Rob Cutler

Quebec is 53rd out of 54. Among Canada's four biggest provinces and all 50 US states, only Mississippi has a lower GDP per person. That should bother every one of us. I moved back to Montreal three years ago. On purpose. It's one of the most unique places in the world to live. And I've never been anywhere with more entrepreneurs per square foot. Everyone I meet is building something. It's personal for me too. My family came to Quebec to escape the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. They got their start running small businesses. Quebec (and Canada) gave them a chance. Lindsay and I want our daughters, and their kids, to stay here and see what I see. But these numbers are hard to ignore (and insanely scary): - The average Quebecer's share of the economy is more than $5,500 a year smaller than the average Ontarian's. Last of Canada's four biggest provinces. - Every hour of work here produces about $22 less than the average of 19 advanced economies. In 1981, that gap was under $3. - Our businesses invest $11,455 less per worker in equipment, technology and software. Less investment means lower wages. - We start new businesses at a lower rate than Ontario and the rest of Canada. For more than 20 years straight. This isn't abstract. It's wages. Housing. Hospitals. Schools. We can't be in the bottom 10% economically and expect top 10% social services. Andrew Lutfy of Groupe Dynamite and Alain Bouchard, founder of Couche-Tard, just made this case in open letters in La Presse. They're right. Creating wealth is our job as entrepreneurs. And as Andrew put it, if the Habs finished near the bottom every year, nobody here would shrug. So why do we accept it with our economy? On October 5, whoever you vote for, ask them one question: what's your plan to make Quebec richer? It doesn't have to be this way. We can just choose ambition. We can just choose building. We can just choose to win.

Great WSJ piece on Alvin Segal. He started on a factory floor in Montreal and built Peerless into the largest men’s suit maker in North America. The reason he showed up in NAFTA: Peerless could bring Italian cloth into Canada duty-free, make the suits here, and sell them in the US. American factories paid a tariff on the same fabric. That advantage was big enough to hold up the whole deal for months. In public they called it the textile issue. The negotiators called it the Segal issue. I got to meet him early in my career. I was selling t-shirts. He was already one of the great Jewish Canadian entrepreneurs. An incredible builder. wsj.com/opinion/the-segal-is…

On Monday, Montreal city council votes on a motion to cut the city's ties with Israel. I am speaking up because this motion is dangerous for Montreal, and my reason has nothing to do with which side of that war you are on. My family arrived in Montreal in 1956 as refugees. This city gave us safety, dignity and the chance to build. That promise has drawn generations of immigrants here from every corner of the world. I am not going to debate a war on the other side of the world, and that is exactly the point. A municipal government has no jurisdiction over foreign policy. Cities do not end wars. But a motion like this lands right here at home. Jewish Montrealers are less than one percent of this city and the number one target of hate crimes. Those are police statistics, not opinions. Our synagogues and schools have been targeted, and families I know are scared in a way I have never seen. When city hall singles out one community's connection to a foreign conflict, it brings no peace anywhere. It brings fear here. Montreal has real emergencies. Housing. Homelessness. Infrastructure. That is the job. This city has been a safe haven for my family and so many others, and it must remain one for everyone. @SorayaMartinezF showed real leadership in June. Council should reject this motion on Monday.