> Speaking as an Indian, I think Canada is well poised to be the next big super power, replacing the USA.
It's not poised at all in fact. It has no chance of becoming a superpower or replacing the US. That's a very, very far fetched premise (might as well say Sweden).
Canada has 36 million people with a very slow population growth rate. They've added a mere 10 million in three decades. Their GDP hasn't net expanded since 2008 in dollar terms ($1.55t in 2008; $1.53t in 2016). By comparison, since 2008, the US has added annual economic output the size of three Canadas (~$4.5 trillion).
Unless you're projecting Canada will have a one million dollar GDP per capita equivalent in the future - ~20 years out - while the US somehow completely languishes (despite there being no evidence to support such an outcome). That's what it will take for Canada to become a superpower. It's impossible.
Everything you say now about Canada, could have once been told about the US.
Superpowers are very powerful, but they are to an extent fragile. Affluence is good, but it also softens your bones and makes you believe you are the best because you are in some way special.
No doubt the US is still a very great country, with great culture and great people and there has hardly been country in Human history that has been this awesome. But its wrong to say this will last forever.
Things get reversed very quickly. Look at the middle east, look at the USSR. It takes a lot of effort to keep a super power intact. Things go down rather too quickly if you are not careful.
There has never been a country as cultural influential as the United States. The US is the only country with a military presence the spans the globe. In tech, you could combine the rest of the world and the US would still be ahead. Europe had to create a union to create a market big enough to compete with the US.
I don't think you understand the scale at which the US has to absolutely continuously fail over the next century to lose its lead.
I don't deny that US is still by the far the greatest country on earth currently. In fact I said that myself.
But there is no such thing called as a permanent super power, nor there ever will be.
Everything that you wrote about US, could have been written about any super power in History. The Romans, The Mongols, The Greeks they all were super powers with similar traits. And yet none of them are a super power today.
You underestimate how decadence works. There are a lot of Chinese and Indians who no longer want to come to US. And it takes a very few companies to change the economic momentum of the world. If past is any indication, you could even alter the very direction of the human race with a few inventions/enterprises, and you can do it quickly.
The most far fetched part isn't that the US might fail, it's that Canada would take its place out of all the other nations. The growth figures make this idea nonsensical, unless Canada somehow invents a strong A.I. or some equally implausible scenario.
It's not poised at all in fact. It has no chance of becoming a superpower or replacing the US. That's a very, very far fetched premise (might as well say Sweden).
Canada has 36 million people with a very slow population growth rate. They've added a mere 10 million in three decades. Their GDP hasn't net expanded since 2008 in dollar terms ($1.55t in 2008; $1.53t in 2016). By comparison, since 2008, the US has added annual economic output the size of three Canadas (~$4.5 trillion).
Unless you're projecting Canada will have a one million dollar GDP per capita equivalent in the future - ~20 years out - while the US somehow completely languishes (despite there being no evidence to support such an outcome). That's what it will take for Canada to become a superpower. It's impossible.