Tom Flanagan, the University of Calgary professor who has worked for Wildrose and the federal Conservatives, has called Alberta’s election finance law “embarrassing … the fiscal foundation of the one-party system.” The Frontier Centre of Public Policy argued for more transparency. The Parkland Institute wants the donation limit slashed to something like the federal limit of about $1,100.
Year: 2012
Conservatives Look to Tackle Social Services with Free Market Ingenuity
The government is always making “important announcements.” Every press release is labelled as such, even if it’s (as on Tuesday) merely funding for snow-grooming equipment for a quad riding club in Quebec. To be fair, that was probably judged “important” in Victoriaville, Que., if nowhere else.
Don’t Throw Resources Under the Bus: Energy is our best bet
Investing in Canada’s energy sector is crucial and practical for the country’s economic well-being. While the country has experienced serious setbacks in manufacturing and forestry, Western Canadian service companies are making technological breakthroughs such as coiled tubing rigs and hydraulic fracturing of tight oil and gas reservoirs. However, popular opinion is being tilted by groups in BC against new pipeline capacity.
Strengthening Fiscal Responsibility Through Decentralization: Empower local voters to increase government accountability and efficiency
The constitution allocates responsibility over most policy areas exclusively to the provinces or the federal government. But the federal government routinely oversteps its bounds. To create more accountable, more efficient government, the federal government should step back and allow the provinces and municipalities to fund and deliver the services that they are responsible for.
Featured News
No Evidence of Climate Crisis
In his annual State of the Climate report published on April 14, 2022, Dr. Ole Humlum, Emeritus Professor at the University of Oslo, examined detailed patterns in temperature changes in the atmosphere and oceans together with trends in climate impacts. Many of these...
It Is Time to Move On
I wrote an opinion column immediately following the May 27, 2021 announcement of the “shocking discovery of 215 bodies found in a mass grave at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.” In that column, I correctly stressed the need to wait for real...
Sun Series On Canadian Healthcare Shows the Need for Policy Reform
Gunter rightly argues that Canada should look to other models around the world, such as that found in the Netherlands, to find policy models that ensure universal access while avoiding the lengthy wait times for care that exist far too often in Canada.
Failed Education Fads Should be Buried, not Resurrected
Schools in Western Canada have been designed by an architecture firm specializing in open concept schools, which go hand-in-hand with the constructivism approach. The constructive approach holds that teachers should help students construct their own understanding of the world around them.
Google: At the forefront of technology and culture clashing
Google finds itself at the forefront of inevitable tensions between cultures and tradition and broader human freedoms.
“Stopping global warming” had no place in Presidential debate
Logic defeats the climate scare
Sometimes logic trumps even the loudest voices. That is what happened on Wednesday night when climate change and greenhouse gas emission reduction were completely missing from the first Presidential debate.
Nine climate activist groups—the League of Conservation Voters, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Sierra Club, the National Wildlife Federation, The Climate Reality Project, MomsRising.org, GlobalSolutions.org, iMatter Campaign and Moms Clean Air Force—delivered petitions with over 160,000 signatures to the office of debate moderator PBS newsman Jim Lehrer urging him to ask the candidates about climate change. For weeks, main stream media have been pushing climate change, asserting that President Obama and Governor Romney must address this, “the most crucial issue of our time.”
But they did not, and Lehr completely ignored the topic as well.
It appears that Obama, Romney and Lehr all instinctively understood that, in comparison with the nation’s pressing issues, discussions about “stopping global warming” were not worth even a single minute of air time.
Reason for cautious optimism on Canadian air travel prices
The first step to addressing a problem is acknowledging that it exists. For those of us who are concerned about air travel prices in Canada, hearing Jim Flaherty admit that there is a problem was welcome news. But Flaherty didn’t just acknowledge that it is a problem — he also mentioned that Minister of Transportation Denis Lebel is working with airlines and airport authorities to come up with a solution.
Fisher River Best Governed First Nation in Manitoba
Frontier has been fortunate to provide some recognition of the highest scoring First Nations in each of the three Prairie Provinces in the form of a plague and a cheque for $5,000.
Government Doesn’t Give Us Our Culture: Great culture is the result of strong individuals, families and communities
The Alberta Government exaggerates its part in the development of the great culture that the province of Alberta has. Alberta’s culture is the product of its people, and not the creature of government.
Treasury Yields Forecast a US Future: Similar to Japan’s present, but Spain’s is more likely
This backgrounder offers an analysis of recent conditions in interest rates and bond markets among industrial states. Notwithstanding the United States’ current economic woes, the paper concludes that while it is positively the best major market in comparison to almost all others, it risks of drifting into Spain-like conditions without an active set of policies to redress its debt burden.
The Debate Summary
As I mentioned on Tuesday, I went to the OTHER big debate last night, the Regina Mayoral Debate at the University of Regina.