By Peter Stubbins

After nine years of Liberal incompetence—mass immigration, debt-fueled social programs, divisions along identity lines, deconstruction of our heritage, bottom-dwelling economy, housing crisis and inaction on major commitments—along comes Mark Carney to deliver the Liberal party a comeback hope. And boy, does he come with much hope.

Mark Carney, as a UN climate change czar, was a world leader in developing the 2021 Glasgow Financial Alliance For Net Zero (GFANZ). This fund, which would be critical for funding an energy transition to a net zero future, is in its death throes as the likes of BlackRock, Wall Street, and Canada’s top four banks have just now backed out of the alliance. According to the multinational consulting giant McKinsey, the capital cost of a net zero transition between 2021 and 2050 would be $235 trillion. The funding pool just got smaller.

Now, Mark Carney has eliminated the Carbon Tax in favour of some vague, retread new carbon trading scheme. So much for a net zero future, killed by the czar himself. And not a word from Mark Carney’s campaign about a definitive policy outlining the government’s spending plan for mitigating against fire, floods and high wind damage.

Our new prime minister obviously has a significant work and academic history.  But that was not good enough; he had to lie about himself.

Lie 1: He said he helped Paul Martin balance the budget; he did not; he was working for Goldman Sachs at the time the budget was balanced in 1998.

Lie 2: He said he was instrumental in helping the Harper conservatives work through the 2007 to 2009 global economic meltdown. Not true. According to Stephen Harper, it was the work of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.

Lie 3: When he was chair of Canadian asset manager Brookfield, he recommended that Brookfield move headquarters from Toronto to New York, which he initially denied until proof got in the way.

Carney now has a bold policy platform to live up to. He is going to transform the Canadian economy, even if he has to use emergency powers. In the process, he will drill baby drill, and build baby build. So long, net zero! Because he is Mark Carney, and in his words, he is going to sit down all the premiers and get them to remove all economic barriers, and we will have one economy, not 13. Could Chuck Norris even do all this? Corralling premiers is like catching fish with your hands. Expect some relaxation between provinces.

While rolling out major infrastructure projects, he is going to balance the budget in three years while at the same time cutting taxes for the so-called middle class and resurrecting health care. During his acceptance speech, he praised Chretien for his austerity budgets. How is this all possible as the world’s economy is slowing, and no one is sure if and when it corrects? And worse, he thinks as the American Eagle seeks to devastate our economy, he can find new trade partners.

Who does he think will start buying more of our goods? Not European partners, whose trade with Canada has only increased by an inflation-adjusted 9 percent since the Canada-European Trade Agreement deal was signed in 2018. And worth noting is that this trade deal has not been fully ratified in all sectors, and besides, the EU economy is stagnant. Nor is the newly signed Trans-Pacific Partnership going to fill in for losses in bilateral trade with the US. remember, Vietnam pays four bucks an hour for labour. India is a volatile, protected economy. Our partners may like to buy our hydrocarbons, but new infrastructure is a decade away from getting additional hydrocarbons to our coasts.

He speaks about helping the unfortunate. Who would find fault with that?  But, immediately the carbon tax rebate checks of $700 dollars to the average family is gone. In its place, he will tax big corporations to pay for home insulation, heat pumps and EV subsidies. The shocker is that many of these people rent, so no advantage there, and they can’t afford an EV.  Worse, though, is that after losing your $700 carbon rebate, you will be paying more for goods from more heavily taxed corporations. Carney says, let the am eat insulation.

He plans to cap immigration, which means still admitting some 400,000 new permanent residents, 140,000+ refugees and over 500,000 combined temporary workers and foreign students yearly. Meanwhile, at the same time, building more homes to meet the already staggering backlog.

Ron Butler of Butler Mortgage Inc. recently stated to a federal standing committee, and under questioning by Adam Chambers MP, that the condominium market in Toronto is collapsing, and by 2029, the industry will only build 1,550 new units that year.  Even single-unit home pre-sales are way down. Likely, no GST holiday or new housing sales gimmicks will remedy this malaise, and without new builds, what will deflate the unaffordable housing prices?

It would seem that Mark Carney’s hope to build 3 to 4 million new homes faces intractable headwinds in the face of mass immigration, and high material and infrastructure costs. How will he make this happen? He will fail, just like Ministers Freeland, Fraser, and Millar, and Prime Minister Trudeau have failed. The market will speak, not political hacks. Perhaps a good start would be to throttle back immigration, international students and temporary foreign worker numbers. If not, more housing insecurity, more demand for healthcare, more emissions and congested cities will surely follow.

It will take time and credible action, not hope, to overcome our national challenges. Mark Carney is the darling of the well-heeled Liberal Party elite, who are well-insulated from the coming doldrums. They can afford hope, while the majority of Canadians live in fear of debt and high living costs.