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The headline statistics from Statistics Canada’s first release of income data from the 2016 census were moderately good news: median real incomes rose by just more than 10 per cent between 2005 and 2015. (The actual number depends on which income is measured — before or after taxes — and whether you look at individuals or households.) This may be even better than good news, since 2005 to 2015 excludes the first few years of the oil boom in the 2000s, and includes the sharp recession in 2008 and 2009.

Of course, as many were quick to point out, the statistics do not reveal uniformly good news. Incomes grew more slowly in Ontario than in other provinces, and according to some measures, median incomes in cities like London and Windsor actually declined during this decade.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau often speaks about the importance of the benefits of economic growth being broadly shared: social cohesion is harder to maintain if pockets of society are left in poverty while the rest prospers. But it’s a mistake to start from that unobjectionable point and conclude that economic growth rates should always be uniform.