Canada’s economy is shrinking, yet many Canadians still refuse to hold the prime minister accountable for the results

The majority of Canadians in 2026 seem to love mediocrity when it comes to their political leadership. It’s entirely provable, too.

Don’t believe me? As the old saying goes, the proof is in the pudding. You can pick your favourite flavour (chocolate, vanilla, butterscotch, tapioca and more) based on the findings contained in a recent Bloomberg News article.

“A Nanos Research Group poll for Bloomberg News shows 60 per cent of Canadians think Carney has done a very good or good job of handling the economy,” Erik Hertzberg and Mario Baker Ramirez wrote on July 9. “That compares with 24 per cent who think he’s done a poor or very poor job. Another 14 per cent rate his performance as average, and 2 per cent were unsure.” Hence, these results “are a robust endorsement of Carney’s economic stewardship.”

Or are they?

Here’s the next line that Hertzberg and Ramirez crafted: “That’s despite the fact that since he was elected, real gross domestic product has shrunk by 0.05 per cent—the worst debut for a Canadian prime minister in at least 63 years.”

That’s a pretty awful statistic, no matter how you slice it (or which pudding cup you choose).

The Bloomberg piece noted that “growth was 1.4 per cent during Stephen Harper’s first year as leader in 2006-07, while Justin Trudeau oversaw 1.7 per cent in 2015-16.” While it’s valid to say both PMs inherited a more solid Canadian economy from their predecessors, what they did in office helped ensure our country’s GDP didn’t shrink. (This didn’t last long in Trudeau’s case. The Fraser Institute’s Ben Eisen correctly pointed out in January 2025 that “Trudeau has the worst record of any prime minister in recent history” when it comes to economic growth, especially when you factor in inflation-adjusted per-person GDP.)

Some of you may be unfamiliar with what GDP is and entails.

The Bank of Canada defines it as “a measure of a country’s total economic output—the total value of all goods and services produced within that country—usually over the course of one year.” Moreover, GDP “tells us how large a country’s economy is.” How so? “Statistics Canada publishes GDP results both monthly and quarterly,” the Bank of Canada noted. “When we compare current and previous GDP numbers, we can see whether our economy is growing or shrinking. We can also look at the GDP of other countries to understand what is happening in the global economy and compare how our economy is performing.”

Hold on. The Canadian economy has decreased rather than increased in Carney’s first year in office. Bloomberg depicted it as the “worst debut” for a Canadian prime minister since the 1960s. If that’s the case, why do a majority of Canadians still believe Carney is a good economic manager?

“The polling data suggest Canadians are blaming global factors for the country’s economic woes rather than Carney himself,” according to Hertzberg and Ramirez. Nik Nanos, the public opinion and research company’s founder and chief data scientist, was also quoted as saying, “the uncertainty in the Canada-US relationship-largely driven by Trump’s negotiation strategy-has likely diverted attention from the Carney government to the Trump administration. At this time they’re getting a pass on the state of Canada’s finances and stewardship of the economy.”

That’s mind-boggling, to put it bluntly. While Trump has certainly contributed to the shaky Canada-U.S. relationship, so has Carney. They’re both to blame for various aspects of the weaker political and economic relationship and climate in North America. The U.S. has long been our greatest ally, friend and trading partner, but Carney has left this relationship in real jeopardy.

This situation shouldn’t constitute a “pass” for the federal Liberal government. It’s another example of Carney’s mediocre leadership that the Canadian public chooses to ignore.

There was a time not too long ago when the majority of Canadians wanted their political leaders to possess and display a wide assortment of high-level values, ideas and policies. Whether you agreed or disagreed with the political leadership of the day was separate from the qualities that the person in charge normally exhibited on a day-to-day basis.

That’s not the case with Carney, who hasn’t accomplished much of anything since he took office on March 14, 2025. Our relationship with the U.S. is at an all-time low. He was unable to take on Trump, in spite of last year’s Ipsos poll during the federal election suggesting he was the best party leader to “stand up” to the president. Most of his government’s policies were swiped from the Conservatives, and a few from the NDP. The Liberals have spent far too much time either arranging questionable deals with China that may never come to fruition, or attempting to find ways to join the European Union, at the expense of Canada-U.S. relations. His ludicrous “elbows up” campaign that pulled at the heartstrings of delusional Canadian progressives and hurt our domestic economy has finally met its demise, too.

In the past, the majority of Canadians would have been frustrated with this economic situation. It would have likely spelled the beginning of the end of a political leader’s tenure.

In the present, the majority of Canadians don’t seem to care about the potential short-term and long-term economic ramifications. They love political mediocrity, after all.

Michael Taube is a political commentator, Troy Media syndicated columnist and former speechwriter for Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He holds a master’s degree in comparative politics from the London School of Economics, lending academic rigour to his political insights.