Attention Economy


Sunday, December 1, 2024

Canada's Economic and Social Woes

Trudeau’s Mass Migration Cult Is Destroying Canada
You know things have gone crazy when even economists at the National Bank of Canada are sounding the alarm. They say the country has entered a “population trap” in which savings are sucked into providing infrastructure and capital for new arrivals, impairing economic growth. More than that, the immense pressure of the 1.2 million new residents the country added in 2023 is driving the cost of housing through the roof. To put this number into scale, it’s larger than the population of most Canadian cities and 8 of the country’s 13 provinces and territories.
 
Finance minister misleading Canadians about economic growth
In fact, from 2000 to 2023, Canada led the G7 in average annual population growth, which has served to inflate the country’s rate of aggregate GDP growth.
So, to more accurately measure Canada’s economic performance relative to other countries, economists use GDP per person, which accounts for differing population growth rates. This measure is a much better indicator of individual incomes and living standards.
On this measure, Canada is an economic laggard. Canada’s average annual growth rate in GDP per person (inflation-adjusted) from 2000 to 2023 was 0.7 per cent—tied for second-last in the G7, above only Italy (0.1 per cent).
If you include a broader subset of advanced economies, and focus on the Trudeau government’s tenure, the picture is even worse. From 2014 to 2022 (the latest year of available data), Canada was tied for the third-lowest average annual growth rate in inflation-adjusted GDP per person out of 30 countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Canada’s average growth rate during that period (0.6 per cent) was only ahead of Luxembourg (0.5 per cent) and Mexico (0.4 per cent).