There’s a lot of good stuff in this, though I disagree about Keynes. Also, industrial policy always sounds good, but in reality ends up being indistinguishable from the Soviet style of central planning. Government should eliminate the barriers to industrial development, but not have a role in deciding what that should be or who should do it.
Again, excellent essay, so this is not a criticism of your work but there is a tendency for Canadians to live vicariously and rest on their laurels. Just because Paul Henderson scored the winning goal against all odds 53 years ago doesn’t mean today’s Canadians are fierce economic competitors. Just because the CPR was an outstanding engineering and construction feat 150 years ago doesn’t mean today’s well engineered and constructed bike paths will solve Montreal and Toronto’s traffic mess. A good manager always asks “What have you done for me today?”
Agreed. As per one of my previous essays, Canada doesn’t even dominate in Hockey anymore (and part of the reason we remember 72 was it was by the skin of our teeth). The CPR needs to be used as a reminder of what we are capable of and then insist that we do the same in the present day. We rest on laurels we have not earned…
Great work. I could live without hearing “elbows up” ever again. Could someone tell me what it really means? I have the impression it is about elbowing the other team in the face in hockey which is dangerous and usually results in a penalty.
Excellent insights. A true must read for anyone who loves this country. Canada is an economic bargain amongst diverse peoples built on foundations of British liberal capitalism which holds as values, individual integrity, industry, and thrift. Renewing that bargain and reversing the slide towards the productive few increasingly supporting the entitlements of the many is essential if Canada is to remain truly, north, strong and free.
This was a great read. The overall tone and content are I think correct. However I take issue with some points: 1) TMX etc. The barriers were indigenous and environmental groups. They stymied Harper and ultimately the private sector. Under the Harper government no pipelines were built to tidewater, while Trudeau got two actually finished. Further, Canada subsidizes oil and gas more generously than any other G20 country. Alberta is the richest province and has no sales tax and a more generous safety net, and has no Norwegian style heritage fund: that is on Alberta. 2) Canada’s productivity is competitive with the G7 if the oil and gas industry is removed from the calculations. Ironically that industry’s investments do not make it more productive: I wonder if that is because of environmental regulations? 3) Soft power (CESO and the like) are as important as anything we can do militarily overseas in terms of our national security. 4) We are not badly indebted by any international benchmark and especially compared to the US who live beyond their means, do not tax the wealthy enough, and are divided, at the root because of extreme inequality, far more than we are. 5) If you start a business here you have a lot of serious support: SRED, extremely generous capital gains treatment, all of which send the message that we want and will reward self-reliant entrepreneurship; culturally however we are very risk averse, even though failure is less penalized here, your kids still get good education and free healthcare for example. We have a real issue too once a business reaches real scalability: weak mid-market capital, and too small a domestic market, which leads to exits funded by US PE and VC. 6) We may get a huge percentage of our wealth from what you call rural sources, but demographically we are massively urban. 7) You are right that the overhead component of the economy, bureaucracy, has expanded and is a burden on the productive. This needs to be dramatically reengineered. 8) People want security and opportunity, not handouts. Canada needs a cultural shift back to industry integrity and thrift as you say, but also to risk-taking. The yearning for a messiah to save us, for leadership, which rears its head everywhere, Trump being an example, needs to be replaced by an ethos of adult responsibility for self-government, the basis of the enlightenment and going back to Magna Carta. And an ethos of self-reliance, “I am happy to help others but no one owes me a living.” The Canadian superpower that we need to double down on is equality of opportunity, and freedom to use your efforts and abilities to create a better life for you and yours. That means reinforcing the education and healthcare care systems and cutting the bureaucratic overheads.
As to Palestine, Gaza has been reduced to rubble and starved, the West Bank is increasingly (illegally) occupied territory. At its heart it seems to me that in order to stop being victims, which they had been for centuries culminating in the holocaust, Jews finally decided someone else had to be victims, and that like many others they had to get a homeland by force if necessary. Who can blame them. The chosen victims however have not gone quietly. The forced expulsion of 750,000 from their homes in the Nakba in 1948 continues, with every resistance to it justifying the taking of more territory, and the resistance becoming in response more cancerous and inhumane, and the backwardness of the resisters, rather a self-reinforcing state, somehow justifying the slaughter of innocents. Might, with US support, makes right, apparently. Probably the most recalcitrant problem in the world.
There’s a lot of good stuff in this, though I disagree about Keynes. Also, industrial policy always sounds good, but in reality ends up being indistinguishable from the Soviet style of central planning. Government should eliminate the barriers to industrial development, but not have a role in deciding what that should be or who should do it.
Again, excellent essay, so this is not a criticism of your work but there is a tendency for Canadians to live vicariously and rest on their laurels. Just because Paul Henderson scored the winning goal against all odds 53 years ago doesn’t mean today’s Canadians are fierce economic competitors. Just because the CPR was an outstanding engineering and construction feat 150 years ago doesn’t mean today’s well engineered and constructed bike paths will solve Montreal and Toronto’s traffic mess. A good manager always asks “What have you done for me today?”
Agreed. As per one of my previous essays, Canada doesn’t even dominate in Hockey anymore (and part of the reason we remember 72 was it was by the skin of our teeth). The CPR needs to be used as a reminder of what we are capable of and then insist that we do the same in the present day. We rest on laurels we have not earned…
Great work. I could live without hearing “elbows up” ever again. Could someone tell me what it really means? I have the impression it is about elbowing the other team in the face in hockey which is dangerous and usually results in a penalty.
Thank you. And you would be right on elbowing.
Educational, balanced and thorough analysis.
Thank you
Excellent insights. A true must read for anyone who loves this country. Canada is an economic bargain amongst diverse peoples built on foundations of British liberal capitalism which holds as values, individual integrity, industry, and thrift. Renewing that bargain and reversing the slide towards the productive few increasingly supporting the entitlements of the many is essential if Canada is to remain truly, north, strong and free.
This was a great read. The overall tone and content are I think correct. However I take issue with some points: 1) TMX etc. The barriers were indigenous and environmental groups. They stymied Harper and ultimately the private sector. Under the Harper government no pipelines were built to tidewater, while Trudeau got two actually finished. Further, Canada subsidizes oil and gas more generously than any other G20 country. Alberta is the richest province and has no sales tax and a more generous safety net, and has no Norwegian style heritage fund: that is on Alberta. 2) Canada’s productivity is competitive with the G7 if the oil and gas industry is removed from the calculations. Ironically that industry’s investments do not make it more productive: I wonder if that is because of environmental regulations? 3) Soft power (CESO and the like) are as important as anything we can do militarily overseas in terms of our national security. 4) We are not badly indebted by any international benchmark and especially compared to the US who live beyond their means, do not tax the wealthy enough, and are divided, at the root because of extreme inequality, far more than we are. 5) If you start a business here you have a lot of serious support: SRED, extremely generous capital gains treatment, all of which send the message that we want and will reward self-reliant entrepreneurship; culturally however we are very risk averse, even though failure is less penalized here, your kids still get good education and free healthcare for example. We have a real issue too once a business reaches real scalability: weak mid-market capital, and too small a domestic market, which leads to exits funded by US PE and VC. 6) We may get a huge percentage of our wealth from what you call rural sources, but demographically we are massively urban. 7) You are right that the overhead component of the economy, bureaucracy, has expanded and is a burden on the productive. This needs to be dramatically reengineered. 8) People want security and opportunity, not handouts. Canada needs a cultural shift back to industry integrity and thrift as you say, but also to risk-taking. The yearning for a messiah to save us, for leadership, which rears its head everywhere, Trump being an example, needs to be replaced by an ethos of adult responsibility for self-government, the basis of the enlightenment and going back to Magna Carta. And an ethos of self-reliance, “I am happy to help others but no one owes me a living.” The Canadian superpower that we need to double down on is equality of opportunity, and freedom to use your efforts and abilities to create a better life for you and yours. That means reinforcing the education and healthcare care systems and cutting the bureaucratic overheads.
As to Palestine, Gaza has been reduced to rubble and starved, the West Bank is increasingly (illegally) occupied territory. At its heart it seems to me that in order to stop being victims, which they had been for centuries culminating in the holocaust, Jews finally decided someone else had to be victims, and that like many others they had to get a homeland by force if necessary. Who can blame them. The chosen victims however have not gone quietly. The forced expulsion of 750,000 from their homes in the Nakba in 1948 continues, with every resistance to it justifying the taking of more territory, and the resistance becoming in response more cancerous and inhumane, and the backwardness of the resisters, rather a self-reinforcing state, somehow justifying the slaughter of innocents. Might, with US support, makes right, apparently. Probably the most recalcitrant problem in the world.