Story highlights Scott Gilmore: Canada offers its citizens more opportunity to get ahead

Gilmore's essay says the American dream is now easier to find in Canada

(CNN) A new essay claims that those still seeking the American dream would be better off hopping on a flight to Canada.

In 2017, the Canadian dream offers far more, said Scott Gilmore, a former Canadian diplomat and the author of the essay "The American Dream has moved to Canada," which was published in Canadian news magazine Maclean's last month.

"No matter how you cut the American dream or no matter how you describe the American dream, whether it's life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness or a car, a job and a degree, it's now become easier in Canada," Gilmore told CNN's Fareed Zakaria..

In his essay, Gilmore notes that 46% of Americans have college degrees compared with 59% of Canadians. Canadians live 2.5 years longer, 81.2 years compared to America's 78.2. And Canadians are the sixth happiest people in the world, according to the World Economic Forum. Americans lag behind in 13th spot.

As for why America was behind across the board, the reasons, Gilmore said, were "obvious."

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