Canada displays many of the same symptoms of business malaise evident in Europeannations. Real GDP growth over the past decade was the slowest since the 1930s, productivityhas stalled, and reduced competitiveness has hampered our ability to capitalize ontrade deals, all of which have combined to lower our share of global GDP.

Canada’s sluggish economic growth in the years before the pandemic reflects a lack ofinnovation and weak productivity growth that has persisted for decades. The prolongedslump cannot be fully addressed with the current approach of policies targeting specificsectors such as high technology or green energy, or spurring research and developmentin the hope of boosting one or more of these variables. Worse would be acceding to theendless requests from specific groups, industries, or firms for favours in the name of jobcreation or higher incomes.