2015 - 2024, The Dismal Decade of Canadian Governance

10 years of failure

DismalDecade.ca highlights the failures of the federal government since 2015, including corruption, economic decline, and a diminished international standing, impacting Canadians' quality of life.

Canada deserves leadership that is more accountable, and willing to act with integrity in the best interests of regular people. The failures of long-standing elected officials must be called out, and those who have demonstrated corruption and ineptitude must not be re-elected.

Feel free to share the list of failures below with the hashtag #DismalDecade. And feel free to share your feedback on the list via the comment form below.

Corruption and Extravagant Spending

• Prime Minister's trip to the Aga Khan's private island (ethics violation)

• $6k/night for the PM for a single room in London for the Queen's funeral

• $8.6 million in upgrades to PM's second home

• SNC Lavalin cover-up and firing of Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould

• $600 million given to favoured legacy media in 2019, with another $129 million in 2023

Cost of Living

• Highest inflation rates in 30 years

• Household earnings to home price ratio almost twice as bad as mid-1990's

• Record high rents, rising steeply

• More Canadians than ever depending on food banks

• Over 1 million Canadian children living in poverty

Healthcare Crisis

• 6.5 million Canadians without a family doctor

• Lack of hospital staff resulting in average 20-hour wait in ER

• Rotating emergency room closures at rural and small town hospitals

• Average 30-week wait to see a medical specialist

• Canadian healthcare ranks last among peer countries, and is not improving

Foreign Interference Operations

• Persistent and ongoing interference in Canadian elections and governance by foreign states

• Pervasive political influence operations by foreign separatist groups and episodes of public violence between sectarian groups

• Winnipeg lab scientists shared virus gain of function research and materials with Chinese government

• Clandestine Chinese government police stations operating in Canada

• Using tax dollars to fund extremist groups

National Security Failures

• Chronic underfunding of the military; armed forces unready for combat, with half of necessary equipment "unavailable or unserviceable"

• 283,000 blank Canadian passports disappeared; CBSA bosses ignored multiple warnings by whistleblower, then harassed and fired him

• Canada (especially the port of Vancouver) has become a major hub in international drug trade

Toxic Drug Crisis

• No effective solutions to toxic drug crisis, 40,000 Canadians dead from overdoses since 2016

• "Safe supply" drugs being sold on the street

• Drug paraphernalia freely available in vending machines at hospitals

• British Columbia decriminalized hard drugs but funded addiction treatment options remain woefully inadequate (~3600 treatment beds for ~100,000 opioid addicts)

Soaring Debt

• Federal and provincial debt is $1.26 trillion, and growing by $110 million per day

• Canada's debt to GDP ratio has grown rapidly, from 51% in 2014 to 62% in 2023

• The interest on the debt, at $46.5 billion for 2024, will soon be the federal government's largest expenditure, costing every Canadian $1,750 per year

Charter Rights Violations

• Emergency Measures Act invoked to disperse protest after PM refused to talk to truckers

• Citizens' bank accounts frozen for months for donating to truckers

• MAID program aggressively expanded; even UN says its gone too far.

Economic Decline

• Lowest GDP per capita growth among G20 nations

• Resource industries unable to stay competitive due to excessive regulation and policy uncertainty (e.g. permits for mining projects now take 10-15 years)

• Increasingly difficult environment for Canadian startups

• Steep decline in labour productivity

• Job growth depends on taxpayers: 7 of 8 new jobs are in public sector, 1 of 8 in private sector

Fiscal Mismanagement

• Ran deficit budgets every year 2014-2024, with a $354 billion deficit in 2020

• 2018-2023, federal government spent more than during Great Depression and World Wars (adjusted for inflation)

• Federal government headcount has grown by over 40% since 2015, with over $60 billion per year spent on staff

• $3.5 billion in CEBA loans given to ineligible businesses

• Credit rating downgraded from AAA to AA+

Loss of Good Reputation Internationally

• Canada now known as a haven for money launderers and international criminals

• Soured relations with India after accusing Indian government of hit job on Canadian soil, the PM's "Mr. Dressup" tour and appearance with convicted killer of an Indian politician

• Soured relations with China over mishandling of Meng Wangzho case

• Germany, Ukraine, Taiwan and other allies have asked for Canada to export LNG to them, but Canada has refused, saying "there's no business case"

• Participation in Peacekeeping missions at all-time low, only 22 soldiers currently deployed

Conflicts of Interest

• The WE Charity scandal (Trudeau family members paid $425k to attend events)

• Pervasive conflicts of interest at SDTC affecting $76 million in grants

• MP Melanie Joly’s husband was top recipient of future entrepreneurs program ($45M)

• Hundreds of CRA employees collected CERB, even though they were ineligible

• Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault's company bid on federal contracts falsely saying it was "indigenous-owned"

Procurement Disasters

• $60 million ArriveCan app scandal, due to badly written IT procurement rules

• $258 Million in projects sole-sourced to GC Strategies

• Nine years after launch, Phoenix pay system still doesn't work and costs hundreds of millions of dollars per year to maintain

• Decades-long back and forth of successive governments over purchase of F-35 jets

Misaligned Immigration Policies

• Founder of Century Initiative (which calls for increasing Canada's population to 100 million by 2100) appointed by PM to Canada-US advisory council

• Aggressive and fluctuating annual immigration targets misaligned with Canada's capacity to build new services and infrastructure reduces public trust

• Thousands of asylum-seekers per month entered Canada at "irregular" border crossings like Roxham Road

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We've compiled additional details on many of the failures mentioned above into a handy report with links to sources.

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If there are major failures we've missed in this list, feel free to share them with us. And if you feel any of the statements or sources listed here are inaccurate, please let us know.