Canadian dollar trades at 77 US cents. It’s lost 25% of its value since 2011.
There was outside influence on both sides.. Steven Harper brought in John Howard’s (Australian) old campaign manager and he tried to stir the pot with a niqab issue. Obviously didn’t work.
Fact is, Canada is a resource-based economy, and like most resource based economies, it relied on exports to China. Blackberry was a great story, but it’s on a respirator. The housing market is in a bubble, particularly Vancouver, fueled by Chinese money trying to get out of that country. Don’t know how the auto makers are doing across the river from Detroit around Sarnia, I would guess they’re participating in the strong auto sales figures. Bombardier lost out on a big European contract recently.
But Canada isn’t that different from Russia— too many eggs in one basket. Western Canada has been subsidizing the eastern provinces for years. The welfare state never went away, it was just paid for with tax revenue off the exports to China.