Freeland’s ‘Vibecession’ Quip A Further Sign Of The Trudeau Government’s Deep Detachment From Reality

By Spencer Fernando, Exclusive to the National Citizens Coalition

When the Trudeau Party isn’t complaining about ‘American-Style Politics,’ they enthusiastically indulge in importing American politics into Canada.

The most recent and egregious example is Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s attempt to dismiss concerns over Canada’s economic decline as nothing more than bad ‘vibes’:

“People have been talking about a vibecession and how that is a challenge for the Canadian economy,” said Freeland, during a press conference in Ottawa. “One of the positive impacts of this measure is to help Canadians get past that vibecession, because how Canadians feel really does have a real economic impact.”

The implication here is that Canada’s economy is actually doing just fine, and that people are simply deluded about the state of their finances.

This is a direct import from the United States, where the ‘vibecession’ discourse featured prominently online during the recently concluded presidential election.

However, not only is Freeland’s importation of the ‘vibecession’ narrative clearly an attempt to push ‘American-Style Politics’ in Canada, it’s also objectively untrue.

Take a look at the growth in per capita GDP in Canada and the United States since 1995:

There was an immediate divergence starting when Justin Trudeau took office, and the gap widened ahead of the Covid pandemic.

And then it got even worse.

The US has largely returned to its pre-pandemic per capita GDP growth trend. 

Canada has not.

And in the past few years, Canada’s per capita GDP has started to drop.

So, while both Canadians and Americans were hit hard by post-pandemic inflation, Americans at least had some decent per capita GDP growth to offset the loss of purchasing power.

But Canadians had no such luck.

We got hit with significant inflation while simultaneously getting poorer on a per capita basis.

As a result, the ‘vibecession’ narrative has some legs south of the border but is entirely misplaced when used in Canada.

Canadians aren’t suffering from bad ‘vibes’ about the economy, we are suffering from an objective decline in our standard of living.

The only reason we aren’t currently in an overall recession is that massive immigration increases enabled the country to eke out slight increases in raw economic output.

But that growth isn’t felt by Canadians, because the rise in population has outpaced overall GDP growth, leaving most Canadians worse off than before.

And for those who say this has little to do with Trudeau Government policy, consider that the two main drivers of our declining standard of living are areas in which the Liberal government has direct control.

From the outset, the Trudeau Government bet big on the idea that increasing the cost of energy through the carbon tax combined with energy sector restrictions and massive taxpayer-funded giveaways to ‘green industry’ would bring about economic success for Canada.

They lost that bet.

And Canadians have gone through a lost economic decade as a result.

Affordable and abundant energy is the foundation of civilization and the foundation of prosperity. When governments make energy more expensive, our standard of living is put at risk.

As the inevitable consequences of embracing reckless green policies began to appear, the Trudeau Government tried to cover it up with the aforementioned large immigration increases.

This only made things worse, resulting in rising social tensions and the crumbling of our once-vaunted immigration system.

Moreover, the Trudeau Government ran large budget deficits – even during good economic times – and pursued inflationary fiscal policies that further sapped our purchasing power.

And now, they think they can fix all that damage by borrowing more money and giving out some temporary tax cuts and cheques, while leaving in place their productivity-dampening carbon taxes and energy cap.

I don’t think so. 

We cannot afford a government so completely detached from reality.

Canada needs a wholesale shift in economic policy, and no amount of gaslighting or imported political ‘vibe’ will change that fundamental imperative.

Spencer Fernando is one of the most popular and prolific political voices in Canada. He is a writer and campaign fellow for the National Citizens Coalition. Join the mailing list to receive his exclusive weekly columns in your inbox.

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