Ahead of the spring economic update, the National Post ran a story that contained thirteen charts that they claim were proof that Justin Trudeau delivered a “lost decade” to the Canadian economy. To absolutely no one’s surprise, the charts were awfully selective in how they presented the data, because everybody has decided that they have a vested interest in creating an image of how much Trudeau “doomed” the country. And to be perfectly fair, Mark Carney himself has engaged in these kinds of rhetorical games, which his insistence on using the “new government” moniker has been nothing more than an effort to disassociate himself with his predecessor.
To wit: yes, we fell behind the US on GDP per capita because we rapidly increased our population while the US didn’t, and that increase staved off an economic downturn post-pandemic, until everyone decided to start scapegoating those same immigrants for provinces under-investing in housing and healthcare capacity. The rise in business insolvencies? Mostly a post-pandemic correction when a lot of businesses that would not have survived did only because of those pandemic supports, and the levels are returning close to the pre-pandemic baseline. The number of self-employed freefalling? Again, this was because of the pandemic because a whole lot of those self-employed got stiffed by the companies they invoiced and they didn’t get paid, so they took salaried jobs. I can’t speak was much to the number of high-value start-ups fleeing Canada other than the fact that many of them specifically set themselves up to sell to American companies because that’s where the money was. Total investment per worker declining? My dudes, corporate Canada decided they don’t care about productivity because they only want to be rent-seekers, so that’s what they do. Climbing cost of living? The chart is without context to demonstrate how we compare internationally given the inflation spike late in the pandemic, where Canada did far better than most of our comparators. Home prices? The chart cuts off at 2015 so it doesn’t show that they also doubled under Harper, but this is mostly a provincial/municipal problem as the federal government has very few levers for the problems of charges and zoning. Public sector rising faster than private sector? What does that include? Does it include provinces? Does it include nurses or teachers? How does it compare to under-investment and cuts in the Harper years? Again, context matters. Federal deficits? Have you seen the state of the world? Healthcare wait times? That’s provincial—how are you trying to pin that on Trudeau? He gave plenty of transfers to provinces that got put on their bottom lines to pay down deficits rather than hiring nurses or expanding capacity. The rise in the violent crime severity index? The piece scapegoats this on immigrants, again without any context for how those figures are way down from historical highs.
It’s shitty journalism, but this is the kind of thing that the we’ve come to expect from the Post, simply in service of a narrative.
Ukraine Dispatch
The attack on Odesa early Monday wound up injuring fourteen, and hit residential buildings and a hotel. A worker at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, still under Russian control, was killed in a drone attack.
Good reads:
- Mark Carney announced the creation of a sovereign wealth fund to help fund major projects…but it’s not funded by savings, and there are questions about its utility.
- Carney gave a wide-ranging interview to CBC that talked about trade, tariffs, Trump, Iran, and hinted that he wants to do something about 24 Sussex.
- It is expected that today’s spring economic update will headline a lower deficit figure than the fall budget.
- Evan Solomon was one of the minsters who met with Children First Canada, who want online harms legislation, after he initially declined the meeting.
- The renewed US trade advisory council had their first meeting, chaired by Dominic LeBlanc, with a new addition that was not on the initially announced list.
- The three new Liberal MPs took their seats today, giving the government the votes to push through their committee control motion.
- The Royal Canadian Mint has paused one of its supply chains after allegations have surfaced that gold imports contained tainted Colombian product.
- The Globe and Mail tries to do some guesswork about the potential next Supreme Court of Canada justice (and then undermined the whole article).
- Marilyn Galdu’s constituents remain frustrated, not only by her decision, but the fact that her office has been closed since it happened (during tax season no less).
- Ahead of the economic update, Poilievre demanded a cap on the deficit at $31 billion, which was the level Trudeau left at.
- Alexandre Boulerice quit as an NDP MP, but will sit as an independent until autumn, when the Quebec election happens. (He’s also running as a sovereigntist.)
- Avi Lewis won’t run in the Rosemount seat, and flailed when asked if he will ensure that their candidate will be a federalist.
- BC is putting forward new provincial gun regulations that they say will help with their extortion cases. (I have doubts).
- Marty Patriquin points out that Quebec’s bid for digital sovereignty carries the risk of creating a government-backed monopoly, and the possibility of cronyism.
- Matt Gurney questions what problem this new sovereign wealth fund is supposed to solve, particularly when industry keeps bemoaning regulatory burden.
- Max Fawcett (via Paul Wells) unloads on the complete fabrications that Poilievre continues to spout unchallenged about the Trudeau government’s record on LNG.
Odds and ends:
Want more Routine Proceedings? Become a patron and get exclusive new content.