Canada Has More Economic Freedom Than America
According to the Fraser Institute, a free-market think tank based in Vancouver, Canada ranks fifth in the world in economic freedom thanks to government austerity measures put in place by that nation’s political leadership.
What’s interesting is that, in Canada, the austerity came under left-of-center leadership at the same time right-of-center leadership here in America was running up spending.
Canada’s economic freedom began to rise under former prime minister Jean Chrétien, who reined in the budget and reduced government spending dramatically….Meanwhile, George W. Bush began to spend — U.S. government consumption went from 17.6% of GDP to 19.5% in 2000, transfers of subsidies went from 13.2% to 16.3% and the government enterprises and investments went from 17.6% of GDP to 22.5%.
“Canada really started moving up in economic freedom under a prime minister that was supposedly from the left side…and the United States started moving down in economic freedom under someone who was supposedly from the right wing, Republican party,” said [Fraser Vice-President Fred] McMahon….Stephen Harper’s Conservatives expanded the size of government since taking office in 2006, said [Fraser Institute President Niels] Veldhuis, which pulls the ranking down a bit.
President Obama went on to increase the rate of growth in government spending after taking over for George W. Bush, but partisan or ideological finger-pointing isn’t really the issue here. What’s at issue is the fact that government austerity works.
Even as liberals here in America demand more spending, and more government intervention, to fix the economy we see example after example around the world – add Canada to the Baltic nations – that less burdensome government works.
Tags: canada, Economy, jobs
