Canadian provinces trail behind U.S. states in economic freedom, a new report says, with some only besting Mexican states in all of North America. “Higher levels of economic freedom lead to more opportunity, more prosperity, greater economic growth, more investment and more jobs for Canadians,” Fred McMahon, co-author and resident fellow at Fraser Institute, said in a news release. The report, titled “Economic Freedom of North America 2021” (pdf), looks at the policies of individual jurisdictions in North America—including 10 Canadian provinces, 50 U.S. states, and 32 Mexican states—to see how supportive they were of economic freedom. The report defines economic freedom as “the ability of individuals to make their own economic decisions about what to buy, where to work, and whether to start a business.” To understand the situation in each individual jurisdiction, the authors measured 10 variables around the three areas of government spending, taxation, and labour market …