The Economy One Voted For

To wit:

The federal government posted a budgetary deficit of $26.14 billion for the April-to-December period of its 2025-26 fiscal year.

In its monthly fiscal monitor, the Finance Department says the result compared to with deficit of $21.72 billion reported for the same period a year earlier.

The result came as revenue totalled $363.36 billion for the nine-month period, up from $355.62 billion a year earlier, reflecting increases in customs import duties due to the countermeasures imposed in response to U.S. tariffs, and corporate and personal income tax revenues.

Meanwhile, program expenses excluding net actuarial losses amounted to $344.91 billion compared with $333.20 billion a year earlier, due to increases in direct program spending, major transfers to persons and major transfers to provinces, territories and municipalities.

Public debt charges totalled $40.86 billion, down from $41.12 billion a year earlier, due to lower short-term interest rates on treasury bills and lower net interest on cross-currency swap transactions and other liabilities.

Net actuarial losses were $3.74 billion, up from $ 3.02 billion a year earlier.

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Statistics Canada reported a fourth-quarter contraction in real gross domestic product Friday that economists argue conceals some promising details in underlying economic data.

StatCan said Friday that real GDP declined 0.6 per cent on an annualized basis in the fourth quarter, falling short of expectations for flat growth from the Bank of Canada and most economists.

StatCan said the main culprit was businesses drawing down their inventories — in other words, selling off goods or materials that weren’t reproduced in the quarter.