Size of governments across Canada on the rise; represented 44% of the economy in 2024

Bad news!

"

• This bulletin measures the size of government in Canada, by province, based on total government spending as a share of the economy as well as public sector employment as a share of total employment, between 2007 and 2024.
• ... the size of government in Canada, by province, based on total government spending as a share of the economy as well as public sector employment as a share of total employment, between 2007 and 2024.
• ... the size of government relative to the economy has an effect on economic growth and social progress. This makes it important to measure and track, especially given the scope of government spending and intervention during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• In 2024, the size of government relative to the economy among the provinces ranged from a high of 61.2% in Nova Scotia to a low of 30.4% in Alberta. For Canada as a whole, the size of government represented 43.6% of the economy.
• For Canada as a whole, the size of government relative to the economy increased from 40.0% in 2022 to 43.6% in 2024.
• From 2007 to 2024, government spending as a share of the economy increased in nine out of 10 provinces. Between 2019 and 2024, all 10 provinces experienced an increase in the size of government.
• For Canada as a whole, public-sector employment represented 21.5% of total employment. From 2007 to 2024, public-sector employment as a share of total employment increased in every province.
• Provinces in the Maritimes tended to have larger governments relative to the economy, which employed a higher share of total workers, than provinces in western Canada. However, in general the size of government has been increasing across the country.

..."

The Size of Government in Canada in 2024 | Fraser Institute

Big Government Crowds Out Civil Society—and the Poor Are Paying for it

Very recommendable!

"Civil society and its institutions also act as a buffer between the individual and the state, limiting the power of government. ... Over the past several decades, the government expanders have won out. Civil society has been weakened considerably, and countless Americans have suffered for it. ... Of course, the diversity touted by progressive elites is not the genuine diversity that emerges from the pursuits and values of a free, pluralistic civil society; it is a diversity coerced through a federally managed adversarial culture that divides people into groups of victims and oppressors."

Big Government Crowds Out Civil Society—and the Poor Are Paying for it - Intercollegiate Studies Institute: Think. Live Free.: The poor suffer in ways that go beyond economic injury.

On The Ospedale della Pieta

Posted: 8/18/2019

The citizens of the Western World are fooled on a daily basis to believe that the emergence and enormous expansion of the welfare state in Western countries since about the late 19th century is a great achievement and a great benefit to society. The opposite is closer to the truth! The welfare state is a huge power grab by government and represents an enormous subjugation of its citizens!

“The Ospedale della Pietà was a convent, orphanage, and music school in Venice. Like other Venetian ospedali, the Pietà was first established as a hospice for the needy. A group of Venetian nuns, called the Consorelle di Santa Maria dell’Umiltà, established this charitable institution for orphans and abandoned girls in the fourteenth century. ...

Infants could be left at the Pietà via the scaffetta, a window only large enough to admit infants. Not all infants were female, nor were they necessarily orphans. Through the seventeenth century all four of the surviving ospedali gained increasing attention through the performances of sacred music by their female musicians, known as figlie di coro.

By the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Pietà - along with the three other charitable Ospedali Grandi - was well known for its all-female musical ensembles that attracted tourists and patrons from around Europe” (S1; emphasis added)

None other than the great Antonio Vivaldi was engaged by the Pieta for many years of his active live: “The composer Antonio Vivaldi was appointed a violin teacher in 1703 and served in various roles through 1715, and again from 1723 to 1740. Much of Vivaldi's sacred vocal and instrumental music was written for performance at the Pietà.” (S1; emphasis added)

The Ospedale della Pieta was not an isolated case. There were many institutions like it all over Europe. Many of them probably forgotten.

Sources (S):

1. Ospedale della Pietà