Thought of the Day - March 12 - Happiness

Yesterday we woke up cold at our place. The furnace went out overnight. When I was picking up a replacement thermocouple, I witness my first mask-rage episode. A person was refusing to wear a mask, even when one was provided. The person stated it was due to their asthma but when asked if they had a doctor's note started screaming their doctor told them they don't need one because they are a "Citizen of Canada". Talking to the staff afterward, and our daughters, I realize this is fairly commonplace for anyone in retail. So I got to thinking: how happy are people in Canada? We see people rioting in other countries over the handling of COVID, how are we doing in Canada?

Well the MP from Carleton, Pierre Poilievre, who spends much of his time trying to get under the skin of Chrystia Freeland, pointed me in the right direction. The Macdonald-Laurier Institute has released a new study titled the COVID Misery Index. They compare the performance of fifteen similar nations in protecting the health and prosperity of their citizens during the pandemic. The ranking is based on data from across three main categories:

• the disease impact

• management response

• economic impact

Overall Canada gets a 'C' Rating:

When it comes to limiting disease, we place sixth out of 15 countries measured, receiving a 'B' in this category.

But in terms of misery caused by government response to the pandemic, Canada ranked 14th out of 15 or a 'D' letter-grade - only the Netherlands had a worse response performance.

I guess this is not surprising as our country’s inefficient approach to the virus has been very costly, and yet we still had significant excess mortality compared to these peer counties - so very pretty low bang-for-the-buck. I guess the member from Carleton has plenty of ammunition with which to make our Honourable Finance Minister unhappy.

Cheers

Cliff

P.S. In other news, an insurance company from England ranked Vancouver (and Toronto) in its top 12 Happiest Cities ratings:

Rank Country City

1 Finland Helsinki

2 New Zealand Wellington

3 Denmark Aarhus

4 Denmark Copenhagen

5 Norway Oslo

6 Norway Bergen

7 Netherlands Amsterdam

8 Sweden Stockholm

9 Sweden Gothenburg

10 Iceland Reykjavik

11 Canada Vancouver

12 Canada Toronto