Canada was hoisted into the G7 in 1975 by Gerald Ford so that Europe’s large economies didn’t dominate the new organization. Today, Canada’s economy is in a virtual tie for 10th place with South Korea and is soon to be overtaken in a handful of years because it’s so poor managed.

Canada’s outlook is grim. The Business Council of British Columbia noted that the OECD has predicted that Canada “will be the worst performing advanced economy over 2020 to 2030.” It added that Canada will have the worst economic growth among advanced economies from 2030 to 2060. “In other words, Canada will be dead last not only for the next decade, but also for the three decades after that.”

Canadians should be upset with this, especially considering that the country has one of the world’s greatest resource endowments and enjoys the protection and opportunities afforded by living next door to the United States. Like a sputtering corporation, Canada limps along thanks to a mediocre and bloated federal government that overtaxes, overspends, relies on expensive management and environmental consultants, and is run by amateurs who cling to power as the result of a deal made after the election with the country’s spendthrift socialist party until 2025.

Besides being philosophically anti-business, the Justin Trudeau government has been irrationally entranced by environmentalism and, as a result, committed to gutting the mining and oil sectors that pay the nation’s bills. In addition to listening to environmentalists and New Democrats, the country’s future is largely guided by the Bloc Quebecois, a parochial regional party whose modus operandi is to benefit Quebec at the expense of the rest of the country where most of the wealth is created.

Bluntly speaking, Canada is a ship of state that will continue to list unless it gets out from under the lefties and separatists and green fanatics at its helm. Fortunately, the country’s private sector has kept the lights on throughout this governance malpractice, although disinvestment has been breathtaking due to taxation and red tape. The other positive is that the majority of provinces are run by fiscal conservatives with business smarts and electoral majorities. But given this decline, it’s hardly surprising that the country’s two most enterprising jurisdictions — Alberta and Saskatchewan — have made dramatic moves to get out from federal government interference and incompetence.

Promises remain unmet: To provide clean drinking water to First Nations reservations; to end financial secrecy to stop money laundering, or to plant two billion trees the country doesn’t need. But the most expensive mishap is the fact that the Trudeau Liberals have been a laggard in security spending and a lame duck in foreign policy and is now being forced to pay up.

In December 2021, the Biden administration started quietly to push Trudeau to meet commitments. It “renegotiated” its defence arrangement with Ottawa, which was billed as a “modernization” of NORAD — a deal that Ottawa admitted in June would total $40 billion to deploy radars and sensors to avert missile attacks. This month, Ottawa announced the purchase of 88 American warplanes at a cost of $19 billion as well as the purchase of a “National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System” from the United States that will be donated to Ukraine.

Internally, the next push — to reform immigration and healthcare — will hopefully come from a few provinces. Ottawa has not brought in enough people with necessary skills for the economy, but has also refused to let Ontario and Alberta screen applicants, as Quebec is allowed to do. This must change and pronto.

Overly ambitious immigration targets must be severely trimmed because the deluge of people that have come into the country is putting unnecessary strain on Canada’s health care system as well as housing supply, notably in Ontario and B.C. where the majority of immigrants settle. Simply piling more people onto a medical system or a housing market that are flailing is irresponsible.

If Canada were a publicly-listed company, its management would have been turfed out years ago by shareholders.

Financial Post

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