Despite what Canada’s nation hating extreme right would have you believe.
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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.
Amen, brother
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.
I am construction industry adjacent and business has been really bad
You forgot healthcare :(
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.
So don’t move to Vancouver or the GTA? Simple solution. I’m from the Maritimes. We’d always been told by Upper Canada and the West to “move to where the work is.” Fair enough. How about moving to where you can afford to live?
Dad bought a house in 1979 that was $79k, in Moncton. In Toronto it would have been much more at the time. That’s about $310k in today’s money. Median income in 1979 was the equivalent of roughly $60k today. Dad made good money, had done well on previous houses, and Mum was an ER nurse, they could swing it. But a lot of people were really struggling. Especially those people who saw their fixed rate mortgage jump from 14% to almost 22%.
I’d generally agree, but unfortunately, we work in very specialized fields. The options in Canada for this work are Toronto or Vancouver. Otherwise its the USA and visas are a pain. We did that for a few years and while cheaper, that’s a big fucking nope now.
Ya and my mom bought her house for $45k in 1980
I’m looking at 4 bedrooms right now for about $1.2m
Dunno where she found a house for $45k ($160k in today’s money) in 1980. Dad bought a new, three bedroom, split-level in Moncton in 1979 for $79k ($310k in today’s money). Moncton at the time was really struggling with the recession. Prices in the GTA were much higher.
Housing prices were rapidly increasing in the GTA, and did so through the 1980s, finally flatlining at the end of the decade, before taking off again around 2000.
Also, prime mortgage rates at the time hit 16% in 1980 and peaked at 21.75% in 1981.
I just sold a 2500 sq ft, 4 bedroom house in Regina for a bit under $390k a few years ago. My current place in Winnipeg is a 1000 sq ft, two bedroom, two bathroom unit. and it was $260ish.
I purposely avoided transfers to the GTA or Greater Vancouver. There is no way I’d give up my free time and disposable income to be that miserable.
I know. Back in the mid-80s a house cost almost $60,000! They had it so hard!
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.
This comment needs to be higher up.
This kind of article isn’t news, it’s marketing.
Putting us in 2nd is like 9/10 dentists
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:
Entrepreneurship
How the hell did we rank well then? Our productivity is very poor, and our economy is trading houses. The amount of capital flooding the housing market over the last few years is crazy.
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
Tbh for most people I know there’s just no trust in the gov period
For the perspective, a house in the top ranked country cost CAD 1.5 million.
Go Canada, but I think this might show how much more of a depressing state the rest of the world is in
That’s what it looks like from Finland as well. Often in high rankings, it’s just horrible to know what others are going through
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.
I have lived all over the world and I agree. It’s one of the better places in the world but it’s not as great as a lot of Canadians believe
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.
Out of interest, which places in Europe?
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.
I spent this summer in France and I had a great time. I will concede that France has a piss problem though.
What parts of Europe would that be?
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.
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First world problems.
That is sort of an assumption when talking about a list of the best countries.
The best countries in the world are at the top of the list. There are 204 countries on the list.
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.
Most of the best Universities in the world.
Not sure if the world agrees. You certainly have a lot of universities in the country. Also not sure about best hospitals…
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.
Relevance?
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.
If I find a rival study then will it no longer be true?
Best country Winner: South Africa Second: New Zealand Third: Maldives
What if we use the happiness index?
I think you can see how it’s subjective even if you present the metrics that you used
Not even close to the same metrics but if it makes your fee fees happy then you do you.
So what makes how you (USNews) weigh metrics the correct one?
It agrees with him, duh.
Sorry…you’ve bored me. There are YouTube videos calling to me.
Unironic use of “fee fees”. Asshole spotted. Blocking protocol engaged.
Yay! You’ll never respond to anything else that I ever write!
Fee fees? That’s Sarah Palin talk
I saw some right wing idiot say it and thought it was funny. A delicate snowflake blocked me so I won’t have to listen to his incessant whining about my comments anymore so I call that a win.
USA #5 and UK #9 lol
us is #5 because of propoganda.
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
Historically what made a country great was its gold reserves and its military might… so like… 90% there? That said I agree that corporations are not what we want and that economic growth should be made to grow at a maintained level rather than unrealistic growth.
Historically, what made countries great was their ability to provide rising standards of living to its citizens. That often results in large gold reserves and military might, but plenty of places with gold and bullets were bad places to live.
But the rich wasn’t us to believe those metrics, so we can ignore how living standards are dropping, indicating that Capitalism has failed to provide a better lifestyle.
what made a country great was its gold reserves and its military might
So by that logic, Russia and China are right there with USA as the greatest countries? Interesting.
Oh man, that was a good laugh! I’d consider Ukraine more with us on the military might considering the ass they’re kicking. Switzerland can match us on the gold/economic, but I’m not sure how confident I’d be it isn’t stolen, nazi, or Russian (but I can’t say the same about the US’ either). China will probably come close to matching our military might if only because of their population advantage. India is going to be a massive player here shortly (militarily speaking), if not already.
The problem, and I know it’s what people don’t like to hear, is that the US quite literally cannot be beaten economically or militarily. Seriously, read that article I linked, it’s incredible the economic output the US generates. France has the same economy size as Idaho, a state famous for its potatoes and nothing else.
The best military logistics in the world and logistics is what wins wars. The biggest and most powerful economy in the world, even China and Germany have a stuttering economy (and pre-covid I would have pegged them as being on par). The biggest influence regarding culture, the next closest would maybe be Britain, but when it’s English media the US will still dominate. China has some cultural sway, but only within their own borders and even they consume American media like crazy.
It’s hard to say who out there could play a role in being as powerful as the US, and an empire decline is bound to happen. It’s not immune.
I would however put the early Soviet Union for sure up there with the US. They had some amazing technological innovations. The only problem was that a communist government got into an economic war with a capitalist government and that was never going to work well. Slow and steady growth like the Cubans is more the way to do it.
Truly remarkable lol I was not expecting the answer to be “yes, but…” and a compliment for Cuba
No body said it was the best country - for a citizen - no no no. Its the best country for giant corporations!
Tired of wood, wetlands, and natives being of the way of your accident waiting to happen pipe line? Go Canada!
Don’t want to commit actual genocide on your native population? Rather isolate them in small communities then poison them with water unfit for even the most hearty of a animals? Go Canada!
Your wealthy friends want to make billions buying and selling green protected land? Go Ontario!
Are the homeless an eye sore to your wealthy friends visiting? Don’t worry, here in Canada we have 6 months of winter to clean up those unwanted eye sores.
Its the best country for giant corporations!
So, like, pieces of paper?
By what mechanism was the paper the giant corporation is written on able to confer the list?
So who are you voting for next election?
As someone from the USA it’s sad to see our friend to the north make the same mistakes that helped get us to the sad state we are in ourselves.
Annoyingly, the rightwingnut constituency in your country has been increasingly exporting their bad ideas.
You guys can refuse the shipments but you don’t.
We’re trying, but our efforts are being overwhelmed.
At least your country actually has real business competition and your per capita GDP is going up instead of down
An asteroid in the outer solar system. If we vote hard enough to have it win in our broken FPTP system. it’ll alter course and end this horrible timeline.
If we had a proportional representation system we’d have the majority of the House of Commons controlled through by an agreement agreement between the Liberals and the NDP. Exactly the situation we have now except the seats would be directly owned by the parties instead of representing communities.
Proportional representation is the preferred system for people that understand politics via spreadsheets while completely ignoring power dynamics.
Give me some STV! MMP seems to work well for NZ¹. Electoral reform won’t fix everything, but it will allow a path for more adaptability in politics at the very least.
¹ I’m also okay with AV (instant runoff). Is it perfect? No, but let not the perfect be the enemy of the good. AV at least overcomes the spoiler effect, and would allow more diversity of parties. AV does tend to encourage coalitions formed around a centrist party with broad support (probably the Liberals in Canadian federal politics) as they will tend to be the 2nd or 3rd pick, but the balance of other parties in any resulting coalition would tend to drive things. Plus, without the spoiler effect of FPTP there can always be a competitor for the centre. Basically. FPTP is the worst, and although I have my preferences, less bad is still improvement. Also, AV can always serve as a palate cleanser for full STV.
We need an electoral system that doesn’t take power from a large party that most people voted for and give it to a tiny fringe party that almost none voted for. Look at what’s happening in Israel. The most extreme party to get any seats is calling the shots because they hold the balance of power. Wouldn’t Canada be fun if the christofascists or tankies were calling the shots?
I have been to a lot of first world countries for extended periods as a digital nomad. Canada is not even in the top 5 imo
As a digital nomad, I’m guessing you would have been to relatively low CoL places like Bali, Thailand, maybe Eastern Europe or LatAm. You have to remember that your experience as someone from the global north, earning in a strong currency is very different from a local person there.
Not that i disagree with you that rankings are flawed but by the same token, Canada /is/ in the top 5 for many people from low standard-of-living countries
Typically you’d be right but as a DN I actually spent most of my time in North America and western Europe—mostly in countries people would compare Canada with (UK, France, Spain, Norway, Germany, USA, Australia, etc.). I never went to Asia or South America as a DN. Actually the only time I stepped foot in LatAm was in Panama for a month this past winter.
It really changed my perspective on Canada. I don’t think it’s a bad country at all but I don’t hold it in as high regard as I once did. Every country has its strengths and weaknesses. What those are is different for everyone. Canada is squandering immense potential in my opinion. If it wasn’t for family, there are several places in the USA I would consider living long term instead.
Fair!
Which one is your favorite county?
I’m not sure I really have a favourite. Every country has good and bad. There are some parts of the USA (ex. Colorado, Washington) that I really like. But also the USA has its own issues that we all know about. France is beautiful but there can be civil unrest, taxes are high, etc. I spent some time in Singapore and it’s very safe, clean, great food, but it’s also stale and far from a lot of places. Culture comes into play a lot. I can recognize that somewhere is a great place to live but it’s not for me. I didn’t grow up there, I don’t speak the language, etc. In Europe I feel most “at home” in the Netherlands.
Different things matter to different people. So saying things like “this country is #2” are meaningless. Countries I personally would rank above Canada: USA, Netherlands, Norway, Australia, New Zealand.
as a digital nomad
I don’t know how they measured this at US News either, but the digital nomad experience is pretty different from the local experience. By digital nomad standards certain third world cities are great.
What you believe doesn’t change reality.
What U.S. News believes doesn’t change reality either. These rankings are and always have been subjective BS
Whatever you have to tell yourself, dude.
If this is the second “as good as it gets” place in the world … omg
What’s your frame of reference? I mean, you live in the second best country in the world and you’re complaining.
The cities are completely unaffordable.
All of the parties are in favour of using TFW programs to suppress workers rights and not doing anything about blatantly illegal anti-worker activities.The Trudeau government is welcoming immigrants at a rate of at least 3% of the population per year(not the problem), but not spending a penny on infrastructure to support that kind of increase(a big problem)
Carbon offset credits are a complete joke.
The ISPs are in charge of the body that is supposed to regulate and rein them in.
BC is being devastated by climate change and Ottawa isn’t lifting a damn finger on it.
The cities are completely unaffordable.
Our generation’s: Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.
Except in this case it’s that the average rent for a 1 bedroom apartment in the GVRD requires a yearly earning of over 120k a year.
Glad to hear its economy can support its 2,642,825 million (and growing!) residents.
Extra-judicial killings? Industrialized rape? Daily mass murders? Famine?
You listed a bunch of first world problems. It’s hard to imagine what hardship truly is when you live in the second best country in the world.
Extra-judicial killings?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_brutality_against_Indigenous_Canadians
Industrialized rape?
https://www.ctvnews.ca/w5/sexual-abuse-in-the-military-soldiers-speak-of-systemic-problems-in-a-toxic-culture-1.5654309
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/opp-officer-sexual-assault-jason-redmond-1.6797839
https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/newfoundland-police-officer-found-guilty-of-on-duty-rape-once-again-seeking-bail-1.6494845
https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/quebec-investigation-alleged-abuse-aboriginal-women-1.3577527Daily mass murders?
Setting an awfully low bar with this one.
Famine?
Any year now, given climate change.
It’s hard to imagine what hardship truly is when you live in the second best country in the world.
Your own privilege within the country is just dripping from your posts.
Canada also kept slaves 150 years ago.
How many of the people pissing and moaning on Lemmy have experienced any of those things?
Its all relative, and clearly you aren’t having the hardships that a lot of our country is currently enduring.
I have been places that makes me appreciate Canada for what it truly is.
I have perspective.
No - you’re a well off white guy who doesn’t experience the bad parts of Canada.
Broadly - sure - Canada is awesome.
Sprinkle in some nuance and the pimples are obvious if you open your eyes.There is always room for improvement.
I’m a socialist who had spent time in truly horrible places. I have perspective. Canada has problems, yes, but they are first world problems.
My frame of reference is how my quality of life is less than it was in like 2016. When I’m sure Canada ranked lower than #2
Canada was ranked second in 2016.
Damn, these rankings really are scary.
Like I said, if I live in the second best country to live in … the world really sucks
Canada is the 12th safest country in the world. The US is 129th.
We have it very good here.
Canada is the 12th safest country in the world. The US is 129th.
Can we just stop comparing ourselves to the States for once? Our Literally Fascist Neighbours don’t warrant any consideration when discussing the quality of life here.
We have it very good here.
Which segments of the population are you choosing to speak for here, exactly?
The people who complain about Canada often hold the US up as an example of what Canada should be because they can have guns, have hate speech, and are free to discriminate against people they hate
We have it very good here.
In some aspects sure. Try being at the beginning of your adult life right now. Housing, the cost of food/goods, a lethargic/apathetic government. Those things should be enough evidence to say that we aren’t the second best country in the world.
Those things should be enough evidence to say that we aren’t the second best country in the world.
And yet…they aren’t. Canada ranks very high in quality of life, personal and religious freedom, and many other measures. There are problems, yes, but they are problems effecting the second best country in the world to live in. People living other places are dying to come here.
Perspective.
Thanks Trudeau. Can’t get us to #1.
But Poilievre says Canada is the worst place on earth!
He also says that it milquetoast right of center Prime Minister is a Marxist. He’s a liar but the people who believe his nonsense are fucking idiots.
Through a survey of over 17,000 people from 36 countries
Oh, so subjectively “better”? What about objective measurements, like how many people are a paycheck away from losing it all? Or the cost of living? Or worker rights?
Specifically, Canada was chosen as the:
- 2nd best country to start a career
- 4th best country for education
- 7th best country for studying abroad
- 7th best country for raising kids
- 2nd best country for racial equality
- 6th best country for women
- 6th best country for comfortable retirement
- 6th most transparent country
- 2nd best country to headquarter a corporation
Imagine a sports team coming in 6th place for most tournaments, and never winning first in any of them, yet they win an award for being the 2nd best team in the league… makes no sense to me.
2nd out of 204.
Would you love your child less if they came in 2nd? I sure as fuck wouldn’t.
I had to click through to see the ratings in each category, and they all seemed reasonable to me aside from Canada’s low rank for “Adventure”. Eco tourism is huge in Canada. People come from all over the world to Canada for outdoor adventure.
Maybe I’m just not a traveler, but that ranking seemed odd to me.
Then again, I don’t live in the continuous urban sprawl of Southern Ontario all along the 401 and up the 400. I guess if you live in Toronto, you’re like 2+ hours from eco tourism destinations, while, in Europe, 2 hours is enough to have the option to go to several other countries.
I wonder if the ecotourism being seasonal knocks off prospective points. You can only comfortably travel the cannuck wilds for ~5 months out of the year, if that.
Maybe east of the rockies. In BC I have friends that go camping all year long. Our mountains are open all year for activities (skiing, snowboarding, etc. in the winter mountain bike, hike, etc. in the summer). Heck, you can ski, bike, surf all in one day on Vancouver Island if you’re so inclined, though it’ll be a long ass day.
It might be the second best, but I feel like that’s more of a statement on the rest of the world failing in specific areas than on Canada excelling.
We’re a B- student in every class. Sure, it’s not the highest score and in every subject we’re usually surpassed by other countries, but most other countries don’t have a B- average due to major issues of some kind.
Canada has been in the top two or three for a very long time. Someone challenged that the rest of the world was falling and Canada was probably way lower in 2016. I went back and checked and we were number 2 in 2016 as well.
Pretty much. They’re complaining about housing prices and inflation just as much or more in New Zealand, Germany and the UK.
Canada probably is a B- but has the advantage of being next door to the largest economy in the world. Canada is also vast with abundant resources. We were always going to be a prosperous country as long as we can avoid too much corruption (Russia is a more vast country with more abundant resources, but…)
I still think it’s useful to look at other countries that may even be beneath us (according to this list) and borrow liberally from where they exceed us. We are doing about as well as anyone else, but we can do better.
They’d be first if it weren’t for the baby vomit covered airline seats!
Right?
I was on a flight three years ago where a guy was violently ill. I was in the last row beside the door to the tail head. He went past me with a very full air sickness bag. As we were descending the flight attendant was making more and more frantic announcements that everyone needed to return to their seats so we could land I finally leaned out of my seat, made hard eye contact, and made the sign language sign for vomiting.
Her shoulders fell, she hung up the microphone, inbuilt her seatbelt, stormed to the back of the plane and pounced on the door shouting, "Get back in your seat so we can land. Now! "
I didn’t actually read this… because I’m actually supposed to be working right now. After a bit of digging i found their methodology. someone want to look it over and see how legitimate it is? https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/methodology
A set of 73 country attributes
an online survey […] total of 17,195 individuals from 36 countries. Of the respondents, 8,267 were informed elites, 4,622 were business decision-makers and 7,402 were considered general public (43%). Survey participants were given a random subset of countries and country attributes to consider: about half of the attributes for roughly a third of the countries.
Participants assessed whether they associated an attribute with a nation. The more a country was perceived to exemplify a certain characteristic in relation to the average, the higher that country’s attribute score.
Attributes were grouped into 10 thematic subrankings. Subranking scores for each country were determined by averaging the scores that country received in each of the attributes comprising that subranking.
To determine the weight each subranking score had in the overall Best Countries score, using correlation with GDP(PPP) per capita […] a stronger relationship weighted more heavily: Entrepreneurship (14.13%), Quality of Life (14.12%), Agility (14.02%), Social Purpose (12.83%), Movers (11.54%), Cultural Influence (10.44%), Open for Business (9.43%), Adventure (5.37%), Power (5.00%), Heritage (3.13%).
The math sounds alright. My main gripe would be that it’s survey-based (so highly affected by biased perceptions) and that an attribute impact in the overall ranking is dictated by its correlation with wealth, which is kinda arbitrary - and bleak. Great things like “friendly, fun, good for tourism, pleasant climate, scenic” (Adventure) and “culturally accessible, has a rich history, has great food, many cultural attractions, many geographical attractions” (Heritage) are heavily discounted.
To be honest, the only category of attributes I care about in this methodology are in the realm of Quality of Life (Canada #3), but I still find it wildly arbitrary that “good job market” is QoL but things like “pleasant climate” and “good food” are not. Anyway, the top 20 in QoL are the usual suspects, so I don’t really care about minor changes in relative position between these - lol at US #23.
Mission accepted.
Edit: Nevermind, they block me. :(
