Get an education, eh

This op-ed in today's Globe is overall a well-meaning gesture, but why, oh why, do Canadians always compare themselves to the U.S. instead of to farther afield? Americans aren't exactly the pinnacle of innovation and academe, y'know? I'm beginning to suspect that the real "barriers" are the ideological walls built around North America...what a short-sighted waste.

Canada's relative under-production of graduate degrees, especially compared to the United States, is widely identified as a barrier to increasing our country's international competitiveness and productivity. For example, in 2004, American universities awarded twice as many master's degrees per capita as Canadian universities and about 35 per cent more doctoral degrees per capita than their Canadian counterparts. The OECD reports that Canada trails far behind the leading nations in terms of doctoral graduates.

This might have something to do with the cost of education in this country more than doubling in the time it takes the average grad student to put in six years plus a thesis...just a guess...did I mention I got my master's FOR FREE in Scandinavia?

And of course there is the obligatory nod to immigrants, particularly those elusive, highly educated ones:

Immigration will also play a critical role. Streamlining our immigration process to make Canada a more attractive option for skilled immigrants will be important. However, Canada cannot count on maintaining current levels of immigration of advanced degree-holders to meet future labour market needs. In an increasingly knowledge-based world, competition for highly-educated immigrants is growing in developed nations and emerging economies alike.

Consequently, more needs to be done to attract the best and the brightest international graduate students who remain critical to fuelling the country's pipeline of highly qualified personnel.

I agree wholeheartedly that the immigration process has to be streamlined. But then what? We've got a critical shortage of family doctors in this country while meanwhile there are surgeons driving taxis, not to mention, ahem, web marketing designers stuck in demeaning ghettoized translation jobs. I'm sure they're all writing home about how great Canada is. Why bother attracting more when we aren't making the most of the people we have here, enabling them to do what they came here to do? I'll say it again: what a waste.