Is Mark Carney the new Jean Chrétien?

This month, Carney used the A-word — austerity — to describe the future of Canada’s finances in the era of Trump’s tariffs. Carney had already ordered a 15 per cent cut to Ottawa’s operational spending in July, implying a downsizing of the civil service and possibly program cuts. Then he paused Canada’s costly EV mandate while creating a $5-billion “strategic response fund” to help Canadian businesses find new markets.

Sound familiar? Back in the 1990s, with Canada drowning in debt and the IMF threatening to impose its own austerity plans, then-prime minister Chrétien seized the gauntlet and slashed spending.

Chrétien shrunk the federal bureaucracy by 45,000 positions over three years with his 1995 austerity budget, and eliminated the $45-billion deficit over the next few years by cutting transfer payments to the provinces. He scrapped Canada’s $5.8-billion deal for EH-101 military helicopters and led annual splashy Team Canada missions to get Canadian........

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