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Excerpted from a speech by Maxime Bernier, candidate for leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada, delivered at the Canadian Club, Sept. 20, 2016

As professionals, I’m sure you are, like me, troubled by all the current talk about advanced economies, like Canada, being stuck in so-called “secular stagnation.” Many people believe we are in a situation where economic growth is going to be chronically slow, around one per cent instead of the four per cent we were used to until not so long ago.

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According to the private sector economists, economic growth in Canada this year will only be 1.3 per cent. That means: no new jobs and no salary increase for Canadians.

Our societies are aging fast. Great technological innovations are said to have come to an end. Business investment is down, presumably because of a lack of profitable opportunities. Productivity growth is extremely slow.

Over the past 15 years, multifactor productivity growth in Canada has stood above two per cent only one year—in 2000. It was below one per cent, often negative, in 10 of those 15 years.