Further evidence of Canada’s weakening economic position.
Canada has fallen three spots in the world economic competitiveness ranking.
The ranking – which is compiled by IMD – shows Canada in 13th place in 2019, down from 10th place in 2018.
Qatar, Luxembourg, and Ireland are now ahead of Canada.
Canada is only one spot above China – a centrally-run Communist State.
The top spot is held by Singapore, which jumped from third to first, followed by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region – which stayed in second, and the United States in third – a drop of two spots from 2018.
The ranking chart can be viewed below:
Specific category results
In the category of economic performance, the United States led, followed by mainland China and Qatar.
In government efficiency, the Hong Kong SAR was first, followed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Singapore.
In business efficiency, the UAE leads, followed by the Hong Kong SAR and Ireland.
And when it comes to infrastructure, the US takes the top spot, trailed by Switzerland and Denmark.
Canada doesn’t place in the top 5 in any of those categories.
Canada’s falling position is no surprise, considering the imposition of the carbon tax, the inability to get pipelines going, the failure of the Trudeau government’s infrastructure program, inter-provincial trade barriers, and the flight of investment out of the country.
And with the carbon tax set to keep going up – unless the Liberals are defeated – the negative impact on our competitiveness could get even worse.
While Canada still has tremendous potential assets, such as an intelligent and productive population, immense natural resources, and the US as our neighbour, those assets are being squandered by ineffective leadership that is more focused on restricting our development than increasing our prosperity.
To get a sense of the missed opportunity in Canada, consider what the IMD report says about the Middle East:
“A story of two halves in the region, as fossil fuel producers such as UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia climbed the rankings, while inflation had a negative impact on Turkey (51st) and Jordan (57th). Israel (24th) declined mainly because of a negative performance across different government efficiency indicators, such as its budget deficit.
Saudi Arabia achieved the biggest climb in the global rankings, up 13 places to 26th, despite a fall in its overall economic performance score. It registered the highest global ranking for investment in education and fared well in public and business finance.”
So, we see that the oil producing countries have watched their economies grow, with Saudi Arabia having the largest jump of all. Those countries are taking full advantage of their resource wealth, and much of that money is then being redirected back into the economy in a way that enables future growth.
In Canada meanwhile, we can’t even get one pipeline going, our industry is under attack from groups using foreign money and spreading foreign propaganda, and we are missing out on billions of dollars that could be going to strengthen our infrastructure, invest in healthcare and education, build up our depleted military, and reduce the tax burden on Canadians.
The IMD rankings are another reminder of our true economic potential as a nation, and how that potential is being squandered on a daily basis.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – YouTube
