Pathways to Ontario’s Knowledge Economy
Richard Florida, Shade Shutters, & Greg Spencer Ontario, like many jurisdictions, is currently facing major economic upheaval due to rapid advances in technologies, increasing open borders, and shifting work … Continue reading
Main Street LRT will help preserve Brampton’s heritage, not destroy it
I grew up in Brampton not far from Main Street where the new LRT is proposed to be built. As the fifth generation of my family to live in Brampton … 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
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
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
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 
Is the Toronto area ready for renewed regional governance?
Below is an except from an op-ed I wrote for the Toronto Star’s special edition on innovation. A recent article in The New York Times praised the former Metro … Continue reading →