Letting Canadians ‘know when to be upset’: Introducing Benchmark Canada

Benchmark Canada is a new project from the Macdonald-Laurier Institute that brings together more than 40 different metrics that measure this nation’s performance across the economy, health care, immigration and others while comparing Canada with countries that face similar issues. Photo by Getty Images /Getty Images/iStockphoto

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How’s Canada doing?

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Countries don’t typically get report cards, and it can be simplistic to rely on rankings that try to tell you which is the happiest or safest country in the world. But it’s not just a matter of opinion; there are hard facts to be collated, assessed and compared.

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Enter Benchmark Canada, a new project from the Macdonald-Laurier Institute that brings together more than 40 different metrics that measure this nation’s performance across the economy, health care, immigration and others while comparing Canada with countries that face similar issues.

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Over the coming weeks, the National Post will examine many of those findings, beginning with defence, and report on what they mean for Canadians and the government that they have entrusted to use their tax dollars wisely and pragmatically.

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“Every incoming government, regardless of stripe, has an incentive to portray itself in the most positive light,” said Kevin Vuong, the former Toronto MP who leads the project as a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. “Every government is going to be motivated to find the one metric, or multiple metrics, that tell the story they want to tell.”

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A discussion about Canada’s debt-to-GDP standing inspired Vuong to think about how easily a national statistic could become a well-trodden political talking point. He wanted to assemble enough comparable data that readers could judge the country’s record for themselves through a global lens.

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“Ultimately, it was intended to elevate the discourse so we can get past the political rhetoric,” he said.

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Former Spadina-Fort York MP Kevin Vuong in October 2024. Photo by Bryan Passifiume/Toronto Sun/Postmedia Network

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Vuong spent about a year developing the project with specialists in Canada and abroad. Part of the idea came from his background as a tech entrepreneur, where a company’s growth can look impressive until it is compared with its peers.

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“If you grow by 12 per cent, which sounds great, but the rest of the industry grew by 25 per cent, you didn’t actually do well,” he said.

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He wanted the same scrutiny applied to Canada’s performance. For example, how much Canada spends on defence matters, but also, how is that money allocated among military equipment, personnel and the cost of running the Canadian Forces?

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Other measures range across public and household finances, construction and business development, government services, security and living standards. There are also comparisons for infrastructure construction costs and how long it takes for Canadians to get timely service from their government when looking at Canada Revenue Agency wait times or the time it takes to process a new passport.

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Across the Benchmark Canada website, Canada is usually measured against the countries belonging to the G7 or another relevant group of developed nations. Where international data cannot support a fair comparison, Vuong incorporated Canadian benchmarks, including the governments’ own service standards.