Don’t crow too much

The Federal Libs have survived their confidence vote. Now let’s hope we will get some normalcy in politics for awhile. I believe that there has been limited debate on the economic performance of Canada in recent years. I am typically challenging people about New Brunswick’s economy but there are some warning signs about Canada as a whole (with the exception of Alberta which would still boom if the ROC dropped off the map).

A decade ago, we had the second highest GDP per capita and per capita income in the world after the USA. Now, we are (this fluctuates somewhat depending on currency and assumptions) somewhere between 7 and 9 for both those measures. This is somewhat startling when you consider that a number of smaller European countries are now better economic performers than Canada (remember how they were supposed to be hopelessly socialistic?).

A decade ago we were #1 on the U.N.’s human development index – now we are, I believe, around 7th.

We used to be known worldwide for our charity and peacekeeping. Now we are being chastised by politicians and rock stars alike for the lack of foreign aid.

As I have mentioned before, the OECD stated in 2002 that the lack of good regional development policy may threaten the country’s future economic growth.