89 Replies to “March 13, 2020: Reader Tips”

  1. Italy is triaging the elderly and infirm. Too many sick, and no where near enough hospital beds and ICU beds. That is why you want to do everything you can to not get sick. You don’t want your government getting comfortable making these life and death decisions for you. Next time it will be even easier for them to decide who lives and who dies. And the next, and….

    https://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/elderly-will-be-denied-intensive-care-as-coronavirus-overwhelms-italys-national-health-system-experts-warn/

    “It may be necessary to establish criteria of access to intensive care not just on the basis of clinical appropriateness but inspired by the most consensual criteria regarding distributive justice and the appropriate allocation of limited health resources.” The report goes on to recommend rationing care to certain populations.

    Certain Populations? Distributive Justice? Consensual Criteria?
    It sounds so innocuous. Until you realize it means the ending of lives.
    Next time (and there will be a next time!), who will be the certain populations? Jews? Blacks? Fetuses? Whites? Kulaks?

    1. Whites. This Pandemic. Canada. At floor level decisions will be made and none dares to be perceived as discriminating, hence they will discriminate against whites. They already do. Many will do so with a sense of social justice and retribution.

      P.S. The death rate jumped another half a percentage point since yesterday. We’re a 3.7% even now.

    2. They did the samilar things in China when they ran out of beds. They threw sick people out of the hospitals and told them to quarantine at home with their own families. Did they make decisions by Social Credit Score, or by Communist Party Member Number? Maybe Both?

      The Wuhan Pneumonia is going out of control in the EU. Anyone want to bet whether in April they will be triaging the sick in France, Germany, Britain, and the rest of the EU? Because you know they will. They will have no other choices, except the criteria they use to decide who lives and who dies.

      Wash your hands.
      Avoid crowds.
      Don’t get sick.
      Flatten the curve.
      And for Gods Sake, don’t infect your elderly family and elderly neighbors.

      1. It’s been done. Mugabe turned the ‘breadbasket of Africa’ into an economic, social and medical basket-case, mostly for giggles as far as I can see. In the process of torpedoing the Zimbabwe dollar, he made it nearly impossible to get gasoline – and a few crafty Zimbabweans opened a “Rent-a-Corpse” business. You see, one of the few ‘priority’ calls people had on the limited gasoline supply in the country was funerals, so if you had a corpse in the car you had a better chance of showing-up at the pumps and actually getting any gasoline.

  2. For those wondering… why Italy?

    **Many Italians in Northern Italy sold their leather goods and textiles companies to China. Italy then allowed 100,000 Chinese from Wuhan/Wenzhou to move to Italy to work in these factories, with direct Wuhan flights. Result: Northern Italy is Europe’s hotspot for Wuhan Coronavirus**

    https://twitter.com/DVATW/status/1238073137813749762

  3. To continue with yesterday’s theme: the greatest battlecruiser that never were: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hpgr0fDVyhI

    Now to reply to Y Knott’s excellent post from yesterday:

    What makes a battlecruiser? When Invincible was conceived she was not called a battlecruiser, she was called a Dreadnought armed cruiser. She was meant to be a cruiser killer. To hunt down and kill enemy cruisers on high seas, to kill the commerce raiders. That was the original mission statement. And they were excellent for that. The problem with battlecruisers is that British kept building them while none kept building armoured cruisers for the new battlecruisers to hunt down. Germans had literarily three armoured cruisers capable (more or less) of fleet action. All three were sunk by Royal Navy battlecruisers. Two at Falklands one at Dogger Bank. Germany’s first response to Invincible was Blucher (lost at Dogger Bank), an armoured cruiser because they thought that Dreadnought armed cruiser was to be an armoured cruiser with a uniform main battery but not with battleship caliber guns. They corrected it with the next response the Von der Tann a first German battlecruiser that was designed specifically to counter the Invincible and thus the race has started.

    And with the race the mission parameters have changed. Now battlecruisers were expected to fight battlecruisers. And yes, initial British designs the Invincible and Indefatigable classes were indeed glass cannons. Not so the later ships: the two Lions, the ill-fated Queen Mary and the Tiger. Those were built to new specs and were specifically designed to offer protection from 11-iunch guns on German battlecruisers at the time. Iron Dog was the first German battlecruiser with 12-inch guns, the preceding four ships had 11-inch guns and their shells were successfully deflected on the number of occasions. For example, at the early stage of Jutland, Tiger was hit six times by Moltke and all six shells failed to penetrate. Princess Royal was hit by 11-inch shells at Dogger Bank again failure to penetrate. Same for several times the Lion was hit.

    So the loss of Queen Mary has nothing to do with her armour. A 12-inch shell from the Iron Dog combined with bad ammo handling practice sealed her fate (as you point out: Hipper learned from Dogger Bank, Beatty never learned because he was a pompous ass).
    And no contemporary battlecruiser British or German could stand up to 12-inch shells. 12-inch shells from the, borderline obsolete by time of Jutland, Invincible and Inflexible were sufficient to sink Lutzow, the most modern German battlecruiser at Jutland. Also, no German battlecruiser or battleship at the time could tank 13.5-inch shells from the modern Royal Navy battlecruisers like Queen Mary.

    As for Hood, yes, she badly needed a refit at the time she was sent against Bismarck. Although Germans were very lucky in that engagement. Had Hood followed PoW instead of leading the charge odds are Bismarck’s career would have ended right then. PoW was much better suited to tank German shells and her gunnery was also much better (PoW drew the first blood in that fight). In any case, it does not appear that it was the thin deck on Hood that was behind her loss. At the time of her loss she was too close to Bismarck for plunging fire. It was the explosion of ammo for the secondaries that were hit at just the right angle where Hood was making a turn.

    Where I completely disagree with you is your assessment of Hood during the 20s and 30s. Then she was a magnificent ship. She combined the firepower and armor of the Queen Elizabeth (prior to modernization) with speed of the Renown. Yes, her armour belt matched that of the Queen Elizabeth class that prior to modernization had thin deck armor as well. She was arguably the world’s first fast battleship. Decades before the competition. The only two contemporary designs that had even or better chances against her were the Nagato and Colorado, and both were much slower. But by the time of WWII she needed a refit and had she been extensive afforded refit like, for example, Renown or Warspite she would remain a formidable front-line asset until the end of the war. Moreover, at no point during her career, anyone in Royal Navy would value her as a lesser ship than Revenge class or than Malaya (not modernized Queen Elizabeth class) and these served into second half of the war. Modernized Renown was combat ready and an asset as a carrier escort until the end of the war.

    Finally, was Hood the last battlecruiser? If the original mission statement of a cruiser killer is to be adhered to then the last battlecruiser was Alaska class preceded by the Dunkerque class.

    1. A few minor detractors, which you most likely know as well but I’ll say them anyway:

      – Anything reasonably modern could withstand RN shells at Jutland, because the shells were no good. German shells were filled with TNT and heir delay fuses worked; RN shells were filled with picric acid and tended to detonate spontaneously on impact, or shatter. Scheer was quite surprised that, having had his “T” crossed twice by a much-more-numerous Grand Fleet, he lost no “dreadnoughts” to their overpowering fire. And the RN knew their shells were no good, it was one of their most closely guarded secrets; they were waiting for the new Green Boy shells (filled with TNT) to arrive in quantity, and hoping a fleet action wouldn’t happen until then. As Churchill put it, Jellicoe was the only commander who could lose the war in an afternoon.

      – And your praise of Hood notwithstanding, the RN did want to scrap it during the Depression. One of the items to have been upgraded during its 1941 (not 1942 – sorry) overhaul was its fire-control equipment; Hood was still using its 1920’s-vintage fire control equipment, and it’s doubtful that it ever hit anything during the battle of the Denmark Strait. The difference? – Warspite had been modernised when it fought the Italians at Calabria, scoring the longest-recorded battleship-battleship hit with the same guns Hood had.

      – Which would explain why HMS Prince of Wales’s fire was more accurate – more modern fire control equipment. Interestingly, Prince of Wales was “JUST” commissioned, and had been crewed with whatever warm bodies the RN could scrape together; at one point in the fight only its 2-gun B-turret was operational, and the dockyard workers were still aboard and performed miracles throughout. And its one hit fatal hit to Bismarck sheered-off a fuel manifold and contaminated 1,000 tons of oil – the shell didn’t even explode, just went right through. I read that a recent dive-trip to Bismarck recorded several deep gouges to its armour belt, suggesting that the RN’s 14″ shells (fired by King George V) could not penetrate. Rodney didn’t have that problem; its one 16″ hit on Bruno turret’s face blew-out the back of the turret and destroyed the bridge, likely killing almost all Bismarck’s officers. Nelson, Rodney and the King George V’s were treaty battleships, limited in size and armament by the Washington Naval Treaty; the King George V’s had only 14″ guns, and the Nelsons were clumsy and slow. RN wags said of Nelson/Rodney that they were the “cherry tree” class – cut-down by Washington.

      And ultimately, the fire may have started in the aft 4″ magazine but Hood was sunk by the explosion of its after 15″ magazines. There’s evidence that the blast funnelled forward through the starboard fuel tanks and set-off the forward magazines as well, which is why Hood broke in three pieces. This was verified by David Mearns’s expedition, which also took the haunting photo of Hood’s rudder out to port, indicating that it was responding to its last orders when it blew up.

      For those of you who don’t get geekily into this sorta’ shtuff, some additional factoids. Bismarck was not designed for commerce raiding; it was basically an updated WW1 line-of-battle-ship design, and would’ve been at home in Scheer’s battle line at Jutland. One thing it lacked was cruise turbines, so it had a healthy appetite; it carried 7,000 tons of fuel oil (if memory serves) and at full speed, burned 1,000 tons a day. Prinz Eugen topped-up its tanks in Norway before they left but Bismarck didn’t, leaving 800 tons down – almost a full day’s cruise. Lutjens was disconcerted at how well the RN radar cruisers held on to him, and he fled south at 1,000 tons a day, trying to evade the RN battleships he knew were on the way; he was hoping to get-away from pursuit and rendezvous with some covert German tankers hiding in the North Atlantic – and not knowing that thanks to ULTRA, the RN knew where they were and was busily mopping them up ( – and meanwhile, the Germans had broken several RN codes and were reading the cruisers’ messages, getting position reports on Bismarck sooner than Whitehall had them). The overall result was that Bismarck’s fuel was getting down, and Prince of Wales’s hit forced Lutjens’s hand. He had to head for Brest, he was running out of gas.

      A final morose twist. Tirpitz, Bismarck’s sister ship, was commissioned when Bismarck headed-out on its great adventure. Tirpitz’s captain begged Raeder to let them go along, but Raeder wouldn’t hear of it – Bismarck had worked-up frantically for six months before Raeder approved the sortie, and Tirpitz hadn’t. Contrast that with the RN approach – HMS Prince of Wales was rushed-out so fast, it still had portions of its launch cradle attached to its hull.

      1. P.S. Take this conversation off-line? I doubt Kate cares about long-dead battleships. Hope to meet you someday!

        1. I am a big fan of the battleship vs. battlecruiser controversy. But these long winded posts are out of place with a conoravirus and oil price crises going on.

  4. Thanks for the song by Corb Lund.
    Today, I was completely shocked to see the PM of Canada staying home and hiding from the ”pandemic.”
    It takes us back to Oct 22, 2014 when a whack job named Michael Zehaf-Bibeau walked into the centre block of the Canadian parliament sporting a 30-30 Winchester. The perpetrator was later shot and killed by Kevin Vickers, Sergeant at Arms, and by RCMP officers.

    During the gunfire, at a nearby Conservative caucus meeting, PM Harper’s security police hid him in a closet. The police did what they were trained to do; I doubt that Mr. Harper had much to say in the matter. Yet the next day, the leftist fake news networks were quick to ridicule the PM. Many comments to the articles suggested the PM was coward for having taken cover in a closet. But then what chance does an unarmed man have against a 30-30 Winchester?? Especially given the fact that the terrorist could have been targeting the PM.

    Where were the CBC and other fake news networks today when the PM announced his quarantine?? At Mr. Trudeau’s young age, all the symptoms he would likely exhibit, if indeed he has contracted the disease, would be a case of the sniffles. Harper was facing a loaded gun. Funny how the fake news networks have different rules for different rulers. Vote Liberal.

    2. I agree. The ridicule at the time was ignorant and offensive. Some idiots even suggested that Harper should have been “protecting” his team. Some of the Harper haters could not think their way out of a paper bag. And that is exactly why we now have the completely incompetent PM at the helm during this very serious time. A classic case of “Be careful what you wish for.” These are challening times, and Harper was so much more capable as a leader than Justin, who is really just the poster boy. I am not confident that Canada will survive his tenure.
      In this case, I am ok with Justin hiding, as he is a likely carrier. I just want him gone from office.

    3. Another thing about our fake media not having anything to say.
      This is the first time Sophie and Trudeau have been mentioned together in a while, before Christmas.
      She was not in Costa Rica, but I never saw a report that she was not.
      Word is they are separated and not living together & it’s not pretty. The picture of them together yesterday was old.
      Why self isolate if they are not together?
      Why isn’t Trudeau being called out on this?
      Is the media hiding their marriage breakdown? i rarely watch MSM so I may have missed it but do follow alternate sources and should have seen something.

      1. Yes and is she really really there in isolation or is this just another story to may the nerd look good.

    1. there is no way that Justin is the son of Pierre Trudeau. As big a prick as he was at least Pierre had a backbone. Justin on the other hand has the intestinal fortitude of a weasel.

      1. the intestinal fortitude of a weasel

        Weasels are clever critters and survive by their wits and cunning. Can we say the same about Prinz Dummkopf?

      2. ….and the intellect of a licked Dry Toilet bowl.
        Add to that, a level of condescension – Arrogance not seen since the 17th Century.
        I will not wish him well, ever.
        He hates us
        He Wants us all dead.

        Believe it..daddy was a good friend of Maurice Strong, the Rothschilds & the Agha Khan.

  10. People tend to ridicule my home province, New Brunswick, for being, well, New Brunswick as a nothing province. But here’s a tidbit from the Globe and Mail. New Brunswick is the second largest producer of toilet paper in Canada. There is a run on this necessary product in all retail stores. But production is running flat out. Our crummy province is doing its bit to help Canadians out.

    1. C’mon. You guys give us French fries too!

      Friday Backdoor Tip: If you’re low on TP and can’t find it, just order it online from Costco. It’ll cost more butt…
      Plan B is obviously tissue paper and C is paper towels. I guess D would be getting a bidet installed. E: buy old used clothing. F: do some tropical plant research and get ones with nice broad leaves that won’t turn your backside into some kind of boiling carbuncle. G: Stop eating so much, ya piglet. H: take a shower ffs.
      Lots of letters left in the alphabet…

    2. Yeah, with trees, too. Funny that. Good time for a logger strike, don’tcha think? Imagine the headlines.

  12. The one bright spot about the China flu, is that Fidel Castro’s gay son can’t burn jet fuel at taxpayer expense. Poor Justin.

      1. Given it’s forecast to drop to -22 or -24 the next couple of nights in Calgary, we don’t need any extra cooling.

  13. The Liberal Party’s Toronto Star celebrates the China virus, as it could mean the end of Trump’s presidency.

  15. In other news
    Illegal border crossers still getting baggage handling services at Roxham Road.
    No waiting, no vetting, no checks for symptoms just board the bus to their accommodations.

    While this was going on the reporter gets a parking ticket.

    https://youtu.be/JSsd8eK5YrI

  16. How stupid are people in Blackie’s Toronto? Well grocery stores are running out of bottled water. Apparently Canada is going to run out of tap water during the China virus crisis. And the Liberal Party’s Globe and Mail reports that the information China received that the U.S. army spread the virus in China, comes from a university professor in Ottawa Ontario. The professor has close ties with China and Russia. Canada’s universities, world leaders in spreading Chinese and Russian propaganda.

      1. Hard to believe he was a bassist for the punk/metal/core band “The Smalls”.. His parents were always country, though.
        Really loved the “Cabin Fever” album..

        2. Zon,
          Thanks. The online info did not reveal that his former band was a punk band. Interesting. I read that he is postponing a few concert dates due to the pandemic.

  18. Privilege Nerd: Team Trudeau facing probe after details of MAiD bill allegedly leaked
    https://ipolitics.ca/2020/03/11/privilege-nerd-team-trudeau-facing-probe-after-details-of-maid-bill-allegedly-leaked/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
    –
    ” For the second time since taking office, the Liberal government is under fire for allegedly leaking the details of draft changes to the laws on medically-assisted dying to the media — and this time around, they won’t be able to use majority clout to shut down a parliamentary probe into the complaint. “

    1. – They won’t have to. Both the NDP and the Bloc know what side their bread is buttered, and recognise writing on walls when they see it. They’ll keep this gravy train going as long as they possibly can because after Little Potato face-plants, it may be awhile before they get their first-class seats back on the next one.

  20. Breaking on BNN-Bloomberg: Canada’s Parliament has suspended business until April 20. No mention how this affects the Budget, which was to be tabled on March 30.

    1. Order in council.
      Defaults to the PCO on the advice of the privy council.
      Or some other BS.

  21. Breaking on CBC news: Justin Trudeau is considering banning international flights to this country.

    1. Correction to above post: “CBC news” should read “Justin Trudeau’s CBC news”.

        1. It is scheduled to stay open to welcome illegal immigrants (part of Trudeau’s core voting constituency). Minister of Border Security Bill Blair has given explicit training to the RCMP as to baggage handling and cab service. Canadians are in safe hands.

  22. Our Prime Minister will soon be delivering another message from his isolation in Rideau Cottage to his subjects….
    Maybe he will reassure people they don’t need to stockpile toilet paper.

    1. Except that the media is being allowed to trapse to Rideau Cottage. That goes against the logic of a quarantine.

  23. Damn, just what we need – our leader is quarantined. Now they’ve suspended parliament.

    Who can we turn to in our time of need? What’s going to happen to us?

    1. Who is going to make sure we all have lots of toilet paper is the big question….butt wipes shelves are emptying everywhere, panic buying is heading out of control.

    3. Who can we turn to? Ourselves and each other. It’s up to you to avoid non-essential travel to communities with significant Chinese populations.

      Ottawa and Edmonton are not going to lock down the Chinese while the current government (or any of the collaborationiat parties) are in power. Western governments allowed this to happen. Only a fool would trust them to fix it.

      What will become of you?

      If you’re of working age and in good health, probably nothing in the short term. Long term, there will be plenty of manufacturing jobs coming back to Canada for those who want them.

      If you make your living importing crap from China or selling hotel rooms and apartments to Chinese tourists, or work for people who do, you’re going out of business. And you should have seen it coming long ago.

    1. Western University in London going with online courses next week, classes cancelled until then to work out the tech details.
      this covid is starting to hit home folks, by home I mean Canaduh.
      that insisted on putting a doofus out-of-his-league bubblehead in the PMO.

  25. Looking at the media feed today and you would swear it’s the apocalypse.

    I can’t stop people from doing stupid things but at this point I can truly say that the stupid is strong out there.

    If I can offer up this one piece of advice it’s this, folks are going to be looking for some of that old fashioned toxic masculinity soon to step up to the plate and be the adult in the room.
    There is nothing more dangerous than a panicked mob of stupid people.

  26. So this is like proroguing parliament, without the negative, cynical, caustic connotations of proroguing parliament.
    –
    Canadians have every right to know whether PM Blackface is being tested or not,,, and whether he is testing positive for the Wuhan Virus, or not !

  27. Some leftist journalists ( quite a few actually) seem to be delighting in the fact that the virus and stock market demise are causing problems for Donald Trump. Their attacks completely ignore that for the time being, the health of the US is entirely dependent on him. Konrad Yakabuski has this to say “The Democrats are getting their act together, rallying behind a flawed, but broadly appealing candidate, in former vice-president Joe Biden. Meanwhile, Mr. Trump’s approval rating of choice – the stock market – has turned on him, violently.” As though the corrupt and senile Biden will save us. Same story from Lawrence Martin, David Frum and Andrew Cohen (Ottawa Citizen). I think their delighted attacks on Trump, rather than offering anything helpful or even expressing a modicum of concern make it clear why journalism is dead. What creeps.

  28. His Royal Handsomeness currently is speaking from Rideau cottageHouse announced that he’s continuing to work for Canadians really really hard from home. (This is breaking news?) He said that the Minister of Finance will be making several announcements this afternoon regarding a stimulus package. And yes, Soapie is sick in quarantine at home, on the phone with friends and relatives…. while HRH is on the phone with Macron and other World Leaders. He is continuting and continuing and continuing to to work really hard for Canadians.

    (And the Trudeau kids are home playing with Lego)

    Meanwhile Lisa Laflamme and Joyce Napier are wondering if the stimulus package will be as high as 15 Billion. Money is No Object!
    Phew— its only money and they’re CONTINUING TO $PEND IT!
    WASH your HANDS, STAY CALM!

    (Have a nice W/E!)

    1. Money is No Object!

      We rich Albertans will pay for it all, won’t we?

      1. To B A (no D) of Rupert’s Land
        Wexit
        We always pay…
        Chicks always pay… guys always pay.

        HAVE A NICE Weekend!
        I have the Kirk Douglas flicks to catch up on and 3 non fictions , one on Epstein, one on The Shermans of Apotex and one on WW2 Spies…..and (baby, err, no) Sir, its cold outside! Like the song.

        Morneau is speaking now.
        BOC cuts rates by 50 basis points
        (You’re right he has a rubber face!)
        Now TSX IS up 599.66

        See 1:54 below, forgot to press reply, so you get 2 replies.

  29. My Rupertsland Flag is still blowing in the wind… Sir!!
    Wexit Wexit Wexit Wexit Wext Wexit!!!

    TSX + 554.92
    OIL $32. 30 up .80c
    CD $71.88
    DOW S&P NASDAQ + are up +

    BNN said: H of C passed new Trade deal USMCA.

    My back is better now I doctored up– shoveled 6″ of climate emergency today…
    TQ to my friends Tylenol, Voltarin — and nice friends like you all!

    1. Do you know about gymnastics roll on the back, hugging your knees? Roll back and forth from your bum to the back of your head. Easy at first, but increasing amplitude as you can. Helps a bad back wonders. Do not ask how I know.

      God bless!

      1. Thanks. Yes, that feels good generally.
        I get a wee pain every time I lift anything too heavy for my size.

        God bless!

        (Mr B? Is that You?)

  31. Ontario has closed the public schools for two weeks following the Spring Break, so 3 weeks of the sweet monsters at home, starting today.

    All the events here are cancelled, museums are closed, day cares closing, weather too sucky to stick them outside.

    I predict the next products to be panic bought will be at the LCBO (liquor control board of Ontario). Expect bare shelves, long lines and totally bat-s**t crazy people.

  32. Has anyone told Prinz Dummkopf that he can’t blame Doug Ford for the virus because it didn’t originate in Corunna?

  35. Well might as well be consistent…
    The TSX Composite closed at +1207.88 a 15.20% plunge for the week.
    (They don’t call it Fry Day the Thirteenth for nothin’)

    1. Yesterday, I checked a number of stocks that weren’t in my portfolio. The sell-off was across the entire market, regardless of price or capitalization.

      The consensus was that we were due for a correction anyway. The levels to which the various indices dipped is not unusual for a bear market. What was startling, however, was the rapidity at which the decline occurred. Normally, the market moves into bear territory gradually.

      However, as I’ve said in other posts, never underestimate the influence of emotion and sentiment. What we saw in the past two weeks isn’t a lot different than the panic we’re seeing in stores right now.

      When Black Monday happened in 1987, I knew back then that there wasn’t much I could do. Even if I had put in any sell orders, there wouldn’t have been any point in doing so as the backlog was so long that they might not have gone through or, worse, I might have ended up selling for much lower than I asked for.

      I doubt that the market’s going to stabilize any time soon. It might finally settle down once the outbreak has finally reached its limit and the rate of infection drops significantly.

      1. Yes, the people that are selling, are selling because they have to and most are riding it out because they can.

        Remember this Headline from ’06?
        “Income Trust Tax angers Alberta oil patch…
        CBC News · Posted: Nov 02, 2006 6:53 AM ET | Last Updated: November 2, 2006…
        Federal Conservatives in Alberta are ripping up their membership cards because they feel betrayed by the Harper government’s decision to tax income trusts, says a Calgary tax lawyer.”

        At least they left the REITS alone.

        Time will bring it back- I won’t watch it anymore. Much.
        Still, it’s all so SHOCKING!

        1. I remember when that happened. I wasn’t crazy about the Conservatives at the time and I was even less impressed after that. Jim Flaherty, the finance minister, promised before the previous election that he’d leave income trusts alone. Once the party got back into office, he reversed himself, making a lot of investors unhappy.

          The only people happy about that were all the accountants and lawyers who worked to change all those companies from corporations into income trusts and now would have to undo it all.

          1. Uh huh!
            Also, the government made a lot of money on the GST with all these changes. Lawyers and accountants have to charge that to the client and remit it to the Feds every month.

            (people forget that there is GST on labour, can you just imagine that revenue windfall for those thieves?)

  37. Late to the comment, but I also remember those days. Given the very preferential treatment given the income trusts, practically every corporation was headed that way. If their only “owners” were Canadian, it would have been okay as the income tax generated from the shareholders would have been about the same as if the corporation had paid tax and then hived off the dividends to Canadians. The real issue was that profits were going to flow off-shore with essentially no tax paid on them. So foreign corporations and individuals were going to get the benefits of Canadian corporation profits with no taxes to either federal or provincial governments. Mr Flaherty had no choice.

    Had some income trusts myself in those days, but I always paid tax. Knew someone whose income was such that, once the trusts were factored in, minimum tax kicked in. When that person died, the final return was not able to retrieve all the minimum tax.

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