Stepping Back: Reasons to Embrace Our Nation

Respected economist Paul Krugman recently wrote an article, “What Happens When Americans Realize How Miserable We Are?” His main takeaway was that “life is about more than GDP” — a striking framing for someone who has spent much of his career analyzing it — suggesting the U.S. is falling behind advanced nations on basic aspects of quality of life, such as health and safety.¹

That distinction matters for Canada. We haven’t had a lot of good news lately. We’ve moved from a global pandemic into an era of persistent inflation. Just as price pressures were easing, renewed U.S. trade tensions and tariffs, alongside the economic effects of war in the Middle East, have complicated the outlook. Yet stepping back, what follows is a view of Canada’s strengths that may get lost in periods of short-term economic and political uncertainty:

We rank third in the G7 in terms of GDP per capita.² While we lag behind the U.S., one economist suggests Canada’s GDP figures may not be as comparatively weak. He argues: “A flaw in GDP as a measure of economic productivity is how it fails to properly value public-sector output. While private-sector outputs are easy to quantify through market transactions, public services like healthcare and education are trickier to value. Countries that rely more heavily on public services, like Canada, are penalized in GDP comparisons.”³

We have lower income inequality. While Canada’s income gap has widened, we remain tied for second in income equality in the G7, as measured by the Gini coefficient, which quantifies how much the distribution of income deviates from perfect equality. By contrast, the U.S. has the highest income inequality in the G7. High inequality is often associated with lower social mobility, instability and weaker welfare outcomes.⁴

We have a high life expectancy. Canadians live longer, on average, than Americans, with an average life expectancy of 83.05 years. This is significantly higher than our neighbour to the south, at 79.76 years.⁵

Crime rates remain relatively low. Despite recent increases, Canada recorded 1.98 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023, compared to the U.S.’s 6.0 homicides per 100,000.⁶

We have high political stability. In an increasingly volatile world, stability and reliability carry greater value. According to one source, Canada places 4th globally for economic stability and 1st among G20 countries for fiscal soundness.⁷

Our healthcare outcomes are strong. Despite an overburdened healthcare system, nearly 89 percent of Canadians reported being in good health, the highest across all OECD countries. This is far above the OECD average of 68 percent.^3,8 Despite its higher GDP per capita, the U.S. spends 16.5 percent of GDP on healthcare, compared to 11.2 percent in Canada, with both countries having a comparable number of practitioners per capita.

We have a solid foundation for labour productivity. Canada leads the G7 in women’s labour force participation. We also rank 7th globally for average working hours⁹ and boast the world’s most highly educated population, with the greatest share of adults holding a tertiary degree,¹⁰ all factors that may help increase productivity.

We are rich in resources. Canada ranks 4th globally by natural resource value.¹¹ Despite having only 0.5 percent of the global population, Canada is the second-largest country by landmass. We have three coastlines and an abundance of freshwater resources, which are increasingly valuable in a resource-constrained world.

Household wealth continues to grow. At the start of 2026, Canadian household wealth hit new highs, with average household net worth rising to $1.08 million, more than a 30 percent gain from pre- pandemic levels. Every generation and wealth level saw gains, with Gen X and Millennials experiencing double-digit growth.¹²

We hold one of the world’s most powerful passports. The Canadian passport offers significant mobility, ranking 7th globally with visa-free access to 182 countries. Singapore is first, with access to 192 countries.¹³

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<sup>1. https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/what-happens-when-americans-realize; 2. www. voronoiapp.com/economy/GDP-Per-Capita-Projections-for-G7-Nations-1562; 3. https://macleans.ca/economy/why-canadas-economy-is-just-fine/; 4. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SI.POV.GINI;
5. www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/; 6. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1374211/g7-country-homicide-rate/;
7. www.investcanada.ca/stability; 8. www.cma.ca/healthcare-for-real/how-does-canada-rank-health-care#; 9. www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-average-working-hours-by-country/; 10. www.oecd.org/en/data/indicators/population-with-tertiary-education.html; 11. www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-top-10-countries-by-value-of-all-their-natural-resources/; 12. https://financialpost.com/wealth/canadian-households-how-do-you-stack-up; 13. www.henleyglobal.com/passport-index/ranking</sup>

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