UNCOMMONS

Nate is joined on this episode by Columbia law student Safia Southey and thoracic surgeon Dr. Amgad Elsherif.

Nate is joined on this episode by Columbia law student Safia Southey and thoracic surgeon Dr. Amgad Elsherif.

Safia participated in the encampment at Columbia that helped to spark similar protests at campuses across North America. She speaks to the importance of protest, the role students can play in raising awareness and affecting change, and the need to differentiate between criticism of Israel and antisemitism.

Dr. Amgad Elsherif is a thoracic surgeon based in Ontario who has been on the ground in Gaza to provide emergency medical care. He shares his firsthand experiences of the devastating impact of the war on children in Gaza, including the impacts of the inability to access basic medical supplies.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction and Background of the Guests

01:24 The Distinction Between Criticism of Israel and Anti-Semitism

with guest Safia Southey (3:00)

3:00 Safia’s Background and Initial Involvement

05:10 Details of the Columbia Encampment

07:44 Safia’s Personal Motivations and Experiences

12:42 Addressing Antisemitism and Criticism of Israel

20:23 Complexities of Zionism and Palestinian Rights

20:45 The Complexity of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

24:43 The Need for a Ceasefire and Protection of Civilian Lives

32:04 Challenges Faced by Student Protesters at Columbia University

34:26 Media Coverage of the Crackdown

36:46 Threats and Intimidation by the School

with guest Dr. Amgad Elsherif (43:18)

44:12 The Reality on the Ground in Gaza

53:08 Effectiveness of IDF Messages to Civilians

59:15 The Human Impact of War on Children

01:02:51 Recognition of a Palestinian State

A rundown of upcoming events and our work since early April

It’s going to be a busy stretch to close out this parliamentary session, but we’re also hosting two events in June that I hope to see you at:

• Wednesday June 5: we’re hosting a film screening of “A Bullet Pulling Thread” at the Beach United Church, alongside a Q&A with filmmaker and the City of Toronto’s lead on police reform. RSVP here.

• Wednesday June 12: we’re hosting a live podcast recording with Dr. Jane Philpott to discuss her new book Health for All. RSVP here.

I’ll also be online for a Facebook AMA on May 30 at 7 pm.

And we’re giving away free tree seedlings again this year. You can put your request in via our online form here or email us at [email protected].

The past month or so has certainly had its challenges, as we lost my father-in-law Terry Symington to cancer.

Nate is joined on this episode by Daily Bread Food Bank CEO Neil Hetherington

Nate is joined on this episode by Neil Hetherington, CEO of the Daily Bread Food Bank, to discuss the recent surge in food bank visits, the diverse demographics of those in need, and the crucial role of policy reform in alleviating poverty and homelessness.

Neil Hetherington joined Daily Bread Food Bank as CEO in January 2018. Neil’s non-profit experience includes 16 years as CEO of Habitat for Humanity in Toronto, and then New York City, and two years as CEO of Dixon Hall, a multi-service agency with 240 staff serving thousands of people in Toronto through its social programs, shelters, seniors’ programs, youth initiatives and community revitalization efforts.

Nate is joined on this episode by economist Trevor Tombe

Nate is joined on this episode by economist Trevor Tombe for a discussion on the price on pollution, its impact on food inflation, wealth and capital gains taxation, and the government’s acquisition of the TMX pipeline.

Trevor is a professor of Economics at the University of Calgary and a Research Fellow at The School of Public Policy, with research exploring a broad range of topics, but focused mainly on international trade, macroeconomics, and fiscal federalism. He is also a co-director of Finances of the Nation.

Nate is joined on this episode by Green MP Mike Morrice

Nate is joined on this episode by Green MP for Kitchener Centre Mike Morrice for a discussion on the Canada Disability Benefit, the successes and shortcomings of the government’s climate plan, and the importance of acting as a voice for one’s constituents.

Mike was first elected in 2021 and has been a strong local advocate for greater climate action, as well as the need to lift people out of poverty and more meaningfully address wealth inequality.

He was a wisecracker and a storyteller, he breathed life into every room, and he will be sorely missed.

Allow me this personal post. You don’t need to read it. But I do need to write it.

My wife Amy and I have been together for almost 20 years. Her family is my family.

We just lost my father-in-law Terry Symington to cancer. I loved him.

Terry took family seriously. There was nothing more important to him. He would have done anything for Sharon or for Carolyn or for his kids. Not only Amy and Jeremy, but I include myself and Jer’s wife Sarah when I say his kids. He was so proud of all of us and we felt it. He was known to say, jokingly and lovingly: “pretty proud of you.”

He is part of a legacy of Symington farmers and he took that seriously too. He adorned the big barn with “Gala Bank Farm, Est 1834.” He loved being out on the tractor and I know it meant a lot to him to have kept the family tradition going.

He also took his community seriously. Whether it was the Wyoming Lions Club (I joined the Beaches Lions because of him) or his church, he loved being around people.

And people loved being around him even more.

Terry was generous and honest. That goes a long way. He also had a sense of humour that went even further.

He touched many lives and many people will have stories about him. Most of those stories will remember his ability to create laughter.

He was a wisecracker and a storyteller. He breathed life into every room. He put people at ease and made them feel welcome, or in my case like family. And he could get a smile (or a rise sometimes) out of anyone.

Alongside his sense of humour, he had his sayings. There were lessons in them too, even as he purposely downplayed the wisdom.

For me, Terry didn’t impart most of his lessons with any explicit teaching. He had real character, and he imparted his greatest lessons by living a life of decency, kindness, loyalty, love, and humour.

I’m going to miss fries under the bridge with him.

I’m going to miss watching baseball and hockey with him. He was a hell of a ballplayer (and has the fastpitch trophies to prove it).

I’m going to miss talking politics (as he’s glued to CNN) with him. He and Carolyn were a huge support when I first started out. They knocked doors until the very end of election night in 2015. When he saw the results, Terry joked that if he’d known it was going to turn out like that, he’d have saved his knees and stayed in Camlachie.

I’m going to miss asking him questions about farming.

On one of my first trips to Camlachie, taking the train to Wyoming, I chatted with another passenger and learned about the differences between till and no-till farming. When I got to the farm, I tried to talk about my newfound knowledge and Terry patiently put up with it all.

I’m going to miss his stories. About the ball team (his nickname was Big Dog), his time at Imperial Oil, growing up on the farm, going to school in a single classroom, adventures with Amy’s mom Sharon, and adventures with his second wife Carolyn, who he thankfully found after he lost Sharon to cancer 15 years ago.

I’m going to miss Symington Christmases with him, the jokes and the howling laughter, even if Terry was edged out of our more serious crokinole matches.

I’m going to miss his visits to Toronto. His complaining about Toronto traffic, gardening with Amy, the occasional handholding and skipping across a busy downtown street, and his willingness to help with whatever we might need.

When he moved Amy into her first Toronto apartment, he drove a 26 foot truck in from Kingston (no other truck was available) and we got there so early that pretty well nothing was open. We had breakfast at the True Love Cafe, watched a cop bust someone across the street, and I assured him it would all be okay.

I wish there were more visits to come, and that he could watch Mack and Crawford grow up more, see them play baseball or soccer, and draw with them endlessly.

I loved watching them draw together. Terry was also an artist. Of course, he always downplayed this too. But he was a proper folk artist, self-taught with an incredible ability to capture the beauty of the land around him.

I grew up in the city. But I love the country in no small part because I loved Terry as a father and because the country was his home.

I’m going to miss him.

My heart breaks for my wife and Jeremy, who have now lost both of their parents to cancer sooner than anyone should. My heart breaks for Carolyn, for his brother Brian and sister Gayle, for our whole family.

He breathed life into every room and he leaves us with a huge hole.

Here’s our first explainer video in what might be a series

I’m trying something a little new here with a longer explainer video on the price on pollution.

Take a look and share if you like it. And if you have ideas for future ones, let me know.

Nate is joined on this episode by Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu

Nate is joined on this episode by Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu for a discussion on the challenges faced when protecting civil liberties in Canada, as well as a wider conversation on areas of common ground and disagreement.

Marilyn represents the riding of Sarnia—Lambton. She is a professional engineer by trade, who worked for Dow Chemical for 21 years in a variety of roles locally and globally. Her work in the house has ranged from work to ensure greater access to palliative care, better pension protections and her current role as opposition critic for civil liberties.

Fairness is the right theme. Does Budget 2024 deliver enough of it?

Budget 2024 rightly returns us to a focus on fairness, with a special emphasis on a younger generation that has been squeezed. It also manages to strike both a progressive and prudent tone.

On the one hand, it shows ambition on housing, offers supply-side growth policies, and modestly expands social programs like the Canada Disability Benefit and pharmacare.

On the other hand, faced with inflationary headwinds and a resolute Bank of Canada, the budget walks a safe path of declining debt-to-GDP. And we continue to have the strongest balance sheet in the G7.

Coming in at over 400 pages with $480 billion in spending, it’s impossible to cover all ground. And there is a lot of ground, with a wide range of funding to boost legal aid and hire judges, improve rail service, combat hate, support the arts, crack down on auto theft, phase out animal testing, and much much more.

But here are 10 major highlights:

1. Housing, housing, housing.

The core focus of the budget is to get housing built. Most of the housing measures were announced pre-budget, culminating in the new housing plan published last week.

The updated plan is comprehensive, especially on the supply side. There’s new funding to spur rental construction, protect and build affordable housing, support the skilled trades, and expand the role of co-ops. The budget goes into greater detail on the huge push to make under-utilized federal lands (Canada Post, Defence, etc.) available for housing.

Importantly, we’re also pushing other levels of government to show ambition, offering provinces and municipalities new funding for infrastructure and transit if they add density, remove barriers, and welcome construction

Lastly, there’s a renewed financial commitment to end homelessness, with continued support to help municipalities house asylum seekers, $1 billion in new funding (over 4 years) for Canada’s homelessness strategy, and $250 million (over 2 years) to address encampments. We need to ensure a Housing First approach here and follow the lessons from Finland on prevention.

I have a longer post coming shortly on the housing plan. Most of the new spending comes in the form of low-cost loans and the approach to tackling the financialization of housing is flimsy, but this remains a serious federal housing plan overall that should force the Conservatives to rethink their own weak-kneed approach of slogans without substance approach if they want to win.

2. Fairness for our kids: a (healthy) school food program.

Too many families are struggling with affordability challenges and the national school food program is expected to help 400,000 more kids access healthy food and save the average family (with two kids) as much as $800 / year in groceries.

If the program is going to truly set our kids up for success, the food will also need to be healthy (the budget omits this). Agreements to flow the dollars should set conditions, including consistency with the science-based food guide.

On the subject of fairness for our kids, the budget highlights the major decline in child poverty rates, from 16.3% in 2015 to 6.4% in 2021, representing 650,000 children lifted out of poverty. This is mostly a consequence of our Canada Child Benefit and when people ask what the Liberals have accomplished, this is one very good answer.

Of course, we’ve also slashed childcare fees over the last few years, and the budget looks to build on that progress with $1 billion in low-cost loans to build more spaces and additional funding to support early childhood educators.

Still, it’s hard to see how the child poverty rate will decline much further without more substantive policy measures. UNICEF, for example, had called for a low-income top-up to the Canada Child Benefit. No question, there’s more to do on this front.

3. Supporting our science.

Most of the media coverage tends to seize on the $2.4 billion boost (over 5 years) to help Canada stay competitive in the global AI race, with a focus on compute power.

For my part, I was most interested to see the government increase core research grant funding with $1.8 billion (over 5 years, too back-loaded) in new tri-council support and $825 million (over 5 years, fairly spread) to increase the value of master’s and doctoral scholarship and post-doctoral fellowships.

It is the largest investment in 20+ years for grad students and postdocs.

Staying on the subject of post-secondary education, the budget points to changes to make loans interest-free and to increases in grants, noting that Canada Student Grants have doubled in size since 2014.

4. The long-promised Canada Disability Benefit.

As the past co-chair of the all-party anti-poverty caucus, I’ve prioritized the Canada Disability Benefit in my advocacy in many different ways, including in both my 2023 and 2024 budget submissions.

The guaranteed income supplement has served as a pillar of social support for low-income seniors, and a similarly fashioned CDB would improve the lives of people with disabilities with no or low incomes, address affordability in a serious way, and re-emphasize our commitment to fairness alongside the Canada Child Benefit, Canada Workers Benefit, and more.

Advocates had called for a big spend, upwards of $10 billion per year. Instead, the budget allocated $6.1 billion to the CDB over 6 years, and $1.4 billion / year ongoing. It amounts to a maximum top-up of $2,400 per year before income-based clawbacks.

On the one hand, this obviously falls short of a transformational policy. Disability Without Poverty called it “too little for too few.” I share that concern and would add that the delivery through the Disability Tax Credit also leaves a lot to be desired.

On the other hand, the CDB is one of the biggest new individual spending lines in the entire budget. Grappling with weak growth, high interest rates, and challenges to fiscal sustainability, the government still found a way to fund a significant first step. My colleagues and I will need to redouble our efforts to ensure funding improves in keeping with our economic situation.

5. Reinforcing our defence and humanitarian assistance.

Poilievre likes to pit these two ideas against one another, suggesting that defence policy is at odds with international humanitarian assistance. It couldn’t be further from the truth. As the Globe has previously noted: “Increased military spending is important in a world of greater geopolitical uncertainty, but the soft power that comes from a generous and wisely invested foreign aid program is a key complement to the ability to deploy Canadian forces.”

The budget rightly builds on both. It won’t meet the demands of advocates in these spaces, but in both cases there has been steady progress since 2015.

I can’t usefully speak to specific military needs, but additional (mostly back-loaded) investments will bring our defence spending to GDP ratio to 1.76% by the end of the decade. Yes, still short of the NATO target of 2%, but a significant increase from where the Conservatives left us under Harper.

Similarly, we have increased spending on development assistance in the face of conservative calls for cuts, even as we remain far off from the target of 0.7% of GDP. This budget adds support for Ukraine reconstruction and $350 million over 2 years in increased support for international humanitarian assistance. More development assistance is sorely needed. If there’s a theme here, it’s that there’s more to do.

6. Advancing reconciliation.

While it didn’t figure in the pre-budget slate of announcements, the budget builds on major funding progress since 2015 with an additional $9 billion over the next five years for Indigenous priorities.

The big items include work to improve access to education for First Nations students, support community-led solutions to reduce the number of Indigenous kids in foster care, expand health services, improve income assistance, strengthen economic opportunities (especially through the Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program), and close infrastructure gaps with funding for housing, schools and health facilities

And because it’s often the most asked question, it’s worth mentioning here that 144 long-term drinking water advisories have been lifted since 2015 (there were 105 in place when we were first elected). A further 271 short-term drinking water advisories have been addressed before becoming long-term advisories.

According to the budget, 94% of First Nations communities now have clean water. Meaningful progress with funding already in place to fix the remainder.

7. Stronger universal health care.

The feds have recently concluded major new bilateral health agreements with provinces and territories, with an important focus on increasing access to primary care and growing the healthcare workforce.

The budget builds on these efforts, with a focus on streamlining foreign credential recognition. It is absurd that less than 60% of the 200,000 internationally educated health professionals employed in Canada are employed in their chosen field.

On the heels of a new national dental care plan that represents a very sizable spend, the budget leans into the first phase of national universal pharmacare at a more modest $1.5 billion (over 5 years). To start, it will cover contraceptives and diabetes medication/treatments.

Lastly, recognizing the importance of mental health, the budget commits $500 million (over 5 years) to a new Youth Mental Health Fund. There’s also $150 million (over 3 years) committed to emergency responses to the opioid crisis, which is critical.

8. Climate action and environmental protection.

This isn’t a climate budget. Previous budgets have done most of the hard work on that front, and implementation of past promises is now the overriding focus.

The biggest climate line items in this one include a renewed subsidy for zero-emission vehicles and a reset of the the Canada Greener Homes grants for energy efficiency retrofits, this time focused on households with low to median incomes.

There are other worthwhile commitments, albeit with more modest price tags.

For example, as part of renewed funding for the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy, the budget commits to the development of a Youth Climate Corps program.

The budget also funds Parks Canada to deliver on our promise of new national parks and marine protected areas. It promises a new Impact Assessment, support for nuclear science research, and additional help for the EV supply chain.

$2.5 billion in fuel charge proceeds will also be returned to 600,000 businesses through a new tax credit that will hopefully help in the political fight to save pollution pricing.

There was a missed opportunity to apply an excess profits tax on oil and gas. The government should wear that. It should also stop boasting about a pipeline purchase that will never recoup its acquisition and construction costs.

9. Tax fairness: a buck is a buck.

How will the government pay for all of this new spending? In large measure, through an increase to the inclusion rate (not the tax rate!) from 50% to 66.67% on capital gains realized annually above $250,000 by individuals and on all capital gains realized by corporations / trusts.

There are a series of adjustments and caveats, including an increase in the lifetime capital gains exemptions (to $1.25 million) on the sale of farms and small businesses, maintaining the principle residence exemption (if you bought a house 20 years ago, your effective lottery winnings remain untaxed), and the inclusion rate will be reduced to 33.3% on a lifetime maximum of $2 million for entrepreneurs selling a business.

The change will raise $17.7 billion (over 5 years), it will impact 0.13% of people in a given year (outside of corporations), and it ensures that a buck is a buck.

Recall that famous investor and billionaire Warren Buffett and his secretary Debbie Bosanek have done interviews together, in which they pointed out that he pays a lower effective tax rate than she does and argued for greater tax fairness.

Here’s a chart in the budget that highlights a similar challenge:

Some economists have argued that the tax change will hurt productivity. Others disagree, noting that adjusting the capital gains inclusion rate to better align with wages and dividends isn’t a problem. It ensures, instead, that a buck is a buck.

It’s also worth noting that if one cares to address acute and problematic wealth inequality in Canada, personal capital income taxes are part of the answer. As my previous wealth tax motion argued: “the government should address rising extreme wealth inequality and generational concerns by implementing … c) changes in the tax treatment of investment income to ensure it is treated more equitably in relation to employment income earned by working Canadians.”

But don’t take it from me. Take this report from the OECD, for example, making the case that the tax system should address wealth inequality and that personal capital income taxes accompanied by inheritance taxation are more efficient together in meeting that goal than an ongoing net wealth tax (you can also listen to my podcast conversation with the author here).

10. Fiscal prudence: declining debt-to-GDP

One could be forgiven for thinking this is an out-of-control budget based both on partisan sniping and uninformed commentary from people who should know better.

On cue, Poilievre was over the top, likening the Prime Minister to “a pyromaniac spraying gas on the inflationary fire” and he otherwise reverted to robotic phrases about common sense and carbon taxes.

More surprising, former Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge suggested the budget would likely be the worst since 1982. I wasn’t born in 1982, but I’m old enough to know that one should read a document before commenting on it.

The budget isn’t free from criticism, of course. There isn’t a balanced budget here. Deficits today (absent a productive return) mean less fiscal room to address tomorrow’s crises. And the budget is broadly focused on a number of measures, not squarely focused on productivity.

Despite these criticisms, the budget capably balances new spending alongside the fiscal prudence required to ensure interest rates will come down. The debt-to-GDP ratio is lower in 2024-25, and set to stay on a declining track.

And, again, Canada’s balance sheet remains the best in the G7.

While conservatives love to boast about their fiscal responsibility, we’ve certainly taken a more fiscally prudent approach than what we see here in Ontario. If Justin Trudeau is a pyromaniac, I’d love to know what Poilievre thinks of Doug Ford.

For an overall reality check, here’s economist Armine Yalnizyan: “$50 billion in new measures *over 5 years* in an economy of ~$3TR *a year* — and a growing output gap because of the Bank of Canada’s inflation fighting rate hikes — cannot trigger more inflation, mathematically speaking.”

For a fair but more critical review, see Kevin Page and the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy react here: “Is this a good time for a classic tax-and-spend budget? There are legitimate yes and no arguments from a macroeconomic perspective.” Page and co. aren’t opposed to new spending, but politely reiterate the need for a value-for-money spending review alongside a greater focus on growing the economy.

In the end, the budget is solid and comprehensive, albeit not transformative. It finally shows real leadership on housing. It covers a lot of ground, with incremental progress in many important areas. And after the shock of a pandemic, it manages to meet political demands while maintaining fiscal prudence.

A busy couple of months in Ottawa and in the community.

We’re in the middle of a relentless schedule of different policy announcements in the lead up to Budget 2024. It’s a good thing: our politics should be about ideas, and there have been many good ideas put on the table recently.

The policies have been focused mostly on housing so far, returning to the theme of fairness that we ran on in 2015 and that has motivated much of the agenda since then.

As the Ford government walks away from any housing ambition here in Ontario, it’s especially important to see the federal Liberals really lean into this now, pushing municipalities and provinces to end restrictive zoning and more. All hands on deck.

Staying on the fairness theme, I joined a policy announcement earlier this week to set our kids up to succeed with a healthy school food program. Too many families are struggling in the face of affordability and this is a commitment we made in 2021.

Special mention to the Coalition for Healthy School Food and all of the advocates who helped to make this a reality. I submitted the idea through our platform process back in 2018, so it was good to be there for the announcement.

Of course, the budget is more of a look ahead, and this update is intended to look back at the last couple of months.

In Parliament, we saw a heightened debate on the war in Gaza and most MPs (not Conservatives) call for a ceasefire and an immediate expansion of humanitarian assistance, among other measures. Most recently, the Prime Minister raised serious concerns about the Israeli airstrike that killed a Canadian citizen and aid worker.

Parliament otherwise saw repeated lies about pollution pricing and climate action, and a doomed vote to implement a citizens’ assembly on electoral reform.

I wrote about all three here:

In a total moment of absurdity, a Conservative MP referenced the communist manifesto, called me “diabolical,” and went down a rabbit hole of bug-eating conspiracy theories, all in response to my bill that requires the government to table a pandemic prevention and preparedness plan in Parliament. I’ll write more on that later, with my bill up for a vote at 3rd reading in May.

The government also tabled bills to address online harms, ban scab labour, phase in pharmacare, and better protect animals. And childcare legislation received royal assent. So there’s a lot going on.

Outside of Parliament, it’s been good to be back in our east end, spending time with constituents at community events, and volunteering with my office team at local initiatives.

Serious climate action

Ask yourself a simple question: do you want serious climate action in this country?

The Conservatives don’t. And cynically, they are using a real but unrelated affordability crisis to undermine any consensus to act.

In addition to this speech in the House of Commons, this lengthy rant, and this talk radio interview, we also focused the Uncommons podcast on climate policy, including episodes with Minister Steven Guilbeault and NDP Environment Critic Laurel Collins.

Getting housing built

Minister Fraser also joined me on the podcast to discuss how to get more housing built, how the LPC and CPC plans compare, and how to communicate progress given the scale of the challenge ahead.

All levels of government need to deliver ambition and work together if we’re going to meet the challenge of generational fairness and realize housing as a human right.

As promised in the last update, our federal government came to the table in a serious way to support the city’s shelter system. I was subsequently joined by Mayor Chow on the Uncommons podcast to talk about her own budget efforts and how we can continue to collaborate.

Most of the steps we’re looking at are supply-side, but the government has also taken some steps to address the demand side, including by curbing the unsustainable growth of the international student program. I wrote about that here:

In our Community

I’m looking forward to being back in Dentonia Park next week to celebrate Eid with so many in our local Muslim community.

Just as it was amazing to be back in the Easter parade, the streets lined with so many smiling kids. Mack was initially skeptical of being in the parade for fear of missing out on candy, but he really got into it in the end.

I also had the chance to spend time with our Bangladeshi community for International Mother Language Day (the first since Parliament officially recognized IMLD), and at a flag-raising at City Hall to recognize Bangladeshi independence.

And of course, Winter Stations brought thousands of people (including my family) to the beach in the cold weather to check out the amazing public art.

As we work out a schedule for future community events, I also want to recognize Dr. Anne Innis Dagg, the woman who loved giraffes. She passed away recently, having spent a lifetime making an incredible impact in advancing both research and equality. She was also kind with her time, joining us years ago in conversation and for a screening of the doc about her (from local filmmaker Alison Reid).

As always, if there’s an event you think I should be at, or an issue you’d like me to raise in Ottawa, you can always reach me at [email protected].

Nate