Everything (Except Conman Carney’s Approval Rating) Is Getting Worse

[Herman]

This was written by Tristin Hopper and appeared in the National Post.
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/everything-except-mark-carneys-approval-rating-worse

Mark Carney's first 100 days as prime minister are over, and according to the electorate he's doing a fine job. An Abacus Data poll from this week found that the approval ratings for both Carney and his government are in comfortably positive territory. A Leger poll on Friday showed much the same trend: 56 per cent of respondents approved of Carney, and would readily grant his Liberals a majority if given the chance.

What's less clear is precisely what voters think Carney is doing well. That same Abacus Data survey found that just 36 per cent of Canadians think the country is headed in the right direction.

Not only has Carney made little to no material progress on any of his core campaign promises, but many of Canada's economic fundamentals have been getting worse.

[Herman]

Below, a cursory summary of how — in just the last few months — Canada has been experiencing some very noticeable dives.

Large quantities of money are fleeing the country

One of Carney's last actions in the private sector before entering politics was to champion his company, Brookfield Asset Management, moving their head office from Toronto to New York. The move was seen as a bid to shield Brookfield from a wave of protectionist economic measures promised by the incoming administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Plenty of other investors — both Canadian and non-Canadian — have been taking a similar tack. Statistics Canada's most recent figures on securities transactions show that Canada is in the midst of full-blown capital flight. In just the first four months of 2025, $84 billion in capital left the country. That's the equivalent of $30 million leaving the country every single hour.

Record quantities of Canadian wealth are being collected as tax

Raw Canadian tax rates have actually gone down since Carney took power. He ended the consumer carbon tax and pushed through a promised "middle class tax cut" in the first session of Parliament.

So it's all the more notable that the percentage of GDP being collected as tax is hitting 20-year highs.

According to recent figures tallied up by economist Richard Dias, the feds are now collecting enough tax to equal 15.2 per cent of Canadian GDP, with an additional 16.4 per cent of GDP being consumed by provincial and local taxes.

The Canadian "tax take" is now higher than at any point since the early 2000s, when Canada was still paying down the sovereign debt crisis of the mid-1990s. And given that this is all happening while taxes are ostensibly going down, it's a sign that the tax base is being hollowed out, as Canada is requiring an ever-increasing share of national wealth to run the government.

[Herman]

The gap between U.S. and Canadian per capita GDP has never been wider

When economists talk about a nation's productivity or living standards, they're usually talking about per-capita GDP. The higher an individuals' average share of overall GDP, the richer they're likely to be.

Canadian per-capita GDP has been falling since 2014. Although raw Canadian GDP has grown during that period, it hasn't kept pace with the rising population. As such, each passing year is yielding a Canada in which the average worker is contributing less to GDP than the year before — a situation that's inevitably going to be felt in terms of lower wages and diminished buying power.

And probably the starkest measure of falling Canadian productivity is that it hasn't been happening in the U.S. The U.S. and Canada spent much of the latter half of the 20th century with comparable rates of per-capita GDP, but over the last 10 years, U.S. per capita GDP has continued to trend upwards while Canada has remained stagnant.

The first quarter of 2025 thus yielded yet another record gap between U.S. and Canadian productivity. The average American is now 18 per cent more productive than they were in 2015. The average Canadian managed just two per cent.

Insolvencies are hitting levels not seen since the Great Recession

Canada has a Superintendent of Bankruptcies that keeps regular stats on just how many Canadians are going under each month. And according to data compiled by the site Better Dwelling, consumer insolvencies hit 11,464 in June. That's higher than any point since 2010, when the last cohort of victims from the 2008 Great Recession were finally throwing in the towel.

More concerning is that the most severe type of insolvency — bankruptcy — is growing at an outsized rate. This is where we should mention that Canadian household debt is one of the highest in the developed world, with total consumer debt in Canada hitting a historic high of $2.5 trThe share of workers collecting a government paycheque is at generational highs

It's been widely reported that youth unemployment is hitting highs not seen in a generation. But Canada's overall employment rate is also getting steadily worse. The share of Canadians 15 years or older who have a job is now down to just 60.9 per cent. When omitting the temporary job losses caused by COVID lockdowns, that's the lowest sustained employment rate Canada has seen since the 1990s.

With job losses occurring way faster in the private sector than in the public sector, the share of government jobs in the Canadian economy has now hit a high of 21.7 per cent. In other words, there is now a civil servant for every four Canadians employed in the private sector.

There are now more bureaucrats in the job market than at any point since the early 1990s, just before a sovereign debt crisis compelled a rapid reduction in the size of the Canadian government.illion in February, according to a report by the financial analyst firm TransUnion.

[Herman]

The Canadian trade deficit is plummeting to new lows

There's nothing inherently wrong with a trade deficit. The term merely refers to whether a country imports more than it exports, and need not have any connection with GDP or national wealth. The United States, notably, has spent decades with both a trade deficit and the world's largest economy.

However, given the share of the Canadian economy devoted to export industries, it's of some concern that the Canadian trade deficit is hitting lows never seen before. According to recent Statistics Canada figures, April and June both posted the largest Canadian trade deficits on record, at $7.6 billion and $5.9 billion, respectively.

This would be fine if the deficits were being driven by increased Canadian imports, but they're happening mostly because of collapsing Canadian exports.

This is being driven largely by U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods. Exports of steel and aluminum alone have plunged by more than a third as compared to this time last year.

[Herman]

Multiple signs point to housing affordability getting worse

The Carney government has already backed off on some of the more sweeping housing pledges it made during the 2025 election. While the Liberal campaign had promised to restore affordability with the "most ambitious housing plan since the Second World War," this was quickly checked by official assurances that housing prices wouldn't actually be going down.

And for the foreseeable future, Canadian real estate is set to remain some of the most unaffordable on earth.

Housing construction is poised to fall dramatically in the coming years, exacerbating the housing shortage at the core of the Canadian affordability crisis. In Ontario, for instance, housing starts have already charted a 25 per cent drop as compared to last year.

Even if the Carney government can stick to its pledge to maintain lower rates of immigration, it's a simple numbers game that the Canadian population is set to continue growing at a faster rate than the number of new homes available to house everyone.

[Herman]

This aint even mentioning the mass immigration crisis, and the national unity crises across three provinces.

The only real hiring has been in civil service.
https://x.com/RichardDias_CFA/status/1953838408624685138?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1953838408624685138%7Ctwgr%5E4baad5b81e6102b188494b35f2a22990c7a58f05%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnationalpost.com%2Fopinion%2Feverything-except-mark-carneys-approval-rating-worse

Canadian living standards have fallen a long way behind the US.
https://x.com/Ryan_r_Williams/status/1955634972653412424?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1955634972653412424%7Ctwgr%5E4baad5b81e6102b188494b35f2a22990c7a58f05%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnationalpost.com%2Fopinion%2Feverything-except-mark-carneys-approval-rating-worse

[Thiel]

Carney made little to no material progress on any of his core campaign promises, but many of Canada's economic fundamentals have been getting worse.

Canadian voters don't know what they like about Mr Carney because let's face it, he has done nothing to like so far.

But, not Jo Jo and I. We know he is not doing anything to address Canada's biggest problems. He is not even having parliament sit everyday to address these issues that are getting worse on his watch.

[Shen Li]

Canadian voters don't know what they like about Mr Carney because let's face it, he has done nothing to like so far.

But, not Jo Jo and I. We know he is not doing anything to address Canada's biggest problems. He is not even having parliament sit everyday to address these issues that are getting worse on his watch.

I'm back for a holiday and there are few people we have talked with who are happy with the direction their country is headed.

[DKG]

I'm back for a holiday and there are few people we have talked with who are happy with the direction their country is headed.

That is what is strange about what is happening. Carney has had the worst first hundred days in office of any pm in Canadian history. Yet, he remains popular.

[Brent]

The U.S. and Canada spent much of the latter half of the 20th century with comparable rates of per-capita GDP, but over the last 10 years, U.S. per capita GDP has continued to trend upwards while Canada has remained stagnant.

Anybody under the age of forty in Canada knows that it has become hard to keep your head above water in Canada. Thriving? Not likely under the Liberals. And it is getting even worse under the new Liberal snake head.

This editorial was in Postmedia.

While the good news is that Canada's inflation rate dropped to 1.7% in July, on a year-over-year basis compared to 1.9% in June, the bad news is that the cost of food and shelter both went up significantly.

That means there's little relief in sight for the cost-of-living crisis facing many Canadian families.

Excluding gasoline, the inflation rate rose 2.5% in July, matching the increases in May and June.

So, it's good news for consumers that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and the Tories eventually pressured Carney and the Liberals to eliminate the consumer carbon tax.

The cost of groceries (meaning food purchased from stores) rose at a faster annual pace in July (3.4%) than in June (2.8%) and at twice the headline inflation rate of 1.7%.

As of July 2025, Statistics Canada reported, Canadian families were paying 27.1% more for groceries than they were in July 2020.

Meanwhile, the cost of shelter rose by 3% in July year over year, up from a 2.9% increase in June, "the first acceleration in shelter prices since February 2024."

The cost of rent also rose at a faster pace year over year — up 5.1% in July following a 4.7% increase in June.

Those numbers would have been even worse were it not for slower growth in mortgage interest costs, which rose 4.8% year over year in July compared to 5.6% in June; they've been declining on a year-over-year basis since September 2023.

While the inflation rate is influenced by many factors — including ones beyond the federal government's control — July's inflation numbers are even more reason for the Carney government to be laser-focused on making life more affordable for Canadians when Parliament resumes in the fall.

[Thiel]

I'm back for a holiday and there are few people we have talked with who are happy with the direction their country is headed.

Anybody who is paying a mortgage or rent knows that the Liberal Party has made life harder for them. And Mr Carney is trying to see how many future Liberal voters he can cram into Canada.

[Herman]

During his first press conference since securing a seat again in the House of Commons this fall, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre criticized Conman Carney for his "failures" in handling major issues like the cost-of-living crisis, crime, and the economy. Poilievre said his Liberal opponent is "even worse than [former prime minister Justin] Trudeau."

[.]

I'm back for a holiday and there are few people we have talked with who are happy with the direction their country is headed.

You said "few". I am hearing you admit to "some". Why are you associating with obviously brain damaged individuals?

[Shen Li]

You said "few". I am hearing you admit to "some". Why are you associating with obviously brain damaged individuals?

The libtards working for the feds in parks for example. They are hard to avoid, but I still try.

[.]

The libtards working for the feds in parks for example. They are hard to avoid, but I still try.

Try hitting them with some bear mace, that might help.


Don't look at me like that; they're animals, treat them like animals.