The Economic Comeback

For decades, Quebec was the economic engine of Canada - a place of builders, dreamers, and global ambition. Then something changed. Montreal lost its edge, businesses fled, and red tape took over. Today, a province that once built Olympic stadiums, world expos, and international brands struggles under bureaucracy, political division, and public debt.But what if Quebec’s best days aren’t behind it - but ahead?In The Economic Comeback, Montreal entrepreneur and author Gary Charles begins with a simple but often ignored premise: you can’t fix an economy if you don’t understand how it was built in the first place. He revisits Quebec’s era of builders, risk-takers, and ambition - and shows how forgetting that history helped produce today’s stagnation.Structured across five parts, The Economic Comeback turns to Montreal, the province’s economic engine, examining how governance, infrastructure, housing, and language politics shape outcomes across the entire region. It then looks forward, exploring how artificial intelligence, energy policy, and climate realities will determine competitiveness, before addressing the human foundations of prosperity - health, education, productivity, and burnout - and closing with pragmatic proposals for renewal.With wit and precision, The Economic Comeback connects public health to economic strength, local governance to competitiveness, and culture to long-term prosperity. It is both diagnosis and prescription - a call to modernize institutions, empower citizens, and restore a province that still has all the ingredients to lead again.Inside you’ll discover:• Why Montreal’s decline wasn’t inevitable - and how it can be reversed• The link between health, productivity, and economic growth• How outdated policies on food, infrastructure, education, and regulation are costing billions• Real-world examples of cities and countries that reversed decline• A pragmatic roadmap for unlocking Quebec’s economic potentialThe Economic Comeback isn’t just a critique of what went wrong - it’s a plan for what comes next.