Does caffeine lead to cocaine use? Obviously not. But what would happen if caffeine was outlawed? Naturally, a black market would emerge. Drug gangs, which are highly skilled at operating outside of the law, and have pre-existing distribution channels, would begin...
Year: 2014
Frontier Centre Releases A Blueprint for Reorienting Canadian Drug Policy
Today the Frontier Centre for Public Policy published A Blueprint for Reorienting Canadian Drug Policy, a new report by policy analyst Steve Lafleur and research intern Andrew Chai. In the report, the authors assert that the War on Drugs, in its current manifestation,...
A Blueprint for Reorienting Canadian Drug Policy
"I think what everyone believes and agrees with, and to be frank myself, is that the current approach is not working, but it is not clear what we should do," said Prime Minister Stephen Harper after a 2012 meeting with leaders of governments from the Americas.1 The...
Portage Place Calling for Creative Fix
Portage Place was dealt a major blow when Landmark Cinemas announced the closure of the Globe Cinema. Having previously lost McNally Robinson as well as the Imax theatre and a few higher-end retailers, this will further the perception the mall is in a death spiral....
Featured News
Fostering a Constructive, Business-Friendly Regime Sustains Innovation, Not Government Money
For standards of living to grow, productivity growth must be strong and continually renewed. That is one notion that nearly all economists can agree on. So, it is not surprising that politicians scramble to discover new or not-so-new ways to boost productivity growth....
Big Tech Influence Can Tip Elections
Behavioural psychologist Robert Epstein believes Google can and does influence voters and that research teams in Canada and elsewhere need to monitor how users are being swayed. Epstein, the former editor-in-chief of Psychology Today and founder of the American...
Equalization Status Quo is Unacceptable
Canada’s equalization program has been controversial since its adoption in 1957. Equalization is a system of transfer payments designed to address fiscal disparities between provinces with the goal of allowing less-prosperous provinces to provide comparable levels of...
Donna Laframboise Challenges Climate Change Orthodoxy
Frontier Senior Fellow, Donna Laframboise, testifies to UK House of Commons Energy and Climate Change select committee:
Hydro’s ownership of Centra Gas remains conflicted
Natural gas is in the news. Price increases due to cold weather; the increasing use of gas for electricity generation; a spectacular explosion of a portion of TransCanada's pipeline south of Winnipeg; a call by Pembina Valley for natural gas service for its...
Canada should continue its focus on bilateral trade
It’s widely accepted by many economists that free trade promotes economic growth, fights poverty, reduces inequality and is beneficial to all countries that participate, on both sides of the trade. Yet, an important piece of the international free trade puzzle, the...
Atlantic Canada Subsidized Using More than Equalization
Prince Edward Island is Canada’s smallest province, but people who live there receive three times as much as they contribute in premiums, when they collect Employment Insurance. EI benefits in all of Atlantic Canada greatly outweigh the premiums paid. The difference...
Olympic Committee’s support of dictatorships must end
Along with the entertainment, the Sochi Olympics has provided Russia the opportunity to portray its “softer” side – and that is precisely the problem. Back in 2008 the world watched in awe as another dictatorship, China, put on a show for the ages. The Opening...
Spectrum auction delivers more wireless competition, mostly in Alberta and BC
What does the federal government’s policy to enhance wireless competition look like the morning after the 700 MHz spectrum auction results were announced? We have another player, Videotron, in BC and Alberta. Videotron, Quebec’s largest cable company, has...
Textbooks are still important
The lowly textbook is under siege by progressive educators. Again. Why waste money on textbooks, these educators argue, when all the information students ever need is available with the click of a mouse? Besides, they add, textbooks are hopelessly outdated and very...
When the heavens don’t open
In the midst of a multi-year drought, California could use a few feet and more of that high drift of snow that now blocks your view as you approach an intersection. With a population of 38 million and a huge agricultural industry requiring massive amounts of water...