Policy on the Frontier – The State of Canada’s Economy with William Watson

Canada faces a myriad of serious economic challenges.  On May 18th, the Canadian consumer price inflation hit a three-decade high, adding pressure on the Bank of Canada to continue with […]
Published on June 17, 2022

Canada faces a myriad of serious economic challenges.  On May 18th, the Canadian consumer price inflation hit a three-decade high, adding pressure on the Bank of Canada to continue with major interest rate increases.  This at a time  of record level government deficits and historically high debt levels.  At the same time, Canada’s dismal track records on productivity, regulations and energy policy appear to be setting the stage for economic recession and decline.  Witness a recent OECD document shows Canada dead last in per capita GDP growth for the coming decades.

In this complex and dynamic state of affairs, how do we make sense of the state of our economy?  Do we indeed face a recession and even a decline in our standard of living?  What are Canada’s economic opportunities and decisions to build a bright economic future?  From bitcoin to ESG to the Governor of the Bank of Canada, our country faces many strategic decisions.

Be sure to join Policy on the Frontier for this engaging session with well-known economist and editor of the Financial Post comment page, William Watson.  Dr. Watson will share his take on current economic topics and the choices Canada faces.

Our Guest: William Watson

Born and raised in Montreal and educated at McGill and Yale, William Watson taught at McGill from 1977 to 2017. He was Chair of Economics from 2005-10 and Acting Chair in 2016-17. He is best known for his twice-weekly columns in the Financial Post (where he has written since 1980). From 1998-2002 he edited Policy Options politiques, the magazine of Montreal’s Institute for Research on Public Policy, where he is currently a Senior Research Fellow. He is also a Senior Fellow at Vancouver’s Fraser Institute, where he blogs weekly. While on a leave from McGill in 1997-8 he served as editorial pages editor of the Ottawa Citizen. He won the 1989 National Magazine Awards gold medal for humour for a piece in Saturday Night magazine about a trip to New York. His book Globalization and the Meaning of Canadian Life, published by the University of Toronto Press, was runner-up for the Donner Prize for the best book on Canadian public

policy of 1998. His latest book, The Inequality Trap: Fighting Capitalism instead of Poverty, also from UTPress, was shortlisted for the National Business Book Award 2016.

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