{"id":610894,"date":"2026-04-28T08:31:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T08:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/610894\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T08:31:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T08:31:22","slug":"on-the-economy-carney-remains-committed-to-the-trudeau-playbook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/610894\/","title":{"rendered":"On the economy, Carney remains committed to the Trudeau playbook"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney has promised a different approach to federal finances than that of his predecessor Justin Trudeau, but so far seems to be following in his footsteps, writes Jake Fuss.Carlos Osorio\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Jake Fuss is director of fiscal studies at the Fraser Institute.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s government will update Canadians on the state of federal finances. While early indications<\/a> suggest that deficit projections will be lower than forecasted in November, the Carney government remains committed to the fiscal approach of the Trudeau era, which produced record levels of red ink and dismal economic growth. <\/p>\n

To recap, during its decade-long tenure, the Trudeau government increased program spending per person by 22.9 per cent, ran nine consecutive deficits (ranging from $16.8-billion to $384.9-billion) and increased federal debt per person by 34.5 per cent. Meanwhile, per-person GDP (a broad measure of living standards) grew by just 3.4 per cent \u2013 anemic by historical standards and compared to peer countries \u2013 while government job creation significantly outpaced private-sector jobs, and business investment per worker (excluding investment in residential housing) declined by 5.1 per cent (all figures adjusted for inflation).<\/p>\n

This stood in stark contrast to Jean Chr\u00e9tien\u2019s tenure as prime minister, even though Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Chr\u00e9tien share the same political party. The Chr\u00e9tien government cut spending substantially, ran seven budget surpluses and reduced federal debt per person by 12.9 per cent. At the same time, per-person GDP grew by 26.5 per cent under Mr. Chr\u00e9tien \u2013 nearly eight times more than under Mr. Trudeau. Private-sector job creation also averaged 2.5 per cent a year \u2013 a full percentage point more than Mr. Trudeau. And business investment per worker increased 37 per cent (again, all figures adjusted for inflation). <\/p>\n

Ottawa\u2019s economic update to show lower projected deficits, source says<\/a><\/p>\n

Fast-forward to today, and Mr. Carney has promised a \u201cvery different approach\u201d to federal finances compared to Mr. Trudeau, including to \u201cspending less\u201d to deliver the \u201cstrongest economy in the G7.\u201d But while the tone may be different, the data so far show that instead of emulating Mr. Chr\u00e9tien\u2019s approach, Mr. Carney has followed the Trudeau playbook.<\/p>\n

According to last November\u2019s budget (Mr. Carney\u2019s first as Prime Minister), from 2025-26 to 2029-30, the government plans to spend $67.6-billion more than the Trudeau government planned in its last fiscal update, and also run $321.7-billion in cumulative deficits over that five-year period \u2013 more than double what the Trudeau government planned. Total federal debt will now reach a projected $2.9-trillion by the end of the decade compared to $2.6-trillion under the Trudeau plan (which itself was concerning). And this fiscal year, federal debt interest payments will reach a projected $60-billion, which is more than the government plans to spend on health care transfers to the provinces. <\/p>\n

While it looks likely that Tuesday\u2019s fiscal update will include higher revenue projections and smaller projected deficits than in November\u2019s budget, the Carney government remains poised to spend at or above the levels the Trudeau government had planned. Mr. Carney\u2019s \u201ccomprehensive spending review\u201d has also done little to offset the increased defence spending (which, to be fair, was overdue), increased GST payments, a fuel tax holiday and several other campaign commitments.<\/p>\n

Clearly, Ottawa\u2019s fiscal trajectory is unsustainable. The Carney government should start fresh with a new Chr\u00e9tien-style plan to make tough decisions and return to budget balance by re-evaluating every dollar of federal spending, with no exceptions. That means taking a hard look at programs such as national day care, dental care, pharmacare, Old Age Security and federal transfers to the provinces.<\/p>\n

Mr. Carney was right to criticize the Trudeau government\u2019s approach to federal finances. Tuesday\u2019s fiscal update, however, will almost certainly demonstrate the Prime Minister\u2019s fiscal approach looks a lot more like Mr. Trudeau than Mr. Chr\u00e9tien. Maintaining the Trudeau-era status quo will only burden future generations of Canadians with a rising bill while likely producing similar dismal economic results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Prime Minister Mark Carney has promised a different approach to federal finances than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[2428,2416,2429,4,2408,2430,28,103,2407,2422,2423,2418,2409,2406,101,526,192,2421,2414,2441,2410,2411,2420,2417,149,983,2431,2413,2436,2437,2439,2434,2438,2432,2435,2412,2425,2426,111,2424,2433,2415,74,2427,2419,194,965,2440],"class_list":{"0":"post-610894","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-business","15":"tag-canada","16":"tag-canada-news","17":"tag-canada-sports","18":"tag-canada-sports-news","19":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","20":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","21":"tag-canadian-news","22":"tag-economy","23":"tag-education","24":"tag-environment","25":"tag-federal-government","26":"tag-foreign-news","27":"tag-globe-and-mail","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","29":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","30":"tag-government","31":"tag-life-news","32":"tag-lifestyle","33":"tag-local-news","34":"tag-manitoba","35":"tag-national-news","36":"tag-new-brunswick","37":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","38":"tag-northwest-territories","39":"tag-nova-scotia","40":"tag-nunavut","41":"tag-ontario","42":"tag-pei","43":"tag-photos","44":"tag-political-news","45":"tag-political-opinion","46":"tag-politics","47":"tag-politics-news","48":"tag-quebec","49":"tag-sports-news","50":"tag-technology","51":"tag-travel","52":"tag-trudeau","53":"tag-us-news","54":"tag-world-news","55":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}