Canada is a land of averaging out. The United States is a land of extremes, something I never really understood until I visited our neighbor. We have Harvard University, but we also have inner-city school districts with 50 percent dropout rates. We have the most billionaires, but our economic inequality more closely resembles the Third World than it does other industrialized nations. Canada’s middle class is No. 1 because we had a bummer of a decade, but unless we can solve our political and economic divisions, it’s likely to remain No. 1. It’s impossible for the U.S. to emulate Canada’s success, because Canadians deliberately adopt un-American policies, just to establish a distinct national identity. To quote a T-shirt I saw in the Sarnia Duty Free: “Canadian: An Unarmed American With Health Care.”
“There are a lot of reasons that Canada will do pretty well,” said Steve Lafleur of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy in Winnipeg. One is immigration, essential to a country with a below-replacement birthrate. American immigration policy is focused on controlling the flow from a much poorer nation on our border. Because of its geographic isolation, Canada is able to pick and choose who enters the country. “We’ve welcomed the best and the brightest. The closing of the American border is going to hurt in attracting the talent to build Fortune 500 companies.”
In 1904, Canadian Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier — the man whose face is on the $5 bill — made this prediction: “The nineteenth century was the century of the United States. I think we can claim that Canada will fill the twentieth century.”
He was only 100 years off.
http://www.salon.com/2014/05/31/ame...wealthiest_nation_on_earth/?source=newsletter
“There are a lot of reasons that Canada will do pretty well,” said Steve Lafleur of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy in Winnipeg. One is immigration, essential to a country with a below-replacement birthrate. American immigration policy is focused on controlling the flow from a much poorer nation on our border. Because of its geographic isolation, Canada is able to pick and choose who enters the country. “We’ve welcomed the best and the brightest. The closing of the American border is going to hurt in attracting the talent to build Fortune 500 companies.”
In 1904, Canadian Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier — the man whose face is on the $5 bill — made this prediction: “The nineteenth century was the century of the United States. I think we can claim that Canada will fill the twentieth century.”
He was only 100 years off.
http://www.salon.com/2014/05/31/ame...wealthiest_nation_on_earth/?source=newsletter
