Between Heaven and Earth: Soul-searching for a New Year

Patrick Gossage • December 28, 2023

These days many Canadians are soul-searching, anxious about wars that don’t feel so far away, people dying daily, hate, political polarization and worry of those among us who are financially unstable, unable to pay bills or feed their families. At this time of year, many of us are in a kind of limbo, a confusing space between the heaven of seasonal family love, abundance and gifts and an earth that seems horribly dark and foreboding. For Christians, the celebrations of the humble birth of a prophet whose arrival was going to change the world, the angel’s announcement of the event “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” seem like a hopeless wish. 

We are left with wondering if we can still eke some optimism out of holidays that were originally “holy-days”. It seems a simple solution, but why don’t we consider preparing for a new year where every one of us is actually contributing to an improved society? Making goodwill a real part of our lives? We may not be able to contribute to solving the war in Ukraine or the Israel-Hamas conflict, but we can ensure that our own communities build bridges of understanding between Jews and Palestinian supporters, that we support new Ukrainian immigrants fleeing the war, and that we find the spiritual support wherever we can to inspire us to kindness and service to our fellow Canadians. 

Having a religious belief helps. Studies over the years demonstrate that people with religious convictions are more philanthropic and more involved in helping the disadvantaged. Christian or not, are we up for challenges that are actually achievable? 


It is the ongoing evidence of ordinary Canadians acting out their concerns for those less fortunate that should give us the kind of hope that infuses the experience of Christmas for believers. Giving is evidenced everywhere in the GTA and across Canada. Since homelessness and hunger top our major community concerns, our generosity and volunteerism often center around feeding the hungry. 


For example, CBC did a great job of covering a very innovative program at restaurants in Kentville, NS . Patrons are encouraged to join the pay forward meal program by paying for a meal and the receipt is pinned on the window and can be exchanged by anyone picking it up. Hundreds of meals have been given to the mostly homeless people. A great program to emulate anywhere. 


North of Toronto, the local online newspaper Newmarket Today continued its fifth annual tradition of marking the giving season by celebrating Newmarket's Community Angels — the people whose kindness, compassion and community spirit help make the town a good one to live in. This time it was a remarkably active Patricia Hawke who despite a long-term disability, has helped organize the annual fundraising holiday dinner for the Ladies Supper Club, and maintained regular volunteer shifts for the Newmarket Food Pantry, Rose of Sharon and Community Living. 


Speaking of volunteers, it takes over 70 to make sandwiches, prepare and serve hundreds of the homeless and needy weekdays for coffee, breakfast and lunch at the “Common Table” at the Church of the Redeemer on Bloor Street in Toronto. They have gone above and beyond to serve people experiencing homelessness and twice a week send out carts with sandwiches to serve those people where they need it most.

The Star did an inspiring story of Edmonton’s Kora-Lee Vidal, who was a victim of domestic violence who has experienced homelessness and now gives back as only someone who has been there can. She fills her car with donations and distributes it to those in need. In 2021 she helped a man living behind a dumpster from the cold by giving him a jacket pillow and blanket. Her act of kindness garnered her video 2 million views. 

Charity Intelligence is a Toronto based research firm that ranks charities by their impact and return of a donor’s investment. In its top ten last year we find a food bank, the Cambridge Food Bank. CFB distributes over 2,500 emergency food hampers each month. In 2022, CFB helped to distribute 1,087,175 pounds of food. It also provided 31,932 meals. For clients in immediate need of food, CFB’s Community Pantry program offers emergency food hampers with a five-day supply of food, provided up to 12 times per year. The Mobile Food Market sells vegetables and fruits at affordable prices and has received almost 8,000 visits. Like many food banks, CFB also runs community gardens to grow fresh, organic produce. It is efficient in terms of overhead – for every dollar donated to the charity, 92 cents go to the cause. Donations hard at work.


The real Christmas story does inspire generosity and volunteerism, but also has a strange way of seeping into popular culture even as church attendance declines. Carols and Christmas hymns are backgrounds in manly stores and malls, but perhaps the most impactful is offered in the ever-popular 1965 “A Charlie Brown Christmas."  My former priest in King City used the story in her Christmas eve sermon. “What always brings me back into the Spirit of Christmas is Linus from Charlie Brown. A Charlie Brown Christmas brings me back into the actual spiritual spirit of Christmas. There’s a part when everyone is bickering about the Christmas play and Charlie Brown throws his hands up and yells ‘isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?’ and Linus says, “sure, I can tell you… then he goes to the center of the stage and reads from the Gospel of Luke. He tells the story of Jesus’ birth. When Linus quotes St. Luke: “and the angel said unto them, ‘Fear not: for, behold , I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people,’ he lets go of his security blanket, the one he never ever lets go of…because there is something about the angel’s proclamation that gave him the courage to stand alone, without fear, without the need for security, to proclaim to others that Jesus’ birth was a moment of great joy before finally picking up his blanket again and saying to Charlie Brown ‘that’s what Christmas is all about.’ Charles Schulz’s producers were convinced that putting the Bible on TV would be a disaster. It was not.”



I believe hope resides in the good we do for others, and as Mayor Olivia Chow insists - in our working together for a better future for all. The true worth of a country, someone once said, is not in its wealth but in the way it treats the least fortunate in its communities. By this measure, if you look around, we are not doing so badly. Anyone who works for a charity or not-for-profit will tell you that if you ask for help or funds where there is a real need help is always forthcoming. We are generous people. This is what we should ponder on as we end the holy-days and embrace a new year. 

Patrick Gossage Insider Political Views

Immigration – Too much of a Good Thing

By Patrick Gossage • September 17, 2025
Welcoming newcomers, especially those fleeing wars, has been a widely accepted Canadian virtue. Now, after 25 years of a very open door. there is increasing evidence that we have too much of a good thing. And admittedly, it has been pre-PM Carney Liberal policies which have us in this situation. Where we are now was exemplified by PM Carney recently at the caucus retreat in Edmonton where said recent levels have not been "sustainable" and a more "focused" approach is required. "It's clear that we must improve our overall immigration policies," he said. It had been easy to be caught up in Justin Trudeau’s unabashed enthusiasm for high immigration levels exemplified by his warm personal welcome of the first Syrian refugees in December, 2015. On the fifth anniversary of his memorable event he happily announced: “In the years since, the Government of Canada has worked closely with Canadians, the business community, and civil society to resettle nearly 73,000 Syrian refugees in more than 350 communities across the country.” Few questioned our generosity and thousands of ordinary Canadians sponsored families. But opening our doors wide soon got out of control. In 2021, more than 8.3 million people, or almost one-quarter (23.0%) of the population, were, or had been, a landed immigrant. Canada’s population grew from 38 million to 41.5 million, representing the highest annual population growth rate since the post-war boom of 1957. Immigration now accounts for virtually all of Canada’s net labour force growth. It then became of public concern that temporary residents, including record numbers of temporary workers and foreign students accounted for 3 million of that number. In total, since 2015 we admitted 15 million temporary foreign workers in agriculture, hospitality and some manufacturing and processing jobs. They were seen to be exploited with lower wages and few rights. Foreign students with limits on hours they could work swelled these huge numbers. Inevitably, public support for high immigration levels dramatically flipped, where 58% of Canadians now believe there are too many immigrants being admitted to Canada. An Environics Poll in 2024 showed that f or the first time in a quarter century, a clear majority of Canadians say there is too much immigration, with this view strengthening considerably for the second consecutive year . Canadians’ express concerns about the arrival of so many newcomers contributing to the country’s problems with housing availability and affordability; this view is much more prominent than a year ago. Immigrants placing pressure on public finances, taking jobs from other Canadians, over-population, and insufficient screening are less prominent. Along with rising concerns about immigration levels, an increasing number of Canadians are expressing doubts about who is being admitted to the country and how well they are integrating into Canadian society. The new Carney government took action, gradually reducing permanent resident admissions to 380,000 in 2026 and 365,000 in 2027; introducing caps for temporary residents, including students and workers at 673,650 in 2025, a notable decrease in new international student admissions with only 163,000 new study permits projected for early 2025. This has led to serious financial shortfalls in many post-secondary institutions. There will be a decline in the overall Canadian population in 2025 and 2026 due to the projected outflows of temporary residents.The number of new temporary residents arriving in the country — made up of international students, foreign workers and refugee claimants — declined in the first six months of 2025, compared to the same period last year. These immigration statistics have been closely watched, with critics arguing the Liberal government’s high immigration intake has contributed to Canada’s runaway population growth and is straining the housing market and health-care system. In response, the government slashed the 2025 intakes of new permanent residents by 21 per cent to 395,000; new study permit holders by 10 per cent to 305,900; and new work permit holders by 16 per cent to 367,750. Accommodating the needs of refugees for resettlement and shelter has become a major issue and embarrassment. In the summer of 2023 many asylum seekers in Toronto ended up sleeping on the street. What a way to welcome them to Canada! Since September 2021, the number of refugee claimants housed in Toronto shelters has increased more than tenfold, from 530 per night to a peak of almost 6,500 per night by August 2024. Recently there were about 3,500 refugee claimants in the system, about 40 per cent of all clients. The mayor recently wrote a letter warning that Carney’s government had agreed to cover only 26 per cent of Toronto’s estimated costs for housing asylum seekers in its shelter system this year. Refugees are a federal responsibility, yet reduction in federal support leaves the municipality $107 million short. We still welcome asylum claimants unreservedly. From January-June 2015 over 57,000. The leader of the Official Opposition, Pierre Poilievre, is now determined to make immigration a major political issue. He is calling for a tougher stance, saying he wants to see "very hard caps" on the number of newcomers allowed into the country. Poilievre says the country has struggled to integrate newcomers and he wants to see more people leaving than coming in "while we catch up." "We have millions of people whose permits will expire over the next couple of years, and many of them will leave," he said. "We need more people leaving than coming for the next couple of years. He would scrap the Temporary Foreign workers program altogether. BC Premier David Eby also calls for the end of Canada's temporary foreign worker program — blaming Ottawa's flawed immigration policies for filling up homeless shelters and food banks. "The temporary foreign worker program is not working. It should be cancelled or significantly reformed," Eby said. "We can't have an immigration system that fills up our homeless shelters and our food banks. We can't have an immigration system that outpaces our ability to build schools and housing. And we can't have an immigration program that results in high youth unemployment,“ Despite these concerns, there is a bedrock of strong support for immigration which was manifested recently in Torontonians where over 150 teachers,.labour union members and families organized a noisy counter demonstration against about 50 right wing flag waving Canada Fist anti-immigrant demonstrators. They chanted “there is no space for hate at Christie Pits”, the site of the clash which led to many arrests. Torontonians enjoy the benefits of living, the world’s most multicultural city with its amazing variety of foods and cultures, and daily evidence from immigrants that their children are doing very well, thank you. But we await the end of the hopelessness that is apparently part of the lives of so many new arrivals, particularly refugees, and the needless exploitation of many other newcomers in menial and low paying jobs..

Deciphering the Canada/US tariff wars

By Patrick Gossage • August 12, 2025
1. Negatives - The sad truth about missing the August 1 deadline: Trump on July 31, 2025: ”We haven’t spoken to Canada today. He’s called.” Carney could not get through! Obviously, the President of Mexico did and got a 90 day reprieve. He may speak with Carney this week but clearly the PM’s relationship isn’t what we thought. Trump:: ”(Canda} has been very poorly led….Canda has treated US farmers “very badly” (our apparently untouchable dairy and poultry supply management regime remains a major irritant.). He still believes there is a “huge flow of fentanyl from Canada to the US that has to be stopped.” Trump said earlier he hasn’t “had “a lot of luck with Canada,” and reaching a deal wasn’t a priority for his administration. In addition, Trump intensified his trade war with Canada with A35% tariff just ahead of the August 1 deadline for an agreement, saying it would be "very hard" to make a deal with Canada after it gave its support to Palestinian statehood. “ Ford among others has called all along for a tougher approach and dollar for dollar reciprocal tariffs on US goods coming to Canda – which the White House dislikes claiming only Canada and China are imposing these tariffs. A recent Angus Reid poll suggests the proportion of those advising the PM and his team to “play hardball” has increased, from 63 to 69 per cent of the population compared to mid-July. Recently Carney has prepared us to accept there will be no deal without tariffs. In March he predicted “It is clear that the United States is no longer a reliable partner. It is possible that, with comprehensive negotiations, we will be able to restore some trust, but there will be no turning back,” On August 5 he said the focus now will be to preserve and reinforce CUSMA ahead of next year’s negotiations, adding “There’s a bigger picture there. Sounds like buying time? One journalist’s – Matt Guerny’sjudgment on Carney’s performance: “…the central conceit of the federal election three months ago was that we faced an unprecedented crisis requiring an unprecedented response…The Liberals made the case — and voters agreed — that Carney was the man to lead Canada’s emergency effort….But I will blame Carney for not doing the things that he can do, as fast as he can do them, and that very much includes moving fast enough to harden this country so that we can better withstand geopolitical and economic threats … threats like an erratic and unpredictable U.S. president.”. 2. Positives Government’s plan B: Carney - “Canada, we are in charge of our future. We can build a strong economy that doesn't depend on the United States. We can be masters in our own house.” Bill C5 envisions huge national infrastructure projects: “It’s time to unite this country and invest in nation-building infrastructure on a scale not seen in generations. Major nation-building projects will connect Canada and grow the economy in ways that last for generations, such as the Port of Churchill, hydrogen production in Edmonton, seizing vast solar potential in Cowessess, high-speed rail that starts with Windsor to Québec City, and a trade corridor to Grays Bay in Nunavut, amongst others.” However, we are still wiring for a major project to be green lit under the Build Canada Act. 50% Steel and Aluminum tariffs backfiring: GM and Ford announced billion-dollar losses and Ford’s best-selling aluminum body F150 pickup severely affected by aluminum tariffs. This noted by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bissent: “We will be negotiating with Canada on those.” Canadians deciding to not travel to US -and US alcohol being taken off Liquor Board shelves in provinces (except Sask and Alberta having an impact. This is "worse than tariffs", the boss of Jack Daniel's maker Brown-Forman says. Statistics Canada reporting a "steep decline" in Canadian travel to the U.S., particularly by land, and a -notable, drop in air travel. Big US coverage of impact on business in affected states. Leverage of Canadian rare earths and energy: Canada is a major energy exporter to the United States, particularly for oil, natural gas, and electricity. Canada supplies a significant portion of the US's crude oil, natural gas, and electricity imports. Specifically, Canada provides 60% of the crude oil and close to 100% of the natural gas imported by the U.S. Additionally, Canada supplies 85% of the electricity imported by the U.S. Canadian reciprocal counter tariffs: On March 3 2025 Trudeau announced a slew of retaliatory tariffs on US consumer and other goods entering Canada: Outlining the tiny amounts of Fentanyl crossing the border and investments in enhancing border security, he added : “Canada will not let this unjustified decision go unanswered. Should American tariffs come into effect tonight, Canada will, effective tomorrow, respond with 25 per cent tariffs against $155 billion of American goods – starting with tariffs on $30 billion worth of goods immediately, and tariffs on the remaining $125 billion on American products in 21 days’ time. Our tariffs will remain in place until the U.S. trade action is withdrawn.” August 4 th Carney said he may consider removing some. They have had an immediate impact on Canadian households. Tariffs hitting US consumers Proctor and Gamble announced last week it would raise prices on a wide range of consumer goods. Other manufacturers, from Porsche to Nestle to Adidas have announced the same thing. As have Walmart and Amazon which has raised prices on over 1200 items. Andrew Coyne on one sector Trump cannot control: “The Markets may be nevertheless prove to be Mr. Trump’s most implacable opponents.”
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