We are fortunate that we don’t have a housing bubble that is nearly as serious as in Western Europe and the United States. However, we now better understand the nature of financial “bubbles” driven by excess and it is increasingly evident that we have our own. They are called Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and to a lesser extent, Quebec.
Year: 2008
Equalization Reform Required
Defenders of equalization in its current form argue the program allows for roughly comparable levels of services in all provinces. Actually, it does not, which is why Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty has long and justifiably complained about federal transfer programs. New equalization payments to Ontario will not change that.
Have-Not Status Is All About Gaming The Rules
Should Ontario ever change the slogan on its licence plates, it might consider a variation on a certain bank tagline. “We’re richer than you think” would be a balm on the wounded self-esteem of Canada’s newest have-not province.
Ontario Party Would Get Some Federal Attention
Now consider this scenario: The Ontario Party is formed in time for the next federal election and it has a simple focus. What’s good for Ontario is good for the Ontario Party. There are 308 seats in the House of Commons, 106 of them representing Ontario. Just the existence of a credible party from Ontario would force the others to pay attention to us, but if the Ontario Party won even 30 seats, it would effectively prevent any of the big parties from winning a majority.
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Time to Stop Lockdowns, Vaccine Mandates and Crushing Our Charter of Rights
If one was to discuss the state of the world’s democracies in September of 2019, it would look entirely different than it does today in 2022. Three years ago, Canadians generally thought that: our democracy was relatively strong and citizens would defend their...
Propaganda Rules the World
One of the greatest books that explain how the world works is Propaganda by Edward Bernays. The man dubbed “the father of public relations” applied the psychological ideas of his uncle Sigmund Freud upon the masses, triggering their basic motivations to the benefit of...
This Is Ludicrous
Commissions across the country, each operating on their own codes but upon similar premise, have fallen into disrepute of late because of cases they’ve taken on, dealing with freedom of speech. There are growing demands to clip the extraordinary powers of commissions to stray into adjudication of constitutionally protected rights and laws within the Criminal Code.
Six Highly Effective Habits of High Performing Municipalities
We profile the goal oriented management structures that helps municipalities deliver results in New Zealand cities.
Will New Brunswick Dare To Pull Out All The Stops?
New Brunswick’s strategic objectives in its tax-reform exercise are impeccable. It seeks to achieve “self-sufficiency” – independence from federal equalization payments – by 2026. The corporate tax reform cited here is one of the more radical options presented in the New Brunswick discussion paper. But it doesn’t go quite far enough. New Brunswick needs a corporate tax rate that will reverberate across the country and around the world.
Double-Bubble, and Oil, and Trouble
If there is anything to be learned from the recent string of bubbles, it may be that surplus investment capital, now floating round the world in cyberspace, is always looking for a speculative home and that as one bubble bursts, the fund managers desperately seek out a replacement. Will we see a gathering flock to carbon trading, windmills, biofuels and other renewables driven largely by the legislators?
The Impact of Teachers’ Unions on Education Policy
The primary goals of teachers’ unions are different from, and often incompatible with, those of effective schools.
Gang Green
But now the environmental movement has morphed into the most authoritarian philosophy in America. The most glaring example of course is the multitrillion-dollar cap-and-trade anti-global warming scheme that would mandate an entire restructuring of our industrial economy. The latest rage among the more radical environmental groups is to encourage the government to monitor and ration every individual’s carbon footprint — how much you eat, drive, fly, heat, air condition, throw away and so on.
Free Trade Breakdown
Establishing significantly freer trade would help the world combat its biggest problems. For a low cost, we could improve education, make the poorest people richer and help everybody become better able to tackle the future.
The Death of a Nation
It is one thing to support a people that is oppressed by an authoritarian government and Tibetans are actually in danger of losing their culture. But it is more disturbing when people choose to break up nation-states because they refuse to share their wealth, for linguistic or ethnic reasons.
Why Solving Global Warming May Not Pay Off
Cost-benefit analysis requires tough-minded decisions. It compels you (for example) to invest in children, with full lifetimes ahead of them, rather than in old people. It isn’t necessarily a discipline that works in all situations. Yet the Copenhagen Consensus makes two important points: You can get a very high economic return by reducing human suffering in simple, humble ways; and you can get the highest economic return of all – considering the minimal adjustment costs – by reducing global barriers to trade.