Well in mine it's government incompetence, lack of nationalism, corruption and IMHO the worst of all, the climate! Hot and humid for most of the year just makes people even less productive.
I envy you lucky Canadian. In the EU it's much worse and if you were to live in Eastern Europe you'd probably cry yourself to death, judging by how you're crying about your current conditions. I'll give you a hint how to notice the differences. Take an average EU country and compare how much people are earning there and what are the prices in stores.
Take Germany for instance, which is a pretty good economy and a rich country. Wages are similar to what you have in Canada, but max income tax is 42%! There's also vat, but in Canada it can be as low as 5% in some provinces, in some it's up to 15%. In Germany it's 19%! Go to one of the poorer EU member countries and you'll see it's much worse there. You need to travel a bit to understand how easy your life is.
Wait, is the tax rate in East Europe EU members the same as those in the West?
Also, 19% VAT is ridiculous. You even exceeded my 3rd World shithole's 12%. Do you have VAT-exempt goods?