This is re-printed from an article by Royce Koop, professor of political science, University of Manitoba:
"Mark Carney won the last election by burnishing his credentials as a strong economic manager. The banker was here, and a grown-up would finally be taking charge of the books.
"It was a powerful pitch because Canadians had long since grown weary of Justin Trudeau’s free-spending ways. Obviously, I didn’t vote for Carney. But to be honest, when he won, I thought we would at least get a Paul Martin-style fiscally responsible government from him.
"Fourteen months later, the results are in. It’s far from the first time I’ve been wrong. But, man, this time it’s a doosie.
"Carney has shown flat-out contempt for the Parliament that is supposed to sanction his spending, and he’s burning through taxpayers’ money much quicker than the man he replaced.
"Start with Parliament. For most of 2025, Carney governed without a budget at all, the first time that has happened in decades outside the pandemic. Carney couldn’t be bothered to put together and pass a budget.
"But that didn’t stop him from announcing hundreds of billions in new spending. The House of Commons actually had to pass a motion urging the government to table a budget because Carney was willing to spend, spend, spend without Parliament signing off on a budget.
"The pattern didn’t stop when a budget finally arrived last November. Carney told a defence conference in May that his fiscal framework already covers massive new defence spending of four per cent of GDP. When journalists asked the finance department for any numbers backing that claim, the department simply refused to provide them.
"The Parliamentary Budget Officer has sent the government three letters asking for details on defence spending. Precisely none have been answered. Former budget officer Kevin Page called this a “failure of transparency.”
"Speaking of the budget officer, Canada spent weeks this Spring without one. Carney’s government let interim watchdog Jason Jacques’ term expire with no successor in place, leaving the office unable to publish reports or take new requests from parliamentarians.
"Jacques was the official who had called Carney’s reckless spending “unsustainable” for the country. Draw your own conclusions about why contract wasn’t renewed.
"In the meantime, Carney and his underlings have used their new majority to stack parliamentary committees and shut down any investigations into dubious government spending. It happened again this week when the Liberals moved to shut down a committee investigation into their bailout for wealthy Vancouver condo developers.
"That bailout is only one of several recent Carney spending sprees that will add billions to the already-surging deficit.
"Why does Carney dodge parliamentary scrutiny? Because scrutiny reveals some alarming numbers. Nearly double! Replacing Trudeau with Carney has turned out to be like calling 911 because your garden shed is on fire, only to have firefighters show up and burn down your house.
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| Canada under Carney. |
"It gets worse. Carney’s Spring fiscal update projects deficits totalling $309.2 billion over five years, double what Trudeau had forecast. Over that period, Carney plans to spend $83.2 billion more than even Trudeau had dreamed of.
"Then came June. A new Parliamentary Budget Officer report projects that deficits will run an average of $4.6 billion per year above what Carney’s own spring update promised, with spending $6.5 billion over budget this year alone.
"The spring update came out in April. It took a whole two months (!) for Carney to blow a massive hole through his own projections.
And that’s the heart of it. Carney’s economic credentials weren’t a footnote in the last election campaign. They were the central plank of both the campaign and his own personal appeal.
"Voters who had soured on the Liberals gave the party a fourth mandate because they believed this particular Liberal was different than Trudeau. He had run two central banks. Surely Carney could write a budget and stick to it? He can’t. Or, more precisely, he won’t. The deficits are bigger, the spending is higher, and the parliamentary oversight that might have caught it all has been stonewalled, starved and left vacant.
"Meanwhile, Canadians are struggling as the economy either stagnates or shrinks under Carney. Billions in new inflationary deficit spending will only make Canadians’ situations even more grim.
"So here’s the question that should keep Liberals up at night. Carney’s fiscal reputation carried him to victory once. Now that he’s been revealed as a fiscal phony, what exactly does he run on next time?"
