Canada has a secret economic advantage that could lead to greater prosperity

financialpost.com:

This year’s World Congress of Neurology is being hosted in Canada from October 15-19, and its tagline, “Brain Health is our Greatest Wealth,” recognizes that brain health — which includes improved brain performance, enhanced creativity, better treatments for neurological disorders and greater psychological resilience — is the pathway to greater prosperity.

Heightened awareness about brain health could not come at a more opportune time. Canada is facing perhaps the biggest challenges to its long-term prosperity since the end of the Second World War. A trend decline in productivity and economic growth, inflation, an aging population, the re-emergence of protectionist industrial policies in the United States and elsewhere, and the realignment of complex supply chains will challenge Canada’s ability to generate the levels of wealth to which its citizens have become accustomed.

However, thanks to a former finance minister, Canada has an under-appreciated advantage, as we were among the first to recognize that mental health is an important variable in economic competitiveness.

Micheal H. Wilson, who also served as ambassador to the U.S., played a key role in highlighting the importance of brain health. He championed mental health at a time when conversations about subjects such as depression were conducted in the shadows. His approach was to integrate mental and neurological health and bring business and science together in support of brain health. That led to the formulation of the “brain capital” concept in 2011, the sum of brain health and brain skills. The goal was to convince business leaders that the brains of their workers were their most valuable assets, and by failing to address brain health issues in the workplace