Canada's Incompetent Liberal-Progressive Political-Elite

As the Canadian economy continues to sputter, continuing a trend of weak economic growth for nearly two decades, Toronto is a big part of the story. In fact, given Toronto’s size and economic weight, its performance is central to understanding Canada’s economic malaise. Fraser Institute

 

"When comparing the economic performance of Canada relative to the U.S. since the beginning of the 21st century it's abundantly clear that Canadian policy-makers have failed to create an environment where we can prosper." 

"[The ability to transform raw materials and other inputs into demanded goods and services increased by over double the amount (26.7 percent versus 67.9 percent) in the U.S. in comparison to Canada], which explains much of our languishing living standards."

Jake Fuss, director, fiscal studies Fraser Institute 

 

"One example is that in 2014 we saw a collapse in oil prices in Canada. which resulted in a decline in business investment in the economy."

"But that can't necessarily explain the decade of economic stagnation that followed, and so that's where, in large part, government policy factors played a role."

"We know that investment is a huge determinant of productivity. Which then impacts the incomes that Canadians earn."

Grady Munro, senior policy analyst, Fraser Institute  

Canada’s recent technical recession may have made headlines, but one of the country’s biggest economic challenges has been building for more than a decade—namely, weak business investment. Fraser Institute

 

The past quarter-century has seen Canada's economic gap with the United States in gross domestic product per person doubling; U.S. citizens pull steadily ahead on income, employment, investment and productivity, and Canada stagnates. Good thing Canada's current prime minister, leading the country on a prolonged Liberal-led foray into the future is an economist. He would know, as a former world banker and governor of the exchequer of two G7 'advanced economies' how best to act in Canada's interests. That's what the electorate saw in his election promises, to give him a mandate to govern. 

 

And so far, a year and more into his mandate he has performed no better than his predecessor, a rank amateur in governing a country, hampered in part by his progressive-left credentials and his overweening preening. Personal proclivities shared by his successor.

 

A new study published by the Fraser Institute, found that inflation-adjusted GDP per person in Canada was $48,076 as opposed to the U.S.'s $59,482 in 1999. GDP per person had grown by 2024, to $59,529 in Canada while in the United States it was $84,386; a vastly widening gap over a 25-year period, from $10,766 to $23,757. Measures inclusive of living standards taken into account -- income, employment, investment and productivity in the two countries compared economic outcomes in the study.

 

Canada, over the first quarter of the century, was found to have fallen further behind. In 2010, the earliest year of available comparable data, inflation-adjusted median employment income was $6,126 higher in the United States than it was in Canada, and by 2024, the gap had continued expanding substantially, to $8,663. Three factors were outlined in the Fraser report explaining the disparate gap in economic performance. 

 

The anxiety and growing animus towards the Trump administration by many Canadians is clouding the enormity of the home-grown problems facing our country. These economic challenges existed well before President Trump took office for the second time but the uncertainty over access to the U.S. market and Trump’s almost daily threats of more tariffs have heightened the problems. Unfortunately, there’s increasing evidence that like its predecessor, the Carney government is more about optics than action and results.  Fraser Institute

 

The decline in private-sector employment as a share of total employment in Canada was identified as the first factor impacting the economy. Private sector employment decreased to 78.5 percent from 81.2 percent, as the public sector employment rate outdistanced the private sector in that category, whereas in the United States the direct opposite took place, as private-sector employment increased from 85.8 percent of total employment to 86.5 percent, making for a much healthier overall economy. At the same time, labour productivity, recognized as a key driver of income growth, grew by 67.9 percent in the U.S. between 1999 and 2025, in comparison to Canada's 26.7 percent increase over the same period.

 

In Canada, business investment, equipping workers with tools and technology required to produce goods and services, dropped from close to 90 cents per worker for every dollar invested in the U.S., to 54 cents between 2007 and 2024. Canada's trailing economic performance, according to the Fraser Institute's study, was initiated in 2014. Canada largely kept pace with, and in some instances exceeded the U.S. across several measures, before 2014. Just incidentally, Justin Trudeau became prime minister in 2015 bringing with him his notion of a 'post-national' Canada, with an embrace of progressive environmentalism. 

 

And as The Fraser Institute's Grady Munro pointed out as one of the study's authors, increased regulations on sectors such as energy in combination with tax increases on high- and middle-income earners, along with sky-high increases in federal debt made for reduced appeal for business investment. The Liberal Trudeau government introduced a new top tax bracket on income over $200,000 in 2015, raising the top federal personal income tax rate to 33 percent from 29 percent. In less than a decade the national debt doubled from $687 billion in 2014-15 to almost $1.5 trillion by 2025-26.  

 

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Toronto skyline ... The latest economic readings from Statistics Canada are not encouraging. So far this year, Canada has lost roughly 120,000 jobs. Data for the first quarter of 2026 show overall economic activity declining marginally in the first three months of the year, which is worse than forecasters expected. This comes on the heels of a slight economic contraction in the fourth quarter of 2025. Fraser Institute

 

According to the Fraser Institute study, per-person GDP growth in Canada stagnated during this time while growth in the U.S. continued at a robust pace. GDP per person in Canada increased a mere 3.2 percent from 2014 to 2024, compared to 20.1 percent in the United States. A suggested  re-emphasis on balancing budgets, spending restraint and limiting debt accumulations are the recommended moves to improving Canada's economic performance. Is anyone listening? Thought not.