* In general it should be noted that similar to USA in Canada government institutions do not interfere with everyday life and business, privacy and freedoms are protected.  Historically most violations of human rights and crimes in non-democratic countries were committed by the state and it's agents. So, when USA was created, they incorporated in their laws important safeguards to protect human rights of individuals against abuse by the police, army and other government institutions.  This notion may seem unusual for many people who never lived in America or Canada.  More typical aspirations by citizens in many countries, which suffered from different kinds of dictatorship was - let's "replace bad government" with the "good one", yet the key to government abuse was not who is the ruler (and most even "democratic" elections can be manipulated), but how much of national production, resources and finances are controlled by the government.  So the true answer adopted in USA and Canada is "less government".  How much less - is the subject of constant democratic struggle between political parties, who seriously compete for "best plan" for the nation's future prosperity: the "left" oriented (working people/low income families) and "right" oriented (free market advocates, business people/high income families).  We do not have strict social boundaries between the first and second, let's just say that good "business people" and "working people" in Canada work mostly co-operatively for prosperity of the whole society.

* Important difference though between Canada and USA is: in the States about 40% of population own firearms for self-protection.  In Canada - it's very rare, people do not feel that they need to carry arms to be safe.  Americans are more dynamic and active, Canadians - peaceful and friendly.  Also - compared to USA Canada is a more "socialist" country.  We have programs like government-managed (by provinces) health care, which is financed by taxes collected on both federal and provincial levels.  It's very important that Canadians understand that all benefits from government programs (from police protection to health care) come from taxpayers: working Canadians and businesses.  Our governments do not brainwash citizens by propaganda of "creating or giving" benefits, politicians mainly have to prove to citizens how good they manage the taxpayers' money.