Boasting numerous resources sufficient for successful economic development, Canada is a country with free market economy that experiences more government intervention than that in the United States, but les that the majority of European nations. Traditionally, the country had a lower per capita GDP as compared to its southern neighbor, yet somewhat higher that large European economies. During the last decade, the Canadian economics has experienced rapid growth with significant government surpluses on federal level and low unemployment. Over the past five years, the Canadian dollar has risen in value against the majority of major currencies.

Among the basic constituents of the Canadian economics determining its successful functioning, are natural resources, energy, agriculture, manufacturing and service sector. The latter is recognized as vast and multifaceted in Canada, employing over three quarters of Canadian workers and accounting for 2/3 of GDP. Some 12% of Canadians are employed in the retail sector, regarded as the largest employer within the country. It should be mentioned that the retail industry is concentrated mainly in small number of chain stores organized in large shopping malls.

The emergence of big-box stores, like Future Shop and Wal-Mart, in the recent years has led to reduced number of workers in this sector. Follow the retail sector are business services employing a smaller percentage of Canadians, including communications industries, real estate and financial services. This sector of the Canadian economics has been growing in recent years and is concentrated in the major urban centers of Canada. The health and education sectors are considered as two of the largest in Canada, in spite of being to a great extent under the purview of the government.

Currently the country boasts a well-developed high-tech industry and entertainment industry with content for local and international consumption. Another sector of increasing importance is tourism, as a great number of international visitors come to Canada from the United States.

One of the major components of the Canadian economics is energy, with the largest and most important gas and oil resources being concentrated in Alberta, and also present in Saskatchewan and British Columbia. The extensive Athabasca Tar Sands provide Canada with the second largest reserves of oil in the world. In Ontario, Manitoba, British Columbia and Quebec hydroelectric power is a cheap source of energy. Due to this fact, Canada is recognized as the highest per capita energy consumer worldwide. In the early 1980s, the Canadian laws related to the National Energy Policy attempted to force some provinces to sell low priced oil to eastern parts of Canada.

However, this policy has proven divisive and lost its significance when oil prices collapsed in the 1980s. Among the most controversial aspects of the Canada - United States Free Trade Agreement was a promise of the former not to charge the United States more for energy than fellow Canadians.