Many people, Americans and Canadians alike think Canada is more social and compassionate than our American counterparts. If you look at the numbers, Canada spends roughly $9,667 per person on government programs and spending (government control on the economy and handouts to its citizens); US is $11,126. Therefore technically the US is more socialist than Canada. (GB: $14,741, France: $16,895, Germany $15,473, Sweden: $22,130, Norway: 29,085 for reference)

The discrepancy comes when considering percent GDP spending, I can easily attribute this to far more productive US economy where GDP per capita is much higher. ($40,100 in US vs. $31,500, over 20% difference!) With this smaller piece of economic pie, more of the taxation burden falls on the personal taxes rather than the less abundant and productive Canadian companies.

This site considers the economic freedom of all countries; Canada and the United States are in the top 15. Canada's economic freedom was where the US was in 1999. Hopefully with some tax reforms, we can see freedoms for Canadian citizens improve. We have good potential moving forward as we continue to redistribute smaller amounts of national income through the inefficient public system.