Toward Prosperity: The Transformation of Atlantic Canada's Economy

by David Campbell, Don Mills

272 pages, Paperback

Published May 13, 2025

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author with this name in the Goodreads database.

Reviews

[Carol McKnight · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone in the Atlantic Provinces should read this - it explains a lot. Growing up in the Maritimes, I knew we lived in the ‘poorer’ provinces, but I did not know why or what could be done about it. This book sets out very clearly the facts of no growth (population and economy) in the Atlantic Provinces since the 1950s, and why this has been a problem.
It shows the demographics of age, the many people living in rural areas, dependency on EI even when there are good jobs in the area, seasonal incomes, more public employers than private, “low” levels of entrepreneurship, highest tax rates in Canada - no wonder there was no growth. But PEI and NL both have positives, more so than NB and NS.

There are signs of improvement, maybe even a turnaround, if people and governments support significant change. The population has increased and the economy has done better in the last 5-8 years - but problems of old and insufficient infrastructure and (in my opinion) NIMBY attitudes could stifle long-term and significant change. I will be watching how things go in the next 10-15 years.

[Peter Moreira · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Campbell and Don Mills have renewed the economic policy debate with their superb new book Toward Prosperity: The Transformation of Atlantic Canada's Economy. It sets out a credible roadmap for improving the region's economy. They support their thesis with a trove of economic data. A perfect book for Atlantic Canadian policy wonks and business people. Here's my full review: https://shorturl.at/SCj9W

[Daniel Macgregor · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book covers a lot of distance in 200 pages, and while there are some genuinely good ideas (such as the inter-provincial equity proposal), the wide scope lets whole centuries of context slip through. The analysis and solutions come off as over-simplistic at times (which can be both a boon and a bane), but for a region chronically overlooked, Toward Prosperity is a fulsome introduction to the economic state and potential solutions to Atlantic Canada's plights.