Whose economy is it, anyway?

Everything old is new again.
 
Back in 1904, future British Prime Minister Winston Churchill famously stated, “For a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.”
 
More than 80 years later, US President Ronald Reagannoted that, “Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”
 
Now here we are 40 years later, facing the exact same challenges these leaders sought to tackle. Our economy is more heavily regulated and taxed than it has been in decades. Small business owners can’t get ahead, and working class people are falling behind.
 
Rather than tackle these problems head on, our governments have chosen to double down on failed economic policies while ignoring the effects.
 
Our federal government, for example, likes to toss around Gross Domestic Product statistics, to take credit for economic growth. Driven by massive borrowing, Trudeau’s administration used the public purse to drive GDP growth to a paltry 0.5 per cent last quarter. 
 
The problem is that, for you and your family, this statistic is taken out of context. A larger economy means nothing when your share is shrinking. The fact is Canada’s GDP per capita has fallen for five consecutive quarters, and job growth is not keeping pace with record immigration levels.
 
As federal Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre has accurately noted, “Canadians are getting poorer.”
 
There is a tendency among conservative Albertans to sneer at the federal government while ignoring our own failures. The truth is we have the exact same issue.
 
Danielle Smith’s government recently boasted about a rising fiscal surplus in the recent quarterly update, noting Alberta has the country’s highest GDP growth at 3.3 per cent.
 
Once again, this is a meaningless statistic for you and your family. Record population growth of 4.4 per cent means GDP per capita is falling rapidly. Albertans are getting poorer. 
 
The fact is GDP per capita in Alberta peaked in 2018, before the UCP was elected. According to current projections, Alberta will not reach those levels again in the foreseeable future, if ever.
 
It is also worth noting that inflation in Alberta remains above the national average, as it has this entire calendar year. Unemployment in Alberta also remains above the national average, forecast at 7 per cent in 2024. Job creation is not even close to keeping pace with immigration. In the first quarter of 2024, Alberta’s population was up over 200,000 from a year ago, the highest annual growth rate since 1981.
The fiscal update also noted that,“The rising unemployment rate also appears to be discouraging some segments of the population from looking for work. As such, the labour force participation rate has been lower-than-expected this year.”
The headwinds we face today are almost entirely the result of failed government policy. But you wouldn’t get that from the Smith government’s Orwellian press release, which described, “Cautious optimism for a strong future.”
 
Both the Trudeau and Smith governments seem unwilling to accept that their high tax and high spending plans, heavy on corporate welfare, are failing real families.
 
They seem to truly believe GDP growth is the only measure that matters. That’s entirely what you would expect from governments that have wandered away from free market economics into the realm of central planning.
 
They remain solely focused on statistics like GDP, rather than GDP per capita, because they honestly believe the economy belongs to them, not to you.
 
If it seems like they have no regard for the affordability crisis you face, for the high levels of taxes you pay, or the runaway expenditure of taxpayer dollars, there’s a reason. They don’t. You are, at best, an afterthought. And when your situation runs counter to their narrative, you are an inconvenience.
 
Unfortunately, this won’t change… not until we remind them just whose economy it really is.