In his 1776 seminal work, The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith wrote: “It always is and must be the interest of the great body of the people to buy whatever they want of those who sell it cheapest. The proposition is so very manifest that it seems ridiculous to take any...
There is a new entry to Canada’s list of bad ideas promoted during the COVID-19 outbreak: a literal nanny state. Aspirant recipients and allies are seizing on panic to invoke a policy monstrosity that would be a blow to children and families. In September’s throne...
The media often portray alternative lenders as slippery, unethical loan sharks who exploit the poor. When targeting the sector and not just a few bad apples, such stories are easy, cheap hit jobs. A New Brunswick Liberal senator, for example, recently described...
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed more than ever that those who trade freedom for security cannot stand people preferring the former. By ignoring rules they force onto others, such as travel restrictions, politicians reveal the primary goal was power all along, not...
A Snapshot of Property Rights Protection in Canada After 10 years
The writ has been dropped and Albertans are off to the polls on May 29. That leaves just four weeks for political leaders and voters to sort out what is arguably the most divisive, yet significant, issue for this election - health care. On Day 2, NDP leader Rachel...
The stakeholder-shareholder debate in finance has narrowed down to a false dichotomy between good capitalism and bad capitalism. The former means funding green energy to fight global warming, while the latter means investing in fossil fuels, tobacco, or other “sin...
Canadians have an unhealthy obsession with statistical parity. In 2015, Canada’s Prime Minister introduced his 50-50 cabinet, prioritizing gender over merit in the name of equality. Now, the current Ontario minister of education has announced the end of academic...
Eat-the-rich rhetoric is good politics but bad policy. The wealthy minority contribute precious investment and much-needed employment, but no good deed goes unpunished. The specter of a wealth tax, which hangs over Canada, epitomizes infantile, self-defeating...
There have been few practical measures presented to achieve the lofty goals laid out in the prime minister’s green agenda or the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Gender equality, increased daycare spending, and reduced fossil-fuel usage might make for...
University administrators and student unions are tearing down something more important than statues. These self-appointed censors are dismantling the dialectic method bequeathed to us from Socrates and generations of scholars, triggering a brain drain away from...
Rather than focusing on the COVID-19 spread or opening the economy, the Canadian Prime Minister is using his pandemic recovery plan as a smokescreen for his environmentalist agenda. Contrary to feel-good platitudes, a quick transformation to a carbon-neutral economy...
The year is not yet over, and Calgary has already recorded 26 homicides, six more than in 2019. Edmonton has witnessed a 90 percent spike in assaults with weapons or causing bodily harm. Unbelievably, rather than tackling this escalating violence head-on, officials...
There is a pervasive belief in Canada that wireless phone-service prices are a rip-off. To suggest otherwise is heresy. Countless commentaries provide fodder for this belief, and every few years a politician takes on the purported problem. In the mid-2010s, for...