By Peter St. Onge

Canada’s standard of living is on track for its worst decline in 40 years, according to a new study by Canada’s Fraser Institute.

The study compared the three worst periods of decline in Canada in the last 40 years – the 1989 recession, the 2008 global financial crisis, and this post-pandemic era.

They found that, unlike the previous recessions, Canada is not recovering this time. Something broke.

In fact, according to the Financial Post, since 2019 Canada’s had the worst growth out of 50 developed economies. Inflation-adjusted Canadian wages have been flat since 2016.

While Canadians post TikToks about trying to stretch a loaf of rye bread through the week or selling off their possessions to afford groceries, the cost of living is hitting harder with time.

Canadian bankruptcy filings jumped 40% last year, while CIBC reports nearly half of Canadians have zero emergency savings.

According to StatsCan Canada’s violent crime rate is up 40% since 2014.

An Ipsos poll found 7 in 10 Canadians agree that “Canada is broken” – rising to 8 in 10 of those between age 18 and 34.

Angus found fully 42% of Canadians are considering moving to another country.

What Changed

This is all a shock because it happened so fast – it’s night and day from the last crisis in 2008, which Canada weathered much better than America.

What changed? Justin Trudeau. Specifically, his campaign to convert Canada from a mixed economy like the US into a government-dominated economy like the sick men of the European Union.

Under Trudeau, business investment has plunged by a third. While government spending nearly doubled to almost half of GDP.

Government workers in Canada are growing almost four times faster than the private sector, and one in three Canadians now work for the government, raking in 30% more in salary and benefits than the taxpayers they lord over. Another 1.7 million Canadians – roughly 1 in 10 households – are on welfare.

Of course, that makes it very difficult to win an election in Canada on a small-government platform: You’re up against the government-provided livelihoods of 40% of voters. Meaning you’ve got to win, what, 80% of everybody else.

What’s Next

Near-term things will get worse because Canadians are stuck with Trudeau through the next election in 2025.

Conservative Pierre Poilievre is ahead in the polls for now, but Canada’s government-funded media is doing everything they can to destroy him so the lead’s already narrowing.

That means more inflation, more decline, more mass migration, and rising crime in what was once a paradise.

Republished from the author’s Substack

Sourced from Brownstone Institute

Published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
For reprints, please set the canonical link back to the original Brownstone Institute Article and Author.

Peter is an economist, a Fellow at the Mises Institute, and a former MBA professor.

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