Dwight Duncan, who up until a few months ago was Ontario’s Minster of Finance, recently suggested that his colleagues at Queen’s Park should force the Mayor of Toronto from officeover un-proven substance abuse allegations. Soon after, the federal Minister of Finance indicated he would prevent the Government of Ontario from setting variable sales tax ratesto raise revenue for its Greater Toronto Area transit plans. While not connected, these two incidents underscore the troubled state of Canadian federalism.
Year: 2013
Britain’s Royal Mail To Be Privatized
Last week, the British government announced that the Royal Mail is to be privatized: The process of selling off the Royal Mail begins today with the promise of free shares for workers weighed against fears about layoffs and higher postage costs.... ...The Initial...
Property rights and human remains
Finding human remains on any property is a sensitive topic. The topic requires respect for all parties involved. For one woman in southern Ontario, the discovery of an Aboriginal burial ground on her property led to 18 months of uncertainty, although a resolution is...
Science Is About Evidence, Not Consensus
Science does not respect consensus. There was once widespread agreement about phlogiston (a nonexistent element said to be a crucial part of combustion), eugenics, the impossibility of continental drift, the idea that genes were made of protein (not DNA) and stomach ulcers were caused by stress, and so forth—all of which proved false. Science, Richard Feynman once said, is “the belief in the ignorance of experts.”
Featured News
Computer Models, Like “Selfies,” are not Reality
In a recent article about climate change, Seth Borenstein, a science writer with the Associated Press, gave us a master class on how to sell the results of a computer model as if it represents reality. In the Borenstein world, a group of scientists can take a...
Air Canada Needs Travellers, Not Bailouts
A year and a half into the COVID-19 pandemic, the only thing keeping Air Canada alive is the federal-government bailouts. They are delaying the inevitable and sensible way out: cutting travel restrictions, encouraging tourism by ensuring effective containment and...
Back to the Future
A summary of Tom Flanagan’s remarks at the First Annual Alberta Economic Summit convened by Alison Redford, the premier of Alberta, and held at Mount Royal University on February 9, 2013. Flanagan compared Alberta’s fiscal situation today with the situation Ralph Klein and Jim Dinning dealt with 20 years ago.
Cheaper Energy is More Important Than Going Green: IMAGINE a different future. We are now so used to rising energy prices – they’ve gone up 159 per cent since 2004 – that they have come to seem an inevitable part of life.
But instead of unrelenting increases, instead of a collapse in our capacity to generate energy and instead of fears that we will soon be in hock to Russian gas oligarchs, imagine a different story. Imagine the price of gas falling by two-thirds in less than a decade. Imagine electricity prices crashing by more than a quarter in less than a year. It sounds like a fantasy. Too good to be true.
Saskatchewan Board Meeting
Today I’m back in Regina for a meeting of the Saskatchewan based board members of the Frontier Centre.
The Minority Youth Unemployment Act: A higher minimum wage will hurt Obama’s most loyal supporters.
One paradox of the Obama Presidency is how it has retained the support of young people and minorities despite the damage its policies have done to their economic prospects. In his latest attempt to increase the minority youth jobless rate, President Obama is proposing to raise the minimum wage.
The Provinces are Broke, and We’re All on the Hook
A spate of bad news Tuesday reminds us that provincial governments, collectively, have a bigger impact on the national economy than Ottawa. By that measure, we’re in some trouble.
Obama’s Reactionary Jobs Plan: The president’s State of the Union speech lays out a misguided economic agenda.
Does it bother anyone else that the president of the United States seems to believe that our collective future entails assembling battery parts in a government-subsidized factory for $9 an hour? Is that really what Americans envision for their kids — an assembly line? Because when you look past Barack Obama’s mesmerizingly hollow rhetoric, what he’s proposing is a return of jobs that progress and prosperity have left behind.
Climate Fear-Mongers’ Blind Faith in Suspect and Shoddy Science: Energy policies can’t ‘fix’ the weather
If only environmental policy were based on what science really says, billions of dollars would not have been wasted trying to “contain climate change,” as 350.org nonsensically demanded of President Obama this past weekend.
Bloomberg Mayor’s Challenge Rewarding Municipal Innovation
Bloomberg Philanthropies announced the twenty finalists for its Mayor’s Challenge, which rewards five US municipalities for innovative approaches to fixing urban problems. The Huffington Post has a feature on the competition, featuring an article written by the mayors of the nominated cities and a video for each of the nominated initiatives.
International Students for Liberty Conference 2013
This weekend I have been in Washington DC at the 2013 International Students for Liberty Conference.