Wednesday, June 7, 2023
No Result
View All Result
  • Media
Support Us
Macdonald-Laurier Institute
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Energy Policy Program
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • The Great Energy Crisis
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
    • Dragon at the Door
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Competition Policy in Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Justice Report Card
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Provincial COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
      • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Past Projects
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
      • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
      • Straight Talk
      • Labour Market Report
      • Leading Economic Indicator
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Online
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
    • Papers
    • Commentary
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Video
    • Podcasts
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Energy Policy Program
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • The Great Energy Crisis
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
    • Dragon at the Door
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Competition Policy in Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Justice Report Card
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Provincial COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
      • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Past Projects
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
      • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
      • Straight Talk
      • Labour Market Report
      • Leading Economic Indicator
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Online
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
    • Papers
    • Commentary
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Video
    • Podcasts
No Result
View All Result
Macdonald-Laurier Institute

Stop using American facts during Canadian policy debates: Sean Speer in the Sun

August 2, 2016
in Columns, Domestic Policy Program, In the Media, Latest News, Sean Speer, Social issues
Reading Time: 3 mins read
A A

Sean SpeerIt’s important not to confuse American social problems with the Canadian context, argues Sean Speer in the Sun. The political conditions that gave rise to American’s populism are simply not present here.

by Sean Speer, August 1, 2016

Back-to-back Republican and Democratic conventions have blasted U.S. political news and ideas into Canadian living rooms. We’ve been saturated with American facts, stories, and experiences every day for two straight weeks.

One of the results is to reinforce the pre-existing tendency for Canadian politicians to wrongly draw on American evidence for the Canadian context. It’s a mistake made by both liberals and conservatives that we should all agree to stop. Canadian policy debates should be based on Canadian facts and evidence.

Canadian progressives are frequently guilty of conflating America’s lack of social mobility with the Canadian experience in their calls for more wealth redistribution. The 2016 federal budget described a scenario of wage stagnation, social immobility, and economic anxiety that might reflect the circumstances in parts of the United States but resembles few communities in Canada. As one Canadian-born, U.S.-based scholar has put it: the American Dream seems to have migrated to Canada.

Canada’s median income had matched and now exceeds that of the United States.

Consider a 2014 New York Times project that found that while U.S. middle-class income growth had largely stalled over the past 30 years, it’s climbed by nearly 20% in Canada. The result is that, by 2010, Canada’s median income had matched and now exceeds that of the United States. It’s the reason the New York Times declared Canada the home of the world’s richest middle class.

Consider another study produced by TD Bank that shows Canada’s median household income went from lagging that of the U.S. in the mid-1970s to establishing a nearly 10% income advantage by 2010. It’s no surprise, then, that the authors described it as a “tale of two countries.”

The list goes on. Yet, despite this clear evidence of social mobility and wage growth in Canada, there’s a tendency among some politicians to attribute the American experience of immobility and stagnation to the Canadian context. The result is a set of policies – such as tax hikes on the wealthy – that don’t reflect the Canadian experience.

And this isn’t just a problem amongst liberals. It’s also increasingly a trend among conservatives who seem to see the potential conditions for Trumpism across the 49th parallel. Headlines such as “Trump a cautionary tale for conservatives” suggest that Canada is susceptible to Trump-like populism. This, too, is mostly a consequence of simply assigning U.S. facts and figures to Canada.

despite this clear evidence of social mobility and wage growth in Canada, there’s a tendency among some politicians to attribute the American experience of immobility and stagnation to the Canadian context.

One can argue about the various factors that’ve led to Donald Trump’s surprising political success but most would agree that the root causes – such as the dysfunctional U.S. immigration policy, concerns about free trade, and a nostalgia for a perceived golden era – are less evident here in Canada.

Reforms undertaken by the Harper government to reorient immigration policy to Canada’s economic needs and to enforce immigration rule-breaking have given Canadians more confidence in our system. Roughly six in 10 Canadians view trade as Canada’s top foreign policy priority even if support for specific deals is a bit lower. And the general mood of the country is positive, according to a series of different polls.

Moreover the type of socio-cultural and economic dislocation in parts of the U.S. (see for instance J.D. Vance’s recent book, Hillbilly Elegy, on the tragic decline in parts of the Appalachia) that has contributed to Trumpism is not present in Canada save perhaps for certain First Nations reserves.

This isn’t to say that Canada doesn’t have problems or that we shouldn’t be cognizant of the conditions that have led to social immobility or economic anxiety in the United States. But it is a caution that Canadian politics cannot take its bearings from the U.S., which is facing a unique set of challenges.

Sean Speer is a Munk Senior Fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute

Tags: Sean Speersocial mobilityTrump
Previous Post

MLI’s Leading Economic Indicator shows economy on the upswing in June

Next Post

Be prepared to be shocked by what the missing women inquiry uncovers: Ken Coates in the Ottawa Citizen

Related Posts

A new national news media policy could save Canadian journalism
Releases

A new national news media policy could save Canadian journalism

June 7, 2023
Papers

And now, the news: A national news media policy for Canada

June 7, 2023
Foreign Influence, A Perilous Tradition Unlike Any Other: Benjamin L. Schmitt for Inside Policy
Inside Policy

Foreign Influence, A Perilous Tradition Unlike Any Other: Benjamin L. Schmitt for Inside Policy

June 7, 2023
Next Post
Ken Coats

Be prepared to be shocked by what the missing women inquiry uncovers: Ken Coates in the Ottawa Citizen

Newsletter Signup

Follow us on

Macdonald-Laurier Institute

323 Chapel Street, Suite #300
Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 7Z2 Canada

613.482.8327

info@macdonaldlaurier.ca
MLI directory

Support Us

Support the Macdonald-Laurier Institute to help ensure that Canada is one of the best governed countries in the world. Click below to learn more or become a sponsor.

Support Us

  • Inside Policy Magazine
  • Annual Reports
  • Jobs
  • Privacy Policy

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Energy Policy Program
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • The Great Energy Crisis
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
    • Dragon at the Door
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Competition Policy in Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Justice Report Card
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Provincial COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
      • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Past Projects
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
      • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
      • Straight Talk
      • Labour Market Report
      • Leading Economic Indicator
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Online
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
    • Papers
    • Commentary
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Video
    • Podcasts

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

IDEAS CHANGE THE WORLD!Have the latest Canadian thought leadership delivered straight to your inbox.
First Name
Last Name
Email address

No thanks, I’m not interested.