OP-ED: Canada is falling behind – and Carney offers more of the same

Author: Gwyn Morgan

Gwyn Morgan writes: “Donald Trump’s continuing rhetoric about making Canada the 51st State is certainly annoying, but one can’t deny that his apparent underlying message.”

Donald Trump’s continuing rhetoric about making Canada the 51^st State is certainly annoying, but one can’t deny that his apparent underlying message – that Canada is performing far below its potential and needs to get serious or its very existence may be threatened – carries a serious point.

The numbers tell the story. In 2014, the year before the Justin Trudeau government was first elected, America’s GDP per capita was 24 percent higher than Canada’s. Since then, the gap has widened year-by-year, and is projected to hit 40 percent by 2030. Canada’s GDP per capita, a key indicator of a nation’s economic strength, now trails the average among the 38 OECD member nations – a group that includes Greece, Portugal, Colombia and Turkey.

It shouldn’t and didn’t need to be this way. Canada is one of the world’s most naturally well-endowed nations with massive oil and gas reserves, huge mineral wealth, and mighty rivers that produce much of our electricity. Our workforce is as well if not better-educated than America’s. So how did Canada become an economic weakling? The answer lies in nearly a decade of self-inflicted wounds under the Trudeau government – wounds that his successor as Liberal leader, Mark Carney, would only make deeper.

Among the Trudeau government’s biggest mistakes was its green fanaticism. The consumer carbon tax, clean fuel mandates, and electric vehicle subsidies have driven up the costs of transportation, food, heating and small business operations. All this to nudge behaviour toward a “net-zero” ideal that is neither economically feasible nor globally impactful.

Then came the so-called “No More Pipelines” law – officially Bill C-69 – which created an endless regulatory quagmire for new infrastructure projects, all with the aim of getting to net zero by throttling the oil and natural gas sector. Even after the Supreme Court ruled it “largely unconstitutional” in 2023, Ottawa made only cosmetic changes. That left Canada’s oil and gas industry – one of the most productive in the world – in continued limbo.

full story at https://www.junonews.com/p/op-ed-canada-is-falling-behind-and

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