I paid the fifth lowest tax burden in the world but all I got was this lousy infrastructure.

[Saviolo]

Despite so many in the US believing that Canada is a "socialist" haven of high taxes (repeatedly reported by the RW in the US), it turns out that major Canadian cities have a lower tax burden than US major cities.

The article in The Toronto Standard:
http://www.torontostandard.com/the-sprawl/toronto-is-the-5th-most-tax-friendly-city-in-the-world
is a little slim on details, but it does link to the original study in .pdf format, as well as the Forbes article: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2012/09/25/the-most-tax-friendly-country-in-the-world-is-spoiler-alert-its-not-the-u-s/
that gives a lot more detail.

Despite Canada's reputation as a heavily taxed country, it is apparently #2 in the world based on overall tax burden, with the following methodology:

The accounting giant conducted a major study of the general tax competitiveness of fourteen countries with an emphasis on the climate in 55 major international cities. The study took into consideration the relative corporate income tax, capital tax, sales tax, property tax and miscellaneous local business tax burdens of those countries, along with the statutory labor costs.

With India taking the #1 spot, and the USA coming in at #8, it puts things into a business perspective for the US.

[Chakab]

1. But, but, but....

...Fox News and Rush told me that Canada was a communist hellhole that had outlawed private property and that their socialist health care system was so deadly to patients that the poor bastards were streaming across the US border night and day to experience the benefits of our perfect healthcare system.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

2. True about the infrastucture,

but (and I have yet to read the full PDF), I get the feeling that the overall low tax rate is skewed because the Feds have been lowering corporate tax (now at 15%), and shifting the tax burden to the provinces and individuals since the 90s, while also subsidizing development towards resource extraction.

According to Wikipedia, a single person with no kids pays an average of 31.6% and a couple with 2 kids pays 21.5% plus a hefty dose of sales tax, gas tax, sin taxes, plus also has to deal with higher consumer goods prices (compared to the US), increasing user fees (licensing, health care etc), inflationary housing prices and stagnant wages.

Infrastructure spending is a no go since the 1980's, and successive Conservative and Liberal governments have privatized national resources such as rail, pipelines and refineries. Apart from resource extraction, the only major government investments we see are the debacles like sporting stadiums and the odd casino that are always over budget and in need of bailouts, or disasters like the 407 highway which was just a giveaway to corporate investor interests.