In this study, Professor Easton points out that although Canadians spend tens of billions of dollars for education, there is little to ensure that good teaching is rewarded and bad teaching is penalized. Higher costs are built into the current public teacher salary bill as an aging work-force is paid almost exclusively on the basis of the teacher's education and experience. As a result, the educational consumer and tax-payer face rising per student costs with no corresponding assurance of rising educational quality.

One of the major economic developments in Canada during the 1980s has been the emergence of a significantly higher unemployment rate in Canada than in the United States. By the end of 1985 the rate in the United States had dropped to a bit over 7 percent, almost identical to the rate at the peak of the previous business cycle expansion in mid-1981. In Canada, on the other hand, the rate was about 10 percent, well above the 7 percent in the first half of 1981. This difference in the unemployment rate was the greatest divergence since the labour force survey was initiated four decades ago.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the factual evidence on economic growth since 1973, the 1981-82 recession, and high unemployment in Canada compared to the United States, compared with the longer-term experience in both countries.