For the past 90 years, Canadian politics has been influenced by the presence of a genuinely left-wing political party. The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) emerged in 1933 demanding nationalization of essential industries, universal public pensions, health...
Year: 2020
New Book: Extremist Opportunism in the COVID Economy
WINNIPEG, MB, October 27, 2020 - The Frontier Centre for Public Policy has just published and released a new short-book: Extremist Opportunism in the COVID Economy by Jack Buckby; a research associate with the Frontier Centre, and a British author of several books on...
The Smiley Face Terrorism of Extinction Rebellion
By now it should have become abundantly clear that violent extremism is not just a trait of Islamists or the far right. Black Lives Matter and Antifa riots have resulted in dozens of deaths this year, multiple police officers wounded and blinded, and entire districts...
BC Workers Compensation Needs an Overhaul
The Fair Practices Office for Worksafe BC receives 2,000 complaints each year. Retired labour lawyer Janet Patterson has shown the crown corporation how to lower that number significantly. After extensive consultations, she submitted her report in October 2019 with...
Featured News
Why University?
In this essay, I explain that young people should come to university to be educated, and not to become credentialed; the public should support universities because universities educate young people, not because they produce credentialled workers. Why should a...
A Lamentable Tale of Two Colonies
During the whole of recorded history, the empire has been the most constant and common form of political organization. A basic, self-evident feature of all empire-building has been the successful occupation of the lands of the local, Indigenous inhabitants by outside...
Improve Public Education Through School Choice
Last month, the Ontario government announced a new elementary math curriculum. The province will return to a “back to basics” approach aimed at improving standardized test scores, and will also introduce lessons on financial literacy and coding. Whether these changes...
Restoring the ‘Canadian Brand’ – Countering Activist Misinformation on Canadian Mining Abroad
Mining is one of the most important industries to the Canadian economy, and despite COVID-19’s impact on the sector, mining will play a significant role in the post-pandemic economic recovery. Moreover, the mining industry is one of the largest private sector...
Cut Expensive Housing Regulations to Preserve the Middle Class
Last year, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published research showing that the middle-class is shrinking throughout the developed world. In Under Pressure: The Squeezed Middle-Class, OECD emphasized that the threat to the middle-class...
Mandatory Vaccine Bill is Off-Target
New Brunswick’s failed attempt to remove vaccine exemptions sparked a political, ethical, and constitutional controversy. The benefits of the bill were marginal at best, but the heavy-handed tactics governments attempted to use to implement it were even worse. It was...
Indigenous Communities need to be Partners in Canada’s COVID-19 Recovery Plan
It’s easy to forget that at the beginning of the year, Canada was right in the middle of another crisis triggered by a series of protests over a natural gas pipeline being built through northern B.C. The issue of Indigenous reconciliation was front and centre in our...
Systemic Racism
The current Prime Minister recently publicly contradicted RCMP Commissioner, Brenda Lucki, for saying there is no systemic racism within the RCMP. Actually, Lucki said she didn’t know what “systemic racism” is. In her words, “I have to admit, I really struggle with...
How Federal Policy Mishandled Mortgages – Part 2
The federal government has made misguided mortgage policies in recent years. The first, in 2015, was to raise the amount that CMHC mortgages required for a down payment. The second, in 2016, was to increase the stress test. The third, in 2017, was that the mortgage...
How Federal Policy Mishandled Mortgages – Part 1
The federal government has made misguided mortgage policies in recent years. The first, in 2015, was to raise the amount that Canadian Mortgage and Housing Company (CMHC) mortgages required for a down payment. The second, in 2016, was to increase the stress test. The...
Canada Must Become an Energy Leader Again
Canada must demonstrate federal leadership and all provinces and territories must come together as a country to support our energy economy, given its relative importance to Canada’s entire economy. If it does not, Canada will continue to see its energy sector fall...