Canada among safest places to call home

The morning sun reflects off the Rocky Mountains near Lake Louise on the Alberta-British Columbia border in western Canada.

Toronto Sun

Monday, February 20, 2012

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Riskiest include Somalia, DR Congo, Sudan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.Come hell or high water, experts have found Canada is among the safest places to call home.

A new index of the world’s most vulnerable countries, released Monday, has found this nation ranked 169th of 178 countries when it comes to the most secure locations across the globe.

International companies, aid agencies and foreign embassies use the rankings on Maplecroft’s Global Risks Index as a way to measure how volatile regions are for their workers.

Jason McGeown, spokesman for U.K.-based Maplecroft, says Canada’s low ranking on risks is a product of both low exposure and high resilience on everything from resource security, reaction to pandemics, governance risk and social problems.

But Maplecroft warns Canada registers increased vulnerability to macroeconomic woes in 2012, rising to 122nd of the 178 countries analyzed.

“This is primarily a product of a worsening macroeconomic environment due to exposure to the slowdown prompted by crisis in Europe,” McGeown warns.

Canada’s aging population will also have an impact on medium to long-term resilience to economic burdens, the new report points out.

The security think-tank also ranked Canada as a high-risk country in its Climate Change Index.

“This reflects Canada’s significant contribution to climate change ... which will place increasing pressure from the international community and domestic environmental groups on the government to implement regulatory provisions to reduce emissions,” says McGeown.

The new study found countries like Russia, China and India are in no better position to withstand shocks from major events than they were four years ago.

Among the riskiest countries on Earth are Somalia (No.1), followed by the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

And if you want to fare better than Canada in avoiding calamity, the new study has found New Zealand, Finland and Denmark might be better choices to call home.

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