Affordability, booze price hikes, and introducing Pierre to Doug Ford...

Plus, Ben Mulroney's plan to run for elected office.

Pierre Poilievre was asking serious and interesting question in the House of Commons on Tuesday, he wasn’t getting serious answers. He was raising the very real issue of food inflation and grocery prices.

Last week’s StatsCan report showed grocery prices were up 5% in December over the previous year. It was in early December that I interviewed Sylvain Charlebois, AKA the Food Professor, about his annual report on the cost of groceries and he said that over the past five years grocery bills had increase by about 27% on average with some items costing much more than that.

That means that your basket of groceries that cost $100 five years ago costs $127 now. That’s well above the rate of overall inflation, which was significant over that time, according to the Bank of Canada inflation calculator.

Anyway, as I reported in my Toronto Sun column on Tuesday, Poilievre asked about grocery prices and such and Mark Carney offered to introduce him to Ontario Premier Doug Ford, smirked and sat down. That was at the start of QP in French, but Carney repeated much of the same talking points in English, which you can see below.

The whole Ford-Poilievre thing is about the rupture, to use a Carneyism, in the relationship between the two leaders. Maybe that’s the wrong word since Ford and Poilievre have never had a relationship and as I can explain in detail. To a large degree that’s on Poilievre and his team who didn’t seek relationships with Ford in Ontario, Tim Houston in Nova Scotia or other key conservatives across the country.

Then of course there was what happened with Ford and Poilievre in the federal election.

Expect the Liberals to pick at every scab Poilievre has this week as the Conservatives move towards their convention and the leadership review.

Carney isn’t giving serious answers to serious questions on a very serious issue. And sniping at Poilievre while using Ford and their divide might make Carney and the Liberals feel good but it won’t deal with rising grocery prices.

Is $3.99/lb for nectarines a good price…

If you watched the video above, you will have noted that Poilievre started by pointing out that at Carney’s news conference on Monday, all the price cards were missing from the produce behind him. The news conference was held at the Produce Depot store on Carling Avenue in Nepean, a west end part of Ottawa.

Now, if you don’t know Produce Depot don’t worry, that just means you haven’t lived in Ottawa. I’ve shopped at this location many times, but more often frequented their Bank and Hunt Club location because it was closer to where I lived in Ottawa.

It’s a bit of a discount grocer focusing on produce - thus the name - with a decent meat, fish and deli selection but limited dry goods.

Conservatives immediately noticed that there were no prices behind Carney as he spoke in a store that prides itself on posting prices. On Tuesday I was sent photos of the same location where Carney spoke with the prices now on display.

Are these good prices?

Based on what I’m seeing in Toronto, the avocado price of $1.69 each isn’t bad but the $3.99/lb for nectarines is not a good price. On my Flipp app, I’m seeing everything from $1.98/lb to $4.99/lb but some stores I’d trust still cheaper than $3.99/lb.

Maybe they were smart to take down the price cards while Carney was speaking.

Stop the tax assault on booze…

It’s funny that as we’re talking about an affordability crisis, the Carney government is expanding the GST credit and rebranding it the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit, we’re talking about increasing the price of booze.

No, I’m not comparing buying groceries with beer, wine or hooch, but governments pushing up prices is never a good idea and a federal government tax hike and Ontario government price hike on booze are both scheduled to happen in just about two months. So, on the one hand, the government wants to increase the tax on a product that many people consume and on the other hand give out payments to Canadians to say, “I feel your pain” about rising prices.

At one point, some Liberals might have quipped that Carney’s new benefit payment is money for people to spend on “beer and popcorn” because that’s how Liberal pundit Scott Reid once described Stephen Harper’s Universal Childcare Benefit. The $100 per month payment to parents for each kid under the age of six that spent more money annually that Paul Martin’s so-called Universal Child Care system that would have to pay for a few rich kids in wealthy neighbourhoods to get subsidized childcare.

Did I mention Reid worked for Martin at the time?

They could just spend that increased benefit Carney is giving them on beer and popcorn, but Scott won’t say that now. He has a Liberal brand to defend. More money in the pockets of the taxpayer as opposed to government is never a bad thing, but Carney’s policy won’t reap the rewards they think.

And then, thanks to two different government assaults on the price of booze, the people getting this money, were they to spend it on “beer and popcorn” would get less bang for their buck.

On April 1, the annual federal escalator tax on alcohol will kick in and, if it goes according to plan, the Ford government in Ontario will hike prices on booze in certain areas. I’ve been writing about that in the Toronto Sun and will have more to say soon but increasing the cost of a 24 pack at your local convenience store by more than $5 is a bad idea as is increasing the cost of beer, wine or spirits for your local bars and restaurants.

But that’s what the Ford government plans on doing, unless they completely revamp their plans.

Meanwhile, the feds are full steam ahead with their tax hike on booze.

First passed in 2017, the alcohol escalator tax put into law that the excise tax on alcohol would increase at the rate of inflation every April 1. I don’t know of a single other product that sees an annual tax hike increase tied to the inflation rate.

In my view, this is highly unconstitutional, it goes against our democratic fundamentals.

When nobles forced King John to sign the Magna Carta in a meadow at Runnymede in 1215, it enshrined a fundamental principle of our system of government. Today it is expressed as no taxation without representation - often mistaken for an American sentiment but it’s not.

“No ‘scutage’ or ‘aid’ may be levied in our kingdom without its general consent,” the document stated.

That is the genesis of the idea of no taxation without representation. This is one of many reasons why votes need to happen in the House of Commons to pass spending and taxation bills.

In 2017, the alcohol escalator tax passing into law removed the requirement for a vote on each tax increase. That’s how it should happen, whether the tax is for booze or anything else. MPs should be required to stand in their place and vote to tax you at a higher rate.

That is what Jay Goldberg was talking about when he did this video for the Toronto Sun about how the Ghost of Trudeau’s tax grab haunts us still.

Ben Mulroney is not running for political office yet…

For people who know or pay attention to Ben Mulroney, this won’t be shocking. I’m not going to pretend to know Ben well but we’ve met up a few times and exchange messages.

Strangely, I’ve met three of the Mulroney kids - all of them now adults in middle age - but I’ve never seen two of them in the same room at the same time. Is that a weird coincidence? I don’t think so, there’s some sorcery happening here!

For the record, the only sibling I haven’t met is Nick, the youngest, who they all tell me is the really smart one because he has nothing to do with politics.

Caroline is the oldest, I know you shouldn’t say that about a lady but it’s true, and she’s a cabinet minister in Doug Ford’s government. As President of the Treasury Board she’s in charge of closing the purse strings and by all accounts, refuses a lot of dumb ideas. Everyone who works with Caroline says that she shows up prepared and knows her files, her problem is she doesn’t like talking to the media which is key for the role.

Mark is the third oldest and a banker by trade. He has the smarts like Caroline and also the gift of the gab of his father. He could sell wheat to a Saskatchewan farmer and make him feel good about taking on the extra bushels he didn’t need in the process.

Ben though, he will tell you he’s not as smart as the others. He will downplay some of his strengths, but he’s more than what most Canadians know him as which is a TV talking head.

A few years ago, after his departure from CTV, Ben ended up hosting a weekend show on AM 640 in Toronto. I agreed to go on as a guest from time to time and to be honest, it was rough at first, but Ben found his feet.

He found his foundation to speak from and he moved from a questionable weekend host to a good mid-morning host to now hosting the afternoon drive show. As someone who has spent most of their career on the broadcast side - as a radio reporter, as a pundit, a TV host, a radio host - I know that this isn’t easy and becoming good at it takes the kind of hard work that Ben has obviously put in.

Now, back to Ben Mulroney running for elected office.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford encouraged him to do so at a public event, a business luncheon last fall. Ben’s name comes up regularly as someone to run for public office at various levels of government.

Appearing on the Can’t be Censored Podcast with Travis Dhanraj and Karman Wong, Mulroney was asked about running for office. His response was that he wants to run for mayor of Toronto, just not yet.

Read about it here or watch it starting at the 27 minute mark.