By Nadine Wellwood
"Sweden isn’t socialist—and it hasn’t been for decades.
In this Frankly Speaking, Nadine breaks down the facts: Sweden is a competitive market economy with a large welfare layer, funded by broad-based VAT and income taxes—not by “taxing the rich.” It runs on competition, choice, and personal responsibility: school vouchers (1992), no minimum wage (wages are negotiated), flexible labor markets, lower corporate taxes than Canada, and major pro-market reforms in the 1990s after a socialist experiment failed.
Key takeaways
• Not socialist: Sweden is a market economy + welfare state, not a command economy
• Who pays? VAT 25% on consumption + broad income tax (top bracket kicks in around ~US$62k)
• Corporate tax: ~20.6%, lower than Canada’s combined rates
• Education: Universal school vouchers—money follows the child; for-profit schools permitted
• Labor: No minimum wage—sectoral wage bargaining; unions are private, voluntary, pro-mobility
• History matters: 1970s–early 1990s: high-tax/collectivist experiment failed → 1990s reforms: privatization, deregulation, tax cuts, private pension accounts, competition
• Lesson for Canada: Sweden works because it embraces market competition and accountability; Canada is doing the opposite (bloat, centralization, regulation, stagnation)
If Canada wants Sweden’s outcomes, it needs Sweden’s model—not the myth."