As the president demonstrated once again during his “climate action plan” address in Georgetown, he is not someone ever to allow facts to stand in the way of ideology and green lobby cronyism. The familiar take-away line is that even more regulation is essential to bludgeon energy producers and consumers to abandon climate-ravaging fossil fuels in favor of heavily taxpayer-subsidized “alternatives”.
Year: 2013
It’s Time To Sequester Green Energy Subsidies, Not Mythical Oil And Gas Tax Breaks
One of the big applause lines in President Obama’s recent Georgetown “climate action plan” pitch declaring an all-out EPA war on coal and it’s fossil cousins said: “And because billions of your tax dollars continue to still subsidize some of the most profitable corporations in the history of the world, my budget once again calls for Congress to end the tax breaks for big oil companies, and invest in the clean-energy companies that will fuel our future.” This is hardly a new strategy theme.
It Is Capitalism, Not Democracy, That the Arab World Needs Most: Property rights for aid: this could be the most effective anti-poverty strategy in history
To watch events in Egypt is like seeing a videotape of the Arab Spring being played backwards. The ballot box has been kicked away, the constitution torn up, the military has announced the name of a puppet president – and crowds assemble in Tahrir Square to go wild with joy. The Saudi Arabian monarchy, which was so nervous two years ago, has telegrammed its congratulations to Cairo’s generals. To the delight of autocrats everywhere, Egypt’s brief experiment with democracy seems to have ended in embarrassing failure.
Hydro Relieves Workers of Freedom to Choose Association: Manitoba should follows European Union example
Manitoba Hydro’s requirements that workers on large scale projects be unionized is a violation of freedom of association.
Featured News
Wealth Taxes Are a Non-New, Pernicious and Invidious Proposal From the Usual Greedy Suspects
Recently, there has been an increasing clamour from some circles for imposing a wealth tax upon Canadians. The usual government-expanding social ‘democratic’ pressure and interest groups are especially enthused by the idea and also claim it is ‘popular’ among the...
What Comes Next after Bitcoin Mainstreaming?
Underneath all the media brouhaha and institutional focus on bitcoin, a struggle is brewing in the crypto world: which altcoin will pick up the baton? A fierce competition is underway for the podium, with Ethereum having a clear first-mover advantage. Bitcoin, as...
Media Release – Municipal Transparency Improving Across Canada: Sixth Annual Local Government Performance Index
The Frontier Centre for Public Policy has today released the sixth annual edition of its influential Local Government Performance Index. The Index ranks the top 100 Canadian cities on their financial transparency and performance over the 2011 financial year.
Real Sustainability Versus Activist Sustainability: Activist sustainability concepts don’t meet environmental, humanitarian or sustainability tests
Companies everywhere extol their sustainable development programs and goals. Sustainability drives UN programs like Agenda 21, EU and US green energy initiatives, and myriad manufacturing, agricultural, forestry and other efforts. But what is sustainability? What is – or isn’t – sustainable?
NDP MP calls on government to disclose cost of Superbowl ads
Some of you may have noticed that the Government of Canada was running Canada’s Economic Action Plan™ commercials during the Superbowl. As most of you know, the commercial slots during the Superbowl are vastly more expensive than typical slots. I voiced my displeasure (to put it mildly) on Facebook, and I’m happy to see that the New Democrats have taken up this issue.
Dr. Stephen Blank, Transport Expert: Widening Competition in North American Freight Transport: The Impact of Cabotage
Inhibiting cross border integration with the United States and with Mexico makes the economy generally less efficient and raises costs. It’s a trade barrier that is found in many places and it makes things move less efficiently, raises the costs, and it increases environmental load because you are running more empty vehicles around.
The First Canadian Property Rights Index: Assessing the State of Property Rights Protections in Canada
The Frontier Centre for Public Policy has released its first Canadian Property Rights Index, which ranks provinces and territories along eight indicators, assessing how each jurisdiction protects individual property rights.
Life Without a Microwave
Last week, my family’s microwave broke down after 15 years of faithful service. That incident might sound trivial to you. I’m sure it is trivial to you. But it made me aware of how valuable a microwave has been to us. And our week without a microwave taught me a lot about the value of microwaves—and can teach us more generally about the value of economic freedom.
John Kerry’s First Act
John Kerry's first act as the new US Secretary of State was to recognise today as Waitangi Day, a holiday back in my home in New Zealand....
Common Sense Education V: School Choice
Common Sense Education gives parents, teachers and students a direct window into the foolish fads that afflict our public education system. This fifth of ten episodes explains why school choice is essential to improving the quality of schools for all students. The...
The Next Supermodel: Politicians from both right and left could learn from the Nordic countries
Smallish countries are often in the vanguard when it comes to reforming government. In the 1980s Britain was out in the lead, thanks to Thatcherism and privatisation. Tiny Singapore has long been a role model for many reformers. Now the Nordic countries are likely to assume a similar role.