Will Wilkinson and Canadian Liberty

Will Wilkinson seems to believe that freedom in Canada is not much different from the U.S. He says that anecdotally it may seem that Canada less free, but that actual indices measuring freedom between the two actually suggest that they are quite comparable. I am not sure what indices he is referring to, but the indices I am most familiar with in my research are the Economic Freedom of the World Index and the Economic Freedoom of North America Index both constructed by the Fraser Institute. For the most part, Canada ranks quite well at the country level compared to the United States. The U.S. has generally ranked higher, but in recent years Canada has surpassed it slightly (in 2006, the most recent year that is estimated, Canada ranks 7th and the U.S. ranks 8th). However, at the state level economic freedom is consistently higher in the U.S. states. Delaware ranks highest overall followed by Alberta. However, none of the other Canadian provinces rank in the top 50 (West Virginia is the only U.S. state not to rank in the top 50). Of course, it could be that although there are differences, the differences are not significant compared to other countries.