“If you’re a renter who reads the newspapers, you have spent the last few years in a constant state of low-level anger at this “bizarre spectacle”—the unexamined assumption that perpetually escalating housing prices are the natural state of human affairs, and certainly a good enough proxy for economic health that the two quantities are freely interchangeable. How much more bizarre must it look in England?”
Year: 2010
Rejecting Subsidy, Shunning Dependency: Maritime Provinces wish to sail to self-reliance.
Ben Eisen’s study of “stealth equalization” provides further evidence for the new movement of Atlantic Canadians who understand that federal subsidies undermine their economic capacity for self-reliance and foster dependency.
Media Release – Stealth Equalization: How Federal Government Employment Acts as a Regional Subsidy in Canada
Federal government employment is distributed unevenly across Canada. These jobs are found in high concentration in four out of the five major recipients of equalization – Manitoba, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Such uneven distribution amounts to a hidden form of wealth transfer worth more than $2 billion.
Stealth Equalization: How Federal Government Employment Acts as a Regional Economic Subsidy in Canada
Federal government employment is distributed unevenly across Canada. These jobs are found in high concentration in four out of the five major recipients of equalization – Manitoba, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Such uneven distribution amounts to a hidden form of wealth transfer worth more than $2 billion.
Featured News
Coal – Not Wind – is Keeping Saskatchewan’s Lights On
While it’s not the same minute-by-minute data provided by the Alberta Electric System Operator for their grid, SaskPower has begun breaking down where its power is coming from on a daily basis. And the data from Oct. 3 and 4 showed wind generated an average of just...
57 Policy Proposals for Future Leaders to Help Make the Canadian Economy Soar
Executive Summary The various federal political parties are all promoting the policy agendas they believe will foster a sustainably high quality of life for all Canadians. It remains to be seen whether they will attain the success that they aim to achieve. In some...
‘Real Warriors Hold Jobs’
“Whatever we agree, or don’t, about the history of Canadian aboriginals, or about their current station, and what they do or don’t need, are or aren’t entitled to, we can all surely concede one fact: For thousands of years, Indians in North America — or, if you prefer, Turtle Island — somehow managed to get by. How well? That, like everything else, is up for interpretation.”
Canada Trails In Legalizing Pot Debate: Policy makers need to take profit out of illegal drugs
“Drugs, prostitution and illegal gambling are all activities that bring harm in many instances to individuals, families and communities and many feel they are immoral. But, one needs to look at the unintended consequences of prohibiting all these activities. People will always want to do these things and criminals often reap the benefits because they can provide them at exorbitant prices and people will still pay.”
Political Reversal Down Under: Running an explicitly conservative campaign, Australia’s Tony Abbott has denied Labor a governing majority.
As it turns out, Australians—who are, after all, much like Americans, proudly democratic, entrepreneurial and of immigrant stock—warmed to Mr. Abbott’s old-school conservatism, along with his blokey, down-to-Earth persona. It’s a lesson to which conservatives in America (Republican, tea party, or otherwise) should pay close attention.
Test Often, Raise Standards, Manitoba Educator Urges
“Zwaagstra believes that curriculum content isn’t specific enough, academic standards in schools are not strong enough and that schools shouldn’t possess a no-fail policy. He went on to say that our school system has an anti-testing bias and that there isn’t a balance of standardized testing and teacher-created assessment.”
Whats Wrong With Our Schools?
Michael Zwaagstra discusses 'Whats Wrong With Our Schools' on the radio here. (17 minutes)
Australian Boomerang: Another big spending center-left party loses its majority
Australia now faces a period of uncertainty as Ms. Gillard and Mr. Abbott scramble to assemble what in either case would be a narrow majority. This may mean a period of more cautious policy, at least in the short term, which Australians may prefer after the tumult of the last three years. The bigger picture is that, in Australia as in the U.K., voters have stopped the revival of big government dead in its tracks.
Corporate Welfare Unrepaid, Bureaucrats Unrepentent
So where does this leave Canadian taxpayers? Playing angel investor to businesses that don’t pay back money, while bureaucrats crow about their “success” – and the government turns a blind eye.
Vancouver: Moving to the Suburbs
“Canadians are not listening to “their betters” any more than Americans. US Census data indicates a continuing strong migration of people from the central cities and strong migration to the suburbs, despite heroic efforts on the part of the media and others to mask the reality.”
Climate Change and History; Uncertain Weather, Uncertain Times
As the average location of the Arctic air front moved inexorably toward the Equator the Jet Stream meandered further north and south so temperature and precipitation fluctuated widely from year to year. It also resulted in more blocking systems so that instead of weather patterns changing on a 4 to 6 week cycle in the middle latitudes they became prolonged to 12 weeks and longer. This meant in many years it became difficult to tell summers from winters.