While these proposed reforms will be seen as very scary by our cautious ruling political class, they must still be seen for what they are. We need to look at the tweaks purportedly being considered as more patches on a very patched up and dysfunctional transfer payment system.
Year: 2012
Commercial fishing monopoly the problem
A few weeks ago, the Frontier Centre released a policy series called Free to Fish: How a Freshwater Fish Monopoly is Impovering Aboriginal Fishers. The piece tackled the problem of the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation (the FFMC), which is the sole selling and...
First Private ISS Resupply
Back in May I wrote about the first ever docking of the private Dragon capsule with the International Space Station.
Bad Lunches For All: Egalitaranism Run Amok
A particularly talented lunch lady at a Swedish school has been ordered to stop doing such an excellent job because it is “unfair” to students at other schools who do not get to eat such good food.
Featured News
Energy Inquiry Shows the Problem and the Way
If a public inquiry found that hundreds of millions of dollars was being funnelled by foreign entities to undermine Canadian industry, should we conclude there is nothing wrong? Remarkably, the public inquiry’s final report into anti-Alberta energy campaigns did the...
Why Millennials Prefer DIY Investing
One-third of Canadian millennials prefer going solo when it comes to managing and investing their money. Online financial education and tools are changing the rules of the game and threatening to affect financial advisors how emails affected mailmen. A recent poll...
Pay People, Not Provinces
The Occupy movement, like the ongoing street protests in Quebec, demonstrates that our current efforts at income redistribution have proven unsatisfactory to many Canadians: Although we have improved mobility between income levels in recent decades, the income gap between rich and poor actually has gotten wider.
Canadians Crowd U.S. Airports. Why? Taxes: Miffed by Rising Fees, Canadian Travelers Flock to Nearby U.S. Airports
Canadians have discovered a cheaper way to fly to the United States: Drive there first. Rising flight taxes and a strengthening Canadian dollar are pushing Canadians to begin their U.S.-bound trips on U.S. soil. Now airlines are rushing to meet the demand, adding service at small outposts along the border.
Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism
Frontier interviews The Honourable Jason Kenney at a Lunch on the Frontier in Regina, May 18, 2012.
Japan To Renege On Carbon Emissions Cuts
Yesterday, Les wrote about the mess that Germany have got themselves in after shutting down Nuclear Power Plants in the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake last year.
Lights Going out in Germany
What happens when a country phases out coal generated electricity and then moves to shut down nuclear electricity generation? The answer is increased costs to consumers and lower income people being unable to afford to purchase electricity. I wonder if Russia will...
It Can Happen Here: The Screwed Generation in Europe and America
Call them the screwed generation, the victims of expansive welfare states and the massive structural debt charged by their parents. In virtually every developed country, and increasingly in developing ones, they include not only the usual victims, the undereducated and recent immigrants, but also the college-educated.
Tax Credits Unfair And Ineffective
My article on tax credits, with a particular focus on Saskatchewan’s recently removed Film Tax Credit, has been published today.
Prohibition is Dead. Long Live Prohibition!
Many Ontarians will celebrate Repeal Day (the anniversary of the end of prohibition) on June 1st with a pint or a glass of wine. But while alcohol prohibition is technically a thing of the past in Ontario, we still have many quasi-prohibitionary laws in place—and there may be more on the horizon.
Tax Credits Unfair And Ineffective: Why politicians like them, and you shouldn’t
Tax credits are designed to reduce the financial burden on a particular industry to create jobs and improve living standards for all. They do so by encouraging outside investment into a local economy and provide incentives to existing business to expand. The theory is sound, but is a tax credit the best way to achieve these aims?