NSW Right factional ally Anthony Roberts also endorsed primary elections and said it would prevent powerbrokers from hand selecting their candidate of choice in a given electorate. 'The days of captain's picks have got to be over, they are proven not to work,' Mr Roberts said. Mr Leeser said the party should work to commence a trial to gauge the efficacy of primary elections, and that the method should be piloted in a Teal, regional and western Sydney seat.
West Australian
28-06-2025
- Politics
- West Australian
Joe Spagnolo: Opposition spat sure to get an ‘F-bomb'
Let's be brutally honest: Most of us drop the F-bomb from time to time. I do it frequently. Probably way too frequently. Sometimes, there's no other word that will cut it, depending on the situation you're in. Donald Trump made international headlines this week when he 'dropped the bomb' to describe the on-again, off-again war between Israel and Iran. I don't reckon he's the only political leader to drop the F-bomb this week. I reckon WA Liberal leader Basil Zempilas would have dropped quite a few during the course of the week, albeit in private. The reason for Basil's annoyance? I'm reliably told he wasn't too happy that Nationals leader Shane Love went off-script and declared in The Sunday Times that either the Libs and Nats form a formal coalition by the end of the year, or the Nats may well pull out of the current Alliance agreement and go solo — leading up to and during the next election. Basil has been telling anyone who will listen that the relationship between the Nats and the Libs is much improved on past years. Sure. The parliamentary MPs that make up the 13-person Liberal-National Alliance may well be singing Kumbaya and doing their best to work together to hold Labor to account. But Love's public declaration that the Nats might walk and break the Alliance, if a coalition is not formed by the end of this year, cannot be described as anything but a crisis — no matter how you spin it. For mine, good on Shane Love for speaking his mind and raising an uncomfortable truth: unless the Nationals and Liberals form a coalition sooner, rather than later, then the two parties will remain in opposition for at least another eight years. At the past three elections, the Libs and Nats have been absolutely killed by Labor — going into those polls as an Alliance that allowed the two parties to have different policies and run candidates against each other in city and country seats. Just recently, the Nats — under a letterhead from State president Julie Freeman — wrote to Liberal State president Caroline Di Russo asking that negotiations between the two parties recommence to agree on a new way forward. Love wants that new way forward to mirror the Federal model of the Coalition. Di Russo this week confirmed receipt of the letter to The Sunday Times. 'We have received a letter from the National Party and we will respond to that letter,' Di Russo told me. 'It has always been our intention to continue our discussions in relation to how our parties can work together. 'We will no doubt discuss and consider all options. 'That said, my preference is, and has always been, that that is done between the parties and not via the media.' Clearly, Di Russo wasn't too rapt either that Love went public with his ultimatum. And knowing Di Russo as I do, I'd suggest her language — once she read Love's comments in The Sunday Times — would have made Trump's look tame. Since I covered my first State election in 2008, the Libs and Nats have had an Alliance agreement, rather than a former coalition like the parties do in Canberra. As Love points out, that agreement hasn't worked. 'It's either all in with an arrangement where we acknowledge we would be working together, sharing responsibilities — and that's commonly called a coalition — or we would be better off being fully independent of our Liberal colleagues,' Mr Love said. 'To be anything in the middle has really not proven successful. 'For me, we either have an agreement where we are definitely working together, or we be separate.' The Libs might well say: What the f--k? But Love is 100 per cent correct to call for the Alliance agreement to be torn up, and a new coalition agreement be signed. If the Libs and Nats are dinkum about being a formidable force then they can't continue walking the path of destruction.
7NEWS
20-06-2025
- Politics
- 7NEWS
South Australian Liberal Nicola Centofanti repeatedly forgets names of FIVEAA hosts in radio trainwreck
So-called train wreck interviews must be avoided at all costs by politicians, and they usually are. But the Liberal leader in South Australia's Upper House must be wishing she'd stayed in bed for a sleep-in this morning rather than appear on breakfast radio. Nicola Centofanti volunteered her voice to radio station FIVEAA. She was explaining why the Liberals are attempting to block new government regulations which are aimed at making public transport safer, with potential lifetime bans for violent offenders. Centofanti got off to a rocky start calling the presenters by their wrong names. Instead of 'good morning, Will and David' she kicked off by greeting 'Matt and Dave'. They were the long-time arch enemies of AA on the radio waves, namely Matt Abraham and David Bevan on ABC breakfast radio. Abraham at least now contributes to AA, whereas Bevan has retired and ridden off into the well-superannuated sunset. AA announcers David Penberthy and Will Goodings were clearly unimpressed and corrected her for which she apologised. But 30 seconds later she doubled up, again wrongly referring to them as Matt and Dave. Penbo's fuse was getting shorter by the second, eventually accusing her of 'having the disrespect of not knowing our damned names'. Name calling, or miscalling, aside, why was Centofanti on in the first place? The Liberals have called for a tougher stance on law and order, but feel the new regulations are being pushed too quickly through the SA Parliament. 'These regulations are being rushed through without consultation,' she claimed. 'We need time for these regulations.' The Libs' new concern is of potential unintended consequences from lifetime bans for troublemakers. From July 1, the transport minister will have the discretion of banning commuters who cause trouble on trams, trains and buses. That may be for a week, a month, or life. Unions are in full support, having seen drivers assaulted with almost weekly incidents of violence towards passengers as well. It's hard to argue against strong action being needed sooner rather than later. Why the Libs are now trying to stall the regulations coming into force seems bewildering. In a muddled explanation, Centofanti claimed that victims of domestic violence could get caught up in the mayhem and be wrongly banned from catching public transport. But I've got news for her. The regulations are going to happen anyway. Centofanti and the Libs had a lot to learn from today's transport-related train wreck, pardon the pun. It's unforgiveable to get announcers' names wrong, especially when the other pair has been absent together from the airwaves for almost a decade. That howler and the basis of her wobbly argument were then ridiculed by the right pair as 'just amateurish'. With the state election nine months away, Centofanti is likely to become a Liberal voice for various campaign matters. If this maiden voyage is anything to go by, she may struggle for relevance. Any future appearance on FIVEAA breakfast is likely to be greeted with some mirth from David and Will. They're totally professional and not vindictive types, but deserve a better performance than Centofanti dished up, or perhaps Liberal leader Vincent Tarzia should take reins next time.
7NEWS
16-06-2025
- Business
- 7NEWS
Mike Smithson: SA Liberal leader Vincent Tarzia facing the most important week of his political career with stamp duty pledge
SA Liberal leader Vincent Tarzia is facing the most important week of his political career. His budget response speech will be minutely scrutinised this week as an early indication of him having the right stuff to lead the state after the general election next March. The Libs have finally gone on the front foot after a seeming endless policy vacuum with their chances of victory still at such long odds. But they've now opened the door with an ambitious pledge to cut stamp duty for first home buyers on any property, new or existing, up to $1 million. 'The Liberals are for lower taxes for hardworking South Australians,' Tarzia told ABC radio. 'Helping people get into the housing market, who're taking 12 years to save for a deposit, is part of this ambitious new policy,' he said. It seems all good on paper with an estimated saving of $50,000 for any struggling home buyer coping with a $1million debt. So, what's the catch? The Opposition concedes its plan will cost the SA Budget $100 million in lost stamp duty revenue. The Government has done its sums and estimates it's more likely to be $130 million. Treasurer Stephen Mullighan had a moment of hesitation when describing Vincent Tarzia's housing blueprint. 'Mr Tarzia is talking out of his…hat,' Mullighan claimed with an emphasised timely pause. 'It will benefit the vendor driving up the demand for homes and making buyers worse off,' he said. 'He's (Tarzia) happy to forego the revenue for an even high state debt.' With SA's projected debt to hit $48 billion by 2028 every dollar of conceded revenue is obviously a problem for the Treasurer. The Liberals are confident that 5,000 new home buyers would take up the offer but couldn't provide any conclusive independent analysis. 'The government is piling in the cash and they're banking millions,' according to Tarzia. Both sides are claiming the high moral ground when it comes to battlers in the marketplace. The Government already offers stamp duty relief for new builds and has also opened vast tracts of land in the outer suburbs. It also boasts urban infill in areas closer to the CBD for those who want to live nearer to the city but on smaller allotments. The Libs see their promise will appeal to more young people wanting to buy established homes just around the corner from mum and dad. Some of Tarzia's critics say he's only appealing to a small potential supporter base who currently don't own homes. The counter argument is that many of those voters have parents and grandparents who are desperately worried about their offspring ever being able to break into the real estate market. Those older swinging voters may be ripe for the picking on political perceptions alone. The government needs to be careful in dismissing the Libs' plan as ridiculous. I'm increasingly convinced that Labor thinks it has the next election already won. Most pundits in South Australia are also firmly of that view. But policies create chatter which, in turn, send growing ripples across the political pond. The Libs still have a raft of ideas to announce, but Tarzia's next task is to perform a showman-like presentation during his budget reply speech. If he falters there, vital momentum is guaranteed to be lost.
