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
Blame the denominator, not the economy
Over the last couple of years, there have been countless articles warning of Canada’s poor economic performance. The mic drop has increasingly been Canada’s poor performance relative to peer countries on “GDP per capita,” with growth rankings used to draw a variety of sweeping, negative conclusions about Canada’s economy. SCP CEO Matthew Mendelsohn and Policy Director Dan Skilleter draw on economist and SCP Fellow Dr. Gillian Petit's new research to explain why GDP per capita is a deeply flawed measurement for evaluating rich countries - and is easily influenced by a variety of factors having little to do with economic performance or economic well-being.
Non-Permanent Residents and their impact on GDP per capita | Summary
New research by economist and SCP Fellow Gillian Petit estimates what Canada’s GDP per capita would have been over the past decade if Canada had kept our temporary resident numbers stable. She also estimates the expected impact on GDP per capita in the coming years due strictly to planned reductions in Canada's intake of non-permanent residents. Among key findings: Canada’s GDP per capita is misleading and should not be used as if it were the sole indicator of economic well-being. Plus, if we had maintained our temporary resident numbers at two percent of the population in recent years, Canada’s GDP per capita would look much more like our peer countries: a little bit ahead of countries like Germany, the United Kingdom and Australia and a little bit lower than countries like Belgium, Sweden and France.
Non-Permanent Residents and their impact on GDP per capita | Report
New research by economist and SCP Fellow Gillian Petit estimates what Canada’s GDP per capita would have been over the past decade if Canada had kept our temporary resident numbers stable. She also estimates the expected impact on GDP per capita in the coming years due strictly to planned reductions in Canada's intake of non-permanent residents. Among key findings: Canada’s GDP per capita is misleading and should not be used as if it were the sole indicator of economic well-being. Plus, if we had maintained our temporary resident numbers at two percent of the population in recent years, Canada’s GDP per capita would look much more like our peer countries: a little bit ahead of countries like Germany, the United Kingdom and Australia and a little bit lower than countries like Belgium, Sweden and France.
Mark Carney’s economic agenda misses something vital | Toronto Star
Prime Minister Mark Carney's campaign focused on economic growth and sovereignty. He talked a lot about how Trump wants to "break us so he can own us," and yet, so far, details of an ownership agenda are pretty thin. The reality is that Canadians cannot be "masters in our own home" if the home is owned by a U.S. hedge fund. Broadly distributed, local Canadian ownership of our economy and our assets must be a central part of our economic growth strategy. In the Toronto Star, SCP CEO Matthew Mendelsohn writes that he sees some early, positive signs of such a plan coming from the federal government and spells out what a real ownership agenda that serves "the owners of Canada" would look like.
Sellers’ inflation is back on the horizon. We can stop it before working people pay the price.
Trade-war chaos and confusion are creating a perfect storm for sellers' inflation—when companies with market control choose to hike prices to gouge consumers and grow their profits when they have the chance. As SCP Fellow Kaylie Tiessen writes, this profit-led inflation often hides behind other drivers and can blindside us if we’re not watching closely. There are good reasons to accept some tariff-related price increases—elbows up, right? But she outlines three ways we can stop opportunistic sellers from using this trade chaos to mask their profiteering. We can stop powerful companies from exploiting confusion and weak oversight so working people don't pay the price while profits soar.
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.
A new middle-power alliance would give Canada leverage and Canadians hope
Canada should lead the world’s middle powers in a collective and overdue weaning from American primacy by establishing a grand new security and economic alliance. As SCP Chair Jon Shell argues in The Hill Times, ten countries including Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, the U.K., Spain, Japan, South Korea and the Netherlands, or the “Core 10," would amount to about the same GDP as the U.S., with significant natural resources, massive buying power - and significant leverage against American economic aggression.
The tariff war means a new normal for Hamilton businesses | Hamilton City Magazine
The wrecking ball that Donald Trump has taken to international trade has wounded relations between Hamilton businesses and their American suppliers and customers, reports Eugene Ellman in Hamilton City Magazine. Now, they’re looking east and west to replace traditional links to the south and pushing back. When Trump started pontificating about how Canada should become the 51st state and claiming the United States was subsidizing its northern neighbour, SCP Founder Bill Young and the team responded with Always Canada. Never 51 - part economic populism mixed with methodical policy-making, the series is devoted to the issues of wealth inequality and Canadian sovereignty.
As the federal government sets out to “build, baby, build,” do we want to own or be owned?
As our new government pursues growth and a nation-building agenda, we should remember this lesson from history: too often, we build and invest, only to sell off our assets and resources to the highest foreign bidder, leaving us economically vulnerable. In this moment of extreme peril, SCP CEO Matthew Mendelsohn asks how we should “build, baby, build” in a way that doesn’t merely accelerate the trends towards consolidation of wealth and deeper economic dependence. Canada has everything we need to emerge stronger from this period of geopolitical disruption if we put economic sovereignty and broad access to wealth-building at the heart of our agenda.
Mark Carney passed a tough test in Washington. He now faces an even tougher one at home | Toronto Star
We predicted that American investors would be looking to buy up Canadian businesses and assets, and that this would threaten our national security and economic sovereignty. Now Canada has to make a call on whether to kill Texas-based energy giant Sunoco's takeover of Parkland Corporation. In the Toronto Star, SCP CEO Matthew Mendelsohn and Chair Jon Shell ask: do we want to be owned by American billionaires, to work for them and have our wealth stripped away to pad bank accounts in New York and Dallas? If we really want Canada to remain ours, they argue, then we need to think and act like it.
