Oh Canada

TNR's Montreal Diarist updates us on whats been going on in Canada the last 6 years or so. (subscription only)

The results of these economic and political changes have been impressive. Canada posted the highest growth rates of any industrialized country last year, it added over 500,000 new jobs in 2002, and it has become the only deficit-free Western nation. While Boeing's planes pile up unused, Bombardier, Montreal's innovative small-jet manufacturer, has been swamped with orders. While U.S. movie capitals have struggled, Canada, which is cheaper and offers filmmakers incentives, has emerged as the locale of choice. Nearly 60 films that supposedly took place in Chicago have been shot in Canada since 1985. In fact, though many Americans view their northern neighbor as an unchanging, frozen morass, Canada has emerged as a serious rival to America's role as the hemisphere's economic dynamo and champion of liberal political ideals. In posting strong growth while the United States struggles, Canada is demonstrating an alternative economic model: a major economy where, unlike in Europe, leaders reduce the power of the state and, unlike in the United States, maintain enough of a safety net to give the poor a fighting chance. Canada has always boasted a larger welfare state than the United States, but, in the past, state intervention hindered growth so much that Canada could hardly claim to be a true rival. Now, perhaps it can. According to The New York Times, Canada's five major banks have spent more than $8 billion acquiring U.S. companies since 1996.