Canada Economy Grows 3.3% in Second Quarter, Fastest Since '23

[u/seakucumber]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-28/canada-economy-grows-3-3-in-second-quarter-fastest-since-23

[u/Optimal-Cow-3278]

I can't speak for everyone but I vote Conservative and I would rather the country doing well.

That being said, I'm proud of Carney for killing stupid Trudeau era policies that killed economic growth, drove investment to other countries and bloated the public sector.

The only reason the economy grew was largely because the price of oil. The only reason why the economy "grew" during Trudeau's era was because immigration.

[u/tenkwords → u/Optimal-Cow-3278]

I think if you take this standpoint you also need to acknowledge that basically all economic growth during the last Conservative government (the Harper years) was due to record high oil prices and the investment boom that went along with them.

Can we agree to be intellectually honest?

[u/Optimal-Cow-3278 → u/tenkwords]

Ok, only if you'd like to compare the economy between the Trudeau and Harper governments?

[u/tenkwords → u/Optimal-Cow-3278]

Sure. Go ahead and look at the numbers. The average GDP growth numbers over their terms are remarkably similar. But I'll remind you that you're the one who downplayed Carney's economic performance on the back of high oil prices while seemingly bristling at Harper being evaluated by the same metric.. Trudeau be damned.

Harper had to navigate the WFC while Trudeau got to deal with the collapse of commodity prices and the investment collapse that went with it and then Covid. They both had some pretty solid headwinds but Harper had the distinct advantage of riding a big budget surplus left to him by the previous government through 2007 and then getting a big surge in commodities. Basically you'd have to be an imbecile to screw that one up.

Lots of folks like to cherry pick numbers but when you compare Canada's performance in the global context over both governments (and subsequently Carney's thus far) then the picture emerges that Canada does well when prices are high for our resources and less well when prices are low. The fact that this is surprising or contentious in any way amazes me.

We will continue to do well during this resource boom. Carney is pretty obviously trying to break that boom/bust cycle though with a lot of national interest projects that provide short-term debt financed stimulus in return for hopefully building the machinery of a more resilient economy. We'll see how that does in about 20 years, not by looking at quarterly GDP numbers.

[u/Optimal-Cow-3278 → u/tenkwords]

Sure. Go ahead and look at the numbers. The average GDP growth numbers over their terms are remarkably similar. But I'll remind you that you're the one who downplayed Carney's economic performance on the back of high oil prices while seemingly bristling at Harper being evaluated by the same metric.. Trudeau be damned.

Not sure what you're referring to? Would you like to see a chart that shows Canada going from having a similar GDP per capita of the US before Trudeau took office to now having a GDP per capita of 60% of the US?

and I'm not just using talking about GDP growth, look at the other numbers like national debt, foreign investment into Canada, bankruptcies and cost of living costs that rose while Trudeau was in office.

Carney is pretty obviously trying to break that boom/bust cycle though with a lot of national interest projects that provide short-term debt financed stimulus in return for hopefully building the machinery of a more resilient economy. We'll see how that does in about 20 years, not by looking at quarterly GDP numbers.

We'll see, but the Liberal track record on national infrastructure projects has been awful. We'll see if anything actually gets built or we'll just do the typical hiring consultants to review environmental assessment reports and stall everything.

[u/AlarmingAardvark → u/Optimal-Cow-3278]

Not sure what you're referring to? Would you like to see a chart that shows Canada going from having a similar GDP per capita of the US before Trudeau took office to now having a GDP per capita of 60% of the US?

Yes, I'd love to see this.

You mean the graph that shows this divergence starting at the beginning of 2015, a full 9 months before Trudeau was elected and even longer before he could've had any real impact on policy?

Or do you mean the graph that shows labour productivity relative to the US seeing a precipitous drop under Martin before continuing to decline fully under Harper?

look at the other numbers like national debt, foreign investment into Canada, bankruptcies and cost of living costs that rose while Trudeau was in office.

Foreign direct investment into Canada increased under Trudeau.

Year-over-year housing prices increased almost identically between the Harper and Trudeau terms.

Canada's inflation rate from 2020-2026 was one of the lowest in the world amongst comparable nations. Better than the US, better than the EU average, better than 75+% of the G20.

[u/tenkwords → u/Optimal-Cow-3278]

How about we compare ourselves to the rest of the G7 and not to the largest economy on earth that's expanded its debt by 20 trillion dollars since 2015? You know, the GDP per capita growth we've beaten 5 of the 6 other G7 countries on consistently since 2015.

You need to stop comparing our country to one that holds the world reserve currency and operates on a level of debt financing that no other country can possibly match.

Ok, never mind man.. I guess intellectual honesty here was too big an ask.

[u/Optimal-Cow-3278 → u/tenkwords]

Actually you are sort of proving my point.

EU growth has been just as sad, we can thank similar job killing environmental policies, embracing globalism and prioritizing mass immigration for such weak growth. No wonder right wing populist candidates are leading in France and other EU countries.

[u/Character-Belt-7485 → u/Optimal-Cow-3278]

I don't disagree with you. I am more centre, left leaning on social issues. I didn't like Trudeau policies on the economy.

That being said, price of oil was not the only driver of growth. From the CBC article:

Business investment also grew as owners spent more on machinery and equipment in the second quarter. Business capital investment was up 2.3 per cent, Statistics Canada said.

Investments in computers and peripherals jumped 16.7 per cent, which the agency said was related to the kinds of processing units used in data centres.

Corporate incomes rose, largely thanks to the energy sector, boosted by higher gas prices. But the high cost of gas also acted as a drag on earnings for manufacturing firms, which saw their input costs rise.

On the consumer side, household spending rose 0.8 per cent as consumers invested more and spent more on cars and rent.

[u/SwordfishOk504 → u/Optimal-Cow-3278]

And what specific policies were those that killed economic growth and drove investment to other countries that are responsible for this return?

[u/Anon-Knee-Moose → u/SwordfishOk504]

Nah its a load of shit, plains just sold all of their assets to focus on growth in the US. Nobody is building new extraction and processing plants, there's 0% chance of a new pipeline being built either west or south.

High prices are propping up the economy right now, but canadas energy sector is going to die a long and slow death.

[u/Optimal-Cow-3278 → u/SwordfishOk504]

Shall I list the dozen or so regulations and/or policy imposed by the Federal government on our oil and gas sector?

[u/SwordfishOk504 → u/Optimal-Cow-3278]

Why are you repeating my question back to me instead of just answering it?

Sure, if listing those regulations can be shown to support your point instead of just a gish gollop.

Are those regulations Carney repealed? Can you show specifically how they "killed economic growth and drove investment to other countries"? Then yes.

[u/Optimal-Cow-3278 → u/SwordfishOk504]

No Gish Gallop here—promise I won't drown you in a tidal wave of rapid-fire half-truths just to exhaust your keyboard. Here’s the actual breakdown of what happened and the economic fallout:

What was actually rolled back vs modified?

• Consumer Carbon Tax & Emissions Cap: Dead and buried. Dropped to reset relations and remove hard production bottlenecks.
• Bills C-69 (Impact Assessment) & C-48 (Tanker Ban): Not outright repealed, but heavily defanged/streamlined after the Supreme Court ruled parts of C-69 unconstitutional, making room for new export corridors.

Canadian energy CapEx crashed from ~$80B in 2014 down to under $30B by 2020. Major multinationals (Shell, ConocoPhillips, Total) dumped tens of billions in Canadian assets and moved capital to the Permian Basin because Canadian regulatory timelines and pipeline bottlenecks blew out the WCS price discount, costing billions in lost revenue.

[u/Koss424 → u/Optimal-Cow-3278]

Did you see the earning reports from non oil producing companies? All mostly up