Poilievre says Canada is broken. Under Trudeau, the government is

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Ever since Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre began campaigning by saying that Canada under Justin Trudeau was broken, Liberals have been outraged at the thought.

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Yet, when it comes to the federal government in Ottawa, it’s worth asking if anything is actually working anymore.

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This week, we saw the auditor general of Canada, Karen Hogan, issue a scathing report into the ArriveCan app.

“This audit shows a glaring disregard for basic management and contracting practices throughout ArriveCan’s development and implementation,” Hogan said Monday.

“The Canada Border Services Agency’s documentation, financial records, and controls were so poor that we were unable to determine the precise cost of the ArriveCAN application.”

While we now know that $59.5 million was paid out to contractors, Hogan can’t be sure that is the final cost because the record keeping was so bad.

Shocking as this is, the ArriveCan app is hardly the only big problem facing the federal government. There is a long list of problems that actually back up Poilievre’s claim that under Trudeau, Canada — or at least the federal government — is truly broken.

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Inflation and the cost of living is hurting Canadians and Trudeau is part of the problem.

There is no doubt that inflation is an issue around the world but anyone claiming the policies of the Trudeau government have nothing to do with the problem is lying to you as much as those saying he is the only problem. The out-of-control spending, as has been shown by top bank economists, has helped drive up the rate of inflation in Canada over the past several years.

On top of the spending, the Trudeau government has been increasing taxes regularly and is about to do so again. Increasing the carbon tax every April 1 is an obvious way the government contributes to inflation but so too is the tax increase on beer, wine and spirits that takes effect the same day.

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All of these moves drive up inflation and make day-to-day life less affordable for Canadians.

Our immigration system is out of control.

The Trudeau Liberals have done the unthinkable and broken the widely held consensus in Canada supporting high immigration levels. They did this by letting the system, in particular the foreign student program, get out control.

In 2023, at least 900,000 foreign students were admitted to Canada at a time when we were already admitting a record number of permanent residents. Add in asylum seekers – also getting out of control – and temporary foreign workers, and Canada was bringing in more than 1.5 million in the middle of a housing crisis.

Our military is crumbling.

The Canadian Armed Forces are having major problems recruiting and it’s no wonder. Our military services are not only understaffed, they are underfunded and short on supplies.

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Our once proud military is a shadow of its former self and the most attention it seems to get from the Trudeau government is when they are disparaging it as a source of white supremacy and all that is wrong with the world.

Canada no longer punches above its weight internationally.

Canada may still be part of the G7 and G20 but we have less and less pull among our allies. We’ve been excluded from several defence and intelligence projects that would once have been part of the Five Eyes network because the U.S. and U.K. simply don’t trust us like they used to.

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Shortly after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, U.S. President Joe Biden held a call with several world leaders. Despite being partners on so many fronts, despite having the fourth-largest Jewish community in the world, Trudeau was excluded.

These are just some of the many examples of what isn’t working in the country. The full list may not be endless, but it certainly is long.

Under Justin Trudeau, we have a government that isn’t interested in governing, they are interested in campaigning. Trudeau loves a photo-op and scrappy debate — he doesn’t like the tough job that is making sure things are working properly.

If Pierre Poilievre wants to fix Canada, he’ll have to do the tough job if and when voters give him the chance.

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