Three countries, three continents. 143 million, 29 million, 35 million. Russia and Saudi Arabia have lots of tanks and aircraft. Canada has about 6+ that are combat ready, and they somewhere are in Iraq or Syria. Russia has many emigrants. The ones that now live in North America or Europe. Not so many, if any who actually want to immigrate to Russia (other than from the Stans). Same with Saudi Arabia. Canada has many people who want to come to Canada, despite our affliction called January and February. So what do we have in common? Oil. Lots of it. And that is about all we have in common.
Russia does not have any industries. They export nothing but oil and gas. Ladas for the aficionados and masochists. When was the last time you bought an item that said ‘made in Russia’? In that respect nothing has changed since Lenin took over. Not only does Russia not export industrial goods, they have to import food: Apples from Poland, beef from Argentina. Bombers for Beef. Just to stick it to the Brits. The only ‘thing’ Russia exports are their best and brightest who make for Western shores. And of course Kalashnikovs. Simple and deadly and other than the Russian economy, they always work. The one product Russia created that is always in demand. Especially with dictators, rebels and third world countries. Not even Edward Snowdon wants to stay in Russia. He is pondering jail in West vs living in Russia.
Saudi Arabia imports food, cheap labor, expensive labor and pretty much everything other than sand and camels. And I am not sure about the camels. According to Wikipedia about 80% of their workforce is non Saudi. Somebody has got to clean the bathrooms and it ain’t the royal ‘fam damily’. Their only industry so to speak is the once a year day pilgrimage industry to Mecca and Medina. Number of Saudi Nobel Prize winners? 0.
Canada has manufacturing. Oops, no that sort of went south. Literally and figuratively. We have Bombardier in Montreal on regular government infusions, since let’s face it not that many countries need snow mobiles. Maybe we can sell some to Russia. We also have some car manufacturing. Those factories close on a regular basis, since it is cheaper to build cars in South Carolina or Mexico than in union happy and energy expensive Ontario. “The Corolla will be produced in a new $1 billion (U.S.) plant to be built in central Mexico and continue at an existing facility in the southern U.S., the company said” (Toronto Star 15/4/15). So we have services, especially financial services. If you work in financial services, chances are that you work in downtown Toronto and are a happy or more likely unhappy commuter.
So where are we different? Mostly because we have freedom of speech. Unless you want to say something that is politically incorrect. In Saudi Arabia they flog you. Before the beheading. In Russia, they jail you or maybe you have a deadly accident. In Canada, social media will make you wish you never made that comment. Beats jail or beheading. In theory we have freedom of movement. But where are you going to move when you live in Toronto. Moosonee? What else do we have? 22 Nobel Prize winners in real categories (not peace or literature). We mostly speak English and we have the US just an hour or 2 south of us (longer if you fly out of Pearson). We also have some pretty good software companies and high tech industries. Russia has some pretty good hackers. Saudi Arabia has some pretty good dunes. We also have Anglo rule of law and mostly not or less corrupt civil servants and police. That Anglo rule of law part is why people flock to Canada as opposed to Russia or Saudi Arabia.
So if we want to continue to be different from Russia and Saudi Arabia, those English traditions of staid, boring civil service work well. As does our form of governance. What it lacks in democracy it makes up in stability. Check Italy or Israel for proportional representation. Their elections are more fun than ours, but they have to vote more often. As long as we keep cheques checks on police, public unions, the SENATE, stop making the CBC the main source of GGs and require immigrants to learn English, Canada will be a light upon the nations. Thanks Brits.