Envisioning a Flourishing Canada
A flourishing Canada is one in which economic and social systems are organized to support human dignity – the capacity to live autonomously, form and sustain meaningful connections, and recover from inevitable setbacks with resilience. Flourishing is not about comfort or equal outcomes, but about capability.
When the Measure Becomes the Goal
While widespread agreement now exists that GDP is an inadequate measure of national well-being, efforts to move beyond it have repeatedly stalled. This is not simply a technical problem of measurement, but a deeper failure of alignment between our values, our metrics, and the systems they shape. When GDP remains the dominant lens, it quietly becomes the goal of the economy which distorts incentives and rewards activity regardless of whether it strengthens people’s lives or erodes human dignity.
What is an Economy For?
An economy is an instrument, not an end in itself. Its purpose is to foster the flourishing of the people it serves. Flourishing must therefore function as both the goal and the measure of economic and social success.
This requires a lens that recognizes autonomy, connection, and resilience as the essential capabilities through which dignity is exercised and meaning is made in everyday life.
Why Flourishing Has Stalled
A central reason flourishing has stalled lies in the structure of modern competition. Advanced economies have increasingly organized education, work, and social life around tournament-style competition and the pursuit of positional goods. These zero-sum dynamics generate wasteful arms races, chronic pressure, and the mass production of “losers,” even as aggregate wealth rises.
In such a context, success is defined by rank rather than by capability, and dignity becomes contingent rather than inherent.
Three Capabilities That Make Flourishing Possible
Autonomy:
Connection:
Connection:
The ability to form and act on one's own preferences.
Connection:
Connection:
Connection:
The capacity to belong, cooperate, and sustain relationships.
Resilience:
Connection:
The ability to recover, learn from, and continue after inevitable failure.
– The Missing Link –
– The Missing Link –
– The Missing Link –
– The Missing Link –
Policy must focus not only on entitlements and outcomes, but on cultivating the internal and external capacities that allow people to exercise their dignity in practice.