Sabrina Maddeaux: Canada didn't become poorer than Alabama 'out of nowhere'
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We were the architects of our own demise
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Published Feb 26, 2026
Some Canadians clutched their pearls so hard they nearly shattered last week, after The Globe and Mail published a deep dive into how, as its online headline read, “Out of Nowhere, Canada Became Poorer Than Alabama.”
There was some debate about whether analyses showing that our GDP per capita had recently fallen behind Alabama’s is enough to declare us poorer (GDP per capita is a nation’s economic output divided by the population, and is used to determine a country’s standard of living). But the real source of righteous indignation was far more revealing: the idea that Canada’s moral and social standing is so superior that such data can’t possibly reflect reality and, even if it does, it doesn’t matter.
The general reaction — which basically amounted to, “fine, we’re less competitive, but at least we’re more equal, more humane and more decent” — embodies Canada’s unique strain of economic hubris, which will cement our decline, if we don’t snap out of it. Indeed, Canadians didn’t just wake up one morning to find that “out of nowhere,” we had become poorer that the southern U.S. state. The reality is that we’ve been actively kneecapping ourselves for some time, all while maintaining a smug sense of superiority.
Our virtuous self-image rests on a specific promise: that Canada’s social contract protects people from some of the more brutal social outcomes historically seen in places like Alabama. While this promise has generally held for those lucky enough to enter the housing and job markets before 2010, younger generations are living the cruel reality that a country can claim world-class values and increasingly deliver third-world outcomes.
Meanwhile, Alabama, too self-aware and perhaps even embarrassed to be complacent, worked to close the gap. This is the real story of how we got here, not out of nowhere, but through indulging a moral self-image that doesn’t just confuse being “good” with being competitive, but actively sabotages any hope of progress by justifying complacency.
Even if you think that GDP per capita isn’t an accurate reflection of a country’s quality of life, Canada’s other indicators paint a disturbing picture of downward mobility. Our middle class and younger generations are being ruthlessly compressed, with floors continuously falling out from under them like dominoes. There’s no reason to believe we’ve seen the bottom yet.
A 28-year-old in Alabama can still hope to own a home and build a family, if they don’t have both already. The same can’t be said for many of their peers in Canada, who struggle to even rent a place of their own. The median home value in Alabama is around US$230,000 (C$315,000), with a median price-to-income ratio of 3.6. In Canada, the average price is around $650,000, and the price-to-income ratio is 8.4.
While Alabama’s wealth gap is a fissure between rich and poor, ours is largely generational. For example, real incomes for Canadians in their prime working years have stagnated and declined over time, even as they’ve soared for seniors. For the first time, men past retirement age are actually earning more than men aged 25-34, according to research from economist Mike Moffatt. Similarly, our wealth gap sharply divides between asset-rich older homeowners and younger non-owners.
Some will point to Alabama’s minimum wage of US$7.25 and lower educational attainment as proof that we remain superior. However, in Canada, you can earn both a university degree and so-called middle-class salary and still find yourself locked out of housing and family formation, while living paycheque to paycheque. It’s not just possible, but common, to make a significantly higher salary in Canada than a peer in Alabama but have the same, or a markedly worse, quality of life.
Canada’s food banks have raised the alarm about the growing share of their clients who not only have post-secondary degrees, but full-time jobs. Homelessness in Ontario, the nation’s supposed economic engine, increased eight per cent last year, to 85,000 people, with a recent report estimating the number could grow to 300,000 over the next 10 years.
Others, including the Globe piece, criticized Alabama’s wide-ranging abortion ban. I’m pro-choice, which is why it’s unsettling that many forget that choice goes both ways. Canada now systematically denies young women a different type of reproductive choice — the choice to have as many kids as they want, or any at all, because the math simply doesn’t add up.
What is true is that Alabama’s economic and social issues are more visible and, as a result, more politically uncomfortable. Ours, from youth unemployment to food bank use and housing precarity, are obscured not just by wildly different generational experiences, but a stubborn self-image that keeps insisting things can’t really be so bad when our intentions are so good.
Maddeningly, Canada has far more natural advantages than Alabama, from our major cities and geography to our educated workforce. We often point to these as if they’re wins in and of themselves, even as the wealth they could produce remains theoretical.
Take our immense natural resources, from oil to critical minerals, which we struggle to get out of the ground or sell to other markets. The federal government’s own 2023 budget admitted that it often takes upwards of 12 years to get new mining projects off the ground, yet according to the C.D. Howe Institute, the actual average is 17.9 years. And we still lack a credible path to new pipelines.
As our natural resources stay in the ground, Canada’s human resources are leaving entirely. Brain drain is once again becoming a problem, with some of our world-class young talent fleeing to more affordable jurisdictions, including the U.S. We have the highly skilled workers Alabama is moving mountains to develop and recruit, but continue to make it clear that there’s no real future for them here.
Canada isn’t the first nation to suffer from economic hubris, but ours is a strange and unique breed. Resource-rich countries often fail to diversify their economies and plan for the long term. Yet we’ve managed to develop the psychology of a complacent resource-rich state without the actual riches and receipts to match. We thought good outcomes would naturally follow our good values, but this is magical thinking. Instead of progress, we got barriers justified by virtuosity. Instead of growth, we managed decline with a kind smile.
But Canada’s case is actually worse than just confusing being good with the need to be competitive. We went so far as to confuse the appearance of being good with the reality of it, not only exempting ourselves from the need to compete, but buying into harmful frameworks like community consultations, which serve as de facto vetoes, and unchecked immigration. We resisted rigorously analyzing results, as long as the intent was good. As it turns out, many of the results are bad.
The Alabama comparison sparks heated reactions because it’s destabilizing beyond the headline economic numbers. It goes to the heart of our self-image. We’re no longer better than Alabama in many of the ways that matter most. And we refuse to notice, because to do so would require seriously interrogating the virtuous story we tell about ourselves.
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