I don’t love everything in there but overall, seems a pretty fair mix of “dealing with the American shitstorm”, helping the economy and hopefully getting us on a greener path. Yes, there are parts I’d like more of and otherd of which I’d like less but in terms of a broad compromise that I think is reasonable to a large swathe of Canadians, I’m a pretty big fan.

Which services are you thinking of?

The major thing I’ve seen is reducing the number of public sector employees back to 2020 levels, which doesn’t seem wild. (I haven’t seen a good explanation of why we needed to increase the public sector by 20% since then, nor of what we got out of that. If you have anything, I’d love to read it!) Throw in some reductions of outside consultants etc…

There are undoubtedly some programs getting cut. But given we’re teetering on the edge of an adversary induced recession, that doesn’t seem unsreasonable.

Yves-François Blanchet gave quite a speech about it, the gist of it was that he doesn’t like it. This may be a budget that fails to pass.

i think the chances of a winter election are more of a possibility.

I think the Bloc has been adamantly opposed for months.

Possibly foolishly optimistic take incoming:

My guess/ferverent hope is that the NDP and Cons don’t want another election so soon. The NDP can’t afford it and I think the Conservatives wouldn’t love the optics. There’s also so much in there about protecting the Ontario areas where the Conservatives just made inroads + everyone still hates PP, you have to think an election would be a loser for them.

So, bold prediction/prayer, Cons n NDP allow a free vote with abstentions so they don’t have to vote for it but also don’t have to trigger an election.

I don’t have anything in particular, as I haven’t seen details, but the public service exists to serve the public, cutting the workforce ends up reducing services. Since we’re on the edge of a recession I’d say tax the billionaires, go back and charge Google for the billions that we were supposed to get before Carney bowed down to trump. We will now also have many unemployed more unemployed people which causes strains in other areas. I remain unconvinced that cuts for austerity purposes are ultimately beneficial, raise taxes on the ultra wealthy instead

That $2B USD from the digital service taxes would not be so bad now.

Also, guess who will pay less taxes, and who will foot the bill?

https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2025/11/government-of-canada-releases-budget-2025-canada-strong.html
A bit better diluted: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/budget-highlights-9.6966595

(detailed): https://budget.canada.ca/2025/report-rapport/pdf/budget-2025.pdf

Yeah I think some Conservatives abstaining is the most likely path. Much as they’d like to I don’t think the NDP (or Elizabeth May) are going to want to be seen as enabling it.

If the Conservatives don’t make it happen, their party may just get its own chance to fail to pass their first budget very soon.

dealing with the American shitstorm
getting us on a greener path

Can you clarify your position or share the article you read? I might have missed those points when I read the https://www.budget.canada.ca/ report

there are parts I’d like more of and otherd of which I’d like less
broad compromise that I think is reasonable to a large swathe of Canadians,

A bit vague no? What do you mean?

Thanks.

If the Conservatives don’t make it happen, their party may just get its own chance to fail to pass their first budget very soon.

Ha, well put.

We’ll see how it all shakes out but if I were the Liberals, I think I’d be itching for this fight and a pretty good chance at taking a majority government.

Maybe I’m discounting partisanship, but I can’t imagine Canadians would be happy about another election with America attacking us. (Also, while obviously sample size/anecodatal doesn’t count etc my 2 angry Conservative friends seemed pretty content with the budget.)

the public service exists to serve the public, cutting the workforce ends up reducing services.

But what services did we get with our ridiculous expansion of the public service over the last four years?

charge Google for the billions that we were supposed to get before Carney bowed down to trump.

If memory serves, the tax in total, wad supposed to bring in 2 billion. We are paying an order of magnitude more than that to deal with tarrifs affected industries. It seems pretty reasonable to assume something that hits trump’s donors so precisely would elicit a reaction that would cost us much more than we brought in.

I’d say tax the billionaires

Sure, I’d like to as well. But there are I think less than 100 billionaires in Canada. Say we could soak them for even another 100 million a year each (which would be extraordinary and almost require some wild changes to the tax code because of the nature of their wealth, but let’s put those complications to the side.) Groovy. Until what, 1 in 10 decide it’s worth that 100 million plus the existing difference to move to the States or elsewhere. It’s a tricky balance and I’ve yet to see any of our populist “just tax the rich!” really show their math.

Edit: finished my thought after clicking accidentally.

(I haven’t seen a good explanation of why we needed to increase the public sector by 20% since then, nor of what we got out of that. If you have anything, I’d love to read it!)

Here’s an easy explanation: we didn’t have enough.

Wait times are no fun, right? Need more people to process the things, or you need to remove some of the regulatory steps involved. Both those, the doing of the work and the fruitless “just make it faster” boondoggles, need meatbags to do the doing.

You now how we can tell we didn’t have enough? WAIT TIMES. When it’s zero, you may have too many staff. When it’s a day, you’re probably just right. Show me a wait time report and I’ll show you 12 months in processing delays that we should have avoided by grabbing an intelligent peon and making them do some things of the things that need doing – because processing delays and wait times are absolutely the shits right now.

QED

Conservatives are requiring electronic votes for travelling MPs as far as I understand, so there’s very few excuses to “accidentally” abstain. However, one has already crossed the floor, and more are to come. If the Liberals don’t get a majority then I’m sure enough NDP are going to abstain for it to pass.

The last month or so haven’t been good for Mark’s electability. He should really lay low a bit until the attack ad potential dies down. I’d hate to see more morons choosing Milhouse.

But what services did we get with our ridiculous expansion of the public service over the last four years?

Lets see what we miss out on if this budget passes.

If memory serves, the tax in total, wad supposed to bring in 2 billion. We are paying an order of magnitude more than that to deal with tarrifs affected industries. It seems pretty reasonable to assume something that hits trump’s donors so precisely would elicit a reaction that would cost us much more than we brought in.

Great that’s 2 billion we left on the table. We are paying more, but guess what bowing down to trump has left us where exactly? Are we just supposed to keep bending over for trump and his cronies? Fucking nationalize shit if they play that game.

Sure, I’d like to as well. But there are I think less than 100 billionaires in Canada. Say we could soak them for even another 100 million a year each. Groovy. Until what, 1 in 10 decide it’s worth that 100 million plus the existing difference to move to the States or elsewhere. Its

Good riddance they are a plague. Make them pay their taxes before they leave. They don’t bring in anything, they cost us. We subsidize their businesses, think O&G. We burn the planet so they can have another yacht, that they got through tax loopholes. Fuck them

It’s their jobnot to like it, ask for more for QC, get something, then begrudgingly vote in favour.

Those are two very different parts. Dealing with the American shitstorm is approached with enhanced trade routes etc. You might look at the broad overview here: https://budget.canada.ca/2025/report-rapport/chap1-en.html

On the greener path, sure, there’s a new nuclear plant, carbon capture (not my ideal but probably a reasonable compromise with our oil dependent provinces) Wind West Atlantic and of course, holding onto the industrial carbon price. (The only realistic non Liberal government would be the Conservatives who have been opposed to that since inception.)

there are parts I’d like more of

If I had my magic wand, I’d probably like more green projects, probably some higher wealth taxes though disentangling those from capital investment is tricky etc. I’d also like to keep expanding the national daycare program.

other[s] of which I’d like less

Personally, I’m not entirely sold on a massive military budget buuuuuuuuut, I’m not wildly opposed. There are a few tax cuts that I think are a little silly (luxury jets seems fucking dumb. I hope they catch that somewhere else) and frankly, I didn’t love the gigantic tax cut at the beginning, though I’m in a pretty privileged position etc.

I think its more likely the NDP just abstain enough that it passes. And apparently there is a member crossing the floor today from the Cons to the Libs so they only need a few abstentions to pass. I dont think the Cons will to abstain because of the optics.

I understand better your points now, thanks for sharing your thoughts and optimism, I needed some optimism.

When I first read the report on budge.canada the “greener path” shows that pretty much everything ended in 2024. Moving forward they mention carbon capture without details what kind of investment they are putting money in (best I could find is funding this https://www.alberta.ca/carbon-capture-and-storage that is also a bit vague), investing in mining (justifying that mining specific minerals helps the environment, but no mention on how to make mining less damaging to the environment and hold companies accountable) and removing the carbon cap saying that investments in several sectors would reduce the emissions anyway. A lot of wishful thinking on the budget text, or on the worst case mental gymnastics malice.

Like, there is this promising

To finance government spending that helps industrial and agricultural sectors get cleaner and more competitive, …

I would love to see the government working with farmers to keep production high and with low footprint. Despite the text being vague on how/who will get the money, farmers are already very thin on their footprint, usually limited to the access of resources to maintain their farms (heat, fertilizers, etc…). A farmer that only has access to gas for heat would not be able to reduce their footprint unless other options are made available.

I also felt like there is no handling “american shitstorm” either, there are plenty of brags on how they capitulate and are one of the least impacted by tariffs because of that.

Also, good thing you bought up the taxes. One thing I found interesting while reading the PDF version earlier, they pretty much teach us on many ways to avoid paying them, I wish that was easily available at the CRA website. =P

The budget was designed to pass.

That means that it was pathetically compromising towards environmental protections, worker protections, a strong stance against the US, etc., etc.

In other words, it’s pretty much a fucking milquetoast mess with nothing good.