A decade after declaring Canada “rather cool,” The Economist, the U.K.-based international affairs and news magazine, has withdrawn the compliment.

“If Canada is exciting at all in 2014, it will be for the wrong reasons,” said the Nov. 18 online article authored by correspondent Madelaine Drohan.

Drohan cited several factors tied to the polices of the Conservative government and Prime Minister Stephen Harper, including promoting a pipeline to the U.S. to carry Alberta’s tar sands, “minimum” progress on climate change and “backtracking” on social liberalism.

The article also pointed to record high household debt and home prices and the risk of an impending “housing crash.”

It was the country’s social liberalism under the Chretien government — including support for same-sex marriage and plans to decriminalize marijuana use — that led The Economist to declare in Nov. 2003 that “a cautious case can be made that Canada is now rather cool.”

Drohan’s article noted that the plan to decriminalize marijuana was shelved and has since been replaced by tougher laws under the Harper government, including a mandatory six-month prison sentence for possession of small amounts of pot and new rules that will come into force in April, 2014 making growing medical marijuana at home illegal.

The article also criticized the Harper government for cutting access to health care for refugees and plans to increase sponsorship fees for family members of Canadian citizens.

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