Frank Stronach: Why Canada Is The Best Role Model For The World

Frank Stronach: Why Canada is the best role model for the world
Special to National Post 8 hrs ago
12 April 2022

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Frank Stronach: Why Canada is the best role model for the world (msn.com)
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/top...pc=U531&cvid=213dd14be83f42e5a819cfe4a3a5c69b

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The signs have been unmistakable these past ten years or so: The United States of America, long the wealthiest and most powerful nation on the Earth, is beginning to decline in terms of its global dominance and economic clout.
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Saddled with debt and a U.S. dollar that is in danger of losing its status as the reserve currency of the world, America is slowly sliding in terms of its economic might on the global stage. The country’s global influence also seems to be receding as evidenced by America’s humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan and its feeble response to the Russia-Ukraine war.
Within its own borders, the signs of decline are even more evident. The gap between the wealthy and the workers is widening, with a growing number of individuals in poverty. The U.S. is also divided along other lines, including race and culture. The American ruling class is not offering any practical solutions to help the country in its current predicament and doesn’t seem to care about the welfare of their less fortunate fellow citizens. Many other facets of American society no longer work — from crumbling infrastructure to irreconcilable partisan wrangling and political gridlock, not to mention rising crime and homelessness, high rates of inner-city poverty and illegal migrants pouring into the country.
China and Russia, the two largest military powers in the world after the U.S., are certainly not role models that other nations aspire to emulate. Both China and Russia have consistently demonstrated totalitarian, anti-democratic tendencies. While their economic muscle and brute power may be on the rise, people do not want to live under the boot of autocratic rule. The European Union, on the other hand, has become far too socialistic, with an enormous bureaucracy governing every aspect of everyday life and commerce through endless rules and regulations.
So who will the world look to in terms of a role model?
I believe Canada can be that role model. Canada clearly will never have the economic and military brawn of the world’s superpowers, but when our society is measured in terms of its ability to provide wealth, freedom, human rights and opportunity to its citizens, then Canada stacks up very well.

Video: Results are in! Here's where Canada ranks in World Happiness Report (The Weather Network)


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Results are in! Here's where Canada ranks in World Happiness Report
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Canada is a leader in many respects. We are blessed with a diverse economy that includes an abundance of natural resources — from fish and forest products to oil and minerals. It has always baffled me, however, that we have not done more to turn our resource riches into value-added products instead of just selling raw materials to the rest of the world. But we are also leaders when it comes to financial services, food production, artificial intelligence, biotechnology and real estate development.
Canada also has great democratic rights and freedoms that are admired the world over, even if some of those rights were infringed on and compromised by our country’s response to the pandemic. And unlike the U.S., Canada has fewer powerful and entrenched special interests that often stand in the way of change and reform.
To me, an ideal society must meet certain minimum standards. It must be a place where no one goes to bed hungry, and everyone has access to shelter and decent health care. Canada is one of the few countries in the world that comes close to meeting these standards for the majority of its citizens.
And although Canada faces many challenges, including economic inequality and environmental pollution, our country still stands head and shoulders above most nations on earth.
Canada is a global role model of tolerance, where people of different races and religions and creeds live together in harmony — something you do not see in most other countries in the world. Of course, we can still do much better — but we have given the world a template for how a multicultural society can successfully function.
In short, as an open and welcoming society with a tradition of innovation, humanitarian compassion and a track record as a champion of democratic rights and freedoms, Canada is well positioned to put together all of the building blocks of what would constitute an ideal society.
People around the world still see Canada as a land of boundless opportunity, and they still yearn to come to our shores, much the same way I did when I immigrated here in the early 1950s. It is the people of Canada — more than any other single factor — that make us a great country.
Over the course of my career, I’ve conducted business in dozens and dozens of countries in every corner of the globe. But few countries compare to Canada. That is why I believe that in the decade ahead, as countries and their citizens search for a new role model, Canada will stand out as a shining example of what the rest of the world could be like.
Frank Stronach is the founder of Magna International Inc.,
one of Canada’s largest global companies,
and an inductee in the Automotive Hall of Fame.
He can reached at fstronachpost@gmail.com

Frank Stronach: Why Canada is the best role model for the world (msn.com)
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/top...pc=U531&cvid=213dd14be83f42e5a819cfe4a3a5c69b