The Liberal Party of Canada would have been well served in persuading Dominic Leblanc to run for the leadership of the party.
Year: 2012
Response to native financial transparency law shouldn’t be to change the channel
The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) responded to Bill C-27, the First Nations Financial Transparency Act, by pointing out how other jurisdictions do not have similar disclosure standards. Well, this is not an adequate response. Full stop. It does not address the issue...
Belgian Vote Reflects Tensions Over Unity
Equalization policies now intensify calls for separatism in Belgium. Political tensions run high in Belgium, a federal state consisting of Dutch-speaking Flanders, French-speaking Wallonia and the bilingual Brussels-capital region. The previous general election, in 2010, led to an 18-month political crisis before a government was formed.
Yale/George Mason University climate poll just another biased survey promoting the climate scare
This week saw the release of Climate Change in the American Mind, a report interpreting an important poll concerning American public opinion about extreme weather and climate change. Media across the world immediately gave this survey from the Yale Project on Climate...
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How the Prairie Provinces Can Benefit from an Improved Trans-Pacific Partnership
The Trans-Pacific Partnership was one of the world’s most ambitious trade deals. The agreement between Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam and the United States was signed on February 4, 2016. Its goal was...
Social Conflict Abridged: From Unperceived Injuries to Claiming—What is Conflict?
Societies today are in a state of flux influenced by myriad factors—globalization versus nationalism, liberalization versus traditional values, and immigration versus closed borders. Some people perceive that an injustice has been committed against them while others...
Road Safety
There are times where traffic cameras have merit. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sf-bikes-20120616,0,4422915.story The bicyclist was zipping south on Castro Street at the end of his twice-weekly ride to the Marin Headlands, blowing through red lights and stop...
The Real Costs Of Government
When talking about the cost of government the most obvious cost is the direct cost – the taxes we pay.
Spoilt West Invites Its Own Decline
It is easy and natural to think of the woes of the West’s main powers as an economic problem. Because that’s the way it is presented to us. And it is economic – at least, superficially. But if you take a step back, what we’re really living through is the decline of the West.
Euro-Zone Lessons for Canada
Unless Canadians get a handle on the provinces’ runaway spending, their growing mountain of debt, and the resulting tidal wave of interest charges, we can expect lots more home-grown social unrest, as have-not provincial governments fall short of voters’ outsized expectations.
Speak Out Against Ridiculous Tax Hike
The amount of money you have for groceries, your mortgage payment and putting clothes on your kids is under attack. Again. The Manitoba Federation of Labour and the Manitoba Business Council (represents many CEOs of the largest businesses in Manitoba) want you to pay an 8% sales tax on everything you buy instead of the current rate of seven.
Transfer Disease?: One energy industry contributes to equalization and one energy industry taketh away
A quirk in the equalization formula allows Quebec (and Manitoba) to massively subsidize their local markets without penalty. Effectively, Quebec’s massive dam infrastructure is being subsidized by equalization of which a major wealth generator and contributor to equalization is the Oil Sands.
Some Inconvenient Facts About Equalization
To grasp why Canada’s equalization program is such a public policy disaster, some myths need to be busted about the $14.8-billion annual transfer of federal tax dollars to the provinces through equalization — and the $46-billion in other inter-governmental transfers. So, let’s some consider some inconvenient facts.
Improving University Teaching: A convocation address that will never be delivered
Canadian universities should use performance-based rewards so that teaching undergraduate students is valued more highly by professors.
Getting Us Out of the Welfare Trap
The stated goal of Canada’s equalization program is to ensure that Canadians, regardless of their province of residence, have access to public services that are reasonably comparable, at reasonably comparable levels of taxation. This year, the program will distribute over $15-billion to the relatively poorer provinces (typically known as “have-not” provinces in equalization-speak).