To measure our country's performance and potential, the Conference Board has conducted its 10th annual ranking of Canada in comparison with 23 other OECD countries.

The overall message of this year's report is that Canada's performance is slipping—we are losing ground or stalling in areas crucial for our international competitiveness. While Canada is once ranked in the top 12 in all six performance categories, we gained ground in only two: Environment and Education and Skills. We lost ground in four categories: Economy, Innovation, Health, and Society. The drop from 6th to 12th in the Economy rankings is of particular concern because a successful economy provides the financial resources with which a country can build success in all other areas.

We cannot afford to be slipping now, given the challenges we will face in the coming years: our aging and shrinking population, disease pandemics and other security threats, and competition from the exploding Asian markets.