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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.