SEPARATING PEOPLE LIKE THIS INTO GROUPS DOES NOT CONNECT THEM.

targeted companies going global, without elaborating on what the barriers are.

He said the government will send a mission to the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce conference in Philadelphia in August; one to the World Indigenous Business Forum in Rotorua, New Zealand in October; and, a mission to the Business Women in International Trade in Detroit in June.

“We can do a lot more, get more people into the game, secure new competitive advantage, grow the pie and increase productivity,” he said.

But it is in that last area that the Trudeau government should be putting its focus.

As the Bank of Canada noted in its latest monetary policy report, released last week, there has been a steady downtrend in Canada’s share of non-energy goods exported to the United States in recent years — a decline that has not slowed, despite the depreciation of the Canadian dollar. “It is indicative of the on-going competitiveness challenges that some Canadian exporters face,” the bank said.

U.S. tax cuts and uncertainty around NAFTA have not made life easier for exporters. But it is the longstanding hell’s brew of dense regulatory issues, carbon pricing, minimum wage hikes and soaring electricity prices that have combined to reduce the competitiveness of Canadian exporters.

Fluffy headlines about Canada’s progressive trade agenda do little to cloak the truth that this country’s export performance is anemic. The patience of many voters for such blatant pandering is wearing thin.