Canada Day Celebrations by Victor Magdic

Canada, as one of the world’s wealthiest nations, member of G8 and important exporter is considered an influential and strong country. However, while the United States and Europe are struggling with high debt and the threat of an upcoming recession, Canada’s economy is walking its own way. It received great ratings in various economic studies, including the last Forbes list of the best countries for business.

 Best for Business

Canada is the best country for business according to research conducted by Forbes. Canada improved its rating from last year’s fourth spot thanks to the introduction of the harmonized sales tax in Ontario and British Columbia and reduced corporate and employee tax rates that supported the competitiveness. Canada is the only country that ranks in the top 20 in ten of eleven criteria that determine the overall ranking. "It ranks in the top five for both investor protection as well as lack of red tape, which measures how easy it is to start a business,“ stated Forbes. The US ranked tenth, dropping one level due to its heavy tax burden.

 

Soundest Banking

Canada’s banking system is considered the soundest in the world. For the past three years, its safety has contributed to the incredibly favourable economic conditions in various ways. Canadians survived the recession without a single bank failure. Moreover, banks like the Royal Bank of Canada, the Bank of Nova Scotia, and the Bank of Montreal were profitable during the crisis. Forbes also added: “Canadian banks emerged from the tumult among the strongest in the world thanks to their conservative lending practices.”

Competitiveness

Happy Canada by Kenny Louie

Canadians also gained high scores in education, country credit rating, infrastructure, transparent institutions, health system, and efficient markets in a World Economic Forum report. Its competitiveness is the twelfth best in the world, but it could be better. “Canada should not be satisfied with its 12th place ranking. Much more can be done to improve productivity, economic performance, and global competitiveness,” said Michael Bloom, Vice-President, Organizational Effectiveness and Learning.

A Happy Place to Live

Canada is the sixth happiest place in the world according to a Forbes report that looked at subjective well-being, defined as life satisfaction. Canadians‘ satisfaction with present life gained 78.0 points, and their satisfaction with in the future is predicted to improve to 87.3 points.

Canada took eighth place in Forbes‘ list of healthiest countries in the world. "Canadians enjoy one of the world’s longest life expectancies and one of the lowest TB rates, or 3.6 per 100,000 people,“ said Forbes. When it comes to looking for the best places to live, Forbes ranked Vancouver fourth. The third biggest city in Canada notched a win for North America.

“While the US is paralyzed by fears of a double-dip recession and Europe struggles with sovereign debt issues, Canada’s economy has held up better than most,“ stated Forbes. It expanded 3.1 per cent last year and it is expected to grow 2.4 per cent in 2011, according to the Royal Bank of Canada.