Trudeau’s long-departed grandfather likely none too happy

The Trudeau’s family fortune, and the foundation for Justin Trudeau’s eventual trust fund which affords him his life of admitted white “privilege,” began in 1934 when Charles-Emile Trudeau, son of a semi-literate farmer, known to his friends as “Charley,” eventual father of one PM and grandfather of another, sold his Montreal-area gas stations to the big boys of Imperial Oil.

Those gas stations, bolstered over the years by an innovative loyalty program that boasted some 15,000 members, sold for the tidy sum of $1 million. It was not a bad payday.

For perspective, $1 million in 1934 would be equal to $18.7 million in 2018 money, and that’s just with inflation and compound interest, and lazily sitting in a bank. Its value today – what with shrewd investments by highend accountants, stock brokers, money managers and lawyers – is no doubt over the moon. Obviously it pays to have the right lineage.

Charles-Emile Trudeau seemed to be the epitome of a small businessman of his era. He started with one gas station, worked long and hard hours, eventually added another, provided good middle-class jobs to his employees, and kept the ball rolling until his loyalty program paid off with him owning 30 gas stations, all with a solid customer base.

No doubt he would have been totally against any carbon tax that raised the pump price of a gallon of gasoline beyond its $0.19, which is what it was when he sold his enterprise to Imperial Oil. And, under his grandson’s Liberal government, he likely would have not stood a chance to build such a flourishing business and, down the line, his grandson would not have a hefty trust fund, no life of privilege, and no fancy private school where he thought nothing of wearing blackface at a gala as if he had just popped out of Aladdin’s lamp.

According to MEI, ranked among the top 15 think tanks in the world, the regulatory burden facing small business in Canada today includes more than 136,000 rules, and they increased by another 4,300 since Justin Trudeau and his Liberals took over government in 2015. The World Bank, which compares business regulations on private firms in 190 countries, has Canada falling to 18th spot from its No. 9 ranking when the supposedly cold-hearted Stephen Harper and his Conservatives were in power.

In competitiveness, Canada fell three points to 13th spot globally. In other words, Trudeau’s embracing of the middle class “and those working hard to join it” is easily and reasonably a crock. Canada, in fact, is sliding in the wrong direction. Beyond Charles-Emile Trudeau’s grandson imposing a carbon tax as if Canada is the only country able to stop climate change, he also held back lowering business taxes to the level the Conservatives suggested until competitiveness was critically damaged.

Canada’s 1.5 million small business, 417,000 of which are in Ontario, should have seen it coming when Trudeau, almost out of the gate, accused them of being “wealthy tax cheaters” when the majority of them earn a medium wage of around $60,000 annually.

They also represent 41.5 per cent of our country’s GDP. Yet, Trudeau taxes them heavily, insults them with accusations of tax thievery, all while spinning the lie that he’s bettering the lives of the middle-class and boosting those working hard to join it. If only that were the case.

The truth, however, is that no prime minister before him has proven to be such a fraud so fast. It almost takes one’s breath away.