On questions of government, politics and education, Canadians would be foolish to ignore Brian Peckford. The Newfoundland school teacher became a Progressive Conservative MLA in 1972. He was premier from 1979 to 1989 and a key part of the federal-provincial...
Manitoba public sector still much larger than Canadian average
Sometimes political parties misinterpret an issue and end up making the wrong stand. Unfortunately for them, bad policy is usually bad politics, too. This is especially so when such waywardness offends the party’s support base. Enter the Progressive Conservative Party...
I have good news for commentators who say Manitobans will be sick, stupid, and broke if this tax-cutting PC government is re-elected: they’re wrong. The unadjusted StatsCan numbers for August 2023 prove it. As a total percentage of wages and salaries, Manitoba pays...
Those of you who are tired of my rants about the demise of our once great health system will be pleased to know that this is my last editorial. I am retiring from the BCMJ Editorial Board; currently, I am the longest-serving member (more than 20 years). I have been a...
Back in the lofty, pre-Justin Trudeau government days of 2014, back when oil was booming, pipelines were planned to east and west coasts, and Alberta and Saskatchewan were swimming in money, around $81 billion was spent in capital expenditures (CAPEX) in the Canadian...
A long-neglected technology offers new hope to Canadians that invisible viruses can be eradicated. The solution is ultraviolet light, invisible to the human eyes, but deadly to pathogens. And its proper application seems to be more effective than disinfectant...
Executive Summary Since 2015 Manitoba has restrained the growth in provincial government administration to a relatively modest 7.9 percent, which is slightly below the growth in the population. Restraint at the provincial level has allowed Manitoba to do slightly...
The new Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is correct when he says governments discourage work by taxes and clawbacks. The Marginal Effective Tax Rate (METR) measures what government takes from each new dollar earned in taxes and in clawbacks of income-related...
Why work for yourself when taxpayers can pay you instead? In the past seven years, more Manitobans than ever have chosen the job security and benefits of federal employment, while the self-employed have begun to vanish. Statistics Canada snapshots show the most...
Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister might best be remembered as the Grinch who stole the 2020 Christmas, forbidding citizens from in-person shopping and gathering for the holiday. However, he has another legacy, more like the Canadian Tire Christmas commercials that...
Do you believe “Big events (wars, recessions, elections) are controlled by small groups secretly working against rest of us”? Abacus surveyed 1500 Canadians on that question, and 44 percent agreed. However, the pollster characterized those who “believe dangerous...
The era of low interest rates and inflation has ended, and now both are mushrooming higher. Canadian year-over-year inflation was 7.7 per cent in May, the highest in nearly 40 years but this author predicts it will go still higher. It’s a worthy time for governments...
If public health, a vibrant economy, and the preservation of our constitutional freedoms was the goal, then Canadian institutions have gotten nearly everything wrong when it comes to COVID-19. Government policy, academia, and mainstream media have fallen to COVIDism,...
Democratic capitalism is a remarkably empowering and wealth-generating structure. Although wealth is not a zero-sum game, power may well be. In Chapter 17 of his 2011 book The Fruits of Graft: Great Depressions Then and Now, Wayne Jett explores how certain elitists...