However, I'm also not sure which other first world country has lower taxes, more "freedoms", higher salaries and cheap housing though.
Take a look at housing affordability indexes, Canada is behind the EU average and certainly behind the top EU destinations. Also behind Australia, the UK, the US. Toronto and Vancouver are literally 2 of the most unaffordable places on the planet.
Also the US, UK and half the EU have lower taxes. The only places with comparable taxes have better healthcare and cheaper or free education.
Honestly, go to the US, UK, Australia, nearly any EU country and you'll find housing prices more in line with local salaries, better infrastructure, better services, more bang for your tax dollar, etc...
In what country can you give away 40% of your paycheck making less than 6 figures to then pay for dental work, prescriptions and education out of pocket while needing to make 3x the average salary to afford an average house?
House are out hand tho, but this is more related to older generation greed than gouvernement..
And the house prices absolutely can be pinned on governments, we're one of the few countries globally that allows non residents to buy property.
Yeah, I dunno... Maybe there's a little bit of the "grass is greener on the other side of the fence" effect going on here, but as an American, if I hadn't read the rest of your post, I would have sworn you were giving a brutally accurate description of the US in that last sentence.
In Canada, Toronto and Vancouver are the only real 'destinations' and they're SF and NYC expensive but with jobs that pay less than half...
