Prime Minister Mark Carney told an American business audience in New York on Thursday that he wants to help make America great again. "Canada Strong will help make America great again," Carney said to the Economic Club of New York. Critics argue it would be better if Mr. Carney were focused on making Canada great again.
On Friday morning, Statistics Canada made it official: the Canadian economy is in a recession. This is not a "technical" recession as some media and politicians are trying to spin it. We have had two consecutive quarters of the Canadian economy shrinking, and in the last year, the economy has shrunk in three of the four quarters.
Unemployment rate has risen over the last year and now sits at 6.9%, with about 13,000 more Canadians registered as unemployed compared to last year. Youth unemployment stands at a staggering 14.3%, up from 14.1% last year. Bankruptcies are up 10.1% compared to a year earlier.
Food inflation remains persistently high, with last month's rate at 3.8%. The $100 worth of groceries bought five years ago now costs almost $130. Specific price increases include tomatoes up 20.9%, coffee up 15.5%, beef up 12.5%, carrots up 10.5%, and pork up 9.4% compared to a year earlier.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre commented on Parliament Hill, saying, "Mark Carney is now the only leader in the G7 to have plunged his economy into recession. He has been prime minister for four quarters now. The economy has shrunk in three of those quarters. He is the only G7 leader who can say that. The economy is smaller today than when Mark Carney became prime minister a year ago."
Poilievre argued that Carney cannot blame tariffs and trade uncertainty with the Americans because every other country is also dealing with those factors, yet Canada is the only G7 economy entering a recession. He noted that Canada's economy has been weak for some time, a point Carney himself made last year while seeking the Liberal leadership. Carney had stated, "Our economy over the last five years has been driven by the big increase in the labour force, which was largely because of the surge in immigration and by government spending that grew over nine percent year after year, twice the rate of growth of our economy. So, our economy was weak before we got to the point of these threats from President Trump."
After a year in office, conditions under Carney have not improved; they have worsened. Carney, a former banker and business executive, looked and sounded the part, convincing many Canadians that he knew how to turn the economy around and deal with Trump. Instead, the economy is weakening, and there is no sign of a deal with Trump.
Carney has survived based on feelings. His poll numbers remain high, with an 11-point lead in the latest Leger poll for Postmedia. That same poll found 59% of Canadian voters approved of Carney's performance. However, the hard numbers tell a different story: with Mark Carney at the top, Canada's economy is faltering.
