These days, it appears the vast majority of Canada’s institutions – our courts, our governments, our legacy media and our government bureaucracies – are deliberately working hard to thwart Canada’s success. Despite protestations from the federal and many provincial governments that they are determined to counter the reputation Canada now has on the global stage as the country where nothing can get built, pretty much nothing is still getting built. Politicians continue to talk a good game while their actions never back up their words. 

“If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it.” This quote describes how a government typically treats businesses in an economy, and the tendency of governments to constantly intervene. It was attributed to former U.S. president Ronald Reagan, who regularly used this quote to illustrate how he believed government interfered far too much in the economy on a regular basis. Looking at Canada today, it appears that Reagan made a good point. 

Back in May, the Carney government announced a strategy entitled “Powering Canada Strong: A National Strategy for an Electrified Canadian Economy.” The plan is to double the capacity of Canada’s electrical grid by 2050. This announcement did not get anywhere near the attention it deserved, especially considering that the cost is estimated at a gigantic $1 trillion. Sadly, our subsidized legacy media does virtually no scrutiny of pretty much any announcement the Liberal government makes, in fear of losing their multi-billion-dollar welfare payments with our scarce tax dollars.

The bane of any business community is uncertainty, and Canadian businesses have a great deal of uncertainty to deal with these days. Some of the uncertainty is unavoidable as we have no control over such things as global disputes in the Middle East and Ukraine, which nevertheless affect us greatly. There are other sources of uncertainty which we could control within Canada to a greater degree, but our governments are mostly refusing to do so.

While many federal politicians were debating whether the fact that Canada has just registered two consecutive quarters of economic decline was a “technical recession” or a “real recession,” some Ontario economic data from the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario (FAO) also had some bad news to report.

Since U.S. President Trump’s re-election in late 2024, and his imposition of tariffs on Canadian products, there has been a frenzy of “Buy Canadian” sentiment in Canada.  One would hope that Canadians would always attempt to buy goods made in their own country, but it seems it took their intense dislike for a U.S. President to actually bring them onside with supporting Canada. This consumer sentiment has led to a push by retailers and other businesses to label themselves “Proudly Canadian” and their various products “Canadian Made.” It turns out it’s not actually that easy to know whether you are buying Canadian or not.

Last week, the Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers and Businesses Canada (CCMBC), where this author is President, had its annual Gala dinner. It was a wonderful event, with a very interesting panel comprised of Conrad Black, Sam Cooper and Travis Dhanraj. Issues discussed included the current state of Canada-U.S. relations, the threat of China and the role of the subsidized media in Canada today. 

One of the key components of a successful economy is its ability to attract investment – both from inside the country and from foreign sources. Attracting investment is especially important for Canada, as a relatively small open economy that is heavily dependent on trade. For decades, Canada was very successful as a desirable destination for diverse sources of investment, largely directed to our wealth of natural resources and the many innovative technologies Canadians have devised to capitalize on the value of these resources in responsible and efficient ways.

Throughout history, left-leaning governments and their supporters have always claimed the high ground of moral superiority, stating that they have the best interests of average people at heart in the government policies that they promote. Leftists especially say that they support those who are in the least fortunate groups in society. Socialists always portray themselves as the champions of equality as they advocate such things as equality of outcome, not equality of opportunity. Unfortunately for them, the facts never bear out their claims.

A number of recent news stories, combined with some things I have heard from several business owners, has all led to the same conclusion – Canada is on a very problematic path at present. The stories from business owners are interesting but disturbing.