Carney: The "Adult in the Room" Who's Actually Making Things Worse

“When you realize the bill for all that spending is coming due—and you’re handing the tab to a whole generation.”

Remember when Mark Carney was supposed to be Canada's financial savior? The former Bank of Canada governor who would swoop in, fix Trudeau's mess, and restore some fiscal sanity to Ottawa? Yeah, about that...

New analysis is painting a pretty grim picture, and frankly, it's looking like we might have traded one problem for an even bigger one. If you thought Trudeau was bad with money, buckle up – because Carney might just be taking Canada's fiscal train wreck and putting it on steroids.

The Spending Spree That Makes Trudeau Look Restrained

Here's the kicker that should make every Canadian under 50 absolutely livid: Carney is planning to borrow more money this year than any government in Canadian history. Yes, you read that right – more than Trudeau spent during COVID. Let that sink in for a moment.

We're talking about a spending increase of 8.5% this fiscal year, pushing total government expenditure to a mind-blowing $437.8 billion. Add in all the other costs – EI payouts, debt servicing (a cool $49 billion just to pay the interest on what we already owe), and we're looking at total spending hitting $554.5 billion in Carney's first year alone.

For context, that's basically throwing money around like we're still in the middle of a global pandemic, except now we're just... not.

The Deficit Disaster That's About to Hit Young Canadians

If you're a millennial or Gen Xer already struggling with housing costs, student loans, and the general economic hellscape we've inherited, here's some news that'll really brighten your day: Canada is potentially heading toward a deficit that could easily exceed 3% of GDP. That's bigger than our entire annual economic growth.

And it gets worse. The Parliamentary Budget Officer estimates that just paying the interest on our national debt will consume $70 billion annually by 2029. That's money that could have gone to healthcare, education, infrastructure, or literally anything else that might actually improve our lives.

The Defense Spending Bombshell Nobody Asked For

Just when you thought it couldn't get more ridiculous, Carney decided to casually toss a financial grenade into the mix. At a NATO summit, he pledged to raise defense spending to 2% of GDP this fiscal year – roughly $62 billion. Then, apparently feeling that wasn't ambitious enough, he promised to match NATO's new 5% target.

If implemented, Canada's defense spending would balloon to about $155 billion per year. The plan to pay for this? There isn't one. It's all going on the national credit card that our generation will be paying off for decades.

Business Investment is Tanking While Debt Soars

Here's the part that should really piss off anyone trying to build a career or start a business in this country: business investment per worker has been shrinking since 2015, and Carney's doing absolutely nothing to reverse this trend. Canadian workers are increasingly "underequipped compared to their peers abroad," making us less competitive and, ultimately, less prosperous.

The business climate is still punishing investment with high taxes, sluggish regulatory processes, and politically motivated uncertainty. Instead of fixing these fundamental problems, Carney's solution seems to be throwing more borrowed money at everything.

The Trump Factor: Getting Played on the World Stage

Remember how Carney was supposed to be the experienced technocrat who could go toe-to-toe with Trump? That's not exactly working out. Trump appears to be almost toying with him, announcing the U.S. would pull out of bilateral trade talks less than two weeks after they were launched at the G7 Summit.

Canada is now facing 35% tariffs on imports to the U.S., up from 25%, while Carney scrambles to find solutions. His recent $4.3 billion aid pledge to Ukraine, made without parliamentary approval, exemplifies what critics are calling his careless approach to fiscal management.

The Generational Theft Angle

Let's be brutally honest about what this means for anyone under 50: we're getting screwed. The Canadian dollar is weakening, young Canadians are already priced out of the housing market, and now we're inheriting a mountain of debt that makes Trudeau's fiscal legacy look almost responsible.

This isn't just poor governance – it's generational theft. We're watching our economic future get mortgaged for political theater and short-term spending that benefits everyone except the people who will ultimately have to pay for it.

The Bottom Line: From Bad to Worse

The harsh reality is that it's no longer credible to say Carney is better than Trudeau. At least Trudeau pretended deficits were temporary. Carney has made them permanent and more dangerous.

Canada once set an economic example for others. Those days are clearly over. The warning signs are everywhere: soaring debt, declining productivity, and diminished global standing. For a generation already dealing with economic uncertainty, housing crises, and climate challenges, this fiscal recklessness feels like the final insult.

The promise was fiscal stability and responsible governance. What we're getting instead is a masterclass in how to make a bad situation exponentially worse. And guess who gets to live with the consequences?

Spoiler alert: it's not the politicians making these decisions.