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Dear John,
'Economic freedom' is the ability of individuals to make their own economic decisions – including what to buy, where to work, and whether to start a business.
It is fundamental to prosperity: higher levels of economic freedom lead to more opportunity, more prosperity, greater economic growth, more investment and jobs.
Unfortunately, Canadian provinces continue to lag behind U.S. states in the world’s premier ranking of economic freedom in North America.
Our Economic Freedom of North America study measures government spending, taxation and labour market restrictions in 50 U.S. states, 32 Mexican states, and 10 Canadian provinces. It uses data from 2018 (the latest year of available comparable data).
Alberta was in the top spot just a few years ago – but is now tied for 9th place. British Columbia is the second-highest ranked province (27th) followed by Ontario (45th), Saskatchewan (47th), Manitoba (52nd) and Quebec (55th). Sadly, the four Atlantic provinces have the lowest levels of economic freedom among all provinces and U.S. states, only outranking the Mexican states.
Check out the entire study here, and be sure to share the results with your friends and colleagues.
Stay safe,
Niels Veldhuis
President
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