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The United States has never had a female president, but since World War II, 121 women have been elected or appointed as head of state or government in 80 countries around the world.
The top country should be no surprise: Finland has elected four women president or prime minister, most recently Sanna Marin. Of the 11 countries that have been led by three or more women in pinnacle positions, seven are in Europe, and of the 29 women currently in office, 15 are in Europe.
For women leaders with real lasting power, look to South Asia. Sri Lanka’s Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the first woman ever elected Prime Minister of any country in 1960, and went on to lead the island nation for over 17 years in total. Even Germany’s Angela Merkel only managed 16. During Bandaranaike’s last term, her counterpart in the presidency was Chandrika Kumaratunga, who held office for over 11 years.
An impressive record, but in Bangladesh, a generation has grown up under female leadership. Current Prime Minister Sheik Hasina is in her 20th year in power and counting, and her archrival Khaleda Zia led the country for 10.
The Iron Lady of India, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was cut down by an assassin in her 16th year in power, but India has twice elected women presidents, including the incumbent Droupadi Murmu.
And when Pakistan elected Benazir Bhutto in 1988, she became the first female elected leader of any Muslim country. She served a little over four years between two terms, but we grade on a scale in Islamabad: No PM has ever completed a full term in office.
Graphic Truth: Why are American elections so long?
Former President Donald Trump was the first major candidate to launch his campaign for the 2024 presidential election cycle – on Nov. 15, 2022, roughly two years before Election Day. The US puts no limits on the length of campaigns, which leaves the door open for massive amounts of campaign spending and has the potential to leave voters exhausted by the time they head to the polls.
Many other countries have laws restricting how long candidates can campaign. In Japan, campaigns do not officially start until 12 days before the election. The longest election campaign ever in Canada lasted 78 days in 2015. The Great White North now limits campaigns to 50 days at most.
Should the US follow their lead? Do American voters really need more than a year of campaigning to make up their minds about who will be president for the next four years?
Switzerland – which has the highest degree of trust in government – is leading by example as the host of this year’s Davos summit focused on Rebuilding Trust. Political stability, as well as government responsiveness and openness, help boost trust in governance. So it’s perhaps no surprise that the Land of William Tell, one of the most stable countries in the world, is brimming with it.
The same cannot be said for leaders of many of the other countries represented at Davos. Risk factors for distrust in governance? Economic inequality, corruption, and political instability, and a whopping57% of people around the world believe their leaders are trying to mislead them. In 2023, Pew found that only 15% of Americans trusted their government to do the right thing – down 7% from 2022.
These numbers are harrowing, but let’s see if the Swiss can rub off on them …
Bah humbug! Christmas tree prices are soaring as demand rises, but supply dwindles. In North America, a continent-wide tree shortage is taking root thanks to a declining number of Christmas tree farms.
The number of US farms fell sharply during the 2008 financial crisis and has continued to decline – so much so that 96% of the Christmas trees sold in the US come from Canada. But Canadian farms took a hit this summer from droughts, floods, and wildfires, and Canadian farmers also say fewer young people want to take over their tree businesses when they retire.
Christmas trees take eight to 10 years to grow, making it difficult to start new farms and even harder to turn profits. Inflation is raising the cost of fertilizer and fuel, and these costs are being passed on to consumers.
So if you’re wondering why the price of cheerful boughs is making you feel like the Grinch, blame climate change, a lack of farmers, inflation, and … well, Canada.
If “beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy,” then public health officials in Canada have strayed from the path of righteousness. Earlier this year, Canadian health authorities changed their recommendations on alcohol consumption to just two drinks a week for healthy adults.
In the United States, George Koob, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, set off a right-wing media firestorm in August when he said that the Department of Agriculture could follow Ottawa’s lead.
Fret not, fellow tipplers, the White House has our backs. The Biden administration vehemently denied it would back such guidelines —- and more to the point, they’re just that: guidelines. The federal government can’t actually stop anyone from drinking, but it is their job to inform the public about the health risks of alcohol.
Either way, beer consumption in particular is declining on both sides of the border. Canadians of drinking age bought about 70 liters of beer per person in 2020, down from 89 liters in 2010 and over 128 liters at the peak in 1973 (a rough year, apparently).
Americans consume about half again as much as their northern cousins, but there are a couple of things to keep in mind. First, Canada’s drinking age is 18 and 19 in most provinces, compared to 21 across the US —- not that it has ever prevented American teens from partying. The data does not include underage drinkers but does include the beer they drink, which inflates the US numbers.
Second, Canadian beer tends to be a little stronger, in the 5-6% alcohol by volume range compared to the 4-5% for American brews. That means Canadians are drinking about 20% less beer for the same buzz.
So who are the real beer lovers? Only one way to settle it: an international beer pong tournament, with the winner taking Niagara Falls.
The Graphic Truth: Shipping volume through the Russian Arctic
Climate change has opened Arctic shipping channels that can be navigated by freighters without icebreakers for several months a year – and year-round with icebreakers. Canada and Russia dominate the region, but Moscow is much more aggressively exploiting the economic opportunities there.
Taking the high-latitude route over Russia can shave 5,600 miles off a voyage from Europe to China, and as sea ice melt accelerates, the economic viability grows. Total shipping volumes along the Arctic route rose steadily between 2019 and 2020, and immediately after Russia invaded Ukraine, despite the frigid March conditions, the Arctic corridor saw its highest-ever volume of shipping in 2022.
Canada and the United States, meanwhile, have faced criticism for underinvestment in Arctic security. Canada, for example, lacks sufficient early warning systems to detect missile attacks coming over the North Pole — which is dangerous, given that the Arctic is essentially split between Russia and NATO countries.
We look at trade passing through the Russian Arctic corridor above.
The United States and Canada are two of the world’s biggest advanced democracies. But when it comes to elections, the Great White North is far better at registering its voters.
Canada makes it easy and even encourages voters to register as late as Election Day. It can do this because it has a centralized voter database shared among the provinces, enabling them to keep up-to-date information about where voters should be voting, which eliminates fears of voter fraud.
In the US – where fears of voter fraud run rampant – the main obstacle appears to be a lack of both cooperation and willpower. There’s no push to proactively register voters, and because there’s no centralized voter registration database, there’s limited communication between states.
The US is trying to roll out a centralized system, called Electronic Registration Information Center or ERIC, to inform states if a voter moves or dies, so that the names can be removed from the voter rolls. But to gain access, states must pledge to proactively register new voters who move to their state.
At its peak, ERIC had 33 states enrolled, but since the 2020 election, it has become the target of misinformation campaigns. Seven GOP-led states have pulled out of the interstate database over concerns about voter privacy and to protest the proactive registration requirement.
The Graphic Truth: Indians hold 40% of Canadian student visas
The fallout from allegations that India was behind the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar has thrown Indo-Canadian relations into the lurch. Each side has expelled a diplomat from the other, and India’s Embassy in Canada stopped processing visas – a serious diplomatic gesture, no doubt, but the material impacts are likely to be small. Only around 80,000 Canadians visited India in 2021 out of more than 1.5 million foreign tourists.
But if Canada responds in kind, it will be a very different story. Indian students represent a staggering 40% of the 807,000 foreign student visa holders in Canada, more than every other nationality combined save China. The number of Indians studying in the Great White North skyrocketed from just 2,210 in 2000 to 171,505 in 2018 — also the year Indian students first outnumbered Chinese students. Their population has since nearly doubled, and Indian students now represent approximately 0.8% of the entire population of Canada.
Here’s the twist: Even before the row over Nijjar’s murder, Canada was seriously considering capping student visas. The country is in the midst of a severe housing shortage, and efforts to alleviate the situation are falling short. The province of Ontario needs to build around 150,000 new houses every year for the next several years to rectify the situation — and they’re managing around 40,000. Capping the number of foreign students competing for limited housing might be politically expedient, but it would be a devastating blow to the Canadian universities that depend upon international tuition rates.