Ottawa is the most educated, powerful, and technological city, in the smartest country, in the most powerful continent, on the face of the planet. Ottawa is the capital of Canada! The home of the prime minister, and members of parliament and all their high IQ employees and family members.
And because of the more sophisticated political discourse that occurs in Canada, thanks in part to the parliamentary system, the diminished role of money in politics, and classy media like CBC radio, Canada’s political class appears to be significantly more intelligent than America’s. For example U.S. elites supported the disastrous 2003 invasion of Iraq, as did countries as powerful as Britain and Israel, but Canada’s big brained prime minister Jean Chrétien had the good judgement to oppose it, before it began, and he did so in gorgeous Ottawa.
The large cranial capacity of Jean Chrétien allowed room for great wisdom.
The average U.S. president probably has an IQ of about 130 (higher than 98% of whites). The only Canadian prime minister whose IQ I’m aware of is Kim Campbell who reportedly scored a stratospheric 154. Assuming that’s a deviation IQ, it would make her almost certainly smarter than any president in American history, but even that might be an underestimate because the test wasn’t hard enough to find her ceiling. “I’ve never seen anyone who could absorb so much,” her shocked teacher recalled.
(Photo: David P. Lewis/Shutterstock)
Not only is Ottawa flowing with the greatest minds in politics and public policy, and all their high IQ families, but Ottawa is overflowing with high tech talent. Nicknamed the silicon valley of the North, Ottawa has a jaw dropping 1,700 high tech companies. An astonishing figure for city with not even a million residents.
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So not only does Ottawa have the greatest political minds in North America, but it combines that with high tech genius, and on top of that, it’s a bilingual city where folks switch from English to French without missing a beat. There might be more brain power per capita in Ottawa than any other city in North America, not to mention all of Europe, the middle-east, South Asia, and Africa. You have the best and brightest people from all over the World flocking to this beautiful city in droves.
There’s just a level of sophistication and class that occurs in Ottawa that you simply can’t find anywhere else.
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I was gonna laugh in your face at first but you made a semi-cogent argument.
I mean, your argument is probably still wrong (wouldn’t the actual Silicon Valley be more intelligent than the Silicon Valley of the North?), but I learned a lot about a place I’ll probably never visit (the closest I’ve ever been to Canada has been Detroit and Buffalo).
Good post.
I mean, your argument is probably still wrong (wouldn’t the actual Silicon Valley be more intelligent than the Silicon Valley of the North?)
Silicon Valley has a lot of people with extremely high math and spatial IQ, while somewhere like Washington DC probably has a lot of people with extremely high verbal and social IQ, needed to dominate politics and government.
But Ottawa combines both types of cognitive elites into one tiny city in a more intelligent country, with a more meritocratic political system, which perhaps makes it especially smart.
Maybe on a per capita basis, but I still don’t buy it. Economies of agglomeration suggest that large cities like San Fran, Boston, DC, NYC, or even Toronto will have higher geniuses per capita than a small city like Ottawa.
Ha Canadian jingoism is fun, because it’s so harmless.
But I doubt that Canadian politicians are any more intelligent than their American counterparts. The discourse there only seems more civilized because the average Canadian IQ is slightly higher, which obviously has to do with demographics. The IQ of European Canadians is likely the same (100) as that of European Americans. But about 30% of the American population consists of low-IQ population groups (13% African Americans with an average IQ of 85, and >15% Latinos with an average IQ of maybe 90 if you’re feeling charitable). Canada has only about 5-10% low-IQ immigrants, mainly Native Canadians (who aren’t even immigrants LOL since they have been there since the beginning of time, by their own reckoning) and I think some Arabs / West Indians / Jamaicans. Both the US and Canada enjoy about 5% high-IQ East Asians, who pull the average IQ upwards.
“Nicknamed the silicon valley of the North”
Ha LOL, every mid-sized city (at least every mid-sized city that isn’t infested with a resentful low-IQ underclass that sets it afire every few years) thinks of itself as the Silicon Valley of somewhere. Berlin/Amsterdam/London all fancy themselves the SV of Europe, Tel Aviv is the SV of the Middle East, etc. When I think of the original Silicon Valley, names immediately come to mind like Google Apple Facebook Twitter Uber and a zillion others. But what dotcoms of note can Ottowa boast? There are probably “big in Canada” companies with names like CanadaLink or CanadaWeb that people in Canada believe to be important on a global scale, but probably no real companies of any consequence.
Ottawa was nicknamed the Silicon Valley of the North by the national media, not local media. Ottawa is home to some incredibly rich high tech types, including Forbes BILLIONAIRE Sir Terry Matthews.
Canada’s higher test scores persist, even when controlling for the demographic differences you cite. Canadian whites on the whole score about 3 IQ points higher than American whites on the WAIS-IV,.And the best and brightest Canadians of all races probably tend to live in Ottawa.
The only places outside Silicon Valley that genuinely rival Silicon Valley are in Asia. Come to think of it, Silicon Valley is more than half Asian.
And where in East Asia ?
Pumpkin, you probably know from LoftB, that I’m now in Montreal. Not really far from Ottywa.
And I’ve been saying all along, Canadian Cities are a lot nicer and orderly than any American dump. Even Winnipeg, with all of its problems, makes Boston look like a lower class city.
I knew you always dreamed of getting out of the incredibly prole New York city, but I never knew you actually did it. Are you a Canadian citizen now? Were you able to get a job in the classy Montreal? Does it pay anywhere near as well as your job in NYC? Although just getting away from the proleness of NYC is itself worth a million dollars in terms of quality of life. 🙂
No, I’m just visiting at the moment. I’m giving a thought about Canadian Citizenship. I have been looking to join a startup, since Montreal is a startup city, and I have been invited to attend a few talks. The signs are in French everywhere, yet many people are speaking in English. Also, I don’t find the blacks and other non-Whites to be as troublesome, as the ones in NYC. And percentage wise comparing to Whites, they are fewer in numbers. I can spot at least 20 blacks in a 5 minute walk, in any busy White neighborhood in Manhattan, during broad daylight. In Montreal, I encounter less than 10 blacks, in the downtown area of Sherbrooke Street, in the same time frame.
Montreal’s monthly salaries are about $1K lower than that of NYC. The rent however is significantly cheaper than anything in New York City. The rental prices for the nicest neighborhoods in Montreal, are equivalent to a prole section in New York, which is not even close to Manhattan. Ironically, the suburban areas in Montreal command a higher rental price, than those close to the downtown of the city, which is the reverse for NYC. I assume people in Montreal view downtown as less prestigious, and it’s not a place to call home, if you don’t have to live there.
Yes, NYC is for barbarians, and its people are incredibly prole and rude.
The few blacks I know in Ottawa are all wonderful people, but then Ottawa attracts the classiest people of all races.
Do you make good money in NYC? How attractive do you find the women in Montreal compared to NYC?
I was working at home in NYC, earning six figures, after years of building up my clientele list.
The women are comparable to NYC, except in Montreal, many the women have French ancestry. I say NYC has more attractive women, only because it’s a big city, where you have a bigger population.
And what is your take on Canadian females vs American females? I think Canadian women are generally more down to earth.
And what is your take on Canadian females vs American females? I think Canadian women are generally more down to earth.
Hard to generalize because there’s so much regional and cultural variation within both countries. But in Canada the most down to earth people tend to be in the Maritimes
European cities like Brussels, Frankfürt, Zurich or Geneva are probably smarter than Ottawa in my opinion. But all of those cities are nothing compared of the US hubs of cognitive power. However I think no Asian city rivals Boston or the Bay Area in terms of brainpower per capita. Hong Kong, Taipei, Tokyo, Seoul, Osaka, Nagoya or Singapore are not as efficient as HBD would believe. I won’t even mention Mainland China’s cities.
Yet, with all the brain power, Americans generally come across as excruciatingly crude.
Just because a U.S. city has an elite university in it does not make it a hub for true brain power. For one thing, most people in the city have no meaningful relation to the university, and even the best universities in the World are not that cognitively selective. The World’s most prestigious university is Harvard and one study suggests it has an average IQ of 122:
https://pumpkinperson.com/2015/04/13/do-harvard-students-have-an-average-iq-of-122/
That’s higher than over 90% of American whites, but IQs that high are a dime a dozen in Ottawa.
Last year I attended a talk given by a few professors in philosophy, and we had a few Canadians, and it did seem like they were more educated in the subject. They presented very good papers, which were well written and well spoken. The same could not be said of the dime in the dozen American academics, who were more concerned about “prestige” and earning money from their studies. In fact, many came across as being sociopaths, and not caring. Their mentality, was how can I convince people, so I can generate prestige and income. Almost like the value transference world, that Lion speaks about.
And given the anti-intellectual climate in America, why would any powerful cognitive elite live there? Unless, they are all about the bottom line like most Americans, which happens to be the case.
Boston is devoid of any intellectual atmosphere like almost all American cities, despite Harvard and MIT being nearby. San Francisco appears to be the same, just minions for the Silicon Valley Tycoons.
Man, if I summarize Pumpkin’s argument Ottawa is the smartest city in the world because it’s a mid-sized mostly white city that happens to be the administrative hub of a mid-sized world power that happens to be located on the same continent as the world’s only superpower which is not Canada though.In addition to that, Its population has a high degree of bilingualism (by the way, nearly all subsaharian Africans are at least bilingual) and some random media outlets or communication agencies have nicknamed it “the Sillicon valley of the North”. Which is enough for pumpkin to label his own city the smartest in the world.
But I actually think that the city that has no rival in terms of per capita brainpower is Geneva. It is a financial hub, one of the most active and influential center of international politics (with various UN agencies and other international institutions) People there master French, German and English, it’s area is a global high tech and research center as well as a reserve of highly skilled traditional crafts. Zurich has a similar profile as Geneva but without the international politics aspect. Switzerland however is indisputably the country that has the highest big brains/inhabitant ratio in the world.
Cities with high income inequality, cannot be very intellectual in nature. American cities comes to mind, and it appears that Canadian cities (with the exception of Montreal), are heading in the same direction. So the Anglosphere is for the most part, not very intellectual or culturally stimulating.
Cities with high income inequality, cannot be very intellectual in nature. American cities comes to mind, and it appears that Canadian cities (with the exception of Montreal), are heading in the same direction. So the Anglosphere is for the most part, not very intellectual or culturally stimulating.
Huh?
To Afrosapiens: LOL, good takedown!
Cities with high segregation between rich and poor, cannot be conducive for intellectual and culture development.
“Cities with high segregation between rich and poor, cannot be conducive for intellectual and culture development.”
Can desegregation bridge IQ gaps then ?
Hey Pumpkin I know that’s off topic but I’m currently discussing with Jason Malloy about national IQ estimates and I gmade him aware of some flaws in the calculation methodology.
The first thing we discussed was representativeness of samples and I made him realized that he greatly under-estimated the share of educated and middle class people in devlopping countries especially when they have black majority. For instance, he usually excluded college students from the calculations even though the figures of college enrollement were quite significant (33% in Jamaica or 15% in Ghana). Now he’s considering weighting samples controlling for SES instead of excluding middle or upper class samples that can’t be thought as anomalous unrepresentative samples. One suggestion I made to him is to select as representative the samples that expressed the characteristics of individuals who had completed their nation’s average adult mean years of schooling. In Jamaica for instance, the average was 9,6 which makes adults with middle school or early high school skills representatives of Jamaica whereas Malloy, in my opinion tended to believe that true representatives would be unschooled or people who only completed primary school.
Second thing we are starting to discuss is excluding children samples because I realized that adults tended to have much higher IQs than children. In Jamaica for instance, the weighted average IQ of adults who somewhat fitted the characteristics of people with middle school attainment was 86,16 . The unweighted average was 87,43 and the median 88. in Subsharan Africa, adults tend to have IQs around 80.
Why adults and not children ?
Because societies are run by adults and you can’t theorize about the consequence of a nation’s mean IQ if the estimate is mostly based on children samples.
The heritability of IQ reaches it’s peak in adulthood while it’s low in children their IQs are not reliable to discuss “genotypic” IQ.
Children may have troublesome attitudes toward the test
Children are affected by external factors they can’t control whereas adults are supposed to be sole responsible for their cognitive well being.
So it might not be relevant to use studies on children to make the estimates.
Wasted time. What we need to do to figure out the racial IQ gaps once and for all is admixture studies http://humanvarieties.org/2013/03/29/cryptic-admixture-mixed-race-siblings-social-outcomes/
This is not wastec time at all since we may be interested in having the best estimate of a nation’s IQ regardless of what causes this IQ. You know, one of the probable explanation to why we don’t find the biological mechanism that influence group differences in IQ is because research is based on unreliable figures, that the gaps are not as wide as HBD think and that only a couple environmental factors influence different group average.
Those that have been proven are the following:
-prenatal environment and delivery conditions
-health, nutrition and exposure to chemicals
-quality of schooling and childrearing
-intellectual stimulation
Expressed in UK norms, adult white Americans have a mean IQ of 98, adult black Africans have a mean IQ around 80. The IQ gap is only 18 points (60 Flynn effect years). So this difference is most likely 100% environmental and genetic investigation not worth funding because pointless.
It’s also been proven that IQ is fixed and no environmental effects are shown to change them. Gregory Cochran says this, also IQ is highly heritable and mostly caused by additive effects of common variant genes. this is proven thus far.
Admixture studies won’t be enough.
What must be done is:
-Taking a sample of black Nigerians and another of white Norwegians.
-Finding the degree of genetic similarity between each individual black Nigerian and the average of the white Norwegian sample
-Seeing if more genetic similarity with white Norwegians make black Nigerians smarter.
“It’s also been proven that IQ is fixed and no environmental effects are shown to change them.”
What is the Flynn effect then ?
And what is Cochran’s (a physicist) authority in the study of genetics and brain function ?
Why can’t the theorists of race, genetics and intelligence be geneticists and neuroscientists instead of racists of random academic background ?
One suggestion I made to him is to select as representative the samples that expressed the characteristics of individuals who had completed their nation’s average adult mean years of schooling.
Yes, that was the method I used to estimate the average IQ of South Africa:
https://pumpkinperson.com/2015/07/05/estimating-the-average-iq-of-sub-saharan-africa/
Except I couldn’t find a good adult sample that had the country’s average education, but I attempted to deduce from the IQs of university students what the IQs of adults with only an 8th grade education should be.
If you have any questions about this, it makes more sense to ask them in that article, so people searching for this topic can find your comments on the subject.
Your calculation is wrong because a systematic literature review gave the following
79 in a 1998 sample of 225 South African psychology students (caution: study performed by Rushton)
90 in a 2000 sample of 198 South African engeneering students (caution: study performed by Rushton)
78 in a 2000 sample of 70 South African psychology students (caution: study performed by Rushton)
74 in a 1996 sample of 30 impoverished South African university students
96 in a 1995 sample of 147 disadvantaged South African university students
weighted average of the samples: 85,65
unweighted average of the samples: 83,4
We could still refine the estimate by finding what is the share of soft sciences and hard science in South Africa’s student population. Especially when psychology courses are notorious for being literal cognitive trashes attracting mainly lazy dreamer students.
I’ll probably respond if you copy and paste your comment in this thread:
https://pumpkinperson.com/2015/07/05/estimating-the-average-iq-of-sub-saharan-africa/
Not that I object to off-topic comments, but when there’s a thread devoted to the subject, it makes more sense to have the discussion there.
OK, I’ll do that.
Just look at this stupid logic, Ottawa is the smartest city in North America because:
“Ottawa is the most educated, powerful, and technological city, in the smartest country, in the most powerful continent, on the face of the planet.”
Ottawa is the smartest city of Canada
Canada is the smartest country in the Americas
Hence the smartest city of the smartest country of a continent is the smartest city of the continent because in your logic, it is impossible that dumber countries have cities that surpass the intelligence of the smartest city of the smartest country.
If we go like this we should expect that the richest man in the world is a Qatari since he would be the richest man of the richest country.
Not surprising you’re into HBD…
Ottawa is the smartest city of Canada
Canada is the smartest country in the Americas
Hence the smartest city of the smartest country of a continent is the smartest city of the continent because in your logic, it is impossible that dumber countries have cities that surpass the intelligence of the smartest city of the smartest country.
No, it’s not impossible, but if Ottawa is the smartest city in the smartest country of North America, it’s a likely candidate for smartest city in North America.
Analogously, if you’re the tallest person in the tallest sex in the human species, you’re a likely candidate for World’s tallest person. Of course, it’s technically still possible that the World’s tallest woman is taller than the World’s tallest man, but it’s more likely that the World’s tallest man is taller than the World’s tallest woman, because men are generally taller than women.
If you were from Ottawa you’d understand. 🙂
1- The US-Canada educational gap is not as huge as the male-female gap.
2- The US is close to ten times more populated than Canada, it probably has ten times more large and influential cities
3- The US is countlessly more influential and its absolute cognitive output is in a magnitude that Canada can’t even think to rival.
You know, if there were 1 man for 10 women and that the average height of women was 94% that of men (USA’s 2012 PISA score is 497, Canada 525), the tallest human being in the world would probably be a woman.
So the smartest city in North America is probably in the USA.
Good points, but it really depends on how much IQ variation there is between cities within each country, and ten times the population != ten times the number of cities.
NYC was ranked smarter than Montreal and Toronto, and “smart” American cities were ahead of the Canadian ones. However, one can make a point that this is wrong.
By the way, Pumpkin, many of the White girls in Montreal are bilingual, and some are trilingual, for those, whose main language is not French or English. And for non-Whites, some of them can speak more than 2 languages as well. You cannot say the same of Americans.
iirc i and two other “smart kids” were assigned a report on Ottawa in middle school.
i don’t remember anything except than pee pee is a south asian woman who “identifies” as a white man.
my other middle school country geo-political projects were on Lichtenstein and the then president of Mexico.
Probably because you weren’t as smart as you think you are. You’ve at this point regressed to your family mean of 92, I bet.
Pumpkin, If you can convince me that Canada is the smartest country in the Americas, I will stay put, and leave America for good. And of course, it also varies by cities in terms of smartness and other variables. I could never picture myself living in Newfoundland-Labrador or any place in Atlantic Canada.
On a scale where U.S. whites have an average IQ of 100, the average American has an IQ of 96-97, and the average Canadian has an IQ of 102-103
Of course IQ tests are not perfect measure of intelligence. It could be that Canadians artificially score higher because of our education system.
It’s also interesting that Canada is more socialistic than America. Smarter people think a dose of socialism is good for society, which is different for lower IQ individuals, who see it as a freebie, so they don’t have to work. More socialism for smarter people, means more self actualization for them.
Meanwhile, America is still holding onto the idea that working at the factory, involving low skilled labor, is more honorable than drawing government subsidies, where you can work on something that is more meaningful.
Pumpkin Person, I suspect the migration of British whites to the South lowered iq by a couple of points where conservatism became very attractive (I believe you pointed out liberals have an iq of 105 vs 95 for conservatives).
I also see that correlation based on how the white Cajuns have a low rate of achievement in comparison with the average white population, which is also definitely IQ related.
Pumpkin, what do you think is the average IQ of Ottawa inhabitants ?
I love your avatar! It’s both funny and incredibly scary!
On a scale where American, British, and Australian whites average IQ 100, the U.S. averages 96-97, Canada averages 102-103, and Ottawa probably averages anywhere from 104-109.
Yeah, its Kaa from the jungle book.
I think they have at least an average of 109 if they live in the smartest city of the smartest country of the most powerful continent. 104-106 seems quite low for the smartest city of a country with an average IQ of 102-103.
It seems like high tech is well-respected in Canada. Unlike the States, where tech is seen as low status, only for immigrants.
In Montreal, many of the high tech guys are White. In NYC, high tech are all foreigners, and the work is seen as insulting to most Whites. Big difference. I think in the coming years, it will be interesting to see how this will pan out!
In Montreal, many of the high tech guys are White. In NYC, high tech are all foreigners, and the work is seen as insulting to most Whites.
The people in NYC are extremely insecure, and trapped in the high school mentality of not wanting to appear like computer geeks. A very arrogant, narcissistic, status obsessed, psychologically stunted, sociopathic, parasitic and immature population.
I have to say, this Ottawa post is one your best. You need to mix creativity, art, technology and IQ, and create more of these postings.
Canada has surpassed America in many areas. They have a healthy middle class and their education system is more grounded. If Canada one day becomes milder with its climate, then things will be really bad for the United States, because it will be very attractive for smart people to live there, and they would want to be there.
I have to say, this Ottawa post is one your best. You need to mix creativity, art, technology and IQ, and create more of these postings.
In other words, more lazy and easy to read articles.
No, not at all. Pumpkin may want to keep this blog elite, by making it very technical in nature, yet infusing it with creativity and art, makes it even more so!
I do believe the Canadian cognitive class, is smarter than the American ones. Furthermore, Canada has more orderly cities, that are also nicer and cleaner. Some areas of Montreal look like NYC, which is falling apart, but NYC, doesn’t have anything what Montreal has, when it comes to its classier side.
Pumpkin, Would you use HBD as an immigration selection process? What do you think about Canadian cities like Vancouver, with its large East Asian population? It seems like not much innovation or ingenuity comes out of it. I’m willing to bet a less attractive place, like Newfoundland has more potential for growth and innovation, mainly because it’s a lot more White than Vancouver.
As an HBDer I like living in racially diverse areas so I can observe the three main races like a scientist observes his lab rats. But sadly, most people just want to live around only whites. Even many blacks want to live around only whites.
Which means, you can observe the 3 main racial groups with ease, and without suspicion. blacks no doubt, dislike East Asians more than Whites, and to a certain degree, vice versa, given the fact that these 2 groups are competing for White acceptance. blacks generally have significantly less resources to engage in it, where they feel a sense of disenfranchisement and inferiority, and some of them lash out their frustrations, not on the White majority, but other minorities who do much better. Furthermore, I’m able to observe, as to why Whites are so emulated, mainly because they come across as ingenious and creative. Both blacks and East Asians have yet to reach their full civilizational potential.
JS,
east asians are predominantly brachycephalic (less japaneses….), white europeans are variable (and earlier anthropologists like Carleton Coon said that ”brachycephalic alpine european subrace tend to be less dominant in personality”. Africans are predominantly dolicocephalic, as well nordics.
Santo, I’m so glad that I left the sociopathic country, they call the USA. Most of the Whites in North America are alpine brachycephalic, which means they are less domineering, and this could be a reason for all the non-White immigration. The same for France, Germany and the other Alpine countries. Yes, nordics are domineering, but they aren’t like blacks. They are much more intelligent. And you have a point, out of control multiculturalism in Western nations, run by alpine race.
JS,
i think most of problems in our societies are caused by dominant who tend to be more sociopathic in combination with servile prototypes.
Santo, I would rather live in Norway or in America. Of course, the answer is obvious, despite Nordics having a more dominant profile.
East Asians are sociopathic in their own ways. Japanese towns are always cleaner and less corrupt, compared to Chinatowns. I believe it’s what those dominant individuals want to engage in. blacks are generally more sociopathic, but have very small ambitions.
Generally, sociopathics and psychopathics are extraverted, a socially dominant personality profile.
I don’t know nordics have a dominant personality, on average, because they are very docile with multiculturalism.
Pumpkin what color are you hair ? and your eyes ?
Is black. 😉
Hello pumpkin, long time lurker here. Have you wonder what’s the average IQ of a bilingual person. Maybe just 3 points more on average? Maybe non at all given the nature of linguistics. It seems a rather difficult question due to the facts you have to take into account and the lack in scientific data (a lot of them done with ashkenazi population and their edge on this subtest seems to entangle things even more).
I think in Ottawa, the IQs of English speakers who learn French as a second language is maybe 10 points higher than those who speak English only. Back when I was a kid (I’m now in my 30s), dumb kids were strongly advised not to attend French immersion schools and the school board psychoeducational consultant spent a huge amount of her time IQ testing children in French immersion schools because there was concern that many kids couldn’t handle it.