Canadians continue to fracture themselves as the continued battle of Rhetoric Shaming and blaming replaces substantive change to drive the economy.

Canadians continue to fracture themselves as the continued battle of Rhetoric Shaming and blaming replaces substantive change to drive the economy.

Pierre Poilievre's recent remarks on grocery store taxes and related matters suggest that he may not have significantly adjusted his rhetorical approach since the election. He continues to direct criticism toward Mark Carney instead of collaborating with members from all parties to identify viable solutions for economic challenges, which reflect broader systemic issues. Over the past 36 years, both political parties and municipalities have contributed to these persistent financial problems.

Marc Carney is no saint or saviour in this either. He is about to put 55,000 postal jobs at risk while continuing to accumulate large deficits. Even more layoffs are expected as each department cuts back by up to 15 to 20 percent, and several departments across various ministries are likely to be eliminated entirely. Carney himself seems to enjoy the benefits of globetrotting around the world at taxpayers' expense, avoiding the realities of fiscal mismanagement by deflecting responsibilities solely to his cabinet.

There is a reason I left active politics years ago, choosing to earn my living by working in the service industry, pursuing journalism, or finding my way around social media, building an internet radio station, a YouTube Channel, and a major blog. This was my way of getting away from the propaganda spun not only by politicians, media bias, and, yes, the internet's misinformation system of propaganda. Blame and shame that each has had a hand in developing.

Everyone, for the most part, ignored the coming storm without finding positive and practical solutions to an economy desperately spiralling into a debt-ridden spiral and a tax base depleted and lacking the ability to continue. Until now, the blame and shame rhetorical battle has worked. Now, it is just in most of our minds, a very poor and repetitive Orwellian drama.

However, there is another group of people to take some responsibility in all this, and that is people like you and me. Blame can certainly be placed on Governments for their failures, but what about our contribution to the failed economy? That is easy and carries some merit.

Then why do I cast blame on Canadians overall? Pretty simple, we allowed ourselves to be totally seduced by the Gig economy.

This starts immediately with the post office. Yes, the post office is done. Stephen Harper attempted to end this over ten years ago, but stopped due to public outcry. There will be no public outcry this time, just a sad epitaph and memorial to another victim of the gig economy.

We want things to be immediate, convenient, and cheap. Why would you shop at a grocery store, clothing store, or even a record store when you can open your browser and click on the item you wish to purchase, and it will arrive at your doorstep the next morning or be delivered directly to your hard drive in that moment?

Ever remember walking into a McDonald's and seeing easily 13 cash registers in a line, each with an employee eagerly waiting to take your order? Now you see one till and several self-serve kiosks where you place your order manually to a significantly reduced crew preparing food.

The same applies to the supermarket industry, where cashiers were replaced with self-serve checkouts, which we gleefully used without a thought for the human cost.

Now you don't even have to go into the store - you can order what you want online and pick it up at the store, or it will be conveniently dropped off at your door.

Yes, our habits as we consume carry significant weight in today's shame and blame economy.

As storefronts shut their doors due to high overhead and a lack of traditional consumer practices, where has this left us? Now I am just as guilty as the next person of using online shopping platforms. Karen and I spend our dollars as much as possible at local farmers' markets and other small, locally owned businesses. Still, the immediacy of the gig economy has certainly caught up with us as well. Sadly, those dollars go global rather than supporting our local small businesses.

Recently, due to Trump's relationship with Canada, a Growing number of Canadians are moving away from the convenience of the global gig economy to buying and shopping local. However, it is going to take the Country as a whole, citizens and governments alike to stop the blame and shame and build constructive solutions to bring us into the twenty-second century.