EDITORIAL: Carney admits Liberals weakened our economy

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Since the best indicator of future performance is past practice, it’s absurd to argue that our current Liberal government is in the best position to take on U.S. President Donald Trump in a tariff war.

In reality, the Liberals in power pursued reckless policies they were warned would undermine our economy, yet they implemented them anyway.

That led directly to our current predicament of trying to counter Trump on tariffs while our economy is damaged and weak.

But don’t take our word for it — that’s what their current leader, Mark Carney, said.

During the English language Liberal leadership debate on Feb. 25, Carney explained Canada’s predicament in dealing with Trump today.

“I want to be clear about the quote ‘strength’ of our economy,” he said.

“Our economy over the last five years has been driven by a big increase in the labour force, which was largely because of a surge in immigration that is now trying to be controlled, and by government spending that grew over 9% year after year after year — twice the rate of growth of our economy.

“So our economy was weak before we got to the point of these threats from President Trump.”

Dramatically increasing immigration levels weakened Canada because it increased faster than economic growth, resulting in a decrease in inflation-adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) per person, a widely accepted measurement of a nation’s prosperity.

What happened was what the Liberal government was warned would happen in advance by its public servants. The cost of living spiked as did the price of housing and already beleaguered public services like health care became even worse, to the point where even then-prime minister Justin Trudeau had to admit his blunder.

Meanwhile, reckless government spending, far outpacing the growth rate of the Canadian economy during the Liberals’ years in power, further weakened our ability to take on Trump now.

It’s true that Carney correctly diagnosed the problem.

But the idea that as a neophyte politician and prime minister, he’s going to fix this — while being led around by the nose by the same advisers to Trudeau who helped to create this mess, along with the same cabinet ministers who implemented it — is absurd.

Doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results, is the definition of insanity.