“Are we in a recession? Does the Prime Minister think he can just not say the word and the problem will go away?”
What they said. What they meant.
Plain-language translations from the House of Commons.
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Oral Questions
The Economy
A debate about Canada's economic performance under the current Liberal government compared to past Conservative governments. The Conservatives cited negative statistics and the Liberals cited positive ones. Neither side proposed any specific solutions or discussed policy details. The debate was mostly just partisan sparring.
“Canada's economy is strong. It created 88,000 jobs last month. I want to take credit for that. I don't want people focusing on the negatives.”
“The economy is shrinking. Fewer Canadians are working. Canadians are getting poorer. The Prime Minister says he's a great economist, but the evidence doesn't show it. All his claims are being contradicted by the Parliamentary Budget Officer. The government can't even meet its own fiscal targets. Call it what it is: a recession.”
“The economy has some problems. But every morning we work hard and spend your money to fix it. Look, mining! Trains! Ports! Airplanes! Jobs! We're doing our best on this side of the House.”
“Okay, but Canada's best years were totally under us. Now you've made growth slow and the deficit huge. Canada's doing worse than almost everyone in the G20. We're actually in a recession. But does our Prime Minister think it's a real recession or just a technical recession? I'll even give him a multiple-choice question!”
“I'm going to ignore your hard question and just say everything is fine. Look, youth unemployment went down 1%. That means 22,000 jobs. I'll also throw in that we're spending $6 billion on skilled trades. So really, we're making Canada strong. That's my answer. Everything is fine.”
“You won't admit we're in a recession. Canada's the only G20 country in one. You're going to add $318 billion to our debt by 2031. Your credit card has no limit. Will you finally stop mismanaging and get us out of this recession?”
“We have a plan. Our plan will transform the economy and make it resilient. We are making jobs in Darlington and Contrecoeur. We are spending money on hospitals, community centres, public transit and affordable housing. We are creating conditions for long-term prosperity. We are building Canada strong everywhere.”
“You are making Canada fail. Only Canada is in a recession out of all the big countries. The deficit is very high and keeps going up. People's money buys less now than in 2015. Groceries, mortgages, and gas all cost more. Is it all just technical? Or will you admit Canada is in a recession?”
“We made a lot of jobs since summer. Look at all the jobs! Lots of jobs. We made double the jobs per person compared to the US. Canadians are happy and think the future is bright.”