According to the conventional wisdom of just a few years ago, Tony Abbott should never have become prime minister of Australia. The doyens of the press gallery had marked him as a right-wing throwback to a bygone era.
Year: 2013
Aussie Restoration: The perils of a carbon tax and other lessons from Down Under.
For more than a decade Australia had one of the world’s most successful center-right governments, and on Saturday it voted overwhelmingly for a restoration. After six years of Labor Party melodrama and leftward economic policies, Australians returned a Liberal government to power under new leader Tony Abbott. There are lessons here for conservatives in the U.S. and Europe.
Understanding Public Private Partnerships
On Sept 25th, residents of Regina will vote in a referendum for the first time in more than 20 years.
The referendum, organized by unions, will decide whether the council is allowed to proceed with its unanimous decision to construct a new wastewater treatment plant via a Public Private Partnership [P3], or whether they will be forced to use a traditional construction method.
Last week, the Frontier Centre for Public Policy held an event in Regina aimed at raising awareness in the community about Public Private Partnerships and how they work.
The sold-out event was opened by the Honourable Don McMorris, Saskatchewan’s Minister of Highways and Infrastructure, who gave us an overview of the province’s plans for a large number of new P3s that will go ahead regardless of the result of the city vote.
Harm Reduction News
A Lancet study finds e-cigarettes appear to cut consumption of smokers. After six months, however, the 57% of e-cigarette users had halved the number of cigarettes smoked each day compared with 41% in those using patches. I find it strange that some people want to ban...
Featured News
To Infinity and Beyond
Space exploration is fraught with a wide variety of hazards; solar storms could irradiate astronauts, collisions with small, unseen objects could cause instant death, and the acts of both leaving Earth and coming back are high risk maneuvers that involve high speeds...
Global Minimum Tax Is Cartel Scam with Loopholes
Rhetoric is one thing; reality is another. As is becoming increasingly clear, the OECD’s July 1 proposal for a 15 per cent global minimum for corporate taxation is nothing of the sort. Although the awaited initiative slated for 2023 will not and cannot achieve a level...
Media Release -Frontier Chair Awarded Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree: University of Manitoba recognizes Wayne Anderson contribution to community
The Frontier Centre for Public Policy wishes proudly to congratulate Wayne Anderson, the Centre’s long-time Chair of the Board on the occasion of receiving an honorary doctorate from the University of Manitoba yesterday.
Apples and Oranges
Taxpayers are either being purposely misled, or the government is simply relying on the public’s general lack of knowledge of government accounting.
A Better System of First Nations Self-Governance: Aboriginal communities already possess the tools to succeed
Self-government is the best tool that native band governments have to improve governance. Custom band codes give indigenous communities the ability to design effective, accountable, and transparent governance. However, custom codes aren’t perfect, and they lack established internal resolution mechanisms. Aboriginal Affairs will not intervene in disputes when a band has decided to manage its own elections. Bands are left with no choice but to fight their issues in court.
Big Green helps Big Wind hide bird and bat butchery: Why do taxpayers have to subsidize this? Why do environmentalists give it a free pass?
It uses tons of fossil fuels every day, emits a greenhouse gas that’s like CO2 on steroids, can’t do the job it’s made for, costs taxpayers exorbitant fees, and makes the federal government look mentally ill for giving it outrageous subsidies. It also chops up birds, bats and scenery with roads and monstrous 400-foot-tall machines. “It” is wind power, of course.
There’s More to New Neighbourhoods Than Houses
When setting in place a research agenda that seeks to examine both the costs and benefits of growth and development, it’s important to keep property tax discussions and the related operating budget issues separate from capital budget matters and development costs.
Alberta’s Provincial Debt Funding … Replacing Cash Funding
The data on provincial debt indicates that Alberta has plenty of room to borrow more money. Alberta’s March 2011 net debt is in a negative position, indicating that its low level of debt is outweighed by its financial assets. But without better policies and practices, Alberta’s public debt can become an unruly beast.
Alberta Education Minister’s “vision” not-yet developed
Listening to Alberta Minister of Education Jeff Johnson, one would think that he was a modern visionary in education. His vision, however, as he has himself acknowledged, is half-baked: “There is a vision developing,” he's been quoted to say in the context of...
Sometimes We Need to Oppose the Un-Opposable
It’s hard to oppose dedicating money to good causes. However, those are clearly issues of provincial and municipal responsibility. There is good reason for that: they are better positioned to solve local problems than the federal government. As tough as it is to criticize the federal government for spending money on worthwhile causes, it has to be done.
The right parking system may soon be coming to Calgary
Calgary City Council may be close to adopting an idea that would make parking in Downtown Calgary somewhat easier, reduce parking prices, improve traffic, and reduce tail pipe emissions. Nearly two years ago, Frontier published a backgrounder entitled The price is...