In the face of mounting criticisms, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau remains defiant. Pictured: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Photo Credit: Justin Trudeau/X.
The international news organization The Economist rarely publishes Canadian news – a fact that needs to be fully appreciated in order to understand the magnitude of the following statements. In its current weekly edition, the political furor in Ottawa must have caught the editors’ attention to run a lead article entitled, “Canada’s Trudeau trap – How the world’s most reasonable country grew sick of centre-left liberalism.” This piece framed a more detailed article on the state of Canadian political affairs entitled, “Justin Trudeau is killing Canada’s liberal dream – His failings hold lessons for liberals the world over.”
In its lead article, The Economist writes: “Mr. Trudeau’s journey from a centre-left hero to a toxic liability has lessons for mainstream politicians everywhere. His brand of sanctimonious, and sometimes illiberal, identity politics is no substitute for effective government. Unless leaders come up with practical answers to the problems that the electorate cares about, including the effects of mass migration and housing shortages, government by virtue ultimately alienates many more people than it inspires.”
Later in the article, the news editors explicitly lay the blame with the PM and his “Trudeau Liberals”: “Any government in office for almost a decade makes mistakes and creates enemies. But a feature of Mr. Trudeau’s administration has been its illiberal approach to dissent. It has frequently dismissed its critics as bigots, or unreasonably used emergency legal powers against them, as it did when truckers protested during the pandemic. It has also tried to curb free speech. Even now, when reality and polling have forced him to admit that he has a problem, Mr. Trudeau acknowledges only that some Canadians are “anxious” about his policies, not that they face real difficulties.”
In the face of mounting criticisms, domestically and now internationally, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau remains defiant and refuses to acknowledge any fault with himself or his approach to governing. In a podcast interview earlier this month with Toronto Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith, Trudeau displayed his pugnacious attitude in stating, “We have worked so hard for so many years to get Canada to a position where the coming decades are going to be so good for us that the idea that a short-term mistake—like electing a Conservative government that wants to bring us back to some past that never actually existed and give up on climate change and give up on inclusion—like all these things, it just would be so devastating to everything that we have been able to build…. I have been fighting through crises and fighting against Conservative opponents who are trying to undo this and bring Canadians backwards and polarize them.”
It has been reported that in a September caucus meeting, Trudeau had clips of Sylvester Stallone as Rocky shown on a screen while delivering his remarks to his Liberal colleagues. He was similarly channeling “his Rocky” with Erskine-Smith, “At this time of backlash against progressive policies of inclusion and diversity, you know, are we going to double down on making sure that everyone gets to participate or play?” Trudeau views himself the champion of progressivism in Canada: DEI policies and gender politics, and an all-encompassing climate change fight that throttles oil and gas development and increases carbon taxes on polluting Canadians.
The uncompromising character Trudeau and his stated intention to “double down” on his approach was likely one of the key concerns of the 24 MPs who formally presented their grievances at the Liberal caucus meeting this week. As many as 50 backbench Liberal MPs are now increasingly anxious about their re-election chances. Beyond the politics of this troubled group, as The Economist articles suggest, is the remarkable number of stories surfacing on the ineptitude of the governing Liberals.
Consider, just since Parliament resumed a month ago, Canadians have learned of the gross mismanagement of Parks Canada officials, who contributed to the extent of devastation of the Jasper wildfire – and then blocked volunteer firefighters from assisting the community in their hour of need. We have Trudeau claiming that Liberal gun policies are making streets safer, which prompted the Toronto police to report dramatic increases in shootings and gun-related homicides with the Liberals’ policies. We have a much-feted national school food program that has yet to deliver a meal to a student (that is without Trudeau and his side-kick minister in a classroom hamming for the cameras), and a national tree program that has been notoriously successful spending hundreds of millions of dollars planting bureaucrats and consultants in Ottawa. Also, Parliament has come to a full stop on a procedural point of order demanding that the Trudeau cabinet respect the ruling of the Speaker of the House and release unredacted “green slush fund” documents to MPs – documents that contain the audited details of $400 million of contracts slipped to Liberal-friendly businesses.
Still, the most malevolent Ottawa policies impacting Canadians are fiscal and economic. With the Trudeau Liberals, it has been on-going, ever-expanding government programs, bulging bureaucracy, an insatiable government consulting industry, increased taxes, increased regulations – all underpinned with an anti-oil and gas, anti-resource development bias, and a general ignorance of business. Canadian financier Kevin O’Leary summed up the Trudeau government this way, “Canada, as you look at resources per capita, is one of the richest countries on Earth run by idiots… we have unqualified weak managers, and I mean, no disrespect but I wouldn’t let them run a bodega.”
The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) just released a report that forecasts the federal government deficit will reach $46.8 billion – a full 17 per cent higher than the federal budget planned for 2024-25. Canadians are paying $52.8 billion in interest this year on the national debt; that’s 11 per cent of government revenue and a debt-to-GDP ratio of 42.2 per cent. One of the stated post-pandemic, fiscal guardrails of this government was to keep the debt-to-GDP ratio below 40 per cent (in 2019-20 the ratio was 31.2 per cent). The PBO signaled that the government’s unbridled spending along with the increased interest payments account directly for the ballooning deficit.
In response, almost as if to deny the fiscal reality, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland stated this week, “We could be spending even more and public finances would still be sustainable.” Freeland remains bullish on her government’s management of the economy. Her stump speeches through the summer asserted that Canadians are better off today, enjoying a higher standard of living than before the pandemic. Business owners, mortgage holders and home buyers, and consumers are all better off – and workers now take home larger pay cheques. Freeland summarizes, “For Canadians, taken together all of this means more jobs, better wages, and a higher standard of living.”
However, the current fiscal facts and economic statistics are anything but rosy – these are not “sunny days.” Freeland is either knowingly gaslighting her audiences or is delusional with her view of Canadians enjoying a better standard of living with the Trudeau Liberals’ stewardship of the economy.
While a Fraser Institute report released in May found Canadians standard of living has dropped steadily since 2019, a separate report from the institute this week documents that Canadians have considerably less economic freedom than they did four decades ago due to increased taxes and living expenses. With respect to Canadian business owners, an international report revealed the Liberals’ capital gains policy and high corporate taxes have placed the country in a less competitive position among the 38 countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The Trudeau Liberals are taxing capital gains at a rate of 35.7 per cent and dividends at 39.3 per cent, while the average in the OECD is 19.7 per cent and 24 per cent respectively. The report has Canada ranking 31 out of 38 OECD countries for individual taxes, 26 for corporate taxes, and 25 for property taxes.
Statistics Canada reported data this week on wealth in the country and, irrespective of what Freeland says about Canadians’ larger pay cheques, the gap between the rich and poor has never been greater. The richest 20 per cent of households in the country has a net worth of more than $3.4 million, about 68 per cent of all wealth. The bottom 20 per cent of households has no wealth – zero – in fact, more accurately “negative wealth”, owning nothing but their debts.
Statistics Canada also reports the level of food insecurity has risen dramatically across the country; more Canadians are making “difficult sacrifices” like eating less due to the cost of living. An Angus Reid survey this week found that a majority of Canadians (51 per cent) are challenged to keep up with their household food needs – and that number rises to two in three struggling Canadian households (65 per cent) for household incomes under $50,000.
This distressing reality of what Canadians are facing was illustrated last weekend in Surrey BC, when over 15,000 people turned out in stormy weather for “Ugly Potato Day” where a local family farm was giving away free food (if you missed this news, Google it!). Farmer Tyler Heppell observed, “The fact that people are willing to wait in a line up for two hours in the pouring rain to get 20 pounds of free produce just goes to show how broken our system is and how no one can really afford to live here especially in Vancouver.”
With the rising anxiousness across the land, it has become quite evident that, just as Trudeau’s drama teacher roots have apparently left him ill-equipped to step out of his political persona long enough to consider what is best for the nation, Freeland’s journalism background has not provided her the necessary skills or know-how to manage the country’s economy. And just as those thousands of sopping families lined up patiently for their share of ugly potatoes, Canadians are (and will be for years) sorrily paying the price for this Trudeau government.
Chris George is an advocate, government relations advisor, and writer/copy editor. As president of a public relations firm established in 1994, Chris provides discreet counsel, tactical advice and management skills to CEOs/Presidents, Boards of Directors and senior executive teams in executing public and government relations campaigns and managing issues. Prior to this PR/GR career, Chris spent seven years on Parliament Hill on staffs of Cabinet Ministers and MPs. He has served in senior campaign positions for electoral and advocacy campaigns at every level of government. Today, Chris resides in Almonte, Ontario where he and his wife manage www.cgacommunications.com. Contact Chris at chrisg.george@gmail.com.
