Australia now faces a period of uncertainty as Ms. Gillard and Mr. Abbott scramble to assemble what in either case would be a narrow majority. This may mean a period of more cautious policy, at least in the short term, which Australians may prefer after the tumult of the last three years. The bigger picture is that, in Australia as in the U.K., voters have stopped the revival of big government dead in its tracks.
Worth A Look
Climate Changes, Grain Exports and A New World Order in Food: Higher food prices may be coming at right time
There is hardly a crisis in agricultural commodities but rather a continuing recalibration between supply and demand.
Environmental Lessons From The Late Stephen Schneider
“Stephen Schneider is on record that, to reduce the risk of climate change, it’s legitimate to quash one’s own doubts and offer up scary scenarios to the media. That is not exactly objective science.”
Let’s Get Rational About Recycling: Good environmental custodians do what’s right, not just what feels right.
Advocates of greater subsidies for recycling should provide hard facts on why it is the best way to lower waste management impacts in each case.
Featured News
Trust is the Foundation of Authority
The heartbreaking death of Nathanael Spitzer, the cancer-stricken boy from Ponoka, exposed a most callous streak in Alberta’s medical bureaucracy. There is no forgiving how Alberta Health Services appallingly used a child’s death to promote yet more COVID-19 fear. ...
Apple’s “Security” Pitch Conveniently Protects the iOS-Android Duopoly
In October, Apple Inc. warned that draft rules from the European Union that would require the technology company to open up its mobile operating system to third-party apps would pose a security risk to its users. Expanding on comments already made by CEO Tim Cook, a...
The World Has Never Seen Such Freezing Heat
A surreal scientific blunder last week raised a huge question mark about the temperature records that underpin the worldwide alarm over global warming. A GISS spokesman lamely explained that the reason for the error in the Russian figures was that they were obtained from another body, and that GISS did not have resources to exercise proper quality control over the data it was supplied with.
Equalization A Journey Into The Bizarre
However, most of the provinces receiving equalization don’t need the money. The only reason they still receive it is that they have become dependent on it and every time someone suggests cutting them off, their politicians squawk until Ottawa backs down.
Ethanol Producers’ Unworthy Heyday Finally Over
The good news is that no amount of subsidies can disguise the fact ethanol is the wrong fuel at the wrong time. There may be good biofuels; corn-based ethanol is not one of them. Some clean fuels and technologies are worthy of taxpayer funding, but not the one that raises food prices and has no proven environmental advantage.
Equalization Reform Required
Defenders of equalization in its current form argue the program allows for roughly comparable levels of services in all provinces. Actually, it does not, which is why Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty has long and justifiably complained about federal transfer programs. New equalization payments to Ontario will not change that.
Have-Not Status Is All About Gaming The Rules
Should Ontario ever change the slogan on its licence plates, it might consider a variation on a certain bank tagline. “We’re richer than you think” would be a balm on the wounded self-esteem of Canada’s newest have-not province.
Ontario Party Would Get Some Federal Attention
Now consider this scenario: The Ontario Party is formed in time for the next federal election and it has a simple focus. What’s good for Ontario is good for the Ontario Party. There are 308 seats in the House of Commons, 106 of them representing Ontario. Just the existence of a credible party from Ontario would force the others to pay attention to us, but if the Ontario Party won even 30 seats, it would effectively prevent any of the big parties from winning a majority.
Lessons From India In Organizational Innovation: A Tale Of Two Heart Hospitals
Recent discussions in health reform circles have pinned great hopes on the prospect of innovation as the solution to the high-cost, inadequate-quality U.S. health system. But U.S. health care institutions – insurers, providers, and specialists – have ceded leadership in innovation to Indian hospitals such as Care Hospital in Hyderabad and the Fortis Hospitals around New Delhi, which have U.S.-trained doctors and can perform open heart surgery for $6,000 (compared to $100,000 in the United States). The Indian success is a window into America’s stalemate with inflating costs and stagnant innovation.
McGuinty and Charest: a fine bromance
“My dispute is with Ottawa,” he told reporters at the end of Ontario Chamber of Commerce “economic summit” to which he had invited Mr. Charest. “Ottawa makes the rules and we have to play by them.” There is a surface logic to this argument but it ignores the fact that Ottawa was hoping in 2006 that the provinces could reach a consensus on equalization reform. It never came.
Free Market Reforms Transforming Health Care in the Netherlands
The Netherlands is the best example of Europe’s move toward market-oriented reform. Before U.S. officials devote even more taxpayer dollars to health care, they should take a long look at how the Dutch have improved their health care system by reducing the government’s role in it.