Young is quite right in identifying our social and economic decadence and in this respect he refers to three decades ago when Canada was second only to the United States among the G7(2) economies in per-capita income. Now Canada is 18th amongst the 27-member OECD--behind Italy and even Ireland(3). Young goes on to say how ridiculous the United Nations (UN) is in proclaiming Canada, year after year, "The best Place In The World To Live" and concludes that this complimentary periodic remarks reflect the UN loves for Canada because the two so resemble each other in support of every left-wing issue that comes along, but also perhaps because the UN is an avowed opponent of the free market, and statism appears to be secure in Canada for the foreseeable future.

And it is here that I fundamentally disagree with Young. Again and again our political and economic lobbying agencies play the dichotomy of a "free market" versus "statism" (and socialism). Free market being an economy free from governmental intervention, and statism being a kind of paternalistic and elitist economy. There is no such a thing as a "free market" economy, and yes there is statism, and our Canadian statism has eroded the social and economic texture of Canada and this state of affairs has been recently well portrayed by the Auditor General of Canada(4).

As I am concerned, what is very important in recognizing the social and economic strength of a society is its entrepreneurship in releasing the creativity of people so that wealth can be created and sustained for all the people. And this entrepreneurship is not intrinsically dependent on the degree of governmental intervention as measured by the level of people's taxation or governmental intervention(5). Therefore, we must stop playing the politics of free market, statism (and socialism).

This kind of politics is intrinsically divisive and we should just play the politics of individual and collective entrepreneurship, yes such entrepreneurship coexist if we can only learn to see beyond our own backyard, and ensure that we have governments of, by, and for the people.

References/endnotes

Relevant political and economics articles http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign

1. CANADA MORALLY SUPERIOR TO USA ?, http://www.bourque.org/recent17.html Article "Oh Canada!, by Adam Young, February 13, 2001 http://www.mises.org/

2. From G7 to G8, University of Toronto Library and the G8 Research Group at the University of Toronto http://www.library.utoronto.ca/g7/what_is_g7.html

3. GDP per capita, 1999 at current prices, in US dollars, Organization for Economic Cooperation and development (OECD) http://www.oecd.org/std/gdpperca.htm

4. December 2000 Report of the Auditor General of Canada, Denis Desautels, Auditor general of Canada http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/domino/media.nsf/html/00decs_e.html The final report entitled "Reflections on a Decade of Serving Parliament" is expected to be tabled in the House of Commons on Tuesday, 27 February 2001

5. Why We Don't Have to Choose between Social Justice and Economic Growth: The myth of the equity/efficiency trade-off, by Andrew Jackson, Director of Research, Canadian Council on Social Development, Fall 2000 http://www.ccsd.ca/pubs/2000/equity/ Also refer to MacLean's Economic Policy Page, by Brian MacLeans, December 16 2000 update http://www.geocities.com/brian79/