It is fair to say that we all faced a completely unprecedented situation. GDP plummeted 15% in a number of months. More than three million Canadians were unemployed and another more than three million were working less than 50% of their normal hours. Inflation actually started to go slightly negative.
There was a real danger that if the governments and the Bank of Canada did not take concerted, bold action, the sharpest recession in history could have become a depression.
Fortunately, the other part of it is that the health response was tremendous. The invention and distribution of vaccines was critical to getting us back to normal. The combination was that we had the fastest recovery on record and we avoided a much worse outcome.
One quick way of looking at it is to look at the projection the Bank of Canada put out in the depths of the recession. In fact, it couldn't really do a projection because there was so much uncertainty. It provided a band and if you look at the actual evolution of the economy relative to that band, it's right at the top end of the band.