After a decade of Conservative party rule in Canada, the Liberals’ improbable election-night jump from third-place also-ran to majority government promises to be short-term tonic for Canada’s psyche.
It remains to be seen, however, how tonic it will be for the country’s bottom-line business well-being.
Justin Trudeau’s election-night victory speech reverberated with sunny optimism. Winning by pursing the positive? Winning without going negative? A gust of fresh air indeed through the halls of power.
The Conservative party’s signature appeal of sound economic stewardship ran aground on various issues, including the handling of the Mike Duffy Senate expenses affair by the Prime Minister’s Office, the niqab debate and, perhaps, most tellingly, Stephen Harper’s leadership style.
Cracks in the business community’s confidence in Tory economic acumen appeared in a September Business in Vancouver/Insights West poll in which 51% of respondents rated the Conservatives’ handling of the economy bad or very bad.
But the real task at hand now for Trudeau and Canada’s new Liberal government is on the economic front.
Sunny optimism and Parliament Hill positivity will be hard pressed to replace revenue lost from depressed commodities prices resulting primarily from China’s sputtering economy.
The Liberals’ Canadian infrastructure investment plan makes economic sense if it’s prudently targeted. Investment in technology and other innovation should likewise be a priority. The country is short on both.
But more government debt will delay near-term hopes of revitalizing the ailing Canadian dollar. The Liberal promise to reduce Canada’s federal debt-to-GDP ratio to 27% by 2019-20 from the current 31% is encouraging, but it remains to be seen whether the invigorating effect of the country’s 21st-century Trudeaumania will render Liberal plans to spend an additional $9.5 billion in 2016-17 a bargain. Canada’s economy does not need October 19’s river of political red to generate a rising tide of red ink that submerges future generations of business and enterprise.
