Voyageur 107
Gas Is Heading Past $2 a Litre. The Petro-Loonie Isn't Riding to the Rescue, and Canada Used to be the World's Second-Best Country. Now It Ranks Behind the US.
News for residents of the “11th province”: Canadians abroad.
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Gas Is Heading Past $2 a Litre. The Petro-Loonie Isn't Riding to the Rescue.
Pump prices are pushing past $2 a litre in Canada's biggest cities, and oil traders expect them to stay there all summer long.
The cause, is of course, found in the Strait of Hormuz, where tension with Iran has crude climbing and bond markets selling off. US President Donald Trump says the clock is ticking for Iran to agree to a peace deal. Forecasters now put the odds of a Canadian recession near one in three if the waterway stays contested.
Normally a higher oil price provides a lift to the petro-loonie, but this time around, fears of a recession and a strong US dollar are cancelling that out, so the currency that decides how far a Canadian pension or CAD savings stretches in euros, baht or pesos is floating sideways instead of getting stronger. It comes after the Bank of Canada found Canadian companies ate most of last year's tariff costs (Voyageur 106), leaving domestic prices with little cushion before this shock.
If you’re earning in loonies and spending somewhere else, the cost of a summer trip home keeps rising.
Read more: The Globe and Mail / MoneySense
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A photo from the old country:
Canada Was the World's Second-Best Country. Now It Ranks Behind the US.
Three years ago Canada was ranked as the world's second-best country. The 2026 list has provided a setback to 19th place, one spot behind the United States.
To be fair, U.S. News & World Report changed how it counts. It dropped a perception survey of 17,000 people and changed it up to use 100 statistical indicators that it pulled from the UN, OECD and World Bank. The change in method, more than a collapse at home, is what sent Canada from 2nd in 2023 and 4th in 2024 down to 19th this year.
Canada ranks 8th in the world for Culture and Tourism and remains in the top 20 for governance and opportunity, but finds itself 63rd for natural environment, its weakest mark by far. Britain was 7th and Australia 14th.
For Canadians who left a country that used to be right at the top of these lists, the drop is not welcome and comes with some loss of bragging rights at the pub.
Read more: CIC News / U.S. News & World Report