It’s hard to be ‘masters of our destiny’ when our destiny is shaped in the U.S.

Detailed summary

Champagne delivered this week’s budget in an environment that had suddenly become both more and less benign for Canada

John Rapley is a contributing columnist for The Globe and Mail. He is an author and academic whose books include Why Empires Fall and Twilight of the Money Gods.

Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne delivered this week’s budget in an environment that had suddenly become both more and less benign for Canada.

The government is right to set a goal of making Canadians “masters of our destiny.” Ottawa had a revenue windfall and chose to spend it largely on stimulus instead of paying down debt. The budget introduced tax cuts and measures to boost major infrastructure projects and private-sector investment.

But it will always be the case that what happens south of the border will help shape our destiny. And Tuesday’s U.S. election result, which amounted to a decisive repudiation of Donald Trump’s economic management, changed most everything.

Opening of the article, excerpted from The Globe and Mail (Report on Business). To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.