Thank you very much, Yvan.
I think that is a very relevant question. I think we all appreciate that, even absent Vladimir Putin's illegal and barbaric invasion of Ukraine, the recovery from the COVID recession was going to be challenging. We did the unprecedented thing of shutting down the economy, and the large industrialized economies did the same thing. We all also did the unprecedented thing of providing an economic backstop. Unwinding that was never going to be smooth.
What has happened to exacerbate the challenge the world economy is facing is Vladimir Putin's illegal invasion of Ukraine. We spoke earlier with Ms. Lantsman about energy prices and the challenge that those are posing to Canadians. I think we all understand that the chief driver of those elevated energy prices is Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine. The situation in Europe is much, much more troubling, causing real challenges with, simultaneously, inflation and economic growth.
I absolutely do believe that an important part of Canada's inflation-fighting strategy has to be to support Ukraine and to ensure that Ukraine does win in the war against Vladimir Putin.
I would conclude by saying that I also think we need to appreciate that February 24 is a watershed moment for the world. I think Olaf Scholz has described it as a zeitenwende, a world-changing moment.
I think that going forward, we, the democracies, need to understand the dangers of building our economies on relationships with dictatorships. I think we're already seeing that kind of an approach, which Janet Yellen calls “friend-shoring”. I think we need to develop that in the days to come, and there should be opportunities there for Canada.