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The quip of the week goes to Jack Mintz, an academic at the University of Calgary and the dean of Canadian tax wonks.

“Canada is becoming the Austin Powers of economies — increasingly passé and rapidly losing its mojo,” Mintz wrote in these pages on July 25 while pleading with Finance Minister Bill Morneau to cut taxes on corporate income.

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Funny. And like Mike Myers’s groovy British spy, over the top.

There is reason for concern: the Bank of Canada, the International Monetary Fund, and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development all say the Canadian economy is less competitive than it could be. That’s been true for years, but only recently has the problem become acute. The uncertain future of the North American Free Trade Agreement has exposed how little Canada has done to find markets outside the United States. And President Donald Trump’s business-tax cuts eliminated one of Canada’s most important comparative advantages, leaving it with nothing to offset worries over excessive electricity prices, relatively higher wages, and chronically weak productivity rates.