Thanks Fred. Hopefully the Conservatives will come to their senses and replace their completely incompetent, whiny leader before too long. He’s an embarrassment to their party as well as our country. It was good to see Stephen Harper giving a closing statement at the Investment Conference. At this point we need all hands on deck to do what has to be done for Canada. 🇨🇦
PM Carney knows exactly how to go about managing and strengthening an economy. He also exudes a quiet confidence which reassures those with whom he wishes us to do business . We are very fortunate to have made a solid choice for leadership in Canada at this dangerous time in the world. Pierre Poilievre is a career politician with no concept of what is best for our country. Keep steering the ship PM Carney, and the majority of the rest of us will keep on doing our bit. Our beautiful country deserves the best!
PM Carney is doing the correct thing when it comes to building a much stronger and self reliant Canada. This very fact is a threat to certain other nations. What these other nations will do to protect themselves is questionable. Drastic measures have been taken, in the past, to secure certain nations status quo. Canada would be wise to take the well being of the PM and of Canada itself very, very seriously.
The golden rule of investment is diversification to reduce risk. Diversification by industry in recognition that all sectors of the economy do not prosper at the same rate and time. Diversification by region and country for the same reason. Diversification to reflect political movements and political instability. Look at Quebec when the PQ were.first elected. Look at investment hesitation in Alberta as DS plays with separatists. Is this why there is no commercial proponent for a new pipeline? I think so. Look at the USA long bond yields and the movement of gold reserves of other nations moving out of the US.
Money is not macho. It's a fearful thing that always balances risk and return.
If PP had a clue he would know this. If he knows this, he is counting on his followers being short a few clues. Following his flawed logic he should be telling the foreign investors that spent two days in Toronto that they are throwing their money away.
I think that the folks who have amassed trillions of dollars are smarter than the paperboy.
PP and the rest of the conservative political organizations in Canada are about as relevant as “The Useless Box”.
A small device with a single switch that when turned on causes a mechanical arm to emerge to turn the switch back off.
It is widely regarded as the ultimate physical embodiment of total irrelevance and pointlessness. And that describes the conservative parties in Canada to a T!
For years I've had a small stone on my desk that has "Turn me over" written on it. When you turn it over, the other side says "Thank you." I found that when I was sitting across my desk from a client for the first time, within the first minutes of them sitting down, they would turn the stone over, then a smile or a laugh. Set a whole different tone to the discussion that followed.
I agree completely with you Fred onEVERY democracy needing to have a functioning both a functioning government as well as opposition, but apparently none of the current opposition parties seem to understand that the world has changed dramatically in the last 2 years and NONE of them have adjusted their ideas and plans accordingly. They seem to all be yesterday’s people, with none capable of looking forward.
Another very insightful article, Fred. I recall PP commenting that Mark Carney was poorly trained in economics! This is coming from a career politician who took eleven years to complete a BA while on the public purse! The article reveals that PP's knowledge of economics is rather limited, to say the least. He has a habit of latching on to any headline and then doubling down, even after it's been debunked. Not PM material! Thank goodness we Canadians dodged a bullet in the last election. Our country is faced with many challenges, but with MC as our PM, I have every confidence that we'll come out stronger than ever.
The part that bothers me isn’t whether Pierre Poilievre has enough economics courses hanging on his wall.
It’s the argument itself.
Take $104 billion coming in, subtract $124 billion going out, announce Canada “lost” $20 billion... and conveniently forget that the $124 billion **bought assets Canadians still own.**
That’s exactly why I keep digging underneath these political talking points, regardless of who makes them.
Canada has some enormous economic decisions ahead of us.
We need a strong opposition challenging the government on those decisions.
**But challenge the policy. Challenge the results. Bring better ideas.**
Don’t just find two numbers that produce a scary headline.
We’ve got enough of that coming across the border already. 😂🇨🇦
Interesting article! And it comes at a moment when Carney has just hosted the first Investment Summit just concluded yesterday. Put that together with your article and what is the first response we see from the summit? That every major Canadian bank, a couple of major insurance companies and investment funds as well as Bell Canada have combined to already bring a total of $440 billion of commitment in response to Carney looking for $1 trillion over the next 5 years. Almost half way there on day one, and all from Canadian sources!
No doubt we will hear more from other countries over the next weeks or months, but what an incredible start.
David, if that $440-billion commitment figure holds up, that’s one hell of a response... and there’s a lovely bit of irony here.
The argument was that Canadian money going abroad somehow proves Canada is losing investment.
Then Canadian institutions apparently turn around and say, **“Fine. Here’s hundreds of billions we’re prepared to put to work at home.”**
That’s the real game.
I don’t care whether the investment comes from Toronto, Montreal, New York, London, Tokyo or somebody’s pension fund in Moose Jaw.
**If good capital is helping build productive Canadian assets, infrastructure and businesses, bring it on.**
And if Carney’s $1-trillion target starts attracting serious foreign commitments on top of serious Canadian ones, *that* will be a story worth watching very closely.
Thanks, David. You may have just handed me the follow-up article.
Literally, NO MATTER what the federal government does, PP will diss it. He has ZERO charisma, zero qualifications to be a leader at any level, zero creativity. All that he knows how to do is criticize. We do not need such a person in our government.
Well, I see we’ve managed to travel from foreign direct investment to Stephen Harper, Justin Trudeau, the IDU, MAID and somebody’s father having a stroke. 😂
I’m going to stay out of some of that and drag us back to the boring old numbers for a minute.
Deb nailed the simple point I was trying to make...
**Money invested is not money lost.**
That doesn’t mean every investment is good. It doesn’t mean every government policy is good. And it certainly doesn’t mean we shouldn’t question where Canadian capital is going.
But if $124 billion leaves Canada to **purchase $124 billion worth of assets abroad**, you cannot simply subtract it from money coming into Canada and declare that Canada lost the difference.
That’s the part I wanted people to understand.
As for Harper, Trudeau, Poilievre, Carney and the rest of the political family reunion... you folks carry on. 😂
Agreed! My mother always accused Harper of giving my dad his first stroke, and I can only imagine how he would feel about PP were Dad alive today! ❤️🇨🇦
A stronger Canada will happen if the Leader of the Loyal Opposition would learn to frame comments around building and healing and growing instead of making shit up.
Thanks Fred. Hopefully the Conservatives will come to their senses and replace their completely incompetent, whiny leader before too long. He’s an embarrassment to their party as well as our country. It was good to see Stephen Harper giving a closing statement at the Investment Conference. At this point we need all hands on deck to do what has to be done for Canada. 🇨🇦
Thanks, Ginny.
I think your last point is the big one for me.
We can argue Liberal versus Conservative until the cows apply for passports, but Canada has some enormous decisions to make over the next few years.
Seeing Stephen Harper at the Investment Conference mattered for exactly that reason.
There are times when the country has to be bigger than the party.
**All hands on deck is exactly right.**
PM Carney knows exactly how to go about managing and strengthening an economy. He also exudes a quiet confidence which reassures those with whom he wishes us to do business . We are very fortunate to have made a solid choice for leadership in Canada at this dangerous time in the world. Pierre Poilievre is a career politician with no concept of what is best for our country. Keep steering the ship PM Carney, and the majority of the rest of us will keep on doing our bit. Our beautiful country deserves the best!
Thanks, Melody.
What keeps striking me is that so much of what Canada needs right now isn’t flashy.
It’s building relationships,
attracting investment,
opening new markets and convincing people around the world that Canada is a stable place to put their money and build something.
And you nailed another part of it... government can’t do this alone.
Businesses invest.
Workers build.
Provinces cooperate.
Canadians buy Canadian when it makes sense.
And Ottawa helps create the conditions that allow all of it to happen.
**Different jobs. Same damn ship. **
PM Carney is doing the correct thing when it comes to building a much stronger and self reliant Canada. This very fact is a threat to certain other nations. What these other nations will do to protect themselves is questionable. Drastic measures have been taken, in the past, to secure certain nations status quo. Canada would be wise to take the well being of the PM and of Canada itself very, very seriously.
Ron, I agree with the part about Canada taking its security and resilience seriously.
The world has become a lot less predictable, and building a more self-reliant Canada means thinking about more than trade...
energy, defence, infrastructure, cybersecurity and the security of our institutions all matter.
Where I’d be careful is speculating about what another country *might* do or suggesting a specific threat without evidence.
There’s enough happening in plain sight for Canada to prepare for.
**Build the country stronger, protect what matters, and don’t depend on anybody behaving nicely.**
The golden rule of investment is diversification to reduce risk. Diversification by industry in recognition that all sectors of the economy do not prosper at the same rate and time. Diversification by region and country for the same reason. Diversification to reflect political movements and political instability. Look at Quebec when the PQ were.first elected. Look at investment hesitation in Alberta as DS plays with separatists. Is this why there is no commercial proponent for a new pipeline? I think so. Look at the USA long bond yields and the movement of gold reserves of other nations moving out of the US.
Money is not macho. It's a fearful thing that always balances risk and return.
If PP had a clue he would know this. If he knows this, he is counting on his followers being short a few clues. Following his flawed logic he should be telling the foreign investors that spent two days in Toronto that they are throwing their money away.
I think that the folks who have amassed trillions of dollars are smarter than the paperboy.
Lee, **“Money is not macho”** may be the best description of investment capital I’ve heard in a while. 😂
It doesn’t salute flags or listen to political speeches.
It looks at risk, return, stability and opportunity... and diversification is part of managing that risk.
That’s why simply subtracting Canadian investment abroad from foreign investment coming here tells us so little.
I’d be more cautious about tying any particular project, like a pipeline, to one political factor without evidence.
But your larger point stands... **uncertainty has a price, and capital pays attention to it.**
And apparently all those people managing trillions of dollars never learned that money leaving the country means it disappeared.
Somebody should probably tell them. 😂
PP sounds like the orange 🍊’s definition of a trading deficit!
😂 Exactly.
Same arithmetic...
**More money went that way than came this way, therefore we lost money.**
Never mind the goods, assets, businesses or investments received in return.
Apparently economics would be much simpler if nobody ever bought anything from anybody. 🍊
PP and the rest of the conservative political organizations in Canada are about as relevant as “The Useless Box”.
A small device with a single switch that when turned on causes a mechanical arm to emerge to turn the switch back off.
It is widely regarded as the ultimate physical embodiment of total irrelevance and pointlessness. And that describes the conservative parties in Canada to a T!
😂 Alexis, I had to laugh at **“The Useless Box.”**
Flip the switch.
Little arm comes out.
Turns the switch off.
Job done. Nothing accomplished.
I’m going to leave your verdict on Canada’s Conservative parties to you, but I’ll say this...
**opposition matters in a democracy when it challenges government with better ideas and better arguments.**
“Everything is broken” followed by “everything the government does is wrong” isn’t much of an economic plan.
And now I want a Useless Box for my desk. 😂
For years I've had a small stone on my desk that has "Turn me over" written on it. When you turn it over, the other side says "Thank you." I found that when I was sitting across my desk from a client for the first time, within the first minutes of them sitting down, they would turn the stone over, then a smile or a laugh. Set a whole different tone to the discussion that followed.
I agree completely with you Fred onEVERY democracy needing to have a functioning both a functioning government as well as opposition, but apparently none of the current opposition parties seem to understand that the world has changed dramatically in the last 2 years and NONE of them have adjusted their ideas and plans accordingly. They seem to all be yesterday’s people, with none capable of looking forward.
Another very insightful article, Fred. I recall PP commenting that Mark Carney was poorly trained in economics! This is coming from a career politician who took eleven years to complete a BA while on the public purse! The article reveals that PP's knowledge of economics is rather limited, to say the least. He has a habit of latching on to any headline and then doubling down, even after it's been debunked. Not PM material! Thank goodness we Canadians dodged a bullet in the last election. Our country is faced with many challenges, but with MC as our PM, I have every confidence that we'll come out stronger than ever.
Thanks, Jerry.
The part that bothers me isn’t whether Pierre Poilievre has enough economics courses hanging on his wall.
It’s the argument itself.
Take $104 billion coming in, subtract $124 billion going out, announce Canada “lost” $20 billion... and conveniently forget that the $124 billion **bought assets Canadians still own.**
That’s exactly why I keep digging underneath these political talking points, regardless of who makes them.
Canada has some enormous economic decisions ahead of us.
We need a strong opposition challenging the government on those decisions.
**But challenge the policy. Challenge the results. Bring better ideas.**
Don’t just find two numbers that produce a scary headline.
We’ve got enough of that coming across the border already. 😂🇨🇦
Interesting article! And it comes at a moment when Carney has just hosted the first Investment Summit just concluded yesterday. Put that together with your article and what is the first response we see from the summit? That every major Canadian bank, a couple of major insurance companies and investment funds as well as Bell Canada have combined to already bring a total of $440 billion of commitment in response to Carney looking for $1 trillion over the next 5 years. Almost half way there on day one, and all from Canadian sources!
No doubt we will hear more from other countries over the next weeks or months, but what an incredible start.
Indeed, an incredible start !!!
David, if that $440-billion commitment figure holds up, that’s one hell of a response... and there’s a lovely bit of irony here.
The argument was that Canadian money going abroad somehow proves Canada is losing investment.
Then Canadian institutions apparently turn around and say, **“Fine. Here’s hundreds of billions we’re prepared to put to work at home.”**
That’s the real game.
I don’t care whether the investment comes from Toronto, Montreal, New York, London, Tokyo or somebody’s pension fund in Moose Jaw.
**If good capital is helping build productive Canadian assets, infrastructure and businesses, bring it on.**
And if Carney’s $1-trillion target starts attracting serious foreign commitments on top of serious Canadian ones, *that* will be a story worth watching very closely.
Thanks, David. You may have just handed me the follow-up article.
Literally, NO MATTER what the federal government does, PP will diss it. He has ZERO charisma, zero qualifications to be a leader at any level, zero creativity. All that he knows how to do is criticize. We do not need such a person in our government.
PP has to keep his free housing (plus++) over his head. We taxpayers pay for that.
Yes, we do. He should not be given that benefit. He doesn't do anything for our country.
Excellent, thanks Fred
peepee’s lack of understanding of finances is glaring simplistic and obvious. Money invested is not lost!
Well, I see we’ve managed to travel from foreign direct investment to Stephen Harper, Justin Trudeau, the IDU, MAID and somebody’s father having a stroke. 😂
I’m going to stay out of some of that and drag us back to the boring old numbers for a minute.
Deb nailed the simple point I was trying to make...
**Money invested is not money lost.**
That doesn’t mean every investment is good. It doesn’t mean every government policy is good. And it certainly doesn’t mean we shouldn’t question where Canadian capital is going.
But if $124 billion leaves Canada to **purchase $124 billion worth of assets abroad**, you cannot simply subtract it from money coming into Canada and declare that Canada lost the difference.
That’s the part I wanted people to understand.
As for Harper, Trudeau, Poilievre, Carney and the rest of the political family reunion... you folks carry on. 😂
I’ll be over here with my calculator. 🇨🇦
The CPC are paying members of the IDU.
The IDU (chaired by Harper) collaborated with the Heritage foundation and endorsed pro Maga leaders accross the globe.
The CPC aren’t here to govern. They need to be purged from our civil society asap!
Agreed! Harper is a snake. The PM is no doubt fully aware of this. Interesting times. ❤️🇨🇦
I remember those days of austerity when Harper was PM.
Justin Trudeau may not have been what many wanted, but he made life
better in so many ways. He helped families with children out of poverty.
He helped so many during covid with extra money. Maid brought in, thanks
to him. He was kind. PP was horrible to him in Parliament. I'm sure Mark Carney
wants to avoid that horror show and I don't blame him. It is so unproductive
to allow that little POS to do that to anyone else.
Agreed! My mother always accused Harper of giving my dad his first stroke, and I can only imagine how he would feel about PP were Dad alive today! ❤️🇨🇦
A stronger Canada will happen if the Leader of the Loyal Opposition would learn to frame comments around building and healing and growing instead of making shit up.
I'm so happy to see this, Fred. https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2026/03/canada-secures-renewed-market-access-with-china-to-boost-exports-and-strengthen-economic-collaboration.html
Thank you Fred, I don't understand finance much, but you help me grasp the concept.
Thank you Fred, very well addressed! If pp doesn't understand that, he fell asleep in his polka dot underwear again! haha