Can Carney Build a New Majority Around the Promise of Getting Things Done? | The Walrus

""T he level of uncertainty is higher than what we have seen and felt for generations," federal finance minister François-Philippe Champagne told the House of Commons in early November, describing the current state of the Canadian economy. The transition Canada is undergoing-including the reshaping of "the rules-based international order and the trading system that powered Canada's prosperity for decades"-is "a true generational shift," he said."

"Dubbed "Canada Strong," the plan aims to mobilize roughly $1 trillion in public and private investment over five years, shifting Ottawa's focus toward nation building, with major spending on housing, infrastructure, clean energy, defence, and innovation. If it's true that, with this budget, we're entering a new era, it seems worth remembering what we're leaving behind. Champagne then quoted former prime minister Jean Chrétien: "Let's accept this role with humility, but also with confidence.""

"One in which markets were assumed more reliable than states, in which efficiency mattered more than capacity, and in which governments were to be lean and constrained and out of the way. An era during which privatization and deregulation, lower taxes, and free trade deals reigned, based on the consensus that growth could be coordinated externally rather than built from within. As for people's expectations of governments-sure, they delivered decreasing support to citizens, but that was up to the market."

The level of uncertainty is higher than what has been felt for generations. Canada is undergoing a transition that includes reshaping the rules-based international order and the trading system that powered decades of prosperity. A new budget, called Canada Strong, aims to mobilize roughly $1 trillion in public and private investment over five years, shifting Ottawa toward nation building with major spending on housing, infrastructure, clean energy, defence, and innovation. The preceding era emphasized markets over states, efficiency over capacity, privatization, deregulation, lower taxes, and free trade, coordinating growth externally and reducing direct government support to citizens.

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