People flock to major cities to take advantage of unique experiences. In theory, most of the types of activities tourists seek out can be replicated most anywhere, but people are willing to pay a large premium and go out of their way to see a show on Broadway, or eat...
Steve Lafleur
Why Families are Moving to Texas and Hipsters are Moving to Pittsburgh
Many municipal politicians, particularly in mid-sized cities, aspire to turn their city into the next trendy place, following in the steps of Portland or Brooklyn. Meanwhile, lesser fashionable places such as Houston, Phoenix, and Atlanta are swallowing up migrants...
There’s No Such Thing as a Free Parking Spot
A Calgary non-profit made headlines recently when it was revealed that the organization was required to build a parking lot for an affordable housing complex that is effectively empty. The housing is provided specifically for helping people transition from out of...
Legalize Soft Drugs to Reduce the Availability of Hard Drugs
Does caffeine lead to cocaine use? Obviously not. But what would happen if caffeine was outlawed? Naturally, a black market would emerge. Drug gangs, which are highly skilled at operating outside of the law, and have pre-existing distribution channels, would begin...
Featured News
The Swedish Response to Covid-19 versus Canada
In a recent New York Times article, David Wallace Wells asked, “How did No-Mandate Sweden End up with such an average pandemic”. Let’s be clear. This admission from the New York Times, who tried to destroy the response to Covid-19, starting in April 2020 and...
Draconian, Anti-Science Measures During the Pandemic Has Led to Loss of Trust in Our Institutions
Candida Auris is a fungus that, unlike most fungi, can survive in a human body. It is capable of spreading within the body, resulting in an agonizing death. For unknown reasons the fungus is spreading at a rather alarming rate. So far, cases have been confined to long...
Minneapolis: A Model for Canadian Prairie Cities
Winter is challenging for Prairie residents, particularly those with limited mobility. Residents can attest to the fact that life is vastly different at -35c than at -10c. Minneapolis, MN provides lessons for how Prairie cities in Canada can promote mobility in the...
Dispatches From the American Midwest
Canadian cities face a myriad of challenges. Aging infrastructure and worsening traffic are undermining mobility, with immense costs. The Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area alone loses $6 billion in productivity due to gridlock each year, which is expected to increase...
Coase, Pigou, and Sriracha Sauce
Huy Fong has been ordered to cease any odor emitting production by a California judge. This could lead to a shortage of their wildly popular Sriracha hot sauce. While foodies are upset, residents who sought the injunction against Huy Fong appear to have a legitimate...
Who should pay for Toronto transit projects?
Financing infrastructure projects is typically a complex process, involving transfers between provinces, cities, and neighbourhoods. While it is possible (though not easy) to track transfers between provinces, it is difficult to track transfers between cities, and...
The Condo Game: CBC’s Curiously Apocalyptic Documentary on Toronto’s Condo Market
CBC aired a documentary on Toronto's condo market on November 21st that can be viewed here. It is notable for two reasons. First, it provides a prognosis for Toronto that is much darker than the most negative mainstream sources would suggest. Second, while it hints at...
Fine for packing “unbalanced” daycare lunch demonstrates shortcomings of Canada’s Food Guide
A Manitoba mother received a $10 fine from a daycare centre for sending her kids with a meal that was deemed nutritionally unbalanced. The story caught the attention of international audiences, since the meal was, by most accounts, nutritionally balanced. The Ritz...
A Really Bad Argument Against De-Amalgamating the Toronto Megacity
Last Friday, Shawn Micallef, a Toronto Star author, wrote a very bad article about why he believes that de-amalgamating Toronto would be a bad idea. I wrote a letter to the editor to the Star, pointing out how ridiculous the article was, but they ran a letter from the...
Time for Winnipeg to Get Serious About Rapid Transit
Rapid transit is a long standing topic of debate in Winnipeg. In the last municipal election, Mayor Sam Katz pledged his support for light rail transit (LRT), while runner up Judy Wasylycia-Leis supported bus rapid transit (BRT). Three years later, we have 3.6km of...
Isaac Asimov on Price Gouging
Every time a natural disaster strikes in North America, reports emerge of retailers increasing prices in some locations. This, of course, is generally prohibited, and leads to public shaming. There are, however, good reasons why price gouging needs to happen. The most...