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What should be our “takeaways” about Liberal economics a year now into the second Trudeau era? I always find my takeaways are similar to my brought-to’s. In other words, it’s hard not to assess the last year without re-litigating last year’s election campaign. But let’s try.

In the long run, governments are judged by how the economy performs “on their watch.” That’s both unfair and unwise, and for the same reason: what happens isn’t all the government’s doing, often far from it. On that front, a year into the new government, things are basically flat. Real output is up a little. The unemployment rate hasn’t budged. Business investment was down one-tenth-of-one-per cent in the latest quarter for which we have data. But that’s actually an improvement: in each of the previous five it was down even more. Canada may be back. Private Canadian investment is only getting close.

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Government investment is up slightly, though probably not yet because of Liberal infrastructure spending. First rule of government: nothing is ever really shovel-ready. And even when the digging starts, the effects take time.