Canada’s Corrupt Liberal Government

The Liberals won the election on Carney’s promise to “win” the trade war with Trump. So now what?

OTTAWA — Mark Carney never promised he’d be easy to understand. It was more like the opposite. Near midnight the day before this spring’s federal election, the prime minister joked to a crowd of
Vancouver Islanders in sweaters and anoraks about how politicians who campaign in poetry tend to govern in prose. Ever the technocrat, Carney would go much further than that.

“Imagine,” he said with a grin. “I’m going to govern in econometrics.”

He’s taking us to China if he can get away with it.

Prime Minister Mark Carney says he’s prepared to fight an election campaign if his minority Liberal government fails to pass the Nov. 4 federal budget.

Mr. Carney has already warned Canadians they will have to accept challenges and sacrifices in what he said would be “generational investments” to refashion the Canadian economy in the face of rising U.S. protectionism.

The Liberals will require the support of at least one opposition party to pass its fiscal plan and the government will fall if this fails because votes on the budget amount to confidence votes.

Doug Ford’s controversial use of Ronald Reagan’s 1987 radio address — originally a nuanced defence of limited, temporary, targeted tariffs against unfair Japanese trade practices — didn’t just derail Canada’s efforts to repair relations with the U.S. It also exposed yet another troubling facet of Mark Carney’s leadership.

After weeks of federal government spending announcements leading up to budget day, the biggest unknown remains how large the deficit will be and where and how deep the expected cuts will land.

Prime Minister Mark Carney and his finance minister, François-Philippe Champagne, have repeatedly characterized Tuesday’s budget as a generational one. In this time of “ruptured” global economics and geopolitical uncertainty, the’ve said Canada has to “spend less” to “invest more.”

The upcoming federal budget won’t be routine. While budgets are political exercises as much as economic ones, the political exigencies of the day call for a plan to not only manage state finances and to set core policy goals, but to define the nature and purpose of the country itself. As the Trump administration continues its trade war against Canada – and the world – while we stare down threats to our sovereignty, a lingering affordability crisis and a potential recession, the Liberals must make a serious effort to answer the questions “What do we want this country to be about?” and “How do we wish to build the nation – and for whom?”

We know for “whom” and it ain’t us.

Prime Minister Mark Carney sold Canadians on the idea that he’s the man with the plan to fix Canada’s economy and finances.

To make that image stick, he needs to show the new boss isn’t like the old boss when it comes to government spending and debt. Budget 2025 is Carney’s chance to prove he’ll be different from former prime minister Justin Trudeau by cutting spending, reducing debt and reining in Ottawa’s sprawling bureaucracy.