Although the U.S. economy is strong, Canada should not copy what it's doing, according to ATB Financial chief economist Todd Hirsch.
Hirsch made that comment during the PowerUp! Entrepreneurs Conference, held Nov. 6 at the Pomeroy Inn & Suites.
He was responding to a question from a conference participant who asked if the Canadian government should follow the U.S. example, and cut taxes. She described the U.S. economy as being "on fire."
"The U.S. economy might be on fire, but I don't know if that's a country we want to be emulating a lot right now," Hirsch said.
"Their unemployment rate is low, but it's not low for everybody. It's low for people who have had opportunities. For people who don't have opportunities, they've given up and dropped out of the workforce altogether," Hirsch said.
He said the number of adults who are actively working or looking for work is lower than in Canada and Alberta.
"So the low unemployment rate, their booming economy, yeah; on one level they are doing well. But on another level, I don't know," he said.
"It is not a happy country. I'm actually really quite happy these days to be Canadian. You know, we've got problems here too, but we are not as politically nastily divided and I hope we remain as not divided as it is in the U.S.
"I worry about it, because I see what's happening in provinces like Ontario and even the tone of certain things here in Alberta.
"So I hope we don't go down that road," Hirsch added.
"The U.S. economy is doing OK at the moment, but I think other problems in the U.S. -- largely political -- are more serious problems for them to solve than something to try to mimic."
A conference participant noted the U.S. currently has a $900-billion deficit.
"That's another good point," Hirsch said.
"I mean, (U.S. President) Donald Trump has cut taxes on wealthy people and businesses and that seems to have kind of spurred the economy up a little bit. And there are lots of people who would say that cutting tax is good.
"The problem is, where are the Tea partiers now? Because Donald Trump has blown the U.S. deficit through the roof in a period of time when their economy is growing.
"That's when you really want to be shrinking the deficit. You might even want to be raising taxes while the economy is strong," he said.
The Tea Party is a group of very conservative people within the Republican party who have called for taxes to be slashed and the U.S. deficit to be lowered by significantly cutting spending.
"You've got the U.S. Federal Reserve -- they're raising interest rates to calm things down and you've got Donald Trump cutting taxes. They're pulling in opposite directions. It's probably going to end badly for the U.S," Hirsch said.
"Donald Trump is being given credit for goosing up the U.S. economy but I think it's kind of temporary. I think we can be thankful for a lot of what we've got here in Canada and in Alberta," he concluded.
