LILLEY: Trudeau says economy is great, Canadians can see truth

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Published Sep 21, 2024  •  Last updated 7 minutes ago  •  3 minute read

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rises during Question Period, Wednesday, September 18, 2024 in Ottawa. Photo by Adrian Wyld /The Canadian Press

Justin Trudeau is trying to convince Canadians the economy is great, and they’ve never had it so good.

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Unfortunately for Trudeau, no matter how many studies from world bodies he points to, Canadians can see from the reality of their daily lives that things are much different from how the PM paints them.

All week in the House of Commons, the Trudeau Liberals were touting how great the economy is doing.

“Last year, we were third in the world after the U.S. and Brazil, which makes us number one for foreign investment in the G20 per capita,” Trudeau said Wednesday.

“Inflation is in the target range for seven months in a row. Interest rates are down three times in a row and the IMF says that we will have the strongest economic growth in the G7,” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said.

“We have the strongest economy in the G7, foreign direct investment per capita is tops in the world,” added Immigration Minister Marc Miller.

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While the Trudeau Liberals point to the G7 or the IMF or the OECD, Canadians look at the cost of food, the cost of housing, a rising unemployment rate and reduced purchasing power.

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I’m sure if the Trudeau government knows this, but Canadians can’t eat a report from the IMF.

When they do go to eat, Canadians are still getting sticker shock over the price of food after three years of bad inflation. True, inflation has cooled down to 2%, but that doesn’t mean prices are falling – it means prices are only rising by 2% instead of the peak we saw a while back of 8.1%.

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And of course, food inflation was higher than the national average for much of the last three years.

Earlier this year Stats Canada noted that between “June 2021 to June 2024, prices for food purchased from stores increased 21.9%.” Those prices have not gone back down to their previous levels and that’s what people notice each and every week when they go to the store.

Have you tried eating out lately?

Prices at restaurants are through the roof because restaurant owners not only had to pay increased costs for food, they’ve also had to pay for increased labour costs as wages have risen. And while those wage increases have been welcomed by workers, the purchasing power of Canadians has shrunk due to a weak dollar and a shrinking GDP per capita.

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According to Stats Can, our GDP per capita, which measures our standard of living, is the same as it was in 2017. Our American neighbours are getting richer and we are getting poorer.

This is the reality Canadians are dealing with when it comes to the economy, not a study from a far of foreign organization.

And as the Trudeau government points to interest rates coming down, that doesn’t mean Canadians aren’t still hurting.

The latest report on inflation shows that the mortgage interest cost index is still up a staggering 18.8%, which is an improvement from the 30.9% increase marked in August 2023. But Canadians are still paying more for renewing their mortgages than they were five years ago and the price of housing in that time has skyrocketed.

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At the same time as all of this, Canada’s population has been increasing dramatically, but other key indicators like retail and wholesale trade are not keeping pace – not a sign of a healthy economy.

Unemployment, meanwhile, has gone from 5% just over two years ago to 6.6% in the latest jobs report.

Food costs up, mortgage and rent costs up, unemployment up, GDP per capita down – these are not the signs of a healthy economy. Telling Canadians things are just great when they can see clearly that’s not the case isn’t a winning political strategy.

Of course, if the Trudeau Liberals had a winning political strategy, they wouldn’t be heading for disaster in the next federal election.

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