
No, Trudeau did not make Canada richer
Toronto Star columnists fails to account for inflation
Now that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s political career is coming to an end, some of his fans are romanticizing his economic track record. Yet it is indisputable that, under his leadership, the economy sputtered and Canadians, robbed of a decade of growth, were left relatively poorer than their global peers.
Perhaps the best example of this historical revisionism can be found in a fawning column published in the Toronto Star just hours after Trudeau’s resignation. Penned by the paper’s business columnist, David Olive, the article claimed that “Trudeau’s successors will be hard-pressed to improve on his economic track record” as there’s “no arguing Canadians became wealthier while he was in power.”
To substantiate his argument, which grossly exaggerated Canada’s post-2015 economic performance, it was claimed that Trudeau grew the economy by 41 per cent throughout his time in office, while his Conservative predecessor, Stephen Harper, who governed for roughly the same length, saw only 18 per cent growth.
These figures are useless, though, because they aren’t adjusted for inflation or population growth — and addressing these factors is essential to credible economic analysis.
If you ignore inflation, Canada’s GDP has indeed grown by roughly 41 per cent since 2015 until now — from US$1.56 trillion (C$2.24 trillion) to US$2.33 trillion, according to the International Monetary Fund. But that isn’t actually illuminating, because the cumulative inflation rate of the U.S. dollar, which the IMF uses for its analysis, over that period was 33.1 per cent, so, obviously, much of this increase was simply inflation disguised as growth. This problem exists if you measure GDP using Canadian dollars, too.
Our national nightmare is over, almost
If it was only that simple. The damage will be generational…
Trudeau assumed power in 2015 with a $500 million budget surplus inherited from the Harper Government and by 2024 he ran the country into the ground with a $62 billion deficit.
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