HANNAFORD: Poorer Canadians, the bitter consequence of Trudeau's failures

“The wealth of western countries is no more inevitable than the poverty of emerging ones and the wealth we enjoy today has been based on — and only on — the good, growth-oriented policies, the right, often tough choices and the hard work done in the past.” Thus, then-Prime Minister Harper, speaking at Davos to the World Economic Forum in January 2012.At the time, his words passed without much remark. Smart people thought it all blindingly obvious.It was not, however, obvious to the Trudeau Liberals who came to power in October 2015. Now, the consequences of more than eight years of policies that have not been good or growth-oriented — from a prime minister who disdains the very idea of thinking about monetary policy — are visible all around us. Unfortunately, given their present policy directions, it is evident that they still don't get it.The consequence? Canadians have indeed become poorer on the Liberal watch. Why exactly? Three reasons.1) Inflation, driven first by government borrowing that expanded the money supply without expanding available goods to buy and second by the carbon tax. The latter is especially inflationary, as it is levied at every stage of the supply chain.2) The pill that was supposed to cure it all... higher interest rates 3) Above all, anti-growth policies. These, such as anti-pipeline legislation, are signature Liberal goals, pursued to reach non-economic ends.So, inflation... where did that come from? Massive borrowing to pay millions of Canadians to not work during the pandemic. CERB was replaced by enhanced Employment Insurance. Millions of mostly young Canadians took 18 months off. The cost was the doubling of the national debt and the debasement of a generation's work ethic by lockdown policies that peer countries are now acknowledging to have been highly detrimental.When Statistics Canada began reporting massive month-over-month inflation — in July 2022, it hit 8% — the bank rate more than doubled in an attempt to reduce inflation by reducing the amount of money chasing goods. It worked alright. A hundred dollar bill doesn't buy nearly what it used to in the grocery, even two years ago. Bad policy then, starting with the lockdowns. .Canadians are also finding accommodation more expensive, whether renting or buying. Why? Because the Trudeau-Liberals chose this time to ramp up immigration, generating an extra demand for somewhere to live, without an equivalent increase in supply. As Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre pointed out a few months ago, there were fewer new homes built in Canada last year, than in 1972.So, as Mr. Trudeau works his way around the country this week making housing commitments, do not be deceived. He is promising to fix a problem for which his government's bad policies are solely responsible. You pay more for a home because demand exceeds supply and even the same mortgage is more expensive because of higher interest rates.The bad policy list unfortunately doesn't stop there.Western countries do not preserve their wealth and avoid the poverty they associate with 'emerging ones', by scaring off investment.It does not work to reduce once dominant industries to shells of their former selves.It is self-defeating, not to mention horribly insulting, to tell our allies that we're not prepared to trade with them — that there is in fact, no business case to do so, even as the Americans grab the trade with both hands.In the name of their vanity-project climate change agenda, the Trudeau Liberals even want Canadians to give up on personal mobility. The prime minister himself and his Environment Minister Stephen Guilbeault, have made it clear that they intend people to drive less by making it prohibitively expensive to do so. And if they must drive, then let it be in electric cars powered by batteries manufactured by foreign companies receiving billions of dollars in federal grants, in factories built not by Canadians but by foreign workers.It is to redefine stupidity. Having torpedoed the energy industry in the West, they now try to force the Eastern auto industry to make cars that apparently nobody wants to buy.Bad policies then, informed by immature minds for whom virtue-signalling to the groups they favour is a higher priority than trying to understand the hard choices today's world presents, or than serving all Canadians.This is the crew that given one more term, will turn Canada into a third-world country. (As the office wag remarks, we already have the coloured money.)Harper of course, is not coming back. But there is an election in 18 months. The ballot question will be whether Canadians are ready to elect people who know what they're doing, or Mr. Trudeau's post-national Canada, will descend further to become a post-prosperity state, and a museum to the accomplishments of better, cleverer people who came before him...

HANNAFORD: Poorer Canadians, the bitter consequence of Trudeau's failures

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