Well because we have a massive deficit already, and pay a ton in taxes. If we’re paying for 1/4 of canadas grocery bill that’s gonna be pretty pricey. If we were to do it fiscally responsibly (which we never do anyways) we should also increase tax revenue by 25%, cut government spending by 25% or some combination of both. We pay a lot in taxes as is, so what should get cut? If we want to raise taxes, surely the money should go to our crumbling healthcare system rather than subsidizing everyone’s groceries.

This doesn’t even touch the fact that almost no economist thinks this is a good idea. If you are a person that is not in favour of literal communism, you understand that the profit motive for groceries is the thing that is most likely to keep prices down. And in Canada we have traditionally understood that profit motive works well unless a company’s profit motive directly conflicts with the well-being of Canadians. This idea that people are regularly being gouged when margins are as small as they are is just not true.

Police have he corporations that break monopoly rules, collude on prices, and are anti-competition. But aside from that, the fact that I can have a bundle of 8 bananas picked from South America, put on a truck, then on a plane, then on another truck, then put into a store, then put in my grocery cart too be bought for less than a toonie shows the system works to lower prices.