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.
Year: 2008
Canada’s Own Financial Bubbles: Have-Not Provinces
Our regional subsidy system is not transparent, it is not sustainable and it is driven by excess. It is almost by any definition a bubble.
How Immigration Could Save America
Suppose that one million new immigrants responded to this opportunity. Unlike most foreign investors, these are people who would be making the ultimate commitment to America, choosing to live there and ultimately becoming citizens. These one million new investors would put $200-billion into the housing market immediately, soaking up excess supply without drawing on the strained balance sheets of financial institutions.
Dan Mitchell, Flat Tax Advocate
There are now 18 former communist countries that have flat taxes. There are 25 countries overall that have flat taxes and a lot of this is being driven by three things. One, it’s being driven by tax competition. Globalization means it’s easier for tax payers saving and investment and labour to cross national borders and that means that if adopt a good system like a flat tax as a country you are going to attract a lot of productive economic activity into your borders so countries are figuring out this is a route to economic prosperity.
Featured News
Fostering a Constructive, Business-Friendly Regime Sustains Innovation, Not Government Money
For standards of living to grow, productivity growth must be strong and continually renewed. That is one notion that nearly all economists can agree on. So, it is not surprising that politicians scramble to discover new or not-so-new ways to boost productivity growth....
Big Tech Influence Can Tip Elections
Behavioural psychologist Robert Epstein believes Google can and does influence voters and that research teams in Canada and elsewhere need to monitor how users are being swayed. Epstein, the former editor-in-chief of Psychology Today and founder of the American...
Suddenly Being Green Is Not Cool Any More
“There is a direct correlation between how people perceive the economy and the importance they place on the environment. When times are tough people resent paying more to salve their conscience.”
The Housing Bubble
Sadly, it is clear that the planning profession has too often lost its way by allowing itself to become captured by ideologues, less important aesthetic issues and those (both commercial interests and existing home owners) determined to exclude others from their rights to ownership and community participation.
All The News That’s Fit To Scare
In other words, environmentalism is causing global warming. As ecoadvocates have won tighter clean-air regulations, their efforts have been rewarded with brighter days (a good thing), but also warmer temperatures.
Are You Really Green?
When Sesame Street character Kermit the Frog croaked, “It’s not easy being green”, it was prophetic. Claiming you are green because you drive a Prius or because you recycle faithfully may win you points at the greener-than-thou cocktail parties, but do they really help the environment and humanity?
Welfare Reform
Firstly, the government has an absolutely crucial role to play in helping those who can’t provide for themselves. However, we have to be smart about how we help them. We have learnt that just giving money without any expectations creates a cycle of dependency that leaves many families mired in poverty and abuse, unable to take control of their lives.
Education Inflation in Canada
Alberta spent the most per student, followed closely by Manitoba. However, Alberta had the least expensive education system when expenditures are measured as a percent of its economy. The most expensive system by that measure is New Brunswick, followed closely by Manitoba’s.
Oil Sands Get Nod From U.S. Anti-Poverty Group
“We favour any and every energy source,” he said in an interview. “We do not believe in this artificial game that the radicals play of pitting the so-called bad energy versus good energy. All energy, when prices are as high as they are, which is such a critical resource and the lifeblood of a nation’s economy and the survival of people, is good energy as far as we are concerned.”
A New Challenge, But The Same Old Mistakes
In the Enron case, as Mr. Surowiecki observed, “it was as if all the lessons that the scandals of 19th century had taught us had to be learned all over again.” In our manic haste to save the planet, it looks now as though these lessons will need to be learned yet again.
“I Was Worse Than A Child Abuser”
So rather than try to shut me up, bully and vilify, why don’t they engage in an honest discussion about the science? I’ll tell you why. Because the theory of global warming is crumbling round their ears. For the past decade now, world temperatures have been static or slightly declining – and that’s according to the IPCC. I don’t remember their silly models predicting that 10 years ago.