The Washington Post on Canada

[Lallans]

I thought this article would be of interest to fellow Canadians and at least two other Xmarks members (Canadian diffidence combined with Canuckish ironic sense of humour showing here).


Canada is quietly surpassing the U.S. as the land of opportunity

By James A. Bacon

The Washington Times

6:29 p.m., Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Illustration: Canada and freedom

Unless the Winter Olympics are on television or someone is clubbing
baby seals, Americans don't pay much attention to what's happening in
Canada. It's as if we live in a house with a set of quiet, orderly
neighbors on one side and a bachelor pad with drunken parties, girls
in the hot tub and occasional gunshot eruptions on the other. To whom
would you pay more attention?

I dare say Americans could correctly name the president of Mexico
(Filipe Calderon) over the prime minister of Canada (Stephen Harper)
by a margin of 5-to-1. That's too bad. While we have every reason to
fear the disorder spilling over from our increasingly lawless neighbor
to the south, our well-mannered Canadian neighbors have pulled their
act together. We could learn a lot from them.

Look what's not happening in Canada. There is no real estate crisis.
There is no banking crisis. There is no unemployment crisis. There is
no sovereign debt crisis. Recent reports suggest that consumers are
loading up too much debt, but Canada shares that problem with nearly
every other country in the industrialized world.

Among the Group of Seven nations, which also include the United
States, France, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy, Canada's
economic activity has come the closest to returning to the
pre-recession peak. The country has recovered three-quarters of all
jobs it lost. TheInternational Monetary Fund estimates that Canada
will be the only country among the G-7 to have achieved a balanced
budget by 2015.

Now, instead of expanding Canada's welfare state, the conservative
government led by Mr. Harper is intent upon building the nation's
global competitiveness. Our friends in the Great White North cut their
corporate tax rate to 16.5 percent on Jan. 1 and will see it drop to
15 percent next year. That compares to the current U.S. corporate tax
rate of 35 percent.. That will give Canada the lowest corporate tax
rate among the G-7 nations and an eye-popping advantage for businesses
wondering whether to locate on the U.S. or Canadian side of the
border.

The last time Canadians really caught Americans' eyes was when prime
ministers such as Jean Chretien and Paul Martin, both leaders of the
Liberal Party, were proving uncooperative in the realm of foreign
policy. American media played up disagreements over the invasion of
Iraq and Canadian participation in the American National Missile
Defense Program, which made President George W. Bush look bad and
confirmed the narrative that his cowboy foreign policy had alienated
old friends around the world. By contrast, when Canadian soldiers
under the conservative government became active combatants in
Afghan-istan, the American media showed little interest.

But that's nothing new. Except to note how well or how poorly Canada's
national health care system was working, Americans have paid little
heed to news coming out of Ottawa. The titanic effort of both Canada's
liberal and conservative parties in the 1990s and 2000s to rein in
government spending largely escaped our notice. Nor did it ever occur
to anyone to wonder why, with our economies so closely entwined, U.S.
housing *****s were busting through the roof while Canadian houses
remained so sensible.

It turns out that Ottawa's housing policies and banking regulations
tempered the boom in real estate *****s. No tax deductions for
mortgage interest payments.. And get this: Buyers actually had to make
down payments on their houses. Because there was no real estate bust,
there was no banking crisis. (Indeed, healthy Canadian banks are
snapping up U.S. financial assets.) Despite the lack of public
policies geared toward stimulating homeownership, Canadian
homeownership was 68.4 percent in 2008. That would be a higher number
than in the United States, which was 67.4 percent in 2009.

Lesson to Americans: If you want affordable housing, stop promoting
policies to make it more "affordable."

Meanwhile, Canada has many of the same assets that Americans like to
brag about, such as an immigrant tradition that invites foreigners to
live and work in the country. On a per-capita basis, the rate of legal
immigration to Canada is comparable to that to the U.S. Settling in
world-class, creative cities like Toronto and Vancouver, foreigners
add immeasurably to the nation's wealth-creating capacity

Talented Canadians have long regarded the United States as the land of
opportunity. It may not be long before Americans see our northern
neighbor as the land of the future.

James A. Bacon is author of the book "Boomergeddon" (Oaklea Press,
2010) and publisher of the blog by the same name.

[Kilted Jeeper]

My wife and I actually have been discussing relocating to Canada at some point.

[xman]

A few years back I adapted a piece of literature for the stage intended to break some of the barriers which seemed to be growing between our two North American countries. In it was a scene describing the Canadian 'Revolution'. It is written in a character voice with some panache, but the details are all true. Articles like this remind me of this labour and I share it here now for your enjoyment.

Mr. Allyson:

In Toronto in 1837 a bunch of revolutionaries wanted to break the back of the ruling elite who were nothing but a bunch of idiots with no more talent than the ability to inherit money and power. The revolutionaries were organized, democratic and drunk, and they let William Lyon Mackenzie be their representative. Mackenzie was a newspaper editor and knew how to get the word out so they figured he was a good choice. I guess he must have been since there was a lot more going on in Quebec at the same time with a lot more people involved, but nobody but Quebec remembers any of it. All anybody talks about is the Mackenzie Rebellion.

After meeting for drinks at Montgomery’s Tavern on Yonge Street 8km north of Toronto, about seven or eight hundred farmers armed with muskets and pitchforks marched south to take over parliament, but were ambushed at College Street by Sheriff Jarvis and 27 men hiding in Mrs. Sharpe's vegetable garden. The drunk rebels all ran away. One guy died.

In the meantime came the war of 1812, during which Canadians sided with the British being still mostly British themselves. The Americans invaded Canada so Canada invaded the U.S., capturing considerable American territory, including Detroit City. We burned up the White House then too. That’s why it’s called the White House, because they had to paint it to hide all the scorch marks. It used to be pink before. … You’ve got Canada to thank for that. … They don’t tell you that in your history classes do they?

The American’s burned down most of Toronto ‘round about the same time so everything was even-Steven except it was called York then. They were looking for a new name so as not to confuse it with the old York but they couldn’t call it New York because that name was already taken. So they called it Toronto which is another native word for something or other.

The war gradually petered out into protracted negotiations when the opposing armies couldn’t find each other any more and the matter was finally settled after the Americans caved in and agreed to take back Detroit. The Canadians tried to get them to take Sarnia, too, but it didn’t stick.

[artificer]

A few years back I adapted a piece of literature for the stage intended to break some of the barriers which seemed to be growing between our two North American countries. In it was a scene describing the Canadian 'Revolution'. It is written in a character voice with some panache, but the details are all true. Articles like this remind me of this labour and I share it here now for your enjoyment.

Good stuff!

ith:

[BruceBC]

Shhhhhhh!!!!!! Don't tell anyone about how many good things there are up here. Being ignored has its advantages. Oh heck.. you are all invited over.

[dutchy kilted]

If it wasn't for that "Winter" thing I would move there in a heartbeat.

[jhockin]

If it wasn't for that "Winter" thing I would move there in a heartbeat.

Yah, winter here IS ALWAYS long and very very cold, with lots and lots of snow, from October to the end of April, at least; and heating an igloo is also tough - but our sled dogs, and reindeer DO help, with that.

[wingedferret]

Just a point: the article is from the Washington Times a much less respectable newspaper than the Washington Post. It is a much more politically motivated news outlet.

[Lallans]

Just a point: the article is from the Washington Times a much less respectable newspaper than the Washington Post. It is a much more politically motivated news outlet.

Yes a person on the left would say that, but a person on the right would say the converse. A person in the middle would say that both have a point of view.

Anyway, the FIRST Canadian revolution was in my home area of Quebec, a tiny place called Pike River which has now been wiped off the map with a french name (St Paul de Veronne, one of several I believe). The first white settlers there came up Lake Champlain from New York and Vermont after the American revolution, being refugee Loyalists, and built cabins and felled trees. The British sent down a contingent of soldiers from Montreal and told them that the area was reserved for the Indians and that they would have to move again, to a place called Cataraqui (now Kingston Ontario). The settlers, however (and this is only according to some accounts, most Loyalists descendants and Canadian gun haters being mutually horrified by the story) all quietly assembled with their muskets and squirrel rifles and suggested that if the soldiers required that, they had better go back to Montreal for more men. The soldiers said they would, and marched off- in the end, the British, fearing another revolt, changed their policy and the area was renamed the Eastern Townships and deeded to Loyalists (Quebec has also wiped the Eastern Townships off the map by renaming it from the french equivalent to something else that I refuse to repeat.) It's the historical equivalent of ethnic cleansing.

[Biathlonman]

It was a nice piece - little to dispute.

I've been into the US twice recently and clearly you're going though a bad patch, which is painful to witness. But never underestimate the inventiveness, energy, resourcefulness and creativity of the USA - you still do many things better than we do up here - though few Canadians will admit to that. I lived in the US for many years and am instantly comfortable there. There are not many countries you can do that in. The US is the first choice for immigrants everywhere - and despite its current temporary economic problems remains a country of hope and unbridled opportunity.