Construction workers build a new tramway lane in Barcelona in July, 2023. Spain is famous for building public projects at a much lower cost than other Western countries.PAU BARRENA/AFP/Getty Images

Canada’s federal cabinet ought to hold a fact-finding retreat in Madrid.

I doubt they’d complain about a few days in Spain’s sunny capital. And there are a number of urgent reasons why Ottawa should take notes from our Iberian friends.

Spain, with a population and economy of roughly comparable size to Canada’s, was identified by the International Monetary Fund as “the world’s fastest growing advanced economy,” with 2024 and 2025 economic-growth numbers (of 3.5 and a projected 2.9 per cent) exceeding those of the United States or Western Europe. It is also the major European economy with the smallest deficit, and its lowest unemployment rates since 2007.

Spain got here from a starting point, only a few years ago, resembling Canada’s current position – that is, stuck in the growth and productivity doldrums. Pedro Sánchez, the economist who serves as Spain’s centre-left Prime Minister, managed this bleeding-to-leading transition using a toolkit strikingly similar to the one Prime Minister Mark Carney currently has before him.

Analysts agree that smart policy is at the centre of Spain’s transformation. Specifically: Big, bold public investments in infrastructure, export growth and green-energy transition, and substantial use of immigration to drive growth and consumption and to........

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