Even as the coronavirus disease has put much of the economy into shutdown mode and caused a run at the grocery stores on some staples such as bread, most of us remain generally well-supplied with food. That is something to be thankful for. It is indeed one of the...
According to many devotees of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, their ideological counterparts in left-wing circles in Canada, and even 62 percent of the audience at a recent TVO debate hosted at the University of Toronto, confiscatory taxes should be levied...
One of the big policy issues for the federal government this year, as well as in the Conservative leadership race, is immigration. By a margin of 63 percent to 7 percent, according to a recent Leger poll, Conservative voters want their new leader to decrease rather...
As the calendar flipped this month to 2020, the federal government has again made the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) tax more expensive. The combined employee and employer contribution rate has risen from 10.2 percent in 2019 to 10.5 percent this year, while the maximum...
For the past 14 years, Vancouver surgeon Dr. Brian Day has led the charge for health-care reform, pushing for the right of patients to pay for private care if their health and well-being are threatened as a result of waiting in a stagnant and overburdened public...
The path to net zero, based on the much disputed belief that carbon dioxide is a pollution, is more steep and impractical than most people realize. Replacing fossil fuels with clean electricity will require much more power generation and a greatly upgraded grid to...
Were he still alive today, Milton Friedman would celebrate his 107th birthday on July 31. An intellectual giant, his ideas played a significant role in making the world a freer and more prosperous place – from driving the elimination of military conscription in the...
The Parliamentary Budget Office has estimated that reaching Canada’s carbon emissions reduction targets by 2030 would require a carbon tax of $102 per tonne. Since economists generally agree that a carbon tax is the least costly way for governments to reduce...
A main priority of Alberta’s United Conservative government, given the province’s relatively high unemployment rate over the past few years, is job creation. It’s right there in the Alberta Premier's two-line Twitter biography: “Premier of Alberta. Focused on getting...
During the recent Alberta election campaign, with the province’s unemployment rate remaining stubbornly high relative to the rest of Canada with the exception of the Atlantic provinces, the now-governing United Conservative Party proposed reducing the minimum wage...
In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith described a smuggler as “a person who, though no doubt highly blameable for violating the laws of his country, is frequently incapable of violating those of natural justice, and would have been, in every respect, an excellent...
Minimum wage hikes by provincial governments across Canada last year were sold as a policy to make life easier for workers. However, minimum wage advocates had overlooked some of the negative consequences of the policy, and are now prescribing yet more government...
Respect for taxpayers in Alberta has been eroding for more than twenty years. Albertans don’t just see it on their tax bills – they can hear it when politicians talk. Indeed, the budget speeches delivered annually by the finance minister provide some of the best...
For decades, politicians, pundits, and activists have clamoured about a “gender pay gap” and have cited statistics purporting to show that the economy is unfair to women, who get paid only around 70 to 80 cents for every dollar earned by men. And for just as long,...
The Ontario government’s budget deficit of $15 billion this year will rise even higher next year unless swift corrective action is taken. With the province’s net debt already at $325 billion, eliminating the deficit should be a priority – especially since this...