http://www.canada.com/calgary/story.asp?id=B7915304-914A-4E2C-BA54-47B9D9A1656E
Canada tumbles to 8th on UN list
Quality of life ranked below United States
Robert Fife
CanWest News Service
Saturday, July 05, 2003
ADVERTISEMENT
Canada has fallen to eighth place from third on the United Nations
list of the most desirable places to live in the world, leaving an
embarrassing legacy for Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who came to
power when Canada ranked No. 1, CanWest News Service has learned.
Senior government officials confirmed Friday that the annual ranking
of nations by the UN Development Program, a measure of the overall
quality of life in 175 nations, will place Canada behind Norway,
Sweden, Belgium, Australia and even the United States, which Canada
has consistently led in the past.
Canada had been No. 1 for seven years in a row for the best quality of
life until 2001 when it was edged out by Norway, which continues to
hold the top spot in the 2003 Human Development Report to be released
Tuesday.
Sources say bureaucrats at Foreign Affairs and Human Resources
Development have been working hard behind the scenes to define a
positive response for the PM who was always quick to crow in the past
when Canada held the top ranking.
Chretien often referred to the report in speeches and during
campaigns, quoting the UN as saying this is "the best country in the
world in which to live."
Cabinet ministers also used the UN report card as a foil in the
Commons when opposition MPs attacked the government over lagging
productivity compared with the U.S. economy.
The first time Canada was at the top of the list was in 1992 when
Brian Mulroney's Conservative government was in office.
Sources would not provide the ranking of the seven countries ahead of
Canada, but Norway remains No. 1. They stressed "the differentials
between the top 10 are so minor that it becomes how do you decide on
the minor differences in data."
The survey ranks countries on four criteria: life expectancy, adult
literacy, school enrolment and economic prosperity as measured by per
capita gross domestic product, or GDP.
Canada's drop is due in part to the scales that measure poverty by
which the plight of aboriginals has not improved despite $7 billion
annually of federal spending, sources say.
"That is going to be part of what brings down some of our statistics.
They are not going to differentiate
between native and non-native, but in the compilation, those (native
poverty, life
expectancy and education) figures obviously bring down our stats," an
official said.
Under the human development index, literacy and
enrolment indices are grafted onto each other and the
resulting education index gets a one-third weight, along with life
expectancy and GDP.
Deputy Prime Minister John Manley downplayed the change.
"It's not good news to go down rather than up," Manley told CBC. "I
think we should take it as a sign that there are things that need to
be improved and not take it as a criticism."
© Copyright 2003 Calgary Herald |
