Jonathan Leaf writes for the Washington Free Beacon about an exodus from our northern neighbor.
All you have to do is look at some simple statistics. Last year, roughly 150,000 Americans chose to leave the United States. Canada has more exact statistics on emigration. It says that 120,640 Canadians left Canada. The numbers aren’t so different. But the United States has eight-and-a-half times as many people. So, if the United States had the same rate of emigration, we would be losing close to 1.3 million people each year. That’s more than live in Boston and Miami combined.
Here’s an even more shocking statistic. In 2016, Canada legalized assisted suicide. Now eight times as many Canadians die from euthanasia as in car accidents. Increasingly, Canadians are anxious to leave either for another country or the undiscovered country.
What has so turned them off from life in their homeland?
There is no official data on this. But certain issues continually pop up in press accounts and interviews with disenchanted Canadians. This is a short list in no particular order.
Taxes: In some Canadian provinces, the maximum marginal income tax rate approaches 55 percent. The rates get up to 54.8 percent in Newfoundland and Labrador, 54 percent in Nova Scotia, and 53.5 percent in British Columbia and Ontario.
Canada also has a value-added tax (VAT). A VAT is similar to a sales tax, though it’s imposed prior to sale. The Canadian federal VAT rate is 5 percent, and then the provinces tack on their own rates. Quebec’s is a further 9.975 percent, Ontario’s is 8 percent, and British Columbia’s is 7 percent.
Canada treats capital gains and inheritance as regular income, though at a reduced rate. Nonetheless, long-term capital gains in Canada are taxed at up to 27.5 percent (versus 20 percent in the United States), and all amounts passed onto one’s heirs are subjected to the same rule if they have increased in value. In practical terms, this means that nearly all Canadians will face substantial taxes upon their estates when they die.
