Canada’s Surprising One Percent

In the fall of 2011, the Occupy Movement staked its claims in cities across Canada. The occupiers declared “we are the 99 percent” and protested the rising share of income going to the top 1 percent.

The Occupy Movement was self-consciously leaderless and from the soggy yurts and drum circles was heard a jumble of incoherent complaints. Nonetheless, the protest resonated with many Canadians.

But our subsequent analyses and responses have been as jumbled and incoherent as the protests.

Just who are Canada’s 1 percent?

We immediately think of bank presidents and corporate CEOs with their multimillion dollar salaries and stock options. But this is not an accurate picture. The best source of data to examine the highest-income Canadians is the federal personal income tax. In 2010, the cut-off for the top 1 percent of income tax filers was an annual income of $201,400 per year. There were 254,700 people in the 1 percent, with a median income...