Canada made yet another material misrepresentation of the facts when pitching higher taxation. After experiencing sharp criticism regarding the data and statements used to justify an increase in capital gains taxation, the Liberal Party of Canada (LPC) is doubling down. In a new video delivering the “facts” on the capital gains issue, the party’s leader implies the media’s criticism is geared towards secretly protecting the rich. Of course, this video also uses data with another material misrepresentation. That’s what us normal folks would call “a lie.”
Canada Thinks 1 In 5 Households Are The One Percent
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is featured in a new video to sell his party’s increased taxation. In a video shared on social media, they attempt to address the surprisingly unpopular tax by implying the rich are promoting broad skepticism via the media. The policymakers proposing this change, on the other hand, are just trying to get the rich “to pay their fair share.”
“At a time when the rich are only getting richer…,” he explains while a shocking chart shows the wealth of the top 20% of households has hit nearly $12 million. Yeah, nearly $12 million.
We can all acknowledge that Canada is increasingly a country of haves and “have nots,” but 1 in 5 households having an average net worth of $12 million? That sounds a little off.
It’s time to change the capital gains tax. Here’s why: pic.twitter.com/a1X1z8rFTu
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) May 13, 2024
No one appears to have been quite as skeptical as expert financial planner Aaron Hector. In a post to X, he shared the data directly from Statistics Canada (Stat Can) and struggled to reconcile the gap between the two data points.
Can someone please explain the difference in the figures in the Trudeau capital gains video from a few days ago to the numbers I just looked up on StatsCan? $11-12 Million vs ~$3M?
— Aaron Hector, R.F.P., CFP, TEP (@AaronHectorCFP) May 17, 2024
🤔 pic.twitter.com/LdEmYap6cT
Gaps between reporting data happen, but usually it’s never quite this large. Stat Can data shows $3.2 million per household, which is substantial but a quarter of the claimed amount. What the heck is happening?
Canada Used The Wrong Data…Then Forgot To Multiply It By 1 Million
After trawling the data, Hector found the culprit—they used the wrong data set, and scale. Seriously, it appears they accidentally used the total value of all assets held by the top fifth of households by wealth, and forgot to multiply it by 1,000,000. That’s not an exaggeration either.
The top 20% of households by wealth hold a collective $11.11 trillion in assets, about 67% of all wealth. Once again, a serious share of wealth but doesn’t factor issues like age. A “rich” household by this definition is more likely to be a middle class retiree than the wealthy “stock traders” mentioned in the video.
Canada Thinks The Average Boomer Is “The Rich”
The same data set shows the average Baby Boomer has a household net-worth of $1.34 million. That places them significantly above the average Canadian in the fourth quintile of wealth.
Being in the top quintile in wealth is a very different issue when discussing age distribution. Having a million as a senior approaching retirement is very different from a kid in a dorm. A BMO study shows the average household estimates they’ll need $1.7 million for a modest retirement.
A household retiring without the need of state assistance after decades of work isn’t exactly the demographic people think of when they think “tax the rich,” is it?
It’s bizarre to think a policymaker from one of the country’s wealthiest households, and a finance minister with multiple overseas investment properties, are attacking the “rich,” which by their definition is a demographic largely composed of households with wealth equivalent to a mortgage-less home and a retirement portfolio that produces just a little more than needed to not depend on state assistance.
Last week we discussed how the same pitch intentionally misled the share of people impacted. We found the same data provided to policymakers indicated the impact would be over 7x larger than the 40,000 households claimed. Now we’re finding out the data used in a video that supposedly gives the “facts” on the issue, also contained a chart that was a material misrepresentation of the facts.
None of this is to say Canada needs or doesn’t need changes to its tax policies. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. It certainly isn’t easy for young adults to make it, but targeting Boomers with punitive policy doesn’t really do much other than make their life harder. The vast majority of young adults don’t think life for Boomers should be harder, they think their own lives just shouldn’t be so hard.
At the very least, the number of errors in pitching this policy means it isn’t ready and won’t be any time soon. It was pitched by minimizing the number of people impacted, distorting the wealth they have, and who pays the tax. There are so many material misrepresentations, even Mao would probably question why such a sloppy and aggressive push for taxation.
If the inputs are wrong, there’s very little chance it would achieve what they’re claiming. Even the former Finance Minister Bill Morneau, who served under the same party just a few years ago, warns this policy is the exact opposite of what’s needed right now.
Good. About time Boomers paid their fair share.
I’m with Steven on this one. When you start defining the rich as someone that likely worked a trade their whole life, owns a run down bungalow in Toronto, and is looking at barely making ends meet in retirement, the issue isn’t the Boomer.
It’s the super rich butt worm that convinced you that Boomers are more like this gilded class of elites than you.
You do realize that Boomers have been paying taxes for many, many decades, right? Hence, they have paid and continue to pay their share.
I’m more surprised no party wants to talk about what they’re doing with the funds. They estimate it’ll generate $20b over 5 years. That’s the annual increase in subsidies they’re giving to real estate developers to build for-profit housing.
It’s hardly redistributive taxation when the goal is to transfer wealth from older households to billionaire-led funds to build rental properties.
Also a good chance by the gov crowding out debt policy, they’re actually crowding out private market borrowers. i.e. households pay higher interest rates on national debt (comes out of services mostly), and when borrowing for things like mortgages.
Willing to bet the cost of redistributing into using state-backed and subsidized loans costs MUCH more than the tax revenue gained.
Good answer. I thought the same when the NDP proposed a wealth tax a few years ago. Time for this stoner and incompetent govt of the NDP/Liberals to be sent out of power.
There’s always a catch. Boomers were supposed to be the first generation that broadly was able to pass down wealth, but it should have always been clear the globalists elites won’t allow such a travesty.
They’ll tax, pillage, and plunder everything from these people.
I agree with Taylor. Housing has been a gold mine for those who own property… a vast transfer of wealth from Millenials and Younger Generations, New Immigrants, Renter, Savers…. Especially in Vancouver and Toronto.
Perhaps this Tax Change, as usual, is poorly thought out.
Now that housing is an Investment instead of a Necessity, it needs to be taxed.
Not all us Boomers are rich and some Young People are Wealthy… but overall young people in Vancouver and Toronto are hurting.
Anytime a system collapses, the banal loonies rise to the top. Think Rome at the time of its collapse. Think Louis IX. Think Rasputin. This is the time of loonies, an interregnum between what was and what is to come.
The Trudeau regime made it quite clear what their intention was a few years ago. They desire to make us consume less so we will need to own less in order to accomplish that task. You are not to own a home or a car. You are not to own anything they consider decadent and will use climate change as a reason to deny you. Because we are all servile we will just accept it. Just like the people who still wear masks when they’re driving in their car all alone.
This is a push towards the WEF agenda… You’ll have nothing and be happy. The middle and upper middle class will be affected when they sell their assets to fund their retirement. This is the agenda to basically make a very few more richer and push more people into poverty. This must be stopped.