This article originally appeared in the Financial Post. Below is an excerpt from the article.
By Jack Mintz, April 15, 2025
Last week, I concluded my article on Canada’s trade options by saying that “the best way to snub our nose at Trump is to build a strong economy.” Today, I want to outline an agenda for economic prosperity that could make Canada one of the fastest growing countries in the world.
We Canadians have been blessed with abundant resources that provide us with, as Trump might say, a “beautiful” comparative advantage. But we have two distinct disadvantages: a cold climate and a relatively small population dispersed along an almost 9,000-kilometre border with the United States, the largest market in the world. All else equal, populations and businesses would generally gravitate to the U.S. where the opportunities its giant market generates are much greater.
Since 1867 we have overcome these disadvantages by adopting smart policy. Whether it was Sir John A. Macdonald’s open immigration policy to settle the West, an excellent education system affordable to all, or leveraging our resource wealth for trade, Canada has become one of richest countries in the world. Over the past century our per capita income has generally tracked at 90 per cent of the U.S. level despite the formidable challenges of our much smaller market.
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Jack Mintz is the President’s Fellow at the University of Calgary’s school of public policy and a distinguished fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.
The author of this piece has worked independently and is solely responsible for the views presented here. The opinions are not necessarily those of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, its directors or supporters. The Macdonald-Laurier Institute is non-partisan and neither endorses nor supports candidates or political parties. We encourage our senior fellows to comment on public policy issues, including during election campaigns, but the publication of such expert commentary should not be confused with the institute taking a position for or against any party or candidate.
