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2025 Federal Election

Fool Me Once: The Cost of Carney–Trudeau Tax Games

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10 minute read

Sam Cooper

By providing advance notice, the government effectively lit a starting pistol for investors: sell now or face a higher tax later. And sell they did… The result was a short-term windfall for Ottawa.

Was it just a cynical shell game?

Last year, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a major capital gains tax hike, only to delay its implementation — a move that triggered a flurry of asset sales before the higher tax could take effect. That maneuver temporarily swelled federal coffers and made the 2024–25 fiscal outlook appear stronger, although Trudeau is no longer around to capture the political benefits.

As it turns out, his successor, Mark Carney, has been able to swoop in and campaign in Canada’s snap election on the back of reversing the very same tax hike. This sequence — proposal, delay, revenue spike, and cancellation — raises serious questions about the Liberal Party’s credibility on tax fairness and economic stewardship. And it adds a thick layer of irony that Mr. Carney, in his previous role at investment giant Brookfield, reportedly helped position tens of billions in green investment funds through offshore tax havens like Bermuda — a practice that appears starkly at odds with the Liberal campaign’s rhetoric on corporate taxation and fairness.

In April 2024, the Trudeau government unveiled plans to raise the capital gains inclusion rate — the portion of profit from asset sales that is taxable — from 50% to 66.7% for individuals and businesses earning over $250,000 in gains annually. The change, part of the spring budget, was set to take effect on June 25, 2024. By providing advance notice, the government effectively lit a starting pistol for investors: sell now or face a higher tax later.

And sell they did.

In the weeks leading up to the June deadline, Canadians rushed to lock in gains under the lower rate. Some sold off stocks, others divested investment properties — even treasured family cottages — to beat the looming hike. The result was a short-term windfall for Ottawa. Capital gains that might otherwise have been realized gradually over years were instead pushed into a single quarter.

In fact, the prospect alone of the June 25 change was projected to generate C$10.3 billion in additional revenue over two fiscal years — an eye-popping sum from a tax policy that, in the end, was never enacted. This fire-sale effect temporarily inflated federal revenues and painted a rosier picture of the Liberals’ fiscal management than reality would suggest.

Critics say this was no accident.

“It was used to plug a fiscal hole, not because there was some grand strategy on tax policy,” said Sahir Khan, of the University of Ottawa’s Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy, pointing to the $20 billion budget overshoot from the previous year.

It was a play that appears unprecedented, potentially financially reckless—and, in the context of Canada’s high-stakes snap election—perhaps politically manipulative. On the face of it, this gambit provided short-term budgetary relief—a sugar high for Ottawa’s ledgers—while any pain would be borne by Canadians cashing out investments early or by future governments left with a revenue hole once the rush subsided.

To better understand the economic impact, I reached out to Victoria-based fund manager Kevin Burkett, whose firm Burkett Asset Management manages $500 million and advises Canadian clients.

Most major tax changes announced in a federal budget take effect immediately to prevent taxpayers from planning around them,” Burkett told me. “However, this budget introduced a nine-week delay, widely seen as an opportunity to sell assets before higher tax rates applied. In reviewing both the benefits and risks with our clients, those who chose to sell early are understandably frustrated by recent announcements as they’ve now prepaid taxes unnecessarily.”

I asked Burkett whether these circumstances—the abrupt reversal of tax policy and the politics surrounding it—might linger in ways we can’t yet foresee. Has some deeper confidence been shaken?

He measured his words carefully.

“Emphasis on enforcement in tax compliance overlooks the critical role of perceived fairness in maintaining trust in the system,” the British Columbia-based financial manager told me. “In recent years, last-minute policy changes, seemingly political, risk undermining this fairness and eroding confidence in the integrity of tax policy.”

Good-Faith Voters Left Holding the Bag

What about those Canadians who heeded the government’s signals? Consider the family that sold a cherished vacation property, or the entrepreneur who offloaded company shares pre-emptively to avoid a looming tax hike. Now, they find that the increase was never actually enforced. Incoming Liberal leader (and Prime Minister before the campaign writ was dropped) Mark Carney confirmed in early 2025 that the capital gains changes would not move forward at all.

Meanwhile, Ottawa has already happily counted the extra tax revenue generated from their asset sell-offs. It’s hard to escape the conclusion that these Canadians were sacrificial pawns in a larger power play. On March 21, 2025, Carney’s office formally announced the cancellation of the proposed increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, framing the reversal as a pro-investment, pro-entrepreneurship decision: “Cancelling the hike in capital gains tax will catalyze investment … and incentivize builders, innovators, and entrepreneurs,” he said.

The political subtext was clear: the new leader was distancing himself from an unpopular Trudeau-era policy, aiming to boost Liberal fortunes ahead of an election. And boost he did—polling immediately ticked upward for the Liberals once the tax hike was shelved. Carney got to play the hero, scrapping a “widely criticized” proposal and casting himself as a champion of the business class.

Yet, conveniently, he also inherited the short-term fiscal boost Trudeau’s gambit had generated. In effect, Trudeau’s delayed tax hike handed Carney a double win: healthier-looking federal revenues in the near term, and the credit for killing the tax before it ever touched taxpayers. If that sounds orchestrated, it’s because the sequence of events feels almost too politically perfect.

Add this to the layers of irony.

Carney’s rise to the Liberal leadership was accompanied by lofty rhetoric about restoring trust and fairness—including tax fairness. It’s a bit rich, though, considering Carney’s own track record in the private sector on that very issue.

Before entering politics, Carney served as a vice-chair at Brookfield Asset Management, a global investment giant, where he co-led the firm’s expansion into green energy. Notably, as CBC reported this week, Carney personally co-chaired two massive “Global Transition” funds at Brookfield—one launched in 2021 and another in 2024—aimed at financing the shift to a net-zero economy. These projects became marquee pillars of “Brand Carney,” amassing roughly $25 billion from global investors and touted as a major effort to mobilize capital for the climate cause.

The financial structure of these funds tells a less high-minded story. According to documents obtained by Radio-Canada, both Brookfield Global Transition Fund I ($15B) and Fund II ($10B) were registered in Bermuda—a jurisdiction long synonymous with offshore tax advantages. In plainer terms, Mark Carney helped set up green investment vehicles that avoided the very tax burdens average Canadians shoulder.

The same kind of burdening and unburdening that defined Trudeau’s capital gains rug-pull now shadows Carney’s buoyant election campaign, which has gained momentum by adopting policy positions first championed by Pierre Poilievre. Poilievre vowed to undo Trudeau’s unpopular left-wing policies—the very ones Carney now pledges to reverse, despite their origins in his own party.

Canadians would be wise to remember the tax reversal. Fool me once, as the saying goes.

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2025 Federal Election

2025 Election Interference – CCP Bounty on Conservative Candidate – Carney Says Nothing

Published on

The Opposition with Dan Knight  Dan Knight

Liberal MP Paul Chiang echoes Beijing’s hit list, suggesting Joe Tay be delivered to Chinese consulate for cash—yet Mark Carney stays silent, proving the Liberal swamp is deeper than ever.

So let’s just recap, because this is almost too surreal to believe.

A sitting Liberal Member of Parliament—Paul Chiang—stood in front of a Chinese-language media outlet in January 2025 and said that if someone were to kidnap Joe Tay, a Conservative candidate and Canadian citizen, and deliver him to the Chinese Consulate in Toronto, they could “claim the one-million-dollar bounty.” That wasn’t some fringe YouTuber or anonymous social media post. That was a sitting MP, elected to represent Markham—Unionville, who also happens to serve as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Diversity and Inclusion.

Let me be crystal clear here: that’s not just inappropriate. That’s not just “deplorable.” That’s language lifted directly from the Chinese Communist Party’s playbook. Joe Tay is on a real bounty list. Not fantasy. Not fiction. A real HK$1 million bounty placed on his head by the Hong Kong police for supporting democracy and speaking out against tyranny.

And what happens when a Canadian MP echoes that threat—on Canadian soil?

 

Nothing.

 

As of right now—this minute—Paul Chiang is still an MP in good standing in with the Liberals. Not suspended. Not removed from caucus. No RCMP probe. No parliamentary discipline. Nothing.

And the Carney campaign? The Liberal Party’s new face? Crickets. Absolute silence. Carbon Tax Carney, Trudeau’s old money-man turned globalist messiah, who’s spent the last month talking about “foreign interference” and demanding Pierre Poilievre get a security clearance? Not a word. Apparently, if a Conservative doesn’t submit to Ottawa’s surveillance state, it’s a national crisis. But if a Liberal MP plays mouthpiece for Beijing and jokes about abducting a political opponent? It’s just… Tuesday.

Imagine for a second that a Conservative MP had said anything remotely close to this—maybe even joked about placing a bounty on a Liberal politician funded by a foreign regime. Every major newsroom in the country would have declared martial law. CBC would be live for 72 hours straight. The RCMP would have launched a task force. But because it’s a Liberal, they issue a press release. A shrug. A “deplorable” comment, followed by a half-hearted apology and—get this—no consequences.

Now, contrast that with how they treated Ruby Dhalla. A former MP who dared to challenge the coronation of Carney. The party booted her from the leadership race, citing “financial irregularities.” That’s rich. They kicked her out—then kept the entrance fee. So her money’s good, just not her name on the ballot.

That’s the Liberal Party of Canada in 2025. A party so thoroughly compromised, so ideologically bankrupt, that they treat foreign bounties on Canadian citizens as a punchline—as long as the target is a Conservative. As long as the regime writing the check has the “right politics.”

And here’s the silver lining—because yes, even in this mess, there is one: we’re lucky this is all happening weeks out from the election. Because now, finally, Canadians get a front-row seat to the Liberal swamp in all its grotesque glory.

Paul Chiang joking about handing over a Canadian citizen to a foreign dictatorship? That’s not some isolated gaffe—it’s the mask slipping. And the silence from Mark “Bank of China” Carney? That’s the sound of a globalist technocrat who’s just as deep in the muck as the rest of them.

This is the Liberals unfiltered. Not the polished press conference CBC version—the real one. The one that looks the other way on foreign interference, cashes the CCP’s checks, and protects their own no matter how depraved the behavior.

So yes, it’s revolting. But it’s also revealing. And thankfully, it’s happening before Canadians head to the polls—because now there’s no excuse, no spin, no pretending. The Liberal Party isn’t just corrupt. It’s compromised. And the country can’t afford another minute of it.

Time to clean house. Time to drain the swamp—Chiang, Carney, and the whole rotten cartel.

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2025 Federal Election

2025 Federal Election Interference from China! Carney Pressed to Remove Liberal MP Over CCP Bounty Remark

Published on

 Sam Cooper

“This is shocking. Mr. Chiang openly encouraged people to assist in China interference and transnational repression,” 

… the bounty on (his Conservative opponent) Tay was issued by the Hong Kong Police Force under its new national security laws, because Tay runs a YouTube channel in Canada that is critical of governance imposed from Beijing.

Conservative Party leaders have ramped up demands for Prime Minister Mark Carney to remove incumbent Liberal candidate Paul Chiang in a Toronto-area riding—alleging his predecessor Justin Trudeau ignored Chinese interference in 2021—after a shocking report revealed that Chiang, in an interview with Chinese media, encouraged Canadians to help deliver a political opponent to the Chinese consulate to collect a bounty.

The explosive story broke Friday after Chiang acknowledged his comments, made in January to Ming Pao, a Chinese-language outlet, and issued an apology in a post on X. However, Carney’s ongoing silence has fueled a wave of condemnation from Conservative leaders and democracy advocates in the Chinese-Canadian community, with influential Ottawa commentators warning this could become the first serious test of Carney’s leadership—and his party’s campaign.

According to The Bureau’s analysis of prior CSIS reporting, comments by Chiang—a former police officer in the Markham area—reflect a longstanding pattern of election interference by the People’s Republic of China in Canada, including the use of Chinese-language media in Toronto, operating under consular influence, to amplify pro-Beijing narratives and promote candidates perceived as sympathetic to the Chinese Communist Party.

Former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole suggested Saturday that the riding of Markham–Unionville, where Paul Chiang unseated incumbent Conservative Bob Saroya in 2021, was among several successfully targeted by Beijing’s interference operations—part of what he says weakened key Conservative campaigns and ultimately contributed to his resignation as party leader.

“This riding was one of the worst for Foreign Interference (FI) in 2021,” O’Toole wrote on X. “Comments from the MP/Candidate confirm longstanding concerns about the result. PM Trudeau ignored FI concerns. I hope PM Carney is more serious. He cannot allow this candidate to stand.”

Chiang, the sitting Member of Parliament and a candidate for re-election, was quoted in Ming Pao suggesting individuals could “claim the one-million-dollar bounty” placed by Hong Kong authorities on Conservative candidate Joe Tay—by bringing Tay to the Chinese consulate in Toronto. According to reporting, Chiang also remarked that Tay’s criminal charge under Hong Kong’s national security law would cause a “great controversy” if Tay were elected to Parliament, before issuing his bounty comment to laughter among the gathered Chinese journalists.

Chiang issued a brief apology after the remarks surfaced on Thursday. But the backlash has only intensified, with Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre accusing Chiang of echoing Chinese Communist Party repression—and Mark Carney of turning a blind eye.

“Liberal MP and candidate Paul Chiang’s heinous call to turn over a Canadian citizen to the authoritarian regime in Beijing in return for a Chinese Communist Party bounty is no accident—it reflects the Liberals’ long-standing mockery and neglect of national security for their own partisan gain,” Poilievre said Saturday.

“Carney is weak and compromised by money his company owes Beijing. His silence on these deplorable comments says it all. Carney must fire Paul Chiang as a candidate.”

Paul Chiang campaigns with chairman of the Federation of Chinese Canadians in Markham (FCCM), which has been noted for organizing and participating in events with Han Tao, the PRC Consul General in Toronto in 2021.

Veteran democracy activist Cheuk Kwan, co-chair of the Toronto Association for Democracy in China, surfaced Chiang’s remarks Friday and called for the MP to resign.

“This is shocking. Mr. Chiang openly encouraged people to assist in China interference and transnational repression,” Kwan said. “Rather than protecting Canadians, he betrayed them and jeopardized their safety.”

Kwan noted that the bounty on Tay was issued by the Hong Kong Police Force under its new national security laws, because Tay runs a YouTube channel in Canada that is critical of governance imposed from Beijing.

On Saturday, Michael Chong—who was himself targeted by Chinese diplomats according to Canadian intelligence—added his voice to the growing chorus of condemnation.

“Paul Chiang’s support for the CCP’s illegal and unjust bounty on a Canadian citizen is shocking,” Chong said. “The CCP is a hostile regime that has interfered in our elections, kidnapped and executed Canadian citizens and remains a grave threat to Canada’s national security.”

“Carney’s silence on his candidate creates the dangerous impression that he condones this despicable suggestion,” Chong added. “If he won’t remove a candidate for calling for the involuntary return of a political opponent in the service of another country, when will he stand up against foreign interference?”

Community leaders have long alleged that Beijing has delivered voters in key Canadian ridings to support candidates seen as aligned with its interests. As Cheuk Kwan put it Friday: “China has been mobilizing voters, especially those in ridings with a high concentration of Chinese Canadians, to vote for China-friendly candidates.”

“It purportedly assisted in the campaign of Chiang to defeat a highly popular Conservative incumbent in the 2021 election,” he said.

It remains unclear exactly how O’Toole and others, including Cheuk Kwan, believe China boosted Chiang’s candidacy—but alleged interference by the Chinese consulate targeting then-Conservative MP Bob Saroya came under scrutiny during a 2023 parliamentary committee hearing.

On April 14, 2023, the Procedure and House Affairs Committee examined allegations of foreign interference in the 2021 federal election, focusing on China’s activities in the Greater Toronto Area. Conservative MP Michael Cooper testified that Saroya received a threatening message from China’s Consul General Han Tao in Toronto roughly ten weeks before the vote.

The message, Cooper said, cryptically warned Saroya that he would “no longer be a Member of Parliament after the 2021 election.” Cooper characterized it as an attempt to intimidate or interfere with a sitting Canadian parliamentarian.

The hearing also saw testimony from Katie Telford, Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was asked about the government’s knowledge of the incident. Telford, citing security constraints, said she could neither confirm nor deny awareness of the message, referring the committee to prior testimony from Canadian security officials.

Telford is among the former Trudeau aides who backed Carney’s leadership.

Meanwhile, an October 2022 intelligence assessment from Canadian Security Intelligence Service provides critical context that helps illuminate Chiang’s remarks to an exclusive gathering of Chinese-language journalists in Toronto.

The leaked document, analyzed exclusively by The Bureau, warns that the PRC has carried out sophisticated political interference operations across Canada, including efforts to control election narratives in Chinese-language media and promote candidates favorable to Beijing’s agenda.

The classified document is labeled “Canadian Eyes Only” and describes how “traditional and online media outlets play an important role during election periods, offering a curated communications channel between political campaigns and the general public.”

Beijing, the report says, actively targets this election coverage, seeking “to manipulate and influence key media entities, control narratives, and disseminate disinformation.”

CSIS analysts trace the PRC’s growing influence over Canada-based Chinese-language media to demographic shifts and heavily resourced state efforts to infiltrate diaspora institutions.

In the Greater Toronto Area, the report says, “30 to 40 people in Chinese media circles meet regularly to come to a consensus regarding what or how an item will be published.” These individuals “act as gatekeepers to ensure whatever is reported in Chinese-language media adheres to pro-PRC narratives.”

“In Canada, a PRC ‘takeover’ of Chinese-language media has transpired over decades, derivative of the proportion of PRC-origin individuals increasing in Canada’s Chinese communities,” the CSIS document states.

This long-term effort has enabled Chinese consulates in Toronto and Vancouver to assert control over media associations, effectively dictating editorial lines. According to intelligence cited in the document, “almost all Chinese media outlets are controlled by local media associations and essentially say the same thing.”

On Saturday night, former Alberta Premier and senior Conservative MP Jason Kenney added his voice to the growing calls for Chiang’s removal, warning that his remarks sent a chilling signal to Canadians who already live in fear of transnational repression.

“This guy simply must be fired as a candidate by his party,” Kenney wrote on X. “This is not a partisan point.”

“I have spent decades working with Canadians who support democratic reforms and human rights in China: Tibetans, Uyghurs, Falun Gong practitioners, Hong Kong democracy activists, Tiananmen Square refugees, and others,” he continued. “Almost all of them live in fear, here in Canada, that their actions will result in dangerous consequences for them and their loved ones.”

“For an MP to encourage, or even ‘joke about,’ those consequences is well beyond the pale,” Kenney added. “It is odious, a fundamental and obvious violation of Canadian values.”

Mark Carney, who assumed leadership of the Liberal Party earlier this year, now faces the first serious Chinese interference scandal of his campaign—and of his nascent political leadership. Questions are also swirling about Carney’s own financial dealings with China, including meetings in Beijing while serving as a global investment executive and dealings with Bank of China as former Bank of England governor. Weeks after one such meeting in 2024, Brookfield Asset Management—where Carney was Vice Chair—received a quarter-billion-dollar loan from Bank of China.

Despite the growing chorus of criticism against Chiang, Carney has yet to comment publicly.

Carney, who has never been elected, has also yet to be seriously examined by an aggressive news media in Ottawa, according to some critics in the Conservative Party. In its report Friday, the National Post noted that when asked for further comment, Chiang’s campaign directed the Post to the candidate’s statement on X.

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