Those who recall my previous column on Canada becoming a “can’t-do nation” will find this next sentiment unlikely, but our nation also is about the best place on Earth to pursue a livelihood and raise a family.

That’s not quite as contradictory a claim as it first sounds. Yes, we are burdened by excessive regulations, quasi-religious risk aversion and environmentalist superstition. But with our natural endowments, rule of law, solid financial services institutions and the most level-headed national leader in the developed world, we’re the “least worst” major jurisdiction on the planet.

Other than small if happy anomalies like Singapore and Switzerland, can you think of a better one? Certainly not Greece or Spain, or even Germany, France or Britain. Australia is a plausible contender — but that’s it. Yes, our economic growth right now is mediocre, while China’s remains much faster; but China is a tyranny full of injustice, with more poor denizens than the entire Western world’s population.

For many members of the younger generation, gloom and uncertainty still lingers in Canada from the 2008 crisis. But we have seen worse. Remember the Trudeau years? A brief refresher: double-digit inflation, chronic unemployment, debilitating regulations, ideological nationalism, poisonous federal/provincial relations, contempt for business, obsession with Quebec — and the worst policies for Alberta, including severe restrictions on energy exports.

Worst of all, there was little hope. I remember contemporaries concluding that building reasonable careers would require leaving Canada — and several did.

That time seems like it happened in another country. The recent downturn lasted less than two years. Today, we have low interest rates, low inflation, some economic growth, at least, and moderate unemployment. There also are several high-growth areas in which today’s young can build careers. In my province, there are labour shortages in office and technical categories; some 19-year-old apprentices start at $28 per hour.

Canadians still underrate Stephen Harper. Despite his minority government handicap, in 2008, he held stimulus spending below that of almost any other Western country’s. For that, he almost was toppled by an Opposition demanding another $40 billion — then vilified for racking up a $50-billion deficit that, had his opponents gotten their wish, would have been $90 billion.

When, since the Second World War, has Canada stood so tall? Canada is on track to get rid of its deficit, even as Canadians de-leverage their personal and business balance sheets. And we’re preparing for the next phase. At the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Harper’s call to reform the “entitlement state” was visionary.

I spend a lot of my professional time at meetings in corporate Calgary, and I hear a lot of moaning about low gas prices, weak growth, poor access to capital. I’ve taken to replying: “Sure, let’s go to Greece and borrow some money. Let’s try an IPO in Spain. Let’s drill some horizontal wells in France — oh, wait, hydraulic fracturing just got banned.”

For the first time in my adult life, there’s no better place on Earth to work, live, save and look forward to a reasonable future than right here at home.   IE

More of Koch’s articles can be read at
www.drjandmrk.com.