I was a little surprised to see EIIR on the head of the throne where King Charles read Prime Minister Carney’s plans for the country. I believe it’s CIIIR now, is it not? After all, CIII was reading the speech. But I’m quibbling..

Overall I like it. Much about the tone was good. “The economy is only truly strong when it serves everyone,” for example, and his concluding instruction to the MPs, “May you honour the profound trust bestowed upon you by Canadians.”

Lots of plans for building badly needed housing, including “a series of measures to help double the rate of home building while creating an entirely new housing industry”; and the creation of Build Canada Homes, “to accelerate the development of new affordable housing.” Investing in “the growth of the prefabricated and modular housing industry” will help, as will “cutting municipal development charges in half for all multi-unit housing.”

I’m not so sure about cutting “the GST on homes at or under $1 million for first-time homebuyers” and lowering ”the GST on homes between $1 million and $1.5 million.”

Cutting taxes always suggests cutting services to me, so I’m not overly pleased about the promises to reduce middle-class taxes and spend less, either. The promise is “a new fiscal discipline,” so we’ll see. I suppose the former governor of two national banks with great success in the private financial sector ought to be able to impose fiscal discipline.

I’m pleased to see the promise to “protect the programs that are already saving families thousands of dollars every year” including child care and pharmacare. These contribute to the social wage, critical for lower-income earners.

Removing barriers to internal trade and labour mobility have long been talked about. Perhaps we are now to see real progress at the federal level.

In the same vein, a new Major Federal Project Office is proposed to greatly speed up approval of major projects while—and this is of the greatest importance—“upholding Canada’s world-leading environmental standards.” I sense Conservative politicians and corporations are exploiting Trump’s trade lunacy to further avoid environmental responsibility, so this needs close attention.

And then there’s energy, always energy. Apparently we are “to become the world’s leading energy superpower in both clean and conventional energy.” I sincerely hope the emphasis will be on the former.

I hope also that the intent “to build an industrial strategy that will make Canada more globally competitive” while building “hundreds of thousands of good careers in the skilled trades” is aimed partially at least at the green transition. It is to be accomplished “while fighting climate change” so we may hope.

We are also to “build Canada into the world’s leading hub for science and innovation.” Perhaps Mr. Carney has his eye on grabbing some of those scientists Trump is putting out of work.

The promise to rebuild, rearm and reinvest in the Canadian Armed Forces was expected, as was “joining ReArm Europe to invest in transatlantic security with Canada’s European partners.” I’m usually not a fan of spending a lot of money on armaments, but with threats from an autocrat in Europe and a would-be autocrat next door, I can hardly object.
 At least there was nothing in the speech about Donald Trump’s “golden dome.”

On the cultural and news front I was of course delighted to read of the determination to protect CBC/Radio-Canada. Here lay one of my greatest fears if the Conservatives had won the election. It was also nice to hear of protecting “more of Canada’s nature than ever before through the creation of new national parks, national urban parks, marine protected areas, and other conservation initiatives.”

Fortunately we have avoided the immigrant-bashing rampant in the U.S., but our capacity to accept newcomers has been badly stretched, particularly because of a lack of housing, so the promise to “restore balance to the system” is appropriate.

All in all, an ambitious program, a substantial test for Prime Minister Carney and his colleagues. I will be wishing them well for the larger part of it … and watching them closely to ensure they “honour the profound trust bestowed upon [them] by Canadians.”