Tommy Douglas declare alcohol as bad
Taxation
Municipal Mythologies: Infrastructure wish lists aren’t actual deficits
In a world with scarce resources, people want more money spent on something than what is available. But that is not a “deficit.” Otherwise, we have health, education and social deficits, to name a few. In principle, optimal spending would be based on a benefit-cost calculus and programs rejected if benefits are less than cost.
Where is a Recall Legislation When You Need It?
Brandon property tax to jump 20.3%
Lessons for U.S. from Canada’s ‘Basket Case’ Moment
Canada’s shift from pariah to fiscal darling provides lessons for Washington as lawmakers find few easy answers to the huge U.S. deficit and debt burden, and for European countries staggering under their own massive budget problems.
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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...
Recession Cushion Should Have Been Bigger
The Heritage Fund created by former premier Peter Lougheed in 1976 was designed to be a rainy-day fund to help Alberta weather rough economic times like we’re having now, so what went wrong?
A High-growth, Low-tax Welfare State
Over the years, the Orewa Rotary Club has hosted provocative speeches that have set the New Zealand political agenda for the coming year. In February 2009, MP, former Minister of Finance, and Frontier Centre Advisory Board member Sir Roger Douglas gave his assessment of recent economic conditions and what governments can and can’t do to deliver prosperity to their citizens.
For Oil at Least, This May Not Be the 1970s
It may feel like the 1970s again with Keynesian prime-the-pump spending, but oil may soon be headed up in price once again.
Federal Deficits: Been There, Done That
“Short term” deficits often turn into long term structural deficits.
The Extraordinary Madness of the Stimulus Crowd
Instead of the fake or weak stimulus offered up by Budget 2009, Ottawa should have slashed corporate tax rates in half—permanently.
Canada Needs to Rethink Equalization: MacKinnon
Canada’s 52-year-old equalization system is producing chronically dependent ‘have-not’ provinces and financially crippled ‘have’ provinces and should be scrapped, says a former policy adviser to the Nova Scotia and Ontario governments.
‘Atlas Shrugged’: From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years
The current economic strategy is right out of “Atlas Shrugged“: The more incompetent you are in business, the more handouts the politicians will bestow on you.
In The EU, Attempts To Blame The Market Should Be Resolutely Rejected
“Looking for ways out, we should — to use an analogy — strictly differentiate between fighting the fire and drafting fire protection legislation. A big increase in financial regulation, as is being proposed so often these days, will only prolong the recession. Growth in the global economy is falling rapidly, the banks have ceased to grant credit and confidence is ebbing. Radically changing regulation governing financial institutions in the midst of recession is counterproductive.”
A Bunch of Have Beens
Lorrie Goldstein and Paul Rutherford try to answer the question, what’s equal about equalization?