Terry Burton is a retired veteran of Alberta’s oil and heavy construction industry, and a former member of the Alberta Apprenticeship Board.Canadians are leaving — not in small numbers, not quietly, and not for trivial reasons. They are leaving because Canada is becoming economically uncompetitive, socially fractured, politically coercive, and increasingly intolerant of dissent. This is not a matter of pessimism or ideology; it is a rational response to a country that is steadily eroding the conditions that once made it attractive to live, work, raise a family, and invest.For decades, Canada enjoyed a reputation as a stable, rules-based democracy with opportunity, fairness, and freedom at its core. That reputation is now under serious threat. People are voting with their feet, and the message they are sending is unmistakable: Canada is losing its way.The economic reality alone is enough to drive people out. The cost of living continues to rise sharply while productivity stagnates. Housing is unaffordable in much of the country, particularly in Vancouver and Toronto, where ownership has become a fantasy for the middle class. Healthcare and education — pillars of national pride — are failing. Canadians wait years to find a family doctor. Students graduate without mastery of basic skills. Infrastructure decays while public projects run massively over budget..OLDCORN: Liberals $200 million racist slush fund.At the same time, Canadians face suffocating taxation at every level: income taxes, carbon taxes, fuel taxes, property taxes, payroll taxes, and consumption taxes. Governments run chronic deficits with little concern for sustainability, saddling future generations with debt while delivering diminishing returns in services.Unsurprisingly, investment is fleeing. Canada has become a hostile environment for business and capital. Endless red tape, prolonged permitting, regulatory unpredictability, ideological opposition to resource development, and governments openly choosing “winners and losers” have destroyed investor confidence. Canada is resource-rich, yet refuses to develop its energy, mining, forestry, and agricultural potential efficiently — or at all. Growth stalls, productivity falls, and opportunity disappears.Social cohesion is also unraveling. Crime is rising, particularly violent and organized crime, while courts increasingly treat criminals as victims and law-abiding citizens as inconveniences. Public drug use, overdose deaths, homelessness, and urban decay are tolerated under the guise of compassion, leaving ordinary Canadians feeling unsafe in their own communities. Trust in institutions has eroded badly..Perhaps most corrosive is the growing perception of a two-tier justice system — unequal enforcement, selective prosecution, and ideological bias. Parental rights are under sustained attack, particularly in education, where governments and courts increasingly override families in favour of ideological agendas. Parents who object are dismissed, marginalized, or labeled intolerant.Canada’s drift toward authoritarianism is no longer hypothetical. Free speech is narrowing. Governments continue to expand surveillance, compelled speech, and vague “hate” laws that chill legitimate debate. Dissenting views — on climate policy, energy, public health, or social issues — are not debated; they are suppressed. Canadians watch other Western countries arrest citizens over social media posts and worry, with good reason, that Canada is moving in the same direction — with public support.Religious tensions are increasing, and people of faith — particularly Jewish Canadians — feel under threat, while authorities appear reluctant to respond decisively. Meanwhile, churches and faith communities face growing scrutiny and surveillance. This is not pluralism; it is selective tolerance..WIECHNIK: Oil and gas still 'run the world', someone should tell Mark Carney.Media, once a safeguard against government overreach, is widely perceived as compromised. Government funding, ideological conformity, and selective reporting have led many Canadians to see mainstream media as an extension of political power rather than a check on it. Unequal justice, censorship, and state overreach go largely unchallenged, further eroding public trust.Overlaying all of this is a culture of enforced orthodoxy — DEI over merit, virtue signaling over competence, groupthink over debate. Those who challenge prevailing narratives are punished socially, professionally, or legally. Ironically, those most eager to brand others “fascist” appear increasingly comfortable with coercion, censorship, and state control.The cumulative effect is devastating. Canada no longer offers order, predictability, fairness, or opportunity to a growing segment of its population. Skilled workers, entrepreneurs, families, and freedom-minded citizens see better futures elsewhere — countries with lower costs, stronger growth, clearer rules, and greater respect for individual liberty. Even recent immigrants, once optimistic, are leaving..This is not about winter weather or nostalgia for the past. It is about the consequences. When a country drives away its productive citizens and fails to attract new ones, decline is not a theory — it is measurable reality.Canada’s situation is not inevitable. It is self-inflicted. Poor political leadership, ideological rigidity, and contempt for dissent have brought the country to this point. If Canada wishes to reverse course, it must recommit to freedom, meritocracy, equal justice, fiscal discipline, parental rights, and economic realism.Critics will argue that this assessment is exaggerated, ideological, or blind to Canada’s relative advantages. They will insist that “every country has problems,” that Canada still ranks well on international indices, and that dissatisfaction is merely cyclical or partisan..EYRE: Hands off my house.But this misses the point entirely. Decline is not measured by slogans, rankings, or how bad things are elsewhere; it is measured by direction, incentives, and behaviour. People do not uproot their families, careers, and capital because of online outrage or abstract ideology — they leave because opportunity is shrinking; costs are rising, freedoms feel conditional, and institutions no longer serve them fairly or competently. The fact that Canada may still outperform weaker states is irrelevant when it is losing ground against its own history, against peer nations, and against the expectations of its citizens. Dismissing these concerns does not refute them; it confirms why so many no longer feel heard — and why they are choosing exit over staying.Until then, unfortunately and sadly, Canadians and recent arrivals will continue to make the rational choice.Predictably and most worrisome, they will leave.Terry Burton is a retired veteran of Alberta’s oil and heavy construction industry, and a former member of the Alberta Apprenticeship Board.
