Commentary
The Fraser Institute has released its Economic Freedom of the World annual report, and Canadians should be alarmed as the country has dropped from 9th to 18th. Economic freedom correlates directly with happy, healthy, prosperous lives. Canada is still a long way from the bottom, but moving in the direction of nations such as Algeria, Iran, Myanmar, Libya, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Venezuela is not a trend to be ignored.
Growth in the size of the federal government, onerous regulatory frameworks, and freedom to trade internationally were where Canada was found lacking by the report. The data used for the rankings is from 2024 and does not account for the current trade war. Freedom to trade internationally has dropped significantly with Canada’s largest trade partner recently, which likely would cause the country to fall even further in the rankings if that were taken into account….