Performance and Potential 2003–04: Defining the Canadian Advantage

This year’s report benchmarks Canada’s performance against the best countries in the world, and examines pressing policy issues that must be addressed in order for us to reach our national potential.

Document Highlights

Performance and Potential is Signal49 Research’s flagship publication. First published in 1996, its intent is to identify pressing issues that need to be addressed in order to maintain and improve Canadians’ high quality of life. This year, we “define the Canadian advantage,” the strengths that distinguish us as a competitive global player as we analyze our past year’s performance and assess our potential.

First, we benchmark Canada against the best countries in the world. This year’s analysis finds that our strength lies in the Economy, and our weakness in the Environment categories.

We then examine urgent policy issues, such as the Canada–U.S. income gap, our ageing population and the pressures it will place on the health care system, our foreign policy, and fiscal capacity to the year 2015 in an effort to help policy makers make tough but wise choices about areas of focus and priorities for public spending.