Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Gregor Robertson in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Feb. 25.Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press
For Canadians worried about expensive housing or finding a job, the federal Liberals have a handy explanation: It’s not our fault, it’s that damn war in the Middle East.
Last week, Housing and Infrastructure Minister Gregor Robertson (whose grasp of economics is demonstrably shaky) had this to say when Conservative MP Jacob Mantle asked him about a softening housing market and worsening financial conditions for buyers.
“Mr. Speaker, it is no surprise that Canadians are challenged with buying a home right now, when there is a war in the Middle East. There is no surprise,” Mr. Robertson said.
Perhaps the housing minister is unsurprised. We must confess to being at least mildly perturbed, however, by the contention that the bombing of Iran has somehow shaken the housing market in Canadian cities in recent months, particularly since that conflict is barely two weeks old.
But Mr. Robertson has company in peddling such nonsense, including fellow cabinet minister Evan Solomon, who was pressed on Friday in the Commons about the surge in unemployment in February. Employment fell by 84,000, with 104,000 full-time jobs lost. The unemployment rate edged up from January, while the participation rate declined slightly.
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Mr. Solomon knows who the culprit is. “Mr. Speaker, as the honourable Opposition knows, there is a war raging that is affecting prices everywhere,” he said.
Not to be outdone, Ryan Turnbull, parliamentary secretary to the finance minister, was even more vociferous when Conservative MP Shelby Kramp-Neuman poked the government again on the jobs numbers.
“Mr. Speaker, do the Conservatives live under a rock? We are in a trade war. We have a war raging in the Middle East. Those are not of our choosing. Those global issues and forces, just to explain causality, are not the fault of the federal government,” he said.
Oops: Mr. Turnbull just said the quiet part out loud. To the extent the Liberals can blame war in the Middle East, or Donald Trump’s tariffs, for Canadians’ economic woes, they are off the hook. Buck, consider yourself passed.
Now, this is not to say that macroeconomic factors are irrelevant. Clearly, Mr. Trump’s trade wars hurt the Canadian economy, although in many cases it is exposing the fault lines left from 10 years of interventionist, growth-sapping Liberal economic policies.
And war in the Middle East, particularly the spike in oil prices, does indeed pose a danger to consumer confidence and spending. But the Liberal bench is a little too quick out of the blocks, to say the least.
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The supply gap in housing is well known and documented, for years. The crisis did not arise in the last two weeks, despite Mr. Robertson’s leaps of logic.
Even more ridiculous, if that is possible, are the statements that February’s job losses are attributable to a military action that did not begin until the morning of Feb. 28. The economic fallout must have been damaging indeed, to spark such mass layoffs over a single Saturday.
The trade bullying of the United States has hurt parts of the Canadian economy. But so did Trudeau-era economic policies. The Carney government has moved far too slowly to reverse those policies, and in some cases, is claiming undue credit.
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne, for instance, touted his $19.6-billion “Productivity Super-Deduction” in the November budget. But most of that was recycled money: nearly 93 cents on the dollar were from pre-existing programs or announcements.
That’s tinkering around the edges, not the kind of bold policy needed to reinvigorate the Canadian economy. The Liberals have talked about regulatory reform, and have even set up a red-tape commission. And, of course, there is the much ballyhooed major projects office. But where is the vision for major regulatory reform?
Similarly, on housing policy, the Liberals have talked a lot about closing the supply gap. And they have rolled out some policies and funding that will address part of the market, subsidized housing for lower-income Canadians. But the government has not proposed the kind of shakeup needed to reignite private-sector construction.
Those shortcomings are hard to defend, if not impossible. Much better, then, to simply blame the pain that Canadians are feeling on a war that someone else started.