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Among the first words in Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s recent budget speech were “Today, we begin to revitalize the economy.” A worthy goal, although the Liberals evidently hope that their increased spending (largely for current consumption) will do the trick. It won’t. Whatever one thinks of the merits of all the budget’s individual initiatives, economic growth will be largely unaffected.

If the government truly wants to revitalize the economy, it should address some of Canada’s structural problems and increase our overall productivity. The list of policy options to do this is long, but some of the lowest-hanging fruit is freer trade.

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Trade barriers aren’t mere nuisances. They do significant damage to our economy

The Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Canada-EU free trade deal are important initiatives, to be sure, but there’s a Canada-sized hole in our approach to freer trade, with much more to do right here at home.

Roughly $165 billion of goods and nearly $200 billion of services are traded within Canada, between provinces — that’s roughly one-fifth of Canada’s economy. Big as these flows are, they could be larger.