The stories we’ve been sold for decades about how our economy works have been collapsing in front of our eyes. Yet the most prominent, well-funded ideas for how to create economic opportunity and security for working people in Canada are stuck in the 1990s.
Free trade, privatization and low taxes on capital and wealth have led to economic insecurity and anxiety for working people. Their benefits have not trickled down.
Right now, our market economy is neither free nor fair. Gobsmacking inequality and high barriers to asset ownership and wealth building for working people are policy choices – and we can make different choices.
It is increasingly clear that governments must shape markets so they work for working people. Governments must aggressively push back against the economic practices that are consolidating wealth, concentrating ownership of assets and robbing working people of their political power and economic agency.
The stories we continue to be told about how the economy works are not true. It’s time for new, more accurate stories.
Solutions to the concentration of wealth, power and opportunity exist. At SCP, we are committed to highlighting these solutions and the increasingly clear evidence that there are alternatives that will build economic resilience, sustainable economic growth, community well-being, human happiness and democratic stability.
On this topic
Watch the video: Unleashing Canada’s potential in turbulent times | Canada Growth Summit 2025
The United States’ unprecedented economic assault has brought Canada’s many pressing challenges, both internal and geopolitical, into sharp relief. On April 24, SCP CEO Matthew Mendelsohn joined a panel of experts for a discussion on accelerating investment at Growth Summit 2025. This year's PPF event focused on how to urgently unlock Canada’s economic growth potential to safeguard our country’s global competitiveness—and our own standard of living.
#HIRING Visionary Founding CEO to lead the Canadian Tax Observatory
Social Capital Partners is seeking a visionary Founding CEO to lead the Canadian Tax Observatory - a new, non-partisan, nonprofit Canadian institution that will drive an informed national conversation on the links between taxation, economic fairness and a thriving democracy. Submit your Statement of Ambition by May 21, 2025.
Watch the video: Is Canada really poorer than Alabama?
Corporate leaders are obsessing over GDP per capita. But, as SCP CEO Matthew Mendelsohn explains, if you look at just about any number that would meaningfully tell you how well our economy is doing, Canada does better than the U.S. So, when people speak glowingly of the American economic model, and how great it would be if Canada could be more like the U.S., it is worth asking: which aspect of that mess do they really want to replicate here? And how would that be good for Canadians?
Ten ways to unleash Canada’s potential | Public Policy Forum
As Trump’s mercurial tariff mandate unleashes market mayhem and geopolitical unease, Canadians have galvanized—buying local, putting the maple leaf on everything, ratcheting our elbows way up. Over the course of a dozen sessions at Public Policy Forum’s 2025 Canada Growth Summit, more than 40 speakers, including SCP's CEO Matthew Mendelsohn, put forward a series of smart, actionable ideas for how governments, businesses, policymakers and communities can work together to advance our collective fortunes.
The misleading use of per capita GDP: Numerators, denominators and living standards | Policy Options
Certain partisans have been citing Canada's performance on per capita GDP as evidence of a supposed 'lost decade' and economic mismanagement. In Policy Options, economist and director of the Centre for Future Work Jim Stanford deconstructs this arbitrary and misleading statistic. In the first of a two-part analysis, he explains multiple factors affecting both the numerator and denominator in this headline-grabbing number and how recent trends in GDP per capita say more about rapid immigration than about Canada’s overall economic health.
The perils of per capita GDP: No, Canada is not poorer than Alabama | Policy Options
Some business and political commentators cite a growing gap between the per capita GDP of Canada and the U.S. as evidence of Canada’s purported economic dysfunction. In Policy Options, economist and director of the Centre for Future Work Jim Stanford deconstructs this arbitrary and misleading statistic. In the second of a two-part analysis, he explains how Canada is not poorer than Alabama and how, despite lower economic growth per person, most Canadians earn more, live longer and fare better than Americans.
New Canadian Tax Observatory seeks visionary founding CEO
Social Capital Partners and other funders announce a new, non-partisan, nonprofit Canadian organization to lead an informed national conversation on the links between taxation, economic fairness and a thriving democracy. The Canadian Tax Observatory is seeking a visionary leader who can shape and grow a permanent, influential Canadian institution connected to global networks identifying better, more effective ways to achieve tax fairness.
Watch the video: New ideas for a democratic economy | DemocracyXChange 2025
What kind of economy do we want for Canada—one that prioritizes growth and productivity, at any cost? Or one that focuses on greater shared prosperity? Watch the April 5th recording of SCP CEO Matthew Mendelsohn and an expert panel discussing "New Ideas for a Democratic Economy" at DemocracyXchange 2025.
As Canada prepares for disruption and sacrifice, whose side are our leaders on?
In this election, Canadians are looking for a leader who will stand up to economic threats from our mercurial and adversarial neighbour. But how, Matthew Mendelsohn asks, will the ideas on offer help workers, regular people, not-for-profits and smaller and medium-sized businesses transition to the emerging new world order? Yes, Canada needs economic growth, but it needs to be the kind that enriches working Canadians, not just not just large financial and corporate interests.
Policy ideas that meet this moment can come from anywhere—even LinkedIn
From fighter jets to TikTok, nothing is off the table when Canadians talk about how best to counter Trump's economic assault on Canada. SCP brings you some creative, crowdsourced policy ideas gathered by our Chair Jon Shell on a recent LinkedIn post. More evidence that new voices entering the policy discussion will help us get through the current crisis and emerge in a more hopeful place.
