One of the most contentious policy debates in recent years is the minimum wage. Opponents of raising the minimum wage say it will result in job losses, because making it more expensive to hire workers means businesses will hire fewer workers. But some supporters of...
This short video covers the key points of Chapter Two "The Broken Window" from Henry Hazlitt's "Economics in One Lesson." The Broken Window Fallacy is a classic story first told by Frederic Bastiat, showing the danger of only seeing one side of an economic activity....
In an effort to slay what appears to be a structural deficit, the Manitoba’s government is legislating a pause in annual inflation- level pay increases in its share of the overall public sector. That is, if the legislation is okay with the courts. Last July, the...
The “60s’ Scoop” is back in the news again. The federal government has set aside $875 million for Indigenous adults who were adopted into non-Indigenous homes in the 1960s, 70s and early 80s. Those who accept the money don’t have to prove they suffered any harm. They...
There are many natural and geo-political phenomena that will affect the next several decades; climate change, COVID-19 and its variants, social unrest, and rising tensions between China and the United States amongst them. As governments and societies learn to...
When I audited an economics class in the Rice University School of Business, the lecturer compared inflation to slow-growing cancer and deflation to a heart attack. The implication was that deflation, which is the declining prices, is fatal and worse than inflation....
It is obvious that civilization would not be possible without the mineral and energy resources mined and extracted from the Earth. Yet there is a growing movement to oppose nearly all such activities. Even though 86% of the world’s energy supply, including 98%...
Cogent evidence from both Canada and abroad suggests that poor governance is a principal cause of the sorry conditions in many First Nation communities. While the importance of governance is well established, how to improve governance remains a perplexing question....
Today’s all-out assault by the combined forces of Canada’s powerful environmental movement on the so-called dirty oil of the oil sands has its precursor in recent history. The present environmental movement cut its teeth with its incursion into Canadian forestry, once...
Yes, the glacier of Glacier Bay is receding—as it has from time to time for centuries. When President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry visited Alaska this week, they pointed to the receding glaciers as evidence that humans are the cause of “dangerous,”...
According to The New York Times, Canada now has the most affluent middle-class in the world. This is based on a newspaper study commissioned by LIS, which maintains the Luxembourg Income Study Database. According to The Times “the American middle class, long the...
Tinkering with a system in clear need of an overhaul is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. In March, the Winnipeg lab of Intertek, a global commodities testing firm, received an unusual request. Manitoba farmer Paul Orsak brought in wheat samples from...
A recent report issued by the Fraser Institute makes it clear that transporting oil by pipelines is far safer than by railcars. One need look no further than the tragic deaths and destruction in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec and the fiery derailment of a train carrying...
Once again, minority government seems like a possible outcome of a federal election, so let’s look at some scenarios. They all involve a double helix of constitutional rules and political calculations. Start with the constitutional parameters. A sitting prime...
Vancouver — along with Melbourne and Vienna — ranks at or near the top of The Economist and Mercer lists of the world’s most livable cities almost every year. These ratings are of justifiable pride to public officials and residents. It may be less...