The latest GDP data was released on Friday, when the House wasn’t sitting, so the Conservatives spent yesterday making up for it, both with concern-trolling questions during QP, plus a lengthy statement about their concern about the “grim picture” of the Canadian economy. Yes, real GDP was flat in November, but that seems to be about as far as they are willing to read, because if you scratch the surface, one of the biggest drags on the economy was the fact that those motor vehicles and parts numbers were down 6.4 percent as a result of the global shortage of semiconductors. That is most assuredly not the fault of the Liberal government. Without that drag, it’s likely that the GDP would have been in the positive for the month, in spite of the other economic drags.
All of these words from the Conservatives, and none of them point out that Trump's trade war is the primary cause of this economic malaise (for which we have been surprisingly resilient to date). No, it's all the Liberals' fault.
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-02-02T21:38:44.075Z
The thing is, much as with Poilievre’s big speech on Friday, there is absolutely no mention of Trump in their statement like there wasn’t in the speech. Trump and his trade war are having a deleterious effect on our economy, because we grew over-reliant on them as an export market because they’re right there, and they were a willing market that was simply too easy to trade with. Disentangling parts of our economy from theirs is going to take time, and we are taking damage from it, but to be frank, most economists figured we’d be in a recession by now as a result of Trump, and we haven’t been, showing that we had some more resilience than they initially thought. But the fact that the Conservatives cannot acknowledge the reality of the situation in order to blame the Liberals is sad and pathetic.
And it’s not just the GDP data. They’ve been doing this with food price inflation, and putting out a bunch of absolute nonsense to “prove” that their obsession with imaginary “hidden taxes” and environmental laws are the real problems, not climate change, not Trump, not factors beyond our control. Nope, it’s all Liberals and their deficits. And because they get so little pushback on it, from either the government or the media (though, to be fair, David Cochrane was actually producing data to push back on Power & Politics yesterday), they get away with this false version of reality and people believe them. It’s a problem, but nobody wants to actually acknowledge it because that seems like work, or math, which they are allergic to.
Ukraine Dispatch
Russia is once again attacking Kyiv, Kharkiv, and other major centres, destroying energy infrastructure after a “ceasefire” for a whole couple of days. Russia also claims to have taken another settlement in Zaporizhzhia region.
Good reads:
- Here’s a look into how Carney appears to be abandoning the reforms that Trudeau made to federal appointments in an attempt to make them more transparent.
- It’s official—Bill Blair has resigned his seat, and is now off to be High Commissioner to the UK, while former national security advisor Nathalie Drouin heads to France.
- With Conservative cooperation, the bill on the GST rebate enhancement is being fast-tracked in order to pass by Wednesday. The PBO puts the cost at $12.4 billion.
- The government is considering reviving its (wildly successful) incentives for EV purchases as they finalise their national automotive strategy.
- Canadian Forces members are going to Texas this week for a ceremony for the incoming arrival of the first tranche of Canadian F-35s. (Will we get all 88?)
- Over 400 Mounties faced misconduct allegations, and five percent of those led to dismissal from the Force (which is another indication of how broken they are).
- Former Chief of Defence Staff Wayne Eyre says we shouldn’t rule out acquiring nuclear weapons if we want to be fully autonomous in our defence. (Yikes!)
- Estée Lauder was fined $750,000 by Environment Canada for use of “forever chemicals” in some of their eyeliners.
- At a fireside chat with Jean Chrétien at the Canadian Geographic Society, Stephen Harper admitted he never foresaw the US being our biggest threat to the Arctic.
- Jason Kenney is getting shirty about separatists in the UCP caucus, as if he didn’t invite them into his party while he chased out the centrist normies. Honestly!
- Mel Woods digs into the divisions in the Conservative ranks in evidence at their convention, and why that is going to make Poilievre’s job harder going forward.
- Althia Raj speculates about the reasons why Poilievre is not keen on an election in the near future, and why he might welcome someone else crossing the floor.
- Paul Wells ponders the underlying message in Poilievre’s keynote speech, and whether there is enough in there to resonate with the accessible voters he needs.
Odds and ends:
Some good ideas in here. I made some suggestions of my own in my book: www.dundurn.com/books_/t2211…
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-02-02T19:57:03.709Z
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