A review of the main events of 2025 provides more of a lesson of what not to do than anything else. Now that the evidence of how badly our country has been run under the Liberals for the last 10 years has become crystal clear, Liberals are finally admitting how much their past initiatives were damaging to Canada. Even Prime Minister Mark Carney – net zero man himself – is conceding that the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on policies in the name of helping our climate were a complete waste of our valuable tax dollars and hurt the standard of living of average Canadians.
Here are some examples. The ridiculous export ban on single-use plastics was finally cancelled after the Liberals admitted it did pretty much nothing it was supposed to do while harming domestic businesses as demand just shifted to competitors in other countries. Of course it did. What is truly amazing is that the rocket scientists in government did not even have the smarts to realize that is exactly what anyone with a passing knowledge of economics would have predicted.
The United Nations committee looking at this issue met in Ottawa just last year, at great taxpayer expense, in a bid to pretend they were still trying to impose the kinds of policies on plastics that Canada made a mess of over the last decade. And despite a court ruling that the designation of plastics as toxic was unconstitutional and scientifically erroneous, the federal government still has an appeal of this decision underway at present. As well, the domestic plastic ban absurdly remains in place. The main effect of the ban has been to shut down businesses in the industry, and the jobs they provided. Another factor that hurt the industry was the slow action on the part of the Carney government to reverse earlier decisions. If Carney had acted more quickly some of the industry could have been saved.
How about that consumer carbon tax? You know, the one that was supposed to reduce emissions and give people back more than they paid in tax. Turns out it was inflationary after all, as all taxes ultimately are. Once it was finally gone for purely political reasons, Liberals who had strenuously said for years that it did not increase inflation suddenly expected gratitude as prices came down. Once again, Economics 100.
The Electric Vehicle (EV) mandate is another good example of a ridiculous policy which set unachievable goals and cost taxpayers a fortune. Now the Liberal government has chosen to “pause” this mandate, which was to begin to inflict mandatory goals for EV purchases in 2026, having seen that the targets were nowhere near close to being achieved and that most consumers simply did not want EVs. The future of this policy is unknown at present but supposedly will be announced early in 2026.
And of course we have all those climate funds that were set up, such as Sustainable Development Technology Canada – otherwise known as the green slush fund – where it is clear taxpayer dollars were funnelled into the pockets of insiders and no climate goals met. About $200 billion is estimated to have been wastefully spent – a massive amount that could wipe out Canada’s deficit and allow for a significant tax cut for all Canadians.
All of these examples of failed policies have several things in common. Firstly, that the climate crisis was such that immediate and draconian action needed to be taken. This has since been roundly debunked, yet people that present factual arguments against it continue to be labelled as “deniers” or other such labels intended as insults. Another common factor was that Canadians were routinely lied to. Just look at all the lies we were told about EVs as a good example, or that the carbon tax would not fuel inflation. Many Canadians that bought into the EV fantasy regretted their decision once they experienced the many limitations and problems with EVs and would never buy an EV again.
As well, all of these policies were driven by ideology, not science or evidence, and involved government forcing Canadians to comply with taxes and regulations they would not otherwise have chosen. This is what happens in an authoritarian system, not a democracy. Another common element is that all of these policies cost an enormous amount of taxpayer dollars, weakened our economy and greatly increased federal deficits and debt. Finally, not one person has been found accountable from all of these outrageous abuses of taxpayer dollars. Not one head has rolled, not one politician punished, not one bureaucrat penalized. In fact, many Canadians rewarded the Liberals for their thievery by re-electing them earlier this year.
Although Carney has fessed up to all of this failure, while he was a Trudeau advisor, the mystery is why the Carney Liberals still want to retain policies that have exactly the same negative impact on our economy. These include the industrial carbon tax that is slated to increase six-fold under the pipeline MOU signed by Ottawa and Alberta. Things like the tanker ban in BC, punitive methane regulations, the Impact Assessment Act (no more pipelines bill) and the emissions cap also remain on the books. Do the Liberals figure that just doing a certain amount of damage is OK? It’s hard to fathom how some of these measures have finally been designated as failures but other similar ones are being retained.
Looking to 2026, perhaps the Carney government will continue to eliminate bad past Liberal policies. However, the fact they have not done so already is not encouraging. Looking back to 2015 before the Trudeau Liberals were elected for the first time, the hot news story was that under the Harper government the Canadian middle class was the richest in the world. How far we have fallen since, suffering from self-inflicted bad government while other countries easily outperformed us. We must all demand better going forward and stop squandering Canada’s immense potential.
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.
