Year: 2013

Who’s Failing Math? The System

Here’s some bad news from the world of education: Math scores are in decline across Canada. Just as kids in Poland and Portugal and other formerly disadvantaged countries are taking great leaps forward, ours are going backward. Our high schools are graduating kids who have failed to grasp the fundamentals, and our universities are full of students who are struggling to master material they should have learned in high school.

Influential economist dies at age 102

A Nobel prize-winning economist who clarified the role of property rights and transaction costs in the economy has died. Ronald Coase, the winner of the Nobel Prize in economics in 1991, has died. He was 102 years old. Coase is known for his pioneering the idea that...

Featured News

The Endemic Path is the Way Out

The Alberta premier’s plan to treat the coronavirus as endemic was the way out of the COVID crisis. That he is once again adopting restrictions for the province, for the fourth time, does not negate the endemic approach.  But his declaration, paraphrasing President...

Toronto’s Successful Garbage Privatization

When Toronto privatized garbage collection west of Yonge street last year, ideologues on the left panicked. They argued that it would lead to worse service, pointing to initial collection delays when private collection began. A local union even created a complaint line. As I argued in a National Post article on the subject, this highlights all that is right with contracting out services: it’s much easier to hold private companies accountable than government.

Naming – ‘bread and circuses’

Unfortunately, the main ‘plebiscite’, on the continuation of the government, is still some time off. In the interim, and unfortunately, despite evident economic woes, the government chooses ‘bread and circuses’ – and calls a vote on trees and fish.