The Growth Story: Canada's Long-run Economic Performance and Prospects

In this lead article, Peter Nicholson, who until recently served as advisor to the Secretary General at the OECD and is currently serving as policy advisor to the Prime Minister, Paul Martin, discusses the long-run economic performance, prospects in Canada, and policy priorities based on the framework and insights that emerged from the recent study of economic growth released by the OECD. He argues that Canada has performed remarkably well since the mid-1990s, and that by the pro-growth policy prescriptions developed by the OECD, Canada is doing most things right. However, Nicholson points out that our productivity gap relative to the United States is still large and growing and that finding ways to increase productivity growth is an increasing social and political necessity. Nicholson develops a scorecard on Canada's economic performance based on a three-star rating scheme. He gives Canada three stars for sound macro policies, human capital, and exposure to trade; two stars for productive investment; and one star, or perhaps a little better, for innovation. Despite this strong performance, Nicholson cautions against complacency, particularly given the demographic challenge the country will be facing in the years to come.