Canada’s first ‘sugar tax’ shows some signs of effectiveness, but repeal is already set
First-of-its-kind Canadian ‘sugar tax’ shows some signs of effectiveness, but repeal already set
But the tax is set to be fully repealed on July 1. Its abolition was one of the first acts of Premier John Hogan, who took office in May. He said it was contributing to affordability issues in the province.
Very short-sighted decision.
Obesity costs the Canadian Healthcare system billions of dollars every year:
https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-025-21905-2
Currently, most Canadian politicians are treating people like little children.
It's time to tell people the brutal truth:
"We can end traffic jams in our city. But we are going to increase parking fees. We are going to build a bike lane network. Many drivers will be unhappy and will have to change their habits. Do you think it's worth it?"
"We can reduce the number of car crashes. Less people will die. Less people will be injured. But the number of speed cameras will increase. A lot of speeding citizens are going to receive fines and will be furious. Getting a driver license will also become much harder for older people. Do you think it's worth it?"
"We can make our healthcare system more financially sustainable. We can do that by increasing your income tax. Or we can increase the sales tax. Or we can tax all business owners. Or we can increase the alcohol tax and sugar tax. Which tax do you prefer? What do you think?"
"We can reduce gun trafficking. We will do it by tripling the number of inspections of trucks and cars coming from the United States. But this means longer waiting times at border crossings. The number of american tourists will be reduced. The price of some imported things may also increase. Should we do it?"
"We can significantly reduce homelessness. But we are going to build very tall buildings like in Eastern Europe blocks. We will ban cities from opposing housing projects that meet legal norms. In many neighborhoods, individual homeowners will be outraged. What do you think? Should we do it?
No pain, no gain. It's true at the gym. But it's also true in politics.
There are some decisions that are easy wins : cracking down on tax evasion, using open source software, stronger ethics laws.
Unfortunately, most decision aren't easy wins. They actually require some pain if you want gains.
Time to start treating people like adults. Tell them the brutal truth.
I wish we had politicians brave enough to say they will make the hard and unpopular decisions. As it is, politicians only make unpopular decisions when it helps the business class. Federal NDP campaigned on removing the carbon tax. The Ontario NDP said they would by back the 407 and remove tolls. The only people I have seen with any ounce of courage and ambition so far are the ontario greens, but that's probably a byproduct of their long-shot odds of getting elected.
These policies don't happen because most people seem incapable of understanding what we are actually paying for with policies that increase affordability and access to things that are a net-negative on society like card, alcohol, and soda.
If fiscal conservatives were real, they would be the people rallying behind these ideas.
If the populace of voters can't remember anything that happened just a couple years ago, I don't think we can expect them to be forward thinking either. There's little incentive for politicians to make the hard, unpopular, long-term decisions that we need to battle climate change and other challenges.