Blacklock's Reporter

Author Wendy Dobson calls China’s system “authoritarian state capitalism.” Analysts similarly called pre-war Italy a “corporate state.” Like the Beijing Politburo of 2026, Mussolini in 1934 mesmerized outsiders with showboat statistics. Italian GDP appeared to defy Depression-era gravity, growing year over year from 1929 to 1939 while the Canadian economy shrank five percent overall. “Everything looks well ‘on the surface’,” wrote economist Henry Schultz of the University of Chicago on a 1934 Italian tour. “No debating, no complaints.” The UK Saturday Review in 1934 put Mussolini on its cover and enthused: “He dragged Italy out of the mire of socialism and in a few years has made it the most successful and prosperous country in Europe.” Interestingly, both pre-war Italy and contemporary China adopted the identical economic tools: over-valued currency, state management of the economy, price controls, abolition of independent trade unions, abolition of dissent, abolition of a free press, restrictions on mobility rights, property rights and rule of law, voodoo statistics and disastrous state spending. In fascist Italy one in five workers was a government employee. READ MORE

Liberal MPs yesterday rejected a motion to recover $34 million in federal grants wrongfully paid to ineligible applicants by a scandal-ridden federal agency. Industry Minister Mélanie Joly earlier told Parliament it was “not in the public interest.” READ MORE

The Budget Office that has already warned of 25 percent cost overruns on cabinet’s regional high-speed rail venture yesterday said it is investigating ridership claims. Promoters predicted 24 million Canadians a year would take the train: "There are 40 million people in Canada." READ MORE

A fifth of food bank users in Toronto spend 100 percent of their income on rent, the Commons agriculture committee was told yesterday. Others have disposable income of less than $9 a day after paying for shelter and utilities, said the CEO of the Daily Bread Food Bank: "Here is the math." READ MORE

Providing safe drinking water to First Nations by a fixed deadline “is not a yes or no question,” Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty said yesterday. Cabinet earlier skipped its 2021 deadline to eliminate all boiled water advisories despite spending $3.6 billion: "It’s not a yes or no question." READ MORE

The Supreme Court yesterday served formal notice it will hear a last appeal from cabinet over the legality of emergency measures it used against peaceful Freedom Convoy protestors in 2022. Two lower courts determined cabinet’s actions including the freezing of demonstrators’ bank accounts were unlawful: "It captured people who simply wanted to join in the protest by standing on Parliament Hill carrying a placard." READ MORE

Health Minister Marjorie Michel yesterday waived repayment of nearly a half billion owed taxpayers from people who falsely claimed free dentistry under a federal program. The Department of Health to date has yet to explain steep cost overruns in the Canada Dental Care Plan: "Costs associated with pursuing and managing recovery may be disproportionate." READ MORE