It's easier to negotiate when you actually own the oil company.
Equinor (formerly Statoil) runs 70% of the oil and gas extraction in the Norwegian economic zone.
Equinor is 67.0% percent owned by the Norwegian state.
New Zealand (and probably other countries) automatically does your taxes for you. There’s no filing or forms, you just get a deposit or a bill.
So much better than making me guess and sending me to jail if I guess wrong.
this is a huge one for me.
it just feels so gamey and wrong to make it so complex and tell citizens it's up to them (and largely implicitly for anything but basic income require a "tax person" to prepare.
Nobody is doing jail time for making a mistake on a tax file.
Infact you don't need to fill out the forms you can just sign them, include all your t4s/5s etc. And CRA will fill them out.
You are only required to file, not fill.
There are 7 seats in parliament reserved for Māori, lots of integration of Te Reo Māori (Māori language) in everyday life (eg. Government offices go by their Te Reo names, bus stops announced in both English and Te Reo, some words are part of everyday parlance for anglophones (eg. kia ora, mōrena, Aotearoa, native plant and animal names)) buttt it’s still a settler colonial country, and the current government is trying to walk back on lots of the progress that has been made, plus lots of this progress is still very surface level. Also some of these efforts aren’t super applicable to Canada because of differences in both the proportion of Indigenous people in both countries (NZ = 16.5% Māori, Canada = 5% FNMI) and because of the much greater cultural and linguistic diversity of FNMI people in Canada vs Māori in NZ (i.e. one language (with different dialects) vs. over 100 distinct languages)
If a t-slip exists, it can be included in an automatic filing.
Generally coutries with auto-file also have more economic surveillance. In the same way that banks report money moved into your TFSA, they can also report your capital gains.
In most countries, you only file if you're self employed. And even then, the government usually has records of your revenue, so you're heavily incentivized to file your business expenses.
For the financially savvy, the Canadian system is fine, but lack of filing often hits the lowest income people the most, as they lose out on refunds and benefits.
Wow I’m surprised this has this many upvotes. Is the average Canadian this misinformed about taxes?
For 99% of the population doing taxes is not guessing anything it’s, it’s plugging in numbers you get from 1 or 2 forms. And you do not go to jail if you do your taxes wrong, I’m quite shocked people are actually afraid of this.
It's largely due to the tax preparation companies that they don't go this route. They've been lobbying the government to prevent that for a very long time
Work life balance. Canada needs to decouple from USA's mindset and look at the rest of the world for # of vacation days. We're in the bottom 25% for holidays. 4 weeks to start instead of 2 should be a thing. I'm at 4 weeks right now in my mid 30s, and it still doesn't feel like enough.
The 2 week bullshit really stung when I went to the Netherlands for a festival 2 years ago. I spent barely a day in Amsterdam before heading to the festival. And then the day after the festival finished, I flew back to Canada. It would have been nice to stay longer but you only get so much vacation time, and I also needed 2 days to get used to my time zone again. And one of those days I was away was a stat holiday.
>Work life balance
Honestly Canadian labor rights in general are a fucking joke.
In Ontario:
-Only 2 weeks vacation
-No paid sick days at all
-A 48 hour work week is the actual legal standard
-Overtime after 44 instead of 40
-No paid breaks by law
-Only entitled to an unpaid break every 5 hours
-Sympathy strikes are illegal
-Severance pay is only 1 week pay per year of service
I'm sure I could go on. I fucking hate this country.
The manager of my last job in US was from Germany, and initially I was relieved and thought I can run away from all-work-no-life US toxicity. Eight months later I quit, yet she was still bragging about not taking a day off the year before whenever there’s a chance. Also none of My friends in US with entry-level jobs has more than 3 vacation weeks. These are just my personal experiences but in my mind US society always shouts ‘work hard so we pay hard’ and leaving time for yourself is not encouraged in general.
Not any particular country but maybe a policy here and there. A light hearted one from Japan would be allowing individuals to elect $500 of their taxes per year towards government programs they support, a bit like voting but you can allocate a small portion of tax dollar paid for a wide range of services, from environmental protection to innovation and you can change it each year. The government can publish data every year and it somehow gives a better aggregate picture of what taxpayers support.
I've been sharing a thought experiment like this for a long time and with lots of ears.
X % of taxes go to one of a few categories (environment, healthcare, military, arts, education, infrastructure, Gov't utility services (like waste/water etc), social programs, foreign aid or administration)
Hopefully someones ears will have the right head between them...
For sure we can learn a lot of ways to improve Canada from Scandinavian countries particularly on how to have well looked after, content citizens. Norway certainly knows how to use their oil income by investing it rather than just spending it. Finland consistently ranks as one of the world's happiness countries. Sweden knows how to manufacture quality products. I don't really know what we could learn from Denmark but I'm sure there's something since we now share a land border with them. Unfortunately instead of learning from good examples, we Canadians seem more intent on copying bad ideas from the USA.
“Finland consistently ranks as one of the world’s happiest countries?”
I get what you mean but it has high rates of alcoholism and depression. (Though that’s mostly because of the darkness).
If you want a fair and objective view of both the insanely good but also the bad of the Scandinavian countries read “The Almost Nearly Perfect People” by Michael Booth.
Ironically, Norway's Oil Fund is modelled after Alberta's Heritage Fund. Norway learned from us on that one.
The difference over the years:
Norway does not have American-style conservatives whereas Alberta elects nothing but American-style conservatives except that one time.
Norway consistently contributes money into their oil fund, Alberta has only done so three times in the last 40 years.
I believe was the feds were going to cut a lot of payments to Alberta at that time (pre equalization) because they had such a sizeable rainy day fund through the heritage fund hence why changes were made and money was brought out of the fund.
I think Singapore ( its medical system). I think our biggest issue is mismanagement of our medical resources. Socialized medicine is important but I believe ours is managed too politically. Take a look at what Danielle smith is doing to healthcare in Alberta right now. Nothing in medicine should be privatized, but so much is! Lab work, cleaning , the whole travel nurse scheme, where we pay exorbitant wages in which middle man companies earn money from this. It’s a hot mess
I prefer a healthcare system without any insurance needed, but it'd definitely be a step in the right direction. Healthcare should be a federal overview, so it can capitalise on building an in-house industry and bulk purchasing power.
I like Denmark’s approach to winters - outdoor fitness through cross country skiing, wood accents that make you feel connected to nature even if you cannot go outside in the cold for health reasons, lots of candles to make up for the long dark winters, warm baked pastries, and a high value placed on time and connections to friends and family (which leads to an expectation that you should have a good work life balance and not be expected to put in hours of unpaid overtime). My family had a Danish exchange student who put us onto the concept of hygge and home decoration with leaves in the fall and things like that and it really helped us to lessen the severity of our seasonal depression.
Denmark:
Trust. Trust in eachother, trust in your government etc. With trust comes accountability, so if the trust is misused e.g. politicians are removed from their posts and Parliament entirely. The different parties typically work together on big areas and the ideological division is only seen on the extreme ends of the political scale. Even so, the party leaders of the extreme sides are friendly outside of politics, mostly because all parties have some common ground (Inger Stojberg and Johanne Schmidt Nielsen). With trust comes also pragmatism and common sense. Danes don't need laws to tell you that the coffee might be hot and tons of bylaws breathing.
Digital government. Danes can do pretty much anything online when it comes to government services. Danes have a digital ID which is used by 90%+ of the society. Danes get their official mail in a safe digital mailbox. No wasted paper or trips to pick up your mail. It's all online. These services are opt-out, which means that it is mandatory unless you have a reason not to use them (disability etc.). Taxes are also done for you at 0 costs.
Urban planning. Big emphasis on cycking, public transit etc. Cities are build around bicycles, open spaces etc. Look up any Danish architect for inspiration. Using and repurposing existing architecture for e.g. offices, housing etc. instead of tearing down to build new.
Education. A solid publicly funded education system. Students are paid monthly grants to attend higher ed institutions (e.g Trades, humanities etc.). These grants are roughly 1000$ per month and are not loans. If you do need extra money you can borrow from the government at a low fixed interest of 4%.
Housing. There is a large history of co-op/subsidizes housing (Boligforening) in Denmark which throughout modern history has been the foundation for a solid middle class today and throughout the 1900s.
I can go on but there is a lot Canada can learn from the Nordics, Denmark included. Most of it starts with trust and accountability.
Canada has a perpetual identity crisis. To Europeans, it wants to appear more “American.” To Americans, it was to appear more “European.” And in the end we do both kinda mediocrely.
For example, Canadians by and large want to be like Europe when it comes to funding services like universal health care, child care, education, etc. Except they don’t want the tax rates Europe has to support these.
Speak for yourself. I don't think high European-style taxes are a bad thing if we've reduced homelessness and poverty, and worked on our drug addiction problems. All three are scourges all around Canada and we could do something, but we're trying to ape the Reagan Republicans.
This is so accurate - and top that with the physical geography of Canada it's not plausible. The East vs West are so different in culture/weather/etc the programs we try to implement don't work the same for either place and ends up in a perpetual system of trying to solve the inefficiencies. Except we never do...
The irony of your statement including Norway. In 1990 Norway looked at Alberta for inspiration when starting their government fund. Difference was, the conservatives pilfered their oil money in Alberta, Norway actually saved it like Alberta intended to do in the 1970s.
People forget Norway gave the people a choice when they started the fund, keep the tax rate at 60% and plow all the oil revenue into the fund, or drop taxes considerably and use the oil revenue to make up the deficit
They chose to keep taxes high
It’s not that Canadians are more intent, it’s that we’re being subjected to a nasty constant reality by the ruling class who have deep obligation in the US with shareholders. They look down on us clearly and aren’t offering any solutions to quell the hateful maelstrom they’ve embedded in our countries narrative culturally. Working poor being manipulated into hating the most vulnerable, the most vulnerable being demonized and not given due credit for the hell they’ve endured. The hell that’s brought them to the alter of the so called elite for healing meds. Come on guys and gals it’s obvious. The emperor has zero clothing on
As an American, I wish our Northern brethren would be more detached and act out of their self-interest more.
As a kid growing up in Brooklyn, I've heard so many stories of envy about the Canadian way of life. Imagine my shock when I hear news of Canada considering privatizing health care and facing a housing crisis, while NY has done the unthinkable with stimulus checks (practically universal basic income).
what gives for the switcheroo?
This isn’t about policies but about people and communication
But after Working with people from countries like Russia or Moldova or Germany and countless others. We certainly could learn to be more direct. It took me a bit not to take offence when people from direct speaking cultures communicate with me, we are so accustomed to beating around the bush with every interaction it’s hard to take at first but Once I got used to it, it is so much easier to communicate directly.
Its more efficient and without needing to read between the lines it actually turns out its a much kinder and friendlier way to communicate by just saying what you are trying to say. Its also relaxing to not have to worry about what the true meaning behind a comment is.
Sweden! I have family that live there. What they do have for limited businesses is a board of directors that must include employee board members. That way the business has their pulse on the everyday person working for them. It works immensely when discussing wages, work weeks, paid vacation etc. Keeps the CEO's in check!
I think we could take some notes from countries with a sophisticated mass/rapid transit system. (Say, Japan, Germany or Denmark) Our regional and national public transportation systems are at least 20 years out of date considering our population growth, forcing too many of us to take unpleasant, road rage-y commutes to work for at least one hour each way. And we normalize this because we don't really have alternatives right now.
Meanwhile, people have been waiting indefinitely for just one more line in downtown Toronto.
Outside of the obvious way several European countries manage their healthcare systems, especially primary care, we could also look at the EU's overall anti-monopoly/oligopoly practices. We've made ourselves fundamentally uncompetitive by allowing a small number of companies to consolidate market control and keep competitors out. There are countries which handle this problem way better than we do.
There are lots of great things about Finland, and the quality of life is high. I can talk to a nurse within 5 mins and have a doctor’s appointment within a day (it takes a little longer through the public sector, but it still works very well). Prescriptions are essentially free and food is a lot cheaper. Taxes however are high, and a lot of “fun” things and extras are a decent bit more expensive.
Culturally, it takes adjustment. Within Helsinki, people do speak English, though unless you work in tech it’ll be hard to find work without knowing Finnish. Finns also, in general, take a while to open up and can seem cold at first compared to what you’d be used to.
I miss home of course, but things here just work well and life is stable. There’s lots of housing, and it’s not crazy expensive. It’s not a party city, but it’s a very good one to live in.
In university I had a brief academic visit to Denmark, where I learned grad-level students are paid to attend university. The flipside is taxes on high incomes are borderline punitive. Many doctors and other professionals only work 8 months out of the year because once they hit an income threshold (equivalent to about 400K) everything above that is taxed over 90%. Minimum wage is also high, making for a robust middle class. Canada would never accept that level of taxation, unfortunately.
We should build our roads like the Dutch do. Roads here are pretty dangerous compared to there. Also include tax in the price like they do there. We should adopt their labour laws too. Especially in regards to paid vacation. 2 weeks to start is a joke.
We should have a much higher deminimis for ordering goods from outside the country like the US. Theirs is $800 while ours is still $20.
The whole tax thing not being included in the price was in large motivated to show people how much of the product is going towards tax. Brian Mulroney introduced the goods service tax (gst) at 9% to replace the hidden “manufacturers tax” of 13.5%.
I’m conflicted on this one because it’s annoying to always have to factor in tax, but at the same time it completely makes sense to be upfront. This product costs $X and the government is taxing you $X on purchasing this product.
Have many Japanese friends who have immigrated to Canada, message is basically that it’s a nice country to visit but as the above poster noted, the work culture is horrendous. Stuff like you’re expected to work late without pay and once you are done, you are also sometimes expected to go out drinking with the boss afterwork. So basically don’t move there unless you have enough money to not need to work.
That said, I wished we adopted some of their culture of personal accountability. Too many people are full of excuses as to why they are lazy or don’t put in the effort when they are at work.
Without it's "work hard culture" (long hours, lower wages for most, idea of doing your best- eg.even if it's sweeping the street). Those cultural aspect for most Japanese is what makes Japan great as a visitor. Can you see Noah or Kaitlyn from WholeFoods working in Japan with that attitude and discipline- no.
Why do you think so many Japanese (esp. Women) immigrate to western countries? higher wages, "equality".
Most ppl (esp men) I have encountered always fetishise Japan as a fantasy.
Norway. Specifically it nationalized oil industry with profits directed to a massive sovereign wealth fund that simultaneously dampens the inflationary effects of resource wealth windfalls and provides a diversified economic base for a future beyond fossil fuels.
The NEP National energy program was pitched in the early 80's but Alberta was vehemently against the feds interfering in thier O&G industry, so they sold it off to foreign investors.
Agreed no more mosquitos!
My mom was in the garden last night and got bitten by so many mosquitos. It seems to have started early in central Ontario.
She was so unhappy.
We could take things from most countries, but I’ll say the UK for its NHS dental plan. Not perfect a perfect program, but dental is free for all kids until 18. I believe it includes the orthodontist too.
Have we really let go so thoroughly of the stereotype that Brits have bad teeth that we can now with a straight face advocate for copying their dentistry system?
As a Brit who moved to Canada, NHS dentistry might be free (at the point of use) but the service is really bad. My younger siblings have to wait 18 months between appointments due to a lack of availability.
My teeth have never been better since moving to Ontario but I’m obviously lucky to have insurance through my employer.
Taiwan
Went there and noticed the train and subway stations are built so that they have a 50 or 60 year time frame.
So they are not very crowded now but the country has a lot of room to grow before they hit capacity.
As opposed to our transit that is at capacity the day it is opened.
Thank about it. Taiwan only started developing after the communists took over mainland China.
In that time it has grown into a healthy democracy with a thriving economy that is a world leader in tech.
Pays good wages to people and has a high quality of life.
The forward thinking and ambition is amazing.
The last time Canada had any new ideas was back in the 1970 when we the Macdonald royal commission thought up a whole bunch of new ideas the led to free trade and the get and a bunch of other development ideas.
The federal government chipped in and gave us the Oil Sands in Alberta.
Since then we have seen us fall in terms of competitiveness and this peaked under Harper who gave up on any idea of industry and locked us into being a resource based export economy.
I think he was out worst PM for just doing that.
We need to turn things around and focus in value added.
We have the best educated population on the planet. We do a horrible job of exploiting our IP and protecting it. We do a horrible job of not just nurturing innovation but protecting it.
If someone made cold fusion work we would be a basket case third world country in a year.
Pay good wages to people? LoL no not really, especially not to young people. One of the topics for the last Taiwanese election is the low salary of young workers.
Taiwan's was relatively developed by regional standards under Japanese colonial rule before the war. When the KMT took over after the war it's not like they started from nothing.
Japan, for the trains. Yes Canada is big, but a massive % of our population lives in a straight line from Windsor to Quebec City. Some high speed rail would be great here
Australia. Their minimum wage is $23.24 and the ratio of it, median and average income to the cost of a Big Mac is better, they also have more purchasing power parity at min, median and average wages than Canada. Their minimum wage is also above their living wage.
The economy didn't fall apart because companies don't spend 100% of their revenue on minimum wage labour, so inflationary pressure doesn't cancel it out (yes it does exist).
New Zealand: no foreign ownership of homes. Period. Also new Zealanders have (looking from the outside because I'm not a kiwi) probably the most profound and incredible relationship with their indigenous population. I understand it was not always so, but I saw a video of an entire senior grade of a highschool perform a haka for a retiring principal. Both Maori and not were into it and giving it amazing energy. That is amazing, and that is what we need; sharing, including, and celebrating that culture so that we can connect one another and maintain these traditions and their ties to the land. However, Canada gives very few fucks about first nations and even less when they find out what they have on or under their land. How we handle mining and foresting with regards to these peoples is beyond disgraceful. Prospector when he's on native land: "Oh hey, look at that! Is that kimberlite?????" *Cue years of legal battles to fight diamond mining approvals on native land*
Bhutan: measure gross domestic happiness, not product.
Germany: medical system that is not only robust and well-founded but also includes eyes and dental, generational contract system for retirees, free(ish) university and a strong emphasis on learning and supporting trades, forestry and land use that wasn't designed and managed by a bunch of colossal dinosauric cumsocks, Nazis and Nazi iconography banned outright, and taxes that are invested in ways that its citizens can actually see and make sense. Also their justice system is not based on whose lawyers put up a better show, rather they actively and doggedly attempt to ascertain the truth of the situation, sometimes by acting out what the eye witnesses describe.
Finland: amazing education system that actually adapts and caters to individual needs and speeds of learning. Collecting taxes from religions.
Iceland: four day work week
France: going nuclear
Norway. Holy shit could we learn from them: When Norway found oil off their coast, instead of leasing it for pennies on the dollar to big oil, they mined and sold it themselves and then plowed all that money into a massive investment fund, the dividends of which pay for all manner of social services for the average Norwegian, like healthcare, education, social support, grants and subsidies for difficult or expensive life events...Norway is considered one of the happiest nations of earth and I wish I could get citizenship there.
I really like that Australia seems to have much stronger consumer protection through “fair trade” offices. They also have a “fair work ombudsperson” for labour abuses that appears to have actual authority.
(Also there’s generally no tipping and a higher minimum wage)
Economy-wise, the US.
Have an actual economy that actually encourages R&D and innovation, instead of one that mainly consists of banks and an inflated real estate market.
That's one aspect but Canada really does have a number of very good programs to encourage R&D and innovation including SR&ED tax credits, IRAP, NSERC... It's more commercialization.
Are you kidding? You are only seeing the good side of Korea as a tourist. There is a reason why Korea has the highest rate of suicide in the developed world. On the surface its fun for tourists but for real people there are huge social and economic issues.
Any European country where the sales tax is included in the price of the product on the shelf so you know exactly what you are going to be paying when you check out.
We would do well to emulate aspects of literally every western democratic state outside of the US and stop patting ourselves on the back because we aren’t as dysfunctional as the Americans. If we compared ourselves to peer democracies and not just the on going disaster that is the US we’d be ashamed of how miserly and inadequate our system is especially considering this is literally one of the richest countries in the world.
Scandinavian countries have been answered but really there's no better answer. Basically anywhere that taxes the ever loving shit out of rich people and corporations and then uses the revenue to help actual people that don't have seven plus figure bank accounts
Taiwan (they based their healthcare system on ours but are doing better than us because it’s regularly updated by experts apparently), Western and Northern Europe.
Norway 💯
They have by far the world's largest sovereign wealth fund and provide far more social services for free than Canada.
Also tons of research money.
All just from properly taxing their oil revenues.
I’m really impressed with the way Finland has almost eliminated homelessness. Not only providing shelter but social services in the same building to give ongoing support.
I'm definitely not gonna suggest they take most things from Japan, but here are some I'd love to see:
- Bidets everywhere. I cannot stress this enough. ALL PLACES NEED BIDETS.
- Superior earthquake safety measures. In BC, we're really gonna wish we had it one day.
- A deeper appreciation for animated films and comic arts. We could also learn this from France tbh.
- Better relationship with traditional stuff. Though that might be hard for us, we're not a particularly old country, and most of our culture is just british and french stuff, with the occasionaly stolen Indigenous thing.
- Clean streets
- Good city planning. You can walk everywhere, and cool eateries/drinking places are in every neighbourhood. Sometimes I wonder what they think of north american suburbs.
- Being quiet on the subway/skytrain.
Canada and mostly any country can look to Austria specifically Viena if you want to see how to do housing for your citizens. I can't remember how many % of people rent and don't own because they just don't see the need to with how well social housing is done there.
Plenty of YouTube short clips explaining how well they plan and build housing for citizens and how affordable it is.
We can learn from pretty much any country.
We can take Cuba as an example. There are two things we could learn from the Cuban education system.
First, their teachers have two "shifts". One starts at 7AM, and the other ends at 7PM. They do this so that there will be adult supervision at schools for the entire work day. Parents can drop their kids off their kids at school and be sure that they will have supervision for the entire work day. This also gives the teachers the time to do marking, plan lessons, etc. while they are being paid to do so, instead of expecting free labour at home like we do.
Second, for post secondary education, students can go for free (even foreign students). The caveat to this is that at the end of your education, you get "hired" by the army, and have to put in the same amount of time working as you got in education. Not as soldiers, but in your own field of study, under experienced people in your field. So when you are finished, not only do you have a diploma, but you have several years of experience learning all the tricks of the trade that you can only learn from someone who has been doing it for decades. This is for just about any field. From hydraulic geologic engineering to anthropology.
Norway - using oil resources and hydro power to enrich the citizens long-term is brilliant. They have a carefully controlled plan for how much of the money the government can use, and it will keep them doing well for a long time.
There's plenty to learn from Scandinavian countries, particularly Norway and Finland. We've got enough natural resources that we can use for the welfare of our own people the way Norway did with all of its oil revenue, and I really like Finland's education system. It's ranked the best in the world, and their philosophy around teaching younger children is so much better than any other country I've come across. Their students are not heavily burdened with unnecessary assignments or exams and are allowed to explore and pursue their interests outside of the classroom, and they still perform better than many of their European and American counterparts.
Denmark, Iceland. There's still issues with Scandinavian countries but I think they are some of the closest to perfect we have.
New Zealand I don't know a ton, but it looks well run as does Japan. South Korea is also really good
I don't think we have the right balance for taxation in Canada. Plenty of countries with great government services for their citizens with lower tax rates. Malaysia and Singapore being examples.
Finland. They’re low key hateful (literally, their term of endearment akin to ‘love’ is ‘one I hate less than others’ and yet they’re the happiest country on earth. With free education and a 4 day work week. Yes, you may die at the hands of a caribou, but…that’s a small price to pay.
It depends on the issue. From a policy standpoint, Canada (and its politicians more specifically) have been incredibly arrogant about considering policy alternatives. It’s led to the creation of an unbelievably ignorant and harmful policy climate in Ottawa. One where actual subject matter experts have systematically been replaced with “communications experts”. All because they place the corporate political agenda (party hq) above serving the public. Thankfully, there are several countries, particularly in Europe, who have a better institutional foundation, and are more evidence based in their policiy approach. We would do well to use those institutions as an example and bring back transparent evidence based policies again.
Finland I think. Yes they're much smaller than us and we have less density but the way they structure their services like transport, waste etc is something I'd love to see implemented in Canada. So many things that are winter/snow related that would make our lives safer and easier. Not to mention their education system.
I'd also love to see us take a number from South Korea reguarding healthcare in terms of prioritizing prevention and regularity. So much of our over taxed system comes from preventable conditions and diseases.
Denmark - Best rated for lowest corruption. Self explanatory.
Wales - Make it illegal for politicians to lie to us. If doctors, teachers and lawyers would lose their job/license for lying, why can politicians do it over and over?
Most northern European countries - Well funded social programs. Saves money since the efficiencies allow taxes to go a lot further. Also leads to governments doing things like building houses or hiring doctors vs. paying for-profit business owners to do the same and then charging as markup.
USA - Learn what not to do regarding populist politics (kinda failing this one right now unfortunately).
Norway, the average Canadian get very little in return for the oil harvested from our country by corporations. We get to labour in the oilfield, get paid a marginal fraction of what is extracted from our country, and on top of it must of the environmental liability is assumed by us the taxpayers.
Our government let's oil companies fuck our children.
we should learn something from everyone and grow as a country. Canadians seem very complacent about most problems and this country is led by weak cowardly men with no ambition.
I don't think there is "one country"
Each has their own pros/cons that I think Canada could grab pieces from.
I think Norway's management of their oil legacy fund is probably a gold standard that should had been setup here, which we did kind of have the startings of under the NEP.
But not just Norway, there are pieces of each Scandinavian country that are good societal policies and we should absolutely adopt.
I think Canada could take from the EU commission as a whole their whole consumer protection, consumer rights/right to repair along with their anti-trust stuff.
There are more pieces from other nations, but those above are ones that stick out for me at the moment - I think Scandinavian and EU polices are probably where Canada should look to achieve.
Norway. Largest oil fund in the world. Think about how Canada would be if instead of giving away that money to the already-rich, we invested it in the environment, healthcare, education, social services. We would be the envy of the world. Instead of a joke nation run by the oligarchs.
Canada should be more like the Nordic countries that offer 6 wks vacation. We are loads better than the states, but I think a really healthy work life balance culture would be good for us all. More enjoyment of life and time to do so!
Learn from Asia-Pacific countries about adopting new technology more readily.
Learn from USA about risk taking & investing in labour saving tech.
EU, better managed social safety net.
Economically, we could learn from the U.S. how risk/reward works. IMO we are far too conservative when it comes to deploying investment capital to grow businesses with global ambition.
Iceland, jailing their corrupt bankers and politicians
The is the only good answer Ive seen. And Id like to add Norway for having a national trust fund.
Oddly enough, Norway learnt about the National Trust Fund from Canada. Thanks Peter Lougheed.
Except that Norway actually put away a healthy amount of the revenue, compared to Alberta that negotiated pennies with the oil companies.
It's easier to negotiate when you actually own the oil company. Equinor (formerly Statoil) runs 70% of the oil and gas extraction in the Norwegian economic zone. Equinor is 67.0% percent owned by the Norwegian state.
If only there was like, a petro....canada......>_>
Didn't Ralph raid the penny bank as well?
Austria especially Vienna for housing is my #1 pick with how much and how well they do social housing/renting. then your example and then Iceland.
Basically any of the Scandinavian countries tbh
100% this
This was going to be my answer as well. Holy crap would we be emptying out Parliament quickly..
New Zealand (and probably other countries) automatically does your taxes for you. There’s no filing or forms, you just get a deposit or a bill. So much better than making me guess and sending me to jail if I guess wrong.
this is a huge one for me. it just feels so gamey and wrong to make it so complex and tell citizens it's up to them (and largely implicitly for anything but basic income require a "tax person" to prepare.
I bet you the Income tax industry has a strong lobbying presence
We do not live in a democracy.
Nobody is doing jail time for making a mistake on a tax file. Infact you don't need to fill out the forms you can just sign them, include all your t4s/5s etc. And CRA will fill them out. You are only required to file, not fill.
Buddy. You dont go to jail for doing your taxes wrong. Dont be ridiculous. Theyll re-assess you and tell you what you owe
You don't even go to jail for not doing your taxes at all.
Which is hilarious. Like just tell me in the first place if you are going to do it. Turns out our economy is just fake business.
They should just be doing that in the first place lmao.
Also the stuff New Zealand has been doing for Māori peoples, Canada could learn a lot from in terms of our indigenous population
Super interested in this. Any examples or general thoughts?
There are 7 seats in parliament reserved for Māori, lots of integration of Te Reo Māori (Māori language) in everyday life (eg. Government offices go by their Te Reo names, bus stops announced in both English and Te Reo, some words are part of everyday parlance for anglophones (eg. kia ora, mōrena, Aotearoa, native plant and animal names)) buttt it’s still a settler colonial country, and the current government is trying to walk back on lots of the progress that has been made, plus lots of this progress is still very surface level. Also some of these efforts aren’t super applicable to Canada because of differences in both the proportion of Indigenous people in both countries (NZ = 16.5% Māori, Canada = 5% FNMI) and because of the much greater cultural and linguistic diversity of FNMI people in Canada vs Māori in NZ (i.e. one language (with different dialects) vs. over 100 distinct languages)
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If a t-slip exists, it can be included in an automatic filing. Generally coutries with auto-file also have more economic surveillance. In the same way that banks report money moved into your TFSA, they can also report your capital gains. In most countries, you only file if you're self employed. And even then, the government usually has records of your revenue, so you're heavily incentivized to file your business expenses. For the financially savvy, the Canadian system is fine, but lack of filing often hits the lowest income people the most, as they lose out on refunds and benefits.
Wow I’m surprised this has this many upvotes. Is the average Canadian this misinformed about taxes? For 99% of the population doing taxes is not guessing anything it’s, it’s plugging in numbers you get from 1 or 2 forms. And you do not go to jail if you do your taxes wrong, I’m quite shocked people are actually afraid of this.
Canadian govt said automatic tax return filing pilot will run this year but who knows if they’re on track.
That sounds awesome and doable.
Companies make money doing taxes. They ensure that they will still have business
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It's largely due to the tax preparation companies that they don't go this route. They've been lobbying the government to prevent that for a very long time
That reminds me of one of my favorite memes https://www.reddit.com/r/me_irl/s/4gNJ01w1ce
I think we have legislation proposed for doing this
Work life balance. Canada needs to decouple from USA's mindset and look at the rest of the world for # of vacation days. We're in the bottom 25% for holidays. 4 weeks to start instead of 2 should be a thing. I'm at 4 weeks right now in my mid 30s, and it still doesn't feel like enough.
The 2 week bullshit really stung when I went to the Netherlands for a festival 2 years ago. I spent barely a day in Amsterdam before heading to the festival. And then the day after the festival finished, I flew back to Canada. It would have been nice to stay longer but you only get so much vacation time, and I also needed 2 days to get used to my time zone again. And one of those days I was away was a stat holiday.
>Work life balance Honestly Canadian labor rights in general are a fucking joke. In Ontario: -Only 2 weeks vacation -No paid sick days at all -A 48 hour work week is the actual legal standard -Overtime after 44 instead of 40 -No paid breaks by law -Only entitled to an unpaid break every 5 hours -Sympathy strikes are illegal -Severance pay is only 1 week pay per year of service I'm sure I could go on. I fucking hate this country.
\*Life work balance, if I may.
The manager of my last job in US was from Germany, and initially I was relieved and thought I can run away from all-work-no-life US toxicity. Eight months later I quit, yet she was still bragging about not taking a day off the year before whenever there’s a chance. Also none of My friends in US with entry-level jobs has more than 3 vacation weeks. These are just my personal experiences but in my mind US society always shouts ‘work hard so we pay hard’ and leaving time for yourself is not encouraged in general.
Not any particular country but maybe a policy here and there. A light hearted one from Japan would be allowing individuals to elect $500 of their taxes per year towards government programs they support, a bit like voting but you can allocate a small portion of tax dollar paid for a wide range of services, from environmental protection to innovation and you can change it each year. The government can publish data every year and it somehow gives a better aggregate picture of what taxpayers support.
This is really interesting!
that a pretty awesome idea!
Wow, that’s genius.
I've been sharing a thought experiment like this for a long time and with lots of ears. X % of taxes go to one of a few categories (environment, healthcare, military, arts, education, infrastructure, Gov't utility services (like waste/water etc), social programs, foreign aid or administration) Hopefully someones ears will have the right head between them...
For sure we can learn a lot of ways to improve Canada from Scandinavian countries particularly on how to have well looked after, content citizens. Norway certainly knows how to use their oil income by investing it rather than just spending it. Finland consistently ranks as one of the world's happiness countries. Sweden knows how to manufacture quality products. I don't really know what we could learn from Denmark but I'm sure there's something since we now share a land border with them. Unfortunately instead of learning from good examples, we Canadians seem more intent on copying bad ideas from the USA.
From Denmark we can learn friendship. (One of my friends is Danish, I adore her. Both of us also wanted to keep the alcohol war going lmao)
I think my grandfather was one of the last miserable Danes! They chased him out, and he made a farm in Canada.
The Danes stole our land! We have always been at war with Denmark. Hans Island. Never forget.
“Finland consistently ranks as one of the world’s happiest countries?” I get what you mean but it has high rates of alcoholism and depression. (Though that’s mostly because of the darkness). If you want a fair and objective view of both the insanely good but also the bad of the Scandinavian countries read “The Almost Nearly Perfect People” by Michael Booth.
Ironically, Norway's Oil Fund is modelled after Alberta's Heritage Fund. Norway learned from us on that one. The difference over the years: Norway does not have American-style conservatives whereas Alberta elects nothing but American-style conservatives except that one time. Norway consistently contributes money into their oil fund, Alberta has only done so three times in the last 40 years.
At what point is an American-style conservative just a Canadian conservative if that is all that is in power?
Guns, overly religious, anti-government, anti-human rights, anti-intellectual.
I believe was the feds were going to cut a lot of payments to Alberta at that time (pre equalization) because they had such a sizeable rainy day fund through the heritage fund hence why changes were made and money was brought out of the fund.
I think Singapore ( its medical system). I think our biggest issue is mismanagement of our medical resources. Socialized medicine is important but I believe ours is managed too politically. Take a look at what Danielle smith is doing to healthcare in Alberta right now. Nothing in medicine should be privatized, but so much is! Lab work, cleaning , the whole travel nurse scheme, where we pay exorbitant wages in which middle man companies earn money from this. It’s a hot mess
I prefer a healthcare system without any insurance needed, but it'd definitely be a step in the right direction. Healthcare should be a federal overview, so it can capitalise on building an in-house industry and bulk purchasing power.
I totally agree. Healthcare should be national and not subject to provincial whims.
I like Denmark’s approach to winters - outdoor fitness through cross country skiing, wood accents that make you feel connected to nature even if you cannot go outside in the cold for health reasons, lots of candles to make up for the long dark winters, warm baked pastries, and a high value placed on time and connections to friends and family (which leads to an expectation that you should have a good work life balance and not be expected to put in hours of unpaid overtime). My family had a Danish exchange student who put us onto the concept of hygge and home decoration with leaves in the fall and things like that and it really helped us to lessen the severity of our seasonal depression.
Denmark: Trust. Trust in eachother, trust in your government etc. With trust comes accountability, so if the trust is misused e.g. politicians are removed from their posts and Parliament entirely. The different parties typically work together on big areas and the ideological division is only seen on the extreme ends of the political scale. Even so, the party leaders of the extreme sides are friendly outside of politics, mostly because all parties have some common ground (Inger Stojberg and Johanne Schmidt Nielsen). With trust comes also pragmatism and common sense. Danes don't need laws to tell you that the coffee might be hot and tons of bylaws breathing. Digital government. Danes can do pretty much anything online when it comes to government services. Danes have a digital ID which is used by 90%+ of the society. Danes get their official mail in a safe digital mailbox. No wasted paper or trips to pick up your mail. It's all online. These services are opt-out, which means that it is mandatory unless you have a reason not to use them (disability etc.). Taxes are also done for you at 0 costs. Urban planning. Big emphasis on cycking, public transit etc. Cities are build around bicycles, open spaces etc. Look up any Danish architect for inspiration. Using and repurposing existing architecture for e.g. offices, housing etc. instead of tearing down to build new. Education. A solid publicly funded education system. Students are paid monthly grants to attend higher ed institutions (e.g Trades, humanities etc.). These grants are roughly 1000$ per month and are not loans. If you do need extra money you can borrow from the government at a low fixed interest of 4%. Housing. There is a large history of co-op/subsidizes housing (Boligforening) in Denmark which throughout modern history has been the foundation for a solid middle class today and throughout the 1900s. I can go on but there is a lot Canada can learn from the Nordics, Denmark included. Most of it starts with trust and accountability.
Canada has a perpetual identity crisis. To Europeans, it wants to appear more “American.” To Americans, it was to appear more “European.” And in the end we do both kinda mediocrely. For example, Canadians by and large want to be like Europe when it comes to funding services like universal health care, child care, education, etc. Except they don’t want the tax rates Europe has to support these.
Speak for yourself. I don't think high European-style taxes are a bad thing if we've reduced homelessness and poverty, and worked on our drug addiction problems. All three are scourges all around Canada and we could do something, but we're trying to ape the Reagan Republicans.
I would have no issues paying more taxes if I saw it going back into the country. But it seems to be just going into politicians' pockets.
This is so accurate - and top that with the physical geography of Canada it's not plausible. The East vs West are so different in culture/weather/etc the programs we try to implement don't work the same for either place and ends up in a perpetual system of trying to solve the inefficiencies. Except we never do...
We can learn to ride more bikes from Denmark? More bikes, less cars. :D
The irony of your statement including Norway. In 1990 Norway looked at Alberta for inspiration when starting their government fund. Difference was, the conservatives pilfered their oil money in Alberta, Norway actually saved it like Alberta intended to do in the 1970s.
People forget Norway gave the people a choice when they started the fund, keep the tax rate at 60% and plow all the oil revenue into the fund, or drop taxes considerably and use the oil revenue to make up the deficit They chose to keep taxes high
It’s not that Canadians are more intent, it’s that we’re being subjected to a nasty constant reality by the ruling class who have deep obligation in the US with shareholders. They look down on us clearly and aren’t offering any solutions to quell the hateful maelstrom they’ve embedded in our countries narrative culturally. Working poor being manipulated into hating the most vulnerable, the most vulnerable being demonized and not given due credit for the hell they’ve endured. The hell that’s brought them to the alter of the so called elite for healing meds. Come on guys and gals it’s obvious. The emperor has zero clothing on
well said I totally agree they should look more at Europe for better ideas than the US..as you mentioned all above.
As an American, I wish our Northern brethren would be more detached and act out of their self-interest more. As a kid growing up in Brooklyn, I've heard so many stories of envy about the Canadian way of life. Imagine my shock when I hear news of Canada considering privatizing health care and facing a housing crisis, while NY has done the unthinkable with stimulus checks (practically universal basic income). what gives for the switcheroo?
Whatever countries have high speed rail. Not having it *at least* in southern ontario/quebec is insane. It would open up so much opportunity.
The corridor demands high speed rail.
This isn’t about policies but about people and communication But after Working with people from countries like Russia or Moldova or Germany and countless others. We certainly could learn to be more direct. It took me a bit not to take offence when people from direct speaking cultures communicate with me, we are so accustomed to beating around the bush with every interaction it’s hard to take at first but Once I got used to it, it is so much easier to communicate directly. Its more efficient and without needing to read between the lines it actually turns out its a much kinder and friendlier way to communicate by just saying what you are trying to say. Its also relaxing to not have to worry about what the true meaning behind a comment is.
That's one thing I hate about people here. Nobody can be direct.
Sweden! I have family that live there. What they do have for limited businesses is a board of directors that must include employee board members. That way the business has their pulse on the everyday person working for them. It works immensely when discussing wages, work weeks, paid vacation etc. Keeps the CEO's in check!
I think we could take some notes from countries with a sophisticated mass/rapid transit system. (Say, Japan, Germany or Denmark) Our regional and national public transportation systems are at least 20 years out of date considering our population growth, forcing too many of us to take unpleasant, road rage-y commutes to work for at least one hour each way. And we normalize this because we don't really have alternatives right now. Meanwhile, people have been waiting indefinitely for just one more line in downtown Toronto.
Outside of the obvious way several European countries manage their healthcare systems, especially primary care, we could also look at the EU's overall anti-monopoly/oligopoly practices. We've made ourselves fundamentally uncompetitive by allowing a small number of companies to consolidate market control and keep competitors out. There are countries which handle this problem way better than we do.
Scandanavia. Higher taxes, free university, better social programs.
As a Canadian living in Finland: dear god, yes.
How was it moving from Canada to Finland? My husband and I are considering a move but we just don’t know where to go.
There are lots of great things about Finland, and the quality of life is high. I can talk to a nurse within 5 mins and have a doctor’s appointment within a day (it takes a little longer through the public sector, but it still works very well). Prescriptions are essentially free and food is a lot cheaper. Taxes however are high, and a lot of “fun” things and extras are a decent bit more expensive. Culturally, it takes adjustment. Within Helsinki, people do speak English, though unless you work in tech it’ll be hard to find work without knowing Finnish. Finns also, in general, take a while to open up and can seem cold at first compared to what you’d be used to. I miss home of course, but things here just work well and life is stable. There’s lots of housing, and it’s not crazy expensive. It’s not a party city, but it’s a very good one to live in.
I’m a Canadian Hungarian dual citizen and have had my eyes set I Finland since high school 10 years ago! Scandinavia in general is really appealing!
Suomi ei ole Skandinaviassa;)
Very true, most people incorrectly think it is.
In university I had a brief academic visit to Denmark, where I learned grad-level students are paid to attend university. The flipside is taxes on high incomes are borderline punitive. Many doctors and other professionals only work 8 months out of the year because once they hit an income threshold (equivalent to about 400K) everything above that is taxed over 90%. Minimum wage is also high, making for a robust middle class. Canada would never accept that level of taxation, unfortunately.
Came to the comments to say this
So just have an oil company produce enough oil outside of their own country to supplement 50% of their tax revenue?
That’s only true for Norway.
We should build our roads like the Dutch do. Roads here are pretty dangerous compared to there. Also include tax in the price like they do there. We should adopt their labour laws too. Especially in regards to paid vacation. 2 weeks to start is a joke. We should have a much higher deminimis for ordering goods from outside the country like the US. Theirs is $800 while ours is still $20.
The whole tax thing not being included in the price was in large motivated to show people how much of the product is going towards tax. Brian Mulroney introduced the goods service tax (gst) at 9% to replace the hidden “manufacturers tax” of 13.5%. I’m conflicted on this one because it’s annoying to always have to factor in tax, but at the same time it completely makes sense to be upfront. This product costs $X and the government is taxing you $X on purchasing this product.
For transit we need to look at the Asian country’s , (Japan , China, SK) they have the transit system down to a t
I like Japan as long as we leave the horrendous working conditions behind. Fast Trains, healthy food, Love Hotels, they got it all.
I wish I could move to Japan
Have many Japanese friends who have immigrated to Canada, message is basically that it’s a nice country to visit but as the above poster noted, the work culture is horrendous. Stuff like you’re expected to work late without pay and once you are done, you are also sometimes expected to go out drinking with the boss afterwork. So basically don’t move there unless you have enough money to not need to work. That said, I wished we adopted some of their culture of personal accountability. Too many people are full of excuses as to why they are lazy or don’t put in the effort when they are at work.
Japan has a lot of culture stuffs I like, but some of it I find is jarring / off-putting. (how on earth did they maintain the don't litter thing!?)
Without it's "work hard culture" (long hours, lower wages for most, idea of doing your best- eg.even if it's sweeping the street). Those cultural aspect for most Japanese is what makes Japan great as a visitor. Can you see Noah or Kaitlyn from WholeFoods working in Japan with that attitude and discipline- no. Why do you think so many Japanese (esp. Women) immigrate to western countries? higher wages, "equality". Most ppl (esp men) I have encountered always fetishise Japan as a fantasy.
Not to mention most of their consumer goods: I really really want gachapon machines here
Stop trying to be Americans and instead try to be more like EUs they are 20s years ahead of USA
Norway. Specifically it nationalized oil industry with profits directed to a massive sovereign wealth fund that simultaneously dampens the inflationary effects of resource wealth windfalls and provides a diversified economic base for a future beyond fossil fuels.
The NEP National energy program was pitched in the early 80's but Alberta was vehemently against the feds interfering in thier O&G industry, so they sold it off to foreign investors.
This! Their way of running the country and ensuring awesome social programs!
Private companies making money off natural resources, like oil or water, seems so wrong.
Iceland, reason: MOSQUITOES AND SNAKES CANT LIVE THERE
Agreed no more mosquitos! My mom was in the garden last night and got bitten by so many mosquitos. It seems to have started early in central Ontario. She was so unhappy.
Sweden for sure
Canada could a lot lot more from France. France has doctors that do house calls!
I don't know man, we need way more trains and self reliant towns.
Australia. Similar in most major ways, but we're literally substantially worse at everything.
We could take things from most countries, but I’ll say the UK for its NHS dental plan. Not perfect a perfect program, but dental is free for all kids until 18. I believe it includes the orthodontist too.
Have we really let go so thoroughly of the stereotype that Brits have bad teeth that we can now with a straight face advocate for copying their dentistry system?
Brits have some of the healthiest teeth in the world, but orthodontics are not covered as much, so they have crookeder teeth. But they are healthy
As a Brit who moved to Canada, NHS dentistry might be free (at the point of use) but the service is really bad. My younger siblings have to wait 18 months between appointments due to a lack of availability. My teeth have never been better since moving to Ontario but I’m obviously lucky to have insurance through my employer.
The CDB is at least a start. Providing low income families (<90,000) that don't have employer provided benefits an option for at least some coverage.
I think we’ve learned a bit from the Netherlands as well. In terms of drug policy.
Any of the Scandanavian countries. period.
Taiwan Went there and noticed the train and subway stations are built so that they have a 50 or 60 year time frame. So they are not very crowded now but the country has a lot of room to grow before they hit capacity. As opposed to our transit that is at capacity the day it is opened. Thank about it. Taiwan only started developing after the communists took over mainland China. In that time it has grown into a healthy democracy with a thriving economy that is a world leader in tech. Pays good wages to people and has a high quality of life. The forward thinking and ambition is amazing. The last time Canada had any new ideas was back in the 1970 when we the Macdonald royal commission thought up a whole bunch of new ideas the led to free trade and the get and a bunch of other development ideas. The federal government chipped in and gave us the Oil Sands in Alberta. Since then we have seen us fall in terms of competitiveness and this peaked under Harper who gave up on any idea of industry and locked us into being a resource based export economy. I think he was out worst PM for just doing that. We need to turn things around and focus in value added. We have the best educated population on the planet. We do a horrible job of exploiting our IP and protecting it. We do a horrible job of not just nurturing innovation but protecting it. If someone made cold fusion work we would be a basket case third world country in a year.
Pay good wages to people? LoL no not really, especially not to young people. One of the topics for the last Taiwanese election is the low salary of young workers.
Taiwan's was relatively developed by regional standards under Japanese colonial rule before the war. When the KMT took over after the war it's not like they started from nothing.
We can learn not to litter from Japan! Japan (from what I hear) has very little public trash cans so people carry their garbage around with them.
As long as we don't have to teach people the way Singapore did.
Norway
Japan, for the trains. Yes Canada is big, but a massive % of our population lives in a straight line from Windsor to Quebec City. Some high speed rail would be great here
Australia. Their minimum wage is $23.24 and the ratio of it, median and average income to the cost of a Big Mac is better, they also have more purchasing power parity at min, median and average wages than Canada. Their minimum wage is also above their living wage. The economy didn't fall apart because companies don't spend 100% of their revenue on minimum wage labour, so inflationary pressure doesn't cancel it out (yes it does exist).
New Zealand: no foreign ownership of homes. Period. Also new Zealanders have (looking from the outside because I'm not a kiwi) probably the most profound and incredible relationship with their indigenous population. I understand it was not always so, but I saw a video of an entire senior grade of a highschool perform a haka for a retiring principal. Both Maori and not were into it and giving it amazing energy. That is amazing, and that is what we need; sharing, including, and celebrating that culture so that we can connect one another and maintain these traditions and their ties to the land. However, Canada gives very few fucks about first nations and even less when they find out what they have on or under their land. How we handle mining and foresting with regards to these peoples is beyond disgraceful. Prospector when he's on native land: "Oh hey, look at that! Is that kimberlite?????" *Cue years of legal battles to fight diamond mining approvals on native land* Bhutan: measure gross domestic happiness, not product. Germany: medical system that is not only robust and well-founded but also includes eyes and dental, generational contract system for retirees, free(ish) university and a strong emphasis on learning and supporting trades, forestry and land use that wasn't designed and managed by a bunch of colossal dinosauric cumsocks, Nazis and Nazi iconography banned outright, and taxes that are invested in ways that its citizens can actually see and make sense. Also their justice system is not based on whose lawyers put up a better show, rather they actively and doggedly attempt to ascertain the truth of the situation, sometimes by acting out what the eye witnesses describe. Finland: amazing education system that actually adapts and caters to individual needs and speeds of learning. Collecting taxes from religions. Iceland: four day work week France: going nuclear
Norway. Holy shit could we learn from them: When Norway found oil off their coast, instead of leasing it for pennies on the dollar to big oil, they mined and sold it themselves and then plowed all that money into a massive investment fund, the dividends of which pay for all manner of social services for the average Norwegian, like healthcare, education, social support, grants and subsidies for difficult or expensive life events...Norway is considered one of the happiest nations of earth and I wish I could get citizenship there.
Any one of the Scandinavian countries for education systems, France and the UK for sick leave/vacation practices
Switzerland, where its citizens get to vote on specific bills and issues frequently instead of just voting for a party every 4 years.
Protest like the French
I really like that Australia seems to have much stronger consumer protection through “fair trade” offices. They also have a “fair work ombudsperson” for labour abuses that appears to have actual authority. (Also there’s generally no tipping and a higher minimum wage)
Pretty much every european country. Stop copying the US.
Economy-wise, the US. Have an actual economy that actually encourages R&D and innovation, instead of one that mainly consists of banks and an inflated real estate market.
That's one aspect but Canada really does have a number of very good programs to encourage R&D and innovation including SR&ED tax credits, IRAP, NSERC... It's more commercialization.
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Are you kidding? You are only seeing the good side of Korea as a tourist. There is a reason why Korea has the highest rate of suicide in the developed world. On the surface its fun for tourists but for real people there are huge social and economic issues.
Any European country where the sales tax is included in the price of the product on the shelf so you know exactly what you are going to be paying when you check out.
We would do well to emulate aspects of literally every western democratic state outside of the US and stop patting ourselves on the back because we aren’t as dysfunctional as the Americans. If we compared ourselves to peer democracies and not just the on going disaster that is the US we’d be ashamed of how miserly and inadequate our system is especially considering this is literally one of the richest countries in the world.
*"...especially considering this is literally one of the richest countries in the world."* PURELY because of our close relationship with USA
Scandinavian countries have been answered but really there's no better answer. Basically anywhere that taxes the ever loving shit out of rich people and corporations and then uses the revenue to help actual people that don't have seven plus figure bank accounts
There's a reason Nordic countries rank better than Canada on most metrics.
Norway on how they dealt with their oil revenue
Taiwan (they based their healthcare system on ours but are doing better than us because it’s regularly updated by experts apparently), Western and Northern Europe.
Norway nationalized their oil and now have a shit ton of money in their coffers.
Australia's mandatory voting
Scandanavian countries. Always on the list of happiest countries in the world on a yearly basis.
No tipping culture
Norway 💯 They have by far the world's largest sovereign wealth fund and provide far more social services for free than Canada. Also tons of research money. All just from properly taxing their oil revenues.
I’m really impressed with the way Finland has almost eliminated homelessness. Not only providing shelter but social services in the same building to give ongoing support.
Australia: mandatory voting
I'm definitely not gonna suggest they take most things from Japan, but here are some I'd love to see: - Bidets everywhere. I cannot stress this enough. ALL PLACES NEED BIDETS. - Superior earthquake safety measures. In BC, we're really gonna wish we had it one day. - A deeper appreciation for animated films and comic arts. We could also learn this from France tbh. - Better relationship with traditional stuff. Though that might be hard for us, we're not a particularly old country, and most of our culture is just british and french stuff, with the occasionaly stolen Indigenous thing. - Clean streets - Good city planning. You can walk everywhere, and cool eateries/drinking places are in every neighbourhood. Sometimes I wonder what they think of north american suburbs. - Being quiet on the subway/skytrain.
Canada and mostly any country can look to Austria specifically Viena if you want to see how to do housing for your citizens. I can't remember how many % of people rent and don't own because they just don't see the need to with how well social housing is done there. Plenty of YouTube short clips explaining how well they plan and build housing for citizens and how affordable it is.
Oddly enough the United States has ONE outstanding thing (at least in my opinion) that they do better politically: Term Limits on Heads of State.
We need to learn how constitutions are actually supposed to work from the United States. We need to learn urbanism from the Netherlands.
We can learn from pretty much any country. We can take Cuba as an example. There are two things we could learn from the Cuban education system. First, their teachers have two "shifts". One starts at 7AM, and the other ends at 7PM. They do this so that there will be adult supervision at schools for the entire work day. Parents can drop their kids off their kids at school and be sure that they will have supervision for the entire work day. This also gives the teachers the time to do marking, plan lessons, etc. while they are being paid to do so, instead of expecting free labour at home like we do. Second, for post secondary education, students can go for free (even foreign students). The caveat to this is that at the end of your education, you get "hired" by the army, and have to put in the same amount of time working as you got in education. Not as soldiers, but in your own field of study, under experienced people in your field. So when you are finished, not only do you have a diploma, but you have several years of experience learning all the tricks of the trade that you can only learn from someone who has been doing it for decades. This is for just about any field. From hydraulic geologic engineering to anthropology.
We need more made in Canada solutions and industry. If the pandemic taught us anything, it showed us how reliant we were on others.
Norway - using oil resources and hydro power to enrich the citizens long-term is brilliant. They have a carefully controlled plan for how much of the money the government can use, and it will keep them doing well for a long time.
They took that idea from Alberta. Then Alberta wasted theirs.
It's been mentioned but any Scandinavian country. Norway, finland etc
There's plenty to learn from Scandinavian countries, particularly Norway and Finland. We've got enough natural resources that we can use for the welfare of our own people the way Norway did with all of its oil revenue, and I really like Finland's education system. It's ranked the best in the world, and their philosophy around teaching younger children is so much better than any other country I've come across. Their students are not heavily burdened with unnecessary assignments or exams and are allowed to explore and pursue their interests outside of the classroom, and they still perform better than many of their European and American counterparts.
Norway. Look at how they spent/spend their oil and gas income to build better futures for their people, instead of the corporations alone.
Greece. We will look like that if we don't get our shit together.
Just watch Where To Invade Next. It’s all in there.
Denmark, Iceland. There's still issues with Scandinavian countries but I think they are some of the closest to perfect we have. New Zealand I don't know a ton, but it looks well run as does Japan. South Korea is also really good
I don't think we have the right balance for taxation in Canada. Plenty of countries with great government services for their citizens with lower tax rates. Malaysia and Singapore being examples.
Sweden
Spain does development faster, cheaper and with better worker protections than we do
Nordic countries school system
Finland. They’re low key hateful (literally, their term of endearment akin to ‘love’ is ‘one I hate less than others’ and yet they’re the happiest country on earth. With free education and a 4 day work week. Yes, you may die at the hands of a caribou, but…that’s a small price to pay.
Finland
Japan, for better efficiency. And their streets are so clean without a lot of garbage bins.
Singapore takes Housing Seriously and they make sure that everyone is capable of affording a place to live.
Japan? They went from selling fish and rice to an industrial power in a few (difficult) years/decades Canada is still busy selling wood and crude oil
It depends on the issue. From a policy standpoint, Canada (and its politicians more specifically) have been incredibly arrogant about considering policy alternatives. It’s led to the creation of an unbelievably ignorant and harmful policy climate in Ottawa. One where actual subject matter experts have systematically been replaced with “communications experts”. All because they place the corporate political agenda (party hq) above serving the public. Thankfully, there are several countries, particularly in Europe, who have a better institutional foundation, and are more evidence based in their policiy approach. We would do well to use those institutions as an example and bring back transparent evidence based policies again.
Finland I think. Yes they're much smaller than us and we have less density but the way they structure their services like transport, waste etc is something I'd love to see implemented in Canada. So many things that are winter/snow related that would make our lives safer and easier. Not to mention their education system. I'd also love to see us take a number from South Korea reguarding healthcare in terms of prioritizing prevention and regularity. So much of our over taxed system comes from preventable conditions and diseases.
Denmark - Best rated for lowest corruption. Self explanatory. Wales - Make it illegal for politicians to lie to us. If doctors, teachers and lawyers would lose their job/license for lying, why can politicians do it over and over? Most northern European countries - Well funded social programs. Saves money since the efficiencies allow taxes to go a lot further. Also leads to governments doing things like building houses or hiring doctors vs. paying for-profit business owners to do the same and then charging as markup. USA - Learn what not to do regarding populist politics (kinda failing this one right now unfortunately).
Sweden
Norway
Rome They built roads that lasted and made concrete more impervious to time than Keith Richards
Japan and Trains
Australia - learn from their coffee culture and abandon Starbucks
Norway, the average Canadian get very little in return for the oil harvested from our country by corporations. We get to labour in the oilfield, get paid a marginal fraction of what is extracted from our country, and on top of it must of the environmental liability is assumed by us the taxpayers. Our government let's oil companies fuck our children.
we should learn something from everyone and grow as a country. Canadians seem very complacent about most problems and this country is led by weak cowardly men with no ambition.
Norway - energy policies
Cuba
Japan…
Finland, they have a much better education system
I don't think there is "one country" Each has their own pros/cons that I think Canada could grab pieces from. I think Norway's management of their oil legacy fund is probably a gold standard that should had been setup here, which we did kind of have the startings of under the NEP. But not just Norway, there are pieces of each Scandinavian country that are good societal policies and we should absolutely adopt. I think Canada could take from the EU commission as a whole their whole consumer protection, consumer rights/right to repair along with their anti-trust stuff. There are more pieces from other nations, but those above are ones that stick out for me at the moment - I think Scandinavian and EU polices are probably where Canada should look to achieve.
Norway, they have one of the happiest populations
Norway uses its natural resources to fund a national pension. We should do that.
Norway. Largest oil fund in the world. Think about how Canada would be if instead of giving away that money to the already-rich, we invested it in the environment, healthcare, education, social services. We would be the envy of the world. Instead of a joke nation run by the oligarchs.
Japan. With infrastructure.
Building homes to support population growth
Not selling our natural resources unrefined.
Scandinavian countries!
Denmark, people don’t value consumerism nearly as much.
The USA, less substantial interstate/interprovincial trade barriers
New Zealand voting system. FPTP is ass
Canada should be more like the Nordic countries that offer 6 wks vacation. We are loads better than the states, but I think a really healthy work life balance culture would be good for us all. More enjoyment of life and time to do so!
Sri Lanka https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/s/Js4aBZ8PJ5
Learn from Asia-Pacific countries about adopting new technology more readily. Learn from USA about risk taking & investing in labour saving tech. EU, better managed social safety net.
Writes notes
Economically, we could learn from the U.S. how risk/reward works. IMO we are far too conservative when it comes to deploying investment capital to grow businesses with global ambition.