Canada ranked as 2nd best country in the world.

I don't think you have to be extreme right wing to have legitimate concerns for the future of Canada. The country is literally on fire. Houses are over $1 million and health care is barely functioning.
I'd hate to see the other guys I guess.
- Groceries are fucked, gasoline is fucked, interest rates are fucked, can’t buy a house, can’t buy a car (or probably shouldn’t right now), dollar is fucked, schools probably going on strike again, a Canadian team hasn’t won the Stanley cup in 30 years …..
  
  Don't forget the corrupt politicians who will never face any real consequences.
  
  And what's really fun is that despite the housing crisis, many home builders outside the big-3 city areas are running slow right now because regular people can't qualify for housing. I've only been working 5-12 days a month for the last year, between a shortage of framers (many moved to Ontario in 2021 due to work slowing), shortage of materials, and now interest rates killing purchases.
  We're so fucked, and anyone in a position to fix things just refuses to. If you build public housing, prices drop and you get voted out by angry house owners. Don't build houses, and both homelessness and living standards get so much worse, and you get voted out by angry poor folks.
  
  You forgot healthcare :(
  
  This just tells me that you don't know what fucked is.
  Interest rates topped 21% , while mortgage rates topped 18% in 1981. Inflation was over 11% at the time. We'd just gone through two massive oil shocks, where the price of gasoline was almost double what we have now when adjusted for inflation, while cars struggled to get under 20L/100km and were rotted through by their third year.
  Strikes were rampant, but so was high unemployment, at times topping 10%. A lot of industries just closed up shop, only accelerated as the Canada-US FTA came into effect.
  By 1990, a lot of that had settled down due to the high interest rate treatment, but the accumulated debt of the Trudeau and Mulroney years had us facing a debt crisis just as we fell into a deep recession in 1991-92.
- See, that's the thing. The 10 factors in the ranking include 1) Entrepreneurship, 2) "Open for Business", 3) "Movers", 4) Power, and 5) "Agility", or a place that is 'efficient in its actions, adopt and accept modern solutions'
  So, like, half the factors are "how badly do you screw the environment and average non-capital-class citizen"
  And in case you think I might be wrong about what they mean by "Movers", the top 5 are the UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Saudia Arabia, and India.
  Of COURSE our country, which is composed a bunch of oil, gas, and mining corps in a trenchcoat shaking hands with a couple of oligipolistic banks and telecoms will score well.
  
  Look at the source: its a law firm who brings immigrants over to Canada. Of course they're going to pump our tires. It helps them with business.
  
  Entrepreneurship
  How the hell did we rank well then? Our productivity is very poor, and our economy is trading houses. The amount of capital flooding the housing market over the last few years is crazy.
- No, but the extreme right call Canada a dictatorship, a third world country, a shithole, etc. Hell, the leader of the official opposition called our freely and fairly elected right of center milquetoast Prime Minister and his father, "Marxists." It's ridiculous. Literally worthy of ridicule.
  Most of the people who are complaining have no frame of reference other than being brought up in the safe, warm busom of one of the best countries in the world.
  
  It is scary. Don't get me wrong, I don't disagree that Canada is a great place to live. However, we can't take that for granted.
- Yes. This is correct however making it more on fire which is what the extreme right want to do is not the way. The majority of provinces have had Conservative governments over the last 8 years, until we resolve that issue Canada isn't going to get better anytime soon. People don't realize that the provinces have way more involvement in their day to day lives than the federal government. Many of our issues can be fixed by the provinces but they literally choose to make things worse instead, pass the blame to the federal government and morons eat it up
  
  Tbh for most people I know there's just no trust in the gov period
- For the perspective, a house in the top ranked country cost CAD 1.5 million.

Go Canada, but I think this might show how much more of a depressing state the rest of the world is in
- That's what it looks like from Finland as well. Often in high rankings, it's just horrible to know what others are going through

As a Canadian expat, these sorts of surveys are an embarrassment. Canada is not that great. It has some good things going for it, but "second best in the world" is a laughable statement.
The wealth disparity is terrible
Nearly every inhabited patch of land is a suburban hellscape.
The government is routinely dedicated to accomplishing as little as possible, especially on climate
The fossil fuel lobby is embarrassingly strong
The cost of living is extreme for many, with little effort to reign it in
The country suffers from an inferiority complex in relation to the US of all places.
The electoral system is broken
I mean, I love my country, but I've seen a lot of places that I'd rather live. The idea that we're 2nd best compared to even half of the countries I've visited in the last 10 years is just silly.
- I can really relate to this. I lived outside of Canada for 25 years. I recently-ish moved back to Canada and am totally blown away by things here. Life isn't always amazing in any place you pick on the planet, but god damn, Canadians need to stop contemplating their collective belly button lint and focus on some of the massive issues that need attention.
- I have lived all over the world and I agree. It’s one of the better places in the world but it’s not as great as a lot of Canadians believe
- Meanwhile my girlfriend just got back from travelling around Europe and all of those "superior" countries, and couldn't wait to get home.
  Said everyone was rude, taxis scammed her frequently, the public transit was pretty subpar with no other choice, the food was pretty mediocre, she had to be extra careful about pick pocketers, and lastly she said everyone stunk so bad from perfume that she had a constant headache.
  Canada isn't perfect, but it does have a ton going for it.
  
  I've been to Europe many times, and my experience has been the total opposite of what your girlfriend describes.
  Europe is huge. Don't judge a whole continent for what your girlfriend experience is maybe one or two places.
  That's like saying that North America sucks because your girlfriend got mugged in Juarez, México.
  
  Out of interest, which places in Europe?
  
  Well she wasn't in the nordic countries at least, public transport can be subpar but is almost always servicable and gets you anywhere (we have on-demand minibuses for rural areas), the only part that could apply is being seen as rude because we don't greet every person within our field of view..
  
  What parts of Europe would that be?
  
  Sounds like Paris.
  Paris is the reason I will never do a 'Europe trip' ever again. I was robbed, assaulted and the city reeks of piss. Fuck travel.
  
  Sounds like your girlfriend did the typical North American thing of visiting "Europe" by hitting a bunch of major cities and sticking to the touristy centres.
  The Netherlands is gorgeous, quiet, and safe, but if you don't wander further than one or two kilometres from Amsterdam Centraal, you'll never see that. Rent a bike and ride through Haarlem or Utrecht if you want a proper experience.
  Brussels has some of the best food I've ever tasted, but you have to break away from the tourist traps first.
  Athens is an exciting, "young" city with ancient treasures literally on display in the subway stations. You'll never see that if you just wander around the Parthenon. The food everywhere is great too, though the best spots are usually well outside the touristy areas.
  Paris has some really exciting stuff happening with cycling right now, and the view from Momatre is amazeballs. Yes, the locals can be rude, but fuck it, take the train and get out of the city!
  Which brings me to the other important point: Europe is not just the (impressive) cities, but rather a continental patchwork of interconnected but distinct cultures. Have breakfast in a B&B in Arras before you trek out to see the Vimy memorial, then board a train and be in Nyon by dinnertime where you can sit on a clear blue lake and munch on baguette. Hop on the train again and you're in Torino, Venice, or Florence which is just gorgeous. I had the best pizza in my life there in a dodgy little place at 1am.
  Stay a few nights in Warsaw and take a stroll through the old city. Gobble some perogi in Krakow and then push yourself to visit Auschwitz. Then take the train across the now undefended border to Berlin where you can walk the path of the former wall, and the next night go for the best danishes in the world... in Denmark.
  Seriously, your girlfriend is out to lunch if that's her impression of "Europe". You two need to take another trip and rethink your priorities.
- First world problems.
  
  That is sort of an assumption when talking about a list of the best countries.

United States is fifth.
Yeah, "best" is a rather vague metric, and in this case, simply bullshit
- Hey the USA is a great place to live if you make good money. Not a great place to be poor though.
  
  Pretty much. Most of the best Universities in the world. That most of it's citizens could never afford to attend. Many of the best Hospitals and specialty clinics in the world. That again most of it's people can't use.
  Most American's are somewhere in the middle, and I'm sure the median household has more disposable income than most other first world countries, it's just that the prosperity is so unevenly spread.
  Granted, some would speculate that it is because of the unevenness that the US is so prosperous, but I would dispute that. I think the US could go a long long ways towards helping it's less fortunate without compromising it's prosperity.
  
  How does it compare to canada? I legit have no idea. I just remember reading in a thread like 2 days ago how an american person moved to canada and one of the main complaints was how pay was less and housing was way more.
- I'm about to shake your world. Ready?
  What you believe doesn't change reality. Your feelings don't matter.
  Sorry.
  
  Relevance?

USA #5 and UK #9 lol
- us is #5 because of propoganda.
  
  100%, otherwise it would be #1.
  I mean, just yesterday there was an article from a French media company about how the US economy and GDP is now 80% larger than Europe’s. Link
  The US is really high on this list though specifically due to economic reasons. Not social ones. Although strangely enough there is a bit of an odd section about the US being more adaptable to change than Canada or any other country, which I find kind of strange. Also, the US always ranks high because of the advanced medicine, technology and education. Whether it’s accessible to all or not is really mostly irrelevant to these surveys.

No body said it was the best country - for a citizen - no no no. Its the best country for giant corporations!
Tired of wood, wetlands, and natives being of the way of your accident waiting to happen pipe line? Go Canada!
Don't want to commit actual genocide on your native population? Rather isolate them in small communities then poison them with water unfit for even the most hearty of a animals? Go Canada!
Your wealthy friends want to make billions buying and selling green protected land? Go Ontario!
Are the homeless an eye sore to your wealthy friends visiting? Don't worry, here in Canada we have 6 months of winter to clean up those unwanted eye sores.
- Its the best country for giant corporations!
  So, like, pieces of paper?
  By what mechanism was the paper the giant corporation is written on able to confer the list?
- So who are you voting for next election?
  
  As someone from the USA it's sad to see our friend to the north make the same mistakes that helped get us to the sad state we are in ourselves.
  
  An asteroid in the outer solar system. If we vote hard enough to have it win in our broken FPTP system. it'll alter course and end this horrible timeline.

I have been to a lot of first world countries for extended periods as a digital nomad. Canada is not even in the top 5 imo
- As a digital nomad, I'm guessing you would have been to relatively low CoL places like Bali, Thailand, maybe Eastern Europe or LatAm. You have to remember that your experience as someone from the global north, earning in a strong currency is very different from a local person there.
  Not that i disagree with you that rankings are flawed but by the same token, Canada /is/ in the top 5 for many people from low standard-of-living countries
  
  Typically you’d be right but as a DN I actually spent most of my time in North America and western Europe—mostly in countries people would compare Canada with (UK, France, Spain, Norway, Germany, USA, Australia, etc.). I never went to Asia or South America as a DN. Actually the only time I stepped foot in LatAm was in Panama for a month this past winter.
  It really changed my perspective on Canada. I don’t think it’s a bad country at all but I don’t hold it in as high regard as I once did. Every country has its strengths and weaknesses. What those are is different for everyone. Canada is squandering immense potential in my opinion. If it wasn’t for family, there are several places in the USA I would consider living long term instead.
- Which one is your favorite county?
  
  I’m not sure I really have a favourite. Every country has good and bad. There are some parts of the USA (ex. Colorado, Washington) that I really like. But also the USA has its own issues that we all know about. France is beautiful but there can be civil unrest, taxes are high, etc. I spent some time in Singapore and it’s very safe, clean, great food, but it’s also stale and far from a lot of places. Culture comes into play a lot. I can recognize that somewhere is a great place to live but it’s not for me. I didn’t grow up there, I don’t speak the language, etc. In Europe I feel most “at home” in the Netherlands.
  Different things matter to different people. So saying things like “this country is #2” are meaningless. Countries I personally would rank above Canada: USA, Netherlands, Norway, Australia, New Zealand.
- as a digital nomad
  I don't know how they measured this at US News either, but the digital nomad experience is pretty different from the local experience. By digital nomad standards certain third world cities are great.
- What you believe doesn't change reality.
  
  What U.S. News believes doesn’t change reality either. These rankings are and always have been subjective BS

If this is the second “as good as it gets” place in the world … omg
- What's your frame of reference? I mean, you live in the second best country in the world and you're complaining.
  
  The cities are completely unaffordable.
  All of the parties are in favour of using TFW programs to suppress workers rights and not doing anything about blatantly illegal anti-worker activities.
  The Trudeau government is welcoming immigrants at a rate of at least 3% of the population per year(not the problem), but not spending a penny on infrastructure to support that kind of increase(a big problem)
  Carbon offset credits are a complete joke.
  The ISPs are in charge of the body that is supposed to regulate and rein them in.
  BC is being devastated by climate change and Ottawa isn't lifting a damn finger on it.
  
  My frame of reference is how my quality of life is less than it was in like 2016. When I’m sure Canada ranked lower than #2

Thanks Trudeau. Can't get us to #1.

But Poilievre says Canada is the worst place on earth!
- He also says that it milquetoast right of center Prime Minister is a Marxist. He's a liar but the people who believe his nonsense are fucking idiots.

Through a survey of over 17,000 people from 36 countries
Oh, so subjectively "better"? What about objective measurements, like how many people are a paycheck away from losing it all? Or the cost of living? Or worker rights?
Specifically, Canada was chosen as the:
2nd best country to start a career
4th best country for education
7th best country for studying abroad
7th best country for raising kids
2nd best country for racial equality
6th best country for women
6th best country for comfortable retirement
6th most transparent country
2nd best country to headquarter a corporation
Imagine a sports team coming in 6th place for most tournaments, and never winning first in any of them, yet they win an award for being the 2nd best team in the league... makes no sense to me.
- 2nd out of 204.
  Would you love your child less if they came in 2nd? I sure as fuck wouldn't.

It might be the second best, but I feel like that's more of a statement on the rest of the world failing in specific areas than on Canada excelling.
We're a B- student in every class. Sure, it's not the highest score and in every subject we're usually surpassed by other countries, but most other countries don't have a B- average due to major issues of some kind.
- Canada has been in the top two or three for a very long time. Someone challenged that the rest of the world was falling and Canada was probably way lower in 2016. I went back and checked and we were number 2 in 2016 as well.
  
  Pretty much. They're complaining about housing prices and inflation just as much or more in New Zealand, Germany and the UK.
  Canada probably is a B- but has the advantage of being next door to the largest economy in the world. Canada is also vast with abundant resources. We were always going to be a prosperous country as long as we can avoid too much corruption (Russia is a more vast country with more abundant resources, but…)
  I still think it's useful to look at other countries that may even be beneath us (according to this list) and borrow liberally from where they exceed us. We are doing about as well as anyone else, but we can do better.

I had to click through to see the ratings in each category, and they all seemed reasonable to me aside from Canada's low rank for "Adventure". Eco tourism is huge in Canada. People come from all over the world to Canada for outdoor adventure.
Maybe I'm just not a traveler, but that ranking seemed odd to me.
Then again, I don't live in the continuous urban sprawl of Southern Ontario all along the 401 and up the 400. I guess if you live in Toronto, you're like 2+ hours from eco tourism destinations, while, in Europe, 2 hours is enough to have the option to go to several other countries.
- I wonder if the ecotourism being seasonal knocks off prospective points. You can only comfortably travel the cannuck wilds for ~5 months out of the year, if that.
  
  Maybe east of the rockies. In BC I have friends that go camping all year long. Our mountains are open all year for activities (skiing, snowboarding, etc. in the winter mountain bike, hike, etc. in the summer). Heck, you can ski, bike, surf all in one day on Vancouver Island if you're so inclined, though it'll be a long ass day.

They'd be first if it weren't for the baby vomit covered airline seats!
- Right?
  I was on a flight three years ago where a guy was violently ill. I was in the last row beside the door to the tail head. He went past me with a very full air sickness bag. As we were descending the flight attendant was making more and more frantic announcements that everyone needed to return to their seats so we could land I finally leaned out of my seat, made hard eye contact, and made the sign language sign for vomiting.
  Her shoulders fell, she hung up the microphone, inbuilt her seatbelt, stormed to the back of the plane and pounced on the door shouting, "Get back in your seat so we can land. Now! "

That makes me really depressed about the world

I didn't actually read this... because I'm actually supposed to be working right now. After a bit of digging i found their methodology. someone want to look it over and see how legitimate it is? https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/methodology
- A set of 73 country attributes
  an online survey [...] total of 17,195 individuals from 36 countries. Of the respondents, 8,267 were informed elites, 4,622 were business decision-makers and 7,402 were considered general public (43%). Survey participants were given a random subset of countries and country attributes to consider: about half of the attributes for roughly a third of the countries.
  Participants assessed whether they associated an attribute with a nation. The more a country was perceived to exemplify a certain characteristic in relation to the average, the higher that country's attribute score.
  Attributes were grouped into 10 thematic subrankings. Subranking scores for each country were determined by averaging the scores that country received in each of the attributes comprising that subranking.
  To determine the weight each subranking score had in the overall Best Countries score, using correlation with GDP(PPP) per capita [...] a stronger relationship weighted more heavily: Entrepreneurship (14.13%), Quality of Life (14.12%), Agility (14.02%), Social Purpose (12.83%), Movers (11.54%), Cultural Influence (10.44%), Open for Business (9.43%), Adventure (5.37%), Power (5.00%), Heritage (3.13%).
  The math sounds alright. My main gripe would be that it's survey-based (so highly affected by biased perceptions) and that an attribute impact in the overall ranking is dictated by its correlation with wealth, which is kinda arbitrary - and bleak. Great things like "friendly, fun, good for tourism, pleasant climate, scenic" (Adventure) and "culturally accessible, has a rich history, has great food, many cultural attractions, many geographical attractions" (Heritage) are heavily discounted.
  To be honest, the only category of attributes I care about in this methodology are in the realm of Quality of Life (Canada #3), but I still find it wildly arbitrary that "good job market" is QoL but things like "pleasant climate" and "good food" are not. Anyway, the top 20 in QoL are the usual suspects, so I don't really care about minor changes in relative position between these - lol at US #23.
- Mission accepted.
  Edit: Nevermind, they block me. :(

https://youtu.be/u7s-BgfcFXw?si=KoawUKz11Fz8Bws3
Ill just leave this here...
- Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/u7s-BgfcFXw?si=KoawUKz11Fz8Bws3
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.

Being content or liking how you live didn't seem to be asked. I think the rankings would look a little different if that was added to the mix.
- "Quality of Life" was a category on the survey, although it was only one of ten. Additionally, they were mostly asking the people who were benefitting the most from their society:
  a survey of over 17,000 people from 36 countries – including business leaders, middle-class or higher college-educated individuals and “nationally representative” citizens of each country
  So I imagine there were a lot of folks who disagreed with the final rankings, but their opinions were mostly considered irrelevant.
- I wonder of you took some of the people complaining about Canada and dropped them somewhere like Sudan, Myanmar, Eritrea, or DR Congo for a couple of years they wouldn't come back with a new appreciation for Canada? Well, the survivors if there were any, anyway.
  Is ready to pass and Joan when you love in one of the best countries in the world. I just think some people need some perspective.
  
  You are ignoring the voices of those with legitimate concerns in this country because you live a comfortable life. Get a grip.
  Yes Canada is wonderful. I love this country and wouldn't want to live anywhere else - that being said, you cannot ignore that there is are plenty of glaring issues with this country that are affected a shit ton of people.
  Your experience is not the norm.

I was thinking Canada was going down the tube for years and then I left vancouver to go to a smaller city. I just don't see the point of struggling every single day just to have some temperate weather and nice mountains in the background. Even if I liked skiing or hiking I didn't have the time or money to reap the benefits of that city. In 2 years since I left I have bought a house, with a yard for my dog. sure the Prarie winters are hard but at least I'm saving for my future. my advice to anyone who is barely making it by those large city centre, go somewhere that will value your effort and provide the opportunity for you to be happy. It's not as scary as you would think.
- Very positive message.

How?
"Welcome to Canada! I'm sorry, are you not a millionaire? Then you can live on the streets."

Well, don't I feel like a real Mexico right now...
USA
- Back when the Glorious Orange Leader was taking about building a northern border fence my American coworkers asked me how Canadians felt about it. I said that we were all for it since the US was Canada's Mexico.
  
  Don't insult Mexico like that!
- Considering Nazi Gold, Fascist Genocide Money Switzerland is #1, I'd put Canada at #1 myself. I get the reasons for the rankings though.
  Also USA is #5, so we good lol. Sweden and Australia is 3 and 4.
  https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/rankings

Fuck right off, Canada is nowhere in top 10.
- Did everyone from Hexbear and Lemmygrad move to lemm.ee? I notice that that's where most of the anti-Canadian hate is coming from. Was there a brigade message sent out or is this just organic?
  
  you sound like you live in paranoiasville.
- Source? I'm guessing you haven't recently lived as an average person both inside and outside of Canada.

The big Canadian cities are terrible
- They're among the safest, cleanest cities in the world.
- Well thanks for explaining why!
- I could not stand living in a small NA city lol, it's Vancouver, Toronto, Monteral or leaving the Americas altogether