Getting there

On Sunday Carney and Trump both sounded weird. Like bros. The common message was that a trade deal is getting closer. “It’ll be fair to Canada,” the rogue president said. “It will have to be in Canada’s interests,” said the PM. And you might want to say a prayer for our dairy farmers.

Any kind of a reproachment would cap off a wild week. The American midterms tomorrow. The possibility of Trump being hobbled. A big federal budget in Ottawa on Wednesday. Red ink all over the place. And, of course, The Smashing Pumpkins hit the Rogers Centre in Van on Thursday night. Friday? Jobs numbers, with economists betting we’ve rebounded from the 68,000 massacre in September.

Let’s take a minute to talk budget. This one matters.

Yes, MPs will have to listen to François-Philippe Champagne screech and chirp for forty minutes, sounding like a man who never learned to properly size his underwear. But the rest of us can mercifully just scroll through the details, then pass judgment on whether or not this Carney government is truly different. Or right for the times.

So far Canadians support the guy, according to polls. Here’s the latest (today) from Liason Strategies:

* Mark Carney: 64% approval vs. 28% disapproval (stable from a 65% approval rating in the previous update).
* Pierre Poilievre: 33% favourable vs. 53% unfavourable (a decline from 35% favourability in the prior update).

So what has Carney done? Lots, actually, from dropping the carbon tax to allowing in Chinese EVs, playing footsie with the EU, courting hundreds of billions in new private investment capital, giving Cowgirl a pipeline, fast-tracking national infrastructure projects, watering down enviro regs, becoming a global hero in standing up to the US bully, launching strategies for Arctic sovereignty, legislating against domestic trade barriers, throwing billions at house construction and spending a boodle on defence since we have one lousy sub that works (12 are now on order).

There is more ahead, to be announced Thursday. Here are the menu items Bay Street expects:

• Maybe $80 billion in overall spending this year, including sixty already committed, mostly for those ‘nation-building’ things like ports and pipes.
• Airports privatized, sort of. The feds (taxpayers) will continue to own the four major airports, but the government could hand operation of them over to the private sector. The goal is to be efficient and save a bundle.
• Chopping civil servants. A mess of them – between 28,000 and 40,000 jobs will be wiped away in the public sector over the next couple of years. Targeted will be foreign affairs and the dodgy housing guys at CMHC.
• That sop to big business, allowing corps to write off vast amounts of new investment from taxes, will be formalized. It’s called the Productivity Mega Deduction, worth $36 billion over five years and catnip for offshore sovereign wealth and pension funds.
• Defence spending. Lots and lots of it. But maybe no more F-35s.
• Affordability measures are likely to be rolled out, because that’s what governments have to do these days. But don’t get excited.
• And a mama of a deficit. Could Be $70 billion. Some people say maybe up to $100 billion, because building a country the last woke guy let get squishy takes a lot of dough. This will be added to our national debt (now $1.47 trillion) which costs us $25 billion a year in service payments. Ouch.
• An update on that Canada Strong wealth fund. Yes, the one you’ll be able to invest in.
• A balanced budget – yeah, expect a timeline to achieve the day when spending matches revenues. Trudeau promised a few of them, before giving up. Carney is a career economist and professional central banker. Expect results.

Well, the work obviously continues, growing a Canada less dependent on an unreliable and untrustworthy America. It’s not fast. It ain’t cheap. And years from now we’ll still be doing most of our business and trade with the peeps to the south. There is no reasonable alternative when you live next to the largest economy in the world, home to the billionaire boys.

But the point is simple: let’s be ready the next time flaky voters in the USA lose their collective minds and elect a kleptomaniacal protectionist monarch.

Once bitten. Never again.

About the picture: “A couple of happy girls at journey’s end,” writes Pat. “Travelling down the Dempsey Highway in a 25’ motorhome is not a quick trip. Lots of bumps, rockin’ and rolling for our 9 year old lab, Dublin, (and my wife) to endure. So good to be at journey’s end and smell the ocean. This was Dublin’s last adventure with us as she was put to sleep 3 months later. PS, I read everyday but my comments are always detected as spam, not sure you can do anything about it.”

To be in touch or send a picture of your beast, email to ‘garyh@garth.ca’.

Source: https://www.greaterfool.ca/2026/11/02/getting-there-2/