We won’t grow because Ontario and Quebec are simply uninterested in growing or being serious
If we had current attitudes back then, Toronto would be a village of 850 people
paperfire on
Canada isn’t stuck in a low-productivity trap by accident. We built a system over decades that prioritizes stability, fairness, regional balance, and asset protection over risk-taking, scale, and upside. That combination predictably suppresses private business returns, so capital flows into housing, incumbents, or out of the country, mainly to the U.S. This isn’t a failure of awareness; it’s the outcome of revealed preferences.
The uncomfortable part is that fixing this would require real disruption, more firm failures, more inequality, fewer protected sectors, and visible losers long before any gains show up. There’s no political coalition for that, and the people most harmed by stagnation are also the most mobile, which removes pressure to reform. So the most likely scenario is continuing the current situation. Canada stays stable but low-growth, and the U.S. keeps pulling further ahead in productivity, wages, and living standards.
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We won’t grow because Ontario and Quebec are simply uninterested in growing or being serious
If we had current attitudes back then, Toronto would be a village of 850 people
Canada isn’t stuck in a low-productivity trap by accident. We built a system over decades that prioritizes stability, fairness, regional balance, and asset protection over risk-taking, scale, and upside. That combination predictably suppresses private business returns, so capital flows into housing, incumbents, or out of the country, mainly to the U.S. This isn’t a failure of awareness; it’s the outcome of revealed preferences.
The uncomfortable part is that fixing this would require real disruption, more firm failures, more inequality, fewer protected sectors, and visible losers long before any gains show up. There’s no political coalition for that, and the people most harmed by stagnation are also the most mobile, which removes pressure to reform. So the most likely scenario is continuing the current situation. Canada stays stable but low-growth, and the U.S. keeps pulling further ahead in productivity, wages, and living standards.