Opinion
Misleading polls may produce more damaging federal policies
From the Fraser Institute
By Jason Clemens and Jake Fuss
72 per cent of respondents in Canada supported a new narrowly-targeted tax on wealth for the top 1 per cent to pay for new government services and/or a guaranteed annual income. But support dropped to only 16 per cent when the plan relied on increasing the GST to 20 per cent. The implications of the data are clear—Canadians support new and expanded programs when they believe someone else will pay for them.
In the wake of the 2024 federal budget, several public opinion polls have been released with potential implications for the future direction of federal policy. But unless the polls are interpreted correctly, the results could be misconstrued and lead to further damaging federal policies.
Most polls continue to show the federal Opposition significantly outperforming the governing Liberals and their partners in government, the NDP. Moreover, polls completed after the Trudeau government released the federal budget earlier this month indicate Canadians generally do not agree with the overall policy direction of the Trudeau government.
For example, according to a recent Leger poll, 56 per cent of Canadians believe the country is “headed in the wrong direction,” 59 per cent “perceive the economy as weaker,” only 19 per cent agree the government’s strategy “will benefit their personal finances,” and only 33 per cent believe the government is “taking positive steps to grow the Canadian economy.”
These results align with a recent Angus Reid poll, which found that 59 per cent of respondents think federal spending had grown too large and spending cuts were needed.
A number of pollsters, however, have noted the gulf between the overall lack of support for federal policies (including the recent budget) and strong support for individual initiatives in the budget. According to the Leger poll, for instance, 73 per cent of respondents support the new $6 billion Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund, 71 per cent support the new National School Food Program, and 67 per cent support the new $15 billion Apartment Construction Loan Program.
But these results are misleading because they only reflect one side of the question—the benefits. In other words, the polls ask respondents if they support specific programs but exclude any costs. When Canadians understand the costs, their attitudes change. They’re concerned about the level of federal spending because they see the costs—rising taxes, mounting debt and increasing interest costs.
Not surprisingly, when pollsters connect new or expanded programs with their costs, support for those programs declines. Consider a 2022 Leger poll that asked respondents about their support for pharmacare, dental care and the federal $10-a-day daycare program.
Support for the three programs is strong when no costs are attached: 79 per cent for pharmacare, 72 per cent for dental care and 69 per cent for daycare. But the level of support plummets when an increase in the GST is attached to the new program. Support for pharmacare drops to 40 per cent, support for dental care drops to 42 per cent, and daycare support drops to 36 per cent.
This general idea of supporting programs—when someone else pays for them—aligns with a 2022 poll, which found that 72 per cent of respondents in Canada supported a new narrowly-targeted tax on wealth for the top 1 per cent to pay for new government services and/or a guaranteed annual income. But support dropped to only 16 per cent when the plan relied on increasing the GST to 20 per cent. The implications of the data are clear—Canadians support new and expanded programs when they believe someone else will pay for them.
This is an important consideration because the Trudeau government has borrowed to pay for most of its new and expanded programs, meaning that the effect of the new spending would be more apparent if the government raised taxes—rather than borrowed—to pay for it. The costs of the government’s approach, however, are showing up in Ottawa’s debt interest costs, which this year will reach a projected $54.1 billion—more than the federal government spends on health-care transfers to the provinces.
As Nobel laureate Milton Friedman said, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. When polling data treat new and expanded programs as costless, they provide misleading results and policy signals to politicians. It’s essential that policymakers understand the degree to which Canadians—after they understand the costs—actually support these initiatives.
Authors:
So-called “public health” bureaucrats are also deliberately hiding this information from the citizens of Alberta. Citizens of Alberta deserve to know whether Deena Hinshaw and the Alberta Government were responsible for killing babies through their negligent promotion of COVID Injections without adequate safety data and a clear indication from the Pfizer COVID Injection trial data that the COVID shots were contraindicated for pregnant women not wanting abortions.
The Alberta Government has recently issued the “ALBERTA’S COVID-19 PANDEMIC RESPONSE Alberta COVID-19 Pandemic Data Review Task Force FINAL REPORT”. This Government of Alberta Report showed that Pfizer itself reported 31 “SPONTANEOUS ABORTIONS” and only 1 “NORMAL OUTCOME” out of 32 pregnant women reported on by Pfizer during the Pfizer COVID Injection trials.
This means that Pfizer’s own data showed that the effective spontaneous abortion rate of a drug that DEENA HINSHAW PROMOTED TO PREGNANT WOMEN AS SAFE AND EFFECTIVE was 96.9% EFFECTIVE AT KILLING BABIES IN THE WOMB. Hinshaw should have known that Pfizer’s trial data showed that the Pfizer COVID SHOT was more effective than the “morning after pill” at inducing abortions in pregnant women.
To quote Premier Danielle Smith’s own TASK FORCE FINAL REPORT :
“CAN ANYONE SAY, WITH A CLEAR CONSCIENCE, THE PFIZER COVID-19 VACCINE IS SAFE AND EFFECTIVE IN PREGNANT WOMEN BASED ON THIS ORIGINAL PFIZER DATA?
Alberta Health and Alberta Health Services bureaucrats have been deliberately hiding data that implicates them in the largest public health scandal since Thalidomide.
Alberta bureaucrats have scrubbed post July 30, 2021 Alberta Still Birth data from public websites.
On a website, ironically named “open.alberta.ca“, under the heading ALBERTA ANNUAL STILL BIRTHS TOTALS we find the following advisory :
“DESCRIPTION
Total number of still births occurring in the province of Alberta by year. Please note: effective July 30, 2021 csv file downloads have been removed from the dataset.”
When one goes to the Government of Canada, open.canada.ca website you see the same disclaimer saying that Government of Alberta post “July 30, 2021 csv file downloads have been removed from the dataset”.
Confidential sources within the Alberta Government have confirmed that Alberta Health and Alberta Health Services bureaucrats refused to cooperate with Premier Smith’s own Task Force and failed or refused to provide information on post COVID Injection health outcomes to the PANDEMIC DATA REVIEW TASK FORCE when requested. This is why the COVID TASK FORCE repeatedly stated that a public inquiry is required to get to the bottom of how many Alberta babies, children and adults were killed or horribly injured by the negligent repetition of the grossly misleading mantra of “safe and effective”. Needless to say, if the still birth data post “July 30, 2021” DID NOT show an increase in post COVID Injection spontaneous abortions the data would have been gleefully provided to the Danielle Smith Pandemic Data Review Task Force.
The so-called COVID “vaccines” were only made available to pregnant women after March 31, 2021. It is clear that the failure to provide Still Birth Data after July 30th, 2021 was a likely attempt by Alberta Health bureaucrats at preventing Albertans from seeing in real time or even retrospectively what the effect of Pfizer and Moderna Spike Proteim shots were on miscarriage rates in Alberta. This cover up is even more insidious than the scrubbing of post vaccine hospitalization rates once it was clear that more “vaccinated’ than unvaccinated people were hospitalized and dying detailed in the Task Force Final Report.
The reason that this cover up is even more shocking is that even AFTER the Task Force Final Report clearly showed that the COVID Spike Protein Shots were harmful to pregnant women… THE GOVERNMENT OF ALBERTA STILL RECOMMENDS THESE SHOTS FOR PREGNANT WOMEN.
Citizens of Alberta need to be aware and outraged that the cover up extends to the courtroom. At a recent hearing in the Court of King’s Bench Alberta Government lawyers moved to have Carrie Sakamoto’s vaccine injury class action case struck on the basis that the ALBERTA GOVERNMENT HAS NO DUTY OF CARE towards citizens of Alberta. Alberta’s legal position is led by Attorney General Mickey Amery. Mr. Amery was a member of the Kenney COVID Cabinet, the group that had been found by Justice Feasby to have engaged in a “plausible misfeasance in public office” through the issuance of coercive cabinet orders under the guise of Chief Medical Officer of Health orders. Citizens who were negligently advised by Deena Hinshaw to mix and match COVID Injections against the direction of the manufacturers, dangerously take COVID shots while pregnant, or to give the shots to children even though Hinshaw was warned that Pfizer’s own trial data showed that the COVID shots were statistically more likely to kill children than COVID deserve answers. They do not deserve to have Danielle Smith’s Government of Alberta Lawyers smugly tell them that the Government of Alberta owed them NO DUTY OF CARE.
Danielle Smith needs to get out in front of this issue and call a public inquiry. Much like the AHS contracts issue caused by incompetent bureaucrats is being blamed on her, soon people will be unfairly saying :
“DANIELLE SMITH GOVERNMENT COVERS UP BABY DEATHS”.
IF YOU ARE AN ALBERTAN WHO HAS BEEN INJURED OR HAS A FAMILY MEMBER KILLED OR INJURED BY A COVID INJECTION OR A WOMAN WHO LOST A BABY FOLLOWING A COVID INJECTION PLEASE CONTACT RATH AND COMPANY BARRISTERS AND SOLICITORS www.rathandcompany.com/covid-
Jeffrey R.W. Rath, B.A. (Hons.), LL.B. (Hons.)
Foothills, Alberta
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