Often when people talk of prosperity, they are thinking just about money. Money is a one aspect of prosperity, but only one. Prosperity also includes a robust job market where employment is available and opportunities for advancement abound, an employment environment where upward mobility is based on hard work and on the acquisition of formal and informal education and training, and where invention is encouraged. In a prosperous economy, individuals are able to innovate, creating new and better products, services, and ways of doing things. In short, a prosperous society is one that affords opportunities to everyone for personal and professional fulfilment. This book is about how best to achieve those goals.

The first section gives readers ten basic economic principles that we believe are essential for economic prosperity. Better understanding these principles can lead to a better understanding of the general principles that should guide government policy. The book’s second section describes seven institutions that are prerequisites for societies to advance and progress. They include the concrete rules, incentives, and laws that create the environment within which individuals and groups of people act within a society. The third section discusses fifteen prominent myths and commonly held misperceptions that often impede improvement. This last section aims to give readers greater clarity about many pressing issues facing Canada, some of which could be resolved were many of us not wedded to the myths discussed.

By teaching economic principles, explaining the institutional prerequisites for prosperity, and shattering economic myths, this book equips everyone with the intellectual tools needed to achieve a more prosperous Canada.