Despite what Canada’s nation hating extreme right would have you believe.
I don’t think you have to be extreme right wing to have legitimate concerns for the future of Canada. The country is literally on fire. Houses are over $1 million and health care is barely functioning.
I’d hate to see the other guys I guess.
Groceries are fucked, gasoline is fucked, interest rates are fucked, can’t buy a house, can’t buy a car (or probably shouldn’t right now), dollar is fucked, schools probably going on strike again, a Canadian team hasn’t won the Stanley cup in 30 years ……
Don’t forget the corrupt politicians who will never face any real consequences.
And what’s really fun is that despite the housing crisis, many home builders outside the big-3 city areas are running slow right now because regular people can’t qualify for housing. I’ve only been working 5-12 days a month for the last year, between a shortage of framers (many moved to Ontario in 2021 due to work slowing), shortage of materials, and now interest rates killing purchases.
We’re so fucked, and anyone in a position to fix things just refuses to. If you build public housing, prices drop and you get voted out by angry house owners. Don’t build houses, and both homelessness and living standards get so much worse, and you get voted out by angry poor folks.
This just tells me that you don’t know what fucked is.
Interest rates topped 21% , while mortgage rates topped 18% in 1981. Inflation was over 11% at the time. We’d just gone through two massive oil shocks, where the price of gasoline was almost double what we have now when adjusted for inflation, while cars struggled to get under 20L/100km and were rotted through by their third year.
Strikes were rampant, but so was high unemployment, at times topping 10%. A lot of industries just closed up shop, only accelerated as the Canada-US FTA came into effect.
By 1990, a lot of that had settled down due to the high interest rate treatment, but the accumulated debt of the Trudeau and Mulroney years had us facing a debt crisis just as we fell into a deep recession in 1991-92.
The average house price in the 80s was 3x the typical family’s annual income. Yes, 21% was high but had much smaller principals comapred to the 5%+ we have now when homes are at least 7x the typical family income.
Even worse in CCOL (Crazy Cost of Living) areas like Toronto or Vancouver. Vancouver needs a family income of over 225k to qualify for a mortgage on the average house price. This average house is not a dream home, you’re lucky if it’s 1200 SQ feet and in a safe neighborhood. Or within a 75 minute drive to work. Don’t even get me started on trying to buy a car today either.
I think what we need to do is not compare how fucked it was then, I don’t disagree that it was.
However it’s clearly fucked now and nobody’s doing anything to unfuck it.
Ya and my mom bought her house for $45k in 1980
I’m looking at 4 bedrooms right now for about $1.2m
See, that’s the thing. The 10 factors in the ranking include 1) Entrepreneurship, 2) “Open for Business”, 3) “Movers”, 4) Power, and 5) “Agility”, or a place that is ‘efficient in its actions, adopt and accept modern solutions’
So, like, half the factors are “how badly do you screw the environment and average non-capital-class citizen”
And in case you think I might be wrong about what they mean by “Movers”, the top 5 are the UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Saudia Arabia, and India.
Of COURSE our country, which is composed a bunch of oil, gas, and mining corps in a trenchcoat shaking hands with a couple of oligipolistic banks and telecoms will score well.
Look at the source: its a law firm who brings immigrants over to Canada. Of course they’re going to pump our tires. It helps them with business.
Where did you find the source link? When I clicked on the link it brings me to no specific article with no sources, just here:
No, but the extreme right call Canada a dictatorship, a third world country, a shithole, etc. Hell, the leader of the official opposition called our freely and fairly elected right of center milquetoast Prime Minister and his father, “Marxists.” It’s ridiculous. Literally worthy of ridicule.
Most of the people who are complaining have no frame of reference other than being brought up in the safe, warm busom of one of the best countries in the world.
It is scary. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t disagree that Canada is a great place to live. However, we can’t take that for granted.
Absolutely true. There are problems but they are first world problems and we really are very lucky to live here. I just bristle at hearing things like, “Canada is a dictatorship”, no it isn’t, “Canada is a third world country”, no it isn’t, “Justin Trudeau is a Marxist and so was his father”, ridiculous. Some people need a dose of perspective.
Yes. This is correct however making it more on fire which is what the extreme right want to do is not the way. The majority of provinces have had Conservative governments over the last 8 years, until we resolve that issue Canada isn’t going to get better anytime soon. People don’t realize that the provinces have way more involvement in their day to day lives than the federal government. Many of our issues can be fixed by the provinces but they literally choose to make things worse instead, pass the blame to the federal government and morons eat it up
Go Canada, but I think this might show how much more of a depressing state the rest of the world is in
As a Canadian expat, these sorts of surveys are an embarrassment. Canada is not that great. It has some good things going for it, but “second best in the world” is a laughable statement.
- The wealth disparity is terrible
- Nearly every inhabited patch of land is a suburban hellscape.
- The government is routinely dedicated to accomplishing as little as possible, especially on climate
- The fossil fuel lobby is embarrassingly strong
- The cost of living is extreme for many, with little effort to reign it in
- The country suffers from an inferiority complex in relation to the US of all places.
- The electoral system is broken
I mean, I love my country, but I’ve seen a lot of places that I’d rather live. The idea that we’re 2nd best compared to even half of the countries I’ve visited in the last 10 years is just silly.
I can really relate to this. I lived outside of Canada for 25 years. I recently-ish moved back to Canada and am totally blown away by things here. Life isn’t always amazing in any place you pick on the planet, but god damn, Canadians need to stop contemplating their collective belly button lint and focus on some of the massive issues that need attention.
Meanwhile my girlfriend just got back from travelling around Europe and all of those “superior” countries, and couldn’t wait to get home.
Said everyone was rude, taxis scammed her frequently, the public transit was pretty subpar with no other choice, the food was pretty mediocre, she had to be extra careful about pick pocketers, and lastly she said everyone stunk so bad from perfume that she had a constant headache.
Canada isn’t perfect, but it does have a ton going for it.
I’ve been to Europe many times, and my experience has been the total opposite of what your girlfriend describes.
Europe is huge. Don’t judge a whole continent for what your girlfriend experience is maybe one or two places.
That’s like saying that North America sucks because your girlfriend got mugged in Juarez, México.
I’ve had similar experiences in several cities in the UK, Austria, Paris, Amsterdam and even a trip out to the nurburgring To be frank, the friendliest Europe experience I’ve had was Kosovo but that was on business vs personal with the rest of them so I’m not sure that didn’t affect my experience in Kosovo.
I agree completely with what you’re saying. Living in a progressive state is a far different experience and we should avoid generalizations of countries without specific context and understanding.
Well she wasn’t in the nordic countries at least, public transport can be subpar but is almost always servicable and gets you anywhere (we have on-demand minibuses for rural areas), the only part that could apply is being seen as rude because we don’t greet every person within our field of view…
Sounds like Paris.
Paris is the reason I will never do a ‘Europe trip’ ever again. I was robbed, assaulted and the city reeks of piss. Fuck travel.
Sounds like your girlfriend did the typical North American thing of visiting “Europe” by hitting a bunch of major cities and sticking to the touristy centres.
- The Netherlands is gorgeous, quiet, and safe, but if you don’t wander further than one or two kilometres from Amsterdam Centraal, you’ll never see that. Rent a bike and ride through Haarlem or Utrecht if you want a proper experience.
- Brussels has some of the best food I’ve ever tasted, but you have to break away from the tourist traps first.
- Athens is an exciting, “young” city with ancient treasures literally on display in the subway stations. You’ll never see that if you just wander around the Parthenon. The food everywhere is great too, though the best spots are usually well outside the touristy areas.
- Paris has some really exciting stuff happening with cycling right now, and the view from Momatre is amazeballs. Yes, the locals can be rude, but fuck it, take the train and get out of the city!
Which brings me to the other important point: Europe is not just the (impressive) cities, but rather a continental patchwork of interconnected but distinct cultures. Have breakfast in a B&B in Arras before you trek out to see the Vimy memorial, then board a train and be in Nyon by dinnertime where you can sit on a clear blue lake and munch on baguette. Hop on the train again and you’re in Torino, Venice, or Florence which is just gorgeous. I had the best pizza in my life there in a dodgy little place at 1am.
Stay a few nights in Warsaw and take a stroll through the old city. Gobble some perogi in Krakow and then push yourself to visit Auschwitz. Then take the train across the now undefended border to Berlin where you can walk the path of the former wall, and the next night go for the best danishes in the world… in Denmark.
Seriously, your girlfriend is out to lunch if that’s her impression of “Europe”. You two need to take another trip and rethink your priorities.
That is sort of an assumption when talking about a list of the best countries.
United States is fifth.
Yeah, “best” is a rather vague metric, and in this case, simply bullshit
Hey the USA is a great place to live if you make good money. Not a great place to be poor though.
Pretty much. Most of the best Universities in the world. That most of it’s citizens could never afford to attend. Many of the best Hospitals and specialty clinics in the world. That again most of it’s people can’t use.
Most American’s are somewhere in the middle, and I’m sure the median household has more disposable income than most other first world countries, it’s just that the prosperity is so unevenly spread.
Granted, some would speculate that it is because of the unevenness that the US is so prosperous, but I would dispute that. I think the US could go a long long ways towards helping it’s less fortunate without compromising it’s prosperity.
How does it compare to canada? I legit have no idea. I just remember reading in a thread like 2 days ago how an american person moved to canada and one of the main complaints was how pay was less and housing was way more.
House prices are much more reasonable in the USA. Obviously it’s a huge country and it depends where you want to live, but in comparison house prices in Canada make no sense whatsoever.
Culturally, very similar. There are subtle differences. Americans are louder and more confident in general I think. Also way more business oriented. People in general seem less healthy but the disparity with Canada isn’t that big anymore. Wealth disparity is though. Way more very poor people, way more really rich people. In Canada I’m a top 1% earner. In the USA I’m not really even close.
The obvious major difference from Canada is health insurance. If it’s not covered by your employer (92% of Americans have coverage last I checked), I hope you have some disposable income to pay to pay for health insurance. That being said, taxes are usually way lower depending on which state you’re in, so you very well might come out ahead, even with copay and deductible. For reference, I had a global health insurance plan with Cigna. It had 1 mil USD coverage and max out of pocket per year for me was like 3 k USD. That was 205 USD/month. This didn’t cover general doctors visits, or anything related to that. It was basically for visits to the emergency room. So if you’re looking for coverage at the same level as Canada, you’re going to be paying more. I have heard from numerous sources that the health care in the USA is way better than in Canada–as long as you can pay for it.
These are broad generalizations. USA is a very diverse place. Of all places I’ve been in the world, USA is the most similar to Canada, and Australia probably comes second.
I’m about to shake your world. Ready?
What you believe doesn’t change reality. Your feelings don’t matter.
Sorry.
You believe it’s bullshit.
What you believe doesn’t change reality. The report is as the report is, the metrics are all there, and whether you believe it or not makes absolutely zero difference.
USA #5 and UK #9 lol
100%, otherwise it would be #1.
I mean, just yesterday there was an article from a French media company about how the US economy and GDP is now 80% larger than Europe’s. Link
The US is really high on this list though specifically due to economic reasons. Not social ones. Although strangely enough there is a bit of an odd section about the US being more adaptable to change than Canada or any other country, which I find kind of strange. Also, the US always ranks high because of the advanced medicine, technology and education. Whether it’s accessible to all or not is really mostly irrelevant to these surveys.
unadulterated economic growth and corporatism is not what makes a country great
