“The Liberal government has caused a recession through high debt, slow approvals, and bad policies. Canadians are struggling with high prices, expensive housing, and job losses while the government only makes empty announcements. We need the government to cut taxes, approve projects quickly, and fix the economy instead of making excuses.”

“Mr. Speaker, there are moments in the life of a country when people stop asking for promises and start asking for honesty, and this is one of those moments. Canadians are not confused about what is happening around them. They see it every day, with their bills, when they put groceries back on the shelf or when their adult children move back home because even full-time work no longer guarantees independence. They know something is wrong. What makes it worse is that they are being told not to believe their very own eyes. The Liberal government says that the economy is not in a recession and that affordability has not been this good in 10 years, but Canadians know the truth because they are living the truth. The truth is that under the Liberal Prime Minister, Canada has become the only country in a recession in the G7. The truth is that Canadian households now carry the worst debt burden in the G7. The truth is that housing costs in Canada are now among the worst in the industrialized world. The truth is that our unemployment rate is now the second-highest in the G7. This did not happen by accident. Policies have consequences. The Liberal government has governed as though debt were imaginary, as though growth would somehow appear without productivity and as though governments can endlessly spend money they do not have without asking working people to eventually carry the cost, but Canadians are carrying the cost. They carry it every time their rent goes up, every time interest rates rise and mortgages are up for renewal and every time they hear another announcement from a government that mistakes press conferences for progress. The Prime Minister likes to say that Canada will move at speeds not seen in generations. I will say, when Canadians first heard those words, they wanted to believe them. Now, after more than a year of this government, the results have not matched the rhetoric. The Liberal recession means declining growth. It means our economy is shrinking. It means Canada is not moving at speeds not seen in generations. It means Canada is falling behind. This is not just a criticism but the reality that Canadians are living with and that businesses are responding to. The Prime Minister is travelling the world trying to sell Canada to investors, while blowing $200,000 on inflight catering over three flights, but what is he selling? He is selling a Canada where major projects still take too long and approvals are uncertain, a Canada where the tanker ban remains in place and Bill C-69 continues to scare away billions of dollars in investment, a Canada where housing starts are not rising at speeds not seen in generations but slowing to a pace not seen in generations. We hear members opposite boast about the Prime Minister’s résumé, but a fancy résumé does not matter to investors looking for opportunities in a business-friendly environment. In fact, in 2025, 45% of all foreign direct investment into Canada, or $44 billion, consisted of foreign purchasers buying up Canadian businesses rather than building new facilities or expanding productive capacity. Canada used to build national champions, but increasingly, we are selling them. We do not need better marketing. We need a Canada that is actually open for business. We have energy, critical minerals, the workers, the talent and the geography. We have people who are hungry to build, to work, to invest and to grow. What we do not have yet is a government creating the conditions for investor confidence. The Liberal government has given itself extraordinary powers. It has the Major Projects Office. It has given itself a majority government through dirty backroom deals, so it should have the ability to move. Where are the major projects? Where is the urgency to meet this moment? The Liberals talk about unleashing Canadian energy, but the tanker ban remains. They talk about building homes, but housing construction in the GTA and in Vancouver has collapsed, and 100,000 people are now out of work. They talk about mines, manufacturing and productivity, but the regulatory reform needed to restore investor confidence is still not there. They talk about moving quickly, but Canadians keep seeing the same pattern: announcement first, action later and, too often, action never. Should we really be surprised? The Prime Minister is surrounded by the same Liberal team that delivered the last decade. He can steal our ideas, but does he really believe in them? We know the team around him is not willing to do what it takes to fully implement those ideas and restore Canada’s economy, so Canadians are stuck with the same Liberal pattern: announcement followed by failure to follow through. Conservatives put forward practical ideas more than a year ago, such as the Canadian sovereign act, the removal of industrial carbon tax, the removal of HST on all new homes worth up to $1.3 million, shovel-ready project zones and capital gains deferrals so we can kick-start our economy and bring wealth home for our people. In the last election, we laid out an ambitious agenda for the first 100 days to set the tone on energy, crime, competitiveness and affordability, because urgency matters. Now, more than a year later, only a tiny sliver of that vision has been implemented, and the Liberals are wondering why things have not changed. The Liberals dismissed most of those ideas, and then they copied them halfway and failed in the implementation. The ideas that would have had the biggest impact are still sitting on the sidelines. Half measures will not reverse a lost decade. Yes, Canada faces challenges with the U.S., and trade uncertainty is real, but Canada is not the only country facing those challenges. Still, the government wants to blame every failure on geography. On the one hand, the Prime Minister says Canada has the best trade deal with the U.S. of any country in the world and says he wants to help make America great again. On the other hand, he blames our proximity to the United States for our lack of growth and says there is a permanent rupture in our relationship. Which is it? The truth is that Canada has what the world wants, but the world is not yet convinced that the Liberal government will do what is necessary to unlock it. Let us think about this. Oil prices have soared, yet Canada is still in a recession. We have the best free trade agreement with the U.S., yet Canada is still in a recession. We have the critical minerals the world needs, yet Canada is still in a recession. As I sit in the House, all I hear from the Liberal benches is deflection after deflection and excuse after excuse. They need to wake up and take responsibility. This is not simply something that is happening to Canada. It is a result of slow execution and weak confidence in a government that confuses announcements with achievements. When will the Liberals realize that the cause of the recession is not Canada or Canadians but them and their failed policies? Canadians do not need more hollow speeches. We need ambition in law, in approvals, in construction, in energy, in mining, in manufacturing and in paycheques. We need a government that passes laws and delivers results because the problem is not that Canada lacks potential. The problem is that the Liberal government has not yet had the courage or the urgency to move beyond announcements, get serious about implementation and finally unleash our economy.”

“Our economy is shrinking, and we are the only G7 country in a recession. We have the worst debt and housing costs in the G7, and the second-highest unemployment. The government is ignoring these facts and will not fix the problem.”

“Mr. Speaker, the member says that we appear to be gleeful, when the only ones in the House who stand up question period after question period to say, “We have good news” are on that side of the aisle. The reality is we are talking about statistics. Our economy has shrunk in three out of the last four quarters. Canada is the only country in the G7 to be in a recession, with the worst household debt in the G7, the worst housing costs in the G7 and the second-highest unemployment in the G7. We have countless indicators to tell us a story. What is most concerning is that the member wants to deny all of this and pretend it is not happening. The Liberals are never going to fix this problem.”

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  Said 104 times by 61 members since May 29.

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“The government fails to admit our country has a problem. Conservatives have a plan to boost our economy. We want to cut the carbon tax on businesses, remove sales tax on new homes under $1.3 million, and delay capital gains taxes. We have had this plan ready for over a year.”

“Mr. Speaker, the member is right. Part of drafting a solution is actually acknowledging the problem, which is what the Liberal government is failing to do. The Conservatives put forward practical ideas more than a year ago, and I provided a list, which I will repeat: the Canadian sovereignty act, the removal of the industrial carbon tax, the removal of the HST on all new homes worth up to $1.3 million, shovel-ready project zones and the capital gains deferral so we can kick-start our economy and bring wealth home to our people. In fact, we had provided a plan for the first 100 days to set the tone on energy, crime, competitiveness and affordability. This is the plan the Conservatives have put forward and have been advocating for.”

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“Statistics Canada says Canada is the only G7 country in a recession. Why do the Prime Minister and the Liberals refuse to admit our economy is in trouble?”

“Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Newmarket—Aurora for her excellent analysis of the situation we find ourselves in here in Canada, where the Liberals, and the Prime Minister in particular, refuse to acknowledge the data provided by Stats Canada that we are in a recession and are the only country in the G7 in a recession. I am wondering if the member has any thoughts on why the Prime Minister and his Liberal colleagues refuse to admit the seriousness of our financial situation here in Canada.”

“The Prime Minister gives big speeches, but he ignores how hard life is for Canadians. The economic numbers show that people in our ridings are struggling.”

“Mr. Speaker, it is inconvenient for the Prime Minister to acknowledge the reality and it goes completely against what he campaigned for and what he says every single day. He talks about moving at speeds not seen in generations. He delivers grand speeches, but the reality is these indicators we are looking at in terms of the economy are confirming the stories we have heard from the people in our ridings, the people who are struggling. They already knew these indicators were about to be released because they have been living them. They know the truth, but the Prime Minister is so disconnected that he cannot even acknowledge the reality that Canadians are living.”

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“Canada is heading into a recession because of this government's policies. I want the member to admit that instead of blaming others, and tell us what the government will change to fix the economy.”

“Mr. Speaker, I have a question for the member on the other side. He gave a speech about what the opposition is doing right now. I am a little dismayed, because I think he needs to speak to what the motion is, which is about the recession that Canada is very clearly heading into now. There are a number of data points we have to give here, but the member has to identify, and probably has to own, quite frankly, some of the policies the government has pushed the country to that have led us to the economic point we are at right now. Would the member please address that as opposed to blaming others, either south of the border or on this side of the House, saying that we are the ones misspeaking on this? The data speaks for itself. The country is in economic decline. Can he tell us what he thinks he should change on the other side of the House in order to arrest that trend?”

“Feeding hungry kids at school is important, but the government's food program only gives $2.70 a day per child. Instead of this program, the government should fix the economy so parents have the money to feed their own kids.”

“Mr. Speaker, I have a question about the school food program. We have school food programs in Saskatchewan for kids who come to school hungry. I think it is really important. However, the government committed $216.6 million annually to the food program and is making it permanent. An additional 400,000 children will benefit from this commitment every year. There are 5.5 million students in school right now and 3.5 million are in elementary. With the money the government is giving, it works out to $2.70 per day per child. How is that caring for children? Why does the government not give the money back to the parents through a proper economy and let them feed their own kids?”

“Canada is in a recession because of Liberal policies. High taxes, red tape, and government debt have driven away investment, cost people their jobs, and made food and housing unaffordable. The government must cut spending, lower taxes, and remove the rules that stop major projects from being built.”

“Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Calgary Centre. I rise today because Canadians deserve a government that lives in the real economy, not in Liberal talking points. The facts are now impossible to deny: Canada has entered a recession. Canada’s economy has contracted in two consecutive quarters. It has shrunk in three of the last four quarters. Business investment has fallen for a fifth straight quarter, and household savings have fallen to their lowest level in years. Business and capital investment has also fallen by 0.7%. However, on Friday, a Liberal stood in the House and said, not once but twice, “let us be clear: Canada is not in a recession.” That is not economic leadership. That is economic denial. Canadians do not need another lecture from the Liberals about projections, models, forecasts or fine words. They need reality. They see reality every time they open their credit card bills. They see it every time they go to the grocery store. They see it every time they check their savings accounts, and they see it every time their paycheques run out. The Liberal Prime Minister likes to remind Canadians that he is an economist. He likes to quote projections. He likes to hold signing ceremonies. He likes the language of global summits, high finance, transition plans, industrial strategies and bureaucratic frameworks, but Canadians live in reality, and the reality is this: The Liberal Prime Minister is the only one in the G7 who has taken his economy into recession. Every other G7 country is facing tariffs. Every other G7 country is facing global uncertainty. Every other G7 country is operating in the same world economy, but only Canada, under the Liberal Prime Minister, is in recession. That means this is not simply a global recession due to global factors. It is not simply a tariff recession. It is not simply an outside shock. This is a homegrown made-by-Liberals recession. Let us start with a simple economics lesson. Growth comes from work, investment, productivity, innovation and capital formation. A country becomes richer when workers become more productive, when businesses invest in machinery and technology, when entrepreneurs take risks, when capital stays in or is attracted to the country, and when government policy rewards production and innovation instead of punishing it. Over the last 11 years, the Liberals have done the opposite. They increased the industrial carbon tax. They layered on antidevelopment laws. They buried our resource sector in red tape. They chased away investment, domestically and abroad. They created new Liberal bureaucracies staffed by Liberal insiders, new Liberal slush funds that benefited Liberal friends, new bloated programs and new political photo ops. They even doubled Justin Trudeau’s deficit and told Canadians it was all an investment. In capital markets, there is a simple rule: Capital goes where it is welcome and stays where it is rewarded. Under these Liberals, capital is not being rewarded in Canada. It is being regulated, taxed, delayed, blocked and politicized. That is why business investment is falling. That is why major projects cannot get built. That is why Canadian productivity is weak. That is why dollars that should be building Canadian mines, energy projects, factories, homes, ports, pipelines and technology are leaving the country. Since the Liberal Prime Minister took office, $109.3 billion in investment has left Canada, while only $88.4 billion has returned. That is a net loss of $20 billion. That is not a rounding error. That is lost opportunity, lost jobs, lost paycheques, lost productivity and lost national leverage. Canadian households now carry the highest debt in the G7, the least affordable housing in the G7, the highest food inflation in the G7, the lowest investment per worker in the G7, the second-lowest productivity in the G7 and the second-highest unemployment in the G7, and now Canadians are paying the price for this Liberal failure. Canada has lost 112,300 jobs in just three months. There are 45,800 more Canadians who are jobless now than when the Liberal Prime Minister took office a year ago. There are now three unemployed Canadians for every job vacancy. The promise of a better future is being replaced by the fear of falling behind. That is what happens when governments forget the basic lessons of economics. When we tax production and innovation, we get less production and innovation. When we punish investment and capital, we get less investment and capital. When we make it harder to build, fewer things get built. When government consumes more of the economy, families and businesses are left with a smaller part of the pie. That is not complicated; it is basic economics, but after 11 years of Liberal economic policies, Canada has become a case study in how a rich country can make itself poor. The Liberals inherited one of the world’s most resource-rich, highly educated and stable democratic economies. They inherited a country rich with energy, minerals, farmland, ports, universities, entrepreneurs and workers who want nothing more than to build a good life. They spent 11 years vandalizing this country by making it harder to work, harder to build, harder to invest, harder to hire, harder to buy a home and harder to feed a family, and now the consequences of this Liberal economic vandalism are being felt everywhere. Food Banks Canada’s 2026 poverty report card found that one in four Canadians is experiencing food insecurity and that food bank usage has more than doubled since 2019; one in 10 of greater Toronto area residents now relies on food banks. In 2025, food banks in the GTA saw a record 4.1 million visits, which is up 340% since 2019. Food bank visits have doubled since 2020. One person in five now visiting a food banks is employed, so a job is no longer enough to guarantee stability. That is an indictment of the Liberal government’s economic vandalism. That is what this homegrown made-by-Liberals recession looks like. It looks like empty fridges, empty grocery baskets and empty bank accounts. It looks like parents skipping meals so children can eat. It looks like workers doing everything right, but still falling behind. The Liberal Prime Minister and his state-sponsored Liberal media machine may call it technical, but there is nothing technical about a quarter of Canadians being unable to adequately feed themselves. There is nothing technical about a young family paying double the rent they would have paid a decade ago. In 2015, rent for a one-bedroom unit in major Canadian cities was about $970 a month. Today, it is about $1,850. That is not a technicality. That is a generation locked out of independence. There is nothing technical about housing costs. In November 2015, the typical housing cost in Canada was $435,000. Today, it costs $659,000, so it is up 51%. In 2015, it took 39% of median pre-tax household income to own a home. Today, it takes 52.4%, and that does not even account for housing units having smaller square footage today than they did in the past. Every leading economic indicator is flashing. That is not prosperity. That is a decline managed by Liberal press releases. In public finance, Liberal deficits matter because they have consequences. A deficit is tomorrow’s tax bill with interest. It is a claim on future wages due to higher inflation. It is a transfer from young Canadians, working families and seniors to fund today’s Liberal ideological vanity projects. The Liberal Prime Minister is expected to increase our federal debt to nearly $1.63 trillion by 2031. That is $1 trillion more than when the Liberals took power. Canadians are expected to pay $58.3 billion per year just to service the interest on that debt, which is more than what the Liberals collect on the GST and what the federal government pays provinces for health care. While Canadians were tightening their belts, the Liberal government was loosening its own. While families were cutting back, the Liberals were spending more. While small businesses were watching every dollar, the Liberals were expanding government and bureaucracy. The Liberals wonder why inflation became embedded, why affordability collapsed and why household balance sheets are breaking. Canada now has the highest household debt-to-disposable income ratio in the G7. That is according to Statistics Canada. That means Canadian families are more exposed, more leveraged and more vulnerable when interest rates rise, when household costs increase or when their jobs disappear. Equifax has reported severe stress in household credit. More than 1.5 million Canadians missed a credit payment in the fourth quarter of 2025. Mortgage delinquencies are up 32%. Consumer insolvencies are up 19%. The financial stability is gone for too many households. This is where economics and finance meet real life. When Liberal governments run inflation deficits, it pushes costs into the economy. When inflation rises, interest rates rise. When interest rates rise, households get squeezed. When households get squeezed, consumer spending slows. When consumer spending slows, businesses need to pull back net new investment. When businesses pull back, jobs disappear and productivity tanks. That is how a homegrown Liberal recession is made. It is the chain reaction of disastrous Liberal policies. The Liberals taxed energy and made everything that is moved by truck, train, ship and tractor more expensive. They blocked development and weakened the investment case for Canada. They ran deficits that fed inflation. They created uncertainty with endless rules, reviews, delays and political favouritism. They expanded bureaucracy instead of productivity. Then when the bill came due, the Liberals blamed global factors, but the world did not pass Liberal antidevelopment laws in Canada. The world did not impose Liberal carbon taxes on Canadians. The world did not double Justin Trudeau’s Liberal deficit. The world did not create Liberal slush funds for connected Liberal insiders. The world did not chase away Canadian investment. The world did not tell the Liberal government to put politics ahead of everyday Canadians. The Liberals here in Canada did all of that. Liberal excuses do not create growth. Liberal speeches do not create growth. Liberal signing ceremonies do not create growth. Liberal Party slogans do not create growth. Growth comes from workers, builders, farmers, miners, manufacturers, entrepreneurs, innovators and families that are allowed to keep more of what they earn and build more of what this country needs. That is why Conservatives are calling on the Liberal Prime Minister to reverse the policies that created this homegrown made-by-Liberals recession. That means ending inflationary spending and Liberal credit card deficits, repealing Liberal antidevelopment laws, scrapping uncompetitive Liberal red tape and stopping the creation of new Liberal bureaucracies and slush funds for Liberal insiders. We need to get projects built, bring investment home, reward work, restore productivity and put money back in the pockets of Canadians. Canada does not need managed decline. Canada does not need another Liberal lecture. Canada does not need another glossy strategy document written by Liberal consultants and announced at a podium. Canada needs a government that understands the economy is not built in Ottawa boardrooms. It is built by Canadians who get up every morning, go to work, take risks, pay taxes, raise families and keep this country moving. They have done their part. Now it is time for the government to let Canadians build again, let Canadians work again, let Canadians invest again and let Canadians hope again. That is how we reverse this Liberal recession.”

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  “Canada has the worst food inflation in the G7.”

  Said 10 times by 4 members since April 30.

  Every time it was said →