As we head into a new year, it’s worth taking stock of Ontario’s economy, particularly in light of the potential consequences of a second Trump presidency. It wasn’t long ago that Ontario was an economic engine in Canada and one of the country’s most prosperous provinces. But things have changed dramatically. Ontario’s economy has largely stalled, and the province has become an economic laggard.

Indeed, at the turn of the 21st century Ontario was a prosperous province and per-person GDP (an important metric of prosperity and living standards) was more than 10 per cent higher than the rest of the country, and the second-highest among the provinces.

However, as noted in a recent study published by the Fraser Institute, from 2000 to 2022 (the latest year of available comparable data), economic growth in the rest of Canada has been more than twice as fast as in Ont