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.
Year: 2010
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.
Featured News
Carbon Border Taxes: A Counterproductive Idea Which Will Lead to Penalized Customers
Carbon taxes at the borders are becoming a popular idea among some countries and world regions. For example, the European Commission, the EU executive institution, is proposing environmental tariffs “on imports from countries with less stringent climate-protection...
Reverse Orwell to Give Our Leaders New Titles
In his novel 1984, George Orwell envisioned a future that is arguably unfolding before our eyes where government authority was supreme and truth and freedom were not to be found. Perhaps he should have named his novel 2021 because our times seem more like his novel...
How The Provinces Broke Their Confederation Deal: Eternal dependency wasn’t supposed to happen
Equalization should be replaced with a transfer of tax room to the provinces.
Canada V. Europe on Health Care Wait Times: Canada Compares Badly: Canadians wait longer for care than most European Patients
Despite high levels of healthcare spending, wait times for health services in Canada are much longer than they are in most of Europe. FC059
Too Smart For Our Own Good:: How The “Best and Brightest” May Hurt Society
Intellectuals have distorted the debate or advocated poor policy because of their lack of knowledge of the concrete consequences of their ideas, this according to a new book from Thomas Sowell.
Dr. Douglas Bland, Queen’s University School of Policy Studies and Author of ‘Uprising’
Frontier’s Conversation with the author of Uprising about the state of Aboriginal affairs in Canada and the likelihood of insurgency.
Transparent First Nation Governments Perform Best Overall: Statistical connection shows band government need transparency
Data from the Third Annual Aboriginal Governance Index shows a clear statistical connection between transparent First Nations and overall high performance. FC058
Stoning Sacred Cows: The news that the government can’t even keep drugs out of prison should prompt a rethink of prohibition.
t’s time to ask whether the amount of harm reduction we get from prohibiting cannabis is worth its negative side effects.
The Climate Funding Trough; The Canadian Example: Misuse of Funding By Environment Canada
Environment Canada must be forced back to their mandate of collecting data and providing weather forecasts. They should not do research or have control of research funding. The damage done to climate science and the creation of unnecessary energy and climate policies must stop.
Conditions Ripe for Major Aboriginal Uprising, Academic Says:: Young first nations people are largely poor, uneducated, prone to crime and live near vulnerable resource areas, ex-Forces officer argues
Douglas Bland, a former lieutenant-colonel in Canada’s Armed Forces who chairs defence management studies at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., says conditions are ripe for a major uprising by first nations people.
Freezing Government Wages is Prudent Cost-Control: Public Sector Wage Growth is Not Smart Economic Stimulus
Manitoba’s decision to freeze wage growth for its highly paid public sector employees will help ensure the province’s fiscal health, and arguments that the policy will hurt the economy are based on weak economic arguments.