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.
Year: 2008
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.
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.
Featured News
The Tourism Economic Sector Impacted by COVID-19: Time to Reopen
The COVID-19 crisis led to significant travel restrictions in the world and in Canada. The country has totally or partially closed its national borders to tourists and non-essential travellers. Within Canada, travel between provinces has been restricted. Indeed, some...
New-ish LNG Project has Nisga’a First Nation Backing, Aiding its Launch, but Will Not Guarantee It
Recently, a previously-mooted huge, estimated $55 billion Liquefied Natural Gas, ‘LNG’, project taking natural gas from Northeastern British Columbia to its northwest coast at Pearse Island received the blessing and explicit financial and political backing from the...
Five Health-Care Myths Debunked by Hard Facts
Skim through the rhetoric on Canadian health care and you’ll quickly encounter a multitude of myths. To detail even a few necessitates some Canada-U.S. comparisons, though there are superior alternatives around the world on insurance, funding and delivery.
Rethinking the Reserve – Polling the Rank-and-File
Frontier’s Aboriginal Policy Fellow Don Sandberg describes the process of polling residents on reserves to obtain a more accurate picture regarding the way in which each community was governed: its elections, administration, human rights, transparency, services and economy.
Health care – How Our System Compares
Canadians are generally proud of the country's "universally accessible" health care system, but that doesn't mean an ongoing debate over its effectiveness should be off limits. Even the system's most ardent supporters should feel there's some room for improvement...
Sacred Cows: Guess Who’s Getting Milked
In the past 14 years, incidentally, the price of industrial, supply-managed milk has doubled – twice the rate of inflation and more than 30 times the increase in the actual cost of milk production on the farm, where the number of cows has fallen by 40 per cent. Canada’s surviving dairy farmers are, in fact, remarkably productive. These asset-rich millionaires, hard working though they are, don’t need welfare cheques any longer.
‘Afrocentric’ Approach Doomed to Fail
Underprivileged inner-city youth don't need more cultural sensitivity to succeed, they need higher expectations. The Toronto District School Board has approved the establishment of a Black-focused or "Afrocentric" school, so it appears curriculum specialists have...
Québec Abandons Ethanol
Because of the environmental impacts linked to intensive corn production, the Québec Governement will forbid the development of new ethanol plants.
Frontier Centre Expands into Alberta
Frontier Centre begins “on the ground” presence in Alberta with appointment of author and analyst Mark Milke as Alberta Senior Fellow.
Fair Share or Short Changed?
This same mythology is the often expressed opinion that producers have no place else to go and therefore Alberta can charge them whatever it pleases in royalties.
Milk Price Fixing Must End
Supply management is also a straightjacket, keeping new producers out of the market unless they can buy precious quota, propping up the inefficient, and stifling innovation.