The best article in the current Economist was not the
brief gold essay, but a special 14 page report on Canada.
You can get a free one day pass to read it all at
economist.com
(have to watch an ad and have cookies enabled)
Topics were;
"Alienating the West (Canada gets its own Texas)"
Talked mostly about the Alberta oil boom, but also that
Alberta and BC were running surpluses and sending lots more to
Ottawa than it gets back
"A dream that does not fade (Quebec might yet quit Canada)"
For/against is now about 55/45, time for another referendum ?
"Living with Number 1 (Rocky relation with US)"
"A funny sort of government (Canada'a dysfunctional politics)"
"The perils of cool (Canada has everything. except perhaps ambition)"
Lots of data, such as
in 1981 American were $C1800 better off than Canadians, in 2003 $C7200.
Canada has not experienced productivity increases like US
In 2000 output per man hour was 82% of US, now 75%
Canada invest less in capital, R&D, science and engineering, etc..
The general impression I got from the articles was that
Canada has gone back to its role of providing raw materials,
combined with labor from Mexico, to fuel the economic growth
of the United States.
I like Canada, but the articles were more than a little depressing. |
