Article by Rebel News staff.

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The New York Times reported in April 2014 that Canada's middle class had caught up with America's and had most likely passed it. Ezra Levant says that surprised him. Reporters David Leonhardt and Kevin Quealy, using Luxembourg Income Study data, found Canadian median income pulled even with the U.S. in 2010.

Ezra says Canada then had the richest middle class in the world, a result he credits to the Harper years and Canada's natural blessings. Then Justin Trudeau promised to grow the economy "from the heart outwards," and said, "The commitment needs to be a commitment to grow the economy and the budget will balance itself."

"Grow the economy. Budgets balance themselves. How's that working out?" Ezra asked, turning to Statistics Canada's October labour force survey. Comparing November 2015, the month the Liberals took power, with October 2026, he says public-sector employment is up about one million jobs, or 28 per cent, while private-sector employment is up about two million, or 18.3 per cent.

The Fraser Institute found a similar gap, with public-sector jobs up 29 per cent from 2015 to 2025 and non-public jobs up 15 per cent. Ezra calls it "the single most damning jobs number of the Liberal decade," because the government grew its own payroll almost twice as fast as the private economy that pays for it.

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Public jobs now make up about 21 per cent of all employment, up from 19.5 per cent in 2015, and nearly one in three net new jobs since November 2015 has been in the public sector, he says. "People who work for the government are the source of support for the government."

Young Canadians have been left behind, Ezra says. Youth unemployment was 12.2 per cent when Harper left office and is 13.7 per cent now, a figure Statistics Canada confirms for October. The youth employment rate has fallen from 56.5 per cent to 54 per cent, so "fewer are even trying to get jobs."

When Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne and Prime Minister Mark Carney praise their budget, "that's not the facts. That's their PR," Ezra says. He says Canada's working-age population has grown by 5.7 million since November 2015, while employment has risen by only 3.23 million.

Taking Alberta out of the picture, he says, the rest of Canada lost about 25,000 jobs between October 2025 and October 2026. Canada as a whole gained 16,500 jobs in that period, but Alberta alone added about 41,000. "Alberta carried the country," Ezra says.

Real GDP per person was about $57,500 in 2015 and about $60,000 ten years later, a gain of roughly 4 per cent, he says. Bank of Canada senior deputy governor Carolyn Rogers called weak productivity an emergency in a 2024 speech and said it was "time to break the glass."