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It doesn’t seem that long ago that the Liberal government was telling Canadians the economy is strong and the middle class is making progress.

That’s because it was last Wednesday, in the fall fiscal update.

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Bill Morneau, the finance minister, was remarkably upbeat, claiming the government had struck the “appropriate balance” between prudence and spending; that a return to budgetary balance was merely “a question of timing.”

But the news from GM Monday that it plans to close five North American auto plants, including one in Oshawa, Ont., with the loss of 14,000 jobs across the continent, shows how quickly the best-laid schemes of mice and men go awry.

The mood across Ontario mirrored the weather — bleak and misty. There was another parallel between the elements and the closure — this country’s politicians could do nothing about either of them.

Justin Trudeau offered the equivalent of thoughts and prayers: “Our thoughts go out to the workers,” he said. Doug Ford, the Ontario premier, sounded resigned to the loss of thousands of jobs: “The ship has already left the dock,” he said.