The economic headwinds facing Canada are greater than the sum of its parts. The pace and sporadic nature of the United States’ trade war with Canada is unprecedented and has recently dominated headlines, but the underlying structural challenges demand careful attention. The Covid-19 Pandemic-induced economic shock can be blamed for the acute inflationary jump in the cost of housing and food, but the interlinked productivity and cost-of-living crises have been brewing for more than a decade.1 The OECD predicts Canada’s per capita GDP growth will be last amongst OECD economies in the next 40 years.2 Nearly half of Canadians report difficulties meeting day-to-day expenses due to rising costs.3 Recall it was these economic crises that catapulted the Conservative Party under Pierre Poilievre into dominant polling territory before Trump’s victory changed the narrative.
