Main Content

Everybody’s Business: How to Ensure Canadian Prosperity through the 21st Century

April 4, 2023

Toronto – A new book argues that it’s time to make the business of the Canadian economy “Everybody’s Business.”  Every generation of Canadians wants to pass on an even better version of Canada to the next. But in 1967, Canada was the world’s ninth largest economy; today it is sixteenth. In terms of income per person, we’ve fallen from third to fifteenth. What kind of Canada are we really leaving our children? How do we avoid falling further behind in the twenty-first century economy?

Everybody’s Business: How to Ensure Canadian Prosperity through the 21st Century, published by Sutherland House Books, is a passionate manifesto for Canadian renewal. Authors and business leaders Dany Assaf, Walid Hejazi, and Joe Manget draw on interviews with over 100 thought leaders, politicians, CEOs, union leaders to craft a new way of thinking about Canada’s national opportunities. Now that technology has democratized the tools of modern productivity, they argue, the country must shift its focus from tired old industrial strategies and protectionist policies to nurturing individual talent. All the resources of government and business should be concentrated on unleashing the enormous potential of Canada’s spectacularly diverse, highly-educated, and supremely motivated citizens. Only by betting on the productivity and potential of the Canadian people can we leave our children with a nation and an economy of which we can all be proud.

Dany Assaf is an author and globally recognized lawyer with deep and broad international business experience advising and helping businesses grow worldwide. He specializes in competition and foreign investment law and policy having worked on some of the largest and most complex global and Canadian mergers and investigations over the last 25 years. His international business experience includes opening the first offices for a major Canadian law firm in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. He also serves on the boards of Unity Health, Canadian Race Relations Foundation, and Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.

Walid Hejazi is a Professor of International Business, and Economic Analysis and Policy, at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. He is Academic Director of Rotman Executive Programs, a Fellow of the Michael Lee-Chin Family Institute for Corporate Citizenship, and member of the Board of Directors of the David & Sharon Johnston Centre for Corporate Governance Innovation. His research focuses on the development of strategies that enhance the ability of companies to compete in domestic and global marketplaces.

Joe Manget is currently Chair and CEO of EHN Canada, the country’s largest provider of mental health and addiction services. He holds board positions with MedCurrent Corporation (Chair); Leap/Pecaut Centre for Social Impact (co-founder); New Start Foundation for Mental Health and Addiction (co-founder) as well as chairing the Health Sector Audit Committee for the province of Ontario, which has purview over the spending of the Ministries of Health and Long Term Care. He started his career as an engineer at IBM Canada (now Celestica), moved to management consulting, ultimately running BCG Canada and heading up the BCG global Operations practice area.

Advance Praise

“With optimism and a sense of purpose, Everybody’s Business reminds us of what Canada can be:  inclusive and prosperous, and always doing better. Based on hundreds of interviews, it presents a kind of road map to help us find our way to a better tomorrow.” – Amanda Lang, Journalist and Author

“A must-read book on why Canada has not met productivity and innovation expectations despite being blessed with the resources and talents required to take advantage of the gains offered in the twenty-first century. As the authors remind us, we can realize a prosperous Canada but only with significant increases to investments to our digital infrastructure, improved policy coherence, clean energy, and research and development of emerging technologies. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is here and this book pushes Canadian policymakers, business people, and citizens alike — yes you! — to seize the impending opportunities.”  -- Bessma Momani, Professor, University of Waterloo

“This book is a very well-written and accessible discussion of the economic challenges facing Canada, and how all Canadians can join the conversation and participate in shaping Canada’s future prosperity. An excellent and informative read for all policymakers and all Canadians alike.” – George Georgopoulos, Associate Professor, York University.

The Rotman School of Management is part of the University of Toronto, a global centre of research and teaching excellence at the heart of Canada’s commercial capital. Rotman is a catalyst for transformative learning, insights and public engagement, bringing together diverse views and initiatives around a defining purpose: to create value for business and society. For more information, visit www.rotman.utoronto.ca.

-30-

For more information:

Ken McGuffin
Manager, Media Relations
Rotman School of Management
University of Toronto
416-946-3818
mcguffin@rotman.utoronto.ca