Friday, May 01, 2026

Proof that Canada's economy is too dependent on the USA

I came across.an interesting graph - I do like a good graph! - in an article about how maybe Justin Trudeau was not the economic Antichrist the Conservatives paint him as, but how external events were at least as important as home-grown policies in the challenges Canada's economy has had to face over the last decade or so. This is not an attempt to rehabilitatee Trudeau - the article is quite critical of the man and the policies, unfairly so I would say - merely an attempt to remove the spin and look at the Canadian economy dispassionately.

Anyway, the graph, above, shows the extent to which American tariffs and other US trade policies have affected employment in Canada, by splitting out employment in industries dependent on US demand from other industries.

The glaring difference is of course greatest since Trump 2.0 began in early 2025. But the effect has been in force since at least 2016 (Trump 1.0), and even continued apace during Joe Biden's administration (Biden, lest we forget, was also a keen America First guy). Employment in other industries has actually been very strong (and increasingly so) throughout the whole period.

If ever anything justified our current attempt to diversify our trade away from America, this chart is it.