After nine years of NDP-Liberal governance, Canadians are facing one of the steepest declines in living standards in our nation’s history. In 2014, before Trudeau took office, the New York Times described Canada as home to “the world’s most affluent middle class.” Now, per-person economic output in many provinces falls behind that of states like Alabama and Mississippi.
The Fraser Institute confirmed the troubling state of Canada’s economy yesterday, reporting that Canadians’ incomes have significantly lagged behind those of Americans. Their research indicates that “Canadian provinces are getting poorer relative to their US peers.” When comparing earnings from 2010 to 2022 across all 50 US states and 10 Canadian provinces, only British Columbia ranked in the top half for growth. Seven Canadian provinces found themselves near the bottom, with Ontario at 56th, Nova Scotia at 57th, and Manitoba and Saskatchewan at 58th and 59th, respectively.
Much of this decline occurred during Justin Trudeau’s leadership. By 2022, all ten Canadian provinces were in the bottom ten for earnings per person. This follows a report from RBC predicting that Canada’s GDP per capita will decline for a sixth consecutive quarter. Canadians’ per-person income has fallen back to 2015 levels, and unemployment has risen to 6.6 percent as of August. This marks the highest unemployment rate Canada has seen since May 2017, excluding the pandemic, with 44,000 Canadians losing full-time jobs. In contrast, the United States reported an unemployment rate of 4.2 percent.
