Amid the economic turmoil of the pandemic, his government racked up Canada's highest ever deficit. Failing to curb spending now risks "the market dictating to you what you have to do with fiscal policy," said Doug Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets. "I do think they have to trim the sails a bit," he added. "It's going to be easier to get inflation down if monetary and fiscal policy are rowing in the same direction," Macklem said. Fitch Ratings stripped Canada of its triple-A credit rating in June 2020, citing pandemic spending.

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Persons: Justin Trudeau, Doug Porter, Chrystia Freeland, Katherine Cuplinskas, Trudeau, Macklem, Desjardins, Randall Bartlett, Simon Deeley, Robert Asselin, DBRS Morningstar, Julia Smith, Steve Scherer, Fergal Smith, Denny Thomas, Josie Kao Organizations: OTTAWA, Trudeau's Liberal, BMO Capital Markets, Finance, International Monetary Fund, of Canada's, BoC, UK, RBC Dominion Securities Inc, New, Business Council of Canada, Fitch, Moody's Investors, Canada, Thomson Locations: Canada, FES, Germany, High, Ottawa, Toronto