The 2013 southern Alberta floods were needlessly costly and destructive. The overwhelming costs arise not as a result of an ill-executed response and recovery, but because of a failure to prepare for the possibility of severe flooding by the provincial and municipal...
Year: 2013
Warden’s Rosy View
Publius read with interest former Manitoba Hydro’s former Chief Financial Officer’s claim that the Utility is in “the strongest financial position in its history” – Manitoba Hydro finances on firm footing (Winnipeg Free Press, November 25, 2013). Mr. Warden...
Canada’s position on Iran is the right one
The ongoing discussions in Geneva between the U.S., Russia, UK, France, China, Germany and Iran have concluded with an historic deal for the west in its attempt to persuade Iran to cease its quest for nuclear weaponry. The deal is being heralded as a diplomatic...
A Climate of Fear, Cash and Correctitude
Paul Driessen and Dennis Mitchell Earth’s geological, archaeological and written histories are replete with climate changes: big and small, short and long, benign, beneficial, catastrophic and everything in between. The Medieval Warm Period (950-1300 AD or CE) was a...
Featured News
Timeless Wisdom – The Politics of Successful Structural Reform
It’s a well-known pattern in public policy – profligate politicians damaging their economies with out-of-control spending, massive borrowing and higher taxes – inevitably leading to fiscal crisis, sharp declines in growth and ultimately rapidly falling currency value...
Canada’s National Hysteria in the 21st Century
Mass hysteria is the spontaneous manifestation of a particular behaviour by many people. There are numerous historical examples: Middle Age nuns at a convent in France spontaneously began to meow like cats; at another convent, nuns began biting one another. In...
The Economics of Airline Overbooking
A recent CBC radio report focused on the woes of an overbooked airline traveller. Missing was an analysis of the airline perspective. Overbooking is not, as consumer advocate Gabor Lukacs claims, a “deceptive practice.” Ralph Nader used the same language in his...
The science fiction of IPCC climate models
By Kesten C. Green, J. Scott Armstrong and Willie Soon The human race has prospered by relying on forecasts that the seasons will follow their usual course, while knowing they will sometimes be better or worse. Are things different now? For the fifth time now, the...
No Skin in the Game
The NDP government has and is pressuring (if not bullying) Manitoba Hydro into pursuing a massive $20-billion plus expansion of its transmission and hydro-electric generation infrastructure, a plan based on the premise of profitable sales of excess power to American...
Reserve expansions will lead to economic development opportunities
Communities in British Columbia are raising alarm bells over a proposed change to the federal Additions to Reserve (ATR) policy. The changes will streamline the process for creating reserves away from home reserves. First Nations are able to access additional...
Densification Policy Hurts the Poor
The majority of the world’s population now live in cities. People leave poor rural areas hoping for a better life with more economic possibilities in urban areas. The most successful cities are able to handle population growth and naturally expand their physical size....
Royal Mail Shares Soar
Paul Hannon and Alex Macdonald, Wall Street Journal, October 11, 2013 Shares of U.K. postal service Royal Mail PLC RMG.LN -2.20% soared on their first day of trading, rising 38% above the government's original offer price and...
Honk for the mass-produced car
Randal O’Toole, National Post, October 8, 2013 Monday, Oct. 7, marked the 100th anniversary of the opening of Henry Ford’s moving assembly line for producing the Model T. This innovative production system allowed Ford to double worker pay while cutting the...
Education Schools Need to Drop the Edu-Babble
Anyone who wishes to become a teacher in Canada must hold a valid teaching certificate. In order to qualify, prospective teachers must complete a Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) degree from an accredited faculty of education. Since education schools hold a monopoly over...
The Cost Disease in Manitoba Public Schools
William Baumol, professor emeritus of economics at Princeton University, is the author of The Cost Disease, a book that all policy-makers should study. Building on forty years of research, Professor Baumol argues that the cost of social services, health care,...