During the past year of Mark Carney’s time as prime minister of a minority government, he has frequently shown his authoritarian side by doing such things as unilaterally recognizing Palestine as a state without consulting Parliament and preferring to travel around the world first class on the taxpayer dime instead of showing up in Parliament as a prime minister should to be held to account by opposition parties as is routine in a democracy.
Carney and his colleagues have constantly whined about how his government was being “obstructed” by opposition MPs instead of acknowledging that it was a healthy feature of a democracy to be questioned about what a government was doing with taxpayer funds. Liberals complained about filibustering by opposition MPs in Parliamentary committee hearings while Liberal MPs had no problems doing their own filibustering, usually to try and prevent the release of documents on such issues as the cost of the Liberals’ dental program that greatly exceeded estimates. All in all, the minority Carney government spent the last year complaining about having to be responsive to Parliament because they had a minority.
Since a number of coerced MP floor crossings and this week’s Liberal victories in three by-elections, Carney now has the majority government he has dearly coveted. Although it is early days, it seems the Liberals are planning to use that majority for purposes many Canadians will regret. The Liberals had a convention last weekend, and some of the policy proposals that were discussed there were truly preposterous. One presenter suggested that young people leaving Canada for more desirable employment elsewhere – notably the U.S. – should be forced to pay in the neighbourhood of half a million dollars to compensate Canada for their education and other expenses.
How utterly ridiculous is that? The true irony was that the man suggesting such an absurdity was a former corporate executive from Canada who had worked in the U.S. and the U.K. yet hadn’t ponied up any of his own money to leave Canada and work in different countries. What a hypocrite. And the trained seals at the Liberal convention greatly applauded this ridiculous suggestion. Presumably, this silly policy proposal was in reaction to data showing that a large number of talented young professionals were leaving Canada for greener pastures in the U.S. and elsewhere. Recent data show that 71 per cent of graduates from the University of Waterloo’s STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) programs leave to head to the U.S.
Another recent analysis showed that Canadian entrepreneurs are starting up twice as many businesses outside Canada than they are in Canada and open more businesses in the U.S. than they do in their home country. This has gotten even worse under Carney than it was previously, despite his so-called business background. In my own business experience as President of the Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers and Businesses Canada (CCMBC), this trend has been very clear as businesses either leave Canada completely or they maintain an operation within Canada but grow their business and employees elsewhere. This is taking place largely because anti-business policies introduced by the federal Liberal government and also some provincial governments in Ontario and B.C., among others, are driving them away.
Yet the Liberal answer to this is to try to strong-arm young people to stay in Canada by charging them an absurd amount of money to leave? That is what happens in Communist countries. Maybe it’s time our governments started asking themselves what they are doing wrong that encourages our most productive and talented young people to immediately leave Canada on graduation from university and our successful businesses to seek growth outside of Canada. Coming from the Liberals, who have no problem welcoming people into Canada who have no needed skills, no prospects and are entitled to take advantage of all of our social services including health care despite never having paid a cent of taxes, this is especially galling.
Also in the past week, a Royal Bank study showed that over $1 trillion of investment left Canada on a net basis from 2015 to 2024. This was the largest capital exodus ever recorded in Canada. For every dollar invested in Canada, two left. Yet Liberals still claim that our economy is doing fine.
Other than the proposal that young folks leaving Canada should face a hefty bill for doing so, Liberals reacted to all of this horrendous economic data by saying such things as now that they have a majority, they will once again be looking to censor the Internet and impose other restrictions on Canadians. Another suggestion that emerged from the Liberal convention was that young people should be prevented by government from accessing social media instead of leaving this to their parents who are in the best position to regulate their children’s online activities. This Liberal government, which now has a majority, clearly has dictatorship in mind.
The first few days of Liberal majority government haven’t been very encouraging. Most Liberal actions to date confirm they are looking to force restrictive policies on Canadians that no one voted for. Even their supposedly magnanimous move to reduce gas taxes by 10 cent per litre isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Because of the big hike in fuel prices resulting from the Iran war, the Carney government will experience a windfall of $9 to $10 billion in added tax revenue. They have committed to returning $2.4 billion of that back to Canadians who paid the taxes in the first place. Not exactly a bonanza. Canada now faces about three more years of Liberal majority rule. Judging from the first few days, it’s hard to believe it’s going to get any better.
She has published numerous articles in journals, magazines & other media on issues such as free trade, finance, entrepreneurship & women business owners. Ms. Swift is a past President of the Empire Club of Canada, a former Director of the CD Howe Institute, the Canadian Youth Business Foundation, SOS Children’s Villages, past President of the International Small Business Congress and current Director of the Fraser Institute. She was cited in 2003 & 2012 as one of the most powerful women in Canada by the Women’s Executive Network & is a recipient of the Queen’s Silver & Gold Jubilee medals.
