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This should trouble all of us, and especially readers of the business pages, who might have a tendency to dismiss political gamesmanship. We’re used to politicians exaggerating the merits and drawbacks of various policies; now, basic facts are fair game. When there is nothing on which partisans can agree, the result can only be more of the chaos of the sort that has brought us the trade wars. Paul Martin, the former prime minister, thinks we’re “living a throwback” to the worst era of modern history.

“One could say that we are going back to the turn of the century, which led to two world wars and a major depression,” Martinsaidat an event hosted by the University of Ottawa’s Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy. “It did that because it was impossible for governments, for parties, for political people to get along and to compromise and to understand what was required.”

The same jobs report that got Liberals excited also produced the source material for a story Poilievre told his Twitter followers about how the cost of living in Justin Trudeau’s Canada is increasing twice as fast as their wages.

He rooted around and found a subset of data that said the average weekly earnings of permanent employees were 1.2 per cent higher in November than a year earlier, while annual inflation in October was 2.4 per cent. “That’s a real wage cut for Canadians,” Poilievresaid. “Trudeau’s taxes and deficits are weighing heavily on working people.”