The macro effects of government stimuli to address COVID-19 lockdowns are starting to emerge. In Canada, they have taken the form of an overheating housing market. With mortgage rates plunging to historic lows, the demand for residential real estate is driving prices...
Alberta’s debt has grown exponentially over the last decade, surging from under $10 billion in 2010 to $98 billion in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has set off a trap that earlier provincial administrations laid by their excessive reliance on fossil-fuel revenues. On...
The complexity and perverse incentives of Canada’s Employment Insurance (EI) program are an eyesore on the nation’s economy. Rather than open the economy up to modernity, however, reforms approved by the Senate on March 17 (Bill C-24) increase EI generosity and...
On January 17, former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper suggested bitcoin could become a reserve currency alongside the U.S. dollar. Now a business adviser with Harper & Associates Consulting, he nonetheless made a caveat: bitcoin still lacks a key money...
The indictment of former U.S. president Donald Trump for crimes invented by his political opponents is the most egregious example yet seen of the weaponizing of the law. The United States is now full of examples. However, in Canada, we also see the law being...
OTTAWA, REGINA - Last week, two things happened that could have profound impacts on natural resources development in Saskatchewan. One is a hint the federal government might want to take control of natural resources away from the provinces, and the other is the...
The Liberal Party government has blocked FinTech companies from distributing aid to businesses affected by the pandemic. In the age of cryptocurrencies and Robinhood, Ottawa clings to banks and relics such as cheques by mail. PayPal, Wave, and the Canadian Lenders...
The COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in a wave of demands to fix every inconvenience of life by government decree. The four-day workweek, an old darling of social engineers, has made a comeback as governments pick up the pieces of locked-down economies. On June 15, the...
Despite concerns ranging from health risks to espionage, the fifth-generation technology for mobile connectivity (5G) has prompted a global adoption race—and there is no going back. Contrary to conspiracy theories, it is a necessary and positive step toward a fully...
A prohibition is the easiest way out of a policy problem. In enacting one to target gun violence, the federal government has admitted failure to find a solution that preserves both rights and lives. The deadliest mass shooting in Canadian history took place in Nova...
Social Media Is Here to Stay, Better to Adapt than Resist Over the years, the legacy press has gone from arrogance to hysteria as social-media firms eat up its advertising lunch. Rather than adjust to modern trends, the once-feared fourth estate is now begging the...
Competitors Mean Less Power for Incumbents, Central Bank Financial intermediation outside the banking system, also known as shadow banking, is growing by leaps and bounds in Canada. It is a CAD$1.5 trillion industry that expanded by 30 percent between 2015 and 2017,...
The Trojan horse of social engineers has crossed the gates. At the latest World Economic Forum in Switzerland, the Davos Manifesto 2020 replaced the original from 1973. The new one lays down a company’s duties towards “stakeholders” rather than shareholders. This...
When Hong Kong pro-democracy protests stalled a US-China deal last year, they showed how sensitive trade is to domestic political unrest. Few observers noticed, however, that Chilean demonstrations forced the cancelation of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation...
Canadians have been exposed to a silent health hazard for more than 40 years: high levels of lead in tap water. Although a clear case of municipal mismanagement, Toronto shows the issue can be handled at the local level with minimal federal oversight—given the right...