In my decades of work as a senior executive in business and technology, I have never been so concerned about the Canadian economy as I am today. Our great country is getting deeper into debt while public spending is allocated to the wrong priorities.

Instead of increasing opportunities for young people, caring for our most vulnerable and investing in long-term innovation, the Harper Conservatives are borrowing money for unneeded prisons when crime is at an all-time low and sinking money into pork-barrel projects that don’t pass the smell test of legitimate need.

The current government is also quietly making international trade deals that aren’t in Canada’s best interest and running a temporary foreign workers’ program that is both unfair and bad for long-term job prospects, the tax base and government revenues.

The Harper government’s approach to the economy is mostly ideological – allow brute market forces to decide everything – except when it’s opportunistic and political, played strictly to buy votes.

Instead, the priority should be on ensuring that the economy generates enough wealth to support a healthy, prosperous population with a bright future. That means a balanced approach to encourage economic activity and to protect our resource base and the environment.

I want to be your Liberal candidate for Toronto Centre so that I can contribute my experience and my convictions to building an economy that will improve your quality of life, and that of our future generation.