So we checked the results.
North of Polite | September 14, 2026
Pierre Poilievre has responded to Mark Carney’s Canada Investment Summit with a simple argument:
Forget the speeches. Forget the summit. Show Canadians results.
That’s a fair standard.
In fact, it’s almost exactly the standard North of Polite applied to the hundreds of billions of dollars in financing and investment initiatives announced around the summit:
Don’t show us how much money was promised. Show us what Canada built.
But Poilievre made several factual claims of his own.
Those deserve exactly the same treatment.
CLAIM: INVESTMENT IS LEAVING CANADA FASTER THAN IT IS COMING IN
Verdict: Not supported by the latest direct-investment data.
Statistics Canada reports that foreign direct investment into Canada reached $25.9 billion in the second quarter of 2026.
Canadian direct investment abroad was $17.1 billion.
In other words, during the latest quarter, more direct investment came into Canada than Canadian companies invested abroad.
The annual numbers tell a similar story.
Foreign direct investment into Canada reached $96.8 billion in 2025—the highest level since 2007—while Canadian direct investment abroad totalled $79.4 billion.
Poilievre does have a legitimate point buried inside the criticism.
A substantial portion of recent foreign investment has involved mergers and acquisitions rather than construction of entirely new Canadian operations.
Buying an existing Canadian company isn’t economically equivalent to building a new factory.
But that doesn’t make the investment imaginary.
And it doesn’t support the claim that more investment is currently leaving Canada than coming in.
CLAIM: CARNEY NEARLY DOUBLED TRUDEAU’S DEFICIT
Verdict: Substantially supported—with an important qualification.
Trudeau’s final Fall Economic Statement projected a
federal deficit for 2025–26.
Carney’s Budget 2025 projected $78.3 billion.
That’s an increase of roughly 86%.
So describing the new projection as nearly double the previous one is reasonable.
But Canadians should understand what is being compared.
These are budget projections—not two final audited deficits.
And part of the deterioration reflects the economic slowdown and government measures responding to the Canada–U.S. trade war.
That doesn’t make the additional borrowing free.
A
projected deficit deserves scrutiny regardless of which party occupies the government benches.
CLAIM: BUSINESS INVESTMENT IS COLLAPSING
Verdict: There is a real problem, but the current picture is mixed.
Canada has struggled with weak business investment and productivity for years.
That is not Conservative fiction.
The OECD and Canadian economists have repeatedly identified insufficient investment per worker as one of Canada’s major structural economic problems.
Business capital investment also declined in the first quarter of 2026.
But something changed in the second quarter.
Statistics Canada reports that real GDP grew 0.8%, with higher business capital investment among the contributors.
One good quarter doesn’t solve Canada’s investment problem.
But neither should Canadians be told investment is moving only in one direction when the newest numbers show improvement.
CLAIM: CANADIANS ARE GETTING HAMMERED BY FOOD INFLATION
Verdict: The affordability problem is real. The newest trend is improving.
Nobody standing in a grocery checkout needs a politician to tell them food has become expensive.
But inflation measures how quickly prices are changing now—not how painful the accumulated increase over several years has been.
Statistics Canada reported today that grocery-price inflation slowed to 2.8% in August, falling below 3% for the first time in 14 months.
Overall inflation remained 3%.
That doesn’t mean groceries suddenly became cheap.
It means they’re currently getting more expensive more slowly.
Both facts can be true.
CLAIM: 500 PROJECTS ARE WAITING FOR OTTAWA TO ISSUE PERMITS
Verdict: Unverified as stated.
The Conservatives repeatedly say approximately 500 projects are awaiting federal permits and propose fast-tracking them.
We can verify that this is their position.
What we have not independently established is a federal inventory showing exactly 500 projects currently sitting before Ottawa waiting for permits.
There is a broader point here that is well supported.
Canada has a project-development problem.
Regulatory delays, overlapping assessments, infrastructure constraints and uncertainty have been repeatedly identified as obstacles to investment.
The Carney government itself effectively acknowledges this by changing assessment rules and promising faster approvals.
But a legitimate general criticism doesn’t automatically verify a specific number.
If the Conservatives publish the list of 500 projects, Canadians should be able to examine it.
AND WHAT ABOUT CARNEY’S INVESTMENT SUMMIT?
This is where both political camps should be careful.
Carney cannot point to hundreds of billions of dollars in announced financing capacity and declare economic victory.
A loan commitment isn’t a mine.
An investment fund isn’t a pipeline.
A summit isn’t a factory.
Poilievre is absolutely right about that.
But Poilievre cannot dismiss incoming investment as an illusion when Statistics Canada’s current numbers show substantial foreign direct investment entering Canada.
That’s not scrutiny.
That’s replacing one political sales pitch with another.
NORTH OF POLITE VERDICT
Poilievre’s larger argument deserves to be taken seriously.
Canada needs faster approvals.
Canada needs stronger productivity.
Canada needs more business investment.
Canada needs fiscal discipline.
And Canadians have every right to demand tangible results from Carney rather than announcements and ceremonies.
But that standard works both ways.
The projected deficit really has increased dramatically.
Canada really does have longstanding investment and productivity problems.
But the latest data also show economic growth, rising business capital investment in the second quarter, substantial foreign direct investment and moderating food inflation.
Carney doesn’t get to count promised money as economic success.
Poilievre doesn’t get to count inconvenient economic data as an illusion.
Results, not rhetoric?
Agreed.
Let’s start by getting the results right.
© 2026 North of Polite. Original reporting, analysis and commentary. All rights reserved. 🍁
Unapologetically Canadian. We stand for a strong, sovereign and united Canada. No party owns our loyalty. If you make a claim, bring the receipts. We will too.
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