THE HOT TAKE: Don’t blame politics for Canada’s food price inflation

Last Sunday marked a milestone moment for me. For the first time in my life, I ordered a McDonald’s Happy Meal.

My parents never gave me fast food when I was a kid, so by the time I was old enough to buy my own McDonald’s, I was beyond Happy Meal age. Now that I’ve got my own kid, I try to do the same, and I made it a whole three-and-a-half years before caving and buying a Happy Meal. My daughter isn’t much into fast food—she prefers Japanese dishes like ramen and katsu curry—but we had a busy Sunday and were out and about at dinner time, facing down a long drive home with a hungry toddler, so while passing by a Micky D’s, we decided to grab her a Happy Meal.

She didn’t actually eat much of it — she only wanted the milk and the yogurt and wouldn’t touch the fries or chicken nuggets — but that wasn’t the most surprising part. What really blew me away was the price: a mere six bucks.

How is this possible? Food costs have skyrocketed in Canada to absurd levels, so I was entirely prepared to pay $12 or more for a Happy Meal, but somehow McDonald’s is holding the line and keeping them entirely affordable.

Can we maybe put Ronald McDonald in charge of Canadian grocery stores also, because we could really use someone over there who isn’t gouging us.

Especially with the “news” that food is going to maybe cost us an extra $800 next year. I put “news” in quotes there because while I’m seeing everyone toss this around like it’s a fact, like somehow, somebody has already calculated next year’s grocery bill and determined it will cost $800 more, the reality is that number is little more than guesswork. Politically-tainted guesswork at that.

I was suspicious of this number when I saw the headlines, then upon reading the actual report, I was even more suspicious. According to the report, which was authored by some number-crunching nerds at Dalhousie University, the University of Guelph, University of Saskatchewan and University of British Columbia, the $800 figure was arrived at by using “machine learning and AI models to make predictions” so right away, big red flag. They also claim to have factored in the Trump residency to “calculate” the extra food costs next year. Again, big old red flag.

Trump hasn’t even taken office, we know nothing about what he might do. He is as unpredictable a person as exists anywhere on Earth, so to say that his presidency has been factored into this equation makes it even more useless than whatever AI hallucination dreamt up this $800 number in the first place.

Do I think food is going to be more expensive in 2025? Absolutely. Do I think it can be calculated with any degree of accuracy by using AI and politics? Absolutely not.

This is why media literacy is so important and really, really needs to be taught in school. Because if you take a quick look at social media this week, you’ll see tons of posts from people stating that food prices are going to rise by $800 in 2025 as if that is just a straight up fact, down to the dollar. The only thing annoying me more than those posts is that every other one uses this “report” to blame food price increases on their politician of choice. Head over to Twitter and you can find lefties blaming the food prices on Doug Ford and right-wingers blaming it on Justin Trudeau.

Everyone is pointing the finger at politicians and forgetting to point their finger where it should be pointed: at Galen Weston Jr.

Let us never forget that amid historic food price increases, Galen the Great, CEO of Loblaw Companies, head of the massive grocery store conglomerate that controls a vast swath of food distribution across Canada, gave himself a $1.2 million raise last year, bringing his total salary up to $11.79 million. He did so after hiring a consultant to examine his salary. Shockingly, the consultants he paid for himself determined that himself wasn’t making enough money, and recommended himself be paid more. Brilliant stuff there.

If moneybags Galen keeps giving himself a raise and hiking food prices at his grocery stores to pay for it, I might start having to buy Happy Meals for more than just my daughter.

James Culic ate his daughter’s chicken nugs and fries and they were surprisingly good. Find out how to yell at him at the bottom of this page, or hit up our digital drive-thru window and scream a letter to the editor into the rusty speaker grille by clicking here.