The Liberals and New Democrats were less forgiving, framing the downturn as a repudiation of Harper’s economic agenda \u2014 and Harper’s fiscal policies would later be said to have “unduly sacrificed economic growth<\/a>” in pursuit of a balanced budget.<\/p>\n WATCH | Poilievre questions Carney on the technical recession: Government building ‘foundations’ of a stronger economy, Carney says to Poilievre<\/p>\n In an exchange during question period on Wednesday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre asked Prime Minister Mark Carney whether Canada ‘is in a recession or a technical recession.’ In his reply, Carney said the government is ‘putting in place the foundations of an economy that will be stronger, more resilient, more independent.’<\/p>\n But an expert panel convened by the C.D. Howe Institute would ultimately decide<\/a> in 2018 that the technical recession did not qualify as a real recession because the impact was not broad enough.<\/p>\n The technical recession of 2026 is similarly debatable<\/a>. And as Douglas Porter, chief economist at the Bank of Montreal, suggested<\/a> last week, a future revision to Statistics Canada’s estimate could ultimately wipe away that 0.1 per cent decline in the second quarter \u2014\u00a0thus eliminating the basis for even a technical recession.<\/p>\n What’s behind the weakness?<\/p>\n Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Carney suggested that some of the “weakness” in Canada’s economic data could be attributed to reductions in government spending and the federal government’s moves to curtail immigration. Those two explanations have the benefit of being policy directions that Poilievre broadly supports, but suffice it to say the Conservative leader does not believe fiscal restraint and immigration policy are to blame.<\/p>\n “The recession was caused by taxes, anti-development laws, government red tape and the doubling of the deficit,” Poilievre told<\/a> the House of Commons on Tuesday.<\/p>\n At question period on Wednesday, Poilievre asked if the only G20 leader facing a recession would please stand up. When the Speaker ruled that out of order, Poilievre stood and asked the prime minister to clarify whether Canada was experiencing a “recession” or a “technical recession.”\u00a0<\/p>\n “This government is putting in place the foundations of an economy that will be stronger, more resilient, more independent,” Carney responded, broadly ignoring the Opposition leader’s demand.\u00a0<\/p>\n WATCH | Carney defends economic record: Carney defends economic record despite technical recession<\/p>\n Prime Minister Mark Carney defended his economic record after Canada slipped into a technical recession, saying the government is doing the work to strengthen the economy. The Opposition says the ongoing economic weakness is all Carney’s fault.<\/p>\n The Conservative leader persisted in asking what kind of recession Canada was in. The prime minister persisted in ignoring Poilievre’s terms. Eventually, Poilievre tried asking Carney what he would say to specific Canadians who were experiencing hardship, but by then Carney had turned questions over to other members of the government.<\/p>\n Poilievre is no doubt eager to tarnish Carney’s economic credentials and at least begin to chip away at the public support the prime minister has accumulated over the past year \u2014\u00a0according to a recent poll by Abacus Data, 47 per cent of Canadians think the country is headed in the right direction and 59 per cent approve of the Carney government’s performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Our read of this data is that Canadians increasingly see inflationary pressure and economic uncertainty as being driven externally, particularly by instability emanating from the United States and decisions made by Donald Trump, rather than by domestic policy failures from Ottawa,” David Coletto of Abacus Data wrote<\/a> in an analysis published before the latest GDP numbers were released.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Making the case that Carney, not Trump, is primarily to blame is a challenge for Poilievre. So is the fact the Carney government is moving to do some of the things, such as regulatory reform<\/a>, that Poilievre is calling for. (Harper’s experience with a technical recession in 2015 might also suggest that simply cutting taxes, spending and regulation are not quite the economic magic they are sometimes made out to be.)<\/p>\n Don’t undersell the softness<\/p>\n But even if this recession proves to only be technical in nature \u2014 or even, after a revision to the data, turns out not to have occurred \u2014\u00a0there is still obvious cause here for the Carney government to be concerned. The technical recession of 2026 feels like a warning sign that responding to the “rupture” might not be perfectly easy.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1780545012_690_default.jpg\")
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