23-June-2026
Open any media app or YouTube channel, and it hits us in the face. Disruption, volatility and uncertainty swirl around us. We worry about wars raging in Europe, the Middle East and beyond. We fret over trade negotiations and the imposition of punishing tariffs. We toss and turn about artificial intelligence and social media dooming us all.
In the midst of all the chaos lies an overwhelming desire for stability. Most people can handle the idea of change. Yet it’s the speed and direction of the change that is making us anxious.
Stability.
What is in our control to create a stable, healthy economy?
The most important element is political stability. This doesn’t mean governments don’t change and new political parties never rise to power. In fact, a regular change in government is healthy. Nothing encourages entitlement, laziness and corruption in government more than one political party in power for decades on end.
Political stability means generally predictable policies. Businesses loathe not knowing what the rules of the game will be. Wild swings in policy direction are often hated more than the policies themselves. This is why Scandinavian countries – despite being some of the most highly-taxed, highly-regulated in the world – are also the most stable.
The grand-daddy of all political instability is the possibility of separation. In Canada, two provinces are currently entertaining separatist sentiments. And while neither province is yet anywhere close to actually separating, the perceived threat is already doing irreparable damage. (The separatist advocates will dismiss this as “fear-mongering” – but stating something that is unpleasant yet true isn’t fear-mongering. It’s fact.)
Another pre-requisite for a stable and healthy economy is a stable and healthy labour force. This has two prongs to it: 1) educated and highly trained, and 2) physically and mentally healthy.
The first of these comes back to education. Without a strong, well-funded and accessible education system, an economy will lack the talent and training it needs to compete globally. Both K-12 education and post-secondary education are vitally important. As funding for these erodes, so too will the caliber of workers that businesses hire.
The physical and mental health of workers is no less important. If you’re ill, you can’t work. And if you’re waiting months and months for treatment for things like cancer, you’re simply not going to be able to perform at your best. If you’re dealing with ageing parents or a sick child, and you can’t access the help and care they need, you won’t be doing your best work.
Finally, an economy that is too dependent on a singular industry is likely to suffer instability. There are endless examples of towns, cities and entire regions that have been too dependent on industries such as tourism and natural resources. The most stable economies tend to have greater diversity. Yet creating that diversity is often difficult. There’s no magic wand to wave. And the dominant industry (eg; oil and gas) often create conditions that work against efforts to diversity, especially when wages are kept prohibitively high.
Yet we must also note that a “stable” economy is not always a “vibrant, productive or wealthy” economy. If given the choice, most of us would pick vibrant and wealthy over stable. Stable is not particularly attractive if it means the economy is consistently stagnant and underperforming.
A vibrant and rapidly growing economy is easier to attain: slash taxes to nothing, deregulate everything, swing open the doors to unfettered businesses and let the good times roll. But then, be prepared for the social disorder, environmental catastrophes, cultural collapse and physical sickness that will quickly follow.
A balance between stable (i.e., consistent, steady, healthy) and vibrant (i.e., rapidly-growing, productive, wealthy) is optimal. The wisdom to achieve it, however, is more elusive.
