Canada drops 9 spots in democracy index in 5 years

Earlier this year, The Economist published their annual Democracy Index for 2024, which ranks the world’s countries based on how democratic their governments are.

In 2020, Canada ranked as the 5th most democratic country in the world, behind Norway, Iceland, Sweden, and New Zealand.

A year later, however, Canada dropped 7 spots to 12th place, which is where is stayed in 2022. In 2023, it fell one more spot, to 13th place, and it got downgraded again last year, to 14th place.

Canada’s ranking in the Democracy Index has declined 9 spots in 5 years.

Only 25 countries are categorized as “full democracies” in the index—of which Canada is listed as one—so when we compare Canada to just the full democracy countries, only 9 have a lower ranking.

15. Uruguay
16. Japan
17. United Kingdom
18. Costa Rica
19. Austria
20. Mauritius
21. Estonia
22. Spain
23. Czech Republic
24. Portugal
25. Greece

The top 5 countries of both the overall rankings and the full democracy rankings are as follows:

1. Norway
2. New Zealand
3. Sweden
4. Iceland
5. Switzerland

The report classified the US, by comparison, as a “flawed democracy”.

The index scores all countries in 5 areas, with a maximum grade of 10 in each area. Here is how Canada scored in each area in 2020 and 2024:

	2020	2024	Change
Electoral process & pluralism	9.58	10.0	+0.42
Functioning of government	8.93	8.21	-0.72
Political participation	8.89	8.89	—
Political culture	9.38	7.50	-1.88
Civil liberties	9.41	8.82	-0.59
Overall	9.24	8.69	-0.55

It looks like only 1 of the 5 areas saw an increase—electoral process and pluralism—although, technically, one area didn’t receive a decrease, either.

The area where Canada saw the largest year-over-year drop, however, was in political culture, where it decreased by 1.88 points since 2020.

The Economist lays blame for this large drop at the feet of the increasing polarization in Canadian politics, including tension between provincial and federal governments.

Disagreements span an array of issues, ranging from the Trudeau government’s environmental policies (which the oil-producing western provinces staunchly oppose) to the national pension system (which Alberta has threatened to exit).

The polarization had also been evident in the rhetoric used by Justin Trudeau (leader of the governing party and current prime minister) and Pierre Poilievre (leader of the official opposition and prime minister wannabe).

Mr Poilievre frequently accuses Mr Trudeau’s Liberals of advancing a “woke” agenda, while Mr Trudeau has alluded to Mr Trump in the US in an attempt to frame Mr Poilievre as a far-right radical.

But it’s not just politicians who are stoking polarization. The general public is participating in what the report calls a “US-style “culture war”” that is “animating debates about individual freedoms, including over previous covid-19 restrictions, gun control and, more recently, transgender and parental rights”.

The polarization between politicians and among the general public has left 1 out of 3 voters feeling abandoned.

According to a September 2024 survey published by the Angus Reid Institute, more than a third (36%) of Canadians consider themselves “political orphans” and believe that the country’s parties have become “too extreme”.

Unsurprisingly, a lot of this has to do with the implementation of the Emergency Act at the start of the year in response to the Freedom Convoy occupation of the national capital.

The next largest drop was in the “functioning of government” ranking, which fell 0.72 points. The report blamed Trudeau’s holding “on to power despite years of plummeting approval ratings” as the main cause for this drop.

It acknowledged Trudeau’s resignation earlier this year, but his resignation with just months until another election must be held “has left his party with little time to regroup, select a new leader and win over voters ahead of the next general election”.

Poilievre has stoked “public discontent over issues such as high living costs and immigration”, things voters indicate that Trudeau hadn’t been adequately addressing.

Trudeau’s late resignation also complicates the ability of the government to tackle “urgent issues, including the future of US-Canada relations, which Mr Trump has threatened to upend”.

The late resignation coincided with the prorogation of Parliament to accommodate the election of his replacement, which postpones the ability of the government to conduct their “usual business”.

Finally, the next drop was in “civil liberties”, which dropped 0.59 points since 2020. This drop is driven primarily by Canada’s “marginalization of [the] Indigenous population” and “Quebec’s ban on wearing religious symbols in certain public-service jobs”.

Now all that being said, Canada is still performing well in the index, relative to the rest of the world.

	Global average	Canada
Electoral process & pluralism	5.41	10.00
Functioning of government	4.53	8.21
Political participation	5.33	8.89
Political culture	5.25	7.50
Civil liberties	5.35	8.82
Overall	5.17	8.69

Here’s a look at how Canada’s ranking has changed since 2006.

Canada is set to get a new long-term prime minister this year, whether it’s Poilievre finally taking the reins after waiting for 2.5 years to beat the Liberals in an election or whether Mark Carney (Trudeau’s replacement) can transform his caretaker government into a full government.

Either way, we’ll see if a new prime minister will turnaround Canada’s declining ranking or whether the problem was deeper than just Trudeau being prime minister.