MayDay 2011: Price & Purchasing Program

Canadians are getting ripped off.

We are paying more at the gas pump, despite being one of the world’s largest (albeit dirtiest) sources of oil.

We consistently pay anywhere from 20-50% more on basic items like cars, books, food products and other goods.  The continuous – and lame – excuse from suppliers is that the cost of doing business in Canada is rising.  Labour, regulations and other ‘impediments’ are positioned as the point of blame for these rising prices.

However, think of these excuses in context of current events:

• Unions are being broken.  They are not increasing in strength.
• Although minimum wages are increasing, they are not increasing 20-30% every year.
• When was the last time you saw an overzealous government implement a broad change in tighter regulations anywhere in Canada?

Despite the fact that our dollar continues to rise in value, we are paying more for the goods and services we rely on each day.

As a reminder, for those of you who aren’t familiar with economic terms, when your currency rises in value, imported goods should be cheaper in an inverse manner.  That is, if your currency rises 20% compared to all other currencies, the cost of goods imported into your country should drop by roughly 20% to represent this increase in buying power.

As it stands, Canadians are getting screwed over twice because they only

The progressive party (as opposed to the regressive Conservatives) that proposes an investigation into the skyrocketing prices that Canadians are paying will win this election.