Navigating Politics with a Business Mindset

What the federal and provincial governments are responsible for and maybe what some of the platforms are that the two major parties, which is the Liberals and the Conservatives, what they're talking about and what we need to know about those platforms as business owners. What are the differences and what are we going to be voting for when it comes to federally? The importance is that we understand what the federal and provincial parties are responsible for and then understand whether it's the liberal or the conservative approach, which approach best fits, fits your business needs, personal needs, philosophy, and who we think would be best representative for our advocacy around the world. Good day and welcome to the Wealthy Entrepreneur Podcast. My name is Bob Goverow. I am your host today. So excited to be here with you. I just want to remind you that this is the place where we dissect the elements that contribute to entrepreneurial success, from mindset and leadership to profits and revenue. Going to do a special episode this time in an area where I normally don't dabble, but I think it's extremely important that we understand a few fundamental frameworks about our political system. Yes, that's right. One of the areas that you don't really jump into is talking about politics, but unfortunately, I feel like our enhanced knowledge and awareness of what we need to make informed decisions needs to happen right now. Now, I want to be clear right out of the gates that, yes, I do know who I am going to vote for at this moment, but that is not what we're going to be talking about. We're going to be talking about the political system, what the federal and provincial governments are responsible for, and maybe what some of the platforms are that the two major parties, which is the Liberals and the Conservatives, what they're sort of talking about and what we need to know about those platforms as business owners. So ultimately, what I'm going to share with you today is, is the framework for understanding who we're voting for and why we would vote for them. And that really, ultimately we're here to educate on the system and the framework of what it is that we need to be thinking about. Everyone gets to make their own choices, of course, in this beautiful country of Canada. But the important part is, is that as business owners, that we make sure that our voice is heard. So regardless of where you're voting, make sure on April 28th that you vote. Don't. Now, let's talk Politics is really going to understand deep down what the system actually does. And I think this is really important because I think for so many of us, including myself, before I Started doing some of the research related to this. I wasn't even sure what some of the provincial, which is outside of this election and federal parties were responsible for. So I just wanted to do a little bit of an education system on exactly what the major responsibilities are. So to sort of kick things off, I want to share with you what the federal government, which is what our election is for, our Prime Minister and our local MPs who are representing us federally and nationally versus our provincial that just represents us in, you know, Ontario or B.C. or Alberta. This is specifically going to be focusing on what are the differences and really what are we going to be voting for when it comes to federally. Because you know, a lot of the things that hit home really tight to us are managed by the provincial parties, not the federal parties. So I want to just get clear on this. So the main responsibilities, and this is all research guys from government of Canada, these are all reliable sources. This is not speculative information from third party sources. This is directly from the government and the legislation. So there's no opinions going to be shared here. It's just all facts about how the system and the framework works. So the main responsibilities for the federal party really include national defense or military, foreign affairs and international trade, which is definitely a hot topic right now. Immigration and citizenship, which is somewhat shared provincially, but the feds set the overall policy related to immigration, criminal law, currency and banking, like the bank of Canada, the Postal Service. Federal taxes, so income taxes, whether it's business tax, personal tax, gst, hst, any of those larger federal related taxes. Employment, Insurance Canada, pension plan, transportation, so airports, railways, major shipping routes. So not necessarily the local roads, but the, the major infrastructure and indigenous affairs. Now then, you know, that's sort of the federal. So what does our local representative actually do for us? Well, they debate and vote on federal laws. So this is where they go to the House of Commons and you hear them back and forth consistently debating and trash talking each other from one side of the room to the other. But really what they're doing is they're trying to debate and vote on federal laws. And this really is dependent upon whether there's a majority or a minority, whether or not a lot of these laws get moved forward or not. Because typically there's some lines drawn in the sand that, you know, if you're on one side of the room, you vote with that side of the room. And when there's a minority it becomes harder for, you know, change in legislation to take place. There definitely are local representation. So when we're voting for our mp. There are local representation in that debate and in that House of Commons. They help constituents with federal services such as immigration, employment, insurance, Canada Revenue, a Canada Revenue Agency related issues, which is important. So typically, you know, if there's a challenge or an issue, we go to our federal representative to deal with any of the items that I've sort of just talked about. All right. And then they work on committees studying legislation and policy. So really our local representative is there to help us with the federal guidelines and also to advocate for us related to the change in policy or legislation. Okay, I know that was a lot. It's going to start to become more clear as I continue to work through this. So the next part is what are the provincial representatives really helping? So these are the premiers of all of the provinces this election. Those elections are outside of what's happening right now. But, but I think it's important to understand provincially what they're responsible for. Because when we're voting right now, we wanna make sure that we're voting related to the federal representation, not the provincial representation, because that's already in place. Or maybe you need to keep this in mind for the next vote that's coming up. So provincially it's the premier, they're the members of provincial Parliament. So the MPPs, their major responsibilities can. Okay. And these I actually feel are more powerful than the federal health care. So the provincial representation is responsible for healthcare, hospitals, doctors, health insurance, like OHIP in Ontario, education. So they're responsible for schools, curriculum, teacher regulation, transportation. So provincial highways and licensing, justice. So civil law, provincial court, not criminal law, but civil law, provincial courts, policing, in some cases, some cases it's pushed down a little bit further. We've got natural resources and environment is a provincial responsibility. Municipal affairs, they oversee and fund local governments, support services, welfare, housing, disability support, provincial taxes like pst, sales tax and then the provincial portion of income tax which is really administered by the federal government. When we get into to the income tax side and then it's sort of allocated amongst the provinces accordingly and then labor laws and employment standards. So you know, for me when I was reviewing these, I was going, wow, you know, the, the province or the territory that we're in really has the bulk of the day to day interaction with services and the things that I can think of, you know, they're responsible for that. So I want to be able to separate that when I'm thinking about my federal representation, which is really about the laws and the legislation and policies that we want to See, move forward and I'm going to talk about what those, those will be in a second. And then lastly, as a bit of a bonus, you know, what is the municipal government in your town really responsible for? So this is where the mayor is responsible and you've got their council. They're really responsible for local infrastructure, roads, water, sewage, garbage collection, public transit, fire and police services, parks and recreation, local, local zoning and planning, libraries and community services. So, you know, there is some overlap between all three. So immigration, essentially the federal government, so our election right now handles the selection of the immigration. The provinces have nominee programs. When it comes to the environment, the provinces regulate resources, but the federal government regulates the policy of the environment. So when we're thinking of climate change, that would be the federal government administers the policy and the direction, and then the provincial government sort of handles the resource allocation and the adherence to that overall policy. Health care is federally funded but provincially administered. So when we think of funding for health care, you want to be thinking that, yes, there is an element of the federal that deals with our health care. They are administering the policy of how the federal government and Canada is going to represent health care across the country. So we want to keep that in mind. And then education and job training provinces run the schools and the feds may provide funding or programs. So we just want to be aware that there is some influence on education from the federal side as well, even though the province essentially runs the operations of the schooling and the education program. So I thought that was pretty, pretty powerful to have an understanding of that. What I want to just walk you guys through is some of the Liberal and the Conservatives, because those are really the main parties that we're dealing with. You know, with respect to this election, that, though it's one of those two parties, is going to be our federal representation, it looks like, as we come to the election campaign. So what I want to just share with you is some of the platform policies that, that they have right now. So when we're thinking of the Liberal Party, which is in power right now with Prime Minister Mark Carney seeking reelection as prime minister and representation, the key focus areas for the Liberal Party are on trade and foreign policy. So this is response to the US Tariffs. They are matching retaliatory tariffs related to steel, aluminum vehicles. And as well, they've included a 25% tax on US vehicles not complying with the Franchise Free Trade Agreement. So that's sort of where they're going. So that is a major focus. Economic policy, as we know, Mark Carney is a former bank of Canada representative, so, and is an economist. So when it comes to economic policy, he definitely is an expert in there. But both parties would have economic experts as part of their platform as well. So he's looking at or the Liberal Party is focusing on implementing reductions in capital gains to stimulate investment and economic growth. This is more so they've agreed to not implement the increase in the capital gains policy that the Liberals had proposed last year but never got passed. And that was where we were going to essentially be paying 33% tax on capital gains versus the existing 25%. So the Liberals have said, hey, we're going to stay with 25%. Now that could change. But as of the moment, that is what they're proposing. And then from a climate and environmental policy, they have eliminated the carbon tax, but they're looking at other measures in which they can help support alternatives to addressing climate change. And I would suggest that that is a bit of a difference between the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party is a focus on climate change and how to reduce our carbon footprint. On the opposite side, the Conservative parties, you know, in the same areas, their focus on foreign policy is Canada first approach, emphasizing renegotiating trade terms, prioritizing Canada's interests, you know, to maybe put Canada in a better situation than it has been in the past. You know, somewhat similar approaches there. I'll talk about the differences and similarities in a second tax reductions. The Conservative platform includes broad tax cuts, including eliminating federal tax on car purchases, which I thought was good to boost consumer spending and economic activity. Most recently, which I think is a pretty powerful sort of suggestion from the Conservatives, is that they will be deferring capital gains on any disposal that you have where you reinvest those proceeds on the sale of something back into Canada. So, for example, if you have a rental property now, we're still looking for details of real property, so whether or not real estate will take place. But let's say you're a business that has property. You sell one facility to buy another one that's larger, it costs more money because you need a greater space for your facility, whether it's your office or manufacturing. Ultimately, what the Conservatives are saying is any capital gains related to the sale of that property, you're not going to pay tax on it. It's going to be rolled into the next one because you're reinvesting in Canadian property. And ultimately it would suggest as well that even if you sell that property, but you reinvest it back into Canadian businesses, it's going to be deferred and we're going to avoid capital gains tax on that as well. Now details to be determined but this is definitely a policy that would allow funds to stay in Canada and promote reinvestment in Canada and I think would be a great economic sort of stimulus to making sure funds stay in Canada versus going to other places like the United States, for example. Energy and environmental the party advocates for policies aimed at achieving energy independence, including the development of domestic energy resources. And I would say the Conservative approach definitely to expanding on the resource deployment of energy is a lot stronger position than the Liberals who are more focused on climate change as well. So key differences the Liberals are looking to implement retaliatory tariffs and to seek to build equitable trade alliances, particularly with Mexico and Europe, which I think is strong. I think finding and this is my opinion, I think finding new trade partners so that our reliance on the US Is not as heavy is going to be a strong proactive approach to long term success for Canada. The Conservatives are focusing on renegotiating trade terms with Canada first approach aiming for favorable bilateral agreement. So more so going back to the US and renegotiating the terms and how we work with the United States environmental policy. Really the Liberals are have repealed the carbon tax but they're looking to seek alternative climate change strategies. And again the Conservatives are advocating for energy independence through domestic resource development as well. So a couple things that as a business owner, what should we be thinking about? Well, we want to be thinking about tax policy and of course I'm somewhat involved in this and have a lot of emotion tied to it because some of our our goal and objective is to make sure that our clients are paying the least amount of tax legally possible. While advocating for a reduction in tax policy or tax rates is definitely going to be beneficial to our business clients. And as business clients, if we can get more after tax money, reinvest more into our business for sure that is going to be something that is going to stimulate our businesses going forward. So we have to be paying attention to tax policy which areas to watch and this is me, I'm going to just tell you areas to watch and you need to pay attention to your federal party candidates and see where they're they're looking and how they're addressing these issues. But some areas that you want to pay attention to as a business owner, you want to watch the corporate tax rates. I haven't seen too much on corporate tax rates, but we've seen a little bit on the capital gains We've seen the liberals reduce it and we've seen the conservatives propose no capital gains on reinvestment until you eventually dispose of. We want to look at the small business deduction and those thresholds. I haven't seen too much on this yet. There's still time. We want to be paying attention if they're talking about that the lower or I guess the higher the small business exemption, the lower our overall corporate tax rates, dividends and income splitting rules, gst, HST changes. These are things on tax policy that we just need to be paying attention to. So continue to listen to your local representation, continue to follow the sort of federal updates because we want to be paying attention to those employment labor laws, you know, minimum wage increases. So some of these are different across the country. But I know that there is some advocacy from a federal standpoint related to some of these labor laws. So let's make sure that we're paying attention to that. Paid sick days and leave entitlements. You know, I believe that we have an opportunity to be leaders in and making sure our team has flexibility in essentially making sure that they've got the flexibility to live life and to come to work and show up to work in their best form. Paid sick days and leave entitlements, you know, there's minimum requirements. So depending on where you stand, the elevation of those minimum requirements will be costly to some businesses who have a lower threshold right now. So let's pay attention to that. Overtime impact employment laws, we want to be paying attention to that. Labor relations, EI and payroll tax adjustments, we want to be paying attention to these as well. When it comes to regulatory environment things to be paying attention to as a business owner, Industry specific regulations on construction, food manufacturing, looking at the oil and gas industry, you know, are we going to be available to open up the doors for more business or are we going to have some doors shut down? These are things that we just want to be paying attention to. Environmental impact assessments and sustainability requirements. Who's going to have a better impact on the climate change as a long term investment in our businesses and in our families, we have to be paying attention to that. Inter provincial trade barriers. This has been a huge one that's come up for debate and discussion. You know, which party is going to eliminate those interprovincial trade barriers which I didn't even really understood existed until all of this conflict with the US But I really truly believe we need to eliminate those interprovincial trade barriers to allow business to flow more seamlessly from province to province digital privacy and cybersecurity regulation. So who is better protecting us and putting up higher standards related to cybersecurity? Other things to pay attention to trade and tariffs, the trade agreements, who's stronger on, you know, Canadian first or renegotiating with the US to find a better solution. I think there's got to be some sort of combined better situation with the US But I also feel like we should be looking at other partners to expand as well. So we've got that border issue, supply chain policies. On an economic growth side, we want to look at innovation funding, R and D tax credits and if you're available for if you have access to those and what that looks like from a federal policy, infrastructure investment support to startups. Which one is providing more funding, more support, more programming for innovation startups, small businesses. We want to be paying attention to that export development and financing support, access to capital and financing tools. You know which federal platform is going to open up More funding to help support. Support small businesses is important and we need to be paying attention to these environmental and climate policy, carbon tax, green energy initiatives, sustainability reporting requirements, clean tech or retrofit grants. You know, where do these federal, you know, advocacy groups, whether it's liberal, liberal or conservative, where do they stand on these and how do you feel about these? Is really the most important immigration. What areas are focusing on skilled trade worker immigration policies? In fact, I believe I saw the Conservative Party announce a few weeks ago that they are going to be funding the education for trades and helping those people get educated and trained so that we have more skilled workers, which I thought was a positive. That came out as well. Temporary foreign worker program, credential recognition and training programs. I believe that along with the announcement of paying for trades to get education, I believe they were going to bring the apprenticeship tax credits back as well. Which is another thing for anyone in the trades paying attention to that. It could stimulate your reinvestment in growing your team and your resources, not to mention the education of your team in getting informal programs. And lastly looking at areas of the digital economy, privacy legislation, AI regulation, infrastructure investments in rural areas. Where do we stand federally related to that? So you know a few things just to pay attention to. The Liberal Party has announced a middle class tax cut reducing the lowest federal personal tax rate from 15 to 14%. I believe the Conservative Party has something done something similar as well. The Conservative Party on tax policy has been advocating using revenues from retaliatory tariffs to cut taxes for Canadian workers and businesses to ultimately bolster the economy against U.S. tariffs. But again, I believe that they've got a proposed tax reduction as well for middle class families. Employment laws. The Liberal Party is supporting agri food workers, announcing plans to protect farmers, ranchers, agri food workers in response to trades. The Conservative Party has a national insurance reduction proposes reducing national insurance contributions by 2% points, aiming to decrease tax payments for employers and workers. So that's something to pay attention to. The regulatory environment. The Liberal Party has focused on trade incentives that emphasize trade, that economic benefit that benefits all Canadians, aiming for a robust economic recovery through equitable trade alliances. And the Conservative Party has a regulatory simplification approach, advocating for clear and straightforward regulations, aiming to reduce bureaucratic red tape for businesses and I think specifically opening that up to eliminate barriers for development as well there trade and tariffs. We've already talked about that. Economic growth. The Liberal Party has a commitment to $100 billion to fight climate change and build a clean economy, including a $53.6 billion platform for green recovery. And the Conservative Party is emphasizing support for the oil and gas industry, advocating for policies that expand production and reduce environmental regulations. There's a lot more guys I know. I've been going here for about 20 minutes. The importance is that we understand what the federal and provincial parties are responsible for and then understanding whether it's the Liberal or the conservative approach, which approach best fits your business needs, your personal needs, your philosophy and ultimately who we think would be best representative for our advocacy around the world ultimately. So hopefully this has been super valuable. I know for me, researching this, spending time on this, getting familiar with what is important when it comes to politics. I don't think that in my lifetime there's been a more important political sort of election or investment in time and understanding who our future leader is going to be with some of the challenges that we've had with the United States and our economy and our businesses, you know, we're post Covid the challenges can continue to happen. So who's best going to represent our interests as business owners and individuals in our community? Best represent our country, Best represent the future of our families. It's important to understand what each individual party is looking to do, what they're representing and what that looks like for our future. That's the end for me. Again, trying not to share any biases on political platforms, but just bringing education towards what system would maybe be best for each individual here and what platforms people are really getting behind. I hope you found this extremely valuable. I know doing the research was extremely valuable for me. I would love for you to leave any comments below. Again, trying to avoid any sort of bias or my opinion on anything. Just sharing information that's coming straight from the parties and those candidates. If you feel like this would be valuable to share with somebody to have a better understanding of the political platform and what we're actually voting for, please share this. Once again I feel like this this particular vote may be the most important vote in our lifetime. It might be my in my lifetime for sure. So share this out. Make sure you give us a follow we're gonna continue to focus on informing people and educating people in areas that we think are important for businesses cause all ultimately we're here and committed to empowering business owners with the financial information necessary to ultimately make progress and change the world together. This is an important time for all of us in our business and in our country. Please continue to educate yourself. Hopefully this been valuable and I look forward to seeing you guys again next week. Thank you so much.