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What do you think is on the minds of most Canadians these days? You may not be surprised to learn that it’s the economy.

Some recent surveys shine a light on just how concerned Canadians are. A Leger poll published in September shows that nearly half of all Canadians are currently living paycheque to paycheque, while over a third go to bed every night worried that they might lose their job in the next year.

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Another poll conducted by Nanos found that issues like inflation, jobs and the state of the economy were among the top worries of a majority of Canadians.

Just last week, former Bank of Canada governor David Dodge issued a stern warning before the House of Commons finance committee. He told committee members that per capita real incomes in Canada have been falling and economic growth is feeble, while the cost of servicing our national debt has been steadily rising.

Dodge said the government had to make some tough choices and added that “governments cannot borrow their way” out of the problems our country faces.

One reason why our economy is in shambles is that we’ve racked up a massive national debt, which eats up more and more tax dollars that could have gone to increased health spending or tax cuts for low- and middle-income Canadians.

Every small business owner, farmer and household in Canada knows that if you spend more than you make, you’ll eventually end up in the ditch of misery.

Consider what happened to Greece just over a decade ago. The country paid a severe penalty when it was rescued from its debt crisis with one of the biggest financial bailouts in history. The country was forced to adopt a number of austerity measures, including drastic cuts to public services, higher taxes and reduced pensions for seniors.

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Here’s the problem: governments must manage the country, but their decisions are driven primarily by political reasoning. The result is that most countries, to a great extent, are managed by short-term political considerations. It’s what I call the Achilles’ heel of democracy.

What we need to do is find a way to counterbalance the political management of the country with some socioeconomic thinking. If we could find a way to do that, we could make government more effective.

A charter of economic rights and responsibilities is one of our best bets for injecting economic decision-making back into the way we manage this country’s affairs. Ideally, the Economic Charter would be enshrined in the Canadian Constitution and would therefore have real teeth.

To ensure a good standard of living and a robust economy, Canada needs to stop its downward spiral into debt. We need to reduce the size of our bloated bureaucracy. And we need to simplify our tax system to spark economic growth, put millions of Canadians back to work and share profits with Canadian workers.

The charter would contain three key responsibilities that would ensure our country is governed by sound economic principles rather than purely political calculations:

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1) reduce our national debt by five per cent per year for 20 years so that we will be debt-free within two decades; 2) shrink our swollen bureaucracy by reducing government overhead by five per cent per year over the next decade; and 3) simplify our tax system by making it black-and-white, clear-cut and fair, with no more loopholes and deductions for the rich and special interests.

These three actions alone would, in due course, greatly improve our country’s finances. In much the same way that our human rights and freedoms are designed to ensure a healthy and well-functioning democracy, an economic charter can similarly help create the conditions for a strong economy.

What’s more, an economic charter of rights would help place the country’s socioeconomic welfare and long-term national interests ahead of political considerations.

In the years ahead, countries like Canada that place political decision-making ahead of economic imperatives will suffer, while those that have an effective management system in place for dealing with national and global issues will prosper.

That, to me, is the strongest argument in favour of adopting an economic charter.

National Post

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