I’m still not 100% on board with Segal’s policy proposal, but he is right in arguing that our current approach to fighting poverty does not seem to be working as well as most of us would like.
Poverty
The CCPA Fells A Straw man
The debate over what, if anything, we should do about growing income inequality in Canada is hugely important and we need to hear from all sides. But it’ll work better if we respond to what those with whom we have disagreements actually say instead of knocking over straw men.
Depressing Graphic for the Day
Policymakers need to keep asking themselves not only whether a priority is worth pursuing (poverty reduction is), but whether the strategies currently being employed are actually working.
Lower Minimum Wage for Students?
Interesting editorial in the National Post today, criticizing a new government program that will, essentially, pay businesses to hire summer students. The Post rightly criticizes this subsidy as a silly way to boost employment for students. The editorial makes a...
Featured News
Coal – Not Wind – is Keeping Saskatchewan’s Lights On
While it’s not the same minute-by-minute data provided by the Alberta Electric System Operator for their grid, SaskPower has begun breaking down where its power is coming from on a daily basis. And the data from Oct. 3 and 4 showed wind generated an average of just...
57 Policy Proposals for Future Leaders to Help Make the Canadian Economy Soar
Executive Summary The various federal political parties are all promoting the policy agendas they believe will foster a sustainably high quality of life for all Canadians. It remains to be seen whether they will attain the success that they aim to achieve. In some...
A Chinese Lesson for Western Economists
Wei Jie points out that income inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient may worsen as incomes at the lowest levels are increasing — at the same time as the poor are getting richer
Harry Lehotsky, Inner-City Preacher, Activist and Change Agent
Many social agencies are “poverty pimps,” living high off the hog while their clients remain trapped in dysfunctional neighbourhoods? A front-line perspective from a Winnipeg icon.
Left Punch
There have been many tributes, cards, e-mails and visits that Harry has received since we all learned about his illness. One comment that I remember reading is that labelling Harry as an "activist" is limiting his potential as a human being. I beg to differ. To me, an...
Corin Taylor, Economics Analyst, Reform Think-Tank
Really want to help the poor? Reform government programs that focus on their needs. Make them transparent and productive vehicles for compatting poverty, not “jobs for life” for bureaucrats.
Left Not Always a Help to the Poor
Ever since revolutionaries toppled the French crown in 1789, the political left has asserted that the solution to shrinking poverty is to announce good intentions and follow up with government confiscation of private assets. The latest would-be defender to join...
Hot Swedish Models!
Sweden is a country of many economic and political contradictions: the highest tax pressure in the Western world and low corporate taxes, school vouchers and state-run universities, a regulated economy but a free private sphere. In short, part socialism, part market...
Life in the 1500’S
Here are some facts about the1500s: Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom...
Always Low Tactics. Always.
What Wal-Mart’s opponents can’t win through organizing or in the marketplace, it seems, they now seek to achieve through the raw exercise of political power. One can hardly blame them for sticking with what works.
The problem with ghetto grocers
Inner-city poverty – It’s costly being poor