“You live in a deranged age — more deranged than usual, because despite great scientific and technological advances, man has not the faintest idea of who he is or what he is doing.” — Walker Percy “Our species is 300,000 years old. For the first 290,000 years, we were...
Government policy can aid society and the economy, but frequently it does the opposite. Lately there has been a lot of concern raised, and quite rightly, about Canada’s dismal productivity growth record and growth prospects. Several multilateral organizations expect...
Big Topics & Big Ideas
The word radicalism scares people, but the etymology is quite plain. It means getting back to the root—from the Latin radix. It carries no necessary ideological connotation. It merely means to wipe away the fluff, cruft, and baloney and speak about what matters. It...
It’s a well-known pattern in public policy – profligate politicians damaging their economies with out-of-control spending, massive borrowing and higher taxes – inevitably leading to fiscal crisis, sharp declines in growth and ultimately rapidly falling currency value...
Mass hysteria is the spontaneous manifestation of a particular behaviour by many people. There are numerous historical examples: Middle Age nuns at a convent in France spontaneously began to meow like cats; at another convent, nuns began biting one another. In...
Most politicians want to do good. But in order to do anything, good or otherwise, they must first hold power, and the only way to do that is to promise and deliver what is popular. Thus, politicians are pulled between doing what is good and what is popular.
Big cities in Ontario and Manitoba require long term solutions to their massive infrastructure deficits, but the solution isn’t simply to throw money at the problem. Instead, cities need to granted the ability to generate revenue however they choose, rather than relying on the inefficient property tax, and transfers from upper levels of government. This would ensure that cities have the tools to provide infrastructure without being subject to the political whims of provincial and federal governments.
The Manitoba election thus far has been dominated by accusations from the NDP that the Pcs will slash government services, and the attempt of the PCs to distance themselves from that reputation. This dynamic has prevented either party from promoting the kind of long term vision that will be required to steer the province through tough global economic times.
Two weeks ago the House of Representatives announced that it would end its nearly 200-year-old page program. What with new technology and all, there just isn’t much need any longer to employ teenagers to take phone messages and carry documents from one member of Congress to another. The program costs $5 million a year, which isn’t much in a $3.8 trillion federal budget, but taxpayers should appreciate any elimination of an unnecessary program.
One thing that attracted me to the FCPP in the past was its emphasis on high performance government.
David Henderson, the author of Canada’s Budget Triumph, was interviewed August 10, 2011 during a recent visit to Winnipeg.
New legislation will give additional parliamentary representation to Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta to ensure that their representation in the House of Commons better reflects their populations.
Listen to Patrick Moore speak in Saskatoon on Climate Science here. (48 minutes)
A look at Bryan Caplan’s theory on why rational voters maximise their welfare by holding irrational beliefs on public policy.