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The greatest problem of this country is smugness

The whole “sunny ways” line is like the official ultra-feel-good line that we are a ”post-national society” and that “The world needs more Canada.” There is some truth to the last statement but that has nothing to do with partisanship; the fact that Canada is a fine country, which has been true for a long time, is being pushed forward like a goaltender’s heavy pads to deflect a serious analysis of this government’s performance, with the implicit claim that it has become a fine country since Justin Trudeau became prime minister. All of the 198 countries in the world are to some extent competing with each other. We cannot solemnly absent ourselves from this competition because we happen to have three million square miles that are rich in base and precious metals, forest products, energy and all agriculture except tropical fruit, and that we have an educated, law-abiding population of 36 million. All countries, large and small and naturally rich and poor, are striving to better their lot, and so are we, and the worrisome fact is that we are not doing a particularly brilliant job of it, and that will not be disguised by smiling platitudes about our equable and comfortable society or our leader’s self-described congeniality. (He is very congenial, but that is not the principal criterion for leading a G7 country.)

Photo by Shannon VanRaes/Bloomberg

Our sunny ways (or voices) won’t achieve much but pleasantries. The facts are that while we have raised our status as a desirable place to live for the greatest number of people to an exalted competitive position — according to surveys, even above the petrostates and tax-haven states (Hong Kong, Iceland, Kuwait, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Norway, Qatar, Singapore and Switzerland) — we have been passed in standard of living by many other countries, including Austria, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Finland and the Netherlands. We remain behind Australia and the United States, and are now down to a lead of less than 10 per cent in per capita income over Belgium, Israel, Japan, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. These are shocking competitive numbers that no one in Canada should be complacent about: if present trends continue, the last group will all pass us in the next few years, including resourceless Belgium that went an entire year without a government a few years ago, Israel, which was a war-torn desert when it was founded 70 years ago and has been officially at war ever since, and New Zealand, which doesn’t really produce anything except sheep and wine.