Land ownership has shaped civilizations from their beginnings, with a constant interplay between great powers—the aristocracy, the state, the Church, the emperor—and those below them. History has oscillated between periods of greater dispersion of ownership, and those...
Wendell Cox
43% Of Canada’s Employed Worked Majority of Hours at Home: January 2022
Statistics Canada reports that remote work reached a pandemic era recently. “Since the onset of the pandemic, the Labour Force Survey has been tracking the proportion of non-absent workers who worked from home. During the week of January 9 to 15, more than 4 in 10...
Comparing Urban Densities: Winnipeg and New York
Following a recent newgeography.com column “Toronto Solidifies Highest Density Ranking in North America,” I received comments of disbelief, at the fact that the urban density of the Winnipeg urban area is above that of the New York City urban area. This is based on...
2022 Edition of Demographia International Housing Affordability
How Affordable is Housing in Your City? 2022 Edition of Demographia International Housing Affordability CANADA, March 7, 2022 - The Frontier Centre for Public Policy and the Urban Reform Institute has just released the 2022 Edition of Demographia International Housing...
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Canadians on the Move, to Smaller Communities
The Canadian Dream is increasingly being realized in smaller areas For decades, Canadians moved to the larger cities (census metropolitan areas, or CMAs) with their economic opportunities. The latest estimates indicate that CMAs have 72 per cent of the nation’s...
Leadership Needed in Canadian Healthcare; Apply Within
When the Premiers were first called to a sit-down lunch to talk about healthcare with Prime Minister Trudeau, there was plenty of talk about the potential for systemic change, innovation and accountability. It seemed that Canadians and their leaders were finally on...
Inter-Municipal Co-operation and Reform: Municipal Amalgamations
The Frontier Centre for Public Policy has just released Inter-municipal co-operation and reform: Municipal Amalgamations. This paper is co-authored by Wendell Cox and Ailin He. Wendell Cox is a Senior Fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and the principal...
Why Young Canadians Can’t Afford To Buy a Home
Canada’s middle-income housing affordability crisis (unaffordable homes) is drawing considerable attention, with good reason. Families are being squeezed out of the market and the situation is only going to worsen. Frontier Centre publications, such as the Demographia...
Ontario’s Labor & Housing Policies: US Midwest Opportunities?
The Globe and Mail, a Canadian national newspaper, reports concerns raised by Magna International, Inc. that proposed provincial labor legislation (the “Fair Workplaces Better Jobs Act”) could result in seriously reduced economic competitiveness for Ontario, Canada’s...
Moving Away From Toronto and Montréal
The latest Statistics Canada data indicates that people are leaving Toronto and Montréal in large numbers since the 2011 census. Even so, both metropolitan areas continued to grow through the 2016 census as a result of net international migration and the natural...
CANADA AT 150: PERSPECTIVES
Canada and the United States have lived together in peace for more than two centuries, since the War of 1812. Yet, it has not always been easy. Elephants provided one of the most graphic descriptions of the two nations living together. There are no elephants in...
The Greenbelt: Toronto’s Housing Affordability “Killer App”
Talk continues of the potential for a housing bust in Toronto. Through the end of March, house prices had had increased 33 percent in a year. Bank of Canada Governor Steven Poloz noted that "There’s no fundamental story that we could tell to justify that kind of...
Restrictive Land-Use Regulation: Strategies, Effects and Solutions
The Frontier Centre for Public Policy has today released "Restrictive Land-Use Regulation: Strategies, Effects and Solutions," a new report by Wendell Cox, a senior fellow with the Frontier Centre. The report evaluates currently in-vogue housing regulation strategies...
Dispersed Cities: Starting the 3rd Decade
Cities (urban areas or settlements) have been around for millennia. Over that time, cities have changed in form and function. But the way that people move around the city has materially changed only twice. Walking was predominant until less than 200 years ago, then...
13th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey: 2017
Jointly Published with the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies The 13th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey: 2017 is published in collaboration with the Demographia group in Illinois, USA and the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies in...