Obama and Harper: A Tale of Two Leaders
The American president gets accolades; the Canadian prime minister gets results.
Much has been made of President Obama’s being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The ground has been covered so many times by now that it looks like a CSI crime scene contaminated by too many eager cops. The various media are all agog, internet hits multiply by the hour, and the pundits keep weighing in as if there were no yesterday — as witness this very article. Yet, perhaps, there is still something to be said — and a little reiteration wouldn’t hurt either.
According to the left-leaning Oslo committee, Obama deserves the award for creating “a new climate in international politics.” Its chairman, Thorbjoern Jagland, is deeply impressed by the extent to which Obama has “captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future.” But, as has been pointed out by many commentators, Barack Obama has accomplished precisely nothing of any positive importance and those of his credentials as have been made public — of which there are decidedly few — indicate very little of substance in his resumé.
What is perhaps of equal interest is the fact that the president was nominated just a week and a half before the deadline, since a proposal must be submitted by February 1 and Obama’s inauguration took place on January 20. This doesn’t leave much time for even a paragon reformer endowed with magical abilities to effectuate anything of merit or consequence, which means the prize was awarded either proleptically — that is, in anticipation of future acts — or retroactively from the selection date in October, during the period of triage itself. It all seems somewhat fishy.
Be that as it may, when I contrast a know-nothing do-harmer like Obama with the prime minister of my own country, a principled and reliable politician who has defended the democratic tradition to the best of his ability and steered the country through the recent economic meltdown with reasonable firmness, who is naturally averse to bedding the media and wary of ingratiating himself with the public, and who possesses verifiable talents, I have no doubt that were Canada’s Stephen Harper president of the United States, it would find itself in a far more resilient position than it does now.
There is a powerful irony at work here. President Obama is well on his way to ruining the American economy and reducing the nation’s defensive posture before an increasingly threatening world. The evidence for so unflattering an assessment is bluntly undeniable, at least for those who have managed to resist hypnosis. Yet he is staunchly defended by the MSM, receives accolades from a vast and robust constituency of devoted supporters, including the Oslo bunch, and is crowned by a nimbus of invincibility. Prime Minister Harper, on the other hand, finds himself constantly struggling to maintain a minority government, faces the prospect of no-confidence motions against his administration and ad hoc coalitions of the disgruntled, and is regarded by the teeming number of leftist nannies in this country as “scary” and of nurturing a “secret agenda” — an agenda, be it said, which is transparently conservative and responsible. If there is a scary and secret agenda to be feared, it is not here.
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David Solway is a Canadian poet and essayist. He is the author of The Big Lie: On Terror, Antisemitism, and Identity, and is currently working on a sequel, Living in the Valley of Shmoon. His new book on Jewish and Israeli themes, Hear, O Israel!, has just been released by Mantua Books.
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40 Comments
1. RightwingHippieChick:“Its chairman, Thorbjoern Jagland, is deeply impressed by the extent to which Obama has “captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future.” But, as has been pointed out by many commentators, Barack Obama has accomplished precisely nothing of any positive importance and those of his credentials as have been made public — of which there are decidedly few — indicate very little of substance in his resumé.”
Obama hasn’t sold ‘deeds’ or ‘accomplishments’ at all, he sells hope and that is it, hope is all you’ll get. If he would achieve anything, then hope would no longer be necessary and thus be obsolete, and Obama would be just another politician who does not deliver…
Obama. Does what it says on the packet, no more, no less. Now with 100% more hope.
Oct 17, 2009 - 1:48 am 2. Adina Kutnicki, Israel:To put it as plainly as I know how – if I were not living in Israel now, if Obama were to remain
The One for the forseeable future, I would hightail it out of the US and move to Harper land any old day of the week, at least until US sanity was restored.
In my opinion the US (under its basic foundations) is far superior to Canada, but it has now strayed so far from its moorings it is barely a shadow of itself.
A great loss for the entire free world.
Oct 17, 2009 - 1:59 am 3. JL:David Solway:
“Harper has clearly understood, as Obama has not, that the problem is not the natural growth of Israeli settlements but Palestinian violence, corruption, mendacity, and intransigence.”
This is where I lost you. The fact that Palestinians are savages does not make settlements right. Your moral compass is of if you think any kind of settlements anywhere is OK.
Try replacing the words Israel and Palestinian with other names and see how it sounds. That would be your litmus test whether Israel have moral rights to settlements.
Here are some examples:
- the problem is not the natural growth of Serbian settlements but Bosnian violence, corruption, mendacity, and intransigence.
- the problem is not the natural growth of Russian settlements but Georgian violence, corruption, mendacity, and intransigence
How does that sound?
Oct 17, 2009 - 2:30 am 4. Tes:I like both presidents and both have appealing personality.
Oct 17, 2009 - 3:44 am 5. Gary Ogletree:As far the noble prize, I have no doubt in my mind that the committee selection of President Obama is the right choice and looked any other person at this moment of our time and found no one else who deserve better than President Obama. The world atmosphere is changing to the better. America is now among with friends in the world than enemies and that has to do with the right message by the President. Without this environment straighten the economy could not be restored.
Once we get the fully totalitarian ObamaCare, the Canadian Medical Plan will look pretty good, as tarnished as it if from provincial cuts. When I left Vancouver in ‘99, unemployment was 10% in BC and 4% down here. The gap is moving in the other direction now. I’m starting to miss even the grunge of East Hastings. You can can Canada Place from the bottom of Main Street.
Oct 17, 2009 - 3:52 am 6. Stephen Michael Kellat:Only one nit to pick here. President Obama is Head of State and Head of Government. Prime Minister Harper is Head of Government while Queen Elizabeth II is Head of State and is represented by her vice-roy Governor General Michaëlle Jean.
Otherwise, fabulous piece.
Oct 17, 2009 - 5:49 am 7. marc Malone:#1 HiphiphipHippieChick – 100% more hope. Hilarious! Buy domestic hope and change; get foreign policy hope and chage free! Only $19.95 + $6.95 S&H. We take all major credit cards!
Hmm, maybe that’s why there were so many odd amounts in Obama’s campaign records. They weren’t foreign donors. Those were Shipping and Handling charges!
#4 Tes – WTF? Seriously? W.T.F? I don’t cuss much, but… da-amn! Just plain too damned stupid to live! Don’t forget to breathe, girl. Jesus!
Oct 17, 2009 - 6:07 am 8. Tom Paine:JL (#3):
Your moral equivalence is beyond laughable (light-years beyond).
According to you, building houses (also known as settlements) is as bad as suicide bombs in restaurants.
You are a fool and will remain one until the end of time.
Oct 17, 2009 - 6:10 am 9. HalifaxCB:Good article, David. There’s many things to like about Harper; my favourite being that he generally just quietly goes about the business of being PM, and doesn’t spend a lot of time flapping his gums
What a lot of people don’t realize is that his political background is the (now defunct) Canadian Reform Party – which shared a lot with current American Tea Party movement, and that Harper himself is still very much a (small-c) conservative; he’s got a lot in common with Sarah Palin. He was often caricatured by the Canadian equivalent of the MSM (particularly the Canadian Liberal Propaganda machine, CBC) because of his religious commitment (he’s an evangelical Christian); portrayed as a hick rube (dropped out of a prestigious school, Toronto, to eventually get a masters in economics from Calgary); he’s the first PM since the 60’s who did not (gasp) attend law school; he’s even a bit of a hockey nut….
I guess what I’m getting at is that Harper as PM in Canada is (I think) pretty much a foretaste of what Americans would get if they elected Sarah Palin and supported similar common sense politicians locally. A few years in, the fears of the chattering classes look pretty ridiculous, Liberals are pretty much seen as a sad joke, and Harper’s support continues to grow.
It took Canada nearly 40 years to start undoing the damage done by the Left (via Trudeau – the Obama of the North) and it’s still got a long way to go; but Americans tend to be faster learners, so perhaps the US can start its recovery from Obama by 2012, with a little help from Saracuda and friends…
On a critical note, however, I must say Condi Rice is a better pianist. That’s part of the reason I’d love to see a Palin/Rice ticket in 2012
Oct 17, 2009 - 6:16 am 10. Andrew:I’m an American who, until late 2008, spent 7 of the preceding 11 years in Canada (Calgary and Ottawa.) I used to tell our friends that I wished Harper was the U.S. President, so vastly preferable to Bush and Obama was he.
Canada is in certain ways a lovely place. I traveled it from the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island to eastern Quebec and from the US border to the NW Territories.
However, let’s not get carried away. The reasons why my Canadian (PhD engineering professor) wife and I decided to settle in the US instead of Canada are structural ones that won’t change in Canada anytime soon, if ever.
First, there’s the absurd cost of goods and services. Americans take for granted the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution and the Uniform Commercial Code that grease the skids of what is the most efficient production and distribution system in the world. Canada’s provinces merrily maintain trade barriers, and the Feds facilitate oligopolies and outright monopolies, that impoverish consumers. Even in late 2007 and early 2008 when the C$ was stranger than par with the US$ everything was still at least 20% more expensive than in the US on a comparable basis.
My favorite example of this is when I bought a new hockey helmet in 2006. I ended up buying a famous Canadian brand manufactured not more than 200 miles from my home in Ontario. I could find this most cheaply in Canada (in retail stores or online) for US$140 (incl taxes). I bought the same helmet from a California big-box sports retailer’s Web site and shipped it to my brother’s house in upstate NY for US$80.
Think about that. It was cheaper to buy a product produced near my home, shipped across the continent and into another country to California, warehoused, packed and shipped back across the continent again, than to buy it down the street from my house in its country of origin. And it was 57% CHEAPER. This wasn’t some fire sale. It was a current model of a product.
That’s life in Canada, folks. Every day. These sorts of pricing disparities have been amply documented by Teh Conference Board, McKinsey and others in extensive studies about why the Canadian economy is so inefficient and uncompetitive.
It’s a country with 80% the productivity level of the US and a 20-40% higher cost of living. At the margin that’s a huge hit to one’s standard of living and it’s all due to sloppiness, inefficiency and political reward of rent-seeking behavior.
I won’t even get into the health-care nightmare (don’t kid yourself that a two-tier system will flourish within the next generation given how brainwashed Canadians are about the nanny state.) Having seen the innards and operations of a top flight Canadian hospital when our child was born I prayed every day thereafter that we wouldn’t get sick before we were able to leave the country. The system is simply macabre.
I won’t get into the endemic political apathy. Or the terrible deficiencies of the parliamentary system that create a political class structurally unresponsive to constituents. Or the ludicrously illiberal and left-wing state-run media. Or the hostile atmosphere toward individual liberty and free speech. Or the mediocrity in schools and universities that state monopoly and enforced egalitarianism fosters. Or the willfully self-destructive bending over backwards to encourage immigrants (which make up an incredibly high proportion of young Canadians these days) to maintain their entirely illiberal and medieval cultural practices after becoming citizens. Or the fact that in order to become a citizen one must pledge fealty to the Queen of England (she’s the head of state in Canada.) Yes, the constitution in Canada was an act of the British parliament until 1982. And even today Canada is ruled by the Queen, however disinterestedly. Incredible.
I haven’t even had my coffee yet this morning so I’ll stop here before I get rolling. Why did we leave Canada for the US? Because life, liberty and opportunity flourish here. Still. Even at 10% unemployment. Even in the face of a statist such as Obama bent on destroying what has made America flourish. Even with the worst political class we have had since the late 19th Century, if ever, in our country. This, too, will pass. All of it. And even if it didn’t, our quality of life is dramatically higher here than anywhere in Canada.
(BTW, the Canadian economy AVERAGED 10% unemployment for the 90s and into this decade.)
Canada is, in the words of one of its most astute native critics, a vast land of uniformed and unexamined opinion. I am thankful every day to have liberated my wife and child from its clutches.
I encourage all lefties enamored with the idea that the tentacles of the state extend into as many facets of life as possible to emigrate and sample it for themselves. In return, I’d love to wake up with President Harper convening a conference with Prime Minister Obama. That is truly beneficial trade.
Oct 17, 2009 - 6:38 am 11. Sebastian Shaw:President Obama is obsessed with intentions rather than results; however, his results thus far are a disaster: 10% unemployment, Chrysler & GM are in the RED, & his constant campaigns are getting old. Obama is running against Americans opposed to his Communist ObamaCare & his vaunted popularity bubble has burst into a thousand tiny pieces. President Obama wants the spotlight, accolades, & the rewards without the work to govern but dictate. Thanks to President Obama, Senator Harry Reid, & Nancy Pelosi, the backlash is still growing in intensity & there’s going to be a bloodbath in 2010.
President Obama knows it & is willing to throw the Congressional Democrats over the bus. Are the Congressional Democrats really so stupid to go along with the teleprompter king? I’m not so sure. More Republicans are winning in Democrat districts as a result of the Obama overreach…
President Obama is getting his desired results, but they are not good for the country. He’s just a power mad fool.
Oct 17, 2009 - 6:58 am 12. Albert:… dignity and honour on the international stage? Harper? I think his chronic inability to make it, or make it on time to planned group photographs involving world leaders at important meetings is symbolic of his overall lack of awareness of contemporary politically related developments. I won’t even begin to rant about his constant errors of prediction regarding the Canadian economy.
Oct 17, 2009 - 8:14 am 13. Mike_K:Very interesting article. I don’t understand Obama. One comment that may shed some light on his motives called the administration “seminar government.” All they seem to do is talk. That reminds me of a comment made by Madeline Albright soon after 9/11. She said “Of course we were concentrating on terrorism. We had a meeting on it at least once a week.” The Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, are doing what they do best as Obama holds seminars; buy votes.
The results are still unclear. The Tea Party activists are not that loyal to Republicans because, like me, they doubt their commitment to reform. They have been compared to Perot voters in 1992 and I think that is fair. I was considering voting for Perot until he had his meltdown. The US educational system has degenerated so much that I wonder if there are enough citizens who know history to reverse the course to destruction. My recent contact with college curriculum is not encouraging.
Well, the flow of refugees to Canada may yet grow. My grandparents were Canadians over 100 years ago. Maybe it will be time to come back when Obama gets re-elected.
Oct 17, 2009 - 8:17 am 14. tim maguire:It’s undeniable that the Prize Committee, to flesh out Obama’s paltry accomplishments, considered speeches and surrenders made after the nominating deadline. This isn’t that important a distinction since he still doesn’t deserve the award, but under the rules, does the award have to be based on the nomination package? Or can the committee consider anything it wants?
I ask because, if they are limited to the nomination package, then they absolutely violated their own rules. Far be it from me to try and prevent them from further debasing the Peace Prize if they think it has not been sufficiently debased already, but still…
Oct 17, 2009 - 8:26 am 15. David W. Lincoln:Solway, get it straight. Queen Elizabeth is the head of State of Canada (the latest reaffirmation of this is the answer given by the Governor-general, and the storm that descended upon her). However, I will grant that
Stephen Harper and Barack Obama are, in each country, the top politician.
Meanwhile, when it comes to dealing with the economy, Harper is following Obama’s tune in providing a stimulus package, instead of a tax holiday, to deal with the aftermath of arrogance and stupidity that began with what Ross McKitrick & Bruce McCullough described in “Check the Facts”, which was
done for the Fraser Foundation.
Plus, where is the support for the Michelleti lead government of Honduras in
either North American capital? A person would have an easier time finding
barbecued pork at a bar mitzvah.
Don’t make Harper out into what he isn’t, Solway, for that is malicious. Also, would you take a bet that Harper, and his crowd, would take the approach laid out by Lord Monckton, in regards to Copenhagen? I don’t think
so.
For Charles Adler has done more for Canada in the past month than Stephen Harper has done since he became Prime Minister almost 4 years ago. At least
Oct 17, 2009 - 8:33 am 16. Coisty:Adler came up with http://www.charlesadler.com/2009/10/-the-ballad-of-stephen-ringo-harper.html and http://www.charlesadler.com/2009/09/the-ballad-of-michael-joshua-ignatieff-adler-monologue.html
Unfortunately, Harper refuses to restore freedom of speech to Canada even though it would not cost him anything electorally.
Oct 17, 2009 - 8:54 am 17. garyj:#10 Andrew
Oct 17, 2009 - 9:13 am 18. RebeccaH:As a Canadian I agree with every one of your points.America is a better place to do business for a variety of reasons. I am going to the States next week and I’m looking forward to that Two Buck Chuck and the great prices. But you have to understand that Canada has been led by an assortment of clowns and boobs and incompetants for the at least 50 years before Harper. Harper is the first leader who really is a representative of Canadians. He is modest unassuming and efficient with solid values. Too bad he is stymied by a minority government with an oppostion of yahoos.
On a positive comparison Canada’s legal system isn’t so corrupt that it would send innocents to jail like Scooter Libby and Conrad Black on trumpt up charges for political expediancy. It is also ludicrous and tyrannical to fill the prisons with long sentences for people committing marijuana crimes, and I am opposed to marijuana.Also I am for the death penalty but not as it implemented in the States where it takes 20 years before anyone is ever executed. You might as well not have it. It should be done when the crime is still in the memory of the community.
We have one year until an election that gives us the opportunity to vote out some of the disasters in Congress, thus ridding ourselves of Pelosi and Reid’s leadership and severely hampering Obama’s capability to do more harm than he’s already done. We can make it, if people don’t lose heart.
Oct 17, 2009 - 9:58 am 19. HalifaxCB:I guess the meaning of “dignity and honour” is sort of thing Left and Right will always disagree on. For you, it’s getting to the photo shoot on time; for me, it’s holding clear and fast on issues like Iran and Israel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BZbkzcgn0o . The rest of the world can follow along or not, it’s their choice….
As for the economy, even in these supposedly “tough times”, there’s help wanted signs out all over the place even in this backwater…Canada shares a common tradition with the US – just as most of our forebearers picked up and left for a new world in order to provide a better life for themselves, current generations can as well. Shoot, my own “little one” did this 2 years ago, just before his 18th birthday, and is now living – as he put it – his dream (and with an income on par with the Canadian average, not bad for a young man still only 19). Like Thucydides (IIRC) said, “The secret to happiness is freedom, and the secret to freedom, courage.”
Oct 17, 2009 - 10:01 am 20. Albert:19, I guess YOU don’t understand the word ’symbolic’, and regarding ‘for sale signs’, houses in Canada are selling like hot cakes, with many urban areas running out of housing stock to sell. Why? because they have a highly regulated banking system that has NEVER needed bailouts. And that’s because of a good leadership over the past 50 years.
Oct 17, 2009 - 10:49 am 21. Mike Blackadder:Nice well written article. I have to agree. Harper and Obama couldn’t be more different, and there’s no question that Harper would make a better American president in basically every area imaginable.
Harper is calm, thoughtful and reserved with the media which is part and parcel of him possessing virtually zero charisma. All of this actually serves him well when Canadian leftist parties’ campaigns consist of trying to convince us Harper is a scary conservative with a hidden agenda (a hidden agenda which is so hidden, that they don’t even have any suggestion of what it could be).
To me Harper plays the hand of opposition parties more than he does his own, engulfing their platforms by moving his party closer to the center when it is beneficial to do so. He forces the opposition to take on more radical agendas to present an alternative to Canadians (a strategy that would have served Obama well in the handling of the economic crisis). You might also say that he is a bit of a coward when it comes to standing up for conservatism or taking a stand against government sponsored tyranny under our Canadian Human Rights Commissions. As mentioned in the article the minority status of the Conservative party makes it difficult for him to avoid leftist concessions, and our leftist media pretty much forbids him from any course of action which could be construed as a radical conservative agenda.
In this way, I imagine Harper is unlike Sarah Palin, who has tonnes of charisma and is candid in confronting socialist and anti-american agendas in the US.
The Republican party would perhaps be stronger under Stephen Harper than they became following George Bush, but we certainly would not have seen the liberation of Iraq and who knows how he would have handled the threat of terrorism if he had been in Bush’s place.
American conservatives can probably learn from Harper’s example, though need to recognize his deficiencies. Cleverness and tactfulness is fine and dandy when trying to weaken the position of the other party, but isn’t a substitute for courage when it is required.
Oct 17, 2009 - 11:02 am 22. Victor Redlick:A personal letter to the reputedly foolish, Thorbjoern Jagland, Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, from a hysterically short-changed Canadian citizen.
Dear Thorbje:
While you were divvying out such ‘rare and distinguished’(gimme a break) “ALFREDS” to ‘dynamite’ recipients who had not done anything, or anything good yet-and it remains to be seen whether they ever will, you unintentionally-I’m sure-left our country’s own Liberal parachutist and learned esoteric(sic)of our Loyal Opposition, His Igginess, off the indiscriminate and pathetically skewed winner’s list.
Oct 17, 2009 - 11:15 am 23. MJG:Well then, WHAT pray tell, ARE your criteria, pal?
I AM CANADIAN!!! ……. THANK GOD!!!
Oct 17, 2009 - 11:22 am 24. Jenny:The canadian national media(cbc,ctv) and other left-wing media is a major problem we face in this country.
Seven months into his presidency, americans are seeing OBAMA for who he really is which is not good news thanks to medias that do not take orders from the president but the public, who deserve the ‘other side’ of the story which Obama’s media refuse to deliver.
In canada only lefty medias are around and for thirteen years the liberals corruption went on without a word from the national media.
Now if canada had beside the CBC CTV, let’s say a more conservative media the liberals scandal and corruption would not have lasted all those years and most probably would not be re-elected-not after the ‘conservative media’ have finished with them; but there is no such medias except socialist liberals.
The things the liberals did to this country will shock you but the canadian national media are known for their silence on the matter.
I have to thank the american media for acknowledging the PM STEPHEN HARPER and for giving him the respect he so rightly deserves since the canadian national media refuse point blank to do so. THANK YOU USA.
Oct 17, 2009 - 12:29 pm 25. Bill Johnson:The US doesn’t have a leader. There is a person in the position of President, but that’s not the same. We could have a leader, but we don’t.
Oct 17, 2009 - 5:14 pm 26. Dan H.:Andrew:
Canada is not quite the socialist utopia you remember. Most people don’t know this, because it’s been flying under the radar, but Canada’s government as a percentage of GDP is about to become smaller than the U.S. government. We have been shrinking the size of government since 1992 by holding spending increases below the rate of GDP growth.
In addition, by 2012 Canada will have lower business taxes than the U.S., lower capital gains and dividend taxes, no inheritance tax, and a less progressive tax system. In addition, our retirement system is sound, we’re in the process of bringing back free market reforms to health care, and our deficit is small and under control.
As a result, we have the healthiest economy in the G8. We actually created jobs in the last quarter, and our housing industry is recovering. We did this with a ’stimulus’ about 1/3 the size of the U.S’s as a percentage of GDP, btw.
That’s what years of calm, focused leadership can accomplish. Canada is now positioned for growth and investment. Our dollar is almost at par with the American dollar again, and will probably surpass the dollar in the next couple of years.
I spent most of my early adulthood wishing Canada were more like the United States. Back then we had bigger government, more regulations, higher taxes, and we were losing our best people to the U.S. I never thought I’d see the day when Canada was a low tax, free market haven from U.S. statism, but it’s just about here.
Oct 17, 2009 - 5:29 pm 27. Toronto Girl:#9 Halifax.
As a Canadian, who would give her right arm to move to the U.S., I couldn’t agree with you more. Canadians are the way we are because we have been brainwashed by 40 years of socialism, political correctness and multiculturalism. It has zapped the life out of us. We have no fight in us whatsoever, we are sleepwalkers. I envy Americans there fierce support of freedom and civil liberties. I cherish my trip to the U.S. I feel free.
Oct 17, 2009 - 6:16 pm 28. Andrew:Dan H (#26): “Andrew: Canada is not quite the socialist utopia you remember.”
You mean the country I remember when I moved away from it 14 months ago? Yeah, I guess change has swept fiercely across Canada in my absence. I read the Globe & Mail weekly and didn’t notice. lol
I will grant that the U.S. since Bush’s spending binges has been moving in a terrible direction. However, life in Canada is not even remotely close to the U.S. in terms of the opportunity one enjoys to apply his education and skills, keep what he earns, choose schools and universities of high quality for his children, and enjoy unrivaled individual liberty that freedom of speech and self-determination affords.
Have you paid attention to the petty tyranny of the provincial human rights commissions across Canada that have operated outside of the law in chilling individual speech? It has gotten steadily worse during the past three years with no abatement.
No, Dan, Canada is not socialist. It’s much worse. It’s corporatist and coercive in a way that Obama can only dream of implementing in the US.
Nothing has changed since I moved last year, Dan, beyond the accelerating deterioration of freedom of speech. Yes, life is dramatically better in Canada than in the early 90s when the IMF wanted to take over its finances. It’s risible, however, to claim that it is a “free market haven.” Life is also better in Britain than it was in the 1970s when the IMF showed up there. However, unless you enjoy living in a virtual police state you won’t choose to move there.
I applauded the cuts in corporate income tax; it’s shameful that the U.S. now has the highest rate in the world. However, taxes at a personal and consumer level are still much higher than in the U.S. (And, yes, I am including my medical insurance costs; I still have the option to have insurance instead of the coercive, state-enforced medical welfare that Canada mandates.)
In addition, VATs, as anyone who has lived in Canada, Britain and Europe know, once in place never go away. This is yet another reason why Obama is so dangerous. He seeks to implement the sort of GST that Canada has.
Canada has a commodity economy based, as you know, on metals, oil and gas. As commodities (ex-gas) have recovered the C$ has strengthened. It was around $1.30 to the US$ in March and April, however. What, economically, has changed in Canada during the intervening six months? And why hasn’t the Canadian dollar’s purchasing power parity versus the US$ moved so little compared with the FX rate swings?
The strong C$ does little to offset the endemically low labor productivity (80% of the US’) and high cost of living caused by the trade barriers and preservation of oligopoly rents that I noted above.
Please advise where in Canada I can find the low-tax, deregulated nirvana you describe. I lived in and continue to do business in Alberta, which is as close as one can come to your claim. Still, it’s a far cry from what you describe. Instead, one finds limited consumer choice; a shoddy retail sector; the bungling, corrupt, hayseed provincials who run the gov’t; and the inbred, parochial business community. All of these leave it in the dust compared with most all US states.
And that’s the point… Obama’s consternation aside, the states have the power in the U.S. The Federal gov’t, barring another FDR-like power grab, is still subordinate.
BTW, just bought a new car. Same model in Calgary would have cost me 46% more. In Ontario, 49% more. Priced them both last month.
Also dealt with CIBC this week. What a farcical model of Soviet customer service the Canadian banks are. I invest my money wisely in the US with low-cost mutual funds that are barred by Canadian protectionism form operating there. That’s another gem… Canadian investors and depositors are ripped off something fierce. Thank goodness we got our money out of there and somewhere safe (Vanguard.) Dan, how do you feel paying 5-7% fees on your financial assets when I’m paying 0.25%? Did you figure that into your tax calculations?
Can’t let you get away with your blithe statements about crisp Canadian economic life. What a farce. I’m glad that Canada has gotten off the economic deathbed that Trudeau prepared for it. However, you’ve had a long, long road back to semi-respectability. I’m sure you feel much better today knowing that Harper isn’t likely to nationalize any industries the way Trudeau did. The bar is set pretty low, my friend.
Check the immigration stats. How many Americans as a % of the population move north (even restricted to the northern tier states in which people are used to frigid winters) compared with the flow south? And how many from abroad, given the choice of emigrating to the U.S. or Canada, pick the latter. Relatively few, even since Canada has climbed out of the basket in which it spent the early 90s.
Q.E.D.
Oct 17, 2009 - 6:44 pm 29. Anonymous:garyj (#17): “Andrew: On a positive comparison Canada’s legal system isn’t so corrupt that it would send innocents to jail like Scooter Libby and Conrad Black on trumpt up charges for political expediancy. It is also ludicrous and tyrannical to fill the prisons with long sentences for people committing marijuana crimes, and I am opposed to marijuana.Also I am for the death penalty but not as it implemented in the States where it takes 20 years before anyone is ever executed. You might as well not have it. It should be done when the crime is still in the memory of the community.”
Gary… from the first week I moved to Calgary in 1997 until my final week in Ontario last year I read regularly of the local police and RCMP railroading innocent people across the country into jail for rape and murder from the 1950s until today. The papers continue to carry regular stories of exonerations after 15, 20, 30 years. Such is the Canadian justice system that many of these people languished for decades before DNA exonerated them. The details of their initial trials and the farcical appeals system via the Courts of Queens Bench are appalling. Canada exhibits the worst of the British justice system in these sorts of kangaroo court convictions such as occurred during the worst outbreaks of IRA violence. One simply does not see this sort of thing in the U.S. on anywhere near the sort of scale on which it occurs in Canada.
I agree with you that Scooter Libby’s incarceration was inexcusable. And I’m with you on MJ. Legalize and tax it heavily. Ditto the death penalty (minus the tax sentiment.) However, the laws on drugs and murder are administered state by state and were instituted with the consent of the governed. They can also easily be changed by the governed if people living in states with such laws choose. I live in a state in which the death penalty does not exist.
(Memo: Please remember, Canadians, that political power in the U.S. resides in the states. Speaking of the death penalty as it is administered in Texas and Louisiana is irrelevant to someone who lives in a state that doesn’t have it. I have no more voice in the determination of laws in Louisiana than I do on laws in Saskatchewan.)
I can choose not to kill someone or possess MJ if both happen to be illegal where I live. I can’t however, choose not to be railroaded into prison by a corrupt police force bent on securing an arrest and conviction and a complacent and often incompetent defense bar. Canada’s a scary place on that count.
Oct 17, 2009 - 7:02 pm 30. HP:“The difference between the two heads of state could not be more palpable, not only in their foreign and domestic policies, but also in the treatment they are accorded by the press.”
The Queen is Canada’s head of state.
Oct 17, 2009 - 8:07 pm 31. Mike Blackadder:Andrew, I kind of agree with you, but wouldn’t go so far as to suggest that Canada is an overly scary place to live, or that our life experience is far removed from that enjoyed in the US (however I do have particular hatred for the 5 month winters like the one we’ll have this year). In particular I don’t agree with this comment: “Have you paid attention to the petty tyranny of the provincial human rights commissions across Canada that have operated outside of the law in chilling individual speech? It has gotten steadily worse during the past three years with no abatement.”
It’s true what you say about human rights commissions (and that Harper has done nothing to help the situation), but I wouldn’t say that its become steadily worse with no abatement over the past three years. Canada is blessed with gumption from the likes of Ezra Levant and Mark Steyn who as private citizens have brought such attention and shame to HRCs and their tyranny that even the tribunals have claimed that their mandate is unconstitutional.
The US will have to defend against the Fairness doctrine which on many levels is scarier than section 13 in Canada, and the President’s war against Fox news should be raising the alarms for anyone concerned about freedom of speech. The constitution certainly provides reason for Americans to have confidence in their freedom, but I think you have a fight ahead of you if you want to remain free under this administration.
Oct 17, 2009 - 8:59 pm 32. Dan H.:Andrew: Maybe my views are colored by the fact that I live in Alberta. Did you know that in the Fraser Institute’s ranking of economic freedom in North America, Alberta ranks #2, ahead of all American states but one? If you lived in Alberta, I don’t know where you get this notion that you lived in some sort of economic straightjacket. And the GST is a good thing – without it, we’d have higher marginal rates and probably higher corporate taxes. The GST helps make our exports competitive because we don’t put the tax burden on the corporations who make products.
The fact is, if you live in Alberta, you probably pay less in taxes and have fewer regulations to deal with than in any almost any other place in North America.
The Canadian dollar is almost at par with the U.S. now, but not because the Canadian dollar has gotten stronger – mainly because the American dollar is getting weaker against various world currencies. But we get credit for not following the same kinds of cockamamie plans Obama is engaging in, and our markets are not as spooked by the threat of daily new regulations and interventions in the market that Obama wants to implement.
Five years ago, I would have agreed with you. But Obama is taking the U.S. so far to the left it’s about to pass us now, and only continue to get worse. Canada simply looks good in comparison.
Oct 17, 2009 - 10:27 pm 33. AL:There are a lot of things different between Canada and US.
Canada does not have affirmative action, fuel efficiency standards (CAFÉ), inheritance and gift taxes, illegal immigration problem, or trade deficit, to name a few. Instead, we are major exporters of oil, gas, coal, all metals, uranium, fertilizers, lumber, wheat, meat, and to the boot – industrial and high-tech products. For most of last decade Canada had surplus budget, and significantly reduced its debt. That’s why Harper government has money to spend on stimulus without borrowing from China, and as a result recession in Canada is already ended with unemployment lower than in US, GDP is growing and new jobs are created. Taxes were lowered steady over last decade too.
There were no housing bubble (bank refused some time ago to relax mortgage lending standards), and there were no financial crisis in Canada. Canadians banks are the least regulated in G20, but do not jump into conclusions – British banks were not tightly regulated too.
Unlike US and EU countries, Canada succeeded in admitting as emigrants predominantly high educated, young, and healthy individuals and families, and is doing superb job in integrating them. Any emigration kid graduating from high school is first and foremost proud Canadian, not Chinese or Indian.
Two month ago Supreme Court finally ended shameful practice of shunning freedom of speech.
What else is different? Health care is financed by sales taxes and everybody are covered equally regardless of employment, existing conditions, and alike. Pensions contributions are required to be made from every paycheck, and as a result there is no unfunded pension obligation, and discrimination for age and health conditions for hiring. As an example, because of such business conditions, GMC, Chrysler Canada, and Ford Canada always were highly profitable and doing well even now.
Taxation regime is a bit different from US. Capital gains are taxed twice lower rate than employment income. In short, family of four with two earners with combined income of 100K can afford much higher standard of living in Canada than in US, plus college education for kids is highly subsidized. But if it is family with single 200K earner – US is clearly better choice.
Oct 18, 2009 - 1:37 am 34. Chris in Toronto:Andrew, thank you. Well said.
Oct 18, 2009 - 6:32 am 35. Thomas_L......:Excellent David. Peetah Mansbridge’s eyebrow says it all. Oddly though, the fog that the Canadian media has thrown around Mr. Harper is starting to clear. Canadians are hard pressed to actually see this “scary” American-style Prime Minister with a hidden agenda, when the Liberals have an actual scary American, with no agenda other than himself, in Michael Ignatieff.
Oct 18, 2009 - 6:54 am 36. JL:Our dollars rising with our fortunes. If the USA no longer wants to be exceptional, capitalist or rich, I say Canada should open its doors to a new diaspora. Just a few million more conservative voters and it could be, the true north strong and free.
8. Tom Paine:
You can’t read. Nowhere in my do post I compare those 2 things.
The entire point I make is to NOT justify one wrong act by equating it with another completely different despicable act. READ THE POST you ignoramus.
Nothing comes close to blowing up innocent people in in human ugliness. It is clearly worse than settlements. Only an idiot would think otherwise. I ware the scares from pointing this issue out to 1000’s of terrorist loving idiots.
AND the sick acts of Palestinian terrorists does NOT justify settlements.
Even if you could ever justify settlements, the smart way to go about it, would be to get it over with quickly. Not prolonging it forever.
If you think that growing settlements in foreign territory over a period of 50 years is smart, you are both stupid and immoral. And yes, I know that terrorist scum is worse. I deplore you for accusing me for thinking otherwise.
Come on. Call me swastica waiving Nazi. That’s the only response you have left. If you dare to have a tiny bit of critique against Israeli then you have a million trolls calling you a Nazi. F..k off.
Oct 18, 2009 - 7:27 am 37. Andrew:Dan H. (#32): Are you referring to the 2009 “Economic Freedom of the World” report to which the Fraser Institute (of which I am a big fan and have been since I first lived in Canada) contributes along with the Cato Institute in the U.S?
If so, I didn’t see the comparison of provinces v. U.S. states (can you direct me to a link; I am very curious about this.) All I noticed when the most recent one came out last month was that Canada had slipped to 7.91 and the U.S. (in it’s current addled condition) clocked in at 8.06.
I also noted the following in the press release accompanying the report:
“Canada’s level of economic freedom has slowly been decreasing since 2000 and there’s no doubt this is a worrying trend, especially since we have yet to see the impact of government policies brought in as a result of the global recession,” said Fred McMahon, Fraser Institute director of trade and globalization studies.
“Canada’s scores in four of the five economic freedom measures decreased between 2005 and 2007. Now with the Canadian government taking a more interventionist role in the economy and adding layers of new regulations in response to the global recession, this trend of decreasing economic freedom in Canada will likely be exacerbated over the next few years,” McMahon said.
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Let’s focus on where we probably agree. The U.S. has become much less free since Bush and the Congressional Republicans began their spending binge around 2002; this has accelerated dramatically since Obama took over and is governing in tandem with a substantial Congressional Dem majority bent on creating (in Harper’s wonderful characterization of Canada long before he became PM) a European welfare state in the worst sense of the term.
My point is that I have some faith in U.S. voters turfing these people out of office and demanding fiscal accountability. I have no faith in Canadians doing the same with their politicians. As you know, people who share the view that big government is undesirable are largely considered cranks everywhere in Canada outside of Alberta. The country seems dependent on the happy (and incredibly rare) accident of someone with Harper’s education in economics and predisposition toward liberty gaining power. It’s extremely unusual in anyone who seeks and gets power in the Canadian political establishment, particularly at a Federal level. And Harper stumbled into it when he became the Conservative leader by default after the party merged with Reform.
I do agree with you that part of the recent surge in the Loonie is the weakening US dollar. Investors have ample reason to fear massive inflation by U,.S. politicians to solve the problems that their profligacy will soon create. However, having watched the C$ for 15 years now I’m not confident that anything sustainable will strengthen the currency. High commodity prices (which, of course, brings on the “Dutch Disease” that Canadians know well) have been the engine by which the currency has strengthened in the past. Perhaps I am missing something big but no Federal restructuring seems to be making Canada’s economy any more competitive or less dependent on commodities.
Canada is fortunate currently to have a sound central bank governor. And the positive aspect of a banking oligopoly that can shaft consumers at will is that Canadian banks manage their loans conservatively because they really don’t have competition. However, I can’t begin to see a positive aspect of living anywhere in Canada relative to the U.S. Even if I lived in, say, NY, California or Massachusetts, all of which are terribly governed states with low levels of economic freedom, I would enjoy a much freer life with greater comfort than I would anywhere in Canada, even in Alberta. Have you gone shopping recently in Calgary? I must say it’s much better than it was 12 years ago. The tremendous oil boom mid-decade did wonders for the place. Still, the quality is poor and the prices are high compared with the U.S. My wife immediately noticed the increase in quality per retail dollar spent when she began shopping in (off all places) Upstate NY compared with Toronto after we were married and traveled there occasionally.
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As for the VAT… you are correct about marginal income tax rates. My point, which I didn’t make explicitly, is that in an ideal world a VAT would replace income taxes to a great extent. In practice, of course, it’s simply another source of revenue for politicians; they don’t end up changing income tax rates much. If I recall correctly, it took a long, long time after Mulroney acceded to the GST for income tax rates to fall in Canada. And I believe it was the Reform / Conservative rise to power that brought it about. Since the Liberals seem to govern Canada ~ 80% of the time, I wouldn’t count on the current tax regime as a stable equilibrium. Combing the VAT and income taxes the burden has not decreased over time. And does anyone believe that the next Liberal PM won’t restore the GST to near where it was before Harper cut it?
I’m looking at the big picture… marginal income tax rates; cost of health care (do you really know how much you pay to Alberta each year for this?); salaries, which reflect the productivity of the economy and competitiveness of the labor market; the cost of consumer goods and food; the variety and choice that the consumer enjoys; the vigor and diversity of public political discourse; freedom of expression; the ease with which one can set up a small business; the quality of education and freedom of individuals to choose schools for their children; the ability to apply one’s skills in the labor market and not be underemployed; etc…
On this count, and after long analysis and deliberation, we simply could not make a tenable case for Canada over the U.S. by a long shot.
Let’s agree that Canada has made positive strides since the early 90s in becoming freer. The baseline was pretty low, however. And let’s agree that the US is on a frightening trajectory toward restricted freedom. The equilibrium in the US tends toward freedom; in Canada it doesn’t. That’s the basis of my observations and argument.
Oct 18, 2009 - 7:37 am 38. Brian:It is fascinating to watch Obama , who seems to be a combination of Bob Rae (… try to spend your way out of a recession for which Ontario is still paying ) , Chretien ( … who was a total klutz on the international stage) and Mr Dithers (Paul Martin).
Oct 18, 2009 - 7:58 am 39. Dan H.:Andrew:
The report you want is the Fraser Institute’s ‘Economic Freedom in North America’.
Link to the 2008 report is here: http://www.fraserinstitute.org/Commerce.Web/product_files/EconomicFreedomNorthAmerica2008CanEd.pdf
Have a look at the ‘All government’ table 1.1. This is the table that lists the economic freedom of people when all government sources are combined state/provincial and federal. Notice where Alberta is: #2. All the other Canadian provinces are clustered at the bottom, behind all other states. Also note that this was using data from 2005. Since then, the U.S. has moved in a more statist direction, so I expect the position of all the Canadian provinces to strengthen in comparison to the U.S. My guess is that as of 2005 the top four or five Canadian provinces may have moved ahead of half a dozen US states in Ecnomic freedom, and four years from now it’s possible that the Canadian provinces will be ahead of the majority of U.S. states.
But Alberta continues to be special. Many people don’t realize just what a big outlier Alberta is in comparison with the rest of Canada. We have a completely different culture and completely different economic philosophy than the rest of Canada.
BTW, our current ‘conservative’ government has been taking steps to move to the left recently, and the result has been the rise of the ‘WildRose Alliance Party’, which is gaining real ground. It just picked its leader last week – there were two candidates. Both were fiscal conservatives, but one was a social conservative and the other, Danielle Smith, is a libertarian. The media was predicting the social conservative would win, because they’re still of the belief that right-wing = religious fundamentalist. In fact, the libertarian crushed the social conservative by a factor of four.
Alberta is just a different place than the rest of Canada. We also have the strongest economy in North America.
Oct 18, 2009 - 3:51 pm 40. garyj:#29
Oct 18, 2009 - 4:18 pmI can’t argue about our police misconduct. The Dsekanski case is an abomination.