Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks at CANSEC in Ottawa on Wednesday, May 27, 2026. Photo by Hyungcheol Park / Postmedia
Gee, when the Liberals said they were aiming for 'net-zero,' I thought they meant carbon emissions. Turns out 'net-zero' was their goal for Canada's economic growth. And they've achieved it!
I know the decline in GDP recorded by StatCan for the first three months of this year was just 0.1 per cent. I am also aware that when more detailed analysis is complete, that number could turn upward, meaning Canada's economy didn't actually shrink for the second quarter in a row — the definition of a recession.
But I also know that the deeper analysis can also show a greater decline. For instance, initial reports for the decline in the fourth quarter of last year showed a drop of 0.6 per cent, but it turned out to be a full one per cent.
What's more, experts had predicted growth in the range of two per cent for Q1. So even if the economy turns out to have grown a few tenths of a per cent from January through March, the final figure will be far short of what was predicted.
Canada's economy, whether in a recession or not, is pathetically weak. And most of it is our own fault. We can't just blame U.S. President Donald Trump.
Also, one question for those who have been declaring this week that Canada's shrinking economy is only a 'technical' recession: If this recession is such a minor blip, how come Canada is the only developed nation in the middle of one?
Here's another thought: The decline in the first quarter was blunted by the rise in oil prices. If not for Alberta (whose economy is still growing by about two per cent a year), the national figures could have been considerably worse.
Unemployment is rising — slowly — from 6.8 per cent to 6.9 per cent, nothing like the Great Recession from April 1990 to April 1992, when it shot up to nearly 13 per cent and took almost a decade to recover.
But even if this is technically a 'technical' recession, what is there to be proud of or relieved about? Even under the economic nincompoop, Donald Trump, and despite the impact of his ill-conceived war with Iran, the U.S. economy grew by 1.6 per cent in Q1.
That's a rate Canada has not seen since before Trump was sworn in for a second term.
Put another way, it can't be Trump alone who is responsible for our pathetic economy, since Canada's economy was already stumbling well before Trump imposed his tariffs in April last year.
The main culprit is a decade of anti-growth policies from the Liberal government, a rapidly expanding public sector, out-of-control government spending, a lack of productivity and innovation, and the continuing existence of serious interprovincial trade barriers.
Take innovation as one example. Canadian businesses spend one of the lowest amounts in the world on research and development. And we have a lousy record on commercializing what research we do and adopting the technology we develop.
