{"id":111969,"date":"2026-07-01T17:10:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T17:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/111969\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T17:10:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T17:10:16","slug":"first-reading-carneys-economic-record-is-an-illusion-poilievre-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/111969\/","title":{"rendered":"FIRST READING: Carney’s economic record is an ‘illusion,’ Poilievre says"},"content":{"rendered":"

First Reading is a Canadian politics newsletter curated by the National Post\u2019s own Tristin Hopper. This is the last First Reading before an extended break. Canadian political news, at least under normal circumstances, usually gets a little slow over the summer, and we need time to go camping and work on a bunch of exciting podcast and video projects. So, for the next two months, please turn to nationalpost.com<\/a> and the Posted newsletter<\/a> for all your political updates, or feel free to email Tristin Hopper directly if you\u2019d like some bespoke political gossip. You should also check out the Post\u2019s other newsletters<\/a>, including Right? and NP Platformed. We will return after Labour Day.<\/p>\n

TOP STORY<\/p>\n

As Prime Minister Mark Carney continues to enjoy sky-high approval ratings more than one year into his term, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called it the result of a temporary \u201cillusion\u201d that will eventually collide with reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re in a funny phase where people are judging Carney on his announcements and his promises and his perceived intentions, not on his actual results,\u201d Poilievre said in a one-hour interview with podcaster Aaron Pete released this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Liberals and the media created a false delusion around Carney about the things he will do somewhere down the road, and he\u2019s being judged on that illusion rather than on people\u2019s real life experience,\u201d said the Tory leader.<\/p>\n

Poilievre said he sees his job as forcing a \u201ccollision between reality and the illusion,\u201d and that he sees a future where the Canadian electorate will ultimately feel \u201cjustifiably disappointed\u201d at the Carney record.<\/p>\n

It was one of two parts in the interview where Poilievre referred to Carney\u2019s appeal as illusory. In the interview\u2019s opening minutes, he called the prime minister someone who had \u201cfailed at everything he\u2019s done\u201d and \u201cbeen wrong about every single major economic issue of the last decade.\u201d<\/p>\n

The release of the interview just happened to coincide with a Conservative cabinet shuffle that saw veteran MP Michael Chong bumped to the position of finance critic, in an apparent effort to better highlight Liberal economic performance. In an interview with the National Post, Chong mirrored Poilievre\u2019s claim that Carney\u2019s honeymoon period may have already peaked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Canadians are a fair-minded and generous people,\u201d Chong said. \u201cWith the appointment of a new prime minister 15 months ago, I think they were willing to give him some time to present an economic plan that would turn things around, but I now think that Canadians are looking for results.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Carney\u2019s approval has been in steady decline since February, he still retains majority support among the Canadian electorate, a situation that is rare for any prime minister over a sustained period.<\/p>\n

A mid-June poll from the Angus Reid Institute, for instance, found 55 per cent approval for Carney. An Abacus Data poll from around the same time found Carney\u2019s approval at 51 per cent against 37 per cent for Poilievre.<\/p>\n

Every single Canadian pollster, meanwhile, is currently tracking a massive Liberal lead over the Conservatives.<\/p>\n

Poilievre is not the first to note that this has all occurred despite lagging Canadian performance on several key economic indicators, including on some where Carney had specifically promised better outcomes.<\/p>\n

One frequent Conservative criticism, for instance, has been to contrast rising food inflation with Carney\u2019s statement, shortly after his election, to \u201cjudge me\u00a0by the\u00a0prices\u00a0at\u00a0grocery\u00a0store shelves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carney also promised multiple times throughout 2025 to secure an end to trade disruptions with the United States, although no such deal has materialized.<\/p>\n

In his interview with Pete, Poilievre also addressed the four Conservative floor-crossers who have joined the Liberals since October, thus giving Carney a parliamentary majority.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be very hard to find out exactly what motivated it,\u201d Poilievre said, although he did not call for an end to floor-crossings outright, as has been suggested in the NDP.<\/p>\n

Rather, he said voters should be able to petition for the resignation of members of Parliament who cross the floor.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

IN OTHER NEWS\"<\/p>\n

In a development that most people saw coming, Ottawa\u2019s Canada Day gift from the United States is likely to be an official notification that Washington is not renewing the terms of CUSMA, its free trade agreement with Canada. It\u2019s not a termination of the agreement; rather, CUSMA now enters a kind of 10-year limbo until it ultimately expires for good on July 1, 2036.<\/p>\n

Over the last two years, Jewish sites across Canada have been subjected to an unprecedented onslaught of attempted arsons, antisemitic graffiti, shattered windows and nighttime shootings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In Toronto, host to at least a dozen such shootings, this has prompted the creation of a dedicated counterterror unit as well as a visible increase in heavily armed tactical officers stationed outside major Jewish sites<\/a>. In March, it also spurred a state visit to Toronto from Israeli president Isaac Herzog, who called out the city\u2019s \u201cunprecedented wave of Jew hatred.\u201d<\/p>\n

In just the last month, evidence has emerged that the arson and shooting attacks may not be so much an organic surge of anti-Jewish hatred, but the result of an elaborate paid terror campaign.<\/p>\n

In mid-June, Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw said that \u201ccriminals for hire\u201d were behind many of the city\u2019s anti-Jewish attacks, with arsonists or gunmen being paid between $600 and $800 per crime.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we are dealing with in this case and in other unrelated incidences, including shootings at synagogues and Jewish schools, is a reoccurring and similar modus operandi,\u201d he said, adding \u201cit is clear that some of these individuals want to create a sense of fear in our communities, including in the Jewish community.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was in a June 11 raid connected to such attacks that Toronto Police Constable Marc Pinizzotto was shot and killed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And then, this week in Quebec, accused synagogue arsonist Mohamed Ilyess Akodad told a judge that he set fire to three Montreal-area Jewish sites in late 2024 purely to collect a $3,000 reward.<\/p>\n

Akodad testified that he was high on drugs when a roommate recruited him for the attacks, calling them the \u201cmission\u201d \u2013 and that he subsequently used the proceeds to buy codeine and cannabis.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Since we\u2019re on the subject of Canada Day gifts from abroad, the People\u2019s Republic of China just slapped a punitive 73.5 per cent tariff on Canadian pea starch, starting July 1. As exports go, pea starch is particularly exposed to the Chinese market, which might explain why Beijing did it. A similarly punitive tariff on canola imposed last year ended only after Canada agreed to drop its import ban on Chinese-made EVs.<\/p>\n

First Reading is a Canadian politics newsletter curated by the National Post\u2019s own Tristin Hopper. To get an early version sent directly to your inbox, sign up here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First Reading is a Canadian politics newsletter curated by the National Post\u2019s own Tristin Hopper. This is the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[13136,38944,5433,306,125,111,25859,1214],"class_list":["post-111969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mark-carney","tag-approval-ratings","tag-canadian-performance","tag-conservative-leader","tag-conservative-party-of-canada","tag-house-of-commons","tag-mark-carney","tag-michael-chong","tag-pierre-poilievre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}