Canada has officially fallen into recession for the first time since the pandemic, according to new federal data, but Prime Minister Mark Carney has yet to publicly address the economic downturn despite recently touting Canada's growth prospects before a U.S. audience.Blacklock's Reporter said Statistics Canada confirmed Friday that the economy contracted by a net 0.2% over the six-month period from Oct. 1, 2025, to March 31, 2026, ending five consecutive years of economic growth.The figures were released one day after Carney told the Economic Club of New York that Canada was on track to post the second-fastest growth rate among G7 nations this year.Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre blasted the government following the release of the data, calling for an emergency parliamentary debate on the recession.“Speeches, fake memoranda, discussion papers, announcements, paid media coverage and other illusions will not reverse the damage or stop the economic hemorrhaging,” Poilievre wrote in an open letter to Carney.“You need to reverse course, now, before it is too late.”Poilievre said the newly released GDP figures leave no doubt about the state of the economy.“I am calling for an emergency parliamentary debate so that you and the Liberal government you lead can tell Canadians your plan to reverse this recession and inflation you have caused,” he wrote.“The recession is real.”.The Statistics Canada report, Gross Domestic Product, Income And Expenditure First Quarter 2026, found the economy shrank during the final quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026, meeting the commonly accepted definition of a recession.The data emerged just one day after Carney delivered a speech in New York portraying Canada as an economic success story.“We are making progress because Canada has so much of what the world wants,” Carney told business leaders.“Early results are encouraging. Canada is projected to have the second-fastest growth in the G7 this year.”Poilievre rejected that assessment.“Mark Carney is now the only leader in the G7 to have plunged his economy into recession,” he told reporters Friday.“He has been Prime Minister for four quarters now. The economy has shrunk in three of those quarters. He is the only G7 leader who can say that.”“The economy is smaller today than when Mark Carney became Prime Minister a year ago.”Carney himself had criticized Canada's economic performance before becoming prime minister..During a French-language Liberal leadership debate in Montreal on Feb. 25, 2025, he argued that post-pandemic growth under his predecessor was unsustainable.“I want to be clear about the, quote, ‘strength’ of our economy,” Carney said.“Our economy over the last five years has been driven by a big increase in the labour force which was largely because of a surge in immigration which is now trying to be controlled, and by government spending that grew over 9% year after year after year, twice the rate of growth of our economy.”“Our economy was weak before we got to the point of these threats from President Trump,” he added.“That’s why we need big changes. That’s the reason I’m here. That’s why we need big changes to how we’re managing this economy.”
