Sunday, August 05, 2007

Ontario in decline! (Maybe.)

ontario-could-lose-20070803 According to this article in the National Post, some think-tank economist has decided Ontario's position is threatened.
In his analysis, Mr. Orr said that in the mid-1980s, Ontario's standard of living was 15% above the Canadian average, and for a time was briefly tied for first with Alberta in 1986 and 1987. But that has dropped, to roughly 9% above the national average in 2002 and only 7% last year. And it is set to fall farther, according to Global Insight's forecast, to 5.5% above average this year and only 4% by 2010.
The problem with this kind of argument is that Ontario is so large within the Canadian picture that it more or less defines the average.