challenges for government policy: How can we reap the benefits of these
new developments while ensuring that our citizens continue to have
satisfying work at thriving businesses?
Rising Protectionism
Canada is a small nation that relies significantly on trade with the rest of
the world for its prosperity. We sell our lumber and oil and beef to the
world, as we do our engineering and legal and financial services. As
consumers we buy a wide variety of products from beyond our borders,
including coffee, leather shoes, and fine wine; our firms also buy many
inputs from abroad, including machine tools, software, and specialized
raw materials. In short, international trade has long been crucial to
Canada’s economic prosperity. In recent years, however, many countries
have been becoming more “protectionist” in their policies—meaning that
they are less willing to open their domestic markets to other countries’
products. Past experience across many countries and over many years has
shown that protectionism tends to lead to less international trade and
also less global production and income. Small, trade-reliant countries like
Canada have much to fear from rising protectionism elsewhere.
Growing Income Inequality
In Canada and most other developed countries, the past three decades
have seen a rise in income inequality. Particularly dramatic has been the
increase in the share of national income going to the richest 1 percent of