Hey Canada, We’ve Got Bigger Problems Than Donald Trump

Canada should be an economic powerhouse. With the second-largest land mass in the world, a small but educated population, and an abundance of natural resources, there’s no excuse for widespread hardship in this country.

And yet, here we are.

Food banks can’t keep up. Housing costs are out of reach. The middle class is being hollowed out. Small businesses are barely surviving, and young Canadians are giving up on ever owning a home or getting ahead.

This didn’t happen overnight. It’s the result of nearly a decade of government policy that actively worked against growth, against investment, and against the industries that once made Canada prosperous.

We don’t need small tweaks or a fresh slogan. We need a full course correction.

For nine years, Canada has been on the wrong track. We’ve pushed away investment through excessive regulation, long approval timelines, and an unpredictable policy environment. We’ve discouraged risk-takers and entrepreneurs. We’ve punished the industries that built our economy—energy, mining, agriculture, and manufacturing—under the banner of climate virtue and political optics.

Since 2015, over $225 billion in capital investment has left the country. That money could have built infrastructure, funded innovation, created jobs, and secured long-term prosperity. Instead, it’s being used to build wealth elsewhere—because other countries have learned what we’ve forgotten: prosperity isn’t created by government programs. It’s created by unleashing the private sector and letting people do what they do best—build, grow, and create.

We’ve lost major energy projects not because we lack resources, but because we’ve created an environment where companies don’t know if they’ll ever get to build. We've stalled development of critical mineral projects—like the Ring of Fire in Ontario and the 29 strategic minerals under Manitoba's soil—while other countries are moving fast to dominate global supply chains.

We talk about the climate while importing oil from countries with no environmental standards. We delay Canadian projects that could help lower global emissions, supply allies with cleaner energy, and create jobs here at home.

This isn’t serious policy—it’s ideology pretending to be progress.

And the impact reaches beyond the resource sector. Ask any small business owner about red tape. Talk to tech entrepreneurs about delays in product approvals. Sit down with farmers, truckers, or tradespeople and ask how much easier life has gotten in the last decade.

It hasn’t. In most cases, it’s gotten worse.

We are not a country in decline because of external forces. We are a country being held back by internal decisions. We have allowed ideology to guide economic policy, and the result is stagnation, frustration, and decline.

Yes, Mark Carney is now campaigning to stay in power. And yes, he’s repeating the same policies we’ve heard before. Nothing in the last nine years suggests we’re about to see real change. Just familiar faces in different offices, all pushing the same playbook.

Carney talks about investment and stability, but he helped steer capital away from Canada through his work at global institutions. He calls climate change an emergency, and that’s been used as justification to centralize control, raise costs, and shut down industries without any viable alternatives in place.

But this isn’t about one person. It’s about the policy direction this country has been stuck in for nearly a decade—regardless of who has been in charge. The slogans and soundbites change. The policies haven’t.

We’ve been told that endless spending would fix affordability. It hasn’t. We’ve been told that “green investment” would replace the energy sector. It hasn’t. We’ve been told that more government control over the economy would lead to more fairness. It hasn’t.

We’ve spent nine years heading in the wrong direction—and Canadians are paying the price every single day.

This country doesn’t need another round of the same policies dressed up with new branding. It needs a real shift. It needs a government that gets out of the way of those who create jobs. One that supports energy independence, responsible resource development, and a competitive tax and regulatory environment. One that rewards work, encourages investment, and prioritizes national interest over global posturing.

We need to stop pretending things are going well. They’re not. And continuing on the current path—whether it’s led by Carney or anyone else—won’t fix it.

Canada is overdue for a course correction. A full one.

Because the longer we stay on this road, the harder it will be to get back.