Terence Corcoran: Chrystia Freeland's fiscal legacy is only half the story
In the lead-up to the stunning resignation of Chrystia Freeland as Canada’s minister of finance, the story provided by the mysterious sources not authorized to leak secrets to the media was that Freeland and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had a disagreement over whether to distribute $250 cheques to every Canadian earning less than $150,000. It looks like the unauthorized source was speaking truth. In her letter of resignation, which reads like an attack on Trudeau, Freeland says the government needs to keep its “fiscal powder dry” and should be “eschewing costly political gimmicks.”
It’s a little late for Freeland to be standing up for sound fiscal policy. There has been no dry powder in Ottawa’s fiscal warehouse for the better part of a decade. Federal spending and debt both soared during her tenure as minister of finance, with little end in sight leading up to Monday’s fiscal statement. As economists at the Fraser Institute noted recently, reckless Trudeau government spending is on track to produce the five-highest years of per-person debt (inflation-adjusted) in Canadian history. As of 2024, Ottawa’s debt equals $51,467 per Canadian. Freeland cannot pass all those bucks on to Trudeau.
While vitally important, the fiscal side of federal economic and financial governance over the past few years is only part of the disruptive Freeland policy legacy. Arguably more important has been her trumpeted support for government-run industrial policy. The idea that government control over economic development is vital has been part of Freeland’s mission for some time, from the ideas floated in her 2012 book, Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else, right up to last week’s announced plan to
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