“Approximately 235,000 Canadians are homeless. Unfortunately, this number has been rising continuously over the years. With root causes such as poverty, domestic violence, or lack of employment, homelessness in Canada is becoming a booming epidemic.”
Source: Homelessness in Canada: What’s Going On?
Opinion:
Winter time is here in Canada, which brings serious attention to the problem of homelessness. When I take the garbage out without a coat, I often think how nice the night is… for about 3 seconds. And then I start to feel cold. I can only imagine how people feel who have no choice but to spend the entire night and the following day outside, over and over again—sometimes until they literally freeze to death.
Meanwhile, Mr. Trudeau jets around to the latest summits preaching his ‘Green Gospel’ to world leaders and seemingly seeking praise for how he has introduced a Carbon Tax with dramatic regular increases.
A loaf of bread costs about $4 to $5 these days so I pick and choose what and where to buy. But I have the luxury of being able to drive to different food stores to find out whatever might be on sale. Sometimes two loaves go for $6 and some really boring bread still only costs $2.49.
But a lot of people don’t even have $2.49 in their pockets. They’re outside, alone, and in desperate need.
Before moving back to Toronto (where I grew up) I did a doctorate in Ottawa. And before that, I studied in India, near Kolkata. The homeless in Kolkata were distressing but at least they didn’t have to worry about freezing to death.
Not so in Ottawa and Toronto.
In Ottawa, I took long walks day and night mostly because living in an apartment was too noisy and full of secondary cigarette smoke. So I went for walks to get a better perspective on things. It got me out, provided good exercise, and also opened my eyes to the plight of the homeless.
Walking so often, I almost did what be called an ‘observational study.’ I came to recognize the faces of so many homeless people and watched some of them slide from being recently evicted, sitting on a park bench, to a state where they wandered around speaking (apparent) nonsense, looking more like babes in the woods than adult human beings.
It was tragic and left an indelible stamp on my soul.
So yes, I do care. And personally, I think it is absurd that Mr. Trudeau has not scrapped his Carbon Tax which he introduced before the pandemic, and before this historic inflation swept across the globe. As I’ve explained before, the Carbon Tax hurts everything throughout the economy. Not only does it cost more to produce goods, but getting those goods to stores and in your fridge is also far more expensive due to unnecessarily high energy and transportation costs.
Everyone knows it. And everyone shopping and working in the supermarkets is talking about it.
Why cannot Mr. Trudeau exhibit some flexibility and admit that circumstances have changed since he introduced this Carbon Tax?
Could it be because he has a ‘Green Messiah’ complex? Does he see himself as some kind of Global Saviour?
Personally, I think our Prime Minister enjoys envisioning himself as a world leader ‘saving’ the planet. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to really care or understand how his untimely policies are harming real people, right now.
Earthpages.org 