Carney's Forward Guidance video

On Saturday April 25, from noon to 2 pm, we’ll be knocking on doors and listening to what’s on people’s minds. We’re meeting at Collingwood Park (5275 McKinnon Street), near Joyce Station. Registration link.

Sadly, Portland Craft has closed, so we didn’t have a Housing Happy Hour this month. We’ll plan to have our next one on Tuesday May 19, location TBD.

Our next door-knocking event will be the weekend of May 23-24.

At the recent Liberal convention in Montreal, one of the policy resolutions submitted by Vancouver Kingsway was approved by Liberal delegates: TACKLING CANADA’S HEALTH WORKFORCE SHORTAGE BY WORKING WITH PROVINCES AND TERRITORIES TO FACILITATE RECOGNITION OF FOREIGN CREDENTIALS. Congratulations to Kory Fletcher, who wrote and presented the resolution!

Carney has released a video talking directly to Canadians about the challenges we face and the actions the federal government is taking. It’s intended to be the first in a series.

From the transcript:

I know from experience that outside forces can sometimes seem overwhelming. In my previous jobs at the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, part of my duties was to make regular public reports on what we were doing to manage the economy. And I remember during the financial crisis, when there was a real risk of panic, I developed a practice called Forward Guidance. It was designed to assure people that, however difficult the situation seemed on any given day, that we were acting, and importantly, that we would continue to act with overwhelming force against our problems until they were solved.

And that’s the spirit I’m talking to you about today. Security can’t be achieved by ignoring the obvious or downplaying the very real threats that we Canadians face. I promise you, I will never sugarcoat our challenges. Instead, I will talk with you directly and regularly about our plan, why we’re doing what we’re doing, what’s working, what isn’t. And what we’re going to do next.

So here’s the current situation. The world, as I said earlier, is more dangerous and divided. The US has fundamentally changed its approach to trade, raising its tariffs to levels last seen during the Great Depression. Many of our former strengths, based on our close ties to America, have become our weaknesses, weaknesses that we must correct. Workers in our industries most affected by US tariffs on autos, steel, and lumber are under threat. Businesses are holding back investments, restrained by the pall of uncertainty that’s hanging over all of us.

The US has changed, and we must respond. Canada Strong is our plan to build Canada, by Canadians, for Canadians. We will attract new investment so we can build more for ourselves. Striking new partnerships abroad so we can sell into new markets. It’s about taking back control of our security, our borders and our future.

I thought this observation was particularly interesting:

There are some who say there’s no need for a comprehensive plan. They believe we should wait it out in the hope that the United States will return to normal. That the good old days will come back. But hope isn’t a plan. And nostalgia is not a strategy. And the days that young Canadians have known all their lives haven’t been that good. Their lifetimes have been marked by a series of shocks and crises from abroad. The Iraq war, the global financial crisis. Covid and now this.

We have to take care of ourselves because we can’t rely on one foreign partner. We can’t control the disruption coming from our neighbors. We can’t bet our future on the hope that it will suddenly stop. But we can control what happens here. We can build a stronger country that can withstand disruptions from abroad. That creates good jobs here at home. That’s a leader in this new world with a vast network of reliable allies.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please let us know.

Russil Wvong
Vancouver Kingsway Federal Liberals
vancouverkingsway.ca