Jesse Kline: Sorry Carney, but libertarians are exactly who you want in a crisis

Mark Carney is proving once again that the Liberals have never met a crisis they didn’t think they could spend their way out of.

“The capacity of the federal government to invest in the economy, to support businesses and individuals, will ensure that we bounce back strongly.”

That was Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announcing an $82-billion support package at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it could just as easily have been Carney, who said over the weekend that, “In a crisis … government needs to step up.”

At a Saturday news conference, the Liberal leader unveiled his party’s election platform, which includes $130 billion in new spending over four years to fend off the threats posed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

“It’s said there are no atheists in foxholes, there should be no libertarians in a crisis,” Carney argued to justify the continued spending spree.

This offends me as both a libertarian and an atheist. In fact, Canada would be in much better shape today if there were a few libertarians in the room when the Liberals were dealing with the numerous emergencies they’ve faced over the past decade.

The problem with crises is that there’s no way to predict when the next one will hit. But a prudent government should expect the unexpected and leave some fiscal room in the budget to address unforeseen events, while working to fortify the economy during good times so it can withstand the bad. This is not what the Liberals have done.

They took a $1.9-billion surplus in the 2014-15 fiscal year and turned it into a $25-billion deficit in 2016-17.

Rather than using trade threats during Trump’s first term as an opportunity to build pipelines and ports to diversify our export markets, they passed the Impact Assessment Act, which makes it virtually impossible to get major infrastructure approved, and banned tankers off the northern coast of British Columbia.

This cut off a much-needed source of economic growth and government revenue, as the Grits implemented every lefty program they could dream up. Thus, when COVID hit, Canada was ill prepared, and the Liberals’ managed to double the national debt virtually overnight through massive wealth transfers, often with little regard for whether the money was going to worthy recipients.

Then, when the pandemic started to subside, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland argued that due to low interest rates, “it would be shortsighted of us not to” continue the spending binge.

And so, we got more Big Government programs that we could ill afford, while Trudeau turned away world leaders looking to Canada to help solve an energy crisis resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Now, as Carney prepares to launch another massive spending spree to deal with the effects of U.S. tariffs, he’s pledging hundreds of millions of dollars for unnecessary programs, including permanent funding for the Sexual and Reproductive Health Fund to make it easier to abort babies, and $400 million for IVF treatments to create new ones in a test tube.

Needless to say that if there were some libertarians around the cabinet table during the crises of the past 10 years, we likely wouldn’t be facing a major economic upheaval with a $40-billion budget deficit, which Carney wants to increase to $62 billion, and a national debt approaching $1.26 trillion.

Libertarians would have encouraged the government to create a stable business environment and straightforward, easy-to-navigate approval processes in order to promote investment and the use of private capital to develop our natural resources and get them to market.

Canada could have been the country the world turns to in order to break its dependence on China for critical minerals. We could be home to transcontinental pipelines supplying western Canadian energy to Central and Atlantic Canada, Europe and Asia, thus breaking our dependence on the United States and supporting our European allies against Russian imperialism.

Instead, the Liberals instituted a law to prevent mines and pipelines from being built and were then forced to nationalize the Trans Mountain pipeline in order to see it through to fruition.

Libertarians would have done away with our socialistic system of supply management, making life more affordable for Canadians and encouraging our dairy, poultry and egg farmers to be competitive internationally.

They would have forged trade agreements to allow the free flow of goods and services between countries, rather than promote “progressive” causes and western labour standards.

And they would have cautioned the government that printing money and sending out cheques without safeguards to combat the COVID crisis would increase inflation and leave us ill suited to address the next challenge that came our way.

Most importantly, they would have noted that having a vibrant economy that raises the standard of living of all Canadians would do far more to address the societal challenges we face than the myriad of high-cost programs the Liberals have instituted over the years.

Sorry, Mr. Carney, but when we’re facing a crisis, its libertarians, not Liberals, that I want around the table — just as, in a foxhole, I’d prefer a general who can call in air support over a chaplain to appeal to a higher power.

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