Should the US Follow Canada's Lead?

I've been meaning to blog about this for a couple of months now, so here goes. Mark Steyn gave lecture at Hillsdale college in September, and the January issue of Imprimis provides an abridged version: Is Canada's Economy a Model for America?

This is a great essay. While admitting that these are differences of degree, Steyn details five important differences between the US and Canadian economic systems, and argues that in each case we should not be eager to move in Canada's direction. To summarize, the Canadian economy is more unionized, protected, subsidized, centrally planned, and heavily taxed. In each of these area Steyn makes great points, and goes on to make some additional great points about the dependence, in many ways, of the Canadian economy on the US economy in many ways. Rather than quote many passages from him here, I'll just encourage you to read Steyn in his own words.