4 days Ago By Financial Post Staff
Financial Post has the latest updates on how markets — and the pundits — are reacting to the Liberals' win You can save this article by registering for free here . Or sign-in if you have an account. Mark Carney and the Liberal Party of Canada clinched a victory Monday night, winning enough seats to secure a least a minority government in the 343-seat House of Commons.
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Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Sign In or Create an Account Now comes the job of turning election promises into policy, all against a backdrop of U.S.
President Donald Trump ’s tariff drama and annexation overtures, the potential for an economic slowdown or even recession, and the spectre of difficult trade negotiations involving not only the U.S. but also Mexico.
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Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Click here to go straight to the latest news The Liberals plan to unleash $129 billion in gross new spending, with key priorities including taking on Trump and trade, housing affordability and resource development, while scaling up public infrastructure investment. “We are going to build, build baby build,” Carney said in a speech following his win, reaching for a central plank in his election platform aimed at responding to Trump’s trade threats by boosting investments to stabilize Canada’s economy and instill confidence to “catalyze” investments.
“We will build millions of housing units. We will become an energy superpower. We will provide good careers in skilled trades in one economy, not 13 (provincial and territorial ones), because this is Canada, and we decide what happens.
We will need to think big and act bigger.” Invest in Canada Carney’s plan is to use government spending to unlock private-sector activity and investment, something that happened only in small dollar values under former prime minister Justin Trudeau. The new PM’s goal is a lofty one, with the costed platform pledging to “catalyze” $500 billion in new investment over the next five years.
There wasn’t much talk of a potential economic slowdown or recession during the campaign, but the Liberals did note that the direct economic impact of such “fiscal multipliers” is often greater in recessionary times. “Given the possibility of a recession and the high degree of uncertainty facing the global economy today, it is likely that our investment will have even bigger impact than would be the case if the economy were operating at or near full capacity,” the party said in its platform document. Military spending Another priority is to ramp up military spending, something that is less contentious than it might’ve been if Trump was not demanding NATO members share the burden of defence.
There was also overlap in defence spending promises in the Liberal and Conservative Party platforms in the run-up to the election. The Liberals pledge to spend more than $30.9 billion over the next four years.
Housing With housing affordability a concern for many Canadians, the Carney government will also be pushing to roll out its promised Build Canada Homes program, which is intended to get the federal government back into homebuilding after about 30 years of leaving affordable housing to the private sector, which did not pick up the slack. The Liberal platform earmarked $12 billion to expand affordable housing, with additional funds in the housing package set aside for tax incentives for multi-residential investors and GST cuts for first-time homebuyers. In addition, the new government’s focus will include defence production, trade and transportation infrastructure, digital innovation and patents, and critical minerals and energy.
Tax cuts Carney also ran on a tax-cut platform, targeting lower-income Canadians. The promised tax cut will cost the new government $22 billion in revenues over the next four years. Red ink What Canadians won’t see if the Liberals are able to push through their government’s priorities is the disappearance of the federal deficit.
Carney plans to balance only an “operating” budget over the medium term, while continuing to fund capital spending on long-term investments in Canada. — Barbara Shecter Election reaction live Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the business news you need to know — add financialpost.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here .
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