Prime Minister Mark Carney spent part of this month on a less-hectic work schedule. He was even spotted walking along a street in Ottawa with his wife, just like a normal human being. After months of intense activity he presumably saw a need to pause, assess progress and reflect on the past year. His conclusion may well have been: what was I thinking?
The message of his new non-Trudeau government was one of action: it was time to move fast, do big things and revitalize the country. Six months in, he’s already being criticized for failing to deliver. We still have tariffs! U.S. President Donald Trump’s still harassing us! Houses still cost too much! Where’s the new pipeline and all those big projects?
And now Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is back, having triumphed in perhaps the safest Conservative seat in the country, assailing Carney for making repeated concessions while receiving nothing in return from the U.S. “He’s not thrown one elbow since he took office except at our own workers,” Poilievre bewailed when reporters once again started paying attention.
It’s undeniable that in his campaign for the Liberal leadership and his first few months as prime minister, Carney grossly over-promised. It was never going to be easy to divert Donald Trump from his ruinous economic plans, to unite provincial premiers accustomed to parochial policies and petty quarrels, to halt, or even slow, a decade of colossally misguided budgeting practices.
Carney was careful to note that Canadians would have to act together to deal with the state we’re in, but the point was often overpowered by calls for tough measures, quick retaliation and a poke in the eye for that ogre in the White House.
The reality now confronting the rookie prime minister is that Canadians support elbows up, tough decisions and a national show of determination as long as it doesn’t impact them personally, threaten their businesses, involve reduced expectations or require them to alter the way they’ve always done things.
When Canadians say they support change, they’re thinking mainly of change in Ottawa. The government has to be better, do more, find a way to solve problems without upsetting any important apple carts. Just look at the clamouring for special aid and assistance in confronting onrushing challenges.
Saskatchewan’s canola farmers want help to offset punitive tariffs imposed by China. Beijing imposed the tariffs in retaliation for Canada introducing levies on Chinese vehicles, which were added to protect Canadian manufacturers and keep step with Washington, a case of tit-for-tat measures for self-defeat that demonstrate the whole stupidity of tariff wars.
Premier Scott Moe, not sounding very “let’s all work for Canada,” quickly turned the situation into a regional grievance,
: “Our federal government cannot sacrifice a $43-billion canola industry, 200,000 jobs in that industry that is largely based, in fairness, in Western Canada, to protect the fledging electric vehicle industry, largely based in eastern Canada.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has indeed pulled out the stops to protect the auto business, as have Quebec and the federal government. Auto manufacturers say their industry is worth $16 billion to the economy, much less than canola interests claim for themselves. Both are way ahead of the steel and aluminum industries, also in the east, both of which have been promised federal assistance. Obviously Carney hates the West.
On the other hand, almost everyone in the crucial telecom industry is upset at cabinet’s decision to approve a CRTC ruling on access to fibre-optic networks. It’s stupid, it’s damaging, it’s self-defeating. “I am in shock. In shock. I am profoundly disappointed,” Cogeco CEO Frédéric Perron told National Post. Chimed in Robert Ghiz, chief executive of the Canadian Telecommunications Association: “It discourages investment, weakens competition and ultimately harms Canadian consumers.”
Everyone’s disappointed except Telus, which loves the decision. CEO Darren Entwistle commended it as “a landmark ruling that reinforces Canada’s commitment to competition, choice, innovation and nation-building infrastructure investment.”
The ruling means Telus’ internet business gets access to fibre networks built by its rivals. Telus operates from Vancouver, while its large rivals are headquartered in Central Canada. British Columbia’s softwood industry is also getting federal support. Clearly Carney is pandering to western interests.
Then there’s housing. The Toronto Star ran an
piece by Dave Wilkes, chief of the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD), demanding “urgent, targeted action from the federal government” to stave off disaster. Otherwise there will be lost jobs, lost revenue, lagging productivity and even less construction.
To help handle the problem, BILD announced it had partnered with another housing group to form a third: an alliance with “on-the-ground expertise to advise governments on how to address the challenges that are eroding housing starts, supply and affordability.” They’d already offered recommendations calling for extended rebates, a shift in development charges (to be charged directly to buyers instead of to builders) and some tax breaks and loan considerations.
Meanwhile, city council in Toronto, ground zero in the housing crisis, recently
to ban anyone putting six residential units in a new building outside a few selected areas. Four is OK; 1,200-unit
are fine. Six is forbidden.
Before he can get around to solving canola versus autos, east versus west, Telus versus rivals, house builders versus costs and everyone versus the U.S. government, Carney has the issue of Canada’s Indigenous people, who are dissatisfied with the level of attention he’s given to reconciliation. Upset at the limited consultation prior to passage of Bill C-5, Carney’s first move in launching big projects, they
a subsequent gathering as too brief, too late and not up to snuff.
Carney dedicated part of the summer to
the waters with visits, meetings, photo-ops and briefings with Indigenous leaders, but ran smack into the complexities of competing interests when Manitoba’s Metis federation
an invitation to meet for discussions because an Ontario Metis group was also invited.
Manitoba Metis reject Ontario Metis as inauthentic and dismissed the invite as an insult. “At the end of the day, if (Carney) wants to meet with them then say we spoke with the Métis, then he’s going to feel the wrath of the Red River Métis,” Manitoba Métis Federation president David Chartrand raged.
What all these various interests want in one way or another is more time, more assistance, more special treatment and more of the dependence on Ottawa — all the things that brought the country to this state in the first place. Decades of Ottawa focusing on giving benefits has had a predictable effect: Canadians see it as the home of one-stop shopping for whatever problem confronts them. It’s an expectation, not a hope.
The situation worsened significantly over the past decade, as federal deficits soared, the national debt spiralled, subsidies proliferated and Ottawa took pride in introducing one new benefit package after another, financed largely through borrowed money.
Thanks to changes in Washington and elsewhere, Canada now finds itself in a bind: it lacks the resources and financial power to work itself out of trouble at a time they are needed most. Interest on the debt siphons off billions of dollars that might otherwise be put to strengthening the economy. More loans are taken out on top of the old loans because no one wants to give up anything they’ve been accustomed to receiving from federal coffers.
Carney’s pledge was to reverse the decline by convincing Canadians the time had come to end the rot and rebuild the country through greater self-reliance, responsible finances and a willingness to put in the time and sacrifices needed to succeed. He’s largely convinced people it needs to be done. But we want him to do it, not us.
National Post
