Poilievre says Carney's policies to blame for Canada dipping into recession territory

Avery Shenfeld, managing director and chief economist at CIBC, joins BNN Bloomberg to discuss the outlook for Canada's economy following March GDP data.

OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is blaming Prime Minister Mark Carney’s policies for Canada entering recession territory.

Statistics Canada released a report Friday that said the economy contracted slightly for the second quarter in a row to start the year — a benchmark that meets some definitions of a technical recession.

Some economists weighing in after that release said the recession talk was premature and argued that while Canada’s economy is soft, the declines are marginal and do not meet the definition of a widespread downturn.

Poilievre said Friday there’s nothing technical about rising rates of mortgage delinquency, increased food bank usage and five quarters of falling business investment.

“The only way out of this Liberal recession is to reverse the policies that caused it in the first place. And that is why we are calling for the prime minister to get back in the House of Commons next week and introduce a bill to reverse all of the economic policies his party has introduced over the last decade,” Poilievre said.

• READ MORE: Economists pour cold water on recession talk after Canada’s economy stalls in Q1

The policies the Conservative leader took aim at include the industrial carbon price and changes to the impact assessment act, Bill C-69, that he said prevent projects like pipelines from going ahead.

Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said he remains confident about the Canadian economy when pressed by Conservative members during question period Friday.

“Canadians understand, Mr. Speaker, in the words of the International Energy Agency, that we have the most severe energy crisis in the world,” Champagne said.

“But on this side of the House, Mr. Speaker, we have a plan. We have a plan to make generational investment in housing, in infrastructure, in productivity and innovation.”

Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson cited plans to build new nuclear, wind, mining and natural gas projects to drive economic growth and chalked Conservative criticism up to “conspiracy theories.”

“They can’t actually see beyond their conspiracy theories, Mr. Speaker. We are building in every province in this country. They should start helping,” Hodgson said.

Poilievre said that while all other G7 countries are feeling similar external pressures on their economies, only Canada saw shrinkage last quarter.

StatCan primarily blames weakness in Canada’s resource extraction industries and in construction activity for a 0.1 per cent decline in real GDP in March.

Some analysts say Canada’s economy may already be growing again, thanks to higher oil revenues due to the war in Iran and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 29, 2026.

— With files from Craig Lord.

David Baxter, The Canadian Press