Peter Holle is the founding President of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, an award-winning western Canadian-based public policy think tank. Since its founding in 1997, Frontier has brought a distinctive and influential Prairie voice to regional and national debates over public policy in areas such as core public sector reform, housing, poverty, aboriginals, consumer-focused health care performance, equalization, rural policy and much more. Of the nearly 100 recognized think tanks in Canada, Frontier is one of only 5 to make the 2008 global “Go-To Think Tanks” list published by the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program of the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia.
Mr. Holle has worked extensively with public sector reform and has provided advisory services to various governments across Canada and the United States. His publications have appeared in various newspapers and journals including dozens of newspapers, the National Post and the Wall Street Journal. He has a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He is a member of various organizations including the Mont Pelerin Society, an international organization of classical liberals.
Recent American studies have revealed a striking lack of variation in political views among the nation’s university professors. For example, 85% of academics teaching political science rated themselves as left of centre; only 10% considered themselves to be in the...
Garbage in, garbage out (GIGO) is an expression often used in the computer world, but it can also apply to the legal world. Take, for example, the jaw-dropping legal opinion expressed by David Beatty, professor emeritus of the University of Toronto Law School, when he...
Finally, schools across Canada are starting to reopen. Most provinces had switched to remote learning at the beginning of January to assess the impact of the Omicron variant. But now, thankfully, these remote learning sessions are coming to an end. Students in British...
When discussing academic freedom with university administrators, there arises the question of how to distinguish political attacks from academic criticism. Certainly, there is no simple answer to this question, and the practical use of such a distinction would likely...
Once again, the world is staging ClimateFest 26, aka the United Nations Conference of the Parties, where peddlers of alternative energy schemes try to plunge their dippers into the river of climate change funding that flows around the world. This funding is generated...
The age-old expression that actions speak louder than words conveys an important insight: character is best judged through action. Anyone can say or promise anything but doing requires ability and skill, discipline and commitment. So, the simplest test of character is...
“. . . some of their researchers have shown themselves to be fraudsters (Betrüger).”
The Christchurch earthquake is a disaster, but disasters bring out character. In the public and private sphere there is every sign that New Zealand’s private and political character will see it turn crisis into opportunity.
Budget time is a good time to signal a new path towards smarter federal spending.
"Icebreakers have been called in to free dozens of ships that became trapped in ice in the Gulf of Finland near St. Petersburg last week. The administration of St. Petersburg's port said at least 97 ships were still waiting for help on Tuesday, down from 160 ships two...
The Republican bill would specifically bar the Obama administration from funding programmes regulating greenhouse gas emissions, or connected to climate science and international negotiations for a deal to end global warming.
Even though more of the media now concedes that the system is quite broken some still repeat the popular myth that equalization is permanently set in concrete because “it is entrenched in the Canadian constitution.” Thankfully this is not true.
If you are a reader of the Winnipeg Free Press you may have noticed the thought-provoking series of commentaries on Manitoba as a Supplicant Society by Law Professor Bryan Schwartz. Yesterday's instalment, entitled Watchdog or Poodles, generated the usual stream of...
Yes, the chattering classes are in a frenzy but the average Joe doesn’t give a hoot about the insertion of the word “not” into a document.
There is a lesson here for the politicians who sit atop the immense low performing structures that permeate the public sector.