I agree. Optics matter. Evidently, the plight of the masses doesn't, when your house is paid off and you live in a nice neighbourhood. It's not social conservatism driving young adults to be oddly more conservative at the polls than older generations. It's because the previous Liberals dropped the ball on the economy, especially for the working class. Harper arguably didn't improve things either, e.g. the housing file, but he didn't add fuel to the fire as net migration was stable ~200k throughout his term. Net migration skyrocketed to 330k in 2016 from 200k in 2015, immediately after Trudeau took power.
You're missing the point, the numbers weren't good before covid. Even if I play along and agree that everything after 2019 is rightfully scapegoated to covid.
From late 2021:
In their exasperation about stagnating living standards, Canadians have a point
"Prior the pandemic, the federal government, its agencies and even some in the media repeatedly claimed that Canada’s economy was “solid”. Clearly, this was not the case. As one of the most indebted countries in the world – with the combined debt of households, corporations and governments now standing at over 3½ times nominal GDP – one might have expected to see Canada’s economy rocketing along over the past decade and yielding gains in real incomes. Borrowing should have resulted in meaningful investments and gains in the country’s productive capacity. It did not."
Last week, the Trudeau government announced its revamped Cabinet containing 39 ministers. This vast leadership committee is not only larger than most choirs, it far exceeds the number of executive ministers in other countries such as the United States (15, plus the President and several other attend
www.bcbc.com
OECD predicts Canada will be the worst performing advanced economy over the next decade…and the three decades after that
Ottawa’s economic growth strategy rests on four shaky pillars: accommodative monetary policy to support interest-sensitive sectors of the economy like credit, housing investment, and durable goods consumption; expansive fiscal policy guided by short-term "guardrails" and lacking a long
www.bcbc.com
This prediction was predicated mostly on data from
before covid. Full report and excerpt from abstract:
"Without policy changes, maintaining current public service standards and benefits while keeping public debt ratios stable at current levels would increase fiscal pressure in the median OECD country by nearly 8 percentage points of GDP between 2021 and 2060, and much more in some countries. Policy scenarios show that reforms to labour market and retirement policies could help boost living standards and alleviate future fiscal pressures." This is related to the OW situation
@CMQSD402F9011
October 2021:
https://www.oecd.org/en/publication...e-need-for-structural-reform_a112307e-en.html