If flying under the radar screen is an advantage, Canada should be the envy of the world.
The Pocket World in Figures 2008 arrived on my desk recently. This handy little publication, from the publishers of The Economist magazine, is a virtual page-turner for those who love lists of country rankings. It's like People Magazine's Best and Worst Dressed for 2008, minus all the pictures of beautiful people.
For any Canadian flipping through the book, an uncomfortable truth quickly becomes apparent. Our Home and Native Land doesn't seem to exist. Often the rankings are for the superlatives -- only the highest or lowest among the nations -- and Canada is missing from many of them.
Canada is like the guy who gets his picture in the newspaper, standing among a group of celebrities or politicians. He's in the back row and half his head is cropped out of the shot. His misspelled name appears in the line that starts "Also pictured are ... ." But he's in the paper nonetheless, and his mom buys 10 copies.
Consider our country's presence on the business and economics lists. Highest economic growth. Nope. Largest services output as a per cent of the economy. Nada. Largest companies. Forget it. Not even in the Top 50. Yes, Canada is a small country. But how do we explain much smaller countries on these lists, such as Australia, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Finland?
We rank only 15th in spending on research and development (as a percentage of GDP), 15th in patents, and a sickly 17th on an index of IT technology.
Sadly, we don't do much better on the health lists, either. We rank only 9th for life expectancy, 12th for child well-being, and 22nd for lowest rates of infant mortality. We're still a long way from Third World status, but that's not much to brag about.
What are the Scandinavian countries doing right? If you remove these five countries from the lists, Canada's rank jumps up (not coincidentally) five spots. Perhaps we could convince The Economist to report Scandinavia as one region. Our rankings would improve without us ever having to lift one public-policy finger.
The book gives very little in terms of the detail and criteria, so healthy skepticism is required. Some lists are dubious. Explanations of what the rankings measure and sources for the lists are largely absent. It's not so much a valuable or credible research tool as it is a fun book at a cocktail party. (Well, at least a cocktail party for economists and policy wonks.)
There were a few silver and bronze medals for Canada. We are No. 2 in geographical size (although I bet if you were to exclude tundra, we'd fall to something like 39th). We also clawed our way to No. 3 in an overall quality-of-life index, No. 2 in nickel production, and No. 3 in overall business environment (tied with Finland).
Yet Canadians could be excused for feeling demoralized by these lists. Don't we rank No. 1 in anything? Is there any solace in being average? Any redemption in placing sixth or ninth or 14th?
In a world of 101 flavours of ice cream, Canada is vanilla. But maybe that's not so bad. After all, no one hates vanilla ice cream. As a kid, I remember grocery shopping with my mother and complaining about her buying only vanilla ice cream. I wanted Chocolate Fudge or Tiger or Bubblegum. "You can't serve those with pie," was her response.
Maybe it's the same way with Canada and the presence of Canadians around the world. We have the ability to make everything else taste better. Vanilla and Canada: underappreciated, undervalued ... but the ultimate side dish.
As I was nearing the end of The Economist book of lists, my heart skipped a beat. Finally, Canada took a gold medal -- a No. 1 ranking of world cities on the "health and sanitation index." In top spot: Calgary, Canada. Ottawa, Montreal, and Vancouver also made the Top 10.
We may not be the most exciting or innovative or economically powerful place on earth. But we're clean. Just like vanilla.
Todd Hirsch is a Calgary-based senior economist at ATB Financial. The opinions expressed are Todd Hirsch's own.