In The Weekly Wrap, Sean Speer, our editor-at-large, analyses for Hub subscribers the big stories shaping politics, policy, and the economy in the week that was.
The Liberals are overseeing the results of their owned failed policies
This week’s Labour Force Survey from Statistics Canada paints a sobering picture. Employment among core-aged men is at its lowest level since 2018. Student unemployment in May 2025 was the highest for the month in more than 15 years. And overall unemployment is now at its highest point since 2016.
These aren’t abstract figures. They reflect growing economic pain and anxiety for Canadian workers—especially young men—who are struggling to find jobs, build careers, and establish financial independence.
The data point to immediate economic weakness, due, of course, in part to the threat and imposition of U.S. tariffs. But they also raise a bigger question: whose economy is this anyway?
The short answer is: it’s still Justin Trudeau’s economy.
Even with a new prime minister in Mark Carney, the government’s key personnel, ideas, and policies remain largely unchanged. Many of the architects of the Trudeau economic agenda—including Sean Fraser, former immigration minister-turned justice minister—are not only still shaping today’s policies but are effectively overseeing the results of their own failed ones.
Immigration is a good (or bad) example. Notwithstanding government promises to lower immigration levels, research by the Metropolis Institute and the Association of Canadian Studies shows that temporary foreign workers actually grew in Q4 2024 and Q1 2025.
It’s a reminder that there hasn’t really been a proper post-mortem on the Trudeau government. No meaningful reflection. No lessons learned. We haven’t been told what Fraser and others think they should have done differently on immigration or investment, or growth.
Yet we’re still living with the cumulative consequences of these past choices. Prime Minister Carney is in effect presiding over the labour market and broader economy that the Trudeau government created.
Until the Carney government reckons with the Trudeau economic record, it’s hard to see how anything will really change.
For now, the numbers—and the people behind them—regrettably speak for themselves.
