Creative Economy Employment in the US, Canada and the UK
I co-authored a report recently published by Nesta that compares the ‘creative economy’ employment in the US, UK and Canada. You can read the highlights and download the report here. … Continue reading
Cluster Atlas of Canada
Report Highlights This report identifies where the major industrial clusters exist within Canada and provides indicators of their relative performance. The purpose is to provide a comprehensive overview of the … Continue reading
The Spatial Scale of Innovation
This report was commissioned by the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation. It mainly examines the geography of patenting activity in Ontario and the spatial relationships between co-inventors. The lead … Continue reading
The Changing Economic Structure of Canadian Cities
In 2012 Consider Canada commissioned Local IDEAs to prepare a series of reports on its 11 member city-regions. This set of profiles provide an account of how the structure of … Continue reading
The Sociocultural Dynamics of Creativity and Innovation
Executive Summary Innovation is key to Ontario’s future economic prosperity and competitiveness. The province’s innovative capacity is based on the skills and talents of its workers. The purpose of this … Continue reading
Benchmarking Canadian Cities in North America
In 2012 Consider Canada commissioned Local IDEAs to produce a benchmarking system for their 11 city-regions. The purpose was to identify the North American cities with the most similar economic … Continue reading
City-region Profiles
This post provides links to data profiles of Canadian city-regions. These profiles were produced for the Innovation System Research Network’s (ISRN) five-year study (2006 – 2010) of Creativity and Innovation … Continue reading
The Geography of Unemployment
This animation shows local levels of unemployment in Canada and the United States over a twenty year period culminating in the recession years at the end of the previous decade. It … Continue reading
The Creative Economy in Muskoka
Executive Summary Over the past decade, urban and rural communities in Canada and around the world have begun to encourage a creative economy as a mechanism to use local assets … Continue reading
Impact of the Arts in Huntsville
Executive Summary This report argues that arts & culture should be placed at the centre of economic development strategy for The Town Huntsville. While the direct impact of the arts … Continue reading
Anchor Firms and Clusters
Executive summary The main purpose of this report is to assess the relative impacts of industrial clusters and anchor firms on economic prosperity. Industrial clusters are known to provide economic … Continue reading
High Growth Firms and Clusters
Report Highlights Over half (55%) of all high growth firms are located within just 13 local clusters 58.3% of all aerospace HGFs are in just four clusters (Montreal, Winnipeg, Toronto, … Continue reading
Welcome to the Local IDEAs Blog
Welcome! The purpose of this blog is to provide an outlet for the work being done by Local IDEAs (Indicator Database for Economic Analysis) at the Munk School of Global … Continue reading
Local IDEAs 
ANALYSIS – Ontario’s Urban Election
If “all politics are local” and “its about the economy, stupid”, then elections are about economic geography. The Ontario election last week was no exception. The Liberal Party won a … Continue reading →