Canadian Federal Politics Thread v5

[Ashasx]

A Canadian index fund, designed to mirror the TSX, has a large investment in one of the largest companies on the TSX by market cap?

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

A Canadian index fund, designed to mirror the TSX, has a large investment in one of the largest companies on the TSX by market cap?

Sounds like a good one to put in the Canadian TFSA.

[Geraldsh]

Originally Posted by Muta

It's not irrelevant; I clearly identified an easy way to circumvent PP's $5K TFSA proposition. The only way to track that Canadians have invested in Canadian companies, and keep them Canadian without circumventing the system, is to have dedicated Canadian-only TFSA accounts (as you said) with registered Canadian companies. Right now you can invest in literally any financial product within your TFSA or RRSP.

There, you have the solution; a Canadian TFSA with $5000.00 limits and the existing TFSA WITH $6000.00 limit.
I would fill the Canadian TFSA first of course.

[Fuzz]

75% of US scientists who answered Nature poll consider leaving
More than 1,600 readers answered our poll; many said they were looking for jobs in Europe and Canada.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d415...inkId=13681317


We will take you.

[Monahammer]

Originally Posted by Muta

It's not irrelevant; I clearly identified an easy way to circumvent PP's $5K TFSA proposition. The only way to track that Canadians have invested in Canadian companies, and keep them Canadian without circumventing the system, is to have dedicated Canadian-only TFSA accounts (as you said) with registered Canadian companies. Right now you can invest in literally any financial product within your TFSA or RRSP.

IMO this is actually easily solvable, in the same way that they don't let you double up on contributions by withdrawing at some point during a year. Essentially, your contribution room isn't valid again until the following tax year.
If you sell the canadian stock during the same year where you were given 5k extra room, the next year the 5k extra room is removed and you're charged tax on any overage unless you're still holding that 5k of canadian stock.

[Jason14h]

It’s just a 2nd balance in your TSFA and calculated the exact same as the existing that you can only buy certain assets in (Canadian companies)

This isn’t hard at all . If they got really fancy you could auto move from existing tsfa account to new “account” your Canadian investments with a click !

And if you go over /cheat the system it’s taxable just like if you over contribute right now

I assume whoever you hold the accounts with would also have smart enough software to make sure you don’t screw up

[Torture]

Originally Posted by Jason14h

It’s just a 2nd balance in your TSFA and calculated the exact same as the existing that you can only buy certain assets in (Canadian companies)

This isn’t hard at all . If they got really fancy you could auto move from existing tsfa account to new “account” your Canadian investments with a click !

And if you go over /cheat the system it’s taxable just like if you over contribute right now

I assume whoever you hold the accounts with would also have smart enough software to make sure you don’t screw up

Have you ever banked with a Canadian bank?

[Jason14h]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Sure, but we already have a TFSA, and most people don't max them out because they need to pay for existing first. Drastically raising the limit only helps those wealthy enough to have the cash to max it out, which means not paying taxes on it. So it's a tax break for the wealthy, primarily, while reducing government income that needs to be made up elsewhere, or cut services. That's why I don't think it's good policy.

It’s 100% a tax break for wealthier people. However , if it also gets more investment into Canada that’s better then just a flat tax cut where the “saved and invested” money can go anywhere - and a lot of times goes into US Stocks

If you just don’t want tax breaks that’s a different argument I think . This is a good way to give “breaks” IMo

[Jason14h]

Originally Posted by Torture

Have you ever banked with a Canadian bank?

Haha I use wealthsimple now and they have it all figured out

[opendoor]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

I guess I question the ability of most Canadians to actively manage their portfolios and the split between TFSA and RRSP investments, but you could be correct that it may not actually encourage further investment. On the surface, I think an additional $5k invested is good for the individual (if they can afford it) - I also think that it might encourage people to invest more than they were originally if this top up did not exist, but I don't think that can be proven until we see something like this in practice.

But most Canadians don't have maxed out TFSAs. And among the very few that do, I would presume that virtually all of them either have a decent understanding of country weighting or have someone handling their money who does.

So is this policy going to change how people weight their portfolio? I don't see why. Personally, the first thing I'd do if this came to pass was sell $5K of Canadian holdings elsewhere, replace it with non-Canadian holdings, and then buy $5K of Canadian stuff in the new account.

[Torture]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Sure, but we already have a TFSA, and most people don't max them out because they need to pay for existing first. Drastically raising the limit only helps those wealthy enough to have the cash to max it out, which means not paying taxes on it. So it's a tax break for the wealthy, primarily, while reducing government income that needs to be made up elsewhere, or cut services. That's why I don't think it's good policy.

Agree that it only benefits those that have the $ to max out already, which is going to be people with money. 4-5% of Canadians max out their TFSA annually. But to be fair, there's an argument that the tax break to the wealthy is outweighed by the investment in Canadian businesses.

Encouraging investment in Canadian companies and reducing their cost of capital is not a bad idea, but I think it's a bit clunky. There's probably easier ways to encourage investment in Canadian businesses than a 5k increase to TFSA room that has to be tracked for which portion is Canadian vs non-Canadian and the benefits only comes from the small portion of people that have their TFSA maxed. I don't think it's going to have a significant impact on Canadian businesses simply because it's only $5k from the people that have the $ sitting on the sidelines. The benefit to the economy is capped. How much $ does this realistically add?

And for individuals, one of the big benefits of TFSAs is that they're simple and this starts to undo that... I can't wait to report the balance and assets of my TFSA to the party of...small government.

Haha I use wealthsimple now and they have it all figured out

Me too but I couldn't resist taking a shot at clunky big bank software.


Also, this is shades of Stephen Harper proposing that they increase TFSA room to $10k annual (but he was removing inflation formula) just put through a maple leaf rinse. Going to take bigger ideas than this for PP to steal the spotlight from Carney IMO.

[Johnny Makarov]

New slogan for the deplorables!

Bring It Home!!!

.... to 2nd place.

[Torture]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

New slogan for the deplorables!

Bring It Home!!!

.... to 2nd place.

Consistent with their new trend of mashing together two slogans so this tracks. I love the new "Canada First for a Change!" slogan because I always wonder if I am supposed to interpret it that this is the first time PP is putting Canada First.


Or the other day it was

Axe the Sales
Tax on Homes

Worst line break ever. I thought the Conservatives were supposed to be ready for this election?

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by Vedder

Well, first of all my original point was that GDP per capita is actually quite useful as a metric to measure our economy. You seemed to imply that you agree with Slava that it’s “meaningless”. That of course is ridiculous and the article articulates why it’s important. It may not be perfect, but it’s a tool that economists and govt’s use as a proxy for our economic performance.

I don’t agree with it being meaningless, just that there is nuance that needs to be taken into consideration when using it.

Second, you seemed to imply that our GDP per capita problems were solely due to population growth. As the article states, numerator growth is also a problem, and one that has a direct link to conscious policy choices that we have made, and continue to make……

Didn’t imply at all that it was solely due to population growth, was just using it as an example of something that has a negative impact on GDP per capita.

Things take too long here, our regulatory processes are too slow, and private capital has shied away from big projects that have a meaningful impact on GDP as a result.

Sure, but addressing the regulatory processes isn’t always as simple as making legislative changes. Especially as it relates to our provincial neighbour where the majority of it’s territory has no treaties signed over its land. I agree that addressing it needs to be prioritized though.

[Torture]

338 is at 97% chance of Liberal's having the most seats, 79% chance of Liberal majority. Wow.

https://338canada.com/federal.htm

Won't happen, but latest Ekos poll modeling has PP losing his seat. :

(Sorry for link to the bad place)

https://twitter.com/user/status/1905048452175949922

[bizaro86]

I have a hard time believing the BQ goes to zero...

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

I have a hard time believing the BQ goes to zero...

I can't believe BQ would be 0 either, BQ projected at 24

BQ could get really hurt here. Quebec would no longer exist if Canada became the 51st state.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by FLAMESRULE

Hahaha, so PP is an investor in Brookfield...guess he supports Carney.

"According to a list provided by the Conservative Party, Poilievre provided an update of his assets to the ethics commissioner’s office. One of those is (VCE) Vanguard FTSE Canada Index ETF, an index fund invested in the Canadian economy.

One of the top assets in the VCE index fund? Brookfield Corp., which includes Carney’s old investment firm.

Poilievre also holds $8,124.61 worth of bitcoin (value as Monday)."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liv...=1743020836639

This is a ridiculous complaint.

PP here is exactly what the law should be. Politicians should only be able to hold total market index funds weighted to the economy with some home country bias. This is exactly how you remove conflicts of interest.

[Firebot]

Originally Posted by FLAMESRULE

Hahaha, so PP is an investor in Brookfield...guess he supports Carney.

"According to a list provided by the Conservative Party, Poilievre provided an update of his assets to the ethics commissioner’s office. One of those is (VCE) Vanguard FTSE Canada Index ETF, an index fund invested in the Canadian economy.

One of the top assets in the VCE index fund? Brookfield Corp., which includes Carney’s old investment firm.

Poilievre also holds $8,124.61 worth of bitcoin (value as Monday)."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liv...=1743020836639

Poilievre is an such an open book. He buys into index funds, one of which is Vanguard which also buys Brookfield a 900$ billion dollar TSX Canadian headquartered company (at least until very recently). He even owns 0.06 BTC!

Let's look at Carney's investments.

Oh we can't because he hasn't disclosed them publicly.

Of all this things to point out, this is quite the absurd one. It just reaffirms why Carney should still voluntarily disclose assets even though he technically doesn't need until after the election is done, if Poilievre's Canadian index fund investments and 8000$ of bitcoin is apparently important enough it makes news cycles that can influence this election.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

I can't believe BQ would be 0 either, BQ projected at 24

BQ could get really hurt here. Quebec would no longer exist if Canada became the 51st state.

The "Ekos Only" peojection Torture linked has BQ at zero seats. That suggests to me its flawed.