Two obstacles to growth, glacial approval of mega-projects and that old millstone, interprovincial barriers, won't be so easy to overcome

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It’s good that more Canadians are talking about economic growth and how to restore it. International shaming helps, too. The Economist recently asked: “Why is Canada’s economy falling behind America’s?” We’ve gone from being just richer than Montana to just poorer than Alabama. Standard-issue anti-southern bigotry makes that sting more than the relatively modest five-state fall it actually represents. Alabama is the fourth-poorest state in the United States, Montana the ninth, but Alabama says slavery and segregation while Montana means mountains and the Marlboro Man. Most of us would take Montana.

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The Economist says our problems are that: higher interest rates bit harder here, Americans are over their post-COVID goods-buying binge and the services they’re now interested in are local and therefore harder for us to sell them, and our oil industry has been growing more slowly than theirs. Combine that with a U.S. “tech boom that has largely eluded Canada” and, well, here we are, y’all, honorary Alabamians! Care for some grits with that maple syrup?

Though talking about growth is now itself a growth industry that mainly benefits growth grifters willing to take money from governments that are desperate to........

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